7/23/10
Carb Rebuild, Tune up, synthetic oil change, DRIVING!
This weekend I rebuilt the carb. The car was starting to run rough so I thought it might need a tune up. I replace plugs, cap, rotor. If you remember I had the pertronix ignition when I installed the new engine and I was pleased to see when I checked the timing it was still dead on, it has not drifted at all.
Well the tune up did not help which lead me to the carb rebuilt. I did this also when I installed the new engine a few years ago but with the car sitting over winters and what not gunk could build up so that was where I went next. Indeed the carb rebuild turned the trick. If you have not done it before find a friend who has. It is not that hard you basically just take it apart, clean everything real good and put it back together. Make extra sure that you get all of the tubes and channels blown clean, that makes the biggest difference.
While I was at it I also put synthetic oil in. I did this partly due to how hot the engine was running and I wanted to put something that could put up with the heat. Of course now with the new Aluminum radiator the car does not run hot anymore but that’s ok :^)
5/22/10
New Convertible top Installation
Hmmm ahhh yea this looks way better than the old top even if it is not totally installed yet!. That GLASS rear window is just to cool. I can actually see out the rear now when I drive!!!!! Looks way cool when it folds into place too!
The semi finished product. Top is mostly on. Still little things to do like by rear window weatherstrip and installation of decorative bead over rear staples but it looks good..
Rear corner installed. had to do both sides about 4 times befire I got it right.
Here is where you have to use contact cement to get this tab attached to the top you do this after the leading edge staples are in.
Here is the top partially installed. The rear corners were not easy yo get looking right.
The rear tacks are covered by a decorative bead called a wire on. It is not real wide so you have to get the staples in a nice straight line so they are covered. I used a piece of tape to make sure I stayed straight.
The leading edge of the top had pits in the metal that showed through the top. To fix this I filled with body filler before I installed the new top. This will make the leading edge nice and smooth.
This is a cable tiat runs the length of the top over door areas. You have feed it into the top.
After looking at the top it seemed to me that water could get into the trunk area based on the design. When I removed the top I found this. It is a rain gutter! Full of dirt but that is what it is…I cleaned primed and painted it before I installed new top.
This is the new GLASS FOLDING rear window … to cool…looks real nice. I only have a few staples holding it in to position it.
Ner glass rear window installation starts. You can see I used old window to notch places for the bolts.
Here is the leading edge with the weather strip removed…same as rear, staples are rusted due to the last installer not putting clear caulk over them.
This is the bolt to remove the weather strip on the rear window. You can get to it if you put the top half up.
Rear window out, starting to remove the old top
Here is the old rear window totally removed
The installation has started…there is no turning back now!!!
Here is the old rear window removed and the rear tack strip. You can see how rusty the staples are. The previous installer never bother to put clear caulk over them so they rusted…nice…..
5/13/10
New Convertible top
Well the time has finally come to think about installing a new top….it is very intimidating but I am going to give it a go. I drive the car with the top down most of the time as it is not raining, that plus the fact that the top is a mess and I don’t want people to see it. One of the first impressions I had of the car when I was looking at it to buy it was the neat cracking sound the top made as it was going up and it was cracking and splitting. With the duct tape I added it for the most part kept out the rain when I got caught but I only put it up when it was raining or really cold…I really makes the car look bad.
Here are some pictures.
4/25/10
Idler arm, Inner/outer tie rods
Now that the work at the back of the car is done I decided that it was time to get to the steering. I have never worked on steering before but I knew my outer tie rods were shot and could actually be original. The boots were shot and I do have bump steer when I hit a bump in the road sometimes. What bump steer does is take the car in another direction than you intended when you hit a bump. My steering was not actually all that bad but the bump steer has bothered me a bit and the tie rods were a concern. I have seen other cars where a tie rod actually fell off and that could make for a very bad day. So I decided to definitely replace the inner and outer tie rods on both sides. I will add some pictures later but I am glad I did this..the old ones seemed strong enough but to look at them it is sort of scary.
