What did you do to your car today?

72conv said:

Today we completed refurbishment of our '72 convertible's fuel system. Everything except the metal fuel lines has now been replaced and the original factory carb has been rebuilt. New fuel tank, vapor recovery valve, sending unit, rubber lines, filler neck seals and cork gasket, hose clamps, fuel pump, fuel filter... the whole enchilada. Lotta work and cost, but it will never have to be done again (in my lifetime, anyway).

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I need to the same thing. May I ask what it cost you? What area, if any, do you wish you'd hired a professional ?

Well, I didn't "do" it and it's not to my Mustang... but my garage now has a 50amp 240 outlet for my welder and a 20amp outlet for my aircompressor

Degreed the cam and put the heads back on.

Nightbeacon said:

I need to the same thing. May I ask what it cost you? What area, if any, do you wish you'd hired a professional ?

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All-in, the parts cost was less than $250. I'm a pretty competent amateur mechanic with a good set of tools at my disposal, so there's nothing about this job that I would pay a professional for. The only really aggravating part of the job was changing the fuel pump; it would have been much easier if I had removed the PS pump to create better access to the fuel pump mounting bolts.

I bought the fuel tank off eBay. It's a nicely made tank that fits perfectly. Free shipping, too!
https://www.ebay.com/itm/295734796177

The rest of the parts came from "the usual suspects" (NPD, RockAuto, O'Reilly).

Had this week off, so I finally got off my butt to put together the 4.11 / 31 spline rear that I've been sitting on the parts for. Cleaned up the housing, added reinforcement plates to the spring pads. Built a new set of backing plates and swapped the housing into the 71. I'll mount the rest of the parts over the weekend, and will order a new driveshaft this coming week. Pretty certain I'm not going to like the 4.11s, but I own it so..

Made this little fab stand from a vintage vice that I found at the dump, and a podium from one of our old CNC machines.

Your inner child will LIKE the 4.11:1s. Go with what he likes. Chuck

About 95% done, found a driveshaft to work temporarily so I can break in the gears. Tomorrow I'll adjust and bleed the brakes, bolt on the tires and go for a ride.

Practicing with my new welder. The numbers are from the voltage I am using.
The plugs, I feel good about. The beads, not so much. I found that I have to immediately STOP when I get any splatter and check my gas regulator. The settings are touchy and I need to verify that gas is actually flowing. This metal is 22 gague steel. Going to CLEAN the steels more thoroughly today and give it another go.

The three white marks are my better plug welds. Then practicing stitch welds.
Hope your day is good

About to weld in some anti roll bar perch supports while the engine is out and I am waiting on ups to drop off a new pitman arm

AndyMan_Tx said:

Practicing with my new welder. The numbers are from the voltage I am using.
The plugs, I feel good about. The beads, not so much. I found that I have to immediately STOP when I get any splatter and check my gas regulator. The settings are touchy and I need to verify that gas is actually flowing. This metal is 22 gague steel. Going to CLEAN the steels more thoroughly today and give it another go.

The three white marks are my better plug welds. Then practicing stitch welds.
Hope your day is good

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Looking pretty consistent and nothing a grinder can't make look better. The thing I find with welding since I don't do it all the time, is to have plenty of scrap material to practice on before I weld on my project. It takes time to learn the settings for your welder, and to perfect the technique for the material you're welding.

Yesterday, I removed the old FMX cooling lines and replaced them with stainless braided hoses for the AOD. After building clamps to hold them down and installing them on both ends, I put the car back on the floor for the first time in months. I replaced the ignition coil, and started the install of the Pertronix Ignitor system. Today, I'll have to pick up a new battery, but after that I can finish the ignition system and start filling the transmission!

Over the last few days I disassembled, cleaned, and lubed my car's rear seat power window mechanisms. They were so gummed up that the windows barely moved. Now they run up and down smoothly. Lots of frustrating and dirty work, but worth the effort.

