With the extra junk out of the way, and the garage all cleaned up, it's time to start getting parts ready to go in to the '65 chassis. The first step was to cut off a full coil from each of the rear suspensions springs. I first attempted to do this with a hacksaw - this ended in failure. I thought I was making progress at first, until I just realized that I had only cut through the paint on the surface. The stock springs flatten out that the top, so I'm not 100% sure how this is going to seat in the cobra since it's now no longer flat. So I ran over to ace hardware to get a metal cutting blade for the circular saw. That made quick work of those springs :-P
After cutting and cleaning the springs, it was time to work on the rear end. I started out with a wire brush scraping off the rust. Ford doesn't put any kind of coating on the mustang's rear axle so they are all rusty. Someone had, however, in the past painted the differential cover so it wasn't rusty. Also, there were two different color gasket seals on the diff cover screws and the oil was in good shape, so it's just yet another sign that the previous owner really took care of the car. The differential oil is one of the first things to be neglected by an owner.
Changing the differential oil can be a messy process because there is no drain plug, but I got lucky and actually didn't spill any. The real pain in the butt was cleaning all the old gasket material off. I spent about an hour working on that. This tedious stuff is what I can't stand - scraping off rust and gasket material, etc.
The gears inside look like they are in great shape, and there was no sediment at the bottom of the diff; another good sign. I've pretty much scraped all the rust off that I plan on scraping. I bought a can of brake parts cleaner and a can of caliper paint, but I think I'll wait to paint it and let Josh hit it with his spray gun - it'll look much better. I also got the control arms off and scraped. I had some trouble getting the brake calipers off so I left them alone for now, but they will need to come off and get cleaned and painted as well.
After cutting and cleaning the springs, it was time to work on the rear end. I started out with a wire brush scraping off the rust. Ford doesn't put any kind of coating on the mustang's rear axle so they are all rusty. Someone had, however, in the past painted the differential cover so it wasn't rusty. Also, there were two different color gasket seals on the diff cover screws and the oil was in good shape, so it's just yet another sign that the previous owner really took care of the car. The differential oil is one of the first things to be neglected by an owner. 
Changing the differential oil can be a messy process because there is no drain plug, but I got lucky and actually didn't spill any. The real pain in the butt was cleaning all the old gasket material off. I spent about an hour working on that. This tedious stuff is what I can't stand - scraping off rust and gasket material, etc.
The gears inside look like they are in great shape, and there was no sediment at the bottom of the diff; another good sign. I've pretty much scraped all the rust off that I plan on scraping. I bought a can of brake parts cleaner and a can of caliper paint, but I think I'll wait to paint it and let Josh hit it with his spray gun - it'll look much better. I also got the control arms off and scraped. I had some trouble getting the brake calipers off so I left them alone for now, but they will need to come off and get cleaned and painted as well.
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