69 Bird resto

[Sixtynine_Bird]

Sorry also forgot to take a pic once the dashboard was complete... Will do that once it will be unwrapped and ready to go in the car.
Now lets move to the steering column :

 

[Sixtynine_Bird]

Once it was dismantle, it shown a lot of surface rust in there!
This idea was to clean it up, epoxy primed and then painted it with the same satin black to match the dashboard.

 

[Sixtynine_Bird]

I will put some pics of the steering column once finished but can't find them sorry, I'll look better tonight.

Just a pic of the aluminium radiator, we hand sanded it, then hand polished it to give him the aspect of a brushed aluminium (I don't know how to say that in English). I don't know if it will turned out great on pics but you'll get the idea.
Then put the electric fan on it add to do some aluminium brackets. Here is the pic :

 

[Sixtynine_Bird]

Then we started the rear end, we tear it apart, then blast sanded it, and epoxy primed. As well as the rear leaf springs, drum brakes and some other parts we made to adapt the front sway bar to the rear.
Now everything is on hold for the paint job which is planned for next week.

 

[Sixtynine_Bird]

Found a pic of the steering column repainted!

 

[Sixtynine_Bird]

Now lets go back to the car.

 

[Sixtynine_Bird]

Now back home and painted:

 

[Sixtynine_Bird]

We have started the reassembling process, but first of all the first step was to insulate the car from heat and noise. That is what we did, then once it was done we started with the rear of the car and moving the front for the reassembling. Now the rear is done just have to put the bumper and she will be ready to go. Every floor plugs are in the rear harness is in. It was cleaned up and then wrapped in a new sheath.
Doors, hood and trunk lid are back on the car.

On the floors there is dynamat Xtreme, on the roof there is dynamat Xtreme then on top of it we put dynaliner for heat insulation.
On the firewall there is the same combination as on the roof.

The fender tag is back on the car and riveted!

 

[Sixtynine_Bird]

Now the pedal assembly is back on but not complete. We are going with a new brake master cylinder and the rod attached to the pedal is too short, so the pedal seats too low. So we have to fabricate a new one. so we are a bit stuck with that. Also with that new master cylinder we have to reshape the brake lines. That is done now tonight we have to go to a braking line shop for a custom made line.

 

[Sixtynine_Bird]

We put back the headliner with a lot of struggle as it was "destroyed" by the previous ones who installed it. And yes when installed it, it was new that is why we don't want to buy a new one and because we'd like to keep the money for something we really need. So w did the best as we could to put it back in place...

Also did some personification on the package tray, didn't like feel when touching the package tray and the look of it. We put some suede material on top of it. It doesn't showed up very well on pics sorry.

That's it for now guys,
Thanks

 

[showard]

Wow! Looks good! Great job! keep up the good work.

 

[Basket case]

great job, keep pluggin away

 

[vintage chromoly]

Fantastic work!

 

[threewood]

Your car looks fantastic! I really like the use of light green primer...makes it look like an airplane being built

 

[Sixtynine_Bird]

Thanks you all for your comments appreciate that!

Your car looks fantastic! I really like the use of light green primer...makes it look like an airplane being built

Thank you sir! Yes for sure that is totaly right!

 

[Sixtynine_Bird]

Hello guys, a lot has been done to my Dad's bird since last post.
Where to start?
- First the rear glass is finally in
- Front fenders are in place and aligned
- Mud guard inside the fenders are in with new gasket that we bought in August at the Nats
- Headlight bezels in place with new screw kit and spring (also bought at the nats)
- Doors latch are in too and adjusted so doors shuts nice.
- Mechanism inside the doors in place
- Driver side vent box in
- We did install the master cylinder and the pedal assembly. Adjust the breaking rod so the brake pedal sits at the same height of the clutch pedal.
- As you can see in the previous picture we mocked up the brake lines. We found an old breaking competition shop, the guy knew what is was talking about, was great to discuss with him. Take the measure of the old lines and then he sold us straight lines so we could shape them as we wanted. He did the end of each line with the "bolt" that screw in the master cylinder and the brake line on the rear end and each side of the car at the front. I'm sure you see what I mean lol
This master cylinder is for a front disc/rear drum brakes application, so we ad a proportioning valve to control the flow going to the rear brakes.
- We also installed the aluminium radiator with the electric fan. Played a little bit with electricity to make it work. So we have a relay a fuse etc and now just have to connect the wires to the dashboard button to force it if want to run it manually.
- We have finish the electricity for the dashboard adding three gauges oil pressure volt and water temp, actually the previous owner ad those but we just freshened this up and rework the electricity in a decent way so it doesn't start an under-dash fire!
Once all of that were done, we put the dashboard back in the car! It looks so great! Back in the car for the first time in 3 1/2 years!

Now we are working on the drum brakes, reassemble the new pad and springs with the self adjuster on the flange plate.
It'll be finish tonight. Next step is on the rear end case I will need your advice guys ^^

We are thinking on adding a drain plug on the rear end. It is a 8 3/4, the idea is to drill a hole at the bottom of it and weld a bolt. So we don't have to disassemble it once it will be on the car to flush it. After the all car is "break in" we will flush all the fluids and put new ones and then drive it like we stole (like Mopar's are supposed to lol).
So we don't want to put the rear end down to flush it etc.

What do you think about that?

Oh and pics will be here soon! I will try to put some tomorrow!

 

[showard]

Thanks for the update. Glad you are still getting things done. Looking forward to see your updated pictures.

 

[Sixtynine_Bird]

Here is a couple of pics still a lot to go but at least it starts to look like a real car again.

Fenders on and the brake lines shaped and installed on the car with the proportioning valve.

 

[Sixtynine_Bird]

Back window on the car, lot of elbow grease to apply properly the glass on the seal.
Also showing the pedal assembly with heater box, and aluminium radiator.

I had to make an aluminium piece to hold the fan relay and thermostat next to the radiator. You will see a lot of wiring looks like a mess but now it is arrange properly and rewired also.

And just mock up the front grill to have an idea of what the car will look like ^^

Now I have to take pics of the dash inside the car and the "harness" we made for the electric fan.

 

[69 GTX]

Good progress.