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66' COUPE PROJECT CAR |
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Sometimes you have to wonder "How did I get myself into this situation?" I wanted to restore another car as an economical daily driver. Its been many years since I had lived in the Amish Wonderland and I did not know how difficult it would be to find a restoreable example. After looking over several serious rust buckets I decided that this coupe had the best potential since the frame was sound and needed no repairs. Follow along below to see several of the steps that were involved in getting her to this fine condition. |
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This is the final product just after the owner painted her Tahoe Torquoise, an original 66' color. The new bumpers, foglights, and wire hubcaps really dress her up! Total time from start of the project to completion took 18 months. A full description of the car is found at the end of this page. |
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A Work In Progress |
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The new floorpans are being welded in. The cowl had already been removed and the ducts have been patched. |
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In this early photo the body is nearly stripped of all sheet metal and new quarterpanels had been installed. |
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Floorpans installed and radio hole has been patched. |
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| New tail light panel and trunk floors have been welded in. |
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| The dash is now primered and ready for paint. |
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The RH Side has been completed and primered. Doors have been removed to be reskinned. |
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| The LH side is waiting for the door to be installed. |
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The trunk lid and lower valance are now installed and are being aligned. |
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| The engine has been removed for detailing and the new radiator core support has been installed. |
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Hard to believe its the same car. Glass and doors have been installed, the trunk, door jambs, cowl, and interior have been repainted, and the suspension was rebuilt. The engine and transmission have be reinstalled. |
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The engine and tranny have been rebuilt (by owner) and the engine compartment has been detailed. Adapted dual master cylinder can be seen. Chrome air cleaner is part of the special "Sprint" package. |
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| Interior has been repainted black and partially assembled. The floor is painted Tropical Turquoise which is also the outside vehicle color. |
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| Here she is just after being painted with a BASF brand basecoat/clear coat system. The camera did not accurately capture her true color due to the flourescent lighting. The car is actually a more greenish shade (as seen in the top photo). |
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WHAT A SHINE! |
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This 66' Coupe was born with an Emberglo exterior and an Emberglo/Palomino Pony interior. She was powered by the base 200ci engine with a 3 speed manual transmission. She was originally sold in Dallas, Texas, spent some time in eastern Kansas, and more recently found her way to Pennsylvania when its owner transferred here.
During her lifetime she had been repainted Candyapple Red and had its interior converted to a Red/White Pony. Somewhere along the line someone had changed out the standard transmission for an automatic and they swapped out the 3:20 rear for a 2:80. Although she had an extensive makeover, when I found her she was obviously tired and was close to being put out to pasture.
As you can see above, she was not an easy restoration. The list of sheet metal replacements is long. I replaced both rear quarter skins, both trunk floor panels, both floors, the rear tail light panel, the tail light drop off panel, and I also removed the cowl panel to repair the vents. Other welding projects included patching the rear wheelwells, patching around the lower rear window, installing a new radiator core support, reskinning both doors, replacing the battery apron, and installing a radio patch panel from a donor car. (I still can't believe that someone cut up the dash to put in a large, slide-mounted, aftermarket removable radio.) The front fenders and hood are older reproductions donated from another project.
Great strides are being taken to give this soon to be daily driver a fighting chance in the elements. All rust has been cut out and replaced with fresh sheetmetal. Special care has been taken to treat all areas, including the underside, with a special rust preventative coating. Sheet metal straightening was done with a combination of All-Metal and a good brand of body filler. All paint levels were completed using urethane based products including a rust resistant 3 part epoxy primer and basecoat/clearcoat paint.
Now that she is complete, this stang appears as a basically stock 66' with a few changes in both appearance and safety. Her exterior is 66' Mustang Tahoe Turquoise. The inside has been changed to black pony since I had a parts car with a near mint black interior (hey with 2 teenage sons soon to go to college you have to cuts costs somewhere).
Other modifications from original are factory tinted windows and factory foglights. In addition she sports the Sprint option which includes the side chrome delete, a chrome air cleaner, interior console, spoked wire wheel covers, and the "C" shaped body pin stripe. Major safety item additions include front shoulder belts, a metal trunk/engine compartment divider, radial tires, and a dual reservoir master cylinder.
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Return to Home Page |
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� January 19, 2000 |
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