"Diamond In The Rough"

1967 Mustang Convertible

Owner: John Loper

John came to us with the idea of building a Custom Mustang....Shelby only made 1 prototype Convertible in 1967 and John wanted a car that he could drive with the looks of a GT 500 Shelby Mustang. The search started for a suitable car as a basis for our build. John found a car that seemed to fit the bill in Texas and he negotiated the deal and took delivery of the car.

This is the car as advertised.....the car was presented as an older restoration (needing freshening) and rust free so this seemed like a great start for the project. While the car was in running condition it had not been driven regularly and had done more sitting over the past years.

The seller placed thin refrigerator magnets on the fenders, doors and quarter panels to show that there was metal present under the paint.

The car was equipped with a factory tach and deluxe interior. A Marti report confirmed the car was as originally optioned.

The original 289 had been replaced with a 302 equipped with an Edelbrock performer intake and carb.

Once completely dismantled we mounted the chassis to one of our rotisseries and began the soda blasting.

Every part of the car was soda blasted which revealed a lot more than we had anticipated with this project.

The quarter panels were in great shape but had been replaced. The magnets placed there did not lie...however there was MUCH more hidden damage that was not seen.

This rust was covered up by fiberglass reinforced body filler and undercoating. The entire bottom of the car was heavily coated in undercoating as well.

The floors had been replaced and brazed in...in fact EVERY repair done to this car was done with brass which led us to believe it was done in the very early 80's or late 70's. While there is technically a floor pan there this sort of thing just ruins a car so we will have to go back and redo everything that had previously been done.

once the blasting was finished and we found rust in the firewall and rocker panels that had all been just covered up we decided that it was time to mount the car to our steel frame table where it was leveled and welded into place. From that point we will start taking apart the car so that we can make it right and rebuild it correctly.

So you think you have a rust free car? Are you sure?!? Go back and look at the original picture of this car...how many Mustangs sold at places like Barrett Jackson are hiding damage like we found? Probably more than you think! The frame rails in this car were perfect but the shoddy workmanship done before only made things worse over time and were not done properly to begin with. Sadly it was necessary to take this car down this far but when the shop and the owner of the car suffer from OCD this is the sort of thing that happens because nothing but perfect will do! While it was not a good thing to assemble the car way back when with brass, it made it easier for us to take apart without destroying good panels/parts.

While the torque boxes and frame rails are in good shape, that is where we have to start from. Everything is being seperated at the factory points and will be rebuilt in the same fashion, the quarter panels were genuine Ford panels and were carefully removed and will be re-used....follow along as we rebuild this "Diamond in the Rough".

The rails were cleaned and then coated. This covered the areas that you just can't get to once the car is assembled. Originally much of this was either bare metal or galvanized so this will add more protection.

Although the rear shock brace was not bad, it was covered with surface rust and a new brace came with the Dynacorn rear floor so we went ahead and installed it.

New rear upper torque box plates were installed....the originals had rust holes in them.This step must be done before the floor goes in.

Here we begin mocking up the new sheetmetal and taking measurements to ensure everything is correct.

The dash was removed and this is the windshield/A-pillar frame. We did some minor rust repair on the inside of the A-pillar and then coated them for rust protection.

More of the mock up stage...these cowl side panels are brand new releases from Dynacorn and are the full part...previously you could only buy a patch panel which did not extend to the back side of the A-pillar.

Here we have the A-pillars and windshield frame in place for mock up and measurement....nothing is welded in place at this point.