BEFORE

PHASE I

PHASE II

Disassembly and sodablasting of the car revealed a few problems that were previously unknown. While the floorboards originally looked to be in pretty good condition, a significant amount of metal came up with the jute carpet underlayment on the passenger's side. Since it is now obvious that the right floorboard will need replacing, the left side will be done as well since it does show some serious pitting. The left rear quarter panel had rusted through just behind the wheel, but after blasting this damage seems to be the only notable rust on the outside of the body. Very little bodywork was discovered. Most of it was likely from the original factory build and will be easy to repair the second time. The front and rear valance panels had once received some pretty copious amounts of bondo. Given the low cost of replacement sheetmetal for this Mustang, those will be replaced rather than repaired.

Superficial work on the engine (essentially a major tune-up) proved fruitless and since compression was solid all-around, it became apparent that either one or more lifters had collapsed or (more likely) cam lobe wear was to blame for the rough running and dismal performance. Given that the engine was already a non-numbers-matching remanufactured longblock, we decided to go for another remanufactured longblock from S&S Remanufactured Engines in Oregon. It's probably a good thing since upon disassembly we also found some serious build-up in the coolant runners of the heads and a very loose - but still in-time - timing chain.

Nearly all the parts have arrived and it's time to start going over the body, replace the floorboards, assemble the new engine and restore all the major components.