Yesterday, after I finished working on the window mechanisms, my power top pump motor failed! No up, no down, no nuttin'. It had been acting a bit sluggish lately, so I wasn't too surprised that it gave up. I verified that I had power at the motor connector, so the problem was clear. I replaced the failed motor with a spare that I had stashed away. Only took a few minutes. Works great now!

I opened up the failed pump motor with hopes of repairing it. Nope... not happening. I discovered that the bearing between the motor and pump had apparently been leaking for a long time, allowing hydraulic fluid to seep into the motor. The motor is not hermetically sealed, so fine dust and dirt can make their way inside over time. Combine the seeping hydraulic fluid with 53 years' worth of dirt, and the the motor became clogged with thick, black, gooey gunk, almost the consistency of tar. No hope for this one, so I tossed it into the trash.

I've been living with the well-known "blinking headlight syndrome" for decades. My car has halogen headlight bulbs which draw more current than the old incandescent bulbs, and their current consumption is right on the ragged edge of the circuit breaker that's built into the headlight switch. Driving at night has always been stressful because I never knew if or when the headlights would go out. Replacing the headlight switch (twice!) with NOS did not help. So I gave up and purchased a wiring harness with relays made by Redline Lumtronix (their p/n EH-001). I bought it from CJ Pony Parts (their p/n HVU1) for $45.99 plus shipping (best price I could readily find). It seems to be well-made and it's truly plug 'n play. Below are photos of the completed installation. Took me less than an hour and I didn't have to drill any new holes in the car. The only modification I made to the harness was to cut off the supplied 1/4 inch ring terminals and replace them with smaller ones that fit the connection point screws properly. I found an aluminum bracket in my scrap metal bin and modified it to mount the two relays on, then bolted that bracket to the core support using an existing hole. The yellow arrow in the one photo shows where I picked up the power for the system. This terminal block is a direct connection to the battery. There is an inline weatherproof blade-type fuse holder in the positive lead wire of the new harness (not shown in the photos). I ran the cross-body wiring along the inside of the front valance and secured it with Adel-type clamps and #10-32 hardware using existing holes. This harness is obviously not original and doesn't pretend to be. My car is not a concours car, so I'm okay with that. At least I won't have to worry about driving it at night any more!



If you've been putting up with the blinking headlights, you now have an easy solution. Unless your car is concours-correct, in which case you're screwed.

If you have Halogen headlights, then you're already not concours correct.

Been busy cleaning up the diff. Replaced the open rear end with a LSD, replaced the rear springs and installed new 5 leaf 1 inch lower rear springs. Cleaned and repainted the housing and tail shaft. Replaced the universals, and brake lines on the diff housing.


Ready for reinstall.


Has taken a few weeks but the result is very rewarding.

Sheriff41 said:

Looking pretty consistent and nothing a grinder can't make look better. The thing I find with welding since I don't do it all the time, is to have plenty of scrap material to practice on before I weld on my project. It takes time to learn the settings for your welder, and to perfect the technique for the material you're welding.

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Thanks for the kind words

I overcame a point of ignorance. Meaning I learned where to source shielding gas. I ran through the small bottle I bought very quickly (size 1 from Tractor Supply) and then couldn't figure where to fill it. Turns out that Northern Tool has a bottle exchange program. That was much more affordable. I was able to start stitching in one half of the pan.

I am going slowly.

Almost back together. Messed up the distributor gear install so I had to order a new distributor.

Probably would have been done if not for the distributor.

Pro tip

If you ever have to redrill the distributor shaft for a new gear, put an 1/8” metal rod in the old hole. That way the drill bit won’t break when it hits the existing pin path.

I replaced the right front parking light/turn signal housing. The repop housing had an internal connection issue. It's amazing the repop housings STILL have wires in the wrong location. The high side wire and the ground are switched, you have to cut and splice the wires to work correctly. SMDH...

AndyMan_Tx said:

It was yesterday.. but I did some POR15 on the trunk floor, and underneath of the trunk floor and the stuff I can get to with the gas tank out..

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what made you decide on POR over Rust Bullet ?