Lancelot72
Active member
- Joined
- Oct 27, 2019
- Messages
- 41
- Reaction score
- 1
- Location
- San Antonio, Texas
- My Car
- 1972 hardtop 351c
Hello all,
This is Geraldine and her build thread. My name is Lance, my wife Janet and I have always wanted a classic muscle car. My wife decided to bite the bullet and spend some of her savings on a 72 Mustang hardtop 351C 2v (and who am I to argue
). Her car her preference, hence the name “Geraldine”. The idea is that we do the work that we can and hire out the rest. We want this car to be our own. Moreover, by “We” I mean she wants to be involved getting her hands dirty and learning all she can along the way. It is cool seeing her researching and learning about the car and I like that we are doing this together. I am a novice myself but I have never been afraid to try things. So here we go!!
http://lancelotsworkshop.com/images/forum/geraldine/01010_1dclVCAJtr5_600x450.jpg[/img]
http://lancelotsworkshop.com/images/forum/geraldine/00k0k_lr3vcdtRxrx_600x450.jpg[/img]
http://lancelotsworkshop.com/images/forum/geraldine/20191029_174806.jpg[/img]
Geraldine showed 7044 miles when we got her. We believe that is 207,044 miles. Over all the sheet metal is not too bad. She has some dents and dings and the paint is pretty faded. She has little to no rust that we have found. The floor pans and the trunk pan look awesome! We think she was garage kept and around the San Antonio, TX area her whole life. There are some gaps in the timeline but we are trying to fill those in. The driver’s side under the back window is the worst rust we have found so far...
http://lancelotsworkshop.com/images/forum/geraldine/20191029_175147.jpg[/img]
The hood had a bow in it, but that just gave us an excuse to get a NASA hood and ram air.
The overall plan as it sits right now is to get her mechanically sound and then start prepping for paint.
If I can get a warm fuzzy about it, we may pull the engine before we send her to paint and work on cleaning and freshening up the engine while the car is gone. I have never done anything like that so we will have to see how that goes.
She starts easy, runs good, and has plenty of power. The PO said, he was told the engine had been rebuilt at some point but he did not have any info. However, he had receipts for work he had done. New gas tank, rebuilt trans (FMX), new engine mounts and trans mount, new shocks front and rear, new springs in front, new lower arms and new bushings all thru the front end and steering, new rebuilt carb.
This is a factory A/C car but all of the compressor hoses were cut out and the PO said it was like that when he got it. He also removed the compressor when he was changing out the power steering pump. The compressor is currently in a box in the trunk with the mounting brackets. Right next to the old carb. I see a classic air system in our future.
Something I have noticed. Cruising at highway speeds there is a surge happening. I will most likely need help/advice figuring that one out…
Over Thanksgiving we took advantage of CJ Pony Parts black Friday sales and saved just over $500. Unfortunately that meant we spent over $1700. Part of what we got was a new Steering wheel, Rear Spoiler, NASA Hood, and all of the ram air parts.
Here is a pic with the new spoiler and hood. Let me tell you, putting that new hood on with just me and my small wife was not an easy task!! She's a real trooper!
http://lancelotsworkshop.com/images/forum/geraldine/20200108_185232.jpg[/img]
The rear leaf springs are very tired. I have new springs waiting to go on. The 9” diff is leaking so my plan is to pull the axel out as I change the springs and clean/paint the whole thing along with a thorough inspection. It does not look like the pinion is leaking just the main gasket. I am crossing my fingers that it is just that simple.
http://lancelotsworkshop.com/images/forum/geraldine/20191031_122907.jpg[/img]
(Look at those beautiful floor pans.)
I does look like the rear end has been replaced at some point (appears a junkyard wrote “88K” on it) but I do not know how long ago that was. The axel and springs have a very different patina then the rest of the car so I am thinking they swapped the whole thing as a complete assembly. While I am doing an inspection, I will figure out what the gear ratio is. I checked while I had it lifted and the tires spin opposite directions so I think it is just an open dif.
I have Monday off for MLKJ Day so I am starting in on the rear end this weekend. I have watched some videos and it looks like getting the old bolts out of the leaf ends may prove to be difficