’71 Mach 1 Resto Project

[Sheriff41]

The car looks great, gramps!

 

[mach71351c]

Right side mirror check! Front bumper check! First car show check! Son driving it home priceless! Congratulations the Mach 1 looks awesome out in the wild.

 

[beejman]

Sweet Ride Brother!!

 

[tpj71mach]

Sweet Ride Brother!!

Thank you, it looks like you are pretty near me, I see you are in North Brook, Il. Your car looks just like the 73 I had in high school, that would funny if it was the car, haha.

 

[beejman]

Northbrook it is....Mine was bought new in CA and spent most of it's life in AZ it looks like (Zero rust at least) Love to see your car in person..

 

[tpj71mach]

Northbrook it is....Mine was bought new in CA and spent most of it's life in AZ it looks like (Zero rust at least) Love to see your car in person..

Definitely not my 73 then, mine was purchased here in Chicago. I bought it from the original owner around 1980 and sold it in 1985. I heard about five years ago, that the guy I sold it to had it fully restored and still owned it at that time. If you said you bought your car in the southwest suburbs in '85, I would have asked if you were Bill, haha.
We are only 50 minutes apart or so, we will have to hit a common show or cruise night some time. my brother lived in Wheeling for years I turned left off of 294N onto Willow Rd. If I remember correctly if you turned right on that off ramp you go to North Brook.

 

[beejman]

Exactly right..... I probably hit 60 or so car shows a season so I'm sure we can work it out! (I've got five other "toy" cars so there's always something to bring) Right now I've got ALL of them for sale as I have way too many.... I love them all but the room is an issue... We'll see what stays and what goes..

 

[tpj71mach]

Exactly right..... I probably hit 60 or so car shows a season so I'm sure we can work it out! (I've got five other "toy" cars so there's always something to bring) Right now I've got ALL of them for sale as I have way too many.... I love them all but the room is an issue... We'll see what stays and what goes..

I understand, room for them is always a challenge. Let me know if you are taking your Stang to any shows maybe even south of you where it could be a sort of middle point and I can try to meet you at one.

 

[revsitup]

I took the Mustang to it's first car show and the last for this season in the Chicago area. The show was held at the Grundy County Fairgrounds about 37 miles from my house and it was mostly highway all the way. She ran really well and I didn't experience any drivability issues at all. I was sticking around 75 most of the way and it ran smooth, about 3200 RPM at 75 or so. The weather was perfect, 80 degrees and sunny and the show had a good turnout with a few hundred cars there. There were quite a few Mustangs, 4 other 71-73's and a bunch of older first gen's. There were three 69 Mach 1's and a 70 Mach with a 428 and a shaker hood and a 70 Shelby that was Wimbledon white with black stripes. I saw a Maverick Grabber also white with black stripes and interior. My son came with and took a bunch of nice pictures of the car. As far as I can recall, these are the first pictures that were not taken in my garage, driveway or in the body shop, LOL. It looks good to see it out in the real world for a change.

Here are a couple of the pics that my son took of the car. As you can see we got there a little late and were in the second to last row but in the pictures from the rear of the vehicle you can see the huge field of cars in front of ours.

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The angle of this picture my son took makes the hood look twice as long as the 6 feet that it actually is.

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I let my son drive the Mustang home from the show

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We met my wife after the show at one of our other son's and daughter-in-law's house on the way home.

Our first grand child Tommy came out and checked out the Mustang. I think he approved, he grabbed the steering wheel and didn't want to let go, haha.

He only has 15 years and 10 months until he turns 16, and can take it for a spin.

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Great pictures of the mustang at the car show! You’ve really done a nice job on it and glad your getting to enjoy it!! The white with black accents really look classy on that car. I sometimes think my grabber blue 71 is to bold at times

 

[tpj71mach]

Great pictures of the mustang at the car show! You’ve really done a nice job on it and glad your getting to enjoy it!! The white with black accents really look classy on that car. I sometimes think my grabber blue 71 is to bold at times

Thanks, I am very happy with the color choice, although I really love the Grabber blue/ argent combo of your car. I flip-flopped back and forth between the Grabber Blue and the Wimbledon White for about a year. I finally decided on the white/black combo in a tribute of sorts to the 73 Mach 1 that I owned back in the day.

