Stunning Mustang Customisation and Respray

You may want to go and get yourself a nice cup of tea and a biscuit as such a beautiful classic deserves a king-size blog!

This amazing project came to us through Moonshine Motors, a local American vehicle specialist workshop based in Derby. They introduced us to the owner after we resprayed a Ferrari 308 GTS for them earlier in 2019. Having had bad experiences with body shops in the past (including the ‘business’ that originally painted this mustang) had given them reservations about recommending. After seeing the Ferrari not only were they highly impressed with the quality of our workmanship, but also the ability to turn the jobs round in a more reasonable amount of time than they had previously experienced.

When the vehicle arrived on site with us the bodywork was not of a particularly good finish to say the least. There were many imperfections in the paint, inconsistent panel gaps, distortion, the list was endless. Not the kind of finish you would expect considering the company that carried out the work had the car for over two years?!

We were also tasked to fit a large bonnet scoop, which although being a bit of a ‘love or hate’ addition certainly added to the presence of the front end (not that it needed any help in that area).

The first step was to measure and realign all the panels. This may sound like an easy task but it had been made that much harder by panels being modified and in some cases shims added rather than aligning them correctly. The front panel and chin spoiler were particularly challenging, they were so tight fitting that they required a lot of modification to line up correctly and prevent them from causing future issues. We also discovered when measuring the panels and the gaps that one front wing was several inches shorter than the other?! A correctly sized new wing was supplied and fitted so that we could begin the panel alignment process. Due to the size and weight of the panels this was a 2-technician job throughout, one to undo / tighten the bolts whilst the second supported the panel. Once we were satisfied that the gaps were consistent all handles, mirrors, trims etc were removed.

We had to disregard that this car had recently been painted, unfortunately every panel was going to require a lot of work as the panels themselves were all so badly distorted. Every panel was carefully manipulated, filled and sanded to make sure every bit of distortion was removed. As you can see from the images, there was a lot of work required for this to be up to the standard required by the owner. Although an arduous task for even the most patient of technicians, it was all completed to perfection ahead of schedule ready to be fully primed.

The large bonnet scoop was quite testing due to the size of the item. This needed mounting to the top of the bonnet before being smoothed in. The aim was to ensure a seamless join so that it looked to be part of the original bonnet, which is exactly what we achieved!

The final stage of the preparation work was to fully prime and flat the whole vehicle. To get this car ready for paint took many hours, even the very best paint can’t hide poor prep work, so nothing short of 100% will ever do.

The owner had chosen a metallic grey colour which we applied before several coats of premium lacquer. The lacquer was then fully flatted down and machine polished to give it that ‘smooth as glass’ look. The gloss level that our premium lacquer gives and more importantly, retains, isn’t done justice by the images. The depth and reflections that could be seen in this paint were truly amazing.

As the car was loaded up onto the trailer to go back to Moonshine it was a truly proud moment. Off to finish the mechanical work, so as such we weren’t required to fit the glass, lights etc as this was already removed before it came in.

Absolutely amazing job by the CCC team. An interesting experience and we’re extremely grateful for the opportunity to be involved in such a great project.

Needless to say the owner was very happy with the result and the much more swifter turnaround time that we were able to complete this project in.

The really happy ending to this story is that as we kept to the set deadline the owner was able to surprise his son and use the car to take him to his school prom, I bet that turned some heads!!

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Call 01332 757676 or visit us on Longbridge Lane, DE24 8UJ.