1968 Mustang Engine Bay — Concours-Grade Restoration

The brief

A typical concours-grade engine bay brief in this category: a numbers-matching 1968 Mustang Fastback, some years in dry storage, a layer of dried oil mist coating the factory paint, original Ford build tags, period-correct decals and the original 289 Windsor still in place. The goal in this kind of job is to get the bay presentable for a concours show without disturbing any of the original markings. A repaint would be off the table. So would traditional detailing — chemical degreasers are a non-starter near original decals.

The challenge

There are three things a job like this would need to preserve:

1. The factory paint code stamping on the firewall — typically worn but legible.
2. The original VECI sticker (Vehicle Emission Control Information label) on the radiator support — period decals on classic Mustangs are increasingly hard to source as reproductions.
3. The ‘Powered by Ford’ decal on the air cleaner — original, often with light surface oxidation but otherwise clean.

Pressure-washing would lift the decals and force water into the points distributor and original wiring loom. Sandblasting is obviously out. Chemical cleaning can stain the decals and etch original paint.

How the work would run

A bay like this would typically run over a single day. The job would open with comprehensive photography — every decal, every casting number, every weld stamp documented before any pellets fly. Masking would go around the carburettor air intake, the points distributor, the original fuel pump and the period vacuum lines.

The blast pattern would step progressively across the bay, starting with the chassis rails (low priority, no decals) and moving toward the firewall and air cleaner. Pressure would stay low (around 80 PSI) for the decal areas, with a 25-degree nozzle to spread the impact and prevent any concentrated point pressure.

In a job set up this way, original paint would be expected to come up clean and decals should stay intact — often slightly clearer than before, because surface oxidation tends to carry the dirt rather than the printing itself. A VECI sticker treated this way should come up looking close to new.

What a job like this typically delivers

As a worked example: roughly a day’s work, in the order of 30kg of dry ice for a bay this size, and a result that should photograph close to how the car looked when new — original markings visible and undisturbed, no paint disturbed, no rubber dried out, no electrical issues post-cleaning. A full photo log handed over for the car file is standard practice on this kind of job, useful for resale provenance and concours-class documentation. These are indicative figures for how this category of job is scoped, not a measured result from a specific vehicle.