|
|
|
|
|
Well... It has certainly been a while since i was on here, or any other forum really! I used to be into 80s/90s VW's, having had a multitude of mk1/2/3/4 Golfs, couple of Corrados, Passats etc, then followed by slightly more modern Audis, 3.0 V6 SC S4, 3.0 Tdi A7... then I got a promotion and with it came company cars.... not having a Garage at the time, i was solely a modern car kinda guy for a while there!  But, fast forward a few years, bought a house with the wife and my 1 requirement was that it had to have parking for our 2 daily drivers, and a garage for my dream car. We moved in back at the end of March, and ever since i have been checking the savings and scouring ebay! my budget meant a perfect car was not an option, but a decent project was! On Monday, this was delivered!  So, first things first - the car - Originally born a Coupe with Silver Jade paint and a white vinyl roof and beige interior. Someone in the last 4 years decided to strip her down and paint her in BMW Laguna Seca blue. Wouldn't be so bad, except it really isn't a great paint job. She is perfectly presentable as a 5 footer though, and until the (very long) list of jobs required/wanted are done, she can stay in BMW blue! So the good bits: 351 windsor V8. 4spd Manual with 3,25 rear axle. Edelbrock performer intake. holley Carb. MSD electronic ignition. larger alloy rad. American racing Shelby style wheels in 17x8". It runs and (i use this term loosely) drives, but it does need some work to be useable, and safe on the road: Full weather stripping. Brakes bleeding. gear shifter linkage rebuilt and re aligned (its fun trying to find gears currently....) - this may result in a Tremec! Steering and alignment sorted - may look at a larger pulley or pressure relief valve to try and dull it down, it is very, VERY light presently. smaller, less dished steering wheel - no fun trying to drive with it literally on my crotch! Carb clean/rebuild and a minor tune up to make sure she is running well. Investigate and resolve minor oil leak on front of engine. then comes all the "minor" jobs.... Seats recovering. new door cards and associated bits. Dash needs some fettling. carpet. Wiring is original 60's so new wiring loom is a good idea! New parcel shelf. various bits of internal trim. Various bits of external trim. new tailpipe trims. Sorting out as many of the interior rattles and shakes as possible. Full flat and polish to try and make the paint as good as it can be. And only then, can i start on the "because i want to "bits, like: Lowering / upgrading the suspension. Audio of some description. Wheel spacers. Tarting up the engine bay. Boot carpet. So, while i don't have a totally rotten strip her down and weld her up kinda project, pretty much everything in the above list is A) Expensive and B) time consuming! It has also been a long time since i turned a spanner, and none of my kit is imperial, so plenty of new tools required too  The good thing is, i am in no real rush. I can pick a job, take my time, complete it and then move onto the next bit..... maybe!      |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
dazee
Part of things
Posts: 96
|
|
Jun 22, 2022 11:28:10 GMT
|
|
Nice, good to see a Mustang. Bit of a rarity on here. Will follow with interest
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
Jun 22, 2022 13:02:35 GMT
|
|
Ah, America's Cortina. That blue really suits it well.
You'll be in familiar territory at least. Thankfully it's all 50's tech underneath, with just the plastics and dash and stuff that got updated into the sixties.
As with VW, I don't think there's anything left that you can do new to a Mustang that's not been done before, but that comes with the added benefit of having a massive aftermarket parts supply.
Looks like you should be able to enjoy it. They had squeaks and rattles from the factory though. Those are normal.
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
Jun 22, 2022 13:55:50 GMT
|
It's fine, so long as I'm 5 foot away, and its not in direct sunlight  This should go well, more please! Will update as regularly as life/wallet allows  Nice, good to see a Mustang. Bit of a rarity on here. Will follow with interest Cheers! Ah, America's Cortina. That blue really suits it well. You'll be in familiar territory at least. Thankfully it's all 50's tech underneath, with just the plastics and dash and stuff that got updated into the sixties. As with VW, I don't think there's anything left that you can do new to a Mustang that's not been done before, but that comes with the added benefit of having a massive aftermarket parts supply. Looks like you should be able to enjoy it. They had squeaks and rattles from the factory though. Those are normal. The only problem for me, is that while the tech is the same, i bought the "one year only" car. 65-68 parts or 70 on are easy to find and relatively inexpensive... 69 are considerably more difficult to find outside the states and carry a nice premium. I didn't know this til i bought it of course, but hey ho! |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
Jun 22, 2022 14:00:19 GMT
|
Awesome stuff, I will be following this one along for sure! Sooooooo much potential with the car and motor, sounds like you have a good plan too. Might as well bump 'lowering' up the list though haha so easy to do and will increase motivation to getting the rest done haha At least that is how my brain works  Looking forward to seeing this evolve! |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
Jun 22, 2022 14:55:20 GMT
|
The only problem for me, is that while the tech is the same, i bought the "one year only" car. 65-68 parts or 70 on are easy to find and relatively inexpensive... 69 are considerably more difficult to find outside the states and carry a nice premium. I didn't know this til i bought it of course, but hey ho! If you need anything stateside, let me know, I'll help in any way I can. If you need to see how it goes together, my 67 thread may help too... |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Awesome stuff, I will be following this one along for sure! Sooooooo much potential with the car and motor, sounds like you have a good plan too. Might as well bump 'lowering' up the list though haha so easy to do and will increase motivation to getting the rest done haha At least that is how my brain works  Looking forward to seeing this evolve! I like the way you think..... am thinking ill just replace most of the front end, so it may well get lowered along the way! If you need anything stateside, let me know, I'll help in any way I can. If you need to see how it goes together, my 67 thread may help too... Awesome, thank you! |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
No major update to be had here - Not really had any time to do much, so mainly just been spending money ( mostly on things i don't really need right now...) :lol: Found that the Bonnet scoop was barely held on and was missing most of its a fastenings, so did a quick repair with some Marine Epoxy (good with GRP) and some stainless studs, then repurposed some PC fan isolating rubbers to give the mounting a bit of cushioning. Decided the silver Scoop Grille wasn't doing it for me, so i gave that a blast of black Plastidip - now securely back on and looking a lot better! Just need to give the inside of the scoop a lick of black paint and trim down the studs to ensure maximum clearance as i would quite like to add a 1" carb spacer which will move everything up a bit.    Also quickly blasted the air filter lid with black plastidip to get an idea of how it'll look when i get round to repainting most of the bay in black.  Fitted a new 13" Grant steering wheel, the previous 15" wheel made getting in and out just a bit too difficult given that i'm a 6ft fatty, so the extra 2" makes all the difference ( just ask the ladies! ).  Replaced the wiper switch and fitted a new interior light lens.  And ordered: New plugs and Leads (blue) Engine oil, Filter and sump plug New Mach 1 style seat foams and fitting tools for the covers (already have those) New carpet set Full Suspension setup - 1" lowering Shelby Drop template to reposition the upper control arms 1" lower Shiny new Holley Street Warrior 600cfm carb - not strictly needed, but for the money i would rather replace it with new than rebuild the old one. 3M metal polish to sort the wheels out (brand new but sat for 3 years and picked up plenty of tarnishing) Believe it or not, that little lot above was a shade under £2000 quid :oops: Also had a bit of an issue with the power steering system leaking quite badly, so am contemplating ripping it all out and going back to manual steering. Would drop about 25kG out the front end, and make it nicer to drive at anything above crawling pace, but would make it a curse word to park and manoeuvre in car parks etc - but its not a daily, so i'm sure i can live with that! Will give it a clean up and see where we go from there. Apologies for the horrendous picture quality, lighting is very poor in the garage - something else on the list to address! |
| |
|
|
|
|
dazee
Part of things
Posts: 96
|
|
|
|
|
Looking good. Be interested in how well the Street Warrior carb works out as I am considering one for 302.
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Nice! What suspension did you go for? Just lowering blocks for the back and springs for the front?
I've got a manual steering rack in my Maverick, it is absolutely fine even at low speeds and parking
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Looking good. Be interested in how well the Street Warrior carb works out as I am considering one for 302. Will be putting it on later today, but I'm not overly optimistic ill be driving her anytime soon.... In theory it should work perfect for my application, from what i have read the inlet wont make much use of much more air than it provides, and it's a relatively mild cam (i think), so its not a monster by any means. Not tuned a carb for a good 10years or so, this could get interesting! Nice! What suspension did you go for? Just lowering blocks for the back and springs for the front? I've got a manual steering rack in my Maverick, it is absolutely fine even at low speeds and parking That's good to know! Suspension is Scott drake "performance" shocks all round with 1" lowered coils and leafs. I'll shelby drop it, fit the new suspension and see how it sit... have a feeling i may want the front down a touch more, but we shall see! So it Turns out test painting the valve covers and filter was a bad idea.... £400 later I now have Ford racing black Slant valve covers, breather, new PCV and a new air cleaner on route... Just need to get the inlet off and painted now, may do the heads in situ, see how much of a f*****r it is to get everything masked up! |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Nice! Keen to see how it sits.
