1971 Mustang Sportsroof giving it a refesh...

Thought I would start my thread on the refresh the mustang needs.

A little history on it, it was bought in Santa Monica, Ca and was a special order car. It has lived its whole life in SoCal and only has 66,000 original miles on it. It was a one family car, the father who originally purchased it and then his son's, who passed away.

The original color was a lighter color, after some research and feedback from members in this forum, I'm thinking it is a "Q"- color code, "Winter Blue". The body is a little dinged up and needs some repair as well, but next to zero rust.

I'm completely blown away how nice of condition this car is and how fun it will be to rock it in it's original shape.



And can you say anymore about this interior!




The first thing I noticed is the carb is leaking some fuel, so last night I did a little rebuild on it. Such a simple carb! Love it. Heres a pic before I removed it.





Popped it open and man it was clean! little aged, but clean. Here it is all ready to be put back in.



She fired right up and is running nice and smooth, no leaks ::beer::

Let me ask your opinion. Seeing the engine compartment as it is, should I leave it as is...clean it a bit, but nothing more. Or, should I repaint it all and get it looking like new? What do you guys think?

Thanks!

That is a tough call. It's only original once. I say start with cleaning it up and see where that takes you. Bottom line when you pop the hood what do you want to see. As for mods I would not think twice about installing a nice dual exhaust on her. Other than that I would keep the mods simple and reversible. Just my 2 cents.

That is a tough call. It's only original once. I say start with cleaning it up and see where that takes you. Bottom line when you pop the hood what do you want to see. As for mods I would not think twice about installing a nice dual exhaust on her. Other than that I would keep the mods simple and reversible. Just my 2 cents.

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That sounds about what I was thinking....a nice cleaning, maybe the ac bracket needs repainted...that's bugging me. And, yes a dual exhaust would be sweet. I'm debating about full length headers with it....these were what I was eyeballing http://www.summitracing.com/parts/pte-h8412-b and then leaving the rest alone.....

If it were me, especially if you are keeping the 2bbl carb, I would keep the stock exhaust manifolds and go dual exhaust with a h-pipe or x-pipe. No worries about clearance, either in the engine bay or to the ground.

Aright guys, I'm excited! I got the exhaust done. I kept the stock manifold on and had a custom exhaust installed. I wanted it to look subtle and semi-stock so we kept the turn down pipe style and did an H-Pipe with two Flowmaster 40's.









After getting the old stock exhaust back, it was definitely a good call in replacing it. The muffler rattled like a baby's rattle....ok bad comparison, but you get the point. Here's a pic of the rattle. I kept it, just in case someone down the line wanted the original parts.....



And I have to say, the car sounds amazing now, and its just the right amount of rumble.

Lookin' real real good

Very nice!!! The dual exhaust with turndowns are what the Boss 351's and Boss 302's and the 72 Q codes ran. (for the most part as there are a few documented 'variants')

Clean look!!!!

Boss 351>>>>



Ray

Good call on the turn downs. Nice job.

Let me ask your opinion. Seeing the engine compartment as it is, should I leave it as is...clean it a bit, but nothing more. Or, should I repaint it all and get it looking like new? What do you guys think?Thanks!

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First great looking car!!!!

After doing a complete restore of the engine bay on my 1970 and I can say there is nothing like it....nothing like the amount of work it took...:shootself: and nothing like the compliments I got (and the car show trophies) on how nice it looked.

I have that same dilemma now with my 73. 100% I will re-do the engine bay if I have to pull the motor. It's such a great look when it's well repaired and nicely painted. I just don't think I'd pull the engine just to do the engine bay however.

Tim

Let me ask your opinion. Seeing the engine compartment as it is, should I leave it as is...clean it a bit, but nothing more. Or, should I repaint it all and get it looking like new? What do you guys think?Thanks!

Click to expand...

First great looking car!!!!

After doing a complete restore of the engine bay on my 1970 and I can say there is nothing like it....nothing like the amount of work it took...:shootself: and nothing like the compliments I got (and the car show trophies) on how nice it looked.

I have that same dilemma now with my 73. 100% I will re-do the engine bay if I have to pull the motor. It's such a great look when it's well repaired and nicely painted. I just don't think I'd pull the engine just to do the engine bay however.

Tim

Click to expand...

Thanks Tim! I'm thinking of just touching up bits and pieces as I go...I don't want to mess with the original stickers/valve cover markings/ and those goodies. Plus the engine is running way too good for me to mess with anything....other than sneaking in a pertronix non-point system to get it to start a little smoother when warm.

Just got done adding a Pertronix I pointless under-distributor ignition and coil. The timing was a bit off after the install and after a little adjustment the car is running amazing! It definitely is a noticeable change! A little side-note, l am loving all the little original tags here and there. An example is this one I found on the coil mount and cleaned up a bit...