1969 Mustang Fastback - Restoring the Body

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1969 Mustang Fastback - Restoring the Body

October 15, 2021, 03:35:10 PM

Not really my project but my dad decided to build one more car as he turns 81 here in a few weeks. I drove this car in high school then could not afford it as it kept nickle and diming me to death so I traded him for my '83 Bird which he bought new. So he then proceeded to driver the Mustang for a few years with little trouble and then parked it. Fast forward 25+ years and the bug bit him again. We stripped the car and tossed the hood, fenders, and a lot of the small parts we knew we could source new and spend less money then refurbishing the old stuff. Needless to say after media blast my dad was not surprised but we knew it had cancer. We have looked on and off over the last 10 years for a better car to start with but all the good ones are built and not the way he wants to go so here we go.

My dad decided he wanted to keep the car local to him so he could monitor the work. Here is where he and I typically argue and this was no different. He lives in a town of about 90,000 and the median income does not support custom shops the do metal fabrication like what is needed to rebuild these cars. I voiced my concerns (the older I get the smarter I get) and let it go. Behind the scenes I found three shops (one in Tulsa, OK and two in the Dallas/Ft Worth area) that this is all they do is metal work. Fast forward a couple months and I make a trip to my parents, borrow my buddy's car trailer with an electric wench and go c00ch the car from the weeds and up onto the trailer at the "shop" he found. I had never seen the place until we went out there to get the car and all the Dynacorn parts he had ordered. When we turned to go down a dusty gravel road to get to the "shop" all I wanted to do was get in and out as quick as we could.

They had media blasted the car and primed it but it probably sat outside for weeks. I just stared at the car when we got it home and my dad looked at me and told me I was right and that this would have been a huge mistake had I not stayed on him about where the car was, what were they doing, etc. They would have built a horrible car that would have had all kinds of fitment and corrosion problems in short order. Here are the pics of the body of the car on the trailer at the house:

Exterior Shots
Passenger Side Front:

Passenger Side Rear:

Driver Side Front:

Driver Side Rear:

Back Driver Side:

Interior Shots
Passenger Side Rear Floor Pan:

Passenger Side Front Floor Pan:

Driver Side Rear Floor Pan:

Driver Side Front Floor Pan:

Trunk:

Re: 1969 Mustang Fastback - Restoring the Body

Reply #1 – October 15, 2021, 03:48:33 PM

As you can see the years were not kind to the lower half of the car and it was pretty hard on the driver side. Evidence is the driver side shock tower is a late '70 and does not match the VIN of the car. The apr0ns on either side of this shock tower were original to the '70 shock tower and braze welded to the original '69 apr0ns...not a good job of a repair to say the least.

We ended up taking it to R3 performance in Tulsa, OK that builds '69 & '70 Mustangs from scratch. So similar to Dynacorn they offer complete bodies which means they have a jig that the car is built in. They also rebuild cars like my dad's in that same jig which no other shop offered. Needless to say this is not a cheap to do but if the chassis is not right its not really possible to do this build. They will have to replace the entire floor pan, firewall, rear trunk pan, rear quarters, rocker panels, and some ancillary pieces. New doors, front fenders, and trunk lid are also part of the parts pile. Once they get the car on the jig it is 4-6 weeks to complete.

We opted for mini tubs, the T-56 trans tunnel mod, and modified shock towers as this care is getting a complete Griggs GR-350 suspension which does not need them. Here are some shots of another customers car with the mini tubs and T-56 trans tunnel mod:

Mini Tub:

Trans Tunnel Mod:

The trans tunnel mod clears the factory dash and will work with the Vintage Air system being it is like the stock ones up under the dash and not the clunky under dash dealer installed options from the 70's and 80's.

Here are some shots of a completely new car they were building when I went and talked to the owner and shop foreman:

On the 69'-'70 Jig

Off the jig and getting fenders attached and body panels gapped:

Re: 1969 Mustang Fastback - Restoring the Body

Reply #2 – October 15, 2021, 03:57:58 PM

Ill post up pics of the car cut up and all the cross bracing in it and as they put it back together. They did say they will not patch a panel, they only replace full panels. Could be overkill in some places but we know the car will have a solid body/frame when they are finished. They are going to completely media blast the car again before they start work and will do it again before they apply primer to it. We have a body dolly that it will be on when its transported to Oklahoma City for chicane23.com to install the Griggs suspension and get it to a roller.

Plans are an injected 375 inch stroker, T-56 six speed, and a 9 inch. We already have the Dart heads and they have been ported and polished. Cam will be a custom grind by Ed Curtis and will be a solid roller. Injection system will most likely be the Holley system with a Wilson manifold with their throttle body, injection rails and injectors. Still working on my dad on this one. The tip in on the Wilson TB is smooth and flawless compared to the Edelbrock gear he is looking at. For brakes we have 14" StopTech fronts and 12" stock Ford pieces for the rear via a Mustang Steve installation kit. Will run a hydroboost breaking system which my dad is evaluating systems (stock retrofit or aftermarket).

Car will go to a friend for the body work and paint but only after we have the drive train installed, fuel system, brakes, etc. as I only want to do this once and hate working on cars with fresh paint. Car will go to Dallas for the interior and glass but will be getting power windows and locks.

Needless to say this is a couple year project but my dad is determined and has the money so it should be interesting.

Re: 1969 Mustang Fastback - Restoring the Body

Reply #3 – October 16, 2021, 01:51:03 AM

Good deal getting it away from the first place...they sound like a bunch of PUPPIES. (wtf is up this got-dammed puppies bull shiznit?!)

