Four Years later

I can’t believe that it has been four years since I bought (well the wife did actually), took possession of my ’66 Mustang Coupe, 17th September 2011 to be exact. Two of those last four years have been down at Mustang Maniac getting the best attention to detail that any Mustang could ask for. I was looking forward to the day ahead to get things done, I wasn’t too sure what it was going to be, but I was about to find out. I arrived to see sitting on the side where I put my tools was a nice new super shiny gas gap. Adam smiled and said “There’s your first job”. The old gas cap was from a 1970 model, I didn’t mind it but it was starting to wind Adam up as we hadn’t changed it yet. There is a larger hole at the bottom of the filler where the retaining wire is held. This is a multi purpose idea, one you don’t lose it and two, it stops trophy hunters trying to steal it. Undo the bottom screw and slightly drill out the hole in the body panel. Screw in the cable and attach the locking bolt inside the panel. The difference was instant, and looks so much better now.

side by side

remove the screw

attach the cable and bolt

tighten the nut

The next job was now at the front, mounting the front bumper. The irons had already been bolted into place and through the stone guard. The bumper was a two-man job to avoid scratching my nice paint job. Yogi and me laid the bumper in place and the collapsible washers were placed on top of the irons. The bolts were lightly placed through the bumper and not tightened up just yet. The side mountings to the fender needed to be jiggled around a bit to make it fit on the driver’s side by pushing the bumper into place to meet the fender hole. Once they were all in place the tightening could be done. Yogi tells me I’m a lucky guy again as these can be a real pain to fit if the car is slightly out of alignment after an accident or similar. A job that makes a total transformation of the car. I even managed to get a reflection of the Corral in the bumper too.

I moved to the interior now and a piece of equipment I have been moving around to avoid damage is the aircon unit. The car is a genuine factory option aircon car, but i didn’t want all that under the hood. But, I do love the blower unit. I decided to use the blower unit in the car and make it work as a fan, if that makes sense. Yes there are going to be people who moan that’s not a aircon car as there is no “this, that or the other” under the hood. Well, all I can say is that if I want it, I still have the brackets to put it all on if I wanted too, but I don’t. These aircon units are held under the dash by two brackets, and held on the tunnel in the middle by an adjustable bolt. This looked pretty basic and I wanted something with a little more finesse should we say. I had kept the old hood stops and I was going to take the rubber of the top of that of and weld it to the bottom of the bolt. As it turned out the trunk bump stop is exactly the same thread as the support bolt for the aircon. I screwed in the bump stop and it looked like it was menat to be there. Next up the unit was carefully offered up the to the dash for a dry fit.

The power feed cable had been cut, this meant that there was no wire long enough to power the unit. So I had to extend the wire. There is never any crimping to extend a wire at Mustang Maniac, ever! I would have been thrown in the scrap bin if I had of done. The wires were stripped back about twenty millimeters and twisted together, heat shrink placed over the cable, flux applied to the cables. The (gas-powered) soldering iron was fired up and after thirty seconds it was ready to use. A lot of old cloth was placed under the solder area to avoid dropping any hot solder on the carpet. Once the soldering was completed and allowed to cool, the end of the soldering iron attachment was swapped to the hot air nozzle that shrank the heat shrink to the soldered area.

twisted wires

heat shrink and secured

The aircon unit was now able to be connected to the power. The brackets were padded out with a little foam pad to stop any vibration or rattles. The bolts were threaded through the dash and bolted from the inside.

I could then adjust the bottom stop to take the pressure of the bottom of the dash and equalise the weight distribution out. The end result was brilliant and I am glad that I made the choice to keep it in the car. The centre console will complement the aircon unit down the length of the tunnel.

Four years later and the car is not completed just yet. There is the trim for the seats, steering wheel, centre console, dash trim, gauges, rear quarter window rain felts etc all to be done. I can’t see it being ready just yet. but it’s oh so close now, I can almost taste the petrol! 🙂 Hurry up next week I have work to do.

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Gettin’ A Grillin’

The weekend arrived and the anticipation of what awaited me at Mustang Maniac was almost too much to bear. Last week was the dash pad and trunk this week unknown. The first plan of action was the trunk which needed re-gapping. Yogi was at the yard working on a car in the panel shop that needed some welding and a floor. I managed to grab Yogi to show me how the final alignment of the trunk is done. He asked for the half inch socket and ratchet and said undo the two bolts that hold the trunk lid on my side. He did likewise, but he put a tiny pinch on his side after he pushed and pulled it a bit, then done similar my side. He lowered the lid and spot on first time. We tightened the bolts fully and the trunk looks fine again. The only difference this time was that the trunk is sitting slightly proud of the rear quarters. The new rubber seal will need to bed down and the trunk will seat back down correctly again. He made it look so easy! Yogi asked me what I was up to and said I didn’t know as Adam was on a guided tour of the yard and cars with some customers. I said I would like to get the front wings sorted so I could get on with the front end. The half hour that he intended to spend with me lasted the best part of three hours of his own time. Thanks for that Yogi. I learned that the alignment is fine until you put the last few bolts in and it pulls the fender the wrong way. So we had to make adjustments, bend a couple of bits back in place and re-hang the right hand wing. The fenders will need splash guards fitted too, but I didn’t get round to those as the aerial had to be fitted first. The aerial hole in the wing is smaller than the standard Mustang one. I am a little paranoid about leaving the aerial up and some scrotum coming along and bending it over. So I went for a fully retractable version. This will help with the car cover when in storage. Trouble is that the base is not as big and in your face as the original aerial bases. It’s something I can change at a later date though.

