1972 MACH I, 351C-2V, FMX Trans

Rocketfoot,

 


Thank you for your time and effort developing and maintaining this site. It is great to have a dedicated site for our model year cars.

The 72 Mach I in the photo (1978 Photo) has been in the family since 1978. Actually it was my wife’s first car while we were in high school. During our 11th grade year I was pulling out of the student parking lot when I noticed she was having trouble starting it, so I stopped to assist.



Like a lot of us, my introduction to auto maintenance and muscle cars started early due to my dad, a hot rodding uncle, an older brother, and some friends which ignited my interest before I was old enough to “legally drive” and led me to becoming a mechanic, which the passion continues with me even still.

This taught me early troubleshooting skills which I was happy to exercise for her in that parking lot to diagnose the problem with her car. You know the drill; :salute: air being a given, if you have fuel there must be a fire problem, which there was with the coil, so I corrected the problem and she was up and running. Longer story made short, we got married in 1980 after completing high school.

Some 21 years later in 2001 my father-in-law gifted the car to us and my “preservation” journey with the car began. By this time the engine had gone catastrophic and the car had sat for some 14 years, but primarily garage kept (thanks to my father-in-law) which saved it from the elements.

Later I will clarify my term “preservation” along with some photos to bring the story into prospective. However for now, I am glad to be a part of this (as we say in aviation) Brotherhood.

(2001 Photo)

::welcome:: San Diego. Cool long short story. Post some more pic of the car when you can.

Welcome from Arkansas...great story

Welcome from Ohio! That is a great story, thanks for sharing. Nice looking pony!

Welcome from North Carolina.

Welcome from W. TN. Great story regarding the car. I would be very interested in your "preservation" goals. I am restoring my 72 Mach 1 to concourse driven and would be very interested in the details on the original aspects of your car. Have you ever obtained a Marti Report? Again, welcom and we look forward to sharing and learning from your membership.

Welcome from Indiana

Nice story..

Welcome aboard from SE Michigan.

Welcome to the site from Virginia! Great story. I bet your wife is excited about getting the Mach back on the road too!

Thanks everyone for the welcome. You can imagine how much I like telling that old story about the school days. Hard to believe it has been 4 kids and 34 years ago since that day, and yes OLE PONY, my wife is looking forward to a trip to Sonic. Although the original one is closed, they did build a new one last year across the street. I wonder if they still park at Lake Holdhercloser, pronounced Hold-her-closer.

I am slowly finding photos of the project, which by the way has been one of many projects within my scope of interest, and explains why it has taken so long to accomplish so little.

Bkdunha,

I have not obtained a Marti Report. As for my "preservation"; when I started this project the goal was to get it back on the road and enjoy some cruse time quickly. I figured later when time and money permitted I would strip it back down to the hull and complete a full restoration.

Although I would have liked to have gone as far as jeremycfr is with his dad’s former car, my budget combined with my inability to focus on one thing at a time is my project/s nemesis.

By the way jeremycfr, thank you for sharing your story and the restoration. There is something about these sentimental cars I say. I look forward to seeing the completed project. ::goodjob::

The following photos cover the work performed between 2001, the winter of 2002, and some time beyond. By this time I had moved the car from my father-in-laws shop to my house garage. Although I have not found the photos yet, I spent a lot of time with additional, but limited disassembly, and cleaning, sanding, and painting internal body components. As you know, the more you take apart, the more you find.

Welcome from Chesapeake VA!

Nice story! ::welcome:: from Luxembourg, Europe.

Any time and effort spent returning another 71 - 73 back to the road is OK with this bunch. Great extra photos you posted up. I understand your preservation goal now. Looks like you have things under control and now that it is is from the elements you can spend more time working on it. With the engine out probably a good time to kill off some of that surface rust in the front and rattle can it with some black to keep it from coming back. I noticed the tranny had quite a bit of blue paint all the way down to the tailshaft. Had it been our before and painted? More than you usually see on an untouched piece. Much like your wife I have had my car since high school as well although it was about 3-4 years later than you indicated. I does get hard to beleive that 20+ years and all of the life experiences of family and career eat up alot of time. Keep us posted as you progress along.

Good evening everyone.

Bkdunha,

I spent quite awhile under the hood and the belly of the car cleaning, sand blasting, wire brushing, and cleaning again. All corrosion was removed and the surfaces were primed and painted in an effort to make it look as clean as possible without total disassembly.

I removed the wiring harness from the interior and repaired as necessary, reinstalled replacing all switches , lights, and anything else that was not a piece of wire.

Installed new fuel tank, new brakes and brake system components, and other items I have forgotten about by now.

All of this was accomplished over a long period of time as the timeline of this car dragged out for years.

As you can see from my 2002 engine rebuild photos, this long block assembly led me to oil priming the engine and turning it by hand for about 10 years. Heck, the engine had one oil change within that timeframe just before its startup last month. Wow time flys!






Between 2002 and when the engine was actually installed in March of 2010 my wife and I received another gift for our 25th wedding anniversary:shrug2:, except this gift took 9 months to arrive, but it did not come through the mail. The little guy you see helping me install the engine was that gift. He was three in these photos and what a little mechanic he is. I can’t keep this kid away from tools, nor do I try. :shy:















In the photo where he is laying outside of the car on the drivers side, he is applying jack pressure as I ask for it while I operated the hoist installing the engine and transmission.









I don't know about him, but I was tired after all of that work.


Following the engine install we were delayed by yet another auto project. A friend stopped by to visit on his way to the dump and was hauling an electric jeep. My little helper saw it, wanted it, and agreed to work on it to get it running. Before the end of the weekend it was cleaned, rewired, and he was on the road. His first restore project.







Doesn’t that make a dad proud!


Earlier today I was test fitting some engine compartment items and discovered I had placed the coil in what looked to be the wrong place. See Photo



Afterward I moved it to the other side as seen in the next photo.



To many years have passed since the car was taken apart, so is this the correct mounting location?


Lastly, but not least.

Following this I started wondering about the harness which routes the 12 volts to the positive side of the coil. As seen in the photos there are other plugs routed through this harness. Please keep in mind this is a factory or dealer installed AC car. Because I failed to take notes, and the fact I can’t remember what happened yesterday, can anyone help me here?

Question 2: Can you help me identify their destinations?

Question 3: Can you provide photos of your engine compartment harness installations?

I am not stuck on the factory locations, but something close would be nice.

That's such a cool story. Loved the pic with your son and the jack. That's a keepsake photo right there.

Welcome from coastal Alabama! Very cool intro & story - among the best on here.

Welcome from west Michigan!

Nice project, great helper!

Welcome aboard from Wisconsin.

Welcome from Rhode Island.

Nice Pics .