’71 Mach 1 Resto Project

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tpj, you have plenty of room in your garage for your next toy...Grabber Blue 71-72-73 Stang! ;)
Haha, I like the way you think, I am not sure that my wife would though, LOL :D

If I do another project and and I can't really see that happening at this point, I would build a 67-72 F100 short bed and do the Crown Vic suspension and engine swap and make it a daily driver.

The dream would be a full custom frame swap and a Coyote drivetrain but the cost difference leads me to think Crown Vic front suspension and the 4.6 modular would be good enough. Unless I win lotto, then Coyote it is, LOL.
 
Yesterday, I planned to chase down the gremlins that showed their ugly heads on the car's first drive home from the body shop last weekend. I decided I was going to reinstall all of the door inner components first, and the door glass also. I wanted to do this so the car is sealed up and I can start wet sanding and buffing without worrying about getting anything inside the car.

Of course, my ADHD brain kicked in, (oooh! look shiny!) and I did the assembly stuff first, before the diagnosis of the car's issues. I installed all of the window and door mechanisms and adjusted and lubed everything to make sure it all worked smoothly and sealed up properly. While doing this I decided to go with the new door lock cylinders instead of the originals, the original's stainless covers looked really worn and did not clean up as well as I had hoped. Of course, that meant that I had to swap out the ignition cylinder to match the new door cylinders. While looking for the lock cylinders, I found the hood locks, so.... I installed the hood locks. When I got back to the ignition lock cylinder, that led to tearing the upper column apart and see why it has not been able to go to the accessory position, And of course, all of the regulator and window track parts needed to be cleaned and prepped before installation. I even removed the old felt that was worn on the upper guides and reinstalled new felt on them so the new glass doesn't get scratched. Eight hours later, I realized I had not yet started to diagnose the issues I went out to the garage to diagnose that morning. I just thought I would give you a glimpse inside my ADHD brain and how it works, this stuff happens all of the time, haha.🤪

Anyways, I did have time to diagnose why the coolant gauge dropped to nothing on the drive home. The new temperature sensor I installed when I dropped in the engine had failed already. It's fine, I'm not sure why these China parts get such a bad name, I mean this sensor had probably two hours maybe three of run time on it, so it was probably overdue to fail, lol.:ROFLMAO:

I ordered the new actual Motorcraft sensor (a little more, but allegedly made in USA) and that's all of the diagnosis and repair I had time for before I had to clean up and take my wife out last night.

On the high side, I did get the doors and windows all assembled and adjusted, and swapped out the ignition cylinder and fixed the accessory issue, and got the hood locks installed (kind of) so that's something I guess, lol.

The tach and the speedo still don't work and it still won't start hot, and I still have no idea why, but the glass looks nice, right?

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I installed the hood locks, it was supposed to be a 5 minute distraction, but they would not line up with the strikers underneath. The locks are about a 1/8-1/4 inch too far back and hit the back of the opening in the brackets. They will latch but do not seat flush, they are sitting high at the front of the cup because they are reaching forward. It is frustrating, because I measured a few times before I cut the holes. The holes in the outer skin are directly above the inner skin cut outs, I am confident that their positioning in the hood is correct, I did trial fit them when the car was assembled for final body work and blocking. They fit perfectly then, all I can think is we assembled the car, the fenders ended up the 1/8' -1/4" forward, The hood then followed to line up with the fenders so the hood is off a little from the trial fit. I am not going to move the sheet metal, I like the way everything lines up now. My plan is to remove the brackets and relieve a little off of the back of the opening and refinish them and reinstall and it will be fine.🤞

The hood locks look awesome though, they will look even better when they latch properly, haha.

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I was pleasantly surprised when my carpet showed up today that it was even delivered on a Sunday. I just ordered it on Tuesday and the website said it takes 1-3 days to process carpet orders. Trying to save a couple bucks, I just went with the ground freight option, so I didn't expect it until at least mid next week.
As long as it was here, I took out the front seats, console and shifter and laid it out. I won't have time to work on it until next weekend at soonest so this way the carpet will have time to relax into position. I can steam it if necessary next weekend, and start installing and trimming it to fit. I was impressed with how it laid out so well right out of the box, it looks like it should be a fairly straight forward install.
I love the sewn-in mats with the running horse, reminds me of my '73 from back in the day, except mine had a hole worn through right where the horse emblem should have been. I think it was from the previous owners heal when he pivoted his foot from the gas to the brake pedal.
I sprung for the mass-backed, it is supposed to add another layer of sound and heat deadener, and they also say it helps the carpet keep it's form and lay out better. It seems that part is accurate, it did lay out better than any other auto carpet I have installed before.

