Eating the elephant

Fresh coat of epoxy paint

When my son and I were restoring his Mustang, there were many days, even weeks, where he was discouraged and overwhelmed by the task at hand. Since he had never gone down this path before, he couldn't see what I saw. That is, that each thing we did, no matter how small, was one more step towards the finish. Equally difficult was the inability to see further down the road, and how the completion of one or two tasks would lead to more progress later on. I used to remind him that it was like eating an elephant: you have to take one bite at a time, but eventually the task would be complete.
I was having some of that despondency last week, but after my little cry over how monumental this project seemed, I put my head back on my shoulders and refocused.
The first thing I did, which always helps me in other aspects of my life, was to make a list. Using the calendar on my phone, I entered
two or three tasks for each day of the week. I kept each day realistic so as to not get bogged down with one thing. The goal was to get the frame back on the ground with wheels by the weekend, and it appears that it will happen. I also pulled out a number of small items that needed restoring to fill in the gaps, so as to have a sense of moving forward at all times.
I had started repainting the frame last week, and by Sunday there as a good coat of epoxy black on the whole frame. In the interest of time and effort, I decided to forego disassembly of the front suspension. I just wasn't in the mood to deal with compressing springs. Besides, the control arms were in pretty good shape to begin with.

Spark plug heat shields before during and after cleanup

The biggest step this week was installation of a new front disc brake setup. I was a little wary when I started opening the boxes, because I bought this kit from a vendor at the Thanksgiving Turkey Run, kind of on the spur of the moment. The price was good and t
he thinking was, at the time, that by making a large purchase I would be more inclined to get to work on the car. I guess it worked!
Anyway, as I began laying out all of the parts, I was more and more impressed with the kit. There was no issues with fitting. Ever part needed was there, right down to the cotter pins. The bearings were a quality name brand. As a result, I had both sides installed in about an hour! Of course, there's still the mater of brake lines and master

Hood hinges, waiting on steel finish paint from Eastwood

cylinder, but that's for another list.
I planned on getting a number of larger parts out for some outside sandblasting on Friday. We have rain forecast for Friday, so that task is moving up to tomorrow, but otherwise the list worked great.
If I can stay on task, I should begin stripping down the motor this weekend. I found a complete gasket kit in my searches last week, so I've decided to pull the heads and oil pan. That should give me a pretty good picture of what condition the motor is in. My plan is to
basically clean it up, paint it, and replace any exterior components (fuel pump, thermostat, etc.) that normally wear out. The aluminum Powerglide is going to the transmission guy this week as well. It's been sitting for probably close to 35 years, so I'm bracing myself for a big bill on that. The good thing is, the aluminum Powerglides are popular with racers, so the parts are readily available.

The old drums get their last day in the sun

 

New discs installed. A really nice kit