This is the third 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.
Again it's the left side inner rocker assembly, front and rear frame rails. I've done all the work to remove the damaged metal so we're ready to start re-assembly.
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| The two pictures above show the left inner rocker completely removed. Now it's time to clean up the inside of the rocker to get ready to mate the new inner rocker assembly. | |
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The new inner rocker has been installed. Alignment is critical to insure that the two sides of the car are parallel and that the front and rear frame rails are attached at the correct angles. Positioning of the rear frame rails is also very important. If the rails are misaligned, the front and rear wheels will not track correctly. This condition is often called "dog tracking" since the car appears to be going down the road on an angle. |
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Check the rail for alignment by measuring both ends from a known level source. Once you've determined the alignment is OK, be sure to re-check it periodically since the pieces can flex from the heat of welding. |
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| The left rear torque box and rail have been installed. The torque box needed a little work before I could attach it. The flange that attaches to the bottom of the inner rocker was not bent parallel to the box. It had a 1/4" taper over about 10 inches. If I would have attached it as it was, the rear leaf spring mount would have been off about 6 inches. Not a good scenario. | The left rear rail is visible here. We'll need to replace some missing braces and do some sheet metal fabrication and then we can install the inner wheel house. |
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| I've replaced a portion of the inner wheel house. When working on convertibles, there are several braces attached to the upper portion of both wheel houses and the tops are flattened to make clearance for the top when it retracts. It's wiser to replace only the portion that needs replacing instead of creating additional fabrication work. | As mentioned in a previous article, the sheet metal under the rear seat needed to be replaced. This after market piece needed to be modified to accommodate the wider rocker assembly. The attaching flange was shorted by 2 1/2 inches to make up for the wider rocker. This portion of the floor pan is complete. |
That's it for this time and there's much more to come. See you in the next newsletter.
Joe Quaranto