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I only able to work on the Mustang for a couple hours on Saturday morning this weekend. We had too much non-Mustang stuff going on, but I squeezed in some progress at least.
I was able to switch out the bad temp sensor and trimmed out the carpet and installed and adjusted the shifter assembly. I started to install the high torque starter, but realized that I need to change the wiring to a GM style because the starter has a solenoid on it. I tried to avoid using an aftermarket starter but I have gone through two OE-style starters. I have used the same remanufacturer for decades and I have never gotten a bad one from them. I assume the 10.75-1 compression is too much for them? I was surprised to have received a bad reman starter the first time. After two, based on my history with them I was shocked to get two bad starters, so I started to believe my engine builder that I need the high torque starter. We will see if this one lasts once I get the wiring updated.
At least I got all of the seat and seat belt bolt holes cut in the carpet and installed the console for good, hopefully, 🤞

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Yesterday, I planned to chase down the gremlins that showed their ugly heads on the car's first drive home from the body shop last weekend. I decided I was going to reinstall all of the door inner components first, and the door glass also. I wanted to do this so the car is sealed up and I can start wet sanding and buffing without worrying about getting anything inside the car.

Of course, my ADHD brain kicked in, (oooh! look shiny!) and I did the assembly stuff first, before the diagnosis of the car's issues. I installed all of the window and door mechanisms and adjusted and lubed everything to make sure it all worked smoothly and sealed up properly. While doing this I decided to go with the new door lock cylinders instead of the originals, the original's stainless covers looked really worn and did not clean up as well as I had hoped. Of course, that meant that I had to swap out the ignition cylinder to match the new door cylinders. While looking for the lock cylinders, I found the hood locks, so.... I installed the hood locks. When I got back to the ignition lock cylinder, that led to tearing the upper column apart and see why it has not been able to go to the accessory position, And of course, all of the regulator and window track parts needed to be cleaned and prepped before installation. I even removed the old felt that was worn on the upper guides and reinstalled new felt on them so the new glass doesn't get scratched. Eight hours later, I realized I had not yet started to diagnose the issues I went out to the garage to diagnose that morning. I just thought I would give you a glimpse inside my ADHD brain and how it works, this stuff happens all of the time, haha.🤪

Anyways, I did have time to diagnose why the coolant gauge dropped to nothing on the drive home. The new temperature sensor I installed when I dropped in the engine had failed already. It's fine, I'm not sure why these China parts get such a bad name, I mean this sensor had probably two hours maybe three of run time on it, so it was probably overdue to fail, lol.:ROFLMAO:

I ordered the new actual Motorcraft sensor (a little more, but allegedly made in USA) and that's all of the diagnosis and repair I had time for before I had to clean up and take my wife out last night.

On the high side, I did get the doors and windows all assembled and adjusted, and swapped out the ignition cylinder and fixed the accessory issue, and got the hood locks installed (kind of) so that's something I guess, lol.

The tach and the speedo still don't work and it still won't start hot, and I still have no idea why, but the glass looks nice, right?

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I installed the hood locks, it was supposed to be a 5 minute distraction, but they would not line up with the strikers underneath. The locks are about a 1/8-1/4 inch too far back and hit the back of the opening in the brackets. They will latch but do not seat flush, they are sitting high at the front of the cup because they are reaching forward. It is frustrating, because I measured a few times before I cut the holes. The holes in the outer skin are directly above the inner skin cut outs, I am confident that their positioning in the hood is correct, I did trial fit them when the car was assembled for final body work and blocking. They fit perfectly then, all I can think is we assembled the car, the fenders ended up the 1/8' -1/4" forward, The hood then followed to line up with the fenders so the hood is off a little from the trial fit. I am not going to move the sheet metal, I like the way everything lines up now. My plan is to remove the brackets and relieve a little off of the back of the opening and refinish them and reinstall and it will be fine.🤞

The hood locks look awesome though, they will look even better when they latch properly, haha.

View attachment 91852
I'm having trouble with the twist locks as well. I got the left one to work but very hard to twist for my liking. The right one not at all. I had to walk away for now.
 
I'm having trouble with the twist locks as well. I got the left one to work but very hard to twist for my liking. The right one not at all. I had to walk away for now.
It can be frustrating to get them adjusted right, I also had to walk away and work on something else the other day. I just removed the brackets last night from the car. I plan to open the the hole up about 1/8" to towards the core support and then repaint them this weekend. I think that will give me enough adjustment to make them work smoothly. I did trial fit them before I painted and they worked great. When the car was reassembled after paint, it seems that the sheet metal ended up a little further back. This is probably good because that means the gaps must be a little tighter now. I even videoed the test run to show a couple friends from high school that knew my 73 well back in the day just to show how it was coming along, but it show they worked before, haha.