So there are tons of placed to see how to replace tie rods, WWW.MUSTANGMONTHLY.COM has a great write up. What I had a hard time finding is the proper torque for the tie rods and idler arm nuts. So here it is. For the Tie rods 30 ft/lb and for the idler arm it is 60 ft/lb. You definitely need a tie rod puller to replace the tie rods. They are about $14 at an auto store. One of the rods would not come out even with the tie rod puller si U used my 3lb hammer and that did the trick. Even with the nuts removed they require a lot of force to get the out…which is a good thing with you consider how important they are.
The tie rods are fairly easy to replace and once I had them in I noticed that the idler arm would wiggle when I moved the tires. If I grabbed the center link I could make it go up and down so I decided to replace the idler arm as well while I had the car up on jacks and I was doing all this work.
The idler arm replacement was actually not that hard. I thought I would need a tie rod or pitman arm puller to get it off but I did not. It actually came out when I pulled it by hand after the nuts were off. One trick I learned to late is I should have torqued the nut that is by the mounting arm BEFORE I put it in the car. It is next to impossible to get the torque wrench on it once it is in the car. So do this on the bench BEFORE you put it in the car.
Once I had the new idler arm in the steering rack was much firmer and did not wiggle. I was surprised it drove as well as it did with the idler arm being loose. In any case the only point that I think might need an update now is at the power steering piston but the rack is definitely firm now with all the new parts. I have only had it around the neighborhood and the steering is good, it is not like a modern car but the bump steer seems better. I hit some known bumps that caused the problem before and they do not now. I need to drive it some more before I can tell how much it has really cahnged. Also the steering wheel is off center. That is normal for this and I need to align the front end…this will be tie first time I have needed to take the car to a pro….I am not sure if I can do that at home BUT I do remember a method for doing it at home and I may try that to see if I can get it close…I will let you know!
Also I ordered a new convertible top and the emergency brake cables…so I will have more updates soon.
4/9/10
Springs are in!
Worked all day on the car today. It would have gone much faster but it is obvious that the car has not been touched for forty years so it fought back a bit. I will jump to the end and then go over the details. Bottom line is that the springs are in and they had the desired effect. My scientific test of the old springs vs the new springs and me jumping on them to see which were stronger was right. The car now sits about 2 1/4 inches higher. That is what I needed. The old springs were definitely weak and would really flatten out when I jumped on them. The new ones would not. The new springs are just stock, nothing special but they did indeed raise up the back of the car. When I would take friends with me sometimes the rear would rub on a bump, I think this will fix that for sure.Everything on the rear of the car was original from what I could see with the exception of the shocks.
Here is a list if what I did.
1) Installed new rear springs
2) Installed new rear shocks
3) Installed new differential gasket and axle seals
4) Repaired rust damage to rear frame
5) Installed new spring bushings
6) Undercoated rear of car
This turned out to be a lot of work, mainly due to the age of the car, rust and the fact it was all original. The shocks are a piece of cake, you just have to remove the rear seat to get to the top of them and take the nut off. The frame repair was a real test of my welding skills. I had to replace an area that was rusted where near where the spring bolts on. I had to fabricate a new section and weld it in. Actually it came out quite well, even my 16 year old son was impressed with my welding skills.
The rear shackle nuts on the passenger side were rusted solid. It was real hard to get them off. I would up having to turn so hard I broke the end that was press fit into the shackle and buggered up the threads as well. I welded the part of the shackle that was press fit in and had to cut a bit off of the end to get to good threads for the nut to go on. Had the same kind of problem with the axle hold down plate nuts but I managed to get them eventually.
In any case the car now sits 2 1/4 inches higher in the back and is level now. Before I put the new springs in it was 1 inch lower on the passenger side compared to the drivers side. Here are the pictures. Looks a lot better than when I started!!
Still a little more to do but it is a ton better now!
I have been putting this work off for a few years and I am glad I finally got it done. I will not worry now about taking to many people with me and the rear end bottoming out. I cannot drive it yet as I still have to fill the diff, fix the brake line and a few other odds and ends. I am wondering if it will ride any different and if I will be able to tell the back is a little higher. The hood has always looked really long and I think the front of the car has been a bit higher making it look that much longer when you drive it. Will be interesting to see.
4/8/10
Removed rear springs, started work on rear of car
Well I was making really good progress until I decided it was time to replace the diff gasket. I have done that before but never on an old mustang…I figured how hard could it be???? Well…..it was not hard once I finally figured out how to do it…2 days later….I prevented myself from doing anything stupid like prying on it or hitting on it hard…until I found out where to hit and how hard!
So this car has an 8 inch differential with a third member….that is the piece on the front that connects to the drive shaft. Anyway..I could not for the life of me figure out how to get it off. I loosened all the nuts but it would not come apart. After getting some help from the fine folks at 1969stang.com I found out you had to pull the axle shafts out first. Easy!!! NOT…you have to get the axle retainer bracket out and the bolts were really hard to get out, rusted in place, I had to let them soak for 24 hours with liquid wrench before I could get them out safely without worrying about twisting the heads off the bolt. Now that I have basically done everything I can to this car I know that everything on the passenger side is always rusted worse and harder to get off than the drivers side. The previous owners must have had it somewhere which allowed the passenger side to get exposed to moisture. They say that the drivers side is normally worse. This is due to the fact that when you park on the street that side is exposed to traffic, salt trucks etc…not this car…Drivers side was in better shape.
In any case I FINALLY got the diff taken apart. Here are the pictures.
1) Disconnect from U joint
2) Make sure you support the drive shaft so it does not slip out.
3) Remove tires
4) Remove the brake drums
5) Rotate hole in axle so you can remove the 4 bolts from the retaining plate
6) Attach an old rim to the axle
7) Hit the rim to get the axle out. Rotate the rim as you hit. Once it breaks free you can pull it out by hand.
8) Remove bolts holding third member in place.
9) Remove third member…
10) Gaze with satisfaction a the garage floor as you look at the removed diff and savor the moment….
You don’t have to remove the rear end for this, I just did as I am also replacing the rear springs. May actually be easier with the rear end in the car.
4/3/10
Removed rear springs, started work on rear of car
I got the rear springs out today and you can really tell I have note paid any attention to the back end of the car. Boy does it need some help. I really have some clean up work to do there.
While I am laying under the car I am going to take care of the rust and some other things I see, under coat it, make it look more like the rest of the car. I knew it needed work but I just never got around to fixing it all…I guess now is the time!
I got the rear springs out and if you look at the picture below you will see that it looks like the old springs are arched higher than the new ones. This worried me for a second as I want to raise the rear a bit not lower it! So I performed a very scientific experiment on them by standing on them. I weigh ~250 pounds and when I just stand on each spring they compress down to about the same level BUT I can feel the old spring is soft. When I bounce on the OLD spring I can get it to go very flat, when I bounce on the new one it does not, it is much stiffer and does not compress as much, which is a good thing.
The springs came out fairly easily. I hit all the nuts with liquid wrench about a week a go so they did not put up to much of a fight. The hardest ones were in the back attached to the shackle. While I am under here and I have it all apart I decided I am going to open up the rear axle and take a look at it and also fix a leak at the seal. Here you can see where it is leaking a bit.
You can see it is leaking so I need to fix that, of course I am going to clean it up and paint it too. Thats about all I am going to do today. Tomorrow is Easter so no working on the car. I have off next week so I am going to get this all done so I can get it back on the road. Before I put it up on jack stands I took if for a nice spring drive. The weather in Maryland was great today and I clicked over to 4000 miles on the odometer. I reset it to zero when I put the new engine and tranny in it and got it on the road for the first time, it is really running great!
3/29/10
Installed Radiator overflow and starting rear spring/shock replacement
With the warm weather I am getting motivated again, it was just to cold to go in the garage and work this winter, especially with all of the snow we got this year!! So I ordered a radiator over flow, new rear springs and rear shocks.
I will start with the radiator overflow kit. I got this from JC Whitney, it is the “large” one but it is really not all that big, looks like a normal one to me. The installation was easy. As you can see I installed it on the drivers side front inner fender. It comes with a frame that you slide the container into, the mounts are not integral to the plastic. All you do is connect your overflow tube to the bottom of the reservoir fill it to the line with radiator fluid and you are done. Took me about an hour. If you do not have one of these your radiator actually contains some air and is less effective. Newer cars all have them and they are a snap to add and improve the cooling power of your radiator as there is no longer air in it and it is constantly full of fluid. I think the efficiency improves in the ten percent range which is significant. As you may know the radiators on these cars were marginal and I know even with a brand new stock radiator it does tend to get hot in the summer. So for less than 20 bucks I thought this was a good idea. Here are some pictures.
Now on the the Rear Springs. Since I got the car the rear end has sagged a bit, a little more on the Passenger side than the drivers side. So I decided to get new springs and also replace the rear shocks. I replaced the front a few years ago when I rebuilt the front end so it is time to get the rear done. I thought about having the original ones re-arched but I could not find a spring place near me and the new ones were not expensive so I ordered the new ones. Here is a picture: 
Nothing fancy just repro stock springs. I am hoping they lift the back of the car up some and level it out. It is hard to notice it is not level but I notice it and also the rear does sit to low so I want to raise it up for sure. I did lower the front of the car by about an inch and a half when I installed the front coils. I had cut off the first coil. The ride is good but even with the front dropped a bit the rear is still to low. When I get the old ones out I will see how they compare to the new springs. Also there was a hole rusted in the rear passenger frame rail so I am going to fix that while I am at it. While the springs and rear end are out I got a new re-end gasket and will replace the fluid, inspect it and clean/paint the axle. Once this work is done on the rear I want to work on the front end replacing the idler arms etc on the front end as well. I don’t think all of this work will take that long so I should be driving again in no time. I already had it out some this spring and it still is running great!
9/5/09
Fixed Gauges, spend 8 bucks to upgrade clock to quartz
I decided to do some work on the instrument panel this weekend. I had added an aftermarket bolt on gauge set to make sure things were OK due to my oil pressure reading low all the time and the water temp reading high. The bolt on set showed that I had 60 pounds of oil pressure and the temp was correct. I have since replaced the water pump and added an over flow capture to the radiator and the car runs cooler now so I decided I would take a crack at getting all the gauges to work properly. The Alternator gauge has never worked at all. I learned some very interesting things about the instrument panel in this effort and I want to share them with you. I think the most important thing I learned is that you can actually adjust where the gauges read by changing the Cluster Voltage Regulator. As you turn it up or down your gauges will change. In this case I knew my oil pressure was great and the engine was right at 180 degrees so I adjusted the gauges so that they are exactly in the middle when at the normal value…awesome…Now my oil an temp are right in the middle when the car is warmed up..how cool is that..as for the alternator gauge … well its still broken, I have to do some more work on that. I think it is not working due to the new solid state voltage regulator I put in when I replaced the alternator a few years ago. I did verify that the gauge it self is good so the problem is some where else. Also a few years ago I replaced sending unit in the tank for the fuel gauge and it has worked fine since. Now on to some of the details.
Removing the instrument cluster is not to hard but does take some work. First you have to remove the dash pad, then there are 4 screws on the cluster itself you have to remove. Then it is loose and you can reach around and pull out the speedo cable. Next you demate the power connector on the right side..it’s out. Since I had it removed I also replaced all 12 bulbs. They are next to impossible to get to and a bunch were burned out so this was a good time to replace them.
Now if you want to adjust where the gauges read you need a small pair of needle nose and turn the CVR screw one turn. On mine 1 rev changed the reading by a little over 1/3 the value of the gauge. turn it OUT to make the gauges go DOWN in value, that’s COUNTER clock wise.
This is the CVR taken apart, you can see the little screw. You can get to it easy by just peeling back the plastic circuit board. I wanted to show you it taken apart to explain how this little gem works. When I found out this was the voltage regulator I expected to see some resistors, caps, etc in there…but NO. This is 1960 tech at its finest. Remember they did not have solid state yet and what this actually is a device that PULSES the 12v of the battery about twice a second and that results in an average over time of about 5 volts…wow…that’s what I love about these cars it is really interesting to see how they did it cheap and without computers or solid state electronics…and it is still working 40 years later. The points are as bright as the day it left the factory. Remember this has a VERY small current on it so there is really no pitting. The way it works is there is a little wire wrapped around a bi-metal arm. The wire heats, the arm bends, breaks the connection, the arm cools and goes down makes the connection again, the little coil heats the arm goes back up breaking the connection and it does this rwice a second. When its running the arm oves so little you cannot hardly even see it move. Neat….
