1972 Mustang Coupe 302

[bkdunha]

Talk to midlife and make the decision you are most comfortable with. Aftermarket harnesses are not to difficult but they will require some splicing to fit specific connections on any car. Ours included. I would add that if midlife thinks your harness is savable it will already have all of the factory terminals and will go back just as it came out. It is a tedious process, but can teach you a lot about your car as you undertake the adventure. If you go that route I would plan for a period of downtime that may lead into other work and it goes on and on and on.... Just focus on the task of wiring and make the list of other things for future. If you take the dash out which I would recommend. Take the time to restore that out of the car. Very doable. Document everything in disassembly with pictures and bag & tag. Like will be easier after.

 

[Scram mustang]

Just an update for all following the build. Took a couple hours yesterday (after a day of endless meetings) and spent some detail time with the car. Initially all seems to be pretty solid operationally, which is the biggest weight off the list. I replaced the transmission filter, oil filter, plugs, battery and a majority of the hoses that were substantially in need of replacement. Also put in a new Edelbrock carb and air cleaner. She is running really strong (fingers crossed) and the engine tick that it came with it was indeed just an oil issue...not anything more and was solved with the oil swap out. Not sure when the last oil change was done, but it would appear it had been a hot minute. Next up will be the brakes and most likely a new exhaust system, which also needs to be replaced. Also going to have to address all new weatherstripping...as that's shot as well.

One of the main issues I'm going to have to address when I sand her down is going to be two significant spots of rust damage. There are a lot of small surface rust issues that can be sanded out, but these two spots are pretty brutal at first glance. You can see in the pictures, there are two fairly large spots that I am either going to have to replace completely...or (gasp) address with some filler. I know the B-word is an unspoken sin, but at the end of the day (and as mentioned) I am not building this for show or some significant sale. She's gonna be my fun-ride until either she breaks down or I do. So I'm not overly concerned with a little bondo repair here and there, but I have yet to really clean the spots up and investigate more thoroughly. It might be significant enough where I have to replace the panels ( a little out of my wheelhouse) before I set the garage up to paint her fully. If anyone has any other suggestions or opinions on this...by all means fire away. I'm not a pro restorer...so I'm doing a lot of this on my own and through trial and error. I know my way around engines, but bodywork, painting, wiring...there are quite a few areas I am living off of youtube videos to conquer.

Once I get the engine cleaned up and everything back in order, I'll update with more pics. But again, from the initial diagnosis, she appears to be in much better condition than I would have expected and anticipated. More to come.

[Edit on this] - to clarify, I am not necessarily a proponent of filler, however in this situation, I have two options (one being more pricey) to choose from on a car that doesn't need to be show-perfect. I can go into these spots, wire brush them down, use some rust encapsulator, fill the holes with filler, sand them down, then prime and paint (cost-effective and within my abilities) or I can have these sections professionally welded with new material and done, with a substantial cost increase added to my running tab. Unless I am missing something, those seem to be the options...and obviously I am leaning towards doing it myself. Again, input welcome.

PBR

Old cars have hidden surprises. One suggestion is to look into how much it would cost to fix it. You can remove the interior and the windshield glass yourself to save on labor costs. (So you can weld in a new piece without the car catching on fire.) Get professional advice or pay an experienced bodyman to make sure it is repaired correctly. You may be planning on a new windshield and interior anyway

 

[Paul Schmidt]

12/20 update: Starting to see the transformation now. Amazing what a new set of wheels does, even without the Magnums here yet. Took her out for a pretty big stroll today, including the freeway. She hauls. Tomorrow we're stripping the rest of the paint, repriming the whole car and then she's going to a guy to repair the rear window.

 

[tpj71mach]

I sent my harness to midlife and he did a great job once I reassembled the vehicle all the electrical worked so I am a happy customer.
I have always installed all new harnesses in my other cars, but they are GM cars and there are vendors that make complete exact harnesses, and they are readily available pretty inexpensively. Unfortunately, those factory correct harnesses were not available for my car, painless makes harness kits but those are more universal and need connectors completed and so forth. I have used their harnesses on race cars and other vehicle that needed rewires and they worked well, but I did not want that on this car. Fortunately, I heard about midlife, and he did a great job and added into the factory wiring for the tach and console clock that I wanted to add to the car. Everything just plugged in and worked, which is all I was hoping for.

 

[tpj71mach]

12/20 update: Starting to see the transformation now. Amazing what a new set of wheels does, even without the Magnums here yet. Took her out for a pretty big stroll today, including the freeway. She hauls. Tomorrow we're stripping the rest of the paint, repriming the whole car and then she's going to a guy to repair the rear window.

There is nothing like a new set of rubber to improve the ride of your car for sure.

 

[cv_72mustang]

So what plug? " a plug that apparently got closed upon install".

 

[Paul Schmidt]

So what plug? " a plug that apparently got closed upon install".

I gapped them all at .35 but one of them was almost closed completely. Not sure if I missed it, or if it got squeezed down somehow before install.

 

[Paul Schmidt]

A little "before" and "in progress"

 

[Hemikiller]

Randy (midlife) can fix your harness if it's savable. If it's beyond repair, he likely has donor harnesses and may have a matching harness that's a better candidate. @Motorcity Mustang parts out a lot of 71-73s and would be a potential source if Midlife doesn't have a matching harness. Getting another harness and sending it to Randy before tearing apart the car to minimize your downtime is an option that I'd prefer, and he'll normally buy your core harness.

 

[Paul Schmidt]

Just some updated pictures from yesterday. I have the NACA hood on the list to pick up from NPD after the holidays, but wanted to see what a complete black out hood would look like...and since the old one is in rough shape...I just played around with testing the black on it. Basically just to see if I'm going to do the whole hood stencil paint approach when I get the NACA.

After living with it for 24 hours, I definitely will do the stencil. The whole hood in black isn't sitting with me. Almost reminds me of a Nova. But, for the interim, it's at least not four different colors and all scratched up. Ironically in my first full day of driving around town as is, I'm already getting comments at every light and gas station. So it can't be looking that bad.

 

[tpj71mach]

I have always liked the look of a car in primer. I think it is the feeling of endless possibilities; you can imagine it painted any color and see it just how you would love to see it completed.

 

[Paul Schmidt]

I have always liked the look of a car in primer. I think it is the feeling of endless possibilities; you can imagine it painted any color and see it just how you would love to see it completed.

Yeah agree. The more I sit and look at it now, the more I am going through color schemes. I definitely still want yellow, but I am leaning more towards the Eastwood School Bus Yellow now. The Ford 6E was too bright. But as mentioned, the more I keep looking at it, the more I am running through a number of options.

Been looking for vids on how to execute the hood stencil. Can't seem to really find any decent instructions or step by step. What I do know is that I don't want the entire hood black. That much has been determined.

Ironically, I kinda like the primer gray and black too. That may be an option. lol....talk about indecision.

 

[tpj71mach]

They sell Stencils for the hood blackout, the key is just measuring and remeasuring to make sure the stencil is where you want it. There are a couple threads here on the site that show the measurements off of survivor hoods to ensure it is in the factory position. I used these measurements to position my stencil before I painted the blackout on my hood. Although Ford didn't seem that concerned based on my 73 Mach from high school that had original paint and black out and the passenger side of the hood was crooked and that's just how it was from the factory.