It was a busy week.  Despite that, we were able to get a little more work done on the Mach 1.  In our post last week we discussed replacing the entire floor pan on the passenger side and only the back half of the driver's.  However, after some discussion we decided to change out the whole driver's side as well.  There is just something about symmetry and knowing we won't have to worry about this part of the car for a very long time. 

With the floors done we can  now move to another section of the car.  This week it was the driver's door.  Rust on  lower doors is pretty much expected on a 44 year old car, and this one is no exception.  The driver's side door had rust of varying degrees along the entire bottom.  On the outside, the rear corner had to be cut out and a new piece welded in place.  While there, Matt ground off the tabs that held on the chrome molding since we will not be putting them back on for this car.  

Most of the work was done on the inside of the door.  With each corner eaten away by rust, Matt was busy welding new metal to both inside corners as well as fabricating the outside edge to look factory.  Also, one design flaw in this car was the where the weather stripping attached to the car along the bottom of the door.  For some reason the metal strip used to attach the weatherstripping was placed over the drain holes in the lower door.  This caused water to pool between both pieces of metal encouraging rust.  Though we could have covered it with rust converter and left it, we opted to cut and replace the metal since we already had everything we needed to do so.

That's it for this week. Hopefully next week we can get the passenger door done.  Until then, have a great weekend.  I"m still  going through the NPD catalog circling parts and marking pages!

Even with super high temps and regular work load it has been hard to keep everyone from wanting to get a jump start on the Mach1.  So far this week  the fenders were removed before sandblasting the front to ensure all rust was uncovered. Rust was removed from where the battery sat  and replaced with a new battery apron that is now fitted and ready to be welded into place. 

Next on the cut out list was the floor pans.  The passenger side had to be completely removed and a new pan welded in, but on the driver's side only the rear part needed to be replaced. 

The rest of the week will be finishing up the floor pans as time allows as well as me kicking up my feet and looking through the bright, shiny NPD Parts Catalog that just arrived in the mail.

We are excited to be bringing this 1971 Mach 1  home to the shop today, especially after hunting for one for the past year!  So glad Brian was willing to part with it and reclaim some much needed garage space at the same time. He knew it was going to a great home, and wants to see it back on the road as much as we do.  

 I have  more pictures I'll be sharing in future post as we get started.  For now, I"m just going to order pizza, have a small " Welcome Home" celebration and watch them roll her into the shop.  Stay tuned!