1971 Mach l Restoration

Week 1 started with disassembly on Saturday. Sunday I went to church and prayed.

Nice progress. Look like removing the floorpans will be easy enough!

Hey just a FYI

ANY plastic interior parts you remove should be done with care, and stored safely

The interior quarter panels you have stacked up are HARD to come by

The pillar trims are like gold

Don

Welcome from TriCities WA.

Welcome from Canada!!

That car needs lots of love brother!!

Marco/Andrew bros

Hey just a FYI

ANY plastic interior parts you remove should be done with care, and stored safely

The interior quarter panels you have stacked up are HARD to come by

The pillar trims are like gold

Don

Click to expand...

Amen to that... good plastic is hard to find... sometimes better to clean up and spray dye what you have.. could save you lots of money

Doug in Indy

Looks like the Mach 1 was originally Grabber Lime--from the floor pans coloring. What color have you chosen for the final edition?

Welcome from northern California.

mike

I have to ask what you did with the shifter boot? If you don't want it and even if you cut it off I am interested in buying it from you.

Thanks!

kcmash

Looks like the Mach 1 was originally Grabber Lime--from the floor pans coloring. What color have you chosen for the final edition?

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Tim,

I believe you are correct. Paint code tag is missing. I will either go original or possibly Bright Lime.

I have to ask what you did with the shifter boot? If you don't want it and even if you cut it off I am interested in buying it from you.

Thanks!

kcmash

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KC,

I put in a box so I still have it. It is torn a little bit but still intact. I was going to replace it with a new one. Is there something unique about these? I'm not against sending it to you but I want to have the right information before doing so. The shifter itself is rusty. Is this unique as well or do they still make the same style?

Thanks for your help,

Dave

Welcome from Denmark [WINKING FACE] Regards Lars DK73

So I'm a proud owner of one Mach 1 73! Regards Lars DK73

Hey just a FYI

ANY plastic interior parts you remove should be done with care, and stored safely

The interior quarter panels you have stacked up are HARD to come by

The pillar trims are like gold

Don

Click to expand...

Amen to that... good plastic is hard to find... sometimes better to clean up and spray dye what you have.. could save you lots of money

Doug in Indy

Click to expand...

Doug,

I placed everything in the attic above the garage. I plan on using whatever I can. I doubt that I can restore the original green interior because of the scarcity of the parts. Unless I can find some nice green door panels it will probably be a black interior.

Welcome from Oklahoma.

Ray

I feel better to restore mine when I see your pics, bon courage We are on the same boat.

Welcome from France.

Hi Dave,

A late welcome from me , Greg, from Brisbane, Australia.

I must say that project represents one hell of a challenge. If you don't mind me asking out of curiosity, what drew you to this particular car to start with?

Thanks,

Greg.

Hi from Phoenix!

Hello,

I am assuming this is your first 71-73 mustang to restore or build. When you pulled the carpet and sound deadening out did you look for the build sheet? It is usually somewhere under there and tells everything installed on your car a very important piece of dirty paper. If you do not know what it is do a search here and take a look at one.

As a couple have already said the interior parts are very difficult to locate and NOS is not out there except with a fat check book. I have someone that might have some green interior parts but they were for the fold down rear seat.

You should start your search on the interior parts now and not wait until you need them NEVER NEVER throw anything away. You can get repo door panels but they do not come with any of the stainless strips, speaker grills, no wood grain insert no pulls and no hard plastic parts. You get just the plastic panel and I understand they suck. People do crash these cars and they do go up for sale with great interiors you have to search for them.

Before you go cutting out the floor be sure you have watched lots of videos on the subject and that you have sufficiently braced the body to prevent bending. You also need to have a frame work to sit the car on to hold into position while installing. Do not take the doors off during floor install. You need to check the fit of the doors to see if the body has sagged. You might even go ahead and put new pins and bushings in the hinges before doing the floors. I myself would have taken the car to a frame shop first thing to have it pulled to correct dimensions before doing anything. They bend during use and especially with lots of rust. The top will get buckles in it that you cannot get out without putting extra roof bracing in to hold the roof up.

I am all for people doing their own work but do your research and wade into the pool slowly or you will be like some I have seen that ended up being junk.

Keep the pictures coming,

David

Hi Dave,

A late welcome from me , Greg, from Brisbane, Australia.

I must say that project represents one hell of a challenge. If you don't mind me asking out of curiosity, what drew you to this particular car to start with?

Thanks,

Greg.

Click to expand...

Greg,

It seemed cheap, was 351C 4V and not the least it was a 4 speed. In the end I may rethink the cheap part.

Hi Dave,

A late welcome from me , Greg, from Brisbane, Australia.

I must say that project represents one hell of a challenge. If you don't mind me asking out of curiosity, what drew you to this particular car to start with?

Thanks,

Greg.

Click to expand...

Greg,

It seemed cheap, was 351C 4V and not the least it was a 4 speed. In the end I may rethink the cheap part.

Click to expand...

Hi again Dave,

Thanks for your reply. Well i'm glad you just mentioned about rethinking the cheap part. I was wondering if you have sat down at any stage, and done some serious costings as to what it would take to bring this car back to a good standard again. The basic breakdown takes in labor and parts of course. Looking at the labor side, it's a given you would save big money by doing all or most of the work yourself. If you start parting out the labor to tradesmen, the costs can add up fast.(around $100.00 per hour would it be?) In that respect, i don't know what you would plan to do. For example, would you do all the mechanical (engine, tranny, diff, brakes etc), and would you do all the body work(panel beating, welding, spray painting)? I'm a pro auto spray painter, and i'm very fortunate i can do bodywork and refinishing myself. But i know bodywork/ refinishing costs are very expensive these days.

On the parts side of the ledger, replacing parts is not a cheap affair either, whether they be repro or original. In your case it seems that you would probably end up replacing a large amount of parts for this project. Have you sat down and worked out what you intend to replace, and add up what that will come to?

Please don't misunderstand me, for i appreciate that there are guys out there that love the challenge of taking on a big resto job, and turning the car around into a showpiece or a very decent car. That's understood, but my focus is on the money side of things. I feel certain that the monies required to restore your car will well exceed the market value of the car when you have finished the project. That reality i know does not bother some folk and they are happy to end up being in that situation more or less.That's fair enough, but for you, ask yourself is that where you want to be financially when you end up finishing your resto.

In my case i ended up buying a 1973 Convertible 302 base model in very good original condition around mid 2011. The car initially cost me $30,000.00 Australian to purchase. I've replaced many original parts, and upgraded the car to a Mach 1 flavor feel. It now needs a respray to finish off the resto. I'l be doing that of course. I've kept every receipt in regards every dollar that i've spent on the car to date. In regards labor and parts costs, so far, i have gone about $15,000.00 Australian over budget. Buy that i mean, i've spent well over $15,000 over the asking price of what i could get for the car if i tried to sell it tomorrow. Do i have regrets? Yes i do in some ways, but even though that's money i'll never get back, what price can you put on the pleasure owning the car has bought me. That's priceless.

Any way, enough raving on from me. But have a think about your costings and see how you feel about the whole thing.::thumb::

All the best,

Greg.