T-Plus Twenty-Four Months…

Twenty-Four months ago, the Mustang came home for what I laughably planned at the time to be an affordable restoration that wouldn’t take too long:

The first twelve months of the Mustang’s time with me were for the most part spent cluing me in on the fact that what I plan and what actually takes place ain’t ever exactly similar. After a full year of work on the Mustang’s engine, brakes and other mechanical systems, the car was still not safe to drive due in large part to the still mostly inoperative electrical system.

Queue restoration year two and the kick-offs of Project Electrical, Project Paint, and a host of other sub-projects in support.

Of everything I’ve done to the car so far, I’ve enjoyed working on the electrical system the most. I’m an Electrical Engineer by schooling and busting out the wiring diagrams for the Mustang  to troubleshoot why things weren’t working brought back fond memories of days long past.

In more ways than one:

Project Electrical also yielded the first fruits of the Mustang’s new interior – a rebuilt instrument cluster with LED lighting:

After a couple of months of work, the results were a car that was mechanically and electrically safe to drive.

And drive it I did:

Unsurprisingly, that respite from restoration was fleeting as Project Paint kicked off soon thereafter.

It wasn’t long before the front of the Mustang was dis-assembled and the interior torn down to grime-over-bare-metal:

Many dirty weeks of effort later and the interior was like new again:

Finally, in May it was time to send the Mustang off to be painted. My original plan didn’t go particularly well though thankfully a solution to the early problems with one body shop were solved shortly thereafter by another  body shop I’m delighted with. The Mustang has been there ever since.

In the Mustang’s absence, I’ve been anything but bored. I’ve upgraded my equipment in the shop and kept myself busy by restoring many of the Mustang’s interior bits:

The parking brake assembly:

The heater core box:

The lower dash:

Gluing, polishing the windows and restoring the window hardware:

The interior trim pieces:

And finally, I started restoring the seats:

All the while, the Mustang has been progressing steadily at the body shop:

…to the point where today they’re re-installing all of the body panels to make sure they line up perfectly in preparation for paint:

As we kick off year three of this “affordable restoration that won’t take too long”, the Mustang still has at least a couple of more months in the body shop before it comes home. I’m going to continue on Project Upholstery with the recovering of the rear seat and then work on some of the million little projects that still need to be done. Most of the one’s I’ll start with will involve painting (ugh) so that I can get those out of the way without worrying about over spray on the car once it comes back.

The highlight of the new year though will be the kickoff of Project Assembly. Since I’d like to think of myself as no longer laughably naive I expect to be still writing this blog a year from today. However, twelve months from now I do believe in my heart that the vehicle above will look a lot less like a body shell and a lot more like a beautiful and drivable classic car.