Is this the original "playmate pink"?

I ordered 8oz of a Ford Fleet color known as WT9301 to test against my car and see if it’s actually the color of the early pink mustangs!  I’ll post the comparison photos as soon as I’m done, but based of of the sample on the top of the can, it’s looking rather promising!

I’ll be testing the sample this week to see if it’s right!

**update**

WT9301 turned out to be far too pale, unfortunately.  After further research we found the paint had actually been batched incorrectly.

Getting an antique convertible back into top shape is no easy task.  By far the worst part of it is stripping down the car and seeing first hand what years of damage and neglect have done to a once beautiful car.  It’s also difficult to bear in mind that before I started stripping down the car, it was actually a decent looking driver with crummy looking paint.

At any rate, I’ve managed to document the damage to the car that rust has caused, and I’ve outlined a plan of action in order to get the car back into shape:

Left Hand Rear Quarter Panel

Bottom of quarter panel is completely rusted out, White Paint indicates small rust hole

Inner Drop-Down Panel is rusted out as well

Slight Rust Out on Lower Side of Wheel Well (Passenger Side Rear Quarter Panel)

Tail Light Panel

Taillight Panel. No Rust, but lot's of little damage

Panel Between Vert Top and Trunk

This Panel is Just Ugly. Best to chop it out and replace completely.

Front Drivers Inner Fender

Another Shot of this Hole. It looks like it was Sealed Up with a Rust Encapsulator at one time, preventing it from getting any worse!

Engine Bay

The battery trays commonly rust out because the old batteries had a tendency to leak. It's a low visibility area, so the plan is to seal it and put some metal filler in.

Underneath The Car

The Convertibles had a unique panel below the door that was designed to add rigidity to the weak body structure. The panel on the drivers side is completely rusted out. Fortunately, the passenger side is solid.

Drivers Side Door

Leaky Seals caused water to pool in the bottom of the drivers door, rusing out the inner panel. Although the outer skin is fine, the inner panel will need to be repaired/replaced. A New Ford Tooling door will cost nearly $400, so I need to decide if it's more cost effective to replace the door or repair it.

All in all, not too bad!

 

 

1965 Mustang Hood Ornament, Likely a Dealer Option

I’ve seen this debate come up a few times over the years.  Every once in awhile someone pops up asking about a hood ornament they saw once on a mid-60′s Mustang, and they want to know if it was a factory original option or a cheap aftermarket item.  Well, it just so happens that my 1965 playmate pink mustang came with just such an option!

I haven’t found any evidence to indicate that the hood ornament is actually Ford made.  There is no FoMoCo stamp in the metal, but modern replicas of this exact ornament have a hollow bottom, whereas this example is completely solid.

My suspicion is that the ornament was actually a dealer aftermarket item.  It was common for the early mustangs to be optioned by the dealer that sold them with any number of items that were not actually made by FoMoCo.

Dave Hammar actually has a great site that details a ton of dealer aftermarket options for the early Ford Mustangs, but I have not found any information on his site regarding this particular option.

Is there anybody out there that has more knowledge on this unusual Mustang accessory?  I’d love to know more if anyone out there has evidence of the option from 1965, please send it my way!

I took the door glass out of the Mustang the other day.  The good news is that it came out.  The bad news is that my neighbors could have mistaken me for a sailor with the “choice phrases” I had for the car.  There were a couple of bolts that were so heavily rusted that no amount of WD-40 and an impact wrench could break free.  I ended up having to drill several bolts completely, and found the reason my rear glass windows don’t roll up and down:

That steel track on the bottom of the window SHOULD be straight.  There is a wheel that is supposed to sit in that track which guides the window up and down when it’s cranked.  However, if it’s not properly set, the wheel can jump out of that track due to hyper extention, and then cause all sorts of poblems, like the issue I now have.  The solution is to remove that track from the window frame and replace it.  No big deal, just a little bit of time and effort.

The main windows have their own unique set of issues:

On the upside, the FoMoCo stamps on the metal all look good!

I’ve got the top out the mustang, and I’ve packed it away safely for the winter while I work on the body of the Mustang.  Pulling the top out itself was simple, I did it by myself in about an hour.  I was expecting it to be a lot more complicated that it really was!

