The Mustang has finally come home. All body and paint work is done. The engine compartment is looking awesome, The interior that will end up showing after re-assembly is back to the original light blue, preparing for the two tone blue interior. The Raptor coating is on with some perfect lines. You can see in this picture if you look close in the wheel well. Comparing to the last one at least, its not primer anymore.

Randy brought it over in his enclosed trailer with most of the parts that came off of it in the beginning.  Some of those parts stayed behind, such as the old hood and some cut up sheet metal. Many parts are clearly trash, but he returned them for reference parts to compare to when purchasing replacements.  Some of them can be restored.

When he got here, he stood there for a minute at the entry way of the garage, looking at one empty stall and one with a pair of Sea-doos in it on a trailer. I asked what the plan was, and he said he was waiting for me to move the trailer. Well, my plan was to cram everything under the trailer to give me incentive to sort through it and get it cleaned out before the sun returns.

To start, I took the hood, the trunk, the valances and the fenders to the spare room and closed the door. They are all freshly painted and need to stay that way while they are set aside for the build out.

Then, we unloaded a mountain of parts that smelled like 50 years of must and engine grease. The doors need to be gutted and transitioned to the new doors, or have parts replaced selectively. Once it’s rolling I should get on that since that’s a lot of bulk space. There’s all kinds of chrome, wires, and some suspension floating around in there. Sorting and cleaning is going to take some time.

Next, we unloaded the body shell itself. He had it on the dolly it has spent the last several months on, so it was easy to roll out of the truck and into the garage.  From here, we had to transition from the dolly to the 6 ton jack stands I bought for this phase of the projects.  Harbor Freight had them cheaper than what I expected, with rubber tops to protect the underside finish.

Getting it off the dolly meant we had to jack the shell up, move the dolly, and set it on the stands. To do that, we used a couple of heavy duty floor jacks and some 5 foot beams. After all it took to get the car into the shape it was in, I have to say balancing it on a pair of jack surfaces at 3-4 feet in the air while trying to pull out the dolly was a bit nerve racking. We almost lost it when dropping it to the jack since the beam wanted to roll in the front when the back went down. Ultimately, we managed to get it on the jack-stands without incident. Randy was able to point out the best places to have the stands to avoid any suspension interference and still be on solid points. I had no intention of moving it until it had some wheels under it.

With the front being as narrow as it is while stripped down, I have plenty of room to work on it to get the front suspension back together. The side near the wall is tighter, but it should be good enough to get the job done.  Once I have wheels under it, I can pull it out into the driveway to work on it if I need to.  By then, the sun should be returning.

The hard part now is actually deciding on parts and spending the money. Surprisingly, its easier to write a check for someone to do the work than it is to pick out the parts and make the decisions. I keep second guessing myself on what quality to buy, or how much to modify and how much to leave original style parts. The front suspension is going to be a real challenge there. I am hoping the idea that I only plan on doing this once makes it a little easier anyhow.