Day 981 – Snowboarding season has officially come to an end, and the season of the Mustang is upon us once again!

Welcome back everyone. I had another fantastic winter but got nothing accomplished on the mustang really. At the time of the last post, the body work had been 99% completed and Joe was gearing up to paint. But unfortunately the garage he had was not adequate for the winter and it was best to put the car into storage until the spring. Now we're not sure who will be painting it because of time and location constraints, but I'm sure I'll figure it out soon.

So here we are!

We did decide once and for all that the 289, despite it's broken block (2 bolt holes to the trans), is all we have so we better make the best of it for now. Jesse painted her and we ordered a nice chrome dress up kit and I must say, she's fine to look at. Hopefully she doesn't break away from the transmission while driving, but I think we can rig her up just fine with the 4 working bolt holes and maybe 2 large washers. It'll get the car moving and we can go from there:

So last weekend on Easter sunday I finally took a cruise down to the auto body shop and took a look at her. Here she is. Frankenstang cooped up for the winter:

Then this weekend I FINALLY got back to work! Wooooo. I pushed her out on Saturday and started hand sanding the engine bay. The plan is to get the engine bay painted and ready for the engine to be dropped in so I can get the car at least driving. Once it's driving I can get estimates for the paint job and get it to a painter much easier. Here's what she looks like finally out in the sun!

So you may remember that the entire engine bay was brush painted with POR-15. The tech sheet on the POR-15 website said that to paint over it, simply scuff and wear with a wet 600 grit sandpaper wrapped on a foam block.

After about 4 hours total sanding, and about 15 pieces of sandpaper, it was pretty scuffed up all over. Here's a picture of about 1/2 way through:

After we finally got it all scuffed up and took off the hood, hood springs, and fenders; we covered the upper and lower control arms with masking tape and newspaper, covered the tires, and taped of the cowl vents. Then I applied 1 1/2 coats of primer and let that dry. 

After the primer was completely dry I applied the first coat of this:

And besides the fact that I suck at painting and had quite a few drips, it dried and came out pretty nicely:

Now this weekend coming up next steps are:
- Wet sand the paint
- Apply second coat
- Wet sand/ buff that coat
- DROP IN THE FREAKING ENGINE

Here's to hoping it all goes to plan!