Putting it all together ep. 1 January

It tends to happen that even though you decide to carefully document everything you do at the time when you do, you often forget it. And after wards it is painful to try to remember how you did it. This being my first post this year I am trying to wrap up what was done during the first half of the year before Snowback was taken to storage in early May.

First things to do was installing the new door handles followed by door locking mechanism. Actually this was not as easy as you could figure. The originals did fit but the new Scott Drake handles did not. I needed to move the old internal parts of handles to new ones to make them fit in the opening.

New door handle

Internal parts of the door lock

The locks were followed by the door windows and wing window. I soon noticed that adjusting the window will take some more time. There actually are no adjustment for the main door window but it is adjusted only by the help of the wing window which has kind of fore-aft and left-right adjustment screws. I suppose my windows scissor system is a little bit worn and maybe slightly bent on the passenger side so fine-adjusting that will take time later. At this time I only had the in and roughly adjusted.

More adjustment will be needed.

Furry mouldings

I did not install any king of seals of weatherstripping for the quarter-vents' outside perimeter. I will trust that the internal hose will be enough for draining the water if any will pass inside. I think Ford did not use any weatherstrip either but I am not sure if they applied seam sealer in this area. I only used sealer on the inside to cover and secure the attaching studs and nuts.

Quarter vents

Fast attachment was the rear lights and the rear bumper and the exhaust opening rings for the rear valance. I must say that I am not too happy on this Scott Drake product either. They do not sit perfectly and are of weak quality. They will be replaced if I find a higher quality from some other manufacturer.

Recognizable rear now

I have never before installed a headliner in a car. I am glad I took some time to do it. Some insulation was glued to the roof first. This should work as sound deadening as well as for condensed water dripping from roof on the headliner. For the three headlined bows there are two holes for each on roof structure. I took some measures of the headliner and decided to install them so that the first bow goes to front holes and the other two go to rear holes. I think this may vary by the manufacturer of the headliner. Anyhow my decision was based on test fitting this one. The bows are of different length. The longest one belong to rear and the shortest belongs to front holes. I bought some windlace and cut it in 2" long piece to help with the fitting.

Insulation glued

Later moved front bow to front hole

Test fitting underway

The windlace works fine for the fitting which was started by defining the center and moving towards the edges of the windshield and rear window. When these areas were good to go I continued with the sides leaving the sharp turns and corners for last.

Started from front center...

...then moved to side openings

Follow this advice: Install all the screws for sun visors and inside rear mirror before finally attaching the headliner. You will find them by feeling with fingers and it will be easier to cut holes for them. Otherwise you will have to feel where the holes through your newly installed headliner are and that's painful. I wasted a lot of time with a needle finding the correct position of the screw holes.

When I was happy with the fit I removed the windlaces from a small area at a time and applied glue in between the headliner and the roof edge. Then the windlaces were snapped back in and the glue was let to dry. I did use many evenings with this as I did not want to hurry. The patience paid off.

After enough curing of the glue the excess material was cut and the window molding clips were installed and the read 'sky light' rear window with a new weatherstrip was slid in place.

Waiting for the glue to dry

'65 type window molding clip

'Sky Light Rear Window'

Despite I am not happy with the quality of Scott Drake's products I am  pretty happy with the end result.

Paintwork done

What was expected to happen within 'one month' finally took four and a half months to finish. But here it is ready and painted Jet Black with a couple of coats of clear on top.

It has a couple of flaws so it cannot be called perfect, but the flaws are minor and most of them will not be seen once the car is ready and equipped. I probably have to address the engine bay once more as there is some gray over spray from abrasive coating. An irritating job to be done now when the car has been painted and I need to cover everything. I am very pleased with the work done ironing out the dents in the roof. All in all, Snowback is now shiny and black and looks quite nice (or aggressive and mean, actually) and that is what counts.

Rear seat

Though my previous post's headline was fold down rear seat, it actually did not cover the seat part of it at all.  So, consequently, the seat must be covered next. The seat of a fastback differs from the one of a convertible which I have experience of covering with Destiny. The convertible seat is convex, whereas fastback has concave seat, which makes it more difficult to work with as you need to pull and hog ring the cover towards the seat in center area while still ensuring that it stays where you want it. The seat cover has four listing rods, two lengthwise and two transverse on both sides of the center hump. By pulling these rods and hog ringing them to the frame, in correct position, the concave form is achieved. The foam from the old seat was in fairly good condition and was to be re-used. The jute burlap had to go. I bought some jute and sewed new ones and hog ringed them to the cleaned frame. I made them a little wider than the originals so the reach the side edges of the frame.  The gap between the center hump and seat area is necessary for the later phase of mounting.

