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It Was an emotional day today. It has been exactly 60 days since she passed and Fathers day and its the first time I seen her project car since her passing. Body work completed and epoxy primed. Block and paint next couple weeks. I attached a couple of pics because I told her that her dream car would be completed for all to see.

Me and a couple of guys from work on Friday.

I had just gotten the car fired up after sitting at my brothers house for 4 years without it running. Anxious to see what it could do and to give the engine a good "blowing out" I drove to the local 4 lane highway and I laid into it on the entrance ramp. As I reach the top of the ramp getting ready to merge the speedo said 75 and as I looked into the side mirror I saw the local police coming up on the main highway behind me. I figure he would light me up but instead he just stayed on my tail. Laying off the gas and taking the first exit I took the back road back to my house with him in tow. After pulling into my drive he pulled up and got out of his cruiser. He ask how I was doing and I said fine. He mention that he had clocked me at 77 and I told him that it was the first time out with it and I wanted to give it a good run and I said I was sorry. He looked at me with a half smile and said that with a car like that he would of gave me up to 90 mph before considering pulling me over. Come to find out he was into muscle cars and he has a 69 Chevelle SS with a 396. After talking cars for about a half hour he said he had to get back to work. I have seen him numerous times since then and we have become friends.

Shot I took in the garage today.

This is a bit of a ramble -- I'm just so thrilled my car is running (and running good!) it's hard to organize my thoughts around "What next?" Actually, when the car came to me by carrier, the driver drove it off the truck and I drove it from the street to my driveway. That was the first time I drove it; today was the second. Now I need to figure out what next besides the obvious, and in what order. Have replaced: timing chain, water pump, alternator, radiator, thermostat, fuel tank, sender, etc., battery and a rebuilt p/s pump. But I hit the wall trying to get it started again so I sent it to professionals (lol). Dang -- now it starts by just looking at the key (it seems). Hope that lasts. But the first real drive, just a few miles because the tires are (very) old: the acceleration is *excellent*, mufflers have an awesome, deep rumble and brakes are good (good pedal response, no squeaks or pulling and they stop the car). Steering is well assisted but overall front suspension seems a little squishy and vague. Both front and rear seem to bounce a bit more than is normal. Transmission engages without issue, shifts normally, downshifts unnoticeable. All the gauges work. Tach, too! The obvious: need a new top and tires. Tires are a conundrum because I don't plan to keep the current wheels (first choice is forged aluminum slot mags). And ultimately a paint job, but that has to wait until a visit to the body shop. Except for tires, I place all that in the appearance category, which is a lower priority than getting a safe, drivable & reliable vehicle. All that aside, I am just so dang happy. And I couldn't think of anyone that would appreciate that more than y'all.

I finally bit the bullet and got new wheels and tires. I did a lot of research and changed my mind 100 times in the process. I ended up going with American Racing AR105M Series Black Torq Thrust M wheels, 18x10 (6 7/16BS) and 18x8 (4.5BS) for rear/front. For tires, I decided on Michelin Pilot S4S, 285/40ZR18 and 255/45ZR18. These tires are Thread 300, so they are a compromise between street and track. These were expensive but they were highly recommended and have the best reviews for high performance summer tires. The combo did not disappoint. I love the look of it and the traction is incredible. I can't break lose the tires in first gear that easily anymore. First gear is now useable! This shows how poor the BFG Radial T/A are for traction. The front combo fits like a glove. With my approximately 1" lower suspension it fits very well. It is pretty much the same backspacing I had with the Magnums and the tire width although it is 255 vs 245, the total tire width is about the same. The BFGs have some curvature at the wall that makes them much wider than the thread contact width is. The backspacing of the rear wheels (6 7/16) is about the max you want to go with. Maybe an extra 1/4" will be ok depending on tire. I still have about 3/4" between the tire and leaf spring. The rear tires stand about 5/8" clear from the fender. The old 295s BFG were flush. That said, I could fit 315s with these wheels if I wanted to, but unfortunately the widest they have in the 27" diameter camp are 285s. I may eventually add a 1/4" spacer to push the wheels further out. That's the max I can do while keeping 1/2" of the threads for the lug nut.

Well a while ago, I started the hunt for new seats for the Mach 1. Mine are in good shape, but Id like to keep them that way and also wanted something a little more supportive with some bolstering. I had looked at some aftermarket options, but didnt think they fit the look of the car. Thats when I managed to find a set of Recaros out of a Fox body. Which also happened to be the same seats that my first Mustang had(an 82 GT). So I picked them up since they are a nice easy swap, but decided to get them recovered to look like the originals. I ordered the fabric from SMS, and a friend of the family does upholstery so once it showed up I dropped everything off and she started working on it. And now the time has come. She said the seats should be ready tomorrow and sent me a pic. I am really happy with how they are turning out so far. Also got the seat buttons engraved with mine and my dads initials since it was originally his car. So figured I would drop a little teaser here.

