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Minnesota Mach 1 project

31K views 193 replies 42 participants last post by  Grabber70Mach 
#1 ·
Hi guys, I'm starting a 1969 Mach 1 project for a customer.

I wish it was my car, but I'm thrilled to be the one that gets to have a run at the restoration even if it isn't mine.

The car was originally black jade, M code car, fmx trans, 3.25 locking diff.

Vin tag, door tag and buck tag are all intact and all match up to the car.

She's a little soft structurally, and somebody has repaired this car before me.... long before me.

So, I'll be unearthing old repairs and replacing some creative plate metal splints and full 2 ply body overlays with a little more love than it got on it's first makeover.



rear frame rails





LH front torque box



yep... LH front frame rail.



Anyways, initial tear down happening tonight.



only think I haven't figured out on this tag is the 028 at the end of the top line?



I will be ordering a LH rear torque box/front section of frame rail assembly, both rear halves of rear frame rails, some floor pans, front right torque box and front right frame rail, outer wheel houses, pretty much the entire trunk floor around the tank, trunk floor to quarter drops, full quarters (she's been skinned before, lots of overlap... forward apron halves.... possibly some rocker stuff.

That's just what I know about now prior to getting the paint off the car.


My plan is to support the car at the rocker pinch weld at 4 points (on my hoist) while I replace frame sections and torque boxes. Then I plan to move to rotisserie.

somebody let me know if you figure that's a crappy plan, please?

lol.

Alrighty, I'll post pics as we progress.
 
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#3 ·
I haven't had any time to apply to the car personally as I'm finishing up work on a 64 ford galaxie that's on it's way out.

But my son works part time for me after school, he's been working with me for a while now so it isn't like I just threw some X-box couch monkey in the car with a handfull of tools. He's good, methodical with the dissasembly process, he understand's there is a sequence and he's very careful to not break anything.

One thiing is certain, most of our work will be spent un-fixing old work from the 90's on this car.

We know it was on the road in the mid 90's from old reciepts my son found inside the car. But we also know the car was very much apart at some point, and I swear most of the original fasteners (bolts/nuts) are gone and replaced with a variety of Zinc & clear hardware store bolts and "self tapper" screws.









Some panel replacement has been done in the floor areas, not very nicely though. I am assuming beginner with a small flux core mig, tiny high crown welds, mostly missing their mark.

Panels tossed in, huge overlaps, poorly fit.
 
#5 ·
looks like a nice solid project. is t going back to black jade?

just please ditch that steering wheel b4 completion :)
 
#6 ·
oh my god I hate those steering wheels......

It's my curse I tell you, every project I get hold of has some stupid little steering wheel in it and the original is gone.

I just did this wheel for a 64 galaxie, it turned out nice.















There's nothing like the correct wheel in a classic.


this is what I replaced:



Yuck!

as for color, not yet determined.

as for "solid"....

stay tuned, lol.

actually I suppose there are worse ones that have been saved, I know that's a fact.

But this one is hiding some evil secrets under the paint.
 
#7 ·
the reason why I was asking is I Just went through the trouble put mine back to Black jade or Dark Ivy Green as they called it in 1970

I figured if someone went through the trouble to change it to red I can go through the trouble to change it back

what a wonderful color for a fast back

was well worth the effort and price tag if I can say so myself

Before


After:
 
#11 ·
Looks like an interesting project...good to see a restoration project in MN. As a MN resident I have struggled finding competent shops for classic car work. I look forward to the build, good luck!!
 
#12 ·
So, the galaxie is gone now.

I was able to give all of my attention to the mach 1 today. My goal was to remove rear axle and springs, and all of the front suspension, steering etc.

Wow, she fought me bad.

Wore my *** out.

All of the leaf eye bolts were bent. None of them would come out. I feel like I used every tool in the shop to get those bolts out. Porto power, plasma torch, welder, pullers, sawzall, hammers... It was terrible, but I got it.



The front end fought me too, but I won.













Pulling glass tomorrow, maybe doors too.
 
#14 ·
after scraping some undercoating and also what looks like roofing tar, i discovered some troubling findings up in both torque box areas (front).

It looks as if someone replaced front TB's .

This scares the hell out of me due to the quality of work that I have unearthed through the rest of the car. I can see that the toe boards are gone over the top of the torque boxes. Someone decided to say the hell with it and just run the torque box tops as floors.

Inner cowl sides are ate up as well. Someone was in the area, replaced torque boxes with tiny little flux core mig welds, at least half of which are missed welds, and they didnt fix the cowl sides or toe boards. My fear is that they also did not locate the torque boxes correctly. The TB on the LH side is the wrong one for the car, there is no guide tube for the E-brake cable. (so they just unbolted the e-brake and tossed it)















here is one of many bandaid style overlay patches I rempved from the fender well side of the torque box to firewall area. Anyone missing a glossy brown metallic chunk of metal from their 1992 Bonneville?



