The body is off to get blasted so I am here in the shop looking for things to do. I have the blast cabinet and air compressor online in the new shop, so I figured I could start cleaning some things up for later. I like rebuilding the hinges, so I started there.

As a 67, I have the early cast iron style. I’m not sure if they switched to the other style mid year, or at the start of 68, but these are about the same as the ones on the 65. They were not as bad as the coupe, but they needed blasting, so I figured putting new bushings and pins in at the same time makes sense.

I learned a trick on the first set I rebuilt with how to get the pin out. Rather than trying to hammer them out with a punch, I used an air hammer. Specifically, I have an Ingersoll Rand 114GQC Air Hammer with a pneumatic punch drift. The one I have is a 3/16″ but it is a little smaller than it needs to, but its what I could find. With that, the pins came right out.

I don’t like to use the door stops from the rebuild kit. On one of the previous cars, I have what must be rebuild stops and the half open position is very firm and hard to close. Comparing them, you can see why. The rebuild stops have a much deeper cut than original.

After I blasted the parts, I washed them and put a light coat of primer on them to protect them until I get to the paint stage.

For a rebuild kit, I used the one from Virginia Classic Mustangs. The brass bushings seem really solid and the tolerances are spot on for both the hinge hole and the pin hole.

With those in, I just had to look back at the pre-disassemble pictures to make sure I put them back in the correct orientation and pins in from the top.

Now I just need some zip ties to hold the springs compressed while I get them in place. Once I get that done, they will go back in the box for later when I need them to get the door gaps and lines right.

With that done, I was looking for more little blasting projects and landed on the hand brake. I have done several of these before so easy enough. This one had some extra paint coating it and some surface rust in the channel of the receiver, but otherwise looked the same. The only unique aspect was the handle was not broken off.

I was able to punch the pin holding the handle shaft in the receiver so I could blast it and the channel thoroughly. I was then able to remove the pawl and spring to clean that up as well.

The handle shaft got cleaned up a bit with steel wool since it will remain bare metal. Some rattle can paint and it goes back in the box for installation later.