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!

 

 

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 took a trip up to CJ Pony Parts about 3 weeks ago to gather parts, paint, etc. for the mustang. Al told, I spent a little over $1,000 on the order, and included in that was a $35 restamped data door plate to replace the original.  My original door plate had been sprayed over, and I wanted to make sure that the plate was clearly visible due to the rarity of the car.

New and Old Data Plate, Notice the different font and spacing (VIN has been partially blurred out)

Last week my new data plate came in the mail and for some reason the stamping style was completely different from the original.  I know that different stamp styles were used based on point of origin, date produced, etc., but all that info is on the door plate, so there shouldn’t have been an error like this.

I called CJ and they told me that Marti Auto Works did their stamping, and I would need to get in touch with them.  When I called Marti, they said they had no record of doing the work and needed the order number.  What followed was a flurry of calls back and forth that went something like this:

Call to CJ:  They gave me the order number, told me to call back Marti. (Spoke to Earl)

Call to Marti: They said the order number was incorrect, please have CJ give them a call to straighten this out. (Spoke to Christie)

Call to CJ:  They gave me a different order number, told me I could just call Marti back myself. (Spoke to Earl)

Call to Marti:  They still couldn’t find the order, they again told me CJ should be the one calling them since they placed the order, and could I please email them photos of the original and re-pop plates. (Spoke to Christie)

Call to CJ:  Asked to speak with Jeremy (The guy who did my order 3 weeks ago), asked if he was sure that Marti did their plates.  He checked and said it was someone else.  I explained the situation again, and the run-around I’ve been getting, and he said I need to talk to customer service.  I talked to customer service, they asked for photos of the plates to see how bad the error was, and I sent them.

Call from Marti:  Christie calls me, says that she looked at the plates, and it was obvious that it was not something they did.  I explained to her what CJ told me, apologized profusely for harassing them, and asked them to go ahead and re-pop the plate, since they weren’t at fault but actually took the time to help figure this out.

CJ Pony Parts doesn't seem to care about how shoddy their re-pops look!

This took up a good chunk of my day, and I felt terrible about pestering Marti when it wasn’t their fault.  CJ Pony Parts managed to make me look like a real asshole for complaining about a mistake they didn’t make; Thanks CJ!  They also couldn’t be bothered to apologize for the mis-stamp, or for pawning me off onto the wrong manufacturer.  I really feel like CJ did a piss poor job here, and I’m fairly certain I learned my lesson.  I’m not going to be buying my parts from CJ in the near future!

Marti said it was going to take a few weeks to get the plate stamped, which is fine with me.  I highly recommend you consider Marti if you’re getting a plate restamped, because who knows what you’re going to get with CJ!

BTW:  Marti charged me $10 less than CJ did!

In 1965, The first factory pink mustangs were released.  Known as “Playmate Pink”, they were done to match the 1965 Mustang given to Playboy Playmate Donna Michele, shown above, as reward for winning playmate of the year.  The color carried over to 1966, and the original pink cars were all special orders, with six digit DSO’s on the data plates, and a blank exterior color code.

It is interesting to note that this original image seems to be over-saturated, and the original color of the car may in fact be a considerably lighter than this image seems to indicate.  examining under the door code plate of an original 1965 playmate pink yields an interesting color:

The Pink is very light, almost a flesh-tone, and it’s interesting to note that there is at least one other first generation mustang floating around in this pale pink tone.  Could this perhaps be the correct “playmate pink” color tone from 1965-1966?