How's the truck, BTW? Haven't seen anything on it in some time..

Re: 1969 Mustang Fastback - Restoring the Body

Reply #4 – October 16, 2021, 10:16:05 AM

I have no idea what was up with the spelling so I tired to correct it and it just went back to apuppiess. So its the pieces of sheet metal in front of and to the rear of the shock towers which I call A P R O N S. I checked the parts sites and they call them this as well so I am not sure WTF is going on. Maybe Chuck or one of the other mods can look into the auto correct for this word.

Truck is on an indefinite hold as the cost of a salvage yard 5.0 Coyote and 10 speed trans has gone up with the vehicle shortage. I just cannot justify over $10K for them. $8K was enough of a pill to swallow two years ago. I am going to sit on it and help my dad with his car and build the truck afterwards. He has been piling up parts of this car for 10 years so its time to build his ride.

Re: 1969 Mustang Fastback - Restoring the Body

Reply #5 – October 18, 2021, 02:12:45 PM

Spelling issue is due to an profanity filter that Eric instituted due some abusers on the board. Its being aggressive and Eric is aware so if you come across a word that it auto corrects and should not you might want to drop Eric a message.

Re: 1969 Mustang Fastback - Restoring the Body

Reply #6 – November 03, 2021, 09:03:35 AM

Small update. The car is still waiting to go on the jig as we are lacking two critical parts and guess what? That's right and you guessed it only two people can pack parts in the Dynacorn warehouse due to California's Covid requirements. They cannot commit to when the parts will get here but as soon as they do the car will go on the jig next. R3 cannot start on our car and then tie up the jig for weeks because a part is not there. We are missing a couple other ones but they are not required to get the car on and off the jig. Anyhow, as soon as it goes on the jig and is braced up and cut apart I will post up some pics.

Re: 1969 Mustang Fastback - Restoring the Body

Reply #7 – April 02, 2022, 07:31:23 PM

Long time since I have updated this. Between them having a smaller work force (government pays better to stay at home) and those that chose to work being spread really thin we are a couple weeks from getting the finished product. I am going to make a couple of posts with pictures in the timeline that the work got done. We ended up with the A-pillars, roof, one inner fender apr0n, core support, one frame rail, cowl, and front fenders and head light buckets being reused. The rest of the car is basically brand new.

These pictures are from 12/22/2021. Crew was basically tearing into the car to see what was good and what had to go.

This is with the the front of the floor pan removed:

Looking from the back of the car at the left rear quarter:

Looking from the back of the car at the right rear quarter:

Right rear inner quarter (left is just as bad):

Re: 1969 Mustang Fastback - Restoring the Body

Reply #8 – April 02, 2022, 07:43:11 PM

And more metal was cut out and they had to start putting the new pieces in so the roof would stay where it needed to be. These pics are from 01/07/2022:

The rest of the car is behind this but it just goes to show the level to which the car had to be torn down to to make it right. We knew it had been hit in the left front and left rear but did not know the extend of the damage:

Complete new rear subframes and rear floor pan:

Priming the inner structure to start welding parts back in:

New passenger side inner rocker:

Re: 1969 Mustang Fastback - Restoring the Body

Reply #9 – April 02, 2022, 07:50:20 PM

Shots from 01/14/2022

New fire wall and driver side inner rocker:

New rear quarters:

Shot of the tail light panel and passenger rear quarter from inside the car:

New left front subframe:

Re: 1969 Mustang Fastback - Restoring the Body

Reply #10 – April 02, 2022, 08:05:26 PM

Shots from 01/31/2022

Original fenders and light buckets:

Original cowl:

Original rear seat brace installed:

A pillars and inner rockers attached to fire wall:

Rear quarters hung with original trunk lid installed:

And what is to come:

I'll post up some more pics tomorrow. Right now some cold beer is calling my name.

Re: 1969 Mustang Fastback - Restoring the Body

Reply #11 – April 03, 2022, 03:13:04 PM

Pictures from 02/04/2022

More fit up pics (most of the body is just screwed together at this point with maybe 20% spot welded) of the car but with the floor pan installed.

You can see there is enough structure back in the car they could cut out the bracing that was basically keeping the body from collapsing in on itself. This also had to come out to get the floor pan in the car so that all makes sense.

Re: 1969 Mustang Fastback - Restoring the Body

Reply #12 – April 03, 2022, 03:17:31 PM

Pictures from 02/11/2022.

A little more spot welding and they hung the doors. Basically at this point they were only getting about 40 hours a week on it due to being spread thin with lack of labor.

They blew the front fenders back off the car to continue welding everything up and fit the doors.

Re: 1969 Mustang Fastback - Restoring the Body

Reply #13 – April 03, 2022, 03:26:39 PM

Pictures from 03/17/2022

They had a couple weeks were no work got done as the two guys that were splitting time on it got sick. One was out one week and the other was out the next. A lot more spot welding which made my dad really happy.

Re: 1969 Mustang Fastback - Restoring the Body

Reply #14 – April 03, 2022, 03:32:51 PM

Pictures from 03/25/2022

Car is off their custom jig for the 69/70 cars and on a body dolly at this point. Lots more welding so nothing eye catching like the hood on but progress none-the-less.

Best shots of the car but IMO the lines on this car are just sick:

Hope to have some more pictures later this week as I am going to make a visit to the shop. Once they have all the sheet metal work done then they will blast the car, prime it, and then seam seal everything.