She's getting close to paint....
She's getting close to paint. When we last looked at our fastback project a month ago, the fiberglass parts were just being bonded on. Here our fastback has the majority of its custom touches complete and the first layer of body filler sanded down. It won't be long now.
Last month we shared with our readers some great tips and photos of the custom fiberglass work that was performed on our '68 Mustang project by Classic Creations of Central Florida. While fiberglass parts fitment can be hit or miss, getting the parts to fit and line up is no harder than trimming them or adding more fiberglass to the part. Frankly, if you cut off too much you can just add some fiberglass back on to it. The same can be said for working with metal parts, but the welding skills required are a little more involved than the basic skills for fiberglass work.
Can you still do it? Of course you can. Prices on welding equipment have really come down in the last few years and you can equip your home shop with a nice 110v MIG welder for $300-$600, depending upon options. A 110v MIG will get the majority of sheetmetal work done with no problems and allow you to modify your project to your heart's content. You want to weld in your own custom cowl vent treatment, or perhaps weld in foglight pockets to a stock front valance? It's no problem with your little shop welder, some bulk metal materials, and some patience.
Upper Air Extractors
If...
Upper Air Extractors
If you look closely at our concept drawing we devised a filler panel for the upper vent area. While the illustration shows it as an inlet, we decided on an extractor type look for the upper panel To begin, a paper template is made of the opening shape so it can be transferred to a piece of sheetmetal.
Our '68's fiberglass work is nearly complete, with just a few small things left to tackle, like the rear valance and bumper. Do we bolt them on or bond them on? Do we cut out openings for exhaust tips or use turn downs? Do we flush mount the bumper, leave a small gap, or completely mold it to the car to match the front? These are all things we'll be tackling soon between stories. But this month we're focusing on some custom sheetmetal treatments that anyone can do and then we'll get started on applying our filler and the fun task of hours and hours of sanding. So let's get started, this fastback's not going to paint itself!
Sometimes You Just Can't Be Gentle
In a perfect world a replacement sheetmetal part would practically "fall" on your car. The reality of it all is, while the reproduction parts are getting better-much better in many cases-they still aren't brand-new production line parts. But let's be honest with ourselves too. We're not repairing a car that's a couple of years old with a minor fender dent. The newest classic Mustang is still 37 years old and the most popular classic Mustangs being worked on today are north of 40 years old.
These unibody cars have been rusting away or have been tweaked by hard driving and road damage so it's no wonder some of these parts don't fit like they should; and in cases like our fastback conversion where so much of the car was replaced at once it's really hard to get a car perfect. Within specs, yes; perfect, no. So don't be surprised when you're putting together your project that a little finesse with a hammer and spoon or dolly is required to line up a fender and door surface or that you have to drill or grind out an adjustment slot a bit to get things to fit. No one has to know and your project will look better when the shiny stuff is laid down in the paint booth. In a nutshell, do what you have to do to get the parts to fit right and the end result will be a nicer looking car.
The paper template is cut...
The paper template is cut to size and then the shape is traced onto a section of 18 gauge steel sheet. But don't cut it out yet! We have to measure the depth of the opening to correctly shape our part.
Using a standard tape measure...
Using a standard tape measure Classic Creations of Central Florida's Danny Gaydos checks the depth of the factory vent opening at the front and at the rear to determine the filler panel's edge depth. This will give the filler panel the correct angle for it to look like an extractor versus just a flat patch panel.
Using a sheetmetal brake is...
Using a sheetmetal brake is certainly an option, but Danny finds he makes such weird shapes and angles with some of the custom metalwork he performs that a section of steel angle iron clamped to the workbench along with a block of wood and a hammer give him more freedom to create the bends and shapes he needs.
Once the panel's ends are...
Once the panel's ends are bent, a gentle curve is hand formed in the main panel to match the Mustang's quarter-panel shape and then the new panel is tapped into place and checked for fit. Danny ends up pulling it out a few times to tweak the shape before he's happy with it.
Once the panel is where he...
Once the panel is where he wants it, Danny fires up the shop MIG welder and proceeds to apply a few tack welds to the panel, being careful to ensure the panel does not move during the process.
Once the panel is tacked and...
Once the panel is tacked and Danny is happy with it he finish welds the panel into place, working in different sections a little at a time to prevent warpage of the metal. He then finishes the area with a grinder to dress down the weld beads.
