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.

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.

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.

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.

axle&shock

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

 

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Bits & Pieces

The weekend arrived and I couldn’t wait to get down to see what the guys had done to my car. I wasn’t disappointed. The car was well and truly in bits and the rear axle was on the leaf springs on a pallet. The engine was out and the front suspension was in bits on the floor, all the smaller parts were all in a large plastic tub ready for me to clean up. The steering rack was out, and all that was left was the steering column and the brake servo in the sparse looking engine bay. When I asked Adam what needed to be done, there was a walk around the car and the list duly flowed forth. The rest of the engine bay to be stripped clean, pipes off, the gas pedal out, steering box out and the servo without saying. All brake pipes underneath and fuel lines, the rear valance, oh and the rear lights out, oh and the gas tank out with the shocks out too, don’t forget the rear valance of as well as that was damaged beyond repair. In fact, if it had a bolt on it, it needs to come out. The day was going to be busy and I had my instructions, I was excited and off I went. I completed my tasks as requested with the guys giving me tips and tricks of the trade as I went along. When I got to a certain part like how do I get the column out, I was shown the parts in question, told the process and off I went again. In fact I have taken lots of pictures of the removal process’ and I will write them all up. But I have some teaser pictures here for you.

Sunday I decided to clean up one of the larger bits I had in my man cave the prop shaft. Last week I explained the process (click here for the link). I took the prop shaft into the garden on the sunny day and I needed to remove the old underseal from it. The rotary wire brush made short work of it attached to the drill until I got to the UV ends. At the diff end there are two cups that are held in place by the U-clamps on the diff. These cups come off but are filled with small needle bearings and need to be treated with care so they don’t all fall out. Once the cups are removed keep them safe out-of-the-way, then it’s de-grease and clean, and clean again, and more cleaning. The grease and grime were so bad that you couldn’t even see the grease nipples. The Marine Clean in a 1:1 mix made a good job of breaking it all down.

With the prop cleaned up and de-rusted it looked a very different part that’s for sure. Off to the man cave.

I retired to the man cave for the POR15 first coat. the problem was how to paint it? I had to make a rack to hold the prop in the air so I could get access all around the prop. The idea worked well if not a little delicate, I think I will spray the prop white, the same colour as the shocks once it’s done. The full process of the painting and clean up can be seen on the quick link below.

I shall be posting the steering box removal process, soon as well as the other little projects and clean ups.  I mentioned the lights earlier!

The process was very simple, four Philips screws hold the lens and trim in place, remove them and pull the housing and the lens off to expose the bulb, remove the bulb as well. Inside the car there are four studs with nuts on for the housing, undo these and the light housing will pull out. Dead simple. I will have to replace the holders as the as reflectors are rusty and no good for anything now unfortunately.

Quick Links:

Photo Menu – Gearbox & Prop Shaft – Prop Shaft Renovation. or click here for the link. This will be updated as the project goes along.

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