Back from the blaster and painter

I sent my car mounted on a rotisserie to a local
blasting shop. They held the car for several
weeks. I didn't care as I was not in a rush
to get her back. It actually gave me time to
clean up the disorganized mess that had
formed in my garage. The blaster used several
grits of ground up media to accomplish what
I feel was a superb job. I received a phone
call from them (Randy) one day and was told
that they had finished stripping the entire car
inside and out as well as the loose body panels
that I brought in. From there Randy called a
local painter (KMS Tools) and within 3 hours
they had picked the car up and with their own
trailer drove it around the corner. From there
KMS layed several nice layers of epoxy primer
on the car. They did this without myself even
knowing. I found out after.
Unbelievable service!

Jan 2009 - Setting on the rotisserie

Using a Mustang kit from Autotwirler
I was easily able to mount the front of
the rotisserie to the cars bumper bracket
mount on the frame rail. Easily done on
the drivers side but the passengers side
was rusted out (see earlier pics of
battery tray rust). It would appear the
leaking battery acid did more than just
rust out the tray.


Since I needed to remove everything
from the car anyways I decided this
would be a good time to drop the rear
end. Drum brakes...bye bye. I'm installing
a 2000 Cobra IRS into this baby so this
is going to head to the scrap heap: the
side of my garage.

Here is a view of the rear mounting
support of the rotisserie

Here is a nice pick showing the belly
of the beast. Removing the last few
items was MUCH easier now that she's
on a rotisserie :)

January 2009

After a short Christmas break it was time to
remove the final bits and pieces off the body
in preparation for the mounting of this car
to a rotisserie. Above you see the wiring for the
center floor shift indicator and below the fuse
box on the firewall.

November 2008 Cont.

As you can see the entire underside of the dash had
a layer of surface rust. As mentioned before some
of the rust (as in the drivers inner cowl) was
excessive enough for a complete removal. The
exciting news is that most of the surface rust would
disappear after I send it to the blasters. At this
point all of the dash components and wiring have been
removed.


Pulling the wiring out was easy. Lets just hope
I remember where everything goes. I'm installing
a factory tachometer so I believer there will be some
alteration to the factory harness. More to come.


Stubborn screws loosened with penetrating oil
then removed with a ratchet and phillips bit in
order to get maximum torque.


Fancy that! Leaves and debris in the cowl vent?
Unfortunately for me the drivers cowl leaked
badly and rotted the inner cowl as well as the
firewall and front floor pan. Oh well :(



Working under the dash to remove all the small
nuts and bolts was a daunting task. I don't
have the smallest hands and I fear that re assembly
will be a nightmare. So what did I do? Lots
of pictures and white masking tape labeling
anything and everything that I could.



While disassembling the interior I found
this tag under the drivers seat. Anyone
know what it is?

November 2008 cont

Probably the worst rust on the entire car was around
the battery tray. I have a new front apron which I'll
be spot welding in.

Ouch!



I began the tear down on the engine compartment.
Pretty straight forward stuff here. Anything that
was stubborn (such as the break line fitting) was
resolved using large cutting pliers or a sledgehammer.
I'm going to replace most of the lines and fittings
anyways so why waste time?


I carefully removed all electrical components
being sure to mark the connections. I used
tape on the connections and marked each
side with matching numbers/letters.
i.e. 1A - 1A, 2A - 2A etc... I found this easier
than writing out detailed descriptions on
tape.

Winter 2007-2008

The interior (as seen in pic) partially dismantled.
I spent the winter of 2007-2008 slowly taking pieces
off. I wasn't too careful about saving pieces that were
in dire need of replacement. Most of the metal trim
will be purchased new as well as the entire
upholstery and other soft trim. Everything else
such as electrical and hard to get items were
carefully taken off and labeled.

The begining till now

My second Mustang is this 1968 Coupe which I
picked up in Washington State in January 2007.
It is an all original Meadowlark Yellow coupe
with the original 289 2bbl, auto tranny, 4 drum
brake, power steering with deluxe hood.
Nothing fancy other than the hood and the fact
that it came from the factory with a center console

Winter/Spring of 2008- I began dismantling the
Mustang in late Spring/ early Summer. I'm
amazed at the simplicity of these cars. I probably
only used 3 or 4 wrenches to take off the bumpers
and fenders, most of the engine compartment,
the interior and the trunk. A vast improvement
from the 20 wrenches I needed to take apart my
69 Datsun Roadster. With that said, I still have
quite a ways to go. Keep scrolling down as I'll
begin updating this page on a regular basis.

Welcome!

Hello to all of those who have been following this restoration on
www.1968stang.com
Once again I've decided to change sites in
order to allow for ease of updating and
storage space. I'll still be using the old
website but this one will compliment
1968stang.com and will contain most of the
restoration photo's and stories.
Cheers
Stan