1966 Restoration
Last updated: 05-Jan-2002
| 1966
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| This
was the second car I ever owned. This is also the car I still own today.
I've stripped it and painted it myself twice. I've done all of the repairs
except for transmission work. click on photo for larger picture |
The finished
product. Scroll to the right to see what led up to this point 1966 Mustang Coupe Wimbleton White with a red interior. 289 V-8 with a 2 barrel carburetor C-4 Automatic transmission |
1985
- I bought this car in 1984 for $2500. It came with a parts car, a rebuilt
engine and transmission that had never been run, and few more troubles
that I hadn't anticipated. After rebuilding the original carburetor the
car started and I drove it home. A few weeks later the transmission was
sluggish in shifting and I took it to a tranny shop. The rebuilt transmission
had sat in a garage for 12 months and had rusted above the fluid line.
The only thing salvageable was the case. The car also had a spray-on vinyl
top that took a grinder to remove. I gave the car a quick paint job in
the parking lot of the sign company I was working for at the time, redid
the interior, and hit the road. Unfortunately, the road hit back when a kid ran a stop sign and pounded the driver's side fender. It was time to attack the rust. |
1989
- After a commercial paint job that lasted about two years before rust
bubbles returned, I decided that the only way to do a job right was to
do it myself. All of the rust spots were sanded down to bare metal, and
coated with ZRC
Cold Galvanizing compound.
These areas were then primered. Black paint was sprayed over all the bodywork
areas. When sanding the black should disappear evenly; the black spots
that remain are the low spots. If you see bare metal, it's time to tap
down the high spot. More restoration details. |
1989 - I painted the car in my garage after convincing my wife I wouldn't blowup the house. I wrapped all the garage walls in plastic (to protect from over spray), hosed down the floor (to keep down the dust), and hung chains from the chassis (to ground the car preventing static). Also, I disconnected the battery (no sparks). The front valence was damaged and I always thought the headlights weren't bright enough, so I took this opportunity to customize a little. The car was painted Wimbleton White acrylic enamel. I borrowed all the necessary equipment, so the final cost of this paint job was under $200. At this time there are only two rust bubbles coming up on one fender lip. | The interior is a bit unusual in that the car came with a bench/notchback seat. I have found these seats to be more comfortable than the standard buckets. A Sony AM/FM Cassette stereo and a 200 watt power booster are mounted in the glovebox cutout. With the glovebox door closed the car looks entirely stock on the inside. Optional original equipment included air conditioning, remote outside mirror, day/night rearview mirror, two speed wipers with windshield washer, and, of course, the bench seat. The engine is a standard 289 with a 2 barrel carburetor, and a C-4 automatic transmission. I added Ford tri-Y headers and dual exhaust. The car is weekly driven if not daily and has a total of 152,000 miles on the chassis, 31,000 on the engine and transmission. |
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