OMG!! It’s actually shiny! Still gotta adjust some of the body panels ever so slightly, but it’s SHINY!! 

More shiny!! This turned out SO nice! Looks like the tire even got some paint (yeah… those nasty old wheels are SO outta here).

The TuTone hood template was such a PITA to work with, I actually wound up restriping part of it by hand. Turned out sweet – even though it’s technically supposed to be flat black (I like the glossy much better… and I can actually wax it, too).

The body shop guys worked nothing short of a miracle on the quarter panels – it looks Awesome!! 

OK, so this wouldn’t be complete without Paul Harvey’s “The Rest of the Story.” The painter told me up front that he sucked at striping, and put the TuTone hood black out template on too far back and off-center to the passenger side by around an inch. The body guy thought it looked fine (that’s why you’re paid to sling Bondo and sand it all off again, Dude).

When Bernie called me about the stencil, I went over and told him I could restripe the driver side to match. He sat back, watched me do it, and thought about offering me a job when it was done. Yeah, it’s still too far back, but not enough that anybody else who isn’t intimately familiar with these cars would notice. Not perfect, but I’ll take it.

IT’S SHINY AGAIN!!!

This is the first time the car’s been this far back together since I’ve owned it. The body guy is still lining a few things up, and then it should be ready for more primer and some base color after masking everything off.

The body guy worked a small miracle getting the quarters squared away. Can’t wait to see this thing with some actual color on it!

The big bummer is that the urethane bumper isn’t taking the primer (not even the flex stuff Mike sold me). It’s soaking it up and cracking like a big dog… so I’m just going to order a chrome bumper for the front – it should look pretty awesome with the pewter color.

Which begs the question: why can’t a paint and body guy make the primer stick to something that’s supposed to be painted? Should I be concerned?

Holy Cow! The body guy has [almost] all of the body work done! The hood (lower left) is coming along nicely – in this light looks almost gold in color… but nope, it’s paint code ‘V’ – Ford Light Pewter. Can’t wait to see some more color!

Those guys are working miracles – my mistakes with the quarter panels have disappeared! He’s planning on shooting color next week! SO excited!!

Off to the paint shop!!! Yesterday, we got it lined up to go on the trailer, and it just quit – like it was afraid to go get shiny or something. I swapped the Duraspark module this morning, loaded it up, and took it to the man who’s going to make it pretty again. I’ll be taking him the doors and rest of the small parts on Saturday. SO Excited!!! 

The hood is back on!! This is the first time the hood has been on the car (as in, “properly installed”) since I first took it off in August 2010.

A few weeks ago, a painter who’d been recommended by the paint store came by to check it out. He liked what he saw (for the most part) and said that he could indeed make Frank shiny again. He had some projects and jobs ahead of us, but he’d give a call when he’s ready… probably in a few weeks.

I CAN’T WAIT!!! HE’S GOING TO BE A CAR AGAIN SOON!!

Here’s the hood after soda blasting – it took care of pretty much everything but the surface rust under the factory color – I guess the flat black held its own after all.

After spending pretty much half the day with 80-grit sanding discs and the DA, here’s what I came up with. Now it’s almost ready for primer.

And after spending half a day hard sanding the hood, I decided to use some chemical stripper to get the rest of the old factory paint off. MUCH faster!

The paint stood no chance against the stripper – it cooked for about a half hour, then I unceremoniously scraped it off into the trash bag.

Even though [to my surprise] the shop was open today, I managed to get the areas I stripped paint from yesterday sanded down to bare metal. All that’s left to strip off is the trunk opening surround and door jambs.

Here’s the new quarter skin on after test-fitting and major tweaking. Man, I should’ve gone the route of 3M Panel Adhesive from the beginning. This is a WAY better fit than my first attempt.

New quarter skin on and ready to glue it all down. All I gotta do now is pull it back off, apply the 3M Panel Adhesive, and match up the screw holes.

OK – pretty much got the passenger quarter panel back off (since I’d messed it up during installation, and messed it up worse trying to “un-mess it up”). Still need to get the last bits and repair the metal underneath.

Here’s the top of the driver side windshield frame (“A-pillar”). The factory used lead to fill the seam and I’m guessing it popped out when the car was hit (when the previous owners had it). Gotta fix it, and I’m hoping to get some advice from my 7173Mustangs friends – rather that just slop in a big wad of Bondo and hope for the best.

Driver side rocker panel rust damage.

More driver side rocker panel rust damage.

I made patches to bond from the backside with 3M Panel Adhesive – then I’ll make some more to fill the holes – because I suck at butt-welding sheet metal.

Didn’t have a lot of time today, but I was able to test-fit the new fenders – I just hung them on with the top bolts for now. Lots of adjustment to do, but they look GREAT! It’s almost looking like an actual car again.

Since my soda-blasting efforts on the fenders from the parts car went South, I caved and ordered from reproduction fenders from Ohio Mustang Supply because, why not? They’ll work just fine.

Finally got the urethane bumper apart (using a cut-off wheel and air chisel) managing to not mess up the bumper core itself.

Bumper core in the ‘blaster – just barely fits. This is officially the last rusty piece from the car. Say “buh-bye” to the rust. Hopefully, there’s enough hose on the gun to reach everything.

Two hours later, the bumper core is ‘blasted and ready for Rust Bullet Black Shell. Gotta get some urethane body filler and primer to rehab the cover, then it all goes back together with new hardware and bumper brackets.

Got the bumper sanded down and the steel bumper core coated with Rust Bullet Black Shell. Hopefully, I’ll get the bad spots filled next weekend, primed and all back together.