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It can be frustrating to get them adjusted right, I also had to walk away and work on something else the other day. I just removed the brackets last night from the car. I plan to open the the hole up about 1/8" to towards the core support and then repaint them this weekend. I think that will give me enough adjustment to make them work smoothly. I did trial fit them before I painted and they worked great. When the car was reassembled after paint, it seems that the sheet metal ended up a little further back. This is probably good because that means the gaps must be a little tighter now. I even videoed the test run to show a couple friends from high school that knew my 73 well back in the day just to show how it was coming along, but it show they worked before, haha.

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Damn they worked good before paint. I didn't do a test run when I drilled the holes. Figured there was enough adjustment brackets.
 
It was 92 degrees today and we had some family and friends coming over to swim. I was hoping to get something done this weekend but I hadn't found any time so far. Before everyone came over, I snuck out to the garage to wet sand and buff the decklid and quarter extensions and apply the rear stripes and the Mach 1 Decal. At least I got something done that didn't take too long and it is something I can see when I open the garage door. It feels good to have accomplished something this weekend.

I do think it looks a lot better with a little more black accent and a little less white, and it looks more complete to me.

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I was able to check a few little thing off of the punch list this weekend. I was able to work on the car on Saturday in the morning and a couple hours on Sunday and an hour or so yesterday, so I was able to get a little accomplished. I started out on Saturday cleaning up the seat belts and getting them ready to dye black. The previous owner used some sort of dye or paint, and painted them with a brush, buckles and all. It took a while to remove all of his handy work and get the belts back to green and the buckles polished up and prep the belts for dyeing. After cleaning and masking the buckles and mount plates, the dyeing was the easy part. I used my favorite drop cloth that keeps getting heavier with each coat of over spray. I repainted some old iron Gold's Gym plates that I had from back in the day for my son who wanted them, that is why all of the circle patterns on the drop cloth, haha.

The belts turned out okay, good enough for now anyway, so I am able drive the car until I have to put it up for the winter. I intend to remove them from the car one of these winters and send them out to have the webbing replaced. When I take the seats out to reupholster would be the best time if the budget at the time allows. That process is surprisingly expensive, but worth it in my opinion.

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I also threw a few hog rings into the $29 Amazon seat covers to hold them in place. I am using these covers until I can get around to reupholstering the seats. I even hog ringed them in the back and reinstalled the rear finish panels to try and make them look a little better for now. When I bought the car, the seats were silver metallic vinyl that a previous owner had done and have some splits in it, the foam is old but it is okay for now and they are pretty comfortable to sit in.

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I previously had dyed all of the seats black, this weekend I covered the front bucket seats with the seat covers for now.

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I prefer the look of the rear seat folded down anyway, so the condition of the rear seat is not important for now. Over the winter I will order up new seat covers and foam and tear the front and rear seats down, and paint the frames and reupholster them.

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On Sunday I finished installing the seat belts and the seats and trimmed out the passenger side carpet at the door opening and installed the sill plate and door weather strip. bumpers and tire decal. So the passenger door jamb is done. The shoulder belts and retaining parts all got installed along with the dome light too. Hopefully, I will get a chance one night this week after work to trim out the drivers door jamb carpet and install the sill plate and weather strips, I still need to buy some door panels but that will need to wait until over this winter as well, for now I just want to drive it until the weather turns here in Chicago.

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I was able to check a few little thing off of the punch list this weekend. I was able to work on the car on Saturday in the morning and a couple hours on Sunday and an hour or so yesterday, so I was able to get a little accomplished. I started out on Saturday cleaning up the seat belts and getting them ready to dye black. The previous owner used some sort of dye or paint, and painted them with a brush, buckles and all. It took a while to remove all of his handy work and get the belts back to green and the buckles polished up and prep the belts for dyeing. After cleaning and masking the buckles and mount plates, the dyeing was the easy part. I used my favorite drop cloth that keeps getting heavier with each coat of over spray. I repainted some old iron Gold's Gym plates that I had from back in the day for my son who wanted them, that is why all of the circle patterns on the drop cloth, haha.

The belts turned out okay, good enough for now anyway, so I am able drive the car until I have to put it up for the winter. I intend to remove them from the car one of these winters and send them out to have the webbing replaced. When I take the seats out to reupholster would be the best time if the budget at the time allows. That process is surprisingly expensive, but worth it in my opinion.

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I also threw a few hog rings into the $29 Amazon seat covers to hold them in place. I am using these covers until I can get around to reupholstering the seats. I even hog ringed them in the back and reinstalled the rear finish panels to try and make them look a little better for now. When I bought the car, the seats were silver metallic vinyl that a previous owner had done and have some splits in it, the foam is old but it is okay for now and they are pretty comfortable to sit in.

