Went to visit the restoration shop where GT/CS will be restored

[classicsguy]

Last week I went to visit for the first time the Restoration shop in Lakeland Florida where my GT/CS will be restored. The shop's name is Classic Creations of Central Florida. The owner Merv Rego and myself went over the whole car to check the work that was going to be needed. The car needs the cowl floor repaired and 2 new doors otherwise is pretty solid. Apparently no floor or frame work required. It needs interior refurbishing and body and paint work. I was able to see the quality of the sheetmetal work and its superb. They are a Mustang specialized shop and know these cars very well. They have over 25 years experience working with Mustangs. Their work has been featured in MM magazine and Mustang and Fords. They can do everything except paint which is outsourced to a body shop guy that paints all of their cars. To be honest I was not impressed by the paint work done by this guy. I might have another shop do the paint work but still not sure. There were about 20 to 25 Mustangs in the shop in different stages of restoration. They had a 1968 Shelby GT-500 convertible stripped of paint and ready to start work on it. They had about 3 1969 Mach 1's and a beautiful 1968 fastback almost finished along with a 1967 convertible that was being assembled to be show quality. The shop is booked for 2007(technically speaking) and they can start to work on my car in the spring of 2007. I should be receiving an estimate of restoration in the next few weeks....so I will keep you posted.
I met over there Mark Houlahan that is the current editor of Mustang and Fords and former Mustang Monthly contributor. He showed me his 1966 Mustang coupe that this shop restored and was featured in MM. and the car looked awesome!! I was very glad to visit the shop where my car will be restored. I highly recomend to anyone to go visit the shop where work will be done to your Mustang to check personally the kind of quality work to be done on your car.

 

[PNewitt]

Congratulations on the restoration! You'll love it!

I would ask this shop if they are familiar with the differences with the undercoating (and other small differences) between the San Jose-built Mustangs--and the Dearborn and New Jersey-built Mustangs.

For something this extensive, you have to be vigilant with a lot of the details.

This sounds very exciting for you!! The best of luck to you!

Paul N.

 

[classicsguy]

Thanks Paul for your best wishes!! To answer your question:Yes they are familiar with the differences between the different Mustang building plants.
I expect to have fun with the restoration,this is my 1st Mustang restoration experience and so far so good!!!

 

[J_Speegle]

Thanks Paul for your best wishes!! To answer your question:Yes they are familiar with the differences between the different Mustang building plants.
I expect to have fun with the restoration,this is my 1st Mustang restoration experience and so far so good!!!

A pretty quick and fairly easy way to check or at least get an idea is to ask them what seams on the undercarriage get chalked

Most shops from my experience will describe a 68 NJ car since so many are featured (Shelbys) in magazines