68 442 4 Speed Convertible

allyolds68 wrote:

I was almost divorced over the first one, do you really think I could do it again. (I've actually got an 87 Mustang convertible that's next in line. It's getting a 5 liter, 5 speed swap, my wife just doesn't know it yet....lol)

Dad's right, that will be nice to keep in family.

wow, that's impressive work. So what is the difference between tig and a mig welder? Furthermore is one more versatile than the other, possibly thinking of trying to weld. I'm laughing thinking about it . Seriously Mike that's incredible that you did that body work!!!!!!!!!!!

dnmfranco wrote:

wow, that's impressive work. So what is the difference between tig and a mig welder? Furthermore is one more versatile than the other, possibly thinking of trying to weld. I'm laughing thinking about it . Seriously Mike that's incredible that you did that body work!!!!!!!!!!!

I've never done TIG. Don't know much about it other than you generally use TIG for stainless and aluminum. The only TIG I've seen uses an electode that arcs to the two metals you're joining and you feed a weld wire in by hand. MIG uses a different gas. There's a wire spool that feeds internally through the stinger. A button activates the gas supply as well as the wire supply. Speed of the wire and heat of the arc are the two settings that are controlled by settingson the welder.

Take a course at a local high school or community college. They'll teach you stick first. If you can weld stick, you can weld anything.

While I had the body off Iflipped the frame on it's side, cut out two small rotted areas at the end of the boxed sectionin front of the rear wheels, and welded in newsteel plate there. I don't have pics of this. This was the last thing that I had to finish before I set the body back on the frame.....Or so I thought. When I went to set the body of the frame something didn't look quite right with the front body mounts. I took a hammer to them, starting with a light tapping (very dull sound....bad) and proceded to knocka couple pounds of bondo out of them. I ended up completely rebuilding those too. The car finally went permanently onto the frame in early 2006.

Reading your thread about this is making me wish I kept the 68 442 convertible I had. Must... stop... thinking... aboutit!

Because I was doing most of the metal work myself and thereplacementpanels had come with the car I really wasn't spending much money on it, just a lot of time. I had picked up a good core 70 455 on ebay for $500 in November of 2004. It was a real big valve motor that came out of a 70 442 four speed car. Everyone thought I was nuts for spending that much but it came with a bell housing and flywheel so the true cost was more like $300. My good friend and neighbor owned local autorepair shop. He kept bugging me to get the motor rebuilt. I told him I wasn't in any rush because I didn't have any money. I went on Vacation to Florida in spring of 2005. When I got back I came home to this:

Fortunately I had some money saved and I was able to pay him back over about 6 months. The motor was done by Custom Automotive Machine Co in Weymouth MA. Dana Hurd is the owner and he does a lot of Ford racing engines. It's an old school kind of shop. When I was at the shop later I saw three Olds big blocks in various stages of re-build. I even bought a 70 W30 intake he had laying under a bench which I later sold to further fund the restoration.