I stopped by Classic Creations of Central Florida yesterday to check on the progress with my '66 GT hardtop restoration. Pat Rego also handed me my first invoice.
Although the car doesn't look much different from the last time I saw it (a little over a week ago), bodyman Danny has put a lot of work into the project. As can be expected, a tad more rust and a bit more previous repair showed up once Danny got into the sheetmetal preparation. Fortunately, most was minor - Merv Rego was able to hold most of the removed sheetmetal in his hand. Danny did discover some floorpan damage - the old repair was done with fiberglass before I acquired the car in 1982 - and some additional fiberglass repair in front of the gas tank. Who knows what happened there during the 1970s. Danny patched sheetmetal into those areas for a proper repair.
Sheetmetal work is almost complete. Danny was in the process of priming the sheetmetal and getting the car ready for paint. It could head to the paint shop as early as next week.
While Danny has been working on the body, Merv has been assembling the engine, which is the Fred Jones Remnaufacturing 289 that I installed in the early 1980s. The internals checked out okay, so we decided not to completely rebuild it. The heads are currently at a machine shop for rebuilding. Once they're back, Merv will complete the engine assembly and we'll document the final detailing of the 289 for a future article in the magazine.
It's exciting to watch the transformation of my grandfather's old Mustang into a brand-new '66 GT, just the way I first saw it in February 1966. However, reality struck when Pat Rego handed me my first invoice. Now I've prepared myself for the cost of the restoration. But when you see the numbers staring at you from the second page of a lengthy labor and parts list, and you know you have to write the check, it's a bit of shock.
So far, over 76 hours of labor have been put into the disassembly, stripping, sheetmetal work, and priming. Multiply that by the hourly shop rate and it adds up in a hurry. And that doesn't count the engine work so far.
My wife says she doesn't want to know. - Donald Farr