This is the second in a series of tech articles on a Mustang convertible. If you've grown up in New York State, then it will come as no surprise that road salt can take its toll. This is a 33 year old New York car and the chassis and sheet metal condition will verify it. There are numerous structural failures and cosmetic deformities. We'll repair them one by one and bring it back to its once youthful beauty and structurally sound state.
This time it's the left side inner rocker assembly, front and rear frame rails. We'll have to do a lot of work just to get to the inner rocker to remove the old piece and replace it with a new one.
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| The left front frame rail was rotted in the usual place behind the bumper mounting bracket. Also the base of the shock tower was weak. I've replaced the bumper mount and after replacing the rust weakened section in the top of the rail, I've added an internal shock tower brace. This is a great way to strengthen the base of the shock tower and since it's under the upper A arm, it becomes virtually invisible. | The drivers side torque box was at least 50 percent gone. This was offering no support to the integrity of the sub frame and needed to be replaced. It is not economically feasible to repair torque boxes this bad. the frame rail will need some attention as well. The area where the torque box attached to the rail is weak and will need to be replaced. |
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Since this is a convertible, there are two sets of seat pedestal braces. Internal and external. The internal piece is repairable but the outers are completely shot. This picture shows the floor pan from the front of the seat pedestal to the rear torque box. The previous "restorer" just covered the old pieces with sheet metal for a cosmetic fix. That did much more harm than the years on New York roads. |
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As in the previous article, we're in pretty deep again. Most of the damaged floor pans have been removed as well as the front and rear torque boxes and what was left of the inner rocker. There's lots of daylight where there should be sheet metal but before long she'll look good as new. Replacing the rear frame rails created a bit more work by requiring the replacement of the pan sections under the rear seat. You don't normally get into this repair, but we are. |
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| The left rear torque box has been removed and we're ready to clean up the remaining pieces so we'll have some clean metal to weld to. | The drivers side torque box has been removed and clean up can begin here as well. |
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| Rough removal of most of the left rear damaged metal. The quarter and left side trunk floor have been removed plus the bulk of the rear frame rail. Since the rear frame rail is being completely removed, we should be able to save the rear springs. Usually, the springs need to be cut out to save the rail. In this case the rail can be cut out to save the spring. | Almost ready for replacement. The left rear frame rail has been completely removed. A bit of clean up and some minor sheet metal work and the new rail can be installed. It's my guess that 50 percent of the structural metal on this car is in need of replacement or repair. First thing first though, the inner rocker is next. |
That's it for this time and there's much more to come. See you in the next newsletter.
Joe Quaranto