I'm going to crack open the RH cowl side today and try to develop a plan to move forward.
 
#15 ·
Whew, I went back and read the whole thread from the beginning. I think calling that kind of work "hack work" is too kind! Hope that car wasn't fobbed off on some unsuspecting buyer. I can see how somebody would see shiny white paint, think "Oh, it just needs one small patch on the DS lower quarter," and think they got a deal.
 
#17 ·
here's a look inside of the RH front torque box looking from just above the rocker.



That rusted out portion, that is the outer side of the front frame rail and also where the inner floor frame support should be overlapping the frame rail..... so, there should be 2 ply structural metal right where there is nothing. The person that put this torque box in saw this, and they just cobbled this torque box in their anyways. There is NOTHING for the back section of the torque box to attach to! Right now, this torque box is just for looks.

oh that does it, next time I go to look at an old mustang for sale I'm bringing a scope cam with me and I'm finding a way to fish it inside of these torque boxes, frame rails, cowl areas, rockers and where ever else this sort of evil can hide from us.
 
#20 ·
I can't see the pictures from where I am, but based on the description, I have a good idea of what's going on. I feel for the owner.

I'm in the middle of a 1970 Mach 1 project. My car had a lot of rust and I sometimes think I should not have bothered with such a rough car. Then I see cars like this '69 and think, "Hey. My frame rails and torque boxes were original and perfect, so maybe it wasn't so bad".

Please keep us posted. Looking forward to seeing your progress. I hope the owner decides on the original Black Jade. A Black Jade '69 Mach 1 is a stunning car.
 
#22 ·
I spent the better part of the day staring at the car, trying to develop a correct sequence to tackle this creature.

I feel like its a puzzle, like a rubics cube that has anti reverse built in, meaning once i spin the puzzle this way or that, I'm committed, no turning back.

I still have it on the hoist but I moved the lift pads to the pinch weld on the rockers and positioned them so I could clear removal of all 4 torque boxes.

My contact pads have elevation adjustments, screw type. So I spent a couple of hours fine tuning the contact pads to level the car left and right as well as front to back. I finally got it level, measuring at the rockers, the floor supports from under the car, frame rails side to side at several locations, I have it as flat as it can be.

My plan is to leave it on the hoist until I have the frame and torque box repairs done. I have my shop manuals now as well so I have body drawings with dimensions.

I will start carving bad things off of the car tomorrow morning, hopefully we can get to the healing portion of this build soon, I'm tired of cutting stuff apart.
 
#23 ·
all aboard the north branch carnage express with stops at drivers floor pan and LH rear torque box....









more of these tin bandaids are showing up from some goldish tan donor car...



cutting a "virgin" floor pan is way nicer than removing one that bubba stitched in 20 years ago.





I don't mind cutting crusted junk apart but I don't like cutting bubba's 2 ply stitch welds and golden band aid patches.

I think I maybe lost some eyebrow hair on this morning's sparky molten metal shower.
 
#24 ·
This car is going to be awesome.

Just not today...




Why yes indeed, that IS a copper fuel line.





I ordered an inner rocker for this thing on Wed, it should be here next Tuesday.




I didn't know if I would use a full inner rocker or not, but I can see I will be replacing it full length before these new torque boxes and floors etc go in.







Here's a look inside a rotten front frame rail with a crappy band aid plate patch welded to the outside of it.




I need a break from mustang.

I'm going to hop over to my kid's 77 F250 highboy project.

Besides, I'm waiting on parts now to proceed on the mustang.
 
#25 ·
Moving along... (finally)

I decided to leave the mid section of the inner rocker on the car. For one, it is nice and solid through the mid section. The other reason is because I don't want to risk the body shifting on me.

So, I braced from the mid section of the inner rocker to the A and B pillars.



Then I cut the rear:





then the front:





Next I plan to cut replacement pieces from a new inner rocker plate.

front:



rear:



I feel like I have cut back enough of the rot, hit some solid material to start building back outwards from.
 
#26 ·
I haven't posted for a while, but I have an update. I replaced those front and rear sections of the inner rocker plate, it went very well. Then this afternoon I finished up fitting and welding the LH rear torque box and frame section.

If anybody here has ever done this personally... Wow, ain't it something? Lol.

Fitting was slow, place the TB, clamp in place, measure, measure, measure, then mark, take it down, grind a bit, refit, measure, mark, take down......









Final fitting, inside of old frame rail and new frame rail primed with zinc rich weld through primer, tacked in place.



Notice the 4 holes drilled close to the frame joint on side of frame rail. There is a stiffener plate inside the original frame rail, I was able to salvage it in place and plug weld to the internal plate.







Sure feels good to have that welded in.

 
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