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/