I finally made a patch to bridge the gap between the trunk’s weatherstripping channel and the taillight panel. Still gotta grind the welds, but it’s in there and solid.

OK – these came out of the trunk when the pan came out in pieces. They hang underneath, and I believe they’re exhaust hanger brackets, but I have no idea where they go. Guess I’ll figure it out somehow.

Here’s the ‘new’ forward fuel tank strap bracket. WAY better than the one that came with the car (top). Thanks goes out to Don at OMS for the new piece.

Here’s the forward fuel tank strap bracket just before I welded it on. Cleaned up really nice – once again, much appreciation to Don at Ohio Mustang Supply for the hook-up.

Ground down the welds, fabricated a small patch toward the front of the inner wheelhouse, seam sealed, and painted with Rust Bullet Black Shell. Almost ready for quarters now.

After getting this side painted with the Rust Bullet, I moved over to the driver side and finished up the spots I missed when the quarter windows were still in. Next up is quarter panels.

Opened up the right quarter panel and found this – no surprises… I knew the outer wheelhouse would be munched. Time to cut out the bad stuff and get ready to repair the wheelhouse.

You can see right through the car now! Pulled the quarter window and removed the rest of the quarter panel.

I got the new outer wheelhouse section welded on. Still gotta clean it up some more, grind down the welds, apply seam sealer and Rust Bullet, and it’ll look like the other side.

Just about ready for the new quarter panel section after some more cleaning and ‘stepping’ the Rustang’s sheet metal to fit it on.

OK – done with breakfast and already had the Sharpie out scribbling on the car. Top line is where the new quarter panel section will reach up to. Other lines are where I’m going to cut using the plasma cutter. Here goes nothing.

Got the big piece cut out, and cut off the bad piece of the outer wheelhouse as well. Looks like the rust is mostly staying low on the car – which is good. Gotta burn through some stripping wheels now.

After more trimming and cleaning, I finally got the outer wheelhouse ‘section’ test-fitted in there. Also used the pneumatic flange tool to ‘step’ the car’s sheet metal to accept the new quarter skin and stripped the paint.

I got the new wheelhouse section trimmed up and welded in, along with the trunk drop-off (after test-fitting the quarter section as well). Finished up with some seam sealer and Rust Bullet on the places I’ll never see again.

Different angle – also cleaned all the old undercoating and stuff from the inside of the wheel well. Just gotta stick the quart panel section on now (next weekend’s fun).

Here’s the corner patch after ‘blasting, and all welded in. Fits like a glove.

After getting the corner patch installed, I worked on the tail light panel. Here it is all welded in with the welds ground down. Came out just like it was supposed to… which had me scratching my head for a little while – until I realized that I actually did do everything right and it’s all good.

Used the trunk lid to help line up the tail light panel. Also cleaned off the yellow writing from the junk yard, and decided to make it a ‘Mach 1’ again – Sharpies Rule. LOL!

Popped the quarter extensions on and lined everything up. I’m not saying it’s perfect, but I think I can be really happy with how it came out (with proper alignment of the extensions and everything once the new quarters are on, that is).

After my favorite thing in the world (drilling out spot-welds – yay…) here we are with no more yucky rusted-out metal.

Then, after having a hard time keeping the ‘patch’ piece from the junkyard steady to drill out more spot-welds on it, I decided to use the plasma cutter to just burn through the spot-welds. Things went a lot faster from that point. Here’s the ‘patch’ being test-fitted before media blasting – almost perfect!

While I was having fun test-fitting (and burned out the spot-welds from the old panel on the driver side), I decided to see what it would look like with the new tail light panel in there as well. I’m thinking this is going to work out, after all!

Here’s a shot of the sub-frame connectors welded in – I wish this weld would’ve come out better, but it’s not the worst one, and only one of a few that don’t actually look good. I AM getting better… really.

Got the frame rails cleaned out and painted on some Rust Bullet Black Shell I STILL have left over. That stuff’s awesome! Just did the frame rails and inside of the rear cross member for now since I’ll never be able to get to them again.

After getting the ‘gap’ patch installed, I zapped down the trunk pan after getting it all lined up. Still gotta weld it to the frame rails from underneath, but it’s in there solid now.

Toward the top is the ‘gap’ patch I made for $10. Worked like a champ and got creative using the vise and bent it all into shape. There’s going to be a big ol’ box with a couple of subs riding on top of it someday, so ‘perfect’ doesn’t matter so much to me.

I’m committed now. Tacked in the ‘gas tank hammock’ to keep the frame rails straight, and fired up the plasma cutter, and took out the tail light panel, rear cross-member, and lower rear portions of the quarter panels.

Rear cross member all welded in. Nice and tight fit, thanks to the Redneck Gas Tank Hammock’s last gasp of holding the frame rails together.

Here’s the new trunk pan dropped in for test-fitting. Fits like a glove, except that the sheet metal comes up about 6″ short in the front. Turns out the pan from CJ Pony Parts is about 6″ ‘shorter’ than the one from Ohio Mustang Supply – WTF?! My Bad. Now I gotta fit a new piece of sheet metal in there, bash it into shape, and weld it in before zapping this one down.

Instead of the ‘new Redneck shock mounts’ I came up with a few weeks back, I picked up a reproduction shock mount cross-member for a ’69-’70. It’s too narrow, so I going to graft-in the shock mount ‘pockets’ only. Here we are with the old stuff cut out.

Here are the new shock mount ‘pockets’ tacked in. Still gotta tweak the original cross member a little for final welding (gonna go in through the access holes with a big hammer and MAKE ’em fit – LOL!).

Got the patches welded in, ground down the welds, seam-sealed the air hats and patches before welding, the applied the Rust Bullet Black Shell. Just gotta fold down the cowl and weld it back in place now.

So happy this is finally going back together and those patches fit so well!

Got the cowl folded back down and welded in-place. Then ‘blasted the ‘ends’, treated the insides with Rust Bullet, and welded them down as well. Just gotta grind the welds, zap down the cowl/apron tie-ins and more Rust Bullet and call it done (next Saturday).

The cowl is Done! Got everything patched, cleaned up, and Rust Bullet’d. Now that it’s done, I can move onto the trunk (tomorrow).

Here’s the passenger side – had to patch a couple small places today as well as weld on the apron extensions. Slowly but surely, the ‘new’ look of the car is making its way to the back.

Driver side all cleaned up and made new with Rust Bullet Black Shell. It’s sad that a new coat of Rust Bullet makes the old stuff look… well… old. Gonna clean it all up and spray on another coat later anyway, but it’s protected for now, and that’s the important part.