The Mustang Project

Category: Repairs

Busy time – November 13th, 2025

“It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.” ~ Confucius

It’s been a while since my last Mustang update, but the past month has been a steady grind of progress — the kind you don’t always notice until you stop, look back, and realize how far you’ve come.

The trunk area and rear quarter panels are stripped clean, every flake of old paint and rust chased down and sent packing. The hood cowl is bare metal now too, the kind of clean that only comes from hours bent over with a sander until your shoulders start negotiating with you.

Five of the six windows are out, one already scrubbed and reclaimed from decades of grime. The trunk, package tray, and interior wheel wells all have a fresh layer of rubberized undercoat — a quiet kind of protection, like armor you don’t brag about.

Both doors are off the car. I took my time on the driver-side door, carefully scraping away old paint while preserving the original stamped texture of the interior shell — details only the car notices, but I care about anyway. I even drilled out the rivets on the door’s original VIN plate, cleaned it, and reattached it with new rivets once the paint cured. Small job, factory look.

And that’s just what I can recall without digging through notes or pictures.

Below are some before-and-after shots, along with the wandering trail of what’s been done — not in order, because real progress rarely is.

Luggage rack had to be cut off due to rust build up on screws. I stripped out the philips head screws trying to remove them.

Removed key lock from truck lid prior to paint removal and cleaning.

Trunk lid surface before prep.

Paint and rust removed from trunk lid.

Paint and rust removed from trunk lid.

Enamel primer coat added to seal and protect from rust.

View of rear facing edge of the trunk lid after being painted.

First coat of enamel on the fiberglass hood.

Driver-side view of the roof sail and rear fender after paint removal.

Passanger-side view after paint and reust removal,

Passanger-side view including roof cleaned.

Rear driver-side view with trunk lid attached, temporarily.

Passanger-side view with trunk lid attached.

Underside passanger-side trunk drop off rust rot.

Driver-side under-side trunk frop off rust rot,

Outer lower rear driver-side fender rust rot damage.

Outer lower rear pasanger-side fender rust rot damage. Minor fiberglass patch rapair.

Small dent repair on rear driver-side fender wing line.

Driver-side trunk fender rust rot.

Passanger-side trunk rear fender rust rot damage.

Passanger-side leaf spring rear bushing mount plate. must be cut, cleaned, and reinforced with plated welded into place.

Small crack in the driver-side quarter window/fender line. This needs to be cleaned and welded.

Small crack in passanger-side quarter window/fender line. This needs to be cleaned and welded closed.

Rear-end | 8inch ford posi traction.

Driver-side view prior to door removal.

close-up of hood cowl.

Forward cowl vent | Stripped of paint and sealed with enamel sealer.

Repainting the hood to match color of exterior coating.

Image of hood with temporary enamel sealer.

Passanger-side fender apron rear headlight mounting bracket | Rust rot with fibergladd repair. Will cut off and weld on replacment.

Driver-side quarter window bolt placement.

Driver-side quarter glass with Ceramabright cleaner | Image taken during cleaning process.

Driver-side quarter window glass and housing after cleaning with Cermabright glass cook surface cleaner.

Rear / slight passanger-side angle view of the trunk with rubberized coating.

Driver-side view of trunk interior with rubberied coating applied. Prep included stripping paint and smoothing out fiberglass repairs.

Close-up top view of the inner driver-side door after prep and coating applied.

Top view of driver-side door after coating had dried.

Resurfaced door with the VIN place revited back into place.

Driver-side profile with door and all glass removed.

Passanger-side profile prior to the removal of the passanger door.

Lower angle image of the rear end, Paint removed and sanded. Some visible rust rot on the bumper trunk brace. I need to cut this out and weld in a replacement. This will be one of the more difficult areas to repair as it is recessed and spot welded in three different sections of the trunk and bumper.

Rear view with fender wings and trunk. torsion bars and hinges have been removed for painting.

Image of the sanded and sealed package tray.

Angle image of package tray after sanding and sealing with rubberized undercoat.

Small dent in the rear driver-side fender before I did some light body work.

Rust rot on the passanger-side trunk drop off. More cutting a welding to be done.

Idetified rust on the driver-side trunk drop off. I have to cut out the damage and weld in a patch here.

Small dent in the rear driver-side rear fender which was filled with bondo. I knicked it out slightly with a ball peen hammer on the interior and a metal plate on the outside. I will smooth this out with bondo and cover with primer.

November 13, 2025
October 9th, 2025 – Pieces

“Great things are done by a series of small things brought together.” ~Vincent Van Gogh

I haven’t been able to spend as much time working on the Mustang as I’d like. I need to start removing parts from the body so I have more room to move around — and to angle myself in a way that doesn’t completely destroy my back. I wouldn’t call myself an old man, but the contortions required to sand away paint definitely make me feel like one.

