About to start body restoration on 86

[gbeaird]

As you can see, we do have Aerocatches on it to secure it when down, so luckily, it won't do that much damage. I just notices how much damage it was getting just setting the hood on the factory latch, and figured that wouldn't last long. Gutting the existing latch, or getting a replacement and gutting it, so it at least looks stock might also be an option. I need to go out and check what is better.

A friend of mine had a really nice 69 Dart he drag raced. 440 4-sp, and a glass hood with a six-pack-style scoop. The car was a mid-10-second car. At one event, someone on the crew forgot to put the hood pins back in before returning to the track. He said the hood disappeared at about the 1/8 mile mark, it slowly drifted back to the track, landing flat on the return road. All it had were a few scrapes on the underside, no other damage, luckily. Yeah, you GOTTA pay attention to the pins. That's one of the nice things about Aerocatch, it's kind of obvious, sometimes even to the driver, when it's not latched. I've even thought about painting the underside of the latches fluorescent orange to make it even more obvious.

[svono50]

I know I have seen a couple...maybe one...brand that molds in a metal plate around the latch opening that helps durability, but it is still only retained by the surrounding glass. I know I would only ever run a fiberglass hood with pins of some sort, that is for sure. Your latches are nice, better than the ol pin/tether style pins that don't belong on our style car, IMHO.

[gbeaird]

I know I have seen a couple...maybe one...brand that molds in a metal plate around the latch opening that helps durability, but it is still only retained by the surrounding glass. I know I would only ever run a fiberglass hood with pins of some sort, that is for sure. Your latches are nice, better than the ol pin/tether style pins that don't belong on our style car, IMHO.

Yeah, I prefer them WAY more than regular pins. We have them on the race car, and they worked great, so it was an obvious choice. Now, though, there are manufacturers who make the ones that are round, like Quick-Latch that I'd prefer to use, had they been available when we put the hood on our car, but alas, my only choices were hood pins or aerocatches, so we went with Aerocatches.

[gbeaird]

Well, that was stressful! With assistance from my handy helper, we got the emblems installed. I kept sweating the location, but since I've not yet seen any factory instructions on location, I figured if I'm close, I'm close. Getting things level was the biggest concern, but I think we got them okay.

We had a look at the side moldings, and the install of those was nixed by my supervisor, so I'm in search of suitable replacements now. Updates as they occur.

[scenario]

For the side moldings, I recommend putting car on a lift so the molding will be installed at eye level. If not you need to get very comfortable on the floor and have a helper. Just do it....you will sleep better


BTW the emblems look good

The AN in mustang seems to be common placement right where the Yellow and Red lenses meet. Right where you have it


On another note, all the stickers and emblems (and lots of other crap) were installed by assembly line workers that were not building show cars. There were plenty of disgruntled workers that could care less if things were perfect.
Thats why build sheets were left in the cars to begin with.
I have pulled the carpets on many fox bodies and there are ALWAYS little treats left behind. Just recently I pulled a carpet and there was a BRAND NEW ignition key on the hump sitting there since 1986. I put it in the ignition and unlocked the column....that was crazy!

[gbeaird]

For the side moldings, I recommend putting car on a lift so the molding will be installed at eye level. If not you need to get very comfortable on the floor and have a helper. Just do it....you will sleep better


BTW the emblems look good

The AN in mustang seems to be common placement right where the Yellow and Red lenses meet. Right where you have it


On another note, all the stickers and emblems (and lots of other crap) were installed by assembly line workers that were not building show cars. There were plenty of disgruntled workers that could care less if things were perfect.
Thats why build sheets were left in the cars to begin with.
I have pulled the carpets on many fox bodies and there are ALWAYS little treats left behind. Just recently I pulled a carpet and there was a BRAND NEW ignition key on the hump sitting there since 1986. I put it in the ignition and unlocked the column....that was crazy!

Yeah, that was the thing I was trying to keep in my pointy little brane. They just needed to get close, and didn't care about perfect. I think we did good and are hoping to do good with the side molding.

[gbeaird]

Got a metal tab installed on the hood for the hood latch to mess up instead of the fiberglass. I bent some stainless(?) sheet around some bar stock, then again around a couple of Phillips screwdrivers and it seems okay. Waiting for the epoxy to set before testing it and adjusting the latch.

Oh, and don't get 5-minute epoxy until you need it. The 'hardener' will harden with age. My open bottles were about done, and I ended up throwing them out today, since I had a new box at the house. I opened up that new box (couple of years old by now, though) and the hardener was really difficult to squeeze out of the bottle. Luckily the stuff still mixes and sets properly, it's just hard to use. These bottles will go in the trash as soon as I replace them with newer. I usually need epoxy about once a month, so fresh now will be a good thing.

