The Engine Is Back In

During the week I was sent a teaser picture by the guys from Mustang Maniac. What was that picture? It was of my engine. Now there is nothing new about that, as I have posted (quite) a few of them myself, but this was a little different. The engine was sitting at the front of my car. The guys were happy that the engine was ready to go in. It was going to be a weekend for me as it was my first engine refit and I couldn’t wait.

On arrival the brake lines were finished and Yogi has excelled himself yet again. Now I love doing the brake lines, but I must admit, Yogi does them better than me. The brake reservoir was in, connected up to the three way splitter box and not the four way original and the pipe work to the disc brakes are now in place. It’s a different car already to look at. I would be happy with the drum brakes and they would work if it was only me on the road. However I am worried about other nutters on the road that do stupid things in front of me. I know I can stop the car where I want to when I want to, but I can’t cater for the excellent braking capability of modern cars, and in comparison my drums were not going to be able to stop me as fast in an emergency. I always drive with plenty of space between me and the car in front, but you just never know. My new disc conversion will give me that extra stopping power should I need it and safety peace of mind. The brake reservoir now has front and rear split for the brake lines. Should the pipes leak or fail on either the front or back, then I have would have the other independent half to stop me, at some point that is. The original brake booster set up was a single reservoir for all four corners of a drum brake distributed by a three way splitter, so if one corner brake cylinder leaks, then the whole lot gets dangerous. With a brute of an engine like the 289ci you need it to stop as well as get of the line. Drums are notorious for fade when they get hot, on England’s roads the inclines can be quite step, so constant braking down a long hill could cause issues. But in the USA everything is pretty much flat, apart from a few places like San Francisco of course, so it wasn’t so much of a problem then.

Mustang Maniac had ordered me in a particular disc conversion kit that I was after for my car, and it arrived at the end of last week. Yogi and Adam wasted no time in bolting the parts to the car.

The discs are vented and slotted along with four pot calipers for superior stopping power assisted by the new brake booster reinstalled last week.

Once the discs were in place the steering bar, steering ram, tie rod ends, idler arm etc. fittings were all bolted into place. The tie rods were just finger tight as the geometry has to be completed at some point before the road testing. Due to the full three inch opening of my powder coated headers, there needs to be an extended steering ram spacer fitted. I have covered this on a previous photo set, click here for the quick link or look up Steering Ram in the search.

With all the brakes fitted and piped up and the performance springs now in place, the outer shock tower covers could be fitted. This was pretty much the underside of the car completed apart from gearbox, prop and exhaust etc.

Engine Fitting:

The engine was attached to the crane and aligned up to the front of the car. John, Yogi, Chris and Me were all there ready and waiting to put the engine in. I was on crane duty listening to the instructions to lower, push forward or back etc. The guys were either side of the engine bay to guide the freshly refurbished engine in place and trying not damage the fresh paint work. There is a secret to getting the engine in with the hood still fitted and is a closely guarded. Shhh here is some of it! The engine is moved into the engine bay sideways just under the hood, then lowered a little, twist it quarter of a turn so it’s the correct position and lower down again. But I didn’t tell you that! Anyway, as I was on crane duty I still managed to grab a few pics of the process.

With the engine almost in place, the long mount bolts were slotted through to take the weight. I have a few pics here of the engine mounts after their refurbishment, not that you will ever see them, but I will know of course.

The nuts and bolts were finger tightened on and the crane disconnected from the engine. There she was all sitting pretty and ready to go. The tape was still in place over the carb inlet and the old rockers cover still there for now. We will test fire the engine and then replace the rockers with the ones I want a little later. The distributor cap is an old one and will be replaced so it’s only there to keep the insides of the distributor clean too.

With our hard work and with no damage what so ever, John decided to photo bomb a picture for me! 😀

Just to keep the silicon pipe work fresh and the engine clean the Mustang Maniac logo heater pipes were just pushed over the water fittings before the final trim ups as they are much to long at the moment.

