The suspens(ion) is growing

We're finally putting things back on the little Mustang!

The front framework is finally done!

We've gotten the front of the car as done as our limited skills will permit. All in all, I think it came out pretty nice, especially considering how much metal we had to replace and repair. It's nowhere near show quality, but it'll hold up to abuse and be easy to keep clean.
Now we can focus on the front suspension. It is interesting to pull out parts that we haven't seen in over a year, all clean and painted and ready to go. In addition, we're unwrapping a lot of new parts as well. For this stage we purchased new upper and lower control arms,

Acid dipping on a small scale

spring saddles, strut bushings and new tie rods.

Reassembled and ready for paint

We salvaged the old tie rod sleeves, and for this I showed Daniel the effects of acid dipping on old rusty parts. A 50/50 mixture of muriatic acid and water had the old stuff looking pretty good in about thirty minutes. It's important to wash thoroughly and dry anything soaked in acid, as well as getting a coat of paint on as soon as possible. The end results were pleasing, and the adjustment sleeves work again like they were new.
The control arms came with a coat of satin black paint, but I wasn't sure of the quality or durability of the coating, so we brushed on a coat of our Rust Seal for good measure. I showed Daniel all of the little scratches and bare metal on the arms just from shipping, and it was clear that they would've been rusting in no time if we hadn't repainted them.

Ready to reinstall

Lastly, we disassembled the old drum brakes from the spindles and gave the spindles a good blasting. I found an old can of Cast Blast manifold paint that I used on all of the steering components and they look pretty good. Hopefully the paint will hold up over time.
We still have to put the coil springs back in, and new shocks for the

New control arms, fresh paint

front and back. Then we dig into the disc brake set that we bought over a year ago and see if we can get it all installed. I've done this conversion once before on my old '57 BelAir, so I'm hopeful some of the memory cells are still intact.
All of this work has boosted Daniel's spirit somewhat. He was pretty discouraged last weekend and finally confessed that the project seemed overwhelming. After an hour of bolting on some new stuff today, though, and he's getting a little excited. We still have a long way to go,
but we try and do a little something every day.
Just like eating an elephant.

Spindles before and after

All good things must come to an end

In this case, it's sandblasting the body and frame, and no, there wasn't much good about it, unless you consider the removal of 48 years of rust and grime!
We've been so close to this point for about a week, and it seemed like every day something would delay our work on the car. With Daniel back in school,

New radiator support

and having lots of after-school commitments, it's hard to find time in the evenings. We finally got some good work time in on Saturday, and after a couple of hours of crawling around in the engine bay looking for nooks and crannies that we might've missed, we proclaimed the sandblasting done! We hit the bare metal with etching primer, and set to vacuuming the car as best we could. We decided that, since the work we were doing up to this point was to protect the car from water intrusion and rust, we might as well wash it off--and out--to get as much of

Driver's side engine bay

the sand out as possible. It was a good decision, and now we have a pretty clean palette to work with.
In between all of this, we've started putting some things back on the car. I could tell that Daniel's motivation was flagging, so last weekend we reinstalled the rear suspension and axle. That was a huge boost for both of us. I also found a couple of good, inspiring videos online of other boys Daniel's age who have or

Passenger side with new battery box and frame

are restoring the same car. In addition, the weather is finally cooling off a bit, so it's not as difficult to work further into the day.
Next on the agenda is to spray our final coat of black Rust Seal in the engine bay and front framework. After that, I think we'll go ahead and re-install our front suspension, with new control arms, tie rods, and bushings. We have a brand new disc brake conversion that's been patiently waiting in boxes that'll go on next, and then we can put the wheels on. After that, the car will be too heavy to roll around on our homemade dolly, so the little Mustang should find itself back on terra firma within the next couple of weeks.

All washed and ready for paint

We're under a bit of a time pressure now, as I am scheduled for rotator cuff surgery in October. That means no physical work for me for at least eight weeks, so we're trying to get to a point where Daniel can work on his own, with my wise direction to guide him as I look over his shoulder.
Still a long way to go, but it's starting to get fun now!