Cowling repair

Here are some pictures of my cowling repair done after I converted the mustang from a coupe to a fastback. I went to my local harbor freight store and purchased a spot weld remover drill bit $6. I would recommend buying a spot weld remover drill bit if you plane to remove the cowling cover. There are about 100 plus spot welds that need to be removed. It took me the better part of a week (putting in a few hours every other day) just to remove all of the spot welds. once I was able to remove the cowling cover. I was pleasantly surprised to find only minor surface rust in an area that is typically rusted through. I cleaned up all the leaves and wire pushed the entire surface. Then I completed the 3 step POR 15 process of washing with degreaser, then using the metal ready, and finally putting a coat of POR 15 on and covering it with primer. I really like using POR 15 because it dries rock hard and locks out all moisture. This repair should ensure that the cowling won't rust out for many more years. Make sure to cover over the shot welds with painters tape so you can realign and weld the cowling cover back in the right place. I will use weld through primer over the spot welds to prevent any rust from forming in the seam when I weld the cowling cover back on.

Cowling

Removing and Test Fitting

Once the back part of the roof was free from the car most of the cutting work was done. The tricky part came from trying to match up the new fastback roof with the car. We first began by cutting the side of the fastback roof about 1.5 inches down along the top seam of the quarter panel. Next we removed what was left of the front windshield on the fastback roof. Don't forget to use a torch to melt all the factory lead filler around the seam. I will go back over with body filler to replace the lead, but I only removed what I had to, to get to the seam. It is important that you pay attention to the front of the roof when you cut it. look closely at the factory seams. While looking at the car with the coupe roof still attached in the front, you notice how on the side supports of the windshield in the top corner just before the metal transitions to the roof there is a slight bevel. We used this bevel as a guild to make sure we lined of the fastback roof in the right spot. It was simple to make these cuts but hard to make them at exactly the same angle for both the fastback roof and the coupe roof. We ended up having to fill in about a 1/4" gap with weld on the inside of the roof support. Check out the diagram in the picture, you should be able to line up the front of the fastback roof exactly with the bevel at the support transition.

A lot of minor cutting was made in the rear of the roof so that it could be set in right. The rule of thumb we played is if it was in the way then it had to go. Just take your time and make what ever adjustments you need to in the rear so that the seams line up. If you do the front of the roof right the rest of the roof should just about fall into place with some minor adjustments. It is also helpful to have a buddy at this point so one can force the roof in place while the other tacks it in. It is also helpful to have someone sit inside the car a force the quarter skin out so it makes a tight lap weld along the quarter seam.

Well that about sums it up for the dirty part of the conversion. My next goal is to get new quarter skin and replace them, so I will have to go back over my lap weld. Currently I have the car on a homemade rotisserie and I am beginning work on the cowling and under body so I will have more on that later. For now I will just include some more pictures that I have taken during the conversion.

Under the Knife

There is really no other way to put the next phase of this conversion. At this point we took a step back and evaluated the best way to remove the roof. We had to consider that our main cutting tools were only a 4" cutting wheel and a large flat head screw driver which we used as a chisel. I would recommend a sawzall if you have one though. We began from the back of the car and worked our way forward. I first marked a line approximately 1" below the edge of the rear quarter panel. This is where we will separate the old roof from the quarter panel. It will make for an easy lap weld. I will have to replace the quarter panels on this car so I will go back over this part once everything is fitted in place and cut the over lap off and make it a butt weld. I read that a butt weld is stronger and if you ever replace your quarter with a quarter skin you need to butt weld it in place. Should make blending easier too once the body filler is applied.

The next major chunk to be cut is the rear trunk section. At first I though I could remover this part with the roof as one piece but it became clear that we had to take it in steps. There were a lot of layers of pinch welded metal in this part. A sawzall would have come in very handy right about now. This part is the most time consuming of the whole conversion. After we removed the the rear trunk section we moved on to cutting the rest of the roof away from the rear quarter panel. At this point it got very frustrating trying to cut through all the main support in the rear of the roof. Like I mentioned before all we used was a 4" cutting wheel so we didn't have very deep penetration. Finally the entire rear section of the roof was free. All I can say is use you best judgment on how much you want to remove on this section. I recommend looking at some interior shots of original fastbacks with out the interior panels (just google 65 fastback restoration pictures). From what I saw the coupe is much more supported in the rear of the roof than the fastback models so don't be afraid if you feel like a lot of it has to go. I guess it also depends on how much of the fastback you have. Mine actually included part of the wheel well so I pretty much remove every piece of support from the coupe roof and just used the support from the fastback roof.

