Blast off!

Withthe weather cooling off and dry, we decided this week to roll the Mustang out into the sun and do a little sandblasting on the body.

Finished and ready for the sandblaster

I've finally finished the repairs to the inner wheel well on the drivers side, and wanted to clean all of the surface rust off the insides before we covered it up with the new fender.
We've been struggling with our pot sandblaster lately, and finally decided that the ceramic nozzle had worn out and wasn't creating enough pressure to propel the sand. Even after we replaced the nozzle, though, we still had pressure problems that befuddled me. What could be wrong? The hoses were clear. The valves worked fine. New tip, new water separator--wait. What's wrong with the water separator? The flow arrow should be pointing towards the pot, not away! OK, one bad mark in dad's column for not paying attention to the details! A slight correction and--hooray! Daniel was finally blasting away like a pro!

Finally blasting away!

We're traveling for the Christmas holiday, so I suggested to Daniel that we push through and get the whole quarter area blasted, painted and the new fender tacked into place before we left. Enter the fickle Florida weather, and here I sit on a Sunday morning typing, looking out at the rain. No work (at least no blasting or painting) on the Mustang today.
Daniel is feeling a bit under the weather as well, but I hope to rally him and at least go to the shop and do a little organizing. Perhaps even work with the cabinet blaster and get those seat tracks cleaned up and painted. Every little bit keeps us moving forward to the goal!

Motivation

Staying motivated during the dark days of a long term project is crucial to getting through to the other side. I've always given myself a little treat to keep that motivation, and I figured it would be helpful for Daniel if he got a treat as well.

The old rear seat, definitely in need of a facelift

With that in mind, we decided to divert our efforts and strip the old seats down and reupholster them. It would be a great way to give Daniel a daily reminder that there is light at the end of this tunnel.
Daniel stripped the old seats down about three weeks ago, and at that time we realized that our frames were pretty much junk. Forty plus years of the foam getting wet and musty caused the metal frames and springs to rot away to nothing. I think the only thing holding the old seats together was the old brittle vinyl! We quickly decided that there was no rescuing them, so off to Craigslist we went and  lucked out immediately by finding a good complete set on the other side of the state. With cash in hand we

Our replacement frame, clean and ready for new covers

struck out early one Saturday for a road trip. I was a bit apprehensive, because I feel like my negotiating power is diminished when the seller knows how far we've driven (necessary because we had to make an appointment). We weren't disappointed, though, and ended up driving home with the seats, a complete set up hubcaps, and a set of useable front and rear bumpers--for $250.
The frames of the new seats were in great shape, and cleaned up great with a little sandblasting and black spray paint.
Our new TMI interior arrived in multiple shipments, with the seat upholstery being the last to arrive. As soon as we opened up the box, we knew we just had to see what the seat covers looked like installed. CJ Pony Parts has a great tutorial online showing how to do the front seats, which we both watched a couple of times. Empowered with our knowledge, we dove in with gusto this weekend. We

The new rear covers. Damn those wrinkles!

did the rear seats first, thinking they would be easier and a good way to get our feet wet. I purchased some burlap and polyester batting to flesh out the padding under the upholstery. On the bottom, I did four layers of the batting, and it came out pretty good, but I think one or two more layers would've been much better. The seat back didn't work out quite as good. We first used just three layers of batting, but there were significant sags and loose spots, so we detached the cover and packed four more layers of batting in and re-stretched the cover. As you can see from the photo,it still has some saggy spots, although the photo makes them look

Passenger side finished--awesome!

much worse than they are. I may detach the cover once more, but for right now we're going to leave it be.
The front seats were technically and physically more challenging. The new seat foams are a perfect replacement for the originals, but it was quite wrestling match to get the covers stretched over the foam. The vinyl and stitching is of good quality, however, and easily stood up to our abuse. The result was more than pleasing, as you can see from the last photo. The kit even comes with new side trims, which really make the look. The only thing we'll have to fabricate is the little plate that the adjusting bolt rests against. I'm sure we could buy it, but it's just as easy to make one.
Daniel is really tickled, and has the complete set arranged in his bedroom like furniture. I'm sure it will come in handy as a motivator as we slog through more sandblasting and welding!

Yes, the project is still alive!

I can see now why so many bloggers start out with a bang and then fall off the map. Life has a way of causing interruptions that are beyond our control. For our project, the end of the summer has been like that. First, my truck was stolen, which kinda puts a damper on anything. Then, we began a major renovation on our house which I promised The Wise One whould be done by Thanksgiving (which it was).
So here we are at Thanksgiving, and although I haven't posted in a while, we've still been progressing, even though they're baby steps. We have continued to sandblast and paint parts, and have a good pile of fresh parts to show for it. We have moved to the outdoors and begun using the pot sandblaster, which allows us to hit larger pieces and even start on the car itself. Daniel has been stripping the seats in preparation for installation of a new TMI interior. We've had a new set of tires installed on our restored rims. My welding skills are coming back, and I've gotten the inner wheelhouse done on the driver's side and ready to start positioning the new fender.
Lastly, but most important for our motivation, we attended the 40th annual Turkey Run here in Daytona Beach this weekend. For those who don't know, the Turkey Run has grown to be arguably the biggest show and swap meet in the nation. This was Daniel's first visit, and one that he's been looking forward to all summer. The event did not disappoint!
We hit the show early Friday morning, still full of turkey and pie, with a list and a wad of cash in our pocket. At the top of our list were a
good front fender, followed by various trim items. I had also hoped that we might see a good array of classic Mustangs, but I was somewhat surprised at the relative scarcity. However, after looking at hundreds and hundreds of cars, one gets pretty tired and it really didn't matter that we only saw a couple of dozen old Mustangs.

Daniel shows off his haul

The swap meet was massive as usual, and we hit almost every row. We left with a pretty good haul for the day, and renewed energy to continue our work! With the cooler weather I promise more updates on our progress.