My 1970 Mach 1

The first order of business was disassembly, cleaning and inspection. The car had suffered
a moderate hit to the left side which had been repaired ridiculously bad. The aprons had been
replaced, but instead of being properly spotwelded they were attached with sheetmetal screws
and glued on with what appeared to be bathroom caulk. The radiator support wasn't even welded
to the frame, it was just screwed to the aprons, and been hacked at the bottom to clear the original
radiator support. All we could do is remove the whole mess and order parts from National Parts Depot.

Just the act of putting on straight metal for a change was very satisfying.

After stipping the inside of the shock towers we discover this car was suffering from the very
common early-Mustang shock tower cracking. We cleaned up all the cracks, welded them closed,
and installed a Pro-Motorsports shock tower reinforcement kit, which is similar to the shock tower
reinforcement Ford used on Boss 302s and 428 Cobra Jet cars. This strengthens them considerably.

The new fender aprons and radiator support were welded on using rosette spotwelds, which looked
very much like factory spotwelds. Here we are clamping the sheetmetal to spotweld them in place.

No matter how many vice-grips you have, it's never enough.

Below is the reinforcement kit on the engine side. It braces the shock tower front and rear
and on the inside of the tower where the upper control arm bolts attach. It makes for very rigid towers.


On the spring side, they provide a brace which triangulates the tower at the base, adding more stiffness.

Here are the spotwelds, and the completed reinforcement kit welded in on the passenger side.

The front was then coated in self-etching primer...

...and readied for top coats of black semi-gloss.

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