Bracing

Before any cutting began, we had to brace the car. The unibody design of the mustang gets a lot of its strength from the roof of the car. This is true for just about every hard top automobile, which is why convertibles have such beefy frames. Depending on how rusted the floor of the car is the chances of it completely buckling after the roof has been cut is significant enough that it should be considered. The floor boards in this mustang were less than perfect with the driver side sporting a 8X3 inch hole through the sheet metal. I know that I will have to replace this but for now I just want to get the roof on and not worry about it. The correct way to approach this might be to buy some torque boxes and weld them in before I do any cutting on the roof. I want to do this in the future but like I mentioned before, I wanted to see how successful the fastback conversion would be before I pour in a lot more money and time.

I wanted to support the car as if it was set on a level surface which in turn will eliminate the moment applied to the frame between the two axles. I had at my disposal several scissor lifts that I used to support the mid section of the car.

In addition I also went to my local Cal Ranch store and bought the cheapest steel fence post I could find. I believe they were about $3.50 a piece and I got two of them to weld between the door space. This provided plenty of support for the car. Now I could stand and even jump around the entire car while restyling to get the roof off with out having to worry that it will buckle on me. In this picture you see my friend Jeremy welding the fence post in place.

Where to start?

The plan is simple, remove the coupe roof and weld the fastback in its place. So where to start?

This car is a work in progress and I am sure that I did not do every step in the most efficient or practical way. So if I lead you astray then let me apologize in advance. remember this is your project I am just trying to share mine with anyone who cares to read about it. So I will begin by describing everything that I have determined so far that I will need to replace once the fastback roof is installed.

1. Interior trim and rear window - I know it goes without saying but I'll try and make this complete.

2. The front windshield is the same so don't replace it unless you need to

3. The side glass (not the front vent glass you can keep that) needs to be replaced but you lose the rear quarter window on the coupe.

4. The trunk lids are different and this includes the hinges but I have been told by another guy that did this conversion that the coupe hinges can be modified.

5. The impossible part to get is the side window weather strip molding. This is the part that the weather-strip rubber attaches to, not the drip rail molding but the chrome piece inside the door jam. You should try very hard to get these with the donor roof if possible. They never made any reproduction and you never see any original ones for sale. If you do find a set they go for around $500 plus. With that said I was fortunate enough to get this part with my roof but the other guy that did this conversion was able to make use of the molding off his coupe roof. He was never satisfied with it but he said no one else seemed to notice.


I began by removing every piece of the interior, including the seats, carpet, headliner, panels etc. Some of the stuff I chose to remove because it was necessary for the conversion but mostly because I plan to build the car from the ground up and I really didn't know what I was getting into so it all went. One thing to remember is to bag and tag, even if you don't think you will use it again do your best to organize everything. I did not do such a good job of this and now I regret it.

Remember to continue to do your research. If anyone has any good links pertaining to this type of conversion by all means share them. One link to another blog I want to share because this guy really inspired me in the first place and his car is complete at least to the point that I can tell, it is to my understanding that you never really stop on these kinds of projects. But check out this guys blog. He was more than willing to answer my questions when I first began this project.

http://users.zoominternet.net/~jmiller126/

Introduction

It all began with a phone call from a close friend. He told me he knew someone who was giving his old 65 mustang coupe project away. Like many of you, it had always been a dream of mine to restore an old first generation mustang fastback! Unfortunately this car was a sad looking coupe with only a newly rebuild transmission to boast about. Still, I could not pass it up. I figured it would be a good learning car that I could make all my mistakes on so when I eventually got my hands on a fastback I would be seasoned and ready.

While looking around in the classifieds for parts I came across an ad on craigslist, it was simply put "fastback roof". So I open the ad, it had a simple picture of the roof and below it said, "Have you ever wanted to convert a coupe to a fastback?" Naturally, I thought yes! But this add was for a roof in Portland, OR some 800 miles away. I decided to sleep on it. I have an old friend that I went to high school with that lives in Portland, maybe I could make the trip by convincing the wife that we could visit them too. It was like icing on the cake, I could visit with some old friends and pick up the fastback roof. So I called the man who was selling the roof, and managed to talk my wife into going on a road trip up to Portland. I bought some 2X4's and a sheet of plywood so I could make a platform that would fit over the rails of my Tacoma. This provided enough room for the roof to be screwed into the back of my truck without the need of any trailer. It was simple, cheap, yet effective.

Now I got a 1965 Mustang coupe and a fastback roof. Believe it or not the hard part is over. I want to take a second and just explain a few things. I am a college student and this is my first project car. I have very little money for supplies tools, etc. however, I am fortunate enough to know someone who has done work like this before who was generous enough to offer his tools and time. Neither of us had done something like this to the extent of replacing an entire roof of a car. If you are reading this then I assume you have a car or at least want to restore a car because you know you have what it takes. I say this because I think a lot of people might be intimidated by this type of project, when in reality the roof was made for the car so it will fit like it was made with little to no manipulation. So relax, if you can replaced a quarter panel or the thought of replacing a quarter panel does not scare you then you can do this conversion.