[gbeaird]

Got some shop time today. Figured I'd swap out the driving light bulbs 'right quick'. Well, I can't seem to get the covers off. There's only a little space in there to get your hands, and I've pulled/pushed on them pretty hard, but they're not moving. Perhaps the paint wasn't completely set before I put the covers on? I may forego the bulb swap.

Also figured that since it was now about 3 days set I'd see if the metal tab reinforcing the hood for the hood latch would work. It seems that the hole in the hood for the latch is exactly the same width as the latch so the added, essentially, spacer won't allow the hood to set down over the latch. Since I already have Aerocatches on the hood, I figured I could simply lower the latch out of the way and used those, allowing the center of the hood to rest on the latch. When checking those, it seems the hood is a bit high on the passenger side. I tried to drop the pin down some, but I then discovered that the Rube Goldberg setup I did to fit those is not letting me lower the pins. I drilled out the nutcerts for the hood bumpers and used flanged nuts on the underside of the core support, which pinches the core support with the adjusting nut on top. The trouble is, the underside nut spins on the stud. You cannot easily get to that nut with the headlight module installed, and fitting it to the aftermarket front fascia pretty much negates pulling it.

I think I can get to it by reaching up from under the front corner of the car, but will need a pair of eyeballs to point me in the right direction, and, perhaps, help adjusting the hood once I can lower the stud. It's one of those 'I can see it, or I can touch it, but I can't see it AND touch it at the same time' sort of things. Seems it's a lot like working on our motorhome,. :-/

So, we'll address this this weekend.

[gbeaird]

While we await the arrival of all the side molding we ordered, we got some time in the shop to get the hood adjusted. It took a bit of work, and I really need to pull the hood pins and cut about 1/2" off the ends so they don't rub on the front bumper cover, but that's for another day. It turns out I could get to the under-support nuts, but still needed help with getting things done.

We did get the hood latch lowered and mostly out of the way. The hood just rests on the latch, so it'll help center it when lowering it. Seems the driver's side Aerocatch wanted to be a PITA, and it's now taking some rocking action to get it to latch into place. Not sure what the issue is, it's dry and corrosion-free, so not sure what's up there. We did put a bit of dielectric grease on the pin rod in an effort to help it move better, but that didn't seem to help much. I can still get it to latch, but it takes some work and effort to get it to close. First time I've had such problems with the Aerocatch type hood pins.

Calling this done for now, and will compare and contrast the side molding when it all gets here, hopefully this week.

[svono50]

Yet one more thing to check off the list, eh? Hopefully the linear impact device on the floor was there just for intimidation with the subject to behave, but apparently the Aerocatch wasn't impressed ;-)

[gbeaird]

Yet one more thing to check off the list, eh? Hopefully the linear impact device on the floor was there just for intimidation with the subject to behave, but apparently the Aerocatch wasn't impressed ;-)

I actually used the mallet to 'fine tune' the location of the pins. The pins move a round a bit when tightening the nuts, so I'd get the nuts just past finger tight, then whack them as needed to make that last little mm that I needed to be able to close the latch lever without jamming a screwdriver into the slot. It worked, although it's still a bit of fiddling with the hood to close it. I'm cool with that. We usually store with hoods up (to keep the vermin out) and I should only need to close the hood once when leaving a show.

[Bruce]

I concur on hoods up. I pulled out of the garage yesterday and was driving my F150 down the road and what should crawl out of the cowl but a mouse. Well back home and put dryer sheets all over the SVO and in the engine bay with the hood up. Stopped for mouse traps and mouse poison after work.

[gbeaird]

I concur on hoods up. I pulled out of the garage yesterday and was driving my F150 down the road and what should crawl out of the cowl but a mouse. Well back home and put dryer sheets all over the SVO and in the engine bay with the hood up. Stopped for mouse traps and mouse poison after work.

Yep, they're nasty! They made a nest in the hood lining of our 68 Calais and 98 Dakota R/T. They didn't tear too much up on the R/T, but the mouse bait got to mama and daddy mouse, so their pups passed in the hood liner of the Cadillac. IT's been replaced! After that winter, we have kept the hoods up on all our cars. So far, so good.

Dryer sheets do seem to help, although I really can't stand the smell of the things. I think adjusting the garage doors to the shop did more to keep them out than anything else, though.

[svono50]

Try some mint oil soaked cotton balls in little cups. Mice typically hate the smell of mint and it smells much better than dryer sheets. I switched to the 'mint balls' last winter and so far so good! So far this fall, I have caught (4) little furballs in my garage trap, but no evidence of them in the car.

[gbeaird]

Try some mint oil soaked cotton balls in little cups. Mice typically hate the smell of mint and it smells much better than dryer sheets. I switched to the 'mint balls' last winter and so far so good! So far this fall, I have caught (4) little furballs in my garage trap, but no evidence of them in the car.

Thank you. I am hyper-sensitive to many 'scents'. I'll look into this, as the dryer sheets give me a massive headache.