A blog about finding and keeping my 1973 Mustang Grande (V8 - 351C 2V). Produced on July 6, 1973. Sold in Florida, USA.

Friday, April 3, 2020

Replacing the taillight panel

Long time no updates!

After the whole thing with the hood (which has been dipped and is waiting for the future in a nice coat of primer) I set upon replacing the taillight panel since it's rusty in a lot of places. For this I had to deconstruct the whole rear. Knowing that welding was required I first removed the fuel tank and lines as I did not want my car to go up in flames.




When I was ready to drill out the spotwelds I thought were holding the panel in place, I found out I was not the first person to do this as the panel was alreay brazed... Great, I had to put a torch to my car to get it out of there.


After a few very exciting hours of setting the rear on fire and exploding fume clouds (I did this outside, obviously!) the panel came out.

The next few months I spent on removing the bumper brackets inside the trunk only to find out rot underneath. Also around the fillerneck opening it was pretty rusty so I put 3 patches in the trunk floor. This was all good welding and metal shaping practice!

Eventually it was time to start putting the new panel in. First I welded the trunk latch support back onto it:


Then I prepped all the edges that were to come in contact with the new panel. I drilled new holes and prepared old ones:


Then One more round of sanding all the spots to be plug-welded. Panel ready:


Car ready:


And voila, it's in!


Very pleased with the results and also a little bit proud of doing this all myself :-)

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