With no keys, I first had to drill out the tumblers in the locking cylinder of the ignition switch so I could get the steering wheel unlocked, and actually steer the car around.  Once that was completed, we pushed the Mustang into a stall at the GAFB Auto Hobby Shop and started walking around it.  I asked my pal Jim what I should start with, and he said, “A tetanus shot.”  (OK – that was funny.  Props to Jim on that one)

First things first, open the hood and start working on getting the grille, bumper, and fenders off to see what’s going on.  The bumper came off by the brackets on the frame, since I had no idea how to remove them from the bumper itself.  Then I could pull out the grille.  All that stuff on the floor is rust – it was snowing rust every time I’d hit a bolt with the impact wrench.  I think I swept up the floor a half dozen time before the day was done.  Since one of the hood hinges had a broken (OK – missing) spring, I decided to take the hood off once I liberated the bumper – OK, I got tired of banging my head on it, too.

Surprisingly, there was still some anti-freeze in the radiator… or at least, I kept telling myself that’s what it was.  Once I got the fenders off, I saw a lot more ugly underneath.  This is gettin’ serious now.

I first attempted to open the trunk using some extensions on a ratchet to simply remove the trunk latch from the inside of the trunk.  With no fold-down seat, this quickly proved to be a lot harder than it sounded.  Frustrated, I simply grabbed the trunk lid and ripped it open – Holy Cow!  That was too easy.  Yeah, the inner surfaces of the trunk lid were all but rusted away.  Once the trunk was open, I found a LOT of rust – and even some daylight showing through from areas it wasn’t supposed to.  Great.

So now I’m quietly thinking, “What have I gotten myself into?”  But outwardly [to everybody looking on] I’m saying, “All of this sheet metal is replaceable – so no big deal.”  Wait – WTF is that piece of angle iron with the chains bolted to it for?