 

[Cleveland Crush]

Thanks, I am very happy with the color choice, although I really love the Grabber blue/ argent combo of your car. I flip-flopped back and forth between the Grabber Blue and the Wimbledon White for about a year. I finally decided on the white/black combo in a tribute of sorts to the 73 Mach 1 that I owned back in the day.

Good to hear your getting a Grabber Blue Stang in addition to your current White one!

 

[tpj71mach]

Funny, but I am in discussion with someone about a Grabber blue convertible, he is talking about letting it go over the winter and we are discussing the terms. Only time will tell, haha. This car has been restored which is not my MO but it was done pretty well.

 

[Cleveland Crush]

Funny, but I am in discussion with someone about a Grabber blue convertible, he is talking about letting it go over the winter and we are discussing the terms. Only time will tell, haha. This car has been restored which is not my MO but it was done pretty well.

Be sure to post photos WHEN you get that convertible!

 

[Sheriff41]

Funny, but I am in discussion with someone about a Grabber blue convertible, he is talking about letting it go over the winter and we are discussing the terms. Only time will tell, haha. This car has been restored which is not my MO but it was done pretty well.

Do it.

 

[Cleveland Crush]

Do it.

Sheriff, Hopefully @tpj71mach won't force the forum members to vote on if he should get that Grabber vert...

 

[Sheriff41]

Sheriff, Hopefully @tpj71mach won't force the forum members to vote on if he should get that Grabber vert...

This would be one vote we could all agree on!

 

[tpj71mach]

Sheriff, Hopefully @tpj71mach won't force the forum members to vote on if he should get that Grabber vert...

LOL, in my defense I never "forced" anyone to vote, I requested, haha.

 

[tpj71mach]

Early yesterday morning, still can't adjust and sleep past 5:00 am, I decided to finish the torque check on the suspension and do a deep cleaning of the components. I have about 400 miles on the car since it has been drivable, so I thought it was a good time to recheck that the fasteners are all tight. I have done some preliminary wipe downs underneath but there was still a lot of body shop dust up in there. I jacked up the car and removed all of the wheels and tires and cleaned the wheels and tires front and back off of the car. I then started cleaning the front suspension, and came to the realization that it would be a great time to spray the rear wheels wells with the sound deadener. I had painted the whole under body first with black epoxy primer and then satin black chassis paint. I planned to wait on the sound deadener until after after the outer body was painted in case any over spray got in the wheel wells. I must have masked pretty well because I didn't get any white in there, but I still wanted the sound deadener. I have tried to insulate the interior as best as I can from heat and sound throughout this build. The plan was to get the interior as comfortable and quiet as I could to improve the sound system quality as well as the A/C efficiency, whenever I get around to installing and making it operational. As long as the wheels were off, I prepped and masked off the rear wheel wells and sprayed the sound deadener in the wheel wells. After that I finished the suspension cleaning and reinstalled the wheels all before 9:00 am. By time my wife got up, I was sitting out by the pool with the dogs, she had no idea I got some Mustang time in, haha. Officially, I did not work on the Mustang at all this weekend.



The paint is a little dirty and dusty but the wheels and tires are clean at least.

 

[TXin1880]

Really nice tpj! I don't know how you ended up driving my car though. To me white with black is the best color scheme on these particular cars.

 

[tpj71mach]

Really nice tpj! I don't know how you ended up driving my car though. To me white with black is the best color scheme on these particular cars.

Thanks, I am a huge fan of the white and black combo too! I was tempted to paint it Grabber Blue for a while but I had a white 73 in high school that I always wished I didn't sell. Now I built another white and black one, one more thing off the bucket list, haha.