So there you have it – a major milestone was completed, the engine was in, the heart of the car ready to start beating in the near future. The rear wheels are on the car and the fronts will be on as soon as the steering column gets fitted in place. Then the car will be ready to roll where ever it’s needed to go. I am so chuffed with the results of seeing the painted engine in the engine bay, the brake pipes, the steering and suspension, I can’t find the right words to express it, and that’s a true first for me!

I may be a bit biased here, but I think it looks great even with the old bits still on it. Thanks to the Mustang Maniac guys, yet again.

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Pedals & Pad

Saturday arrived and it was stupid cold on the way to Mustang Maniac, my breath was leaving a mist in front of me as I walked to the car. The sky looked heavy, but I was going to enjoy myself regardless. I arrived after battling through flurries of snow that luckily didn’t settle for too long. As I arrived I was told that a full English breakfast down the local pub was the order of the day to warm us up. Adam kindly treated us all to breakfast. Thank You Adam. We arrived back all warmed up and I was eager to get on with my tasks for the day. Yogi told me what needed to be done, dash pad, brake booster with the brake pedal box fitted inside and throttle link. I was happy apart from the cold.

First job was the dash pad, a thick lining that was attached to the inside of the car to stop the noise of the engine and insulate the inside of the car. The solid pad had cut out holes that were removed depending on the configuration of the car. Things like heater box and heater pipes, wire looms needed to go from the inside to the outside.

front

back

The pad had to be tacked in place with large plastic studs and align the holes correctly. You can also stick the pad down, but as I may need to move bits about to fit them, I will leave that sticky bit till last after all the fire wall fittings have been made.

The next job was the brackets for the brake booster that bolted to the inside the of the car. It sort of goes without saying this was really a two-man job to hold in place while the first couple of bolts held it all together. But, I found out that if you put your hand through the steering column hole you can hold the inside pedal box and bolt the brackets on enough to hold them in place while you do them up tight. The throttle pedal link was a simple three screws through the firewall.

inside

outside

My designated jobs were done, but I was eager for more. Adam turned up just at the right time to see how I was getting on. We had a discussion about the next jobs and he decided that the heater box and steering box could be fitted. Both of these were two-man jobs and Adam stayed to help me with it all. We fitted the heater hoses first the heater box so we didn’t have to fiddle around inside the car at a later date.

inside heater box

from the outside

inside steering post

engine bay fitted.

The end result for the day was a nice looking bit of work so far. The only trouble is that the work took longer than I expected so there aren’t too many pictures to show, but you can see the end results. The photo I forgot to post last week was the shocks fitted in place, so here elusive picture is.

Next week we might be in a position to put the engine in the car!

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And We’re Off

The day of work at Mustang Maniac couldn’t come round quick enough for me, clock watching only seemed to make the time go slower. Why was I more eager this week than previously? The simple answer is that I would be working on my freshly painted new shell fitting new parts. I wasn’t sure exactly what I would be doing as that was down to Yogi to let me know.

Before I get onto the day’s events I have to make a statement “I am a doughnut!” Happy now Yogi? I had to put that statement within the first paragraph or Yogi was gonna tell everybody about my daft as I was getting tired school boy error. It was one of those funny moments shared between a professional and his apprentice! I may explain it later depends how this write-up goes. 🙂

I arrived at the offices early to find Yogi with a fancy wipe clean Snap On board with a list of parts on it. We had our usual chat and listened to the conversation taking place. The list was new parts for my car and I was asked about what I wanted to do with the car stance. More of that a bit later. The important parts were going to be the upper and lower control arms which as the name suggests controls the efficiency and operation of the suspension. Old worn parts here could cause problems when it goes to the Geo Workshop later for tracking, camber and toe set ups. New parts it was to be especially around the suspension and steering. I walked into Al’s (Yogi’s) workshop and there was car still covered and looking very peaceful under her cover. I was informed that the fuel line has been fitted first as it’s a major pain to fit after the parts are fitted. The line hasn’t been fastened properly yet as the brake lines will need to go on as well at the same clips, but you get the idea anyway.

