A view of the passenger's side. The floor pans have been painted with POR15. Door jambs & trunk lid area are yellow in anticipation of the car's eventual color; the dashboard, steering wheel, brakes & wiring are installed.Then for a long time nothing much happened. I had to take all of the parts off the old car, which was parked in the yard, and get them onto the shell which was parked in my garage. Sounds easy, doesn't it?.
A view of the passenger's side. The floor pans have been painted with POR15. Door jambs & trunk lid area are yellow in anticipation of the car's eventual color; the dashboard, steering wheel, brakes & wiring are installed.
At about this point, Mustang Monthly started a a series of articles on a '72 rebuild they called "Project Lazarus," so I started following along.
A closeup from the driver's side. That shiny thing under the dash, at about 8:00 from the center of the steering wheel, is the little round chrome emblem on the brake pedal that says, "DISC BRAKE."
The rubber front brake line bolted to frame on driver's side.
Mustang Monthly restored the Lazarus trunk, so I followed along with mine, and made a few changes. This one got Eastwood speckle paint, and the lights (side marker lamp visible on right) have been freshened up with white semi-gloss. Tail lights have been similarly cleaned up. I bought a trunk mat, but I don't think I'll use it -- in my old car, the mat held moisture & helped to rust out the trunk floor. This car got POR15 down in the pits behind the wheel wells and around the taillight openings (two common rust spots), but I didn't think to do the whole trunk floor with it. If I was doing this over, I would definitely use POR15 on more of the trunk area before covering with speckle paint. I can just barely fit a spare tire in there - my old spare was a G-78-14. Time to update that! Im thinking of putting a narrow 70-series on that 14' rim, and that should help it fit in the trunk more easily. Originally, the car came with a "space saver" spare -- a deflated tire & a can of compressed air to inflate it with.
Detail of gas tank filler neck & seal at the trunk floor. A new gas tank has been installed, and the fuel lines are complete up to the point where a rubber line connects to the fuel pump. I always thought it'd be cool to paint the filler neck the same color as the car.
I've installed the quarter windows, which means the new rubber weatherstrip & window felt strips had to go in as well, and the chrome drip rail goes on at the same time. I used sealer in the drip rail lip and around the window, since those are places prone to leaks on old Mustangs.
Brake master cylinder. Here's a picture of the master cylinder at the firewall. In this shot you can see that I've added the wiper motor, which I gave a fresh coat of blue. (You can also see that I installed the right front shock, but discovered that until the weight of the engine compresses the springs, I couldn't get the cap that goes on the top on). All the wiper stuff under the cowl is installed, with a fresh coat of Eastwood Underhood Black. The wiper assemblies are ready to pop on as soon as the windshield is installed. Since this picture was taken, I've found a new rubber gasket for the brake fluid reservoir, and I've added a chrome reservoir cover.
Some interior work. I've installed the plastic panels & interior quarter trim pieces, plus the carpeted areas that go with the fold-down seat. The interior from the rear seat back (what I call the "cargo area") is pretty much finished now. You can see the new paper shields below the quarter windows. Those speakers in the back are velcroed in place and they cover damage to the panels that was done by a previous owner. The headliner is in, but you can't really see it in this picture.
Seat up.
With the rear window in & trunk lid on, it's starting to look like a real car. The trunk lid lines up nicely with the quarter panel end caps. The dark primer on the trunklid was because I took the Mach1 stripes off with a 3M stripping wheel and took it to bare metal. There were two sets of stripes on it, and I wasn't about to paint over them and add a third set on top. You can see the holes where the wing bolts on on the trunk lid, and those pieces stored on the rear window are bits of interior trim. And, yes, those things you see on the passenger's quarter panel are "to-do" lists held in place with magnets.