While I was at it I decided to turn my Clock from mechanical to quartz. This costs a small fortune to have done but I bought a movement at a hobby shop for eight bucks and decided to give it a go. To jump to the end I now have a working quarts clock in my Stang…The pictures below tell the story
This is the original clock and the quarts movement I got for $8.00
The ORIGINAL working mechanical movement. I saved this for the future and can re-install it if I want 
I removed the original dials and slipped the new unit in. The dials that came with it had a fancy point and I ground it into a straight dial like the original
This is the back of the unit with the new movement 
Here is the finished WORKING quartz clock.
4/19/09
Well I have not finished the hockey sticks yet but I did start to put the racing stripes on the car you can see below. I got the hood done this weekend and also put the hood scoop back on. Boy does it look hot. It is a real head turner now. I could not figure out what the real standard was for stripes so I did some forum research and it looks like a 2 inch gap with 10 inch stripes was the most popular so that is what I did. As you know this is a “test” paint job so I took some liberties….I used Rustoleum paint for the stripes…..OK STOP YELLING…It looks GREAT….I am going to do a REAL paint job next winter, I really wanted to see how it looked before I commit the time and money of the final paint job. I will be sanding it all off anyway. I must say that it really does look good. I accented the stripes with a double thin black pin stripe…looks VERY nice. I am going to do the trunk and under the doors as well and will post these pictures with more detail when I am done…. 
Start of adding racing stripes to to the car…and the hood scoop is back on
2/15/09
I plan to re-chrome some of my trim (myself with a kit), and do a “Real” paint job (myself of course). I started this and am working on the hockey sticks. These are the trim around the convertible top where it goes into the car. These are made of cheap pot metal and look really bad. The straight chrome in this area is actually stainless steal, but the corners are chromed pot metal. It has pitted and is pealing, a new set can run about $400, IF you can find them. I am using Caswell products for this and will post as I do it. To start with I needed to remove the original chrome. I did this by putting the hockey stick in water and vinegar and hooking it up to a battery charger…this actually worked…kinda. It loosened the chrome alright but also took some of the pot metal near the electrode off…This was not such a big deal as I intended to fill the pits with solder anyway and would fill these in at the same time…or so I thought..
Here is the drivers side. You can see how pitted the hockey stick is
So after I got most of the chrome off I used navel jelly on the entire unit to stop and more pitting or rust, cleaned this off and then started to solder in where there were pits. Well I have done a lot of soldering in my day and filling in little pits should not have been to much of a challenge. As I started to heat the pot metal to the point where the solder melted all looked good the solder started to flow…and then the pot metal evaporated…as in melted, disappeared, vaporized..what a mess. I had a huge gap in the hockystick now. I did some testing after this and the pot metal melting point was JUST above the solder…I also did some reading in the internet and it turns out pot metal is any crap the manufacture can find and use…very low quality metal, which is why it costs so much to get it re-chromed. So I thought I would be careful and fill the hole back in with solder and it would be ok…It kinda worked so I moved on to another section…this time I managed to melt almost the entire way through the hockey stick…now what was one piece is now two with a horrible hole in the middle. I was a bit frustrated. So I managed after some time to get it soldered back together and I also copper plated the unit. This is actually kinda cool you rub this electrode on the metal and the copper transfers to the thing the electrode touches. So now I had a copper plated hockey stick…victory…until it snapped in half where I had soldered it together…So what to do now. I tried again to solder it an no luck. I did some research and Caswell has a product you paint on that makes anything conductive an you can then plate it…so I decided I would epoxy a metal brace to the back of the stick and use body filler to fill in all the pits and the gap I created. This worked great.