Happy registration day today. After owning the car for about 4 months, I have spent a fair bit of time servicing, fixing and tuning the car getting is ready for a roadworthy check and then finally registration. Today the whole process is complete. The car now has plates and is ready to cruise..

The MOM held a show just for Mach 1 and Boss Mustangs. Of course most there were new Boss mustangs so did not think there was much hope. It was a popular vote show so no judging. There was lots of visitors today and had lots of interest in my car. There was also a pretty nice 1972 Mach 1 Gold Glow that he had in high school. He had not been to a show in 15 years but came out today. When the votes were all in he won Second place and I won first which was a shock. I got nice plaque and one years membership to the MOM for free. At 2:00 it was 94 deg. in Concord, N.C. and I had left home a little before 6:30 that morning about 123 miles down there. No AC of course in the old beater truck towing the 20' enclosed trailer and the Mach 1. The new gal friend went with and sat there and spent time in the MOM looking at the cars. She worked in Ford Prototype for 17 years. Was 97 deg, when in Shelby and had to stop for a milk shake. Got home and started pouring rain and was 74 deg. here in the mountains. A few pics they are very slow to download for some reason will add more later. For those that do not know. I live in North Carolina but I put the Michigan plates on the car for a good reason. They are M plates. The third digit is and M that designates a Manufacture's plate used to put on prototypes to take out and drive on the street. A Ford engineer got them when the expired and I got off of Ebay this year. Got two sets. The new gal friend noticed right off and said " An M plate cool". The old truck has 211,000 miles now and still ticking. I did invite several to join the group not in the group.

Thought I would share a few shots of my 71 and my wife's 70 that she did the majority of the work on herself.

On my GT, not my Mustang, but figured you guys would appreciate anyway. You've seen the movie, no? ;-)

two months ago, my son donated me a professional photo shoot. I like to share these pictures with you. Cheers Frank

Finally got my Mustang back on the road after many years of sitting in the garage! Found a local mechanic to help me figure out a final gremlin that was eluding me, and just like that I have a road worthy car again! The kids are almost as excited as I am! I have driven her more miles in the last few days than we have the last decade, man it feels GOOD to get out and about with it again!!!

Got the ram air flat coil hood springs done today. Maid a jig to open up the spring to get the paint between the coils.

Guess it's time I made an actual build thread for my car. It's since '06 when it was "completed" with a 302, 4 speed and 3.40 TracLoc 8". This is what I started with in 2001, 99% original, very straight, no accidents body. CT road salt had it's way with it over the years. Paid $700 and it ran and drove off a bottle. 302-2V, auto, 2.79 8" rear. PS, PDB, AM radio and that's about it. Car was sold new two towns west from where I live, and spent it's entire life two towns east. This is after all the sheetmetal replacement had been completed, engine compartment detailed, etc. I had a running, driving chassis with 302, 4 speed and a 3.40 TracLoc 8" rear. Interesting fact, 15 years ago today (4/11) I loaded it up and brought it to the body shop for final straightening and paint. Traded a 70 Torino GT project to have the car painted, you can see that to the right in the pic. I miss that car and am on the hunt for another one. In what could be considered a world's record, the car was finish blocked, assembled, painted and back home for final assembly in 45 days. I completed the final assembly, did the interior, glass, trim work and everything else to get it ready for my wedding day two weeks from when it came back home. Total time was 66 days from the time it hit the body shop, to the morning of my wedding day when I bolted on the Kelsey Hayes wheels. Still had some detail items to complete, but it made it through the day without issue, logging over 100 miles and getting rained on. Drove the car mostly untouched for years. Had a vibration vibration start one Saturday night coming back from a cruise in 2015, and determined that the 8" ate the pinion bearings, so I elected to swap it out for a 9" with 3.25 gears, along with new leafs to replace the now 45 year old originals. That's pretty much how it's been for the last six years, other than a wheel and tire upgrade, and this is how it sits now. Now it's time to turn the wick up and dump the ho-hum 302 for a proper 351C-4V engine and some other goodies along the way.

I have a saying -- "Putting on the uniform is above and beyond -- what they do after that, is astonishing ." If you are from a forces family or been in service directly -- shout out My dad Below - pilot flying Vulcan's out of Waddington, Lincoln, UK. Flt LT Clarke

So, first car was a '71 Grande I bought from my grandfather when I was 16, sold it when I was 19 to go to college. I just bought a '73 Convertible last August that I decided to have restored/modified professionally. I had the tired 351 (over 200k miles) replaced with a 347 Stroker (Terminator X Multiport EFI) from Prestige Motorworks here in Charlotte. The front suspension was replaced with a TCP coilover system. I had a little bit of rust repaired. It has been repainted in Ford Redfire Metallic, disc brakes at all four corners, new Bowler 4R70W automatic transmission, etc. I will be putting the new interior in myself. New wheels/tires will also be added in the next week or two. ForgeSpeed has had the car almost a year, but we appear to be in the home stretch.

Was working on a detail in my garage and couldn't help to notice how hot she looked parked on the side. Mighty fine!

Then...then....then.... BooooM! ! !...then crack open a beer like a real man

Engine up date. Let me first say this has been a total exercise in patience. It's been a year since I dropped off my original 2 bolt and 72 4 bolt main blocks to who I will call engine builder #1. Well builder 1 had my blocks over 8 months and never touched them. Every time I would stop by I would get " I'm busy and check back with me in a month or so". The bummer is all the Pantera guys I talked to suggested builder #1 and my brother used him a few years back to build his Boss 302. So needless to say after 8 months I regretfully had to move on. On to engine builder #2 JBA speed shop San Diego. https://jbaspeedshop.com/ Back on a another waiting list. This time about 3 months which they said right up front. Finally I mean finally !!! thing are happening. I got the call from JBA a few weeks back that the blocks have been sonic tested and the 4 bolt main block tested thin above #5. Damn it!! If I was doing a stock build it would be fine. The good news my original 2 bolt block checked out very well. Second part of the call was that they need my flywheel to check the balance to the Scat crank and it just so happened my Tremec package showed up the day before. When I dropped the flywheel off and picked up the 4 bolt main block the 2 bolt block was in process of being board to the pistons. Yesterday I stopped by to see how things are going. Things are moving along. Unfortunately there waiting on Lunati cam . The rods and pistons are ready to go John wants to install the cam and 1 piston rod to degree the cam. The heads are in process as well. The machining on 1 head is done and drilling for the screw in studs on the second head was happening when I walled in. I'm so stoked to see this play out.

Just sitting here after a 100 mile drive looking at my car having a beer thinking………. Who does not find these lines sexy as hell! ?????? Anyone????

The kids and I attacked the mustang today with dish soap, wax, armor all, several rolls of paper towels and q-tips. It was a deep clean for the ages, and my little army of helpers had a blast!! We have been having so much fun since we got the mustang back up and running!!

There is a local charity rally called Horsepower for Hope that happens every year here for the Kids with Cancer society so I just got the decals for this years event put on so figured I needed to get some pics. Especially since this years name is the Afterburner rally, which I thought worked perfect with the Mach 1. Plus I finally managed to find a great new spot for pictures. I figured this was a better and more unique spot for the side decals since most people just throw them on the doors.

Oh hell yes

@bishoppeak thx man Today was an exhausting day again. Spent like yesterday the entire day crawling under car, on the floor, and up, and down and up... Played with acid and finished to remove what was left till the member holding the trans support. Will take it from there again when I will handle the underside, so I needed create some overlap. While there, I saw brown... so I know already I will be crawling again when I'll do the floors! :( Also did entire frame from torque boxes to radiator and all the rust is now gone. Thanks to a thick layer of oil and grease from unknown origin, the car was as seen yesterday surprisingly rust free. Only a tad under the tower where the lower arms hang. Now clear of this brown misery At the end of this tiring day, sprayed some protective zinc, looked at it and thought: next step epoxy baby!! And closed the garage lights, hungry and with muscles crying for rest! Now totally tired, BUT very happy to finally have the entire bay solid and ready for some durable finish. looks now a whole lot better than few months ago! This also means that I'll be able to work on the suspension/steering parts finishes and install most of them (car needs to be able to roll). Which in return will recreate some really welcome space in my tiny crowded garage! Now excuse me I nee..zzzzzzzzZZzzZ

Holy Shamolee! It's a real Bobby-Dazzler!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I see more and more various people getting the johnson and johnson vaccine. This touches close to home for my family. My oldest daughter works for Grand River Aseptic in Michigan. Her job is basically production. She travels to Germany alot to purchase machines that produce the drugs, and packages them. She met with several Generals, Dr Fauchie and logistic distribution military personnel. As most know its a one shot vaccine, More important is it can be refrigerated not froze to negative #s. Also the other 2 vaccines only have a shelf life after opening of 6 hours. J and J has a shelf life of many days up to 30. This helps when you have people streaming in to get shots and you dont have to rush them through like cattle so the vac doesnt go bad. She texted me couple weeks ago and said......DAD I DID IT !! 4 million VACCINES GO OUT NEXT WEEK.!!! Im incredibly proud of her. She will touch many humans with her work. And save many lives.

Hi Just finished my DIY cover :-)

... after more than 3 years of hard, hard restoration work (see my pictures in the GARAGE section) I enjoy with my wonderful wife the power and beauty of our orange 1971 C351-4V RAM AIR MACH 1 just anywhere on the road. This car was forgotten for a long time -burried in a dark garage for 31 (!) years long- and now this MACH 1 is on the road again. Loud and proud. I took these pictures ON THE ROAD in the last months in Switzerland where we live ... we share this with you and we hope you can feel the good vibrations of our MACH 1 world ...

Hey guys, every year again... Oh, wait, it's been two years since then... Sorry guys, I had to wait on the paint guy that long... Diseases and illness of him and many other not Mustang-related things took their time until everything fitted together like a guy and his Mustang! There were times I did not think I will be able to see a result in years! And there were times I weren't be able to hear the word "Mustang"! But: I am back! Tadaaaa! It's cold, ähem, gold outside, everywhere, just in time for christmas! My hard work on the panels has paid off! I am very satisfied as was the paint guy! Here are the results, the hood will follow soon... Now there will be more regular updates coming, reassembly is one great thing First was blocking, blocking, blocking... And more blocking! First gold color applied It seemed to have the right shade Then there were more Period correct transportation vehicle And now *paradiddle drums* I am happy and proud of The final result is fantastic! Xmas could come now More coming soon! Hope all of you and your families are well - take care in these times!

.... the mirror fell off during the trip. ....and battery was flatter than a witches tit He arrived yesterday ... so I'm BACK ! ! ! ! The only real items that are exciting my OCD is... the shifter seems looser than my green one, passenger door is tight - it needs a little more heft to shut it (all the weatherstrip is new I noticed) The ignition leads are a bit yukky -- I'm swapping those Fuel filter close to carb has a slow drip - pipe is a bit perished Nice bits It is clear that this has been super loved No oil -trans-differential leaks ... I always had a little pink drip and some diff fluid on the garage floor with my old one if I hadn't run it up in a week Oil is new clean clear - residue free even the Buzzer works when you leave key in, my green one was dead, it has long headers on ...OMFG is this loud - it has a different engine note comparing with greenie. Firewall and floors are rock sold with me going around with magnet and a hammer. They left photos of restoration in trunk and engine /trans rebuild (i'll post those up once I've scanned them) I've ordered Marti Goes on high lift soon for safety inspection _ more pics to come.

Today, I took a few more new pics of my Mach 1. Here's three, but checkout my garage for others.

It's been four years since I completed the car. Bought it 1995 never drove it and stored it for nineteen years before spending three years restoring it. I thought I post some of my favorite my glamor shots over the past four years... And this is how it all started....

Today's images to share with the site; It is becoming "The Vision"

Installed the new Tremec T5. Once I got the bell housing installed I needed to index it. The opening needs to be aligned within .005 of the crank shaft. This is normally a two person job, with one person spinning the crankshaft and the other watching the dial indicator. Since I don't have any convenient help I had to do it solo. By taking a reading every 45 degrees I was able to verify that I am within spec. Good news since I really did not want to try and remove the 50 year old locating pins! Here's a shot after clutch and throw out bearing installation: Now ready to slide in the transmission. With everything lined up it slid in like butter! Finished with clutch cable and speedometer hooked up: The shifter came right up through the stock automatic transmission shifter hole without modification. Oh yeah! Time to install the new rear end so I can get the driveshaft measured and ordered.

It won't work right unless you bleed on it, the Car Gods demand a sacrifice.

Pulled out the gauges and went with the white faces. Also the KPH face. Even though I was around pre-metric the brain gets a bit foggy doing MPH/KPH calculations on the go. Also fitted all LEDs in the gauges. Much easier to read. David

The seats are both finished and in the car. Love the finished product. I may try and adjust things to move the drivers seat back a little further than factory, but couldnt be happier with the finished product.

The name of my car varies depending on how it is running!

All this was filmed before Weston came and as you could imagine I havent had time to do much other than hang out with him and my wife but i was able to get around to posting this video tonight. I hope to have a new one up in a couple weeks. Also exciting news my engine should be out of the machine shop here soon. That will be a great day!

From the original carb to sniper.

Weston Robert Days came a week ago healthy and safe! A couple days after I got my parts car home. Taking time to be with my family but can’t wait to take home on rides in the Mach 1!

Oh yes -- big shake down after all my work and boy - now feels like a new car -- I'm going to have to change my signature from the old green one .

I have never cared what other people thought about the 71-3’s... I like them, would never own any other. Nothing wrong with the 73’s either....