Listing rod and the rod in frame it attaches to

The old foam being test fit

The listing rods were inserted in the listing channels that are sewed in the seat skins. I decided to use additional steel wires for pulling the skin downwards from the back of the seat after that I noticed that the hog ring pliers and hog rings that I am using are too clumsy (in addition to my clumsy fingers) to operate from the top side only. Now I was able to push the wires through the seat and pull the the listing rods and channels deep to the openings in the seat. Then I checked the position of the skin one more time. With that done, I used my left hand to push the listing rod even further until I was able to feel the bottom in the opening. Then, using my right hand, I clamped the hog rings from the bottom side of the seat.  The professionals probably do the clamping from the top side, by just pushing the pliers until they reach the bottom, but for my clumsy hands this worked for me better.

I started with the lengthwise rods (horizontal in the above pic). After adding the foam for the hump I moved forward with the listing rods in that area. I added some padding to the crossing area where the hump meets the upward area in the center of the seat as well as to the front top of the hump.

Listing rod in the channel

Additional steel wires

Pulling the channel

Secured for checking the fit

Secured for checking the hump

Skin attached with listing rods only

It really was a relief too see that after hitting the hog rings to the listing rods the skin looked to be correctly positioned and straight. After adding some padding in the hump area, I decided to start with the rear half of the skin. Front side would be more visible and therefore more important to get straight but I figured that the rear area is smaller and will be less flexible to work. Starting from the center I moved towards the sides. Next thing was to repeat the same on the front side with exception that I left the curved hump edge area for last.

Starting from the rear center

Sides and hump front left to do

Once the rear and front were done, I continued with the sides by hitting a couple of rings then moving to the other side. Finally, I finished with the hump front edge and the job was almost done. What still needed to be done was the lengthwise rod (where the listing rod attaches to) to be pulled and secured to the seat springs. 

Sides closing the corner

Padding added to the front of the hump

There is no enforcement in the skin in the hump area.
Therefore it is secured very tenderly.

Listing rods secured to springs

Bottom side finished view

After all this was not at all so demanding task that I expected. Should I be starting now, I would get me a hold of better hog ring pliers than the ones I have. They are more for building fences than upholstery and interiors. And to make the work easier, a couple of  extra hands would be nice to have with you. But after all, I am quite happy with the end result. So let's continue with the front seats.

 

Fold down rear seat

One of the most attracting details in early fastback Mustangs is the fold down rear seat. Before that I knew this feature even existed I often wondered why some of the Mustangs had that MUSTANG 2+2 emblem in the lower corner of the front fenders while the others did not. The fact is that the rear seat of a fastback is uncomfortable and not too inviting to sit on as a passenger, it looks extremely good. In my opinion it looks even better unfolded. While still having my car at the painter's shop I have my garage 'empty' for restoring the set of seats and painting the hardware. I had purchased another set of interior earlier so I had everything in double and I was able to choose which to use for my build. The fold down consists of three major parts i.e. 1) the backrest support which is connected to 2) L-shaped part and 3) the flat rear part. I decided to use the parts from the purchased set as their trim was in better condition. I started with steel wool cleaning the trim before unscrewing.

All the hardware parts got some fresh paint on them. These will not be visible but as I had some signal red left available I used it. I made an order to NPD for the interior stuff and had them at my door eight days later. When compared to the carpet and seat covers the signal red appeared too orange, so for the areas where the color can be seen, like in the L-shaped part, I went with semi-matt Ruby Red (RAL3003) which gives a better match. I am not sure what color there should be used in the hinges, but I painted them black as well as the frame of the backrest. 

Ruby red test piece with backrest vinyl

Along with the NDP delivery came the carpets which were glued to the surface using sprayable glue. After the glue got dried the excess of the material was trimmed with a knife. The trim was handled with steel wool and polished. Not a perfect end result, but I do not want to buy a repro kit which is available but rather expensive. 

The pitted rear trim at trap door latch area

The flat part

Backrest support

L-shaped part

On the right the original from my car

Mated with piano hinge

The backrest stuffed part was the next one. I cut the hog rings, removed the vinyl surface, cleaned the netted frame and painted it black.  The old foam was in decent condition, no mildew, and needed only to be vacuumed. The foam was set under the frame and together they went inside the edges of the new cover. I started hog ringing from the top edge center to make the best fit on the visible area, the repeated the same on the bottom edge and the sides were done the last.

Foam dated 10/1/64

Inserting listing rod

Frame and foam slipped in the cover

First hog rings to the top center

Moving towards the sides

The bottom edge with channel and listing rod

The support ready for hinges and padding

The hinge

Top side mounts to hooks and bottom is secured with 2 screws

Folded down - looks nice

Now, this was probably the easiest part of the interior renovation. We'll see how difficult it will be with the seat. After that I'll decide if I'll continue with the front seats or shall I turn to use help of a professional.

Funny details

It looks like Ford did some production changes during the same model year. My car being from early October 1964 production and the donor car from which I purchased the interior parts is most likely 'true' '65. Here are the same trim parts from the side of L-shaped part. Note the improved design. The parts are not interchangeable, unless changing them all.

'64 type trim on the left

It's hard to figure out what Ford had in mind when they decided that the bumper stop bracket shall be attached with machine screws on one side and with the sheet metal screws on the other. 

The whole fold down system including the flat part weighs a lot, altogether 26,5 kg.