Monday, March 3, 2014

Front Fenders and a Quiz

Got a rare window of above 40 deg temps on Saturday in this 'Winter That Will Never Quit'. Took advantage of the 'warm' sunshine and dragged the front fenders outside for final prep of the inner surfaces. Another glamourless job that no one will ever appreciate save for the few of us crazy enough to do it. Used my standard protocol for jobs like this:

1. Scrape old undercoating off with putty knife

2. Remove residue with solvent

3. Scour with SOS pads. (I like using them for this as you get the combination of soap and steel wool. Leaves a nice clean, smooth surface.)

4. Treat with TSP, rinse with water, let air dry in warm sunshine

5. Coat with Rustoleum's trusty, rusty metal primer

6. Top coat with Rustoleum's Truck Bed Liner

Got the second fender top coated just as the sun ducked behind the hilltops and the temps dropped 10 deg. Nice to get that job done outside as the bed liner contains Xylene which is some really nasty stuff for working with indoors. 

Once I get the inner splash shields in place, I should be ready to mount the fenders. At that point she should start looking like a car again rather than a 20 year long high school science project.

 So for the quiz. Anyone wants to guess why there isn't an antenna hole in the top of the passenger fender? You'll be surprised by the answer. And no, I didn't weld it shut.

Mystery Fender



8 comments:

  1. Oooo.. purty fenders. Um... the truck bed liner filled the antenna hole somehow?

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  2. The dealers installed these antennas. The factory didn't do it. So where did yours end up?

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  3. Ah you guys are nearly on it. Dealers installed these because of vandal issues during transport. But the Shelby GT350's and GT500's, because of static issues with the f/g hoods, had the antennae mounted on the rear quarter. SusieQ's fender is off a genuine GT350. I have a photo somewhere of holding the fender with the GT350 stripes still on it. When I lived in TX, I had a good friend who in the early 80's saw the potential of Shelby parts and bought everything he could lay his hands on. This was a fender from his horde. He offered me a beautiful dark green GT500 KR convertible for $18,500 and I turned him down because I thought he was crazy. $18.5K?!?!? I also passed up an original 289 Cobra for $53K. Can you imagine what either of those cars are worth today? I still remember laughing when he told me the KR price. Ugh....

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    1. TEXAS?! You've been holding out on me RJ! Where is Texas did you live and who was this friend with the Ford fetish? That can't be a wide circle in this community!

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  4. Sven, I did 10 years in Ft Worth at General Dynamics. In my early life I was an aerospace engineer there. So I haven't seen that guy since probably 1986. He went by his last name....hmmmm....either Cooper or Hooper. As I recall he didn't work but had extremely wealthy parents who indulged his Mustang/Sheby love. They had a beautiful 3 or 4 stall garage full of nothing but rare Ford parts. It was like a candy store for adults. I still have a friend down there who actually introduced me to this guy. I'll have to see if he is still around.

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  5. I'd sure like to lift the lid on that a bit if at all possible. I am still chasing a few years of ownership history on my car and it's early life was spent around the Waco & Dallas / Ft. Worth areas. And Ford part "hoards" are fairly few and the guys that have them are usually pretty well know in local circles.

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    Replies
    1. Sven, check out Gregg Cly in Wylie, TX. He's the MCA concours judge I met last spring. His email is Gregg_cly@yahoo.com. You can use my name in vain when you contact him.

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