This weekend, we’re planning to clear out much of the clutter in the garage. I’m hoping that will also inspire me to reorganize the shelving and finally create a proper space for tools and parts. Right now, I can barely squeeze in thirty minutes of work before the drill battery runs low and my back starts voicing its objections. I might pick up a cheap corded angle grinder — that alone would make powering through the paint removal a whole lot easier.

Over the past two nights, I’ve managed about an hour of work each night and have removed nearly half the paint from the upper hood vent. With any luck, I’ll have it completely stripped by Saturday night and can move on to removing the trunk lid, hood, and doors. Once those are off, I’ll finally have some breathing room — enough space to really dig in and get some serious sanding done.

I’m eager to start tackling the deeper rust, which will be much easier to find once all the paint is stripped from both the exterior and interior. I’m also giving serious thought to using LizardSkin to coat the interior — a small touch of modern tech to make this classic just a little more refined.

October 9, 2025
October 8th, 2025 – In the Rust

“We shape our buildings; then they shape us.”

— Winston Churchill

Before work — and before I’d done anything else that day — I walked into the garage at 5 a.m. The air was heavy with silence, the kind that makes every movement echo. I began cleaning, prepping, and spreading a generous layer of rust-removal gel across a small sanded section of the Mustang’s body.

Clearly, I was more excited to tinker with the Mustang than to get ready for my actual job. The gel needed thirty minutes to do its thing, so I decided to get dressed for work, tidy up, and let chemistry and patience do their dance. My thought was simple: if it stripped away the rust and left me with a clean surface for paint, I’d call that a good morning.

Unsurprisingly, that’s almost exactly how it turned out. After cleanup, the metal had a faint white sheen — raw, like pre-polished steel waiting for its next chapter. Tonight, a quick buff should bring the shine back, and with it, a little more proof that the act of rebuilding something old can quietly rebuild you too.

October 8, 2025
Monday October 6th, 2025 – Scratching the Surface

“You don’t have to see the whole staircase. Just take the first step.” – Martin Luther King Jr.

After a busy Monday at work, sticking strictly to my new schedule, I came home exhausted — yet eager to get something done on the Mustang.

I changed into something more appropriate, put on my ventilator, gloves, and eye protection, and headed out to the garage to start breaking away some of the rust. Before applying any chemicals to the bodywork, I wanted to assess the damage. That meant stripping away the paint to expose the bare metal.

I don’t have an angle grinder, but I do have a solid Milwaukee hand drill that can take a stripping disc. It took quite a bit more effort to remove the paint than I expected, which tells me I either have a bad stripping disc or the drill doesn’t have the RPMs needed for optimal performance.

I stripped three areas and found light surface damage on the roof and upper cowl vent. There’s some more aggressive rust around the front windshield — normally hidden under the front fenders — that will need extra treatment and possibly a few reinforcement welds.

The good news? It’s mostly cosmetic. Once treated, cleaned, and sealed properly, it shouldn’t cause any real problems down the road.

October 6, 2025
Sturday October 4th, 2025 – Product Search

“Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.” – Henry Ford

This morning started off rather slow. I spent most of it lying in bed with the kids, watching movies—Freaky Friday and Herbie: Fully Loaded. Around 10 a.m., my daughter became insistent that we had to “hurry up” and buy her friend a birthday gift for the party that afternoon.

Of course, once everything was picked out and paid for, I discovered the party didn’t even begin until 4 p.m. So, I decided now was as good a time as any to head to one of the many local automotive stores and look for suitable rust treatment products.

I ended up choosing three products—two of which had received high praise from multiple sources, including the store’s website and Amazon reviews:

rust-dissolver

rust-neutralizer

sandable-primer

Rust-Oleum: Rust Dissolver

Contains phosphoric acid—much like naval jelly, the main ingredient should do the trick. I’m not sure of its total concentration, so I’ll have to experiment a bit. If this doesn’t cut it, I can always order some naval jelly to tackle the more stubborn rust spots.

Loctite: Rust Neutralizer

Converts light rust into a black, paintable surface. I’ll use this to reach the more inaccessible areas. My thought is that I’ll inevitably run into rust that could cause issues later on but can’t be reached without cutting into the car. This should help seal those areas, especially when coupled with the black primer, before painting.

U-POL: Black Primer

A rust-resistant, sandable black primer. Both the neutralizer and primer are sandable, so they should work well together. I plan to use this primarily on interior metal surfaces before sanding, cleaning, and applying a clear coat to lock it in. For the exterior, I’ll use either a black or gray primer before applying the paint layers, sealer, and final clear coats.

In total—along with some new angle grinder discs—I think I managed to pick up a solid set of products that will let me begin the sanding process in earnest. Though, honestly… I really need to get this garage in order first!

October 4, 2025