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davidbosch

New member
Joined
Jan 16, 2014
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Location
Mexico City
My Car
1972 Mustang GT-351 (original Mexican version with the coupe body and a 351 Windsor)
Hi everyone. My name is David, I live in Mexico City and I'm new to the forum. Forgive my English. This is my story: My dad recently passed away and he left behind his 1972 coupe (Mexican GT-351). I am a huge fan of Mustangs and my dream had always been to restore this car with my dad and drive it as often as possible. He bought it used in 1977 and it became his daily driver. The car has basically been in storage for the past 25 years (since I was born) ever since my dad decided to modify the engine but never quite got time to finish the whole thing. Only about 10 years ago my dad and I started working on the engine but he moved away after that and we never got to finish the project. So here I am, with little money (I recently graduated from university) but very eager to give this Mustang its life back as a last homage to my dad.

The photos that I attach here show the car almost as I found it. I haven't even washed it before I can move it, cause I want to check for rust and there are things stored in the trunk and water can leak. The body is in a very decayed condition, there's hardly any visible rust but the paint has been sprayed over with other colours and not very nicely fixed, there's some body damage (look at the roof over the rear window). I'm pretty certain all the parts that appear missing are stored somewhere except for the rear valance, which I'm sure is lost. The NASA hood and tach are original. The exhaust pipes are clearly not original. The interior looks in pretty bad condition but it really isn't, it's complete, it's original, it's just taken apart. The engine is what's interesting. It's the only thing on which my dad really worked. On one hand the paint and some modified parts are a huge mess, such as the engine bay painted in silver or the block painted in light blue; on the other hand the engine is quite powerful already and I'm pretty sure my dad did a very good job mechanically speaking (he was an design engineer at Ford Mexico), but there's still a whole project here for me to embark on. I don't know a lot about the engine modification, just that it's got flat pistons, a 302 cam (my dad's notes just say it supposedly has a 8.4 mm lift), an aluminium Edelbrock intake manifold, a Holley 4776-4 4 barrel carburetor, heavily ported heads, an aluminium water pump, electric fan and some modification to the valves that I can't remember. The engine is a 351 Windsor mated to a 4 speed manual.

My idea so far is to take baby steps, but have the car almost fully functional from the start. It will take me some years to fix the car in the nicest proper way in which a restoration must be done, but I want to enjoy it, drive it and not having it seating another 25 years in a storage room (plus I need to save a lot of money to properly restore it and that'll take time).

So far, the engine started after some work on it. I changed the oil, I gave the cooling system a chemical flush, I changed the spark plugs, the cables. There's a gas leak on the front of the carb. I just need to be able to move the car to inspect it thoroughly.

So what are your first thoughts?

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Hi David and ::welcome:: to the forum from Luxembourg, Europe.

A Mexican GT350 is a cool car to have, definitely worth restoring. :cool:

Oh and don't worry about your English it's perfect.

 
Hi David,

::welcome:: from Germany!

I am sorry for your father...

Take care of that rare car! It seems to be complete - especially the unique interior. It seems to be a nice project for a rolling restoration you like to do.

Whenever you will come to a problem: here are the right guys to help you.

And: your English is very good - mine is not the best but I think they still all know what I mean mostly... ;)

Tim

 
Hola from Phoenix. No issues understanding your english. We appreciate you signing up and sharing your story. That looks like a really cool car and it looks like a good starting point for a restoration. I really like the door panels, I don't believe I have seen them that way before.

 
Welcome from TriCities WA. The Mexican GT 351 was the first Mustang that I drove when I was younger. I really like the car and it eventually led me to getting my Mustang. Best of luck getting it restored.

-jbojo

 
Hi David. Welcome to the site. It is great you are fixing up your dad's Mustang. Feel free to ask any questions here, I'm sure you will get a lot of good advice and information. This is a very friendly forum, so no such thing as a dumb question.

 
Welcome from La Habra, CA.::welcome::

Your english is fine and your car is great. I too am rather new to this forum and have already gained a bunch of info just by crusing around the posts. I'm sorry to hear of your dad's passing but wish you luck with your project. You have a great start already. Ask questions, you'll get answers from others that really care about these 71 - 73 ponies.

 
Welcome from coastal Alabama! That's a fairly rare car and a great canvas to start with. Best of luck as you restore it.

Be sure to add a pin to our member map under the fun stuff tab at the top of the page.

 
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