I didn't get much time to work on the Mustang as I really needed to improve the lighting in the garage which was so-so with the door down. The weather here in the Indianapolis area has been windy, cloudy, rainy, and occasionally stormy. So the garage door has had to stay closed. I installed 4 double tube fluorescent light fixtures to replace the 2 anemic 100 watt halogen light bulbs. What a difference! So I expect to get Eleanor back on the jack stands and get this front substructure work done in the next week.
In the mean time, I thought I would show you some of the tools and process I have used to get some of the dents out of the car. One thing I wanted to do is make sure the body work was good enough so that very little filler would be used on the car. And so far, the work is going well.
For starters, I bought this "stud gun" on eBay...
It's a 110 Volt unit and in like new condition. This uses copper studs that go into the tip of the gun....
Then you push the tip against the body where you want to "pull" the dent and push the trigger for about 2 seconds. It welds the mushroomed tip to the body of the car. You put as many of them on the car appropriate for the dent.
This is a small dent in the drivers rear quarter panel I wanted to get rid of...
When I was done with putting the studs in the dented area, it looked like this...
Then I slipped the special dent puller designed to grab the studs on each one and worked the dent out slowly alternating between all the studs to keep from "overpulling" the metal in one spot.
When I was done pulling the studs, I used my 3" air cutoff tool to remove the studs. The dent then looked like this...
I did have to go back and add a couple of studs to pull some low spots, but the result was good. I ground down the "pimple" left from the stud with my 2" 90 degree angle grinder with a 50 grit pad. I sprayed on some etching primer and let it dry. Then I block sanded it to see where the high and low spots were. I then used my body hammer and dolly to work the edges of the dent. It looked like this...
After another 5 minutes of H & D work, the dent was pretty much eliminated. Here's the final outcome...
At this point, a high build primer/surfacer with block sanding will give it a smooth finish. Not too bad, eh?
The passenger side unfortunately won't be as easy because the dent is quite large, thanks to the cow that ran into the side of the car while in storage outside in Texas next to a barn ; (. But then when I start that dent, I can show you the magic of a "shrinking disc". That's down the road. But first, I need to get this front metal work done so I can move onto the driver's side front floor and seat pan replacement.
Check back later in the week and I might have more news on the progress of this classic Mustang fastback.
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