I promised some pics..

...and here is one to start.

I can say that even since taking this one picture that I have advanced further and will take some more pics to give a better idea as to the project state.

I have moved to the right rear quarter where it looks like I'll be putting in new sheet metal instead of trying to pull the crushed spot.

The weather improves....

We are into April now and the more progress has been made. Here is what we have so far...
Floor pans repaired.
Passenger side door rust repaired.
Driver side door rehung with new pins and bushings (closes nice now)
Driver side door striker repaired.
All GT body trim removed and sold on ebay
LX front bumper bought, repaired, Primed and installed
Hood repaired adjusted and primed
passnger front fender light repair, sanded and primed
LX rear bumper bought and sort of installed
Bought all replacement fender mouldings
LX front fender extensions also purchased.
Bought replacement driver side rear window
Bought Passenger side convertible top frame

Waiting on delivery of gas tank, fuel pump, fuel level sending unit, drivers side tail light

I have also determined that the car should be repainted back to its original Oxford white. Mostly because white hides flaws wonderfully, but also because I am a bit of a purest when it comes to restoration.

Not sure what I want to do about the wheel situation. Its currently on 16 inch T-Bird Turbo Coupe rims which on some level I kind of like, but then it does go against my creedo of originality.

Pictures to come!

Been awhile...

Well the last post was 2/14 but alot has been done since then. The convertible is in the garage and up on jack stands. The floor pans have been repaired and are ready. Started the minor exterior work. The undersides of the doors have a very little bit of rust and I have the passenger side door already done. Have to do the driver side next. So far, so good. The floors were the hard part.
Decided on a color combo. Was going to go with white, back to the original color. Decided against it as I have been looking at other colors. Going with 2005 Ford True Blue and Titanium lower half.
It should look pretty good. Will try to update with pictures.

A cold Day in February hell

Havent updated recently but on a cold rainy day here in Pennsylvania I got the convertible into the garage. Had to finish cleaning it out yesterday then I pushed it in yesterday afternoon. I didnt let the cold and rain bother me because no matter what the weather, its still fun to tinker in th garage. Last week I got most of the interior redone in black just need to finish the driver side door panel and two rear panels that the seat belt bezels attach to.
Found some parts on Ebay as well. I bought a replacement for the broken passenger side convertible frame. Working on some other odds and ends as well.
Going to get the car up on stands and hope to really get into the body work soon.

This isn't Florida!!

Well got back from Florida yesterday after almost a week in the sun. 80 degrees and sunny back to 50 and overcast. Actually got up to almost 60 here today so I took advantage of that plus a day off and tore into the 'stang.

Took out the entire interior except for the dash. Don't think I'm going pull that out, but it was nice to get out the garbage that was in it. Now it really needs a good cleaning. When someone cut the lines for top it leaked into the car which added to the filth inside. A couple of spots showed up that will really need rust repair. A body plug that is under the driver seat was missing along with an inch of metal all around where it was. Nothing too major should be a relatively quick fix but I might expect to find more spots the more I take apart and that, I suppose, is the point of a restoration.

Also, made a decision on the color choices for the car...white exterior, black interior and black top. A classic look that you really can't go wrong with. Even went so far as to go pick up the material for the door panels and bought replacement seat belt bezels off of ebay today too.

This is fun.

Took the front bumper cover off...surprisingly easy but a guess since part of it is missing that helped. Headlights gone too as they were beat and busted. Starting to look better already.
Packing for Florida now. Time to get away from this miserable cold gray rain and its 80 in Orlando.

See you in a week.

Beginning the evaluation....

Well its been a good news bad news scenario for the old 'stang. I'll lead off with the bad news as to try to conclude on an up note. Bad news - the convertible top frame is broken on the passenger side and someone removed the pump and cut the lines. (choice words were spoken when I saw this) Good news - The electrical system isn't as buggered as I thought and so far I have not found any signifigant rust anywhere on the car.

Started to take out the interior...Wow...what a mess. There is some sort of greasy black goo that just is everywhere under the rear seats. Its all into the foam so I gotta toss those. I might be able to salvage some of the trim so Im setting that all aside. Clearly the last few P/O 's of this car had no clue as to how to take care of it properly. I guess its lucky I came along.

The engine actually turns over too which is something I surprised to see. Sure it doesnt start but that gives me hope. The ice in the cooling system doesnt appear to have caused any damage so perhaps there just wasn't enough water in the system to expand to the point of cracking anything. I have since been adding anti freeze to the system in order to melt the ice. The water pump is bad as I see water leaking from the top of it. That probably helped with the ice issue too.

Well no description is complete without pictures so I have managed to take a few this morning.

What could have been.

This what I could have purchased for 1800. Thought I'd share a pic the guy emailed me.

Discovered something unfortunate today. The guy who had the car before me appears to have filled the cooling system with water only....Its been in the 20's for 2 weeks. This is probably a bad thing even though I was going to be doing an engine swap anyway. This probably seals the deal.
Off from work tomorrow going to Florida for a week will try to dig into the interior in between packing.

Project Ragtop...so it begins.

Well after much searching and consideration, I have found what I hope to turn into a road worthy mustang. I was not sure for awhile exactly what kind of car I wanted to build. I had previously built a VW which after a couple years I sold in May of 07.

I wanted to jump right into another car within a week but I took my time instead as I needed to be sure of exactly what I wanted. I knew no matter what I got that it was going to be a beater that needed to be brought back from the dead and I had already used the proceeds from the sale of the VW to pay off the bills that were generated from rebuilding it. So needless to my budget was weak like clock radio speakers.

Its a shame too since a month after the money was gone I found an 86 SVO that I probably could have picked up for 1800. Well theres not alot of SVO fans out there and part sourcing might have been problematic not to mention that money sourcing could have been even more of an issue. In retrospect I should have done it since it was a 1 of 70 produced with the a certain blue paint code. No sense crying about it now.

Well the summer passed into fall and I hadnt located anything I really wanted. Correction, there were a couple cars on Ebay that I found but none sold in my price range. Shelbys are not in my price range and neither was much of anything over 500. I did try to go after an LT1 firebird that needed a motor but that didnt pan out for me. So the search continued.

December started with me beginning to look on craigslist. Not sure why I didnt try there before as that is the perfect place to find a local beater in need of help. Came across a few S10 trucks that looked like they might be worth turning into straight drag cars but honestly whats the point. There isn't that reaction of "wow what a cool car" from people that you meet, so I figured pointless to try.

Mid December, I come across an 87 Mustang convertible LX with the awesome 2.3L lump under the hood. It had a GT body kit on it and the pictures showed it sitting on flats. It was advertised for sale in the title for 350 (What do you know....thats my price range.) I figured I'd keep an eye on it for a bit to see if it moves. A couple of weeks ago I decided to follow up with the guy who owned it as it appeared that it wasn't selling. He still had it. So, I made the time to go by and see the car this past Thursday and well it certainly was a project car.

I made him an offer of 300 for it and he took it. We transferred the title yesterday and I enlisted the help of my brother with his 2005 F250 Harley Davidson Edition truck and we towed it from Holmesburg in Philadelphia out to Willow Grove today.

So now it sits in my driveway under a car cover incase it rains since the top needs replacement (Among other things) I'm going to try to dig into it a little bit to see what I got myself into and post next week on it.

Wish me luck.