The other threads have me wondering who else has projects in their garage in various stages of restoration. (Both of mine are at a stage that prevents me from bringing to the upcoming cruise...)
Let's see the UNFINISHED or yet to be started toys. There are already threads full of those beautiful completed classics. Looking for the ones where YOU are doing the work. I want to see your handy-work, not the ones that you are paying someone else to complete... Looking to see if anyone else welds as poorly as I do
If yours is already complete then lets see some of the before and during restoration pics! I'll start.
I've got 68 Cougar that I've had about 15 years. Purchased from original owner's grandson. Was a mostly original survivor when I got it. Had been resprayed once but hadn't had bodywork or rust repairs. No body rust but had a some bubbles coming up under the damn vinyl top a couple years after I got it. I rebuilt the transmission and replaced the engine with a Ford Motorsport 5.0 crate engine w/ x series heads, etc. About 8 years ago I got bored one weekend and decided to rip off the vinyl top so I could sand down the rust I could feel developing and then put another back on. Unfortunately what I thought would take a few weekends was worse than I thought and has kept it off the road ever since. Rust was bad in a few spots and all the way through. I decided I needed to practice my mig welding (a lot) since it was in such a high visibility area, and so would first start on the floor pans of my grandfather's old 72 F100 which I had recently convinced my dad to turn over. So, about the time I finished the floor pans and thought I was ready to tackle the Cougar's roof, I got side tracked again with my cabin build. A couple busy years later and I was back to having some time and energy to get back to the old vehicles.
Decided to start back on the old F100 first and have gone in spurts with it for the past year or so. It had a lot more rust but I'm nearly to the point of laying down a layer of Epoxy and a little filler as needed. Replaced the manual with power steering along the way and the tired old 360 will definitely need a rebuild down the road. Every time I think I have all the rust spots found and cut out and patched I find something else but it's close now. Have had to cut and weld patches along back of bed, lower door corners, front fenders, cab corners, side edge of hood, and a spot along rear bed inside and outside.
In the meantime I had a hitch-haul fall off the wall and hit the previously pristine rear fender of the Cougar. What was going to be a repaint of just the roof has now turned into a whole lot more work with a full repaint... I ripped out the interior last weekend so I could safely start welding the roof and found some previously undiscovered rust. The floor is pretty much perfect, free of even surface rust and still covered in factory primer and paint except for a couple holes on the forward angled section of driver side. Those only rust spots/holes were under the damn factory seam sealer that they had slopped on by the gallon. If not for all the excessive seam sealer to trap the water I don't think there would have been anything but surface scale.
Juggling these between fishing, hunting, shooting and the other hobbies and I'll probably still have these as incomplete retirement projects in a few years...
Anyway, let's hear your story and see some pics.
http://myphotopile.com/Public/F100/photo5.JPG
http://myphotopile.com/Public/F100/hoodpatch4.JPG
http://myphotopile.com/Public/F100/dfender.JPG
Let's see the UNFINISHED or yet to be started toys. There are already threads full of those beautiful completed classics. Looking for the ones where YOU are doing the work. I want to see your handy-work, not the ones that you are paying someone else to complete... Looking to see if anyone else welds as poorly as I do
If yours is already complete then lets see some of the before and during restoration pics! I'll start.I've got 68 Cougar that I've had about 15 years. Purchased from original owner's grandson. Was a mostly original survivor when I got it. Had been resprayed once but hadn't had bodywork or rust repairs. No body rust but had a some bubbles coming up under the damn vinyl top a couple years after I got it. I rebuilt the transmission and replaced the engine with a Ford Motorsport 5.0 crate engine w/ x series heads, etc. About 8 years ago I got bored one weekend and decided to rip off the vinyl top so I could sand down the rust I could feel developing and then put another back on. Unfortunately what I thought would take a few weekends was worse than I thought and has kept it off the road ever since. Rust was bad in a few spots and all the way through. I decided I needed to practice my mig welding (a lot) since it was in such a high visibility area, and so would first start on the floor pans of my grandfather's old 72 F100 which I had recently convinced my dad to turn over. So, about the time I finished the floor pans and thought I was ready to tackle the Cougar's roof, I got side tracked again with my cabin build. A couple busy years later and I was back to having some time and energy to get back to the old vehicles.
Decided to start back on the old F100 first and have gone in spurts with it for the past year or so. It had a lot more rust but I'm nearly to the point of laying down a layer of Epoxy and a little filler as needed. Replaced the manual with power steering along the way and the tired old 360 will definitely need a rebuild down the road. Every time I think I have all the rust spots found and cut out and patched I find something else but it's close now. Have had to cut and weld patches along back of bed, lower door corners, front fenders, cab corners, side edge of hood, and a spot along rear bed inside and outside.
In the meantime I had a hitch-haul fall off the wall and hit the previously pristine rear fender of the Cougar. What was going to be a repaint of just the roof has now turned into a whole lot more work with a full repaint... I ripped out the interior last weekend so I could safely start welding the roof and found some previously undiscovered rust. The floor is pretty much perfect, free of even surface rust and still covered in factory primer and paint except for a couple holes on the forward angled section of driver side. Those only rust spots/holes were under the damn factory seam sealer that they had slopped on by the gallon. If not for all the excessive seam sealer to trap the water I don't think there would have been anything but surface scale.
Juggling these between fishing, hunting, shooting and the other hobbies and I'll probably still have these as incomplete retirement projects in a few years...
Anyway, let's hear your story and see some pics.
http://myphotopile.com/Public/F100/photo5.JPG
http://myphotopile.com/Public/F100/hoodpatch4.JPG
http://myphotopile.com/Public/F100/dfender.JPG
