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Sunday, November 7, 2010

Retro Sunday -The Mustang GT Part III

So lets get started! Here is a commercial from the New York Worlds Fair and I do have to say in response to Jay when he said "Hey old guys does this still work?" I can say yes.



Lets get to it! Step one drivetrain (Click on any picture to enlarge):


You are looking as if you opened the hood and looking at the engine. Note the attempt to get to the right hand upper control arm by cutting into the shock tower. BZZZT! wrong! But now something to be fixed.

Engine parts below. Engine is in good shape!




Engine done and sporting the correct color, Ford Corporate Blue!

From the front:

Engine is sporting original TriY headers and is ready to go!



Meanwhile other things require attention. The heater box is always a problem:


The pile of crap in the upper center is pine needles, leaves, bugs, and anything else that got sucked into the heater box. Heater core is lower center. Rule one on any old Mustang bypass or replace that immediately!

Meanwhile, transmission gets some care:



Salvageable interior parts are cleaned and panted:



Parts are gathered. Little known fact back then that many NOS (New Old Stock) parts were readily available from Ford, but you had to have the part number to order them from a Ford dealer. Many thanks to an old friend of mine Phil, parts manager of a Lincoln Mercury dealership! He had the knowledge! The love of Mustangs helped too! So I can say that virtually every part replaced was original FoMoCo.

Uh, yeah that is a 1968 Shelby in the background!

So now the fun begins. Strip everything!



Nice interior shot. Notice the hole in the rear drivers floorboard! Left hand side in this ride has not had a good life!


Tam asked about the rear shock towers. Here is the look for the rear access to them:



The left rear quarter was toast as predicted:



Outer fender well toast, inner is marginal and the left rear frame rail toast.

Spot blast what can be saved:


Fix the interior dash from the 8-Track:


Replace the wiring harnesses and the entire left hand floorboard and seat riser:


Epoxy primer and wet sand your shoulder off and then this with no paint booth and in old school enamel:



Now put it back together!



Bonus points if you can pick me out of this picture!


Exterior and interior work going on less than 10 hours away from its first show!

It won!


And now a gratuitous car shot!

I hope everyone has a great week! Stay safe!

7 comments:

  1. Nice :-) I remember those @#^& rear shock towers... PITA!

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  2. That was a lot of work to bring back the car to its original beauty.

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  3. I had a 67 Cuda 383 S which had a 440 big block stuff in it. Root Beer Brown. I hated to see it go but it went to pay for a house and other things.

    That is a beautiful Mustang.

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  4. Nice Job! I would ask for the bonus points,But that would be cheating..

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  5. @Old, been around a lot of Mustangs and thankfully never had problems with those. Thanks!

    @Supi, yes a lot of work but worth it!

    @Brigid, I could see where a Cuda would buy a house! 351 is the largest FoMoCo engine around here.

    @Stopsign, yes it would.

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  6. I had a '66 coupe. Miss it every day. I used to dream of restoring it like you did yours. Never did. Sigh...

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  7. @ Me- There have been several Mustangs through my life. Had a little '66 Coupe in Springtime yellow with a black vinyl roof. It was part of my life back then and although I sold it for a profit I miss that car. I also miss a little '67 coupe. Don't get me started on the Shelby! Owned it for about 2 hours!

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