1969 MUSTANG PROJECT CAR

In the 80's my son bought a 1969 Mustang with a 302 in it, loved the car, and put a lot of miles on it. Unfortunately someone hit the car, T-Boned, it in the left front that wiped out the front fender, door, part of the grill and bent the left front door pillar or "A pillar". He bought a fender and door, put them on but because of the bent pillar things did not fit right. the car had some engine and transmission issues that he could not afford to fix at the time so it was parked at my house in Sebastopol CA. (now it's his house) where its been stored under a tarp for 30 years.
His youngest son, now in his 20's, took interest in in the car so I told them that I would do the repairs if they would pay for the parts and last Friday they delivered it to me in Kingman AZ.

 My son, grandson and me on Friday. They had to get back for work and left on Saturday as it is a 12  hour drive each way.

 I spend a couple days removing upholstery, floor mats, all the loose parts and cleaning. The car is in surprising petty good condition after being stored all those years.

 Pushed the car out and pressure washed it top and bottom then removed both fenders and doors, sorted through the several boxes & buckets of parts and pieces they brought then put them in the RV shelter so I had room to work on the car.

 Below is the damaged outer pillar/kick panel sheet metal looking from the fire wall with the left end of the cowl at the top.

 This one shows the damage looking from the door hinge side and you can see where the bumper of the other car hit the pillar just above the bottom hinge.

 The damaged outer panel was removed by drilling out the spot welds to avoid any further damage to the back parts. The kick panel air vent was also destroyed and removed.

 The back part of the panel at the door post was folded in and the end of the cowl pulled down.

 The damaged panel and air vent shown below. 

 This is a close up of where the other car hit the door post that pushed it in about 1".

 Inside the kick panel the air vent and emergency brake pedal along with the bottom of the dash were in the way of access to the back of the damaged pillar. The E break release handle was broken off (that will need to be fixed).

 I thought that I could remove just part of the lower dash but that was not the case, the dash had to be removed from the top down.

 The steering column supports and heater controls  was a problem so I took pictures and marked things so I would know how it goes back together.

 With everything removed I have a clear path to set up the port-a-power and could get the heater core out to be checked out.

 The damage is behind the kick panel sheet metal so it had to be cut out where the black ink marks are.

 The port-a-power was set with a 4 X 6 oak block on the passenger side to spread the load on that door pillar.

 I used a flat foot base to push the larger dent out then 2 other shaped ends to push the crease out.

 The oak block worked out and no damage was done to the passenger side.

 After the pillar was straightened the door and fender were installed to make sure they fit and the door opened and closed.

 A new pillar panel was purchased from Larry's T Bird & Mustang that fit very good after the folded piece was straightened and the cowl pushed up.

 The folded back piece was straightened with a pair of channel lock pliers, single jack then hammer & dolly. The port-a-power has a hydraulic duck bill assembly that was used to push the back edge of the folded piece out from the inside of the kick panel. You can see in picture 6 how badly it was crushed.

 Above and below the new panel has been welded in and the pillar is straightened.

The inside of the kick panel is welded in with some grinding left to do.

This is my winter project and I will update the blog as progress is made, its off to a good start being able to straighten the door post.

There is a long list of rust repairs needed on the bottom of both doors, bottom of both rear fenders, above the left tail light at the trunk seal and around the tail light, battery box area and several minor places in the floor pan. 

The radiator support was damaged in the wreck and will also have to be straightened.  This week will head to Phoenix with transmission to be rebuilt, and to see the Starliner at Hot Rods By Dean