68 Mustang Coupe

My name is Rob and I've been following this site for a long time and have learned a lot from everyone's experience. I started researching and following the method over on the Mopar site a couple of years ago. It's amazing how the technique and materials have progressed. There are many projects here that have had great results with this method. My project is a 68 Mustang Coupe. I've owned it for over 6 years and decided it's finally time for paint. I plan to paint it WHITE using a blend of Rusto, MS and Penetrol. I've spent the last fews months taking the car apart and doing body work...small door dings, filling molding holes, etc. Car is very straight and with no major rot with most of its life spent in California (bought it when I stationed at Monetery CA). I have a lot of pictures of my progress so far, which I'll post over the next few days. Right now, it's all in surfacer/primer gray ready for final block sanding. Looking forward to helpful hints from all the experts here as I move forward. Here's some "before" pictures:

With a nice survivor to start with, this is gonna be a good thread!

Paint (and touch-up) in poor condition:

These old cars come apart pretty easy...





No major rot:

Surface rust on floor and in the trunk:

all glass was removed too:

Welcome and what a great start on a project car.

[quote=Was that car originally red? Looks like someone took it apart pretty good to apply the blue paint.

Are you going to delete the vinyl-top trim along the C-pillar?
[/quote]

The car was born blue and refreshed blue I'm guessing 10-12 years ago judging by the condition that the paint was in. Yep, it was a vinyl top car and I filled in the holes from that.

more body work pics:

Molding holes on the fenders. I'm not a welder so I used stuff called "liquid metal" to fill the holes and covered that with normal body filler. I countersunk the holes for more grab and put metal screen behind each hole. I used Rusto expoxy primer on bare metal surfaces and then Rusto Auto Primer.

Front valance had too many dings and chips, so I decided to go down to bare metal with it. Again expoxy primer then regular sandable primer rattle can after some body filler.

more body work pics




Used Rusto Rusty Metal Primer above










Hood with Rusty Metal primer and Rusto Gloss White

looks great so far.

Nice job, car does look really solid

final body pics before Primer/Surfacer coat:

Holes in hood are for bolt-on hood scoop (68 1/2 Cobra Jet style)


Rear glass frame cleaned up


More dings and dents fixed


Trunk area cleaned up (Rusty metal primer and Rusto semi-gloss black)



Ready for primer/surfacer. At this stage car sanded smooth using 220 grit



Primer/surfacer was rolled on. Jams and other hard to reach areas sprayed with filler primer.











Added 68 california special side scoops. Making any fiberglass parts fit takes alot of work.

Lots of blocking sanding to do. Trunk panel is done; it will be my test panel for Rusto Gloss White with MS and Penetrol.

The body looks nice and flat...

Thanks Roadking. They say a good paint job is 90% prep. I have to keep reminding myself. Time consuming stuff, but fun and it relieves stress from everyday life. Turn on the tunes, get a cold one, grab the sanding block!

Yeah I see what you mean. It just the color of the primer "someone" used in the past. Can't confirm its original to the car. Sanding the exterior, I didn't run into any red paint though. Plus, the VIN decodes to Acapulco blue. BUT...it's going to be Rusto White very soon.

No. The car was probably really blue from the factory. Back then, Ford actually dunked the cars in a giant river of undercoating and primer, like dunking a giant cookie into a glass of milk. Saw this back when Ford gave field trips to school kids back in the early 70s, and they dunked the LTD station wagons they were making that day. Amazingly, the stuff they dunked it in did not run or drip much!

One peek at the data plate should tell the story of the original color.

Another look at the side scoops.

Trunk wet sanded with 400 grit. Very smooth and shiny compared to the rest of the car, even a bit of reflection at the right angle.

looks fantastic!!! Are you going to paint the hood scoop white or another color, also on the Duplicolor primer, did you thin it out at all or roll it on right from the can. The side scoops really give it that Cali race car look. The car looks like a really solid rust free piece.

Great prep work, the painting should be easy compared to all the work you have done so far.

I did reduce the primer surfacer with lacquer thinner, 60/40 mix. The can calls for 50/50 mix if spraying. I did two coats and got complete coverage. It high build stuff, I used an orbital sander with 220, then 320 dry block, then 400 wet by hand/block on the trunk.

I'm undecided on whether to paint a large black stripe on the hood (including the scoop) or not. I'm also trying to figure out what type of stripes I should put on the side of car. 68 "C" stripe? 68 "GT/CS" stripe? 67 "GT" stripe? I know I want to keep the car with late 60's era look. Nothing too wild or crazy. Magnum 500 wheels are planned too. Google images is great because you can get a lot of ideas. What do you guys think?

Hood Stripe examples:



68 "GT/CS" Stripe examples:



67 "GT" Stripe examples:



68 "C" Stripe examples: