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.