We discussed the plan of action and what we were going to do, shortly after we planned the day the parts turned up fresh from Mustang Maniacs stores.

leaf springs and all parts

upper control arms

lower control arms

The first job was to lift the car of the trolley, This was done via large axle stands and a large lengths of wood that would be supported under the car. The ramp was lowered until the strain was taken up, slowly the clamp bolts were undone and the trolley lifted away. The supporting blocks of rubber were mounted onto the ramps and another milestone was reached. No photo’s at this point as it was all hands to each corner and simultaneous actions required to prevent damage. This can be done in front and back but takes a while. A celebratory smile from myself was brighter than the sun that just started to show through the clouds. We (being Yogi and me), got a work table out and unwrapped by refurbished spindles, tie rods and their relevant bolts. Things were getting really exciting.

The bottom control arms were fitted into place via the single heavy bolt and left to dangle, these were the first parts to be bolted back onto the car and I couldn’t believe that I was actually doing it. Yogi was prepping the bits showing me what to do and then letting me get on with it. I learned a little saying that is so true: “Finger tight, until you know it’s right.” This was the order of the day that allows you to move things around to fit should you need too.

The top control arms were fitted into the inner wing mounts and the spindles bolted into place. This joined up the two control arms. The Tie rods were next to be bolted into place which linked the control arms to the front of the chassis.

We decided it was time to bring in the axle over from the panel shop where I had been working for the previous couple of weeks. The main axle shaft was black and the diff painted to the original Red Oxide primer colour scheme as it would have been straight from the factory.

The stainless steel shackles for the leaf springs were mounted to the rear chassis legs. The front of the leaf springs were lifted into place and lightly bolted lightly into place, the rear bushes were fitted into the chassis legs and the back of the of the leaf springs also lifted up into place, a little joggling around to get the bolts aligned through the holes to hold it all in place.

What followed was a complicated procedure of resting the axle on a support and lifting one side over the leaf springs to be seated correctly on the top of the leaf springs locating lug. The shock mounting plates were then clamped to the leaf springs and axle via the large U-bolts and tightened up, hard. The rest of the rear suspension bolts were now tightened up as well.

axle on leaf springs

shock plates & u brackets

After lunch it was back to the front again, we were going to fit up the new spring perches that were a couple of bolts onto the lower control arm.

The uprated 1″ anti-roll bar will make a big difference to the handling of the car as well as the Export brace and Monte Carlo bars that will be fitted. Due to the size of the anti-roll bar this now runs very close to the tie rods and is a two-man job to fit with damaging any paintwork on components. The anti roll bar U-clamps were put into place to hold the bar and then the bottom mounting arms and bushing fitted to the lower control arms. Once we were happy with the alignment we bolted it up properly.

During this point of fitting the anti-roll bar bushing kit I had a couple of the rubbers in my hand and noticed they were different. I started to panic having a senior moment thinking that I had fitted the wrong parts somewhere. I held my hand out to Yogi with the parts to show him the different parts. He looked at them, turned one over and it was of course the same, simultaneously he laughing out “doughnut”. A few minutes of laughing followed with me saying “I can assume that this will not be mentioned outside these walls then”. To which Yogi laughed back with “not if you mention that you are a doughnut in the first paragraph of your blog!” I agreed. But, as I have called myself a doughnut and ‘fessed up to my school boy error, I needn’t of mentioned it earlier, does that make me a double doughnut? But it was worth it and I thoroughly enjoyed the banter. The final quick job rather than the fitting the front springs and shocks was to hook up the hand brake cables to the tunnel brackets so that they didn’t get in the way.

Now it was almost time to put the car away and Terry and John popped in to see how progress was getting on. But before we covered her back up I bestowed a little prezzie on the car my lovely wife got for me:

It was a great day, and I loved every minute of it, thanks to the MM guys.