To give the upper panel an...
To give the upper panel an air extractor look Danny has to fabricate a small patch that will go over the forward end of the previously installed panel to create the "outlet" of the extractor. First, Danny cuts the patch to fit, and then he trims the opening end for a nice look and to make it parallel with the fastback's window opening.
With the top section of the...
With the top section of the extractor welded in place Danny proceeds to grind down the welds of the upper patch as well as the surrounding metal, giving it some "tooth" for the plastic body filler to stick to.
Danny prefers Evercoat's Lite...
Danny prefers Evercoat's Lite Weight non-clogging body filler, as it is easy to mix and apply and, most importantly, is easy to sand. Here, he mixes a small batch of filler to start shaping the upper quarter-panel area and our new extractor vents. One side down, one side to go.
S197 Door Handles
We knew...
S197 Door Handles
We knew that with our CDC Flashback fascia and other modern exterior touches, that the standard '65-'68 Mustang chrome exterior door handles might look a tad out of place. We've seen early Mustangs with '71-'73 "lift up" door handles, but we decided to skip a few generations and use the '05 and up S197 Mustang outside door handle, which is a molded handle that you grab and pull outward. We scored a pair cut from a wrecked race car. Make sure you get a few inches of metal around the actual handle too.
After Danny took our handles...
After Danny took our handles and trimmed them down to an oval-like shape, he transferred the shape to the doorskin and proceeded to cut the doorskin opening with a cutting wheel. It doesn't have to be pretty, but it does need to roughly match the door handle shape.
Once Danny has trimmed the...
Once Danny has trimmed the doorskin to size, he grinds the surrounding sheetmetal down to bare steel in preparation for welding in the door handle assembly.
The plastic handle is temporarily...
The plastic handle is temporarily removed from the S197 Mustang's handle sheetmetal, mainly to make it easier to weld the panel into our doorskin, but also to prevent any melting of the plastic handle. Danny then carefully tack welds the panel into our doorskin, stopping every other tack or so to make sure the panel stays flush with our doorskin.
Once again, the patch panel...
Once again, the patch panel is fully welded in. Working around the patch to prevent warping it, Danny uses a wet rag after each small welding session, as the area is quite small.
As with our other sheetmetal...
As with our other sheetmetal work, the welds have to be ground down with a grinder to prepare them for further bodywork and plastic filler.
Our completed door handle...
Our completed door handle mod (minus the plastic handle of course). You can see the handle installed in our lead image of this story. One thing we ended up doing was swapping handles side to side, meaning the left is on the right, and vice-versa. This was due to the different release rod operation, but if you want to get fancy with a compound mechanism or a cable and pulley setup, you could leave the handles on their proper side. It didn't matter to us since the driver side key lock hole will be filled regardless.
You saw us test fitting the...
You saw us test fitting the CDC Flashback fascia last month, but we didn't get into any of the metal work necessary to support it. What we did for our installation was to use an Eleanor fascia mounting bracket from Mustangs Plus and Danny cut it to fit the fascia and made custom mounting ears. The height of the ears is set by bolts right now during the mock up phase, but it will be fully welded before painting.
The sides of the CDC Flashback...
The sides of the CDC Flashback fascia require attachment to the bottoms of the front fenders (which we trimmed to fit the fascia last month). We borrowed this attaching idea from the Fox Mustang front fascia, which is a stud plate riveted to the fascia's edge, which will pass through two mounting holes in the fender edge and be secured by nylon locking nuts.
With our custom metal fab...
With our custom metal fab out of the way and just a few small fiberglass areas to work out, Danny had completed enough of our custom touches to start laying on the Evercoat to give our Mustang its final shape. After allowing the filler just enough time to firm up, Danny knocked down the major high points with a "cheese grater" file.
A second coat of filler and...
A second coat of filler and another round with the file got the majority of our panels where Danny wanted them to start sanding with a 36-grit pneumatic sander. Coming up in our final bodywork installment we'll finish up our initial sanding with 80-grit paper and then apply a coat of heavy filler primer, then more sanding, epoxy primer, basecoat, and clearcoat. Stay tuned.
Elsewhere, around the headlight...
Elsewhere, around the headlight openings are more mounting studs, just like the stock '67-'68 headlight buckets. All in all there will be at least a dozen attachment points to secure the fascia.