1970 Mercury Cougar Eliminator
We removed the suspension and attached the body shell to a rotisserie so we could media blast it and determine the amount of rust repair needed. Once the necessary repairs were made to the body and the suspension was cleaned up, we reassembled it and sent it off to the body shop for final body work and paint.
The customer disassembled this car before he brought it to us.
Once we inspected the car, we discovered some collision damage which required the car to be put on a frame rack to be straightened.
After the car was straightened, we stripped it of it's suspension, doors and trunk lid and attached it to our rotisserie.
The project was rolled outside and media blasted to remove the paint.
Once the body was soda blasted, we rolled it back in our shop to start work on the project.
The original torque boxes were removed...
and replaced with aftermarket torque boxes. This is the passenger side. The front part of the rocker panel was damaged and was replaced with a piece cut from a donor car.
Both front floor pans and toe boards were cut out...
before the body was media blasted, so we could clean up the bottom sides of the front seat pans before installing the new floor pans. Evette's doing the blasting here.
The new aftermarket floor pans were fitted and prepped...
and the bottom of the body were these pieces go was prepped also. We like to take that extra step of rust prevention on all our projects.
Here's the new floor pans and toe boards installed as viewed from the bottom of the body...
and this view is of the inside of the body.
The core support needed to be replaced. This is Jack carefully drilling out the factory spot welds...
and this is showing the installed aftermarket core support.
The rear frame rail on the passenger side was rusted out so we replaced it with this aftermarket piece.
We fabricated new rear floor pans to replace the old rusted areas.
The original quarter panels were cut off...
the inner structure media blasted...
new panels prepped...
inner structure repaired and prepped...
and quarter panels installed. We repaired the quarter panels like this on both sides of the body.
Once all the remaining rusted areas were repaired, Justin media blasted the body thoroughly...
Fred cleaned it and shot primer on it...
Jack applied seam sealer to all the seams inside and out...
and finished it off with another coat of primer.
The body is now ready to be taken off the rotisserie and have the suspension installed under it.
Here's Jack putting the washed original rear suspension back under the car. The customer wants to restore both the front and rear suspension after the car comes back from the body shop.
Once we repaired the doors, trunk lid, hood, valance panels and the rest of the miscellaneous parts, we reassembled the car.
This car is ready for the customer to pick it up and take it to the body shop of his choice for final prep work and paint.