My rust project :( Not 56k friendly

[Michael Plummer]

Hi there,
After 13 years and driving it all year long (in New England) and parking it outside (last house had no garage), I guess it was bound to happen....RUST.

Was getting ready to install my new Dart 331 w/TFS 185 CNC ported heads and I discovered the following while I was trying to treat it with POR 15. Mind you, I knew I had a rust spot on my strut tower about 3 years ago but it was only the size of a golf ball....HONEST!!!

This what my car use to look like:


And now the rust: Looking from passender side wheel well. Notice rusted bolt and nut, it should be connected to the frame rail which is all rusted out.



Looking from engine bay up to frame rail and K member (passenger side)



Passenger side frame rail



Driver side frame rail



Pass. side frame rail



Some worker at the frame shop looking over my new/used front clip



Front clip removed (2 photos)




Old front clip and whats left of my new/used clip



new/used front clip installed



Some of the welds (2 photos)




3 pics of front clip painted with some wiring.




I discovered the rust on 5/22/07 and after ordering the clip, finding a frame shop that would do the work, dropping the car off at the body shop to paint clip and installing the wiring harnesses, the car is ready for the motor and tranny. Once installed the car will head to the alignment shop and then back to the body shop to paint the doors, hood, front fenders and bumper. I might see the summer with this car if I'm lucky.

See ya
Michael Plummer

[Badazgt]

wow i wouldn't have expected that amount of rust in such a short perid of time... any rust running farther back???
any ways the car looks good now

[90Notch302]

I also live in New England and I dread the day this happens to me....Nice progress though man...and good looking ride too

[solozx10r]

Good damn job! I just got done doing my engine compartment but it was no where that bad! Looks awesome. NEW ENGLAND SUCKS FOR SURE!!!!!

[Thewhite88pony]

Car looks new now, damn.

[slowstang101]

Damn i hate the north. The car looks great though!

[tripice351]

Nice job! Most people would dump the whole car. Way to go saving one from the crusher!

[capriman86]

I would have never guessed that rust would be there!

Mad skillz.....LOOKS AWESOME!

[AnthonyDalrymple]

Wow...... You are quite the dedicated individual! Great save!

[Michael Plummer]

Hi there,
Firtst off, I don't have the skill set to do any of this. All of the work was done by professionals and I paid the bills.

Thanks for all the kind words and there is a little bit of rust in the trunk area but it will be taken care of when car goes to the body shop. I had my old K-member bead blasted and powercoated and it came out very nice and shouldn't rust.

I kept tossing around the idea of buying another SN95 and this is what I found while I searched and saw about 12 cars in 5 days.

Clean cars were priced over my budget of $7000.00. Mind you I have a ton of stuff in my car and it makes it tough to buy a running car.

Rollers were another option but the nice ones were over my budget of $3,500-$4,000.

A few Mustangs were horrible and required alot of work and in most cases were over priced for what they were. Its amazing how people value their cars especially the crappy ones.

I was very interested in two cars I saw. One from California (Sinful is his ID name) and a yellow one from here in New England (can't remember his ID at the moment) Both were awesome cars but in the end I decided to save my own.

Used front clip from MPS delivered cost: $669
Powdercoated K-member: $200
Frame work: remove wiring, cut old clip and install new clip: $1750. I had to re-install my wiring.
Body shop: paint new clip $800. They had to remove more wiring and this added to the price.

Towing car to body shops so they could see the damage and back and forth to the different shops: $100,000.00 Towing is expensive god damn. Okay, it wasn't that expensive but you get the idea.

So thats it for now. Had to rebuild and rebalance new motor (another long story not for the internet....sorry), so once the motor is complete it will be installed.

See ya
Michael Plummer

[Kevins89notch5.0]

Awesome work there. Good to see someone save a car rather than give up and scrap it.

[Systemax302]

Car looks great now man. I work in the field and that looked REALLY BAD. Im really surprised that it all collected down there like that and you didn't have any other problems like on the exterior panels. My only guess is that its from a lot of washing the car in the salt season that kept them in good shape.
I live in Michigan and i wouldn't wanna drive mine year round. Not to sound like an ass, but for the $3000 + you spent fixing the car you could have a nice reliable daily driver man. The car looks great, don't put it through another winter, especially after spending that much $ on it.

Looks great, Alex

[95cobraguy]

i agree man, get yourself a beater and leave the mustang home once the roads go to sh*t in the winter. i cringe at the thought of my car seeing snowy, salty, wet roads.

[Michael Plummer]

Well I own a Jeep but I only drive it when the roads are bad. Maybe its me but I like to drive the car and the car gets driven. I could of taken care of this problem 3 years ago but I didn't and I fully accepted that. Like my wife says "its only a Rustang". oops, I mean Mustang.

See ya
Plummer

[Sneakypony]

Man, I thought you were suppose to became more sane with age. If so your a bad example...........lol

Good job Mike. Your as crazy as ever.

[metalman302]

Wow, amazing job on a very complicated structural repair. Looks like it's a really sweet car overall too.

[windsor357]

They did an awesome job.

[Nasty_Notch]

I recently saw this car 1st hand & the work on the car is fantastic.

[Sinful]

Michael you spent over $3500 to fix that !!?

WHAT WERE YOU THINKING !!!!?

[BlackVert]

yep .... rust is the cancer of cars. i'm glad you were able to save it. this thread should be a reminder to the rest of us to check for rust

[P63]

Can you do my car next?

[Michael Plummer]

Originally Posted by Sinful

Michael you spent over $3500 to fix that !!?

WHAT WERE YOU THINKING !!!!?

Hey Sinful,
I hope you sold that awesome car of yours. The price tag was justified but I didn't have the funds for it

Update on project: Car is done and waiting for my mechanic to install my new Dart 331 block w/TFS track heats CNC ported (185) from TEA.

See ya
Plummer

[yellowclone]

Michael Plummer, this is alittle off subject, but do you have a close up pic of where your intercooler piping comes out of the intercooler. I had to take my bumper brace and frame horn off to get my piping to work because if I used the 45* elbow that it says in the instructions, it just looked like it pinched it too much.

[Jackie Chan]

see if your car was leaking oil everywhere like a good mustang does, you wouldn't have had this problem

[Michael Plummer]

Not sure if these pics will help but let me know. BTW, Jackie Chan I love the comment about the oil....very funny. I was laughing out loud when I read it.







See ya
Plummer

[RIO 5.0]

Oh the horror..I just lost my Winter beater truck to that cancer...Damn cab was ready to fall off along with the bed...123k and it was eaten alive...

Looks like your guy did a good job...I hope its not gonna be one of those you see coming down the road sideways..

[yellowclone]

Yes those pics helped alot. Yours doesn't look like it pinched at all coming out of the intercooler. Maybe I have mine mounted too high. Anyways, thank for the pics.

[smurfmobile8586]

wow that was a lot of rust, looks really nice now that its fixed back as it should be!! and sweet car!

[Michael Plummer]

Hi Yellowclone,
I have my intercooler mounted as high as possible. In the 3rd pic the clamp that holds on to the coupler coming out of the intercooler is right up against the bumper support.

If you look at the intercooler from in-front of the car it's not level (see last pic) from original post but it works for me.

Again, to everyone with the kind words, thanks I appreciate it and I hope when I'm ready to align it, it aligns up.

Can't believe this post is still getting mileage.

See ya
Michael Plummer

[swinerton]

Road salt....They need to fuggin find an alternative.

Michael, have you ever thought of putting yourself in a beater for the winter months around here? I know it sucks not to be in our cars at any time, but winters rots these things out in no time. You don't want to go through this ever again now do you?