1972 351 HO article

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My Car
1971 Boss 351
1971 Mustang Sportsroof
1972 Q Code 4-speed conv.
Well these articles sometimes make mistakes. Which makes it tough for those that trust them explicitly.

While Mr. Jerry Heasley is a great auto journalist and true Mustang enthusiast - even he can get it wrong sometimes.

http://www.mustangandfords.com/featured-vehicles/1712-whos-the-boss-in-1972-that-would-be-r-code-351-h-o-mach-1/

This 1972 Mustang should not have a T-handle shifter.  It should have the black shifter ball.  Actually you cannot just take an original 1971 T-handle and move it to a 1972 or 1973 4 speed car. The threads are different.  There are a few other differences between original 1971 T-handles and the other ones people are using in their 72 & 73 cars.  I remember someone years ago trying to tell me their T-handle shifter on their 1973 Mach 1 came from an original 1971 Boss 351 car!  Doubtful.  No way unless they drilled out the original and re-tapped to the 72/73 threads.

"In 1972, Ford de-tuned the Boss 351 and called the result a 351 H.O. for High Output. The output was indeed high, but not as high as 1971. Horsepower dropped from 330 to 270 for 1972, with much of that decrease of 60 horsepower due to the industry’s rating change to “net,” which yields lower numbers. The 351 H.O. still had the performance features of a Boss, such as a solid lifter cam, a block with 4-bolt mains, an aluminum intake, dual-point distributor, rev limiter, Hurst T-handle shifter (all were four-speeds) {Ray Edit: NO Hurst T-handles were used for the 1972 and 1973 4-speeds!!!}, and a large four-barrel carburetor. The main concessions to 1971 were less compression ratio (from 11.1:1 to 8.8:1) for lower octane fuel with open-chamber heads and flat-top pistons, plus a slighter milder cam."

72-mach-1-r-code-wrong shifter handle ray edit.jpg

Here is a Boss 302 website article comparing 1970 and 1971 Shifters and T-Handles.

http://www.boss302.com/hurst.htm

One more thing - the license plate frame should NOT be black - not body color...   :D No - it should be slop grey!!!

72-mach-1-r-code-01.jpg

72-mach-1-r-code-11.jpg

Ray

 
Thanks to one of our trusted restorers on here (c9zx aka Chuck) - I have been politely corrected; as the front license plate bracket should be 'slop grey' and not black or body color

Ray

 
The red cowl drives me nuts!  :mad:
So does the red bumper brackets! Car looks nice but they could've picked a more correct specimen for the article

 
I'm never sure of these things but I believe cars only came with hood hold downs (or what ever they are called) if it had Ram air. Also the hood stripe I think is wrong and only came on Ram air cars. But I'm never absolutely sure of anything when it comes to Fords especially Mustangs.

 
Heasely is a hack, always has been. He was very influential in the 71-73s becoming the redheaded stepchildren of the first gen Mustangs, until they became valuable of course....

"Standard with every 1972 Mach 1 was the “Instrumentation Group,” which added a tach and trip odometer plus a triple instrument pod with OIL, AMP, and TEMP gauges."

Uh, no. ....

Even in 2017, there was no excuse for this and the other mistakes in that article, plus the failure to mention that the car was not restored to original condition. The materials are out there and most are freely available.

 
Pretty car but for sure not a concourse restoration. As usual the hood is way off. Also missing the front fender Décor trim. I think the AM/FM is out of a big Ford has the slide bar under the buttons for the rear speakers that Mustang did not have. The seats also do not have the comfort weave inserts. Some late 73 had all vinyl inserts after the supplier of the comfort weave got shut down with the fire.

I saw the note about the tag bracket and for sure it was Slop Grey on 73. I took mine off the day I got the car and put in a cabinet. It is on the car now in museum with the original paper dealer tag.









 
What is correct for the cowl?

Damn I didnt even notice that red cowl.

I dont know how you can spot red painted bumper brackets. My eyes must be worse than I thought.

On the Hurst T handles, Did those come from FORD in 71 or 72 at all? Or were they always put in after sale?

Damn you guys are sharp. I learn something every day..

 
Last edited by a moderator:
What is correct for the cowl?  

Damn I didnt even notice that red cowl.

I dont know how you can spot red painted bumper brackets.  My eyes must be worse than I thought.

On the Hurst T handles,  Did those come from FORD in 71 or 72 at all?  Or were they always put in after sale?

Damn you guys are sharp.  I learn something every day..
Cowl is the same as the rest of the engine bay - semi gloss black

If you look at the front quarter side view, they stick out pretty badly. 

T-handles came on 70-71 cars with the Hurst shifter and the flat stick. 72 changed to the round Hurst stick with the black shifter ball. Not sure why Ford changed the shifter, maybe because they were trying to sell the Mustang as a "European style road car" in all the advertising, rather than a fire breathing 1/4 miler.

 
What is correct for the cowl?  

Damn I didnt even notice that red cowl.

I dont know how you can spot red painted bumper brackets.  My eyes must be worse than I thought.

On the Hurst T handles,  Did those come from FORD in 71 or 72 at all?  Or were they always put in after sale?

Damn you guys are sharp.  I learn something every day..
Cowl is the same as the rest of the engine bay - semi gloss black

If you look at the front quarter side view, they stick out pretty badly. 

T-handles came on 70-71 cars with the Hurst shifter and the flat stick. 72 changed to the round Hurst stick with the black shifter ball. Not sure why Ford changed the shifter, maybe because they were trying to sell the Mustang as a "European style road car" in all the advertising, rather than a fire breathing 1/4 miler.
As usual - Hemikiller is 'spot-on' 100% correct!  Thanks to him for helping us all learn about these cars.  Ray

 
I sure enjoyed Texas World Speedway.

That pic came from my Boss T/A car’s very first session. It is the first and only session I ran the Boss 429 hood scoop. The seat was bolted directly to the floor with the seat riser removed. I could barely see over the hood scoop. When I came in, I removed the scoop and ran scoop less. Bought a Mach hood scoop and raised the seat off the floor with some brackets.

Good old days. That was 2004. Hard to believe I built that car 16 years ago. It’s been continually updated, but nothing drastic changed. Still has same engine, trans and rear end. Wheels are now Mini lites. I painted it dark red metallic in 2014.





 
Ummm, nice race cars but where is the relation to the 72 R codes??

 
Ummm, nice race cars but where is the relation to the 72 R codes??

My bad. Sorry I drifted off the thread a little to remind Dan that I was at Texas World when he was there running his Boss clone.  Dan is one of the first guys I saw with a 72 HO.  I remember him driving the HO during our Tulsa Shelby Meet open track event at Hallett many years ago.

Ray

 
Good times. I just need to come up with the cash to buy that old grabber blue car back. Current owner has put less than 1000 miles on it since I sold it to him. I’m working on it....

The front suspension, shocks, some engine brackets and pulleys, plus some other stuff that came off the race car are going on to my Q code project. I have some NOS under rider traction bars I never installed. Might put those on Q too.

Oh, and I have found the 72 HO article I wrote for the ragazines in 94. I need to scan it and see if I can host a PDF somewhere to link it.

See. There is more 71 72 73 car talk for those concerned.



 
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