Getting Into Gear

A short week after the Easter break meant that my weekend trip to Mustang Maniac arrived in no time. I was sure to take my ball bearing down with me to fit into the fully exposed C4 gearbox. The weather started of bad but was promising to be a nice day. I arrived at the office to see Adam in the office with a room full of people, a couple of faces I recognised and a number I didn’t. Is this the male equivalent of the ladies coffee mornings, a load of blokes all standing around talking cars? Eventually I tore myself away to get down to the task in hand, finishing the gearbox. Last week the missing ball bearing stopped play unfortunately so hopefully we could make some time back up.

I pulled out the box of bits I had taken down and carefully removed the bearing and spring to check for size.

In order to wedge the bearing in place I dropped the bearing onto a slim screwdriver and lowered it into place and made sure there was clearance with no binding at all as this needed to release pressure. Once I was happy I let the bearing go and rest in place. Now I was well chuffed.

Next up was the gasket for the filter and fitting the spring into the pressure release, The filter was fitted to the correct position ensuring the spring was in place and not ping out.

spring in place

filter ready

filter clamped down

The next part was the gearbox sump pan. The old pan was a little dented but could of been cleaned up and reused with a new gasket. Adam suggested a newer design drained sump, no it was not concourse, and as I was a slight resto-mod anyway I was swayed with the super shiny chrome. The gasket was laid on the gearbox and pan fitted in place ready to tighten the bolts up.

The last part that had to go onto the gearbox was the new engine mount. This wasn’t able to be done up tight to start with as the gearbox needed to be in position first. That meant due to where the bolt heads are the mounting bracket would have to be fitted then removed to tighten the bolts fully.

At this point Adam joined me to help with the gearbox fitting, we decided to dry a fit to make sure everything was in place and where it should be. It was going to take longer with bits going on and coming off again, but as we have seen some of the previous handy work we wanted to make sure. I fitted the flex plate and the retaining plate first, not doing things up to tight, just to make sure it was held in place. Then we jacked the gearbox to the engine to check alignment.

Adam was happy with the fit and gave me the next set of instructions. Remove the flex plate again, clean up the torque converter, spray the engine back plate and then give him a shout. As the sun was out and a gorgeous day the spraying was dry by the time I had cleaned up the converter. The torque converter was cleaned up on the outside being careful not to get any cleaner into the converter itself.

With the converter now cleaned I took that and the plate back to the workshop. Fitting the newly sprayed engine plate to the back of the engine was simple as it was more like a huge gasket. The flex plate was remounted and bolts done up tight.

The torque converter was fitted into the bell housing and checked all was aligned correctly.

The gearbox was lifted to the engine and the gearbox was held in place while, the torque converter was aligned up to the flex plate with a single bolt to hold it in place from slipping out of position. The bell housing bolts were fitted to the engine and tightened up with Adam’s new fancy Snap On tool. Note to self – future Christmas prezzie!

Next up was the gearbox support bracket that we dry fitted earlier. The gearbox mounting bracket was now in place and tight so we just had to tighten the nuts to the bolt threads. Now the gearbox was supported under her own weight and the lift was released.

A huge step forward and we were on a roll. We decided to fit the prop shaft in place while we were at it. Adam carefully inspected the UJ bearings to make sure that there were no needle bearings missing. Once he was happy with that they were fitted to the end of the prop shaft universal joint and clamped into place.

The drive train was now in place. Technically ready to move under her own power and drive.

To finish the day we day we quickly fitted up the hand brake counter lever to keep the cables of the floor.

Next week it shall be back to putting things back in the engine bay. I hope to fit my new engine headers and the radiator. I am so looking forward to that.

Adam showed me a quick peak at the interior I wanted and it looks pretty darn good, but I would say that as it’s mine. I will have to start working on striping the seats down ready for the fitters sooner rather than later.

A great day, thanks Adam.