I pulled the interior and carpet on the 1965 convertible Mustang with the intention of replacing pretty much everything.  I wasn’t sure what condition the floor pans would be in, but I’ve patched and replaced pans in other mustangs, so the prospect doesn’t frighten me too much.

Here’s what the Mustang looked like before I got started:

(I can only pray that sticky stuff on the steering wheel is oil…)

The seats and door panel inserts looked pretty good, so we decided to save them, and we pulled all the interior components out:

(One of my neighbors called the color “titty pink” back in the 60′s.  Sounds about right.)

(The secret to restoring vinyl: If you overexpose your photos, white seats always look great!)

Next I sanded down any surface rust in the pan and sprayed it expoxy primer.  I also sanded down the door interiors and dash, taped them off, sprayed with epoxy primer, and the painted with 1965 Ford interior white paint:

(Stuffing your mustang in a big plastic bag is NOT an appropriate disposal method)

I also removed the center console and re-sprayed that as well.  The chrome on the console is less than perfect, but it is still very presentable, and at the cost of replacing the chrome, I opted to instead keep it.  I then went ahead and replaced the carpeting with a carpet kit from CJ’s Pony Parts:

(The instructions said “PRE-MOLDED”.  Technically true, but hardly “plug-and-play”)

Once the carpet was done, I reassembled the interior and replaced the padded dash which had been warped over the years due to sun and age. Along with the new carpet and paint, I also replaced the steering wheel and horn ring.  Here’s what the new interior looks like:

(Strategic angles prevent you from seeing the missing kick panel)

(Now, if only I had fixed the rear window cranks while the interior was out!)

The new interior looks and feels great!  I’m thrilled to have it done, and the only thing I’m thinking of doing to the interior now is either refinishing or replacing the gauge cluster, but other than that I have no complaints.  Having done the interior on a ’65 coupe in the past, I have to say that the convertible was much easier considering that I could put the top down as I worked on it!

I’ve got the Carburetor finished, and it’s running great!  As it turns out, the inlet valves were almost completely gummed up, which would probably be why the car was stalling out so badly, and the gaskets were pretty much falling apart. (10 years of storage will do that!)

I got an electric choke to replace the original, but I haven’t actually installed it because the vacumn pump seems to be working perfectly after the rebuild (My original suspicion was that the original choke was shot).  I’m hanging onto the electric choke as a backup, and I’ve finished replacing the convertible top and interior, so I’ll post that good stuff in a bit!

Anyone looking for a 1967 Pink mustang restoration project? I found this in a Junkyard last week, but it’s probably more of a project than I’d like to take on! Any brave souls (with an up to date tetnus shot). Looking to build their pink dream car?

***UPDATE***  I don’t know the exact address, or the phone number, I’ve always just taken the place for granted.  For anyone who’s curious, the junkyard is called Mike’s Mustangs and it’s located in Bryans Road, MD.  I’ve got it pinpointed on the map below for anyone who’s curious!


View Mike’s Mustang Junkyard in a larger map

I have to admit, the air cleaner on my car was in rough shape.  The paint had been re-sprayed once, and the paint job was poor at best.  The paint was chipping away, exposing the original paint, and there was some severe overspray on both the box as well as the snorkel.

Strip it Baby!

The first task was to strip off all of the original paint, and see if here was any rust hiding underneath the original paint.  To strip the paint, I went to Home Depot and asked for the most caustic paint stripper they had.  It was a rather hot day when I stripped it, and even though I was working in the shade, the paint stripper was boiling as it hit the metal!

I was dismayed to see that there was rust hiding underneath the original paint, particularly in the divot for the distributor cap.  The rust had just started to pit the metal at that point, but otherwise the box was in decent shape, so I decided to take the entire box, lid, and snorkel and brush them down with a heavy wire wheel to eliminate any trace of rust.

Painting The Cleaner

I repainted the cleaner back to it’s factory original colors:  Gold Lid, Gold Box, and Black Snorkel.  I ordered the paint from CJ Pony Parts (Don’t get me started on them again, let’s just say I recommend using another vendor).  I ended up with 4 coats of paint on each part, with wet sanding between each coat.  The finished product looks great, and I can’t wait to get them back on the car!  My next project is getting the valve covers repainted, which I suspect is going to be an identical process to restoring the air cleaner (Albeit much faster!)

I’ll have photos of the Air Cleaner up this weekend.