Dean's Mustang Project


Or, How to rebuild a Mustang in 7 Easy Steps

From This:

The "before" picture (actually I had done some work before this picture was taken).










To This:

At this point the car is 90% complete, and I've had it on the road a few times. It needs a paint job (yellow), a front bumper, and wheels/tires. I've ordered a fiberglass front bumper (saves 55 pounds & will improve the weight balance), and the new wheels (16x8 billet aluminum Center Lines) and tires (Comp TA 245/50 ZR16s) are mounted.





The project started because the frame of the '73 Mach1 I had finally rusted so much it wasn't safe to drive anymore. The front cross member rusted so badly that the strut rods started to be pulled right through it, which destabilizes the front wheels.

And it had bondo this thick.

I searched for a while in the classifieds, newsgroups, and Trader Online and I finally happened across a guy who had a bare shell that he'd started working on. He'd sandblasted the bottom and the engine compartment, and painted those areas. A new suspension and a Ford 9" rear with better gearing than my old car were included. A deal was made, and he trailered it to my house on the Labor Day weekend, 1998. Which gets us pretty much to the "before" picture.

Go to the Next Page

Cool Mustang Links


Click here for a link to a site doing a rebuild of a '71 429 CJ that needed extensive rust repair. Neat step-by-step pictures of cowl replacement.

This one's so cool I almost hate to tell you about it -- it's a super bracing system to replace the factory shock tower braces. See it at: https://merchant.calweb.com/totalcontrolproducts/tower.html. If you want something simpler, and less expensive, try: http://www.mpgheads.com/expbrac.htm.

For a really cool Mach1 project, check out: http://www.mustangcentral.com/project71.htm. But for the ultimate in cool, it's: Dark Horse Racing.

Finally, where did I get that fiberglass front bumper? It wasn't easy to find. For a '73 style, I contacted Crites Restoration. If you just have to have the '71-2 style front bumper, try Showcars Body Parts



The other machine in my garage -

is a 1966 Rokon Trailbreaker 2 Wheel Drive motorcycle.

Here is a photo of my Rokon Trail-breaker. That thing behind the seat is a temporary gas tank I rigged up; I have added a new factory gas tank which goes in front of the seat since this picture was taken. There's a driveshaft that runs through the fat frame tube to a gearbox that powers a chain drive on the front wheel, with a little u-joint at the handlebars.



Here's the driveline, out of the bike & laid out on my garage floor, when I was fixing the override spring. The override spring acts like a differential, so the front wheel and back wheel can spin at different rates when turning.

This is what it looks like apart. I had to take the front fork off to fix the bolts that attach the fork to the frame, so while I had that undone I thought I'd take the driveshaft out & fix the front drive while I was at it.

Email me! dhebert@deans.umd.edu.

My dented truck: