Sunday, October 19, 2008

What Have I Got Myself Into ?

Now that the car is in my garage, it's time to take inventory and develop the restoration strategy.



First of all, I don't do welding. Welding is probably one of those things that's easier than it seems, but our garage (accessible from your typical Chicago alley) still needs to function as a 2-car garage and the space just isn't available for a lot of heavy equipment and hauling around big pieces of sheet metal.

HERE is a link to a blog by someone who is restoring a 68 convertible and is into the sheet metal and welding. God bless 'em.

So here's the basic 5-step plan:

1) Dissect the car -- engine, transmission, interior.
2) Haul it out to a body shop (preferrably an old Mustang specialist) for body work.
3) Rebuild the engine and transmission while it's in the shop.
4) Get the car back in the garage and start putting it back together again.
5) Drive it back out to the body shop for painting

It's gonna take a year or two, and everyone I've solicited advice from has emphasized patience (and a big checking account, but more about that later).

So I assembled all my tools, went out to AutoZone and Pep Boys and picked up a creeper, a hydraulic jack, some jack stands, more pegboard hangers, workshop gloves, safety glasses, a BUNCH of shop towels and a small tub of GoJo (hand degreaser). I also scrambled out to Target and grabbed an assortment of plastic tubs, Ziploc bags and permanent marker for storage and labeling.

Once my garage was prepped and equipped, I finally popped the hood, took out the easy stuff (air cleaner, battery, sparkplug wires, etc.) and started to take a serious look at what was in front of me:







Oh boy.

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