It's rebuilding time. For those who are unaware as to why this car needs to be totally rebuilt, please refer to this thread: http://forums.vintage-mustang.com/vintage-mustang-forum/660043-horrible-awful-news-clicking-will-make-you-queasy.html. In short, I spent 3 years building this car (Calamity Jane) and had her on the road for 3 days before someone rear-ended me going approximately 40mph faster than I was. Results were obviously not pretty and as such, she needs a makeover in a big way.
This first post will serve as a table of contents for easy navigation - below you will find a list of links pointing to each of my posts in this thread as the thread progresses. Or, just read the whole thing through.
The goal is to get back to where we were and beyond. Once she's done, she will resume being my daily driver with the exception of when I am in Wilmington NC - the town is simply too dangerous and I am not interested in driving there every again quite frankly.
My body/paint guy, Chas, will be in charge of most of this project as I will be in Colorado on a job (which I had intended to take Jane to). We'll see where this thing goes...
Glad to see it all coming together so to speak, will look forward to when the work starts and any plans on any thing different this time round? we all hope it will be a speedy and quality rebuild to get you to enjoy Calamity once again.
The plan is to build her "the same except better", whatever that means. There will be no fancy valances or anything this time around, she'll be back to pretty much where she was before. Of course, no build is complete without at least 3 changes of plans, so I will keep everyone updated!
Ripped out the interior today as the insurance company gave me the go-ahead on that. Remarkably little of my interior will need replacement I think, though the list will likely grow as we figure out more. So far, I will need:
Both interior quarter trim panels
Driver's side rear trim "elbow" (for lack of a better word)
I may also need a new 1993 LX Mustang driver's seat as mine is not doing so well. That will be taken apart at a later point in time to see what's up with it.
Anyways, here's the pictures of what the metal looks like underneath. Remarkably the rear seat assembly is intact and functional - pretty much everything just got pushed upwards. You can see in a couple of pictures where my gas tank cover (NOT tank armor, just a cover meant to keep junk off of my fuel lines) attempted to crawl through the trap door. Driver's wheelhouse has migrated as has the passenger side (though not to quite the same extent). The shocks also apparently tried to vacate the premises as that area is pretty twisted up. One piece floor appears nearly undamaged.
By the way - in the last picture you can see the ground. Gas tank got ripped up out of its mount.
Tomorrow she gets Chas's official opinion so I will update the thread with the game plan whenever we actually have one.
Nice post. I hope the restoration goes quickly! Look forward to seeing more post. Enjoy your summer and hopefully they will get lots done before you get back!
Excited to see your progress and sorry for you loss. I had a similar thing happen to a car one time and after it was fixed it happened again. I feel your pain.
Nice to see the work has begun, once it's on the frame rack most of those wrinkles will disappear pretty quickly. Hopefully you won't be out of the driver's seat too long.
Best of luck. Saw this on a thread the other day and was aghast. I have always seen you as a very enthusiastic mustanger. I am sure you will be back in the saddle very soon.
Personally I would go for another shell and sell the current one as a roof donor or use it in that way yourself. I would think the shell will be weakened by having been crunched and straightened. I've got a sneaking suspicion that with the broken back (split trans tunnel) that shell is gone
Trans tunnel is not split or actually damaged at all - still straight as an arrow. Rockers are straight as they always have been as well. That's why I'm hopeful that we can just pull the rear clip off of a car and build it from there.
Chas is coming to get Jane in an hour or so so I will talk to him then - might be that he's decided his donor car is not a good option for me for some reason (or maybe he's trying to hold onto it since I remember it as a very restorable car - don't blame him for that!). I know that Chris (vamustang) has a lot of shells hanging around so I may be able to get something from him.
I don't know if it is worth bothering with a shell or clip. By the looks of things your fastback needs a one-piece trunk floor, inner/outer wheel houses, quarters, taillight panel, rear valance, rear crossmember, partial or full rear frame rails, and the fastback transition panel (where the trap door goes). These are all available as reproduction parts. Cut it all off, ensure the chassis is straight, and start welding on the new metal. You'll be back on the road in a month!
I wish you the best of luck man. I can't even imagine how upset I'd be if anything happened to my Betty. She's nowhere near where your Jane was but still....
If you need anything picked up or shipped from Salt Lake City, hit me up. I'd be glad to help if I'm needed.
Keep us posted Kelly, you somehow got us all interested in this story!
Hey if ya wanna race - who get's their car done first I'm all up for that.
I have a pretty good head start and only need to drop in motor but keep running into problems, and money issues also may set me back another month.
PS: I heard when a gas tank explodes on a classic mustang that it merely acts as a nitrous boost, can anyone verify this?
This sounds just dangerous enough to be worth trying.... >_>
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