Here is the one I am working on, It is primed and needs a little more sanding, nice and smooth
Once I am done sanding and filling I will paint it with the copper paint and plate it. So far it looks like it will look a lot better. I will post as I do it.
Painting, the last job I did was with cheap paint and looks OK but this time I am going to use the real (read expensive) paint. I also plan to put the white racing stripes down it, paint the hood scoop white and add the GT type stripes under the doors. Should look real sharp. In addition there is other interior work such as figuring out what to do with the door panels, repairing the old or going with deluxe panels (new), installing the clock and finishing the Grande dash install. Also at some point I need to remove the rear end to fix the rear frame rail and rebuild the rear but I have been putting this off (driving it ya know….).
I also have re-done the web site as you can see and based my update links on the work I did so you can find what you are looking for easier rather than by date. If there is something you want to see or me to add let me know as I have more pictures and could add sections or details about certain things. In any case I will be updating soon with the work so keep an eye out!
LATEST UPDATE 2/15/09
I plan to re-chrome some of my trim (myself with a kit), and do a “Real” paint job (myself of course). I started this and am working on the hockey sticks. These are the trim around the convertible top where it goes into the car. These are made of cheap pot metal and look really bad. The straight chrome in this area is actually stainless steal, but the corners are chromed pot metal. It has pitted and is pealing, a new set can run about $400, IF you can find them. I am using Caswell products for this and will post as I do it. To start with I needed to remove the original chrome. I did this by putting the hockey stick in water and vinegar and hooking it up to a battery charger…this actually worked…kinda. It loosened the chrome alright but also took some of the pot metal near the electrode off…This was not such a big deal as I intended to fill the pits with solder anyway and would fill these in at the same time…or so I thought..
Here is the drivers side. You can see how pitted the hockey stick is
So after I got most of the chrome off I used navel jelly on the entire unit to stop and more pitting or rust, cleaned this off and then started to solder in where there were pits. Well I have done a lot of soldering in my day and filling in little pits should not have been to much of a challenge. As I started to heat the pot metal to the point where the solder melted all looked good the solder started to flow…and then the pot metal evaporated…as in melted, disappeared, vaporized..what a mess. I had a huge gap in the hockeystick now. I did some testing after this and the pot metal melting point was JUST above the solder…I also did some reading in the internet and it turns out pot metal is any crap the manufacture can find and use…very low quality metal, which is why it costs so much to get it re-chromed. So I thought I would be careful and fill the hole back in with solder and it would be ok…It kinda worked so I moved on to another section…this time I managed to melt almost the entire way through the hockey stick…now what was one piece is now two with a horrible hole in the middle. I was a bit frustrated. So I managed after some time to get it soldered back together and I also copper plated the unit. This is actually kinda cool you rub this electrode on the metal and the copper transfers to the thing the electrode touches. So now I had a copper plated hockey stick…victory…until it snapped in half where I had soldered it together…So what to do now. I tried again to solder it an no luck. I did some research and Caswell has a product you paint on that makes anything conductive an you can then plate it…so I decided I would epoxy a metal brace to the back of the stick and use body filler to fill in all the pits and the gap I created. This worked great.
Here is the one I am working on, It is primed and needs a little more sanding, nice and smooth
Once I am done sanding and filling I will paint it with the copper paint and plate it. So far it looks like it will look a lot better. I will post as I do it.
Painting, the last job I did was with cheap paint and looks OK but this time I am going to use the real (read expensive) paint. I also plan to put the white racing stripes down it, paint the hood scoop white and add the GT type stripes under the doors. Should look real sharp. In addition there is other interior work such as figuring out what to do with the door panels, repairing the old or going with deluxe panels (new), installing the clock and finishing the Grande dash install. Also at some point I need to remove the rear end to fix the rear frame rail and rebuild the rear but I have been putting this off (driving it ya know….).
I also have re-done the web site as you can see and based my update links on the work I did so you can find what you are looking for easier rather than by date. If there is something you want to see or me to add let me know as I have more pictures and could add sections or details about certain things. In any case I will be updating soon with the work so keep an eye out!
My car needs a new top…now I am not so Skerd!!! Thanks!