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66 Mustang GT Restoration

Curbkrawler

Curbkrawler

Shitbox Connoisseur
Joined
May 21, 2020
Member Number
947
Messages
424
Loc
SC
My dad's childhood best friend got this car brand new for his 16th birthday. Dad spent his teenage years riding shotgun and making out with ugly chicks in the back. His friend daily drove it for 20 years until 1986 when he parked it in his barn. This was the car that sparked my love of Mustangs/all things automotive as a child. I used to bug his friend to sell it to us for years. Unfortunately he passed away from a heart attack several years ago and we were able to purchase the car from his daughter. The restoration of this car is as a tribute to my dad's friend, as well as, to my father (who spends every evening with me working on it).

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As found in the barn in 2016 when we purchased it. Car is amazingly "fairly" rust free (compared to our 69) for being daily driven for 20 years in salt/snow. Mike must have owned stock in undercoating because it was over 1/4-3/8" thick. That is ultimately what saved the sheet metal.
 
At the time, I didn't have my shop so we had to make some room in my dad's to store the car so we pulled the 69 off the frame cart we built for it and literally hung it from the ceiling over his boat.
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Initial evaluation was it was going to need quarters, outer wheel houses, and trunk floor. We later found a couple small holes in floor pan but overall the car was very solid. I have never worked on something so original before. It was as it left the factory with the exception of a cat-daddy 8 track player mounted under the dash and a box of CCR, Zep, etc. 8 track tapes in trunk. You can see my old man reliving his youth in the last pic.
 
I found a ton of receipts and service records in the glove box from the late 60's. He kept a log book of every service, mileage done, what was done, etc. until he parked it in 86.
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Trunk floor and Quarter panel replacement
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Chipping off undercoating to determine paint demarcation between engine bay and body overspray
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I sand blasted our 69 using a harbor freight sand blaster and said screw that this time. I called in a dustless blasting outfit for this one:
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Car is ready for high build primer, sealer, and paint. Don't know how well it is going to work, but I purchased an inflatable 30x20' paint booth that we are going to set up in the shop for paint. Currently waiting on pops to get back from vacation so I rebuilt/painted the heater box and started tearing down the Top Loader.

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ANGRYBLACK said:
Looking forward to this being finished.
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Been in love with this car since I was 6 years old.

Question… What brand sound deader did you use on your wife’s car you are building? Any reason for the brand/selection? I want to do the floor and roof of mine and plan to do the spray deadener in the trunk/quarters like the factory did.
 
Curbkrawler said:
Been in love with this car since I was 6 years old.

Question… What brand sound deader did you use on your wife’s car you are building? Any reason for the brand/selection? I want to do the floor and roof of mine and plan to do the spray deadener in the trunk/quarters like the factory did.
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I used 80 mil fat mat for the price point when sold in a roll. I think it's all the same. Then some cheap 1/4 closed cell foam and foil atop that. To help absorb the sound I went with the 315 mil Noico foam. Project uses it and two trusted friend whom still do car audio. Constant you tube, Amazon reviews and 2 friends swear by it.

I'd like the spray on stuff. If I could get a solid 3/16-1/4" sprayed in and it be water tight to the metal at a wide variety of temps I'd be into it.
I like the idea of it in the doors and inner 1/4's.
 
Sub'd... nice work so far, keep at it!

I'm getting ready to start on my older Bro's high-school car that has been sitting in a field for 20+ years, also a '66 Mustang. Though it'll be more of a resto-MOD than a restoration.
 
ANGRYBLACK said:
I used 80 mil fat mat for the price point when sold in a roll. I think it's all the same. Then some cheap 1/4 closed cell foam and foil atop that. To help absorb the sound I went with the 315 mil Noico foam. Project uses it and two trusted friend whom still do car audio. Constant you tube, Amazon reviews and 2 friends swear by it.

I'd like the spray on stuff. If I could get a solid 3/16-1/4" sprayed in and it be water tight to the metal at a wide variety of temps I'd be into it.
I like the idea of it in the doors and inner 1/4's.
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I had planned to do the doors as well, but the factory sound deadener they sprayed in them is still in such good shape. Plus I really couldn't come up with a good way to remove the factory stuff and I have my doubts whether the foil backed stuff would stick to 60 year old spray on.
 
Tech Tim said:
Sub'd... nice work so far, keep at it!

I'm getting ready to start on my older Bro's high-school car that has been sitting in a field for 20+ years, also a '66 Mustang. Though it'll be more of a resto-MOD than a restoration.
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That is the route our 69 Mach 1 was headed. Our plans for it have changed several times. Originally it was a 351W, 4V, 4 speed but the original drivetrain was long gone. Our original plan for it was 428, 4 spd in Acapulco blue (bc I hated the original color of Dark Jade Metallic). That morphed into doing a Boss 429 clone bc that was always my dad's dream car with modern suspension. I don't want that heavy ass 429. I want to do a restomod with a Coyote, 6 spd, and paint the exterior back to original (Dark Jade grew on me). It is hard explaining to my old school father that a modern Coyote with the AC on will make the same or better power than any 429 clone. If I say it, it is stupid. I have to make him think it's his idea. So strategic magazine articles may or may not get left out for him to read...
 
Couple of Interesting things we have found so far... Car has a build date of Dec 65. It was purchased in March of 66. After media blasting, we could see faint outlines of factory chalk/paint marker marks from the assembly line. On passenger cowl you can see "65". The thing that puzzles me is the heater box is from a 67 due to the door opening upwards and it being square. The blower motor is dated July. Obviously we don't have every second of the cars history but Dad says he doesn't believe his friend ever changed the heater box assembly. That's the only thing I can think of. Unless Ford just randomly put the next years box in a previous model. Who knows.

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So fought that motherfvcker all day, get it all back together and am lacking 1/8” of getting rear bearing snap ring installed. Something doesn’t seem right with gap bn 1st gear and synchro slider. Gotta take it all back apart to pull main shaft back out.
 
bdkw1 said:
Ford has a long history of this. Not uncommon to find different year parts on a car, they use what they had on hand.
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My Grand Wag is same way. It has a build date of June 1990 and interior paint code is Light sand but dash and AC unit are 91 color Dark Sand. Code on AC unit is for a 91. Leather and door panels are Light Sand.
 
The early mustangs are great looking cars a few lucky kids had some at my HS in the 90’s I couldn’t swing it so I did the fox body thing. Your car looks pretty clean for being a daily driver for 20 yrs there would be nothing left of it where I live.
 
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