My own job to start with after all the gap work was the plenum. This involves in assuming the “Mustang” position, on your back shoulders twisted forty-five degrees, both arms in front of you, head is supported by the T-shift gear selector that fits nicely in your left ear! Yoga experts need to come and watch the way mechanics have to contort their spines in order to see what is going on under these dash areas. The plastic plenum slips over the metal heater fan box and is held in place by four tiny self tap bolts. Easier said than done as the fire wall padding covers the space where the back bolts should go.

The two diffuser outlets at the top have a hose that goes up to the windscreen diffusers that was clipped into the dash last week. These replacement hoses are clever in that they have a clip that snaps shut around the openings.

open hose

in place

clip shut

The hoses have to be kept away from the wiper arms. The hoses are tight on the left side up to the dash, but fine on the right hand side.

right hand side to dash

left hand side

The fitting of the plenum took a stupid amount of time to fit, mainly because it all done by feel as you can’t get your head in there to see. But once fitted they look quite good.

Back to the outside now and Adam came down with an arm full of goodies for me. New front grill, front trim and fittings. The grill was a major part I wanted to get on. I worked out that the grill has to be slid into place behind a light bucket then worked carefully around to the centre as the grill sits behind the light fittings. I did it and was quite pleased with myself, up until the point when Adam said I am better of getting the Corral in place first. Dohhhh, I had to take it all back out again. The work requires two hands and concentration not to drag the grill across the paint work. Thus there was not much in the way of photos for the fitting process I’m afraid, there are a few after though of the end result.

There are two visible bolts on the top that hold the centre and hood catch, at the bottom there are four self tap screws that go into the trim. A long extension screw driver with a bolt driver is best her with the magnetic holder making things so easy. The Corral itself has been through the wars, it’s a little tarnished but almost as good as the replacements. But, I wanted something very original from the old car, and there is nothing more original than the identity of car, the Mustang Pony in Corral. I might replace it at a later date I’m not sure yet. For now this is a cross over link between the two cars. Bad choice to keep the old or get a new one? The old one certainly doesn’t look out of place.

Something missing? Yep the wheels. They were taken of to make it easier to align the fenders gaps up. Here is a clue what I could be doing next week. It could doing the front bumper, or it could be something else, I never really know till I get there.

All this doesn’t look much as so much time was done on the smaller adjustments to make it look right. But, I have taken some fancy art shots of the corral, just to make me feel better.

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Lookin’ After The Pony

The weekend has gone and I have finally got a chance to catch up on the blog. The man cave has been my residence for the last week or so. I have run out of the consumables that I needed to finish the floor pans inside the car. A change of plan that switched my attention to the smaller things I can do in the mean time, the first was the air filter pan which is finished, apart from the final top coat colour what ever that may be. However, I did promise myself not to do any of the pretty things on the car before the basics have been done, such as paint, mechanics, rust etc. But every time I walk into the man cave there is a grill that hangs on the side with this dirty Mustang Corral on it. The grill is no good as the top part has finally broken (when I picked it up), so it won’t be able to be fixed onto the car now. So now I need a nice shiny new one, (never mind then), the original grill has had a poor spray job of black paint from the front which has also gone over the underside of the Corral, but saving the pony Corral was the most important thing to me as it’s the cars identity after all.

I took the Corral apart and noticed a broken mounting leg or support which was repaired by body filler! The outside of the Corral was cleaned up and the leg was repaired with some JB Weld. The pony was fine, just very dull and no shine so I used a mixture of chrome cleaner and Gibbs Brand to bring it back to life. The results were really good and came out better than I had hoped for, so obviously I am well pleased with it. The full process of the cleaning and repairs I have added a page to the Photo Menu – Body Work – Mustang Corral, or click here for the hyper link, there are over forty photos in total. I did however take a few arty shots of the iconic horse while it was out as I may want to change the header at a later date with my own car and grill. What do you think?

The chrome cleaner was removing the dirt but seemed to be moving the dirt from one end to the other. A different approach was required, the Gibbs Brand cleaned up most of the dirt first and the chrome cleaner done the rest. As some of the metal work was pitted slightly I didn’t want to make it worse by catching the chrome with a cloth and leaving a chromeless spot and so it was treated carefully. The brushed effect wasn’t given any rough stuff either for the very same reason, the Gibbs Brand was the staple cleaner for those areas. I could see that brushed effect would scrape off if abused and ruin the look of the two-tone finish as a few tiny scratches revealed that point after the dirt was removed.