The Doctors In!

David flew in Friday around 5:30 to visit for a couple of days. We went out Friday night to the Biff Buzby's car get together and met up with my friend mike who brought the 68 mustang fastback. We ended up staying at Biff's for a few hours and then decided to take a ride in eleanor. We cruised around downtown a little bit and then stopped at Ruth Cris's steak house, we valet parked the stang and the guys were fighting over who got to drive it..it was hilarious! We enjoyed good conversation and food, Mike and Dave really hit it off well so that made me happy. Mike actually stopped in the middle of the road in front of the Alamo to take a picture of David.

Saturday morning we headed out to the shop to take a look at the mustang, and get to work on it. We started by removing the radiator support, Dave was like a bull in a china hutch..I had to watch every move he made! LOL! No he really impressed me with the way he took over and got to work, but what do you expect..he is the son of the great Gordie Shuck! Dave cut off the radiator support while I fabricated a piece of steel to go were the battery tray sits. We got the radiator support installed but still need to get a caster/camber gauge on the front wheels so I can set the torsion bar mounts in correctly. After Dave chopped up the front end he moved on to the quarter panels where he found his new favorite tool, THE PLASMA CUTTER! For those who don't know what they are, it is basically a concentrated electrical flame that is injected with air to blow the metal away, they work super slick. Before he could cut the quarters off he had to bend the wheel lip down again since the previous owners had smashed them up to accommodate larger tires, this was not an easy task but Dave came through once again. After he finished that up he cut the quarters off with the plasma and at that point we started cleaning up for the day. I would like to thank Dave for coming out, I had a great time with you and hope to see you out here again soon! Here are some pictures from the weekend event!

Picture Day

I have been under the gun to get some pictures on here and today I got the chance to take some, enjoy!

























Tomorrow Russell from Mustang Mania in Katy, Texas is delivering the 390 CID engine and other misc parts. Today I put the metal dash in and re-painted the rear end housing due to some accidental damage. In the pictures you can see that the floor on the inside is seam sealed and painted, the dash is in, and the rear frame rail body work is finished. I have one project to finish up under the rear and that is the rear torque boxes. Someone smashed them up and I need to weld a plate on them and pull it out so I can metal finish them. Also in the pictures is the toploader 4 speed with new gears and protective coating, axles with new bearings installed, and third member with fresh posi-trac unit!

Baby girl Huffaker update....We have 5-7 weeks left to go and all is well. The C-section is tentatively scheduled for march 30Th. I will keep everyone posted as the time gets closer. Love you all, Andy

Spraying and sealing

Over the last few days I have been working on getting the floor prepped inside and out. This is always labor intensive because if you skimp out on this part all your other hard work is wasted because the product won't stick. I finished up the body work on the rear shock absorber project and did some more on the firewall, the shock absorber panel turned out real nice. After I finished up all the metal work and body work I got the seam sealer out. The first area I sealed was the dash and cowl area, and then on to the floor seams and rear frame area. I used two different products to do this and will end up finishing it off with a sprayable seam sealer. The first product is in a caulking tube and I used this to get up in the tight areas under the dash, the second was a brushable seam sealer the I applied with a paint brush to the easy to access areas. After getting the seams all sealed I sanded the floor and prepped for the epoxy primer, I mixed up my product and sprayed the floor with three coats with a break of approx. 10 mins in between coats. I had the rear end housing prepped and ready to spray also so I put three coats on it at the same time. After I sprayed it all I looked it over and it looks real nice with no runs to speak of.

Back by popular demand...

Dave said I need to be a better blogger so here I am! Since the last time we talked a few things have happened, I took the third member, and the toploader four speed transmission to David Kee toploader transmissions to be inspected and upgraded. Dave and I decided that we would go ahead and put a posi trac unit in the rear end to give it more bite,we also found that the bearings in the third member were worn and pitted so they had to be replaced also. The transmission was in decent shape with some gear wear on the second and third patterns, and after some contemplation I decided it would be best to have them replaced so we dont run into problems down the road. David Kee is known world wide for his expertise in the ford toploader transmissions so I felt very comfortable with him doing the work. David Kee called today and said that the trans and third member were done so I will go pick them up today.

Russel from mustang mania is still waiting on the acoustisheild to come in from California, but he hopes it will show up this week. After it comes in he is going to bring all of my parts from Houston to me including the engine, rear leafs, acoustisheild, and some misc other parts. The rear end housing has had its third coat of sealer and is ready for paint, I would like to get it painted by this weekend. I have also been doing some more metal fab, over the rear shock mounts someone that previously owned the car took the air hammer to it and destroyed the sheetmetal so I cut it all out and replaced it with a piece from another car. I got all of it tacked into place last night and it turned out looking really nice. Today I am going to try to prep the underside of the car for primer, and also the inner floor. My goal is to get the underside of the car done so I can put the rear end back under it and get it rolling again before the doc gets here on the 20th. Bye now, Andy

Time to switch gears...

Hey everyone! Hope all is well,we have been battling with some illness in the family. Kaleb has double ear infection and upper respiratory infection, the poor little guy has had a rough go. Joy and I have managed to stay well for the most part thank god! Oh, baby girl is doing awesome and we have been told she has big feet..ha ha. I want to send prayers out to Gary and wish his father a speedy recovery from his heart attack..Love ya BUN!

On to the stang....I have moved on to the rear part of the car for now, I still have some stuff to do up front but I need the wheels and tires on it for that and they are still on order. I removed the rear end housing the other day and ended up getting it tore down today. After counting the ring gear teeth and the pinion teeth I determined that it is a 389 gear ration. That ration is most likely stock and the gears seem to be in good shape. The rear end date stamping is also correct for the car so that is a big plus too. Ford used a 4 digit date stamp in the 60s, the first number is a 6, the second is a letter M which is the month, and the third and fourth are 15 which is the day.

That means the rear end was manufactured on the 15th day of the month M in 1966. The reason I do not know what month M is because ford only used certain letters in the alphabet to code things. I am sure I will figure that one out later though, it took me a long time just to decode it that far! You can see in some of the pictures of the rear frame that I am doing some body work on it. The filler that I used on the frame is called Metal2Metal and contains a lot of metal...hints the name. I still have to do some sanding but its almost wrapped up back there. Here are some pictures to look at. CYA,Andy

Gaps...

I know, I know, so I am a blogslacker...get over it! lol. I want everyone to know that Joy is doing good with baby girl Huffaker, we have had a few unplanned pitstops at the doctors office but all is well! She should be arriving around March 31st with Gods grace.

I have gotten the front fenders,doors,and hood on and the gaps look NICE and tight and everything fit fairly well with a little influencing. The Dynacorn sheetmetal that we bought for it is pretty good stuff, with just a few imperfections. I will post pictures soon of the car all dressed up with her fenders and everything on!

The Doc says he will be here february 20th at 6pm so I am really looking forward to that! Mike is going to get Eleanor out and we will be going to the car show friday night with it. For those who dont know, Mike my buddy has a 68 fastback that has over 150k in it and is pushing 600hp...it is BBBBAAAADD to the bone! Should make for a great night! Saturday its out to the shop to work on the 67! Boy do I have a list of things to do....it will be a great time.

I also have been working on the rear of the car, I removed the rear end housing and leafsprings. After I removed them I did a little metal fab on the rear frame rails were the traction bars had been previously rubbing and ripped through the frame rails, nothing the welder and hammer cant fix though. I plan to media blast the rearend housing and prime and paint it. I will also be putting a detroit locker in the center section for better traction under power. It looks to have somewhere around the 4.00 gear ratio in it which is pretty steep but makes for a fun ride. I will be back soon with pictures, I promise! L8r Andy

Welding, welding, and more welding

Yesterday consisted of lots of heat and sparks! I completed welding in the floor,seat risers,frame extensions,torque box,and trans tunnel top and bottom. There was some bracketry that was on the old pieces and not the new that I took of and put on as well, like the e-brake mount and the dash support. Next week I have to replace the panel above the rear shock mounts because someone air chiseled the metal around it. That will take at least a day to do. After that is all done I will prep the floor for primer and then seam seal and prime it. After the primer is dry we will dynamat it and move on to another panel.