72 mach 1 Grandmas original first car

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libram

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 13, 2017
Messages
313
Reaction score
6
Location
Charlotte NC
My Car
72 Mach 1
I should clarify, grandma is granddads 3rd wife and a lot younger than him but still married before I was born.

Ughhhhhhhhh I'm pissed of and need to let it out to the atmosphere. As many of you have read I've been working on the resto of my grandmothers very first new car. It  was a survivor until some bad decisions on trusting her brother were made and it took over a decade to recover it. The recovered vehicle was ratted out and I took it on as a project because it meant so much to her. Over ten years ago now I started and one of my first projects was to pull the motor and start to rework it. I took great care in finding the right parts for the performance the car really deserved and the reliability it needed. After finding the right machine guy, getting the work done, finding the right cnc shop in Australia........for a US car for the heads, a powder coater for everything that needed it, including the block, yes the block is actually powder coated 5 friends and I turned my garage into a cleanroom and spent a weekend, many beers, and a ton of time assembling everything together, torqueing to exact spec and rechecking everything top to bottom. Then we sealed it all up and it sat for a long time, safely in my garage mainly due to the lack of parts available at the time for certain componenets that were completely rotted or gone.

Finally the car was in full body work and resto, and the shop that was doing it took total advantage of the grandparents, think gt350 concourse money and what I finally took out of there was most of a shell with the hood and little extra body fillers unpainted and unattached, no interior, tires, rims, plumbing of any kind, exhaust, steering, etc etc.

The car went to another shop, a good shop, one that is run by someone who actually cares and does a good job, the engine is ready to be fired, the steering and almost everything else is done, so we turn it over, boom oil pressure shoots up and blows out the filter ring, a little testing later and it must be a bad oil pump right, lets replace it. We pull the pan and look at that.........grit.......

Engine goes back to the machine shop, to someone naturally detailed enough to take a close look. Someone in the crappy shop, opened up my clean room engine, and let it sit, in an open shop, body work, paint, assembly, fabrication its all in there. Machine shop was shocked that it was that filled with crap and had never been run.

SOOOOOOOOOOOOo ANGRYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!  :mad: :shootself:

 
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Sorry to see this...you probably needed to vent and let people that have gone through such hear the frustration.

Don't know if you want to talk more or "you know what to do"...USUALLY we don't get the entire story RATHER just the results of doing the wrong thing. (guys that think they can flush in car and it will be ok).

What everyone needs to think about is for some this is a 3 or 4 day , motor out, disassemble/inspect and clean then reassemble. Costing only time and gasket kit. (Maybe bearings if any sign of damage). For others it can be a OH - I can't deal with that now thought that this will be another YEAR to my project and very very disturbing. I WOULD LIKE TO add support that it doesn't have to be that!

Good luck hopefully it will just cost alot of CRC 556 to flush!

Mark

 
Sorry to see this...you probably needed to vent and let people that have gone through such hear the frustration.

Don't know if you want to talk more or "you know what to do"...USUALLY we don't get the entire story RATHER just the results of doing the wrong thing.   (guys that think they can flush in car and it will be ok).

What everyone needs to think about is for some this is a 3 or 4 day , motor out, disassemble/inspect and clean then reassemble.  Costing only time and gasket kit. (Maybe bearings if any sign of damage).  For others it can be a OH - I can't deal with that now thought that this will be another YEAR to my project and very very disturbing.   I WOULD LIKE TO add support that it doesn't have to be that!

Good luck hopefully it will just cost alot of CRC 556 to flush!

Mark
sadly no, full motor out, new gaskets, washing out all the pathways, new bearings, re-honing cylinders, polishing crank, thankfully my engine machine shop is good to me so its not killer but still 1200-1300 in repairs before its ever fired and allowed to break in.

 
So heres where I'm at and whats happened, engine was full of metal shavings......oddly not from the engine (wanna smack someone). That's been taken care of, and the engine is back in, fired and its really really nice. After finding the correct front glass thank god (refer to other posts) this mustang is almost complete. I know I've been stingy on photos, as in none at all of resto but they are coming, and I promise they will be magnificent.

 
Ok still held up by a couple of little items, the wheels and tires are on backorder, the exhaust tips are not here yet, so no exhaust, free flowing headers, décor trim still not on, the original air cleaner is going to have to go, and shes dirty, really dirty but finally some progress pics.











and finally a video, remember NO exhaust AT ALL

https://www.dropshots.com/libram11

 
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Looks like it is coming along nicely

Red with black is a good color combo

Wheels are make a huge difference - nice work

 
just some additional notes, the engine is too strong :) I've got to put silencers in the exhaust, its not just nasty rumbling loud but over 45 its unbearably loud. Also I've got some minor problems with the cosmetics of the rim blow wheel. The chrome strip has peeled off on the bottom portion. Anyone have any NC local suggestions for cosmetic repair on a rim blow wheel?

 
Car is looking great.

Sorry no suggestions on the rib blow. I doubt if anyone would ever notice it. Normal people do not look at details only MCA judges that have to find something wrong.

One of the biggest mistakes people make when doing a restore is that they do the drive train first. That should be the last thing you do. Yes tear it down and check to see what is needed but do not build the engine. It will sit there with the cam holding some of the valves open and all the cam lube will get dry.

When you take a car to a shop for work you should do weekly checks and only pay as work is completed. Have a written and signed agreement with the shop and make the person doing the work sign also with a personal commitment. If they will not do that then leave.

There was a local guy here that took hundreds of thousands of dollars from customers that got nothing but promises. There was no personal recourse since he had a LLC to hide behind and just went under. The customers were doing business with the LLC not him.

You can build a transmission or rear but do not assemble your engine until the body is ready. You should also find someone that can break in the engine on dyno or run in stand before putting in the car. I laugh at the guys on TV that are Professionals. They put engine in and coolant everywhere or it will not run. Then you get a big mess on your nice clean car.

 
so here's an interesting note, apparently I built the motor so strong flowmaster 50 series cant handle the exhaust, its unbearably loud. At idle its mean, really mean, but at 45 mph its hard to concentrate. So, next step, lets put dynomax turbo mufflers behind a 500 hp Cleveland and see if its workable. If that fails to take the db's down enough i'll let you all know how well cc inserts work. I'll take some db measurements for reference as I go and report here.

 
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