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I previously had dyed all of the seats black, this weekend I covered the front bucket seats with the seat covers for now.

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I prefer the look of the rear seat folded down anyway, so the condition of the rear seat is not important for now. Over the winter I will order up new seat covers and foam and tear the front and rear seats down, and paint the frames and reupholster them.

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On Sunday I finished installing the seat belts and the seats and trimmed out the passenger side carpet at the door opening and installed the sill plate and door weather strip. bumpers and tire decal. So the passenger door jamb is done. The shoulder belts and retaining parts all got installed along with the dome light too. Hopefully, I will get a chance one night this week after work to trim out the drivers door jamb carpet and install the sill plate and weather strips, I still need to buy some door panels but that will need to wait until over this winter as well, for now I just want to drive it until the weather turns here in Chicago.

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Great Job, looking so good
 
I took her out for her first joy ride today. The only other time I have driven it so far was home from the body shop. On that trip the speedometer stopped working and the temp gauge stopped working. The tach gave out while it was at the body shop and still does not work. I fixed the speedo and temp gauge and they are working well. I even checked the speedo against a GPS speedo app and it turns out the speedo in the car is accurate, I didn't expect that. I just randomly picked a middle of the number of teeth options driven gear to find a starting point and dumb luck got it right the first time, who da thunk.

It definitely needs and alignment but everything else was good. the trans shifted well, the brakes stopped the car nice and straight. I am going to center the steering wheel, measure out and adjust the toe, that should improve steering feel at least until I get it to an alignment shop.

I need to figure out why the tach stopped working everything is new and it worked for a while after I got the engine installed and started so it is wired correctly. I need to get around to figuring that out one of these days soon. I think I would rather focus on getting the car wet sanded and buffed so I can apply the stripes. That needs to be my next thing to focus on, I think.
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I decided to devote the whole day today to finally wet-sanding and buffing the paint. I had until 5:15 or so, when I knew I had to stop and shower so my wife and I could leave by 6:00 to meet some friends for dinner. I was a man on a mission, I got out to the garage a little after 6:00 this morning, and got right to it, masking off all the "do not sand" parts. After that, I started hitting isolated "problem" areas with 1000 and then 1500 and then wet-sanded the whole car with 2000 then again with 3000 and finally 5000. Next, I used compound and a wool pad on the whole car. After I washed the car to get all of the compound off of it, I finished up with polish and a foam pad on my buffer. I think it turned out really nice overall. There are a few spots I will revisit in the near future, but none that will stop me from applying the stripes and decals. I am hoping that I will be able to find some time to block off to apply them tomorrow, but not sure I will have enough time to measure and apply all of the stripes. I don't want to postpone it until next weekend, but I may need to because that isn't something I feel should be rushed.

I masked all of the matte black off first to make sure no compound or polish got in that. I also masked off the moldings and door handles so they didn't get any sand scratches while I wet-sanded the paint.

At first glance, the blue masking tape makes it look kind of like it is a Sprint, haha.

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I think it turned out pretty well. There are a few areas that will need a little more attention, but not too many and they are not near where the stripes and name decals go, so I can apply the stripes and decals when I can find time. I can't wait to see it with the Mach 1 decals on the fenders and the stripes running down the sides.:cool:

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Now, I just need to add the stripes and decals and it will look done, except for the front bumper and passenger mirror, of course. I really need to figure out some time to get to the body shop and paint the front bumper and re-spray the passenger mirror base that I hung a big ole runner in the paint. Hopefully I will get to that in the next few weeks. I can then install those just about in time to put the car away for the winter, haha.

Looks like glass! LOL
Actually a pretty good depth of shine for a white car, IMO.

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That's a good day's work! Really looks great in the pictures; I bet it's even better in person!
Thanks, it definitely was a fair bit of work. I must be getting old, by the time I was finishing the polishing the buffer was getting pretty damn heavy, haha.
 
Put the Mach 1 decals on the side first and take a long look before applying the hockey stick decals. Really a clean look that I prefer, your opinion may vary
 
Put the Mach 1 decals on the side first and take a long look before applying the hockey stick decals. Really a clean look that I prefer, your opinion may vary
I like that look, it is nice and clean, but I also like the hockey stick stripe. It is nearly a coin toss for me, I like both equally. I did already buy the stripes though, and I am way too cheap to pay for something and not use it, haha. I took pics of my car when I had just applied the lower stripe and the Mach 1 Mustang decal, it does look nice like that,:unsure: This is how it is sitting for the night at least, I have had enough fun for one day LOL.

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