I just ended up ordering new leaf springs and heavy duty Mustang springs for mine and then added some lowering blocks on the rear axle and lopped a couple coils off the front springs haha
I've not done a Shelby drop on mine, was fairly tempted, but after I fitted all new suspension and lowered it a couple inches it grips the road quite nicely now, so I never ended up doing it. Let me know if it is an improvement and I'll give it a crack.
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Little update: New carb went on without too much drama, had to shave down the throttle cable bracket off the old carb to clear the bowls on the new one, and transferred the old throttle stud from the old carb to minimise faff. Aside from that though - i didn't touch any of the screws, just primed her up and turned the key - fired up lovely, settled to a nice smooth idle and revs really cleanly. Long way from a road test, but that will do me nicely for now! Unfortunately, it would appear that somehow, and i really have no idea how, when i took the valve covers off and had a look around, I have somehow caused a lifter to go sticky - utterly confused as to how i've done that, may just be a coincidence of course! Either way, that now needs resolving. But on the plus side, these turned up today:  Should make the bay look much nicer, especially once its been tidied up, leads sorted and the inlet is back to bright silver. Have also decided that rather than replacing bits and bobs on the wiring, i'm just going to replace the full loom, just waiting on a price back for that atm. don't think i'll get much done in the next week or so, got the tribe here this weekend so will likely be next weekend before i have any substantial time to do anything! Unless of course my new seat foams turn up, then ill be retrimming those in the lounge much to my wifes disgust! :lol: |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
Jul 11, 2022 10:48:32 GMT
|
Ok so, don't think its a rocker causing the noise.... Working theory at the moment is manifold/header gasket - there was a bolt missing, so i'm thinking the gasket has blown - new one has literally just arrived so hopefully ill get it on this afternoon... And new covers/cleaner fitted - again, will look a million times better once the inlet is back to silver and the new leads are fitted and tidied, but definately headed in the right direction - note to self, still need to trim those studs down...  Loom price came back at a very reasonable £205, so that will be getting ordered shortly. Also picked up a carpet set, and had a set of doorcards lined up but missed them. I may look at trimming the backing cards i have while i wait to find a nice pair, but that is well outside of my wheelhouse so not entirely convinced i can make a nice job of it! |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Lesson learnt last night..... 50year old cars tend to come with decades of other peoples bodge jobs to sort! Whipped the manifold bolts out, and a few on the driver side did maybe half a turn and then fell out.... Clearly someone has cross threaded the holes and just whacked the bolts in as good as they could for some other mug (me) to deal with later on (now).  So now I have to get the heads helicoiled to be able to get the headers back on and sealed correctly. Worse than that, I still have that incessant ticking noise, and it hasn't changed one bit despite the header I *thought* was the issue being fully sealed. I don't have the space to be ripping the engine apart, and as the car is not watertight yet (Knew i should have bit the bullet and ordered the weatherstrip kit day 1!) it can't sit outside to give me the space, so it will have to go to a garage to have the heads stripped off, helicoiled, valvetrain adjusted to spec and then reassembled. and on top of that, after spending a small fortune recently on not only the car, but also building the wife a tiki themed garden with bar etc, i have had to let the suspension setup go in order to cover the garage costs. FML! This was always gonna be a project, but I had hoped to avoid having to throw the car into a garage, frustrating as hell as i am capable of doing the work myself, i just don't have the bloody room or toolage currently! |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
Jul 15, 2022 13:55:27 GMT
|
|
Ahh curse word! Sorry to hear that mate.
If you are anywhere near Buckinghamshire I am sure I can make some space in the workshop for you to do the work if that helps you out.
It's full at the moment, but should be space by the end of the month
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
Jul 16, 2022 13:51:59 GMT
|
Ahh curse word! Sorry to hear that mate. If you are anywhere near Buckinghamshire I am sure I can make some space in the workshop for you to do the work if that helps you out. It's full at the moment, but should be space by the end of the month Very gracious of you chap, but I'm Miles away. Very much appreciate the offer though! Have spoken to my mates brother who owns an awesome little garage down the road from me. They deal with all sorts of retro and custom motors an he is going to pick the Stang up soon and dig into just what exactly it needs to get her back in my garage at the point I thought it was at! 🤣 an expense I didn't need, but at least I'll know the engine is right when I get her back. |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
No drama at all, hope they get it fixed up for you!
|
| |
|
|
|
|