Previously posts I mentioned that I would get some pics of the inside of the car, I haven’t forgotten:

roof

spare paint for any emrgencies

I can’t wait for next week. 🙂

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Taking Some Good Advice

Firstly I would like to wish you all a very Happy New Year. Over Christmas I have been working hard to get the odd parts of my suspension cleaned up, sprayed, painted or treated all ready to go back into the car. I have asked Mustang Maniac for some advice at this point. The question was around the new car paint with old untested parts. The simple answer was almost immediate “Easy – replace the major components such as the top and bottom control arms of the suspension”. The reason is that everything bolts to those major parts such as the suspension and steering, so any wear and tear or damage to those critical parts would mean having to take everything back off and replace those components, which in turn could potentially damage the paint with a unnecessary mechanical task that could result from a slip. So, the advice was given and the advice well and truly taken, Thanks Yogi and Adam on that one. I will replace the top and lower suspension arms, I will refurbish the smaller easy access parts that bolt to it. This would cause much less disruption and you are guaranteed to have tight tolerances where it counts at the very base level. I suppose the analogy scenarios would be the building a house on sand, or making a boat hull out of untreated soft wood. They would look good for a short while but be useless.

So what have I been up to? Well that would be the tie rods, ball joints, steering box, spindles etc. Once completed i have wrapped them all up in bubble wrap ready to take down the Mustang Maniac ready to go back on the car.

Spindles:

These spindles were seriously gunged up and caked in some serious grime, it took plenty of scraping and wire wheel work to get back down to the original metal. Paint on underseal and paint again that was chipped warranted the work. The final stage was coat of satin underhood black spray to take the shine of the spindles.

Steering Box:

The steering box needed a bit more work for some contrast work. Again this was pretty rusted up with hardly any protective paint in place, it being the paint was all going to have to come of along with the rust. I could see the original tag on the box and was keen to keep this and see what it said. A good dig around with the various old screw drivers I have to get into all the nooks and crannies that have almost 50 years of grim all over them.

orig tab cleaned up

With the box back to bare metal and degreased it was time to mask up and get painting. The box was going to be in a semi gloss black with the end cap plate in silver and the bolts in black for some contrast.

The completed article looks pretty good with the tag back in place and the silver end cap.

Tie Rods:

The next part of the front end was the tie rods that were well and truly corroded up and seized. I took the left and right hand sides apart which are different in design. The left side was so seized into the adjustment section I had to get my blow lamp out and heat it up red hot and tap it free. It eventually came free and needed a lot of cleaning. each of the ball joints were solid, so they were soaked in Gibbs Brand and tapped on wood to move them. Little by little they started to free up, fresh grease was added and worked free.

Left side tie rods.

Left side masked up and sprayed with satin black and silver contrast for detail all ready for assembly.

Right side tie rods,

You can see that the adjustment tube is a different design and less substantial.

Right side sprayed up ready for assembly.

Before I took these apart I carefully measured the positions of each of the track rods in the adjustments. I wound them back into place and only gently nipped them into place. They will need to be adjusted properly when on the car anyway.

The finished articles side by side completed.

Those of you sharp-eyed will notice the rubber covers are now missing from the ball joints. There is a good reason for that as you can see from the picture. I need new ones!

My identity crisis:

I was going to leave this post on a good high note but it seems that the gravity and little logo I was using is also being used by another company, who I am not going to mention. Not that I wanted to change my identity but I have modified it, and replaced it with my new design. The changes are subtle, colour balance, drop shadows, vignette, more chrome of the pony etc. but, the main difference is that the background colour has gone from a royal blue to a Acapulco blue now the same as my car. Hopefully this now looks a little more antique as it were. There is the copyright now applied to it in white type to show that this is my work and I have also added an invisible watermark hidden within the picture itself. The only trouble is that my YouTube videos will still have the old style on them. Going forward it will be the new style. I intend to change my header at a later date to my car with some fancy photo of some sort.

New year and a new logo to go with it? I want to be a different entity to any company out there as this is a unique blog.

The comparison of my old identity on the left and the NEW design on the right: