1966 Mustang Restoration Videos

Welcome to our first Mustang Build post. One of the most common mistake made when is not properly cleaning the car before starting the repairs. This does not seem like a big deal, but this can lead to many different problems that can be eliminated. Over the years, the paint collects contaminates. Anything from the pollution in the environment to silicone in the products we use layer on top of the paint surface. Without properly removing these contaminates, we’ll just smear them into the paint finish as we do our bodywork or sand. The good news it that it is a simple process to remove the contaminates. Washing The Car 000 0143 300x225 Mustang Restoration One of The Most Common Mistakes Made The first thing that you need to do is wash the car, which will remove the contaminates and silicone. Some folks do not recommend using regular dish soap, but this has proven to do an excellent job for me and has not created an issue over the years. However, where you need to be careful, is when you select the dish soap to use. It should not have and special ingredient to help keep your hands soft or anything like that. This may add to the contamination problem rather than eliminate it. If you are not a fan of dish soap, car soap will work too. However, check it as well. You do not want one that claims it will not strip your car wax, as you do want to strip all traces of the wax of the paint finish. Some car soaps even have wax in them, which is what we are trying to remove, as wax is full of silicone. We used regular dish soap as it strips the waxes and greases, which is the purpose of this pre-wash. Again, this step can save you many problems and headaches later down the repair process. If silicones are not completely removed, they may be smeared into the substrate and cause fisheyes during the painting process. Wax and Grease Remover After you have properly washed the car use wax and grease remover to assure all contaminates are removed from the project car. Simple, But Crucial I know it may seem ridiculous to write an entire article on washing the car first. However, it you will perform this simple task, you will eliminate one of the most common mistake made when performing auto body and paint repair. Below are several videos discussing the project and demonstrating the steps to take when washing a car before beginning repairs.

This will remove all silicone and other contaminates from the paint surface.

Now that we have all of the silicone removed from the Mustang, we’ll start taking some of the parts off. When we bough the car it had been in a front end wreck. The front bumper, grille, and headlight parts were already removed from the car. Most of these parts are damaged, so we’ll have to find some new parts and replace them when we get to that point.....

This Mustang Restoration post is more about of a progress update rather than a how-to tutorial. With the front body parts removed, we thought it would be a good time to inspect the brakes and shocks. With all of the good intentions to buckle down, save money, and set aside time, I haven’t done a very good job at that lately. I’m sure you know how it is. Things come up, we spend our money and life tends to shift into fast forward leaving little time. I guess I could blab all day trying to justify why we haven’t worked on the Mustang for awhile, but I’m going to shut-up tell you about the next few steps we took. We already have the front body panel removed, so I thought we’d check out the brakes to see what kind of shape they are in. I was assuming they would be thin and the drums may need to turned or replaced. Removing The Tires and Wheels I’d love to add disc brakes, but we’ll just get these working for now. Maybe later down the build. Anyway, to check the brakes, we had to take the front tires and wheels off the car. First loosen the lugs so the weight of the car holds the wheel in place. Once loose, we jacked the car up and placed jack stands underneath the car. I also had some blocks of wood as a backup, as we were not on cement. Be certain to never rush through and skip securing the car. There have been many people seriously injured and killed due to the jack slipping. It only takes a minute, but may save your life. Once the tires and wheels were off the ground, we removed the lug nuts and took the tires and wheels off. Now you should have a good view and access to inspect the brakes and shocks. Removing The Drum Brakes Once the front-end was on secured on jack stands, we removed the shocks and brakes to inspect them. To my surprise they were in good shape. Therefore, we did not replace anything at this time. We decided to clean everything real good and put it all back together for now. However, I’m tempted to go ahead and replace everything later during the build. If we do, we’ll post a better video and article with the step-by-step procedure and pics for you.

The last thing you want is to get your car restored and paint it to find you missed a few dents. This happens often, but we’ll show you how we are eliminating this from happening to us on our 1966 Mustang restoration project. Body Repair We have the front fender off, inspected the front shocks and brakes, now we are going to do some minor body repair. We are going to do one panel at a time. Breaking a big job into smaller jobs helps make the project more manageable. So the first panel we decided to work on was the trunk lid. I may refer to this panel as the deck lid in the video, but it’s the same thing. Dull Paint Finish Project Mustnag Sally 0101 150x150 Mustang Restoration Project: How To Eliminate Missing Dents so the Car Will Be Perfectly Straight Before Painting Dents show up easy on glossy paint jobs, as the light reflects off the highs and lows making them easy to identify. However, on an older and dull paint job, it is very difficult to visually locate the minor dents. Not to worry, we’ll show you a way to help. Protect Adjacent Panels 102 0020 300x225 Mustang Restoration Project: How To Eliminate Missing Dents so the Car Will Be Perfectly Straight Before Painting This Photo Is An Example Of Protecting Adjacent Panels With Masking Tape This method involves sanding so it is important to protect all of the adjacent panels, trim, or anything else you don’t want scratched. We’re going to be painting the entire car, but it’s still a good practice to follow. One way to protect the adjacent panels is to lay several layers of tape on the adjacent panels. If you accidentally sand past and hit the tape, it will not scratch the paint surface. Another way is to lift the trunk lid or the panel you are working on so you can sand off the panel without sanding the other adjacent panels. Block Cross Sand motorguard sanding block Mustang Restoration Project: How To Eliminate Missing Dents so the Car Will Be Perfectly Straight Before PaintingWe’ve masked off the adjacent panels and now we are ready to start sanding. We used a long block with 220 grit sandpaper. It’s also important to sand using at a 30 degree angle. Cross sanding in both directions. In other words, sand in a 30 degree angle in one direction, then change directions and sand using a 30 degree angle. If I’m not making sense, you will understand what I am trying to say in the video, so be sure to watch it. Highs and Lows By cross sanding using a block, this will identify any lows are highs in the panel. Everywhere the block sanded even and level indicate the panel is dent free. However, areas where there are no sand marks indicate a low. If an area sands through faster that the rest of the panel indicates a high. Extend The Life Of Sandpaper Here is a little tip for you. Use a scuff pad to clean the surface of the sandpaper. This will extend the life of your sandpaper, which equals less money spent on supplies. Mark Dent Locations Once all of the panel dents were located, we used a paint pen to mark the locations. We also determined the extent of the damage and what repair method should be used. Using PDR Tools – Metal Finishing So what is the different between Paintless Dent Repair and Metal Finishing? PDR is the process of removing a dent without the need to repaint the panel. Metal finishing is the process of working the metal without the need to use body filler. However, metal finishing will require priming and painting the surface. So in my opinion, there is no need to spend hours trying to PRD a dent if the car is going to be painted. With that said, we used PDR tools to raise the dent for metal finishing or enough to apply a thin coat of body filler or finish glaze. According to several body filler manufactures, the low must be 1/4 inch low or less for body filler and 1/8 inch or less for glaze. We did not get to use body filler or glaze during this part of the mustang restoration tutorial, but we’ll get there and we’ll give you the process in more detail when we do. Using A Body File When working with metal, you will need to check your progress to determine the extent of the damage. A body file can be used to help by shaving the top surface. This will help identify how low the remaining portion of the dent is. If all of the metal shaves off even and there are no low areas, you will not need to apply any type of filler. Simply prime, block sand and you’re ready for paint. We’ll get more into the repair stages later, but this help you find all of the dents so you do not miss any before painting. Thanks for stopping by and watching the progress we make during this Mustang build. Hopefully, this will help or encourage you to start or continue your own project car for yourself or as a parent and child project. Here is the video we made for these steps. Check it out below! Step-By-Step Mustang Restoration Tips 1. Determine which panel you are going to concentrate on. Working on one panel at a time helps you focus on each panel and breaks the job into smaller and manageable tasks. 2. Clean the panel with soap and water. 3. Clean the panel with wax and grease remover to assure all contaminate are removed from the panel. 4. Protect adjacent panels by using masking tape, raising panel so adjacent panels will not be damaged, or removing the panel being worked on. 5. Using a long block with 220 to 320 grit sandpaper, cross sand the entire panel using even sanding strokes. 6. Clean surface to identify low and high aeas. 7. Mark damaged areas and determine a repair method. 8. Repair damage with preferred repair method.

In this Mustang restoration tutorial, I am going to show you an old trick I learn years ago for repairing small dents. This method is not a paintless dent repair method, but a method to repair the metal without the use of body filler. However, the surface will have to be primed, blocked and painted. If you have been in the collision industry for many years, than this is nothing new. I have used and I have seen many other guys use this method to repair small dents, such as hail damage. However, if the car you are working on has thin metal, this may not work well. If you have a oxy/acetylene torch with a welding tip, I would recommend using that. It works much better than the propane torch I am using in this tutorial. However, I am always looking for alternative ways to repair cars for the DIY car enthusiast who may not have all of the tools needed. If you don’t have a oxy/acetylene torch, then you can buy one of these propane torches fairly cheap. I bought this one at ACE Hardware, but I you can get them at Walmart or many other places. Let’s Get Started We have the dents located and marked, now it’s time to repair them. To use this method, apply the heat outside of the dent and move inward towards the dent in a spiral direction. You will see the metal start to expand from the heat. When you see this, chase the expanded metal to the lowest part of the dent, which will cause the dent to raise. When the metal is hot, use a body hammer to lightly tap down on the center of the high area to help level and spread the molecules in the metal. The metal will still be slightly high at this point. Next, use a body file to level the metal. This will help you identify any highs or lows the metal may have. If there is still a low area, repeat the process to help raise the remaining low out. Usually this method will work on the first attempt for hail damage. More stubborn dents may require several attempts to remove all of the dent. However, if there is a small low or imperfection, you can apply a small amount of body filler to complete the repair. Warning: If the dent is not cooperating or starts to sink (move the wrong direction) stop and use a different method to repair this particular dent. You may be able to use a dolly to push up as you heat the metal, but you also need to know when to quit and use a different repair method. If you have never tried this method, I recommend finding a junk part and practicing before attempting to do this on your restoration project. It takes practice and this will give you the opportunity to see how the metal moves around with the heat. If you are afraid to try this method, don’t worry. During this Mustang restoration project, we’ll be demonstrating several different ways to repair dents.

We are blocking to find damage on the deck lid.

In this video we are demonstrating how to remove the deck lid.

In the last few videos, we demonstrated how to identify dents and a method of how to repair them on our 66 Mustang restoration project. We are going to cover more dent repair later, but in the next several posts, we are going to replace the right quarter panel. In this tutorial I am going to show you how to replace a quarter panel on the 1966 Ford Mustang. The quarter panel on the Mustang is rusted out as many older cars do. Quarter panels are welded on panels that may be required to replace if involved in an accident or if rusted severely as with the Mustang we’re working on. Weld- on panels require drilling spot welds. Before you start cutting and drilling, you will need to remove the necessary parts to prevent from damaging then or to access the spot weld locations. Since this was rusted, we will not need to repair the quarter panel before we beginning. If the quarter panel had damage caused by a collision it would be necessary to first straighten straighten the quarter panel to realign the structure to realign all the body gaps. The first thing you want to do as with any part is check the part to make sure that you have the correct part. Many times the wrong part may have been ordered or the wrong part was shipped. This is not something you want to realize after you have removed the part. It only takes a second set it up to the car to assure you have the correct panel. Next remove any parts necessary to access the spot welds. Below are the first steps to take when replacing the quarter panel: Step 1: Remove Rear Bumper To locate the bolts holding the bumper on open the trunk lid and locate two 5/8” blots one each side inside the trunk area. Once the four bolts are removed the bumper is ready to take off the Mustang. Step 2: Remove Taillight Assembly From inside the trunk area locate four 3/8 inch bolts. Remove the four bolts, unplug the taillamp plug and remove the taillamp assembly. Step 3: Remove Quarter Panel Extension From inside the trunk area locate three 7/16 inch bolts holding the extension filler on. Remove the bolts and then remove the extension filler. Step 4: Remove Interior Parts Quarter panel interior panels may need to be removed to access spot welds, to prevent damaging, or from drilling through the interior when drilling spot welds. However, on this Mustang, the spot weld locations are not near the interior trim panel. We decided to go ahead and remove the interior trim, as we will be restoring the inside as well. Step 5: Remove Back Glass Trim Using a glass trim removal tool, we removed the trim will need to be removed to prevent damaging it. Summary We removed the back bumper, taillamp assembly, quarter panel extension filler panel, quarter panel trim, and the back glass trim. Now we’re ready to start drilling spot welds. We’ll cover the steps in the next Mustang restoration video tutorial.

In this tutorial we are going to take the quarter paneloff of a 1966 Mustang. First, we need to align the adjacent panels to the quarter panel so the new quarter panel will fit properly when installed. If you don’t First align the door and the deck lid to the quarter panel you will have problems when trying to align the quarter panel. To align the door loosen up the hinge blots and adjust as needed to properly align the door to quarter panel gaps. Next loosen the bolts holding the deck lid in place to make necessary adjustments to align the deck lid to quarter panel.