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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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The Bits I Missed

A couple of weekends have gone by where I have not worked on my car. So much so that I have had comments like “Are you feeling OK” or “Are you getting withdrawal symptoms?” Last weekend was the Enfield Pageant where I took some photos on a previous post, the week before it was a logistical car issue I couldn’t get down there. Anyway, over the weekend I went down to see the guys at Mustang Maniac and got some cleaning up work done on the underside and some more on the tunnel area. In other words, the bits I missed that needed the clean up weren’t worth taking a picture of as it wasn’t to exciting to look at, just sheets of metal with a little rusty paint in the corner. Not boring from my point of view of course, but from a photo and a post point of view it could be. Now the panels are clean enough, they are now at an acceptable standard to Adam to move on to the next stage. We are hoping to take the car of the spit and put her on the jig next week to start on some of the removal of the bad bits of chassis and adding the good bits. But, things can change quite quickly so I will have to wait and see. I will definitely post some pictures on here when that all happens. This could be an exciting stage of the project if all goes to plan.

Yesterday I started a clean-up of the hand brake, parking brake, emergency brake or secondary brake depending who you talk to. It wasn’t too bad to look at but I managed to free it up a while ago. So while the car is in bits – all the way down to the nuts and bolts, I decided to refurbish it properly. Same ol’ story of paint stripper, de-rust, mask up and spray. I stripped the whole thing down by removing the pin and retaining clip, remove the wire it’s pretty much there.

before the clean up

The only part I have to think about was the mini fire that had melted the back of the handle. I used progressively finer grades of sand paper to get it smooth again. I can’t go to far otherwise it will get thin and crack. But, it has all come up pretty well and will look good under the dash now.

All I need to do is work out the colour for the lettering of the lever. Red, white or leave it black. Any ideas for the colour? I shall reassemble this and post a pic of the final version next week.

I need to make an apology now as I had been told that the link to the Batmobile article wasn’t working. So I have re-done it with a couple of extra facts and dimensions about the car. It should be fine now, I think. Let me know if there are any more issues with it again.

Quick Links:

Articles – Original Batmobile 1966 or click here.

Photo Menu – Inside The Car Hand Brake Refurbishment or click here

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What a rocker

Another productive weekend on the car

The sun was out when I got up, thanks to the inconsiderate neighbour who decided that revving his engine up would be an ideal way to warm it up. Don’t you just love those people? Anyway I was all excited to get the last brake set on and the drive shaft back in. True to form out to the man cave got all my tools out and lined up the parts like a load of soldiers on parade. I assembled the brakes in record time, and came up with a little tip. If you have the drum brake spring removal tool there is a one end of the leg that will allow you to slide the spring onto the center pivot, apply a little grease or oil on the leg and the spring will just slip straight over onto the pivot. Simple, but effective! So the brakes were with the drive shaft now out in the garage with me. Everything assembled fine, nuts done up fine and the drive shaft went in no problems at all. You can see the whole process here or go to the Photos section Drive Shaft. The last part of the jigsaw was the hand brake. This was missing off the car so I need a new one. Thanks to Adam at Mustang Maniac again, he provided me with all the parts I needed when I was there last. The cable was fitted into the backing plate and the cable was bent a little to make the route correct. Assembling the front end linkage was a breeze. I have now written up the process and posted the link in the Photos section under Wheels and Brakes, Hand brake replacement or click here for the quick link. During this work it had started to rain but I was unaware of that as I was sort of wedged under the car again. Once I got out from under the car my next job was going to be postponed. So while I had all the tools out I decided to the rocker covers of the engine, they were going a little surface rusty and didn’t look to pretty. So like a man possessed I took the bolts out and removed the rockers. Then it hit me, the mixture of engine oil, fuel, metal and old car. That’s the smell of a classic car, or is it the smell of something leaking? I have mentioned it before, Eau De Mustang. I cleaned up the rockers and they have been rubbed down, treated, primed and painted, I’m not sure if it will work or not, but I will give it a go. I have pics and I will post them as soon as I have sorted them out, hopefully this week sometime. My postponed job i mentioned earlier, I manage to start today (Sunday) which was the inside of the front valance anti rust treatment. Again I have pictures of that little project ongoing as it stands at the moment, click here or go to the Photos Body Work section.

