1971 429 Japanese export blog

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Joined
Aug 29, 2016
Messages
593
Reaction score
112
Location
Milford, MI
My Car
1971 Mustang Mach 1 429
1972 Mustang Convertible 302
I bought this car as a nice driver with about 50,000 miles on it but it is 46 years old so there are a few items it needs which are either maintenance or just plain old and worn out.

I'll also post some of the unique features of the car here as there are a few.

Here's what I'm working with:

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The car was repainted quite some time ago but it still overall quite presentable. It may not be concourse but it will do just fine as a driver/cruise night car.

 
As I'm going over the car I noticed that there was a lot of extra wiring. Following the wires I found out there are extra bulbs in many of the light fixtures.

The car has a switch under the dash that turns on "running lights" which consist of a light in the outer most rear brake light along with the front turn signal.

Notice the extra bulb on the right side of the housing. Both sides have this.

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And it looks like this when illuminated:

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Front turn signals also have an extra bulb so that the lower turn signal is also lite when the running lights are on.

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One of the more obvious lights is the side marker light located on the side of each front fender. You can see them clearly on the first picture I posted above. Here is a shot from the back side:

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These lights aren't working right now so I'm picking up some new bulbs and will clean out the sockets.

 
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There is also an import plate located on the passenger side inner fender near the windshield washer bottle and a number stamped in the drivers side shock tower.

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These lights aren't working right now so I'm picking up some new bulbs and will clean out the sockets.
That problem is not the bulb, but the wires are worn on the backside.

 
Wiring was firmly attached to the socket and voltmeter showed power was getting to the socket. Replaced the bulbs and the turn signals work now.

Here are a couple pictures of the rear bumper reflectors. These appear to be nothing more than simple reflectors attached to a small bracket and are usually located approx under the bumper bolts on the cars that I have seen.

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That is great find. My wife is Japanese/Canadian and we both got a kick out of the fact that this car spent its time potentially cruising the streets of Tokyo. I didn't know any mustangs made it over to Japan but then I never thought to research it. And now the car is in China? Cool.

 
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That is great find. My wife is Japanese/Canadian and we both got a kick out of the fact that this car spent its time potentially cruising the streets of Tokyo. I didn't know any mustangs made it over to Japan but then I never thought to research it. And now the car is in China? Cool.
I've got someone in Tokyo seeing if there is any way to trace the vehicles history in Japan but I'm guessing if it's anything like here they won't provide any background.

Although I am currently living in China my home is in the Detroit area in Michigan which is where the car is currently located. Unfortunately it is illegal to register a classic car in China and although there are a handful of them they are nothing but expensive art as they can't be driven.

Actually if you want to hear something even more crazy once a car reaches 15 years old you can no longer register it in China and it is supposed to be crushed. Not parted out but actually recycled. With all the high end luxury and sports cars I see I am finding it hard to believe these cars won't be shipped out of the country which should destroy the used car market.

 
That allows for very little pride of ownership and is just plain sad. I don't complain about much but that would be the straw that broke my back. And the discussion of self driving cars over here just angers me. It has gone from idea to reality and will eventually go from optional to then being mandatory. Better not be in my lifetime. Well I hope your with your mustang in the warm months enjoying what others apperantly never will. Plus, seems that car was rescued from getting crushed finding itself stateside. Brings a warm feeling to my heart lol.

 
This is why I also perform an inspection on all the safety critical systems on all cars I buy. I would have never expected to have seen this on a rust free car but it could have led to a pretty big issue somewhere along the road.

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Today I saw my car for the last time until next June/July when I return home so I spent the time taking tons of pictures of everything I could think of for future reference.

I also spent some time confirming part numbers of various parts of the car and I was VERY pleased with what I found. The previous owner told me it was an original car (minus the interior color change) and he wasn't mistaken. The block, intake, exhaust manifolds, fuel pump, radiator, fan, distributor, carburetor, starter, trans and springs are all original.

Finished modifying the fuel sending unit by adding a return port as required for the 429 CJ. It's extremely irritating when you but a part that clearly calls out the usage and then find out it doesn't match. At least the fix was easy as adding a return to the fuel sending unit. I'm going to keep the original one and see if I can restore it.

This was my favorite picture of the day:

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It's always a relief to see the numbers match. Usually I would check this stuff before I bought the car but didn't have the chance with this one as it was ebay. I saw enough original parts still on the engine in the pictures before I bought it that I was pretty confident that it would match.

 
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