On another note, my new back gate. Yes it looks nice, but now it does not shut properly, it does if you push it at the bottom. The reason is it has warped badly at the bottom part. There is the thickness of the gate that it has moved about two inches. So if left on its own without shutting it properly via the latch you can see through the gap. I am not happy about it. I can’t complain as it’s wood and a natural substance. Does anybody have any ideas on how to get the gate back into shape? It’s gutting as the gate was perfect for about three weeks, then all of a sudden it has moved which is probably a result of the rain. Give me a classic Mustang any day to work on.

I just thought I would post a pic picture of the old set of shoes from the drivers side rear brakes, they say a picture speaks a thousand words. I had only three: OMG!

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Like buses…

They say that buses don’t turn up and when they do there are two of them! I never really understood that as they should be on a time-table, but it does happen. Anyway the point is similar with me on the blog this weekend. I only posted a little quote in the last couple of weeks and this weekend I am posting twice with a full set of photos for work I have been doing on the car. OK so this post will not be as long as the last one but it here never the less.

Today was a day in the garage, I was going to finish up the hand brake cable on one side, so far the other brake has been restored yet. Then I was going to get in the engine bay and treat some light surface rust I had in there. I was on a roll and got to work the hand brake was dismantled again and some grease was applied to the parts that were metal touching metal. Although this sounds simple, it wasn’t as it required a certain technique, the car is on axle stands at the rear but not very high up. So as I needed to get to the back of the gear box effectively there is not much room to slide under the car. So the technique is lay sideways onto the car, turn the head sideways and shoulder shuffle untill the shoulders are under. Then bring the arms above the head then in the same manoeuver place the feet against the wall. Timing is now crucial, exhale and push with the feet while doing the shoulder shuffle thing. Once under, the tunnel provides a little welcome space and the rib cage is now able to move a few shallow inches at a time. Everything has to be to hand in order for this to work mind you. At this point I’m trusting those axle stands can really hold two tons as they say they can, if they fail, I am gonna get crushed ribs and all sorts of other unmentionable injuries, if I am not killed anyway that is. Getting out is a reverse shoulder shuffle out and slowly turning the body a few degrees so you exit sort of parallel to the car, those next few deep breaths feel so good. I do have bruises to prove that it was honestly that tight under there. It took me a while to get the hang of it, but I got it off to a fine art now. So the hand brake was in place it works (sort off) as the new parts are linked up to where they should be but not yet adjust correctly. Next job was the engine bay, I got my new stuff Rustbuster FE-123 that I am using to see what that is like. I am planning on doing a comparison test with the Granville Rust Cure and it’s all underway now being left to the elements as I type. Hopefully that will be a video review and then blogged later with my comments. The de-rusting painting was going well, the sun was out, the birds were singing and I was enjoying myself. A couple of kids went past on the their bikes and I watched them go past thinking nothing of it. A few minutes later they were back this time there were four of them, varying from eight to twelve I would say. They stopped in the road (it is a tiny little dead-end where our house is so they were safe enough) and looked at the car in the garage. The first one and the eldest said “Woaaah, Is that a Mustang? Yep it is”, the second said “Go and ask that bloke how much he wants to sell it for, and then tell your dad and he can buy it”. I was taken slightly aback as I didn’t reckon they would be able to pick out a classic Mustang from a done up Jap Ricer with a fake exhaust and a fluffy dice in the window! I was well chuffed.

The view they saw?

Photos:

I have added a photo set of my Drive shaft removal and refitting with oil seal change or click here for the quick link. I am in the process of writing up the Rear Brake Drum refit Parts 1 & 2 as well. There are links to those pages from this photo set, but they are being updated over the next few days or so. I have been able to get a fair bit done on the car and taken plenty of pictures to so I can add them to the blog.

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Neglected blog and subtle hints

Don’t worry I am still here.

OK, I admit it I havent posted properly for a little while, two weeks actually. The word “post” is not in my good books with me at the moment. Let me explain, I have had the past week off as holiday, and I do use that term “holiday” very loosely in this update. I have been promising to replace our broken fence for the last 2 years now. But, I have had important things to do since then, like do my Mustang up! But my wife loves her garden as much as I love my car, the fact her prized climbing Hydrangea were getting damaged due to the fence being broken as it was swaying more than front row of a Barry Manilow concert. When the wind blows, the fence moves and bits break of, I get it in the neck and I promise to fix it, then I go on the car. I have been getting plenty of subtle hints though, let me take you back to Christmas just gone. When I was asked what I wanted for Christmas the standard response is, “bits for my car” or “tools”. Come opening prezzie time at Christmas I got some car bits, brilliant. Snap On vouchers, awesome. Then I got given few extra goodies that “I may like!” given to me in order; All Fat Max tools, hammer (OK I can use that on the car), small spirit level (can’t see how I can use that on the car, check the stance of the car? Nice thought though). General purpose hand saw for wood, (definitely can’t use that on the car, but I can change it, I will have to be careful how I phrase it!) Fine toothed wood hand saw, (now I was wondering what was going on.) Then came a long heavy object, yes, a 1″ Snap On breaker bar, Nope, it was a massive sledge-hammer. Now I can’t use that on the car, then the penny started to drop with the final little prezzie gardening gloves. OK, I had been saying that I need a sledge hammer to break the old concreate, I need spirit levels for the posts, I need saws etc. Last Friday we, or should I say, “I” had delivered nine panels, eight concrete posts, one wood post and a gate, three trellis, oh and post mix. Great, not. Saturday I was greeted with “we can paint the panels before we put them up”. To be fair it was a nice(ish) day and we had a laugh. So Saturday was a write off. Sunday, Mark came round to help put up the fence. He’s a good man, he works hard and is better with a shovel than I am. Well I am getting on a bit now, that’s my excuse anyway. We had fun getting the old spikes out, trying to work around the plants that can’t be dug up or it will kill them and trying to avoid tree roots. Sunday was a write off. Monday, Mark came back to finish the last two panels with me. It didn’t take too long. (Thanks to Mark for help on the fence, grand job mate). That left me with a part fence to cut down and gravel board to fit in the space. Then we had to go into town, on the way back we got some door furniture for the gate. Monday was a write off. Tuesday was about cutting the trellis to fit inside the concrete posts and hang the gate. Tuesday was a write off. That evening the wife was printing out some lesson plans and my printer decided to produce a collection of drive rollers and cogs out the front with half the paper. This was greeted with panic as the lesson plans needed to be done. Wednesday morning we checked the net and found a printer we liked. So off we went to get it. We got to the store which was empty and we were pounced on like a lion that hadn’t been fed for a few days. I brushed them away and looked at the printer, not bad, but the replacement cartridges were only £10 cheaper than the poxy printer. Are the manufactures having a laugh or what? Do they fill the cartridges up with mermaid tears or what? Anyway, we found one we liked and took it home. I went on the car when we got back to prep ready getting the drive shaft out and backing plate off for the brakes. Two hours later it was out and the brake plate as well. that evening the printer works well after a lengthy performance to set it up. Thursday I went to see Adam at Mustang Manic, I had a great laugh with him and got a complete hand brake kit for the car and a couple of drive shaft oil seals. A great day. Friday I spent all day cleaning up the plate and drive shaft with anti rust treatments. Great day. Today I put the backing plate and brakes together, put the drive shaft back in and got some of the Hand brake or Emergency Brake in place. Epic day.

So as you can see I have been busy, the wife is pleased with her fence and has been in the garden pottering about. I have been on the car for the last couple of days and will be again tomorrow. I will post a photo set of the drive shaft and rear brake build. I have added a review of my Metal Works tap and die set, which can be found under the Tool Reviews or click here for a quick link. I will post again very soon.

Am I forgiven?

Heres a little teaser of what I have been up to!

Note: I used all the tools I got for Christmas putting that fence up, these women are cute, but I don’t do subtle I just need to be told. oh, she did! Come to that I have used my tools from Snap On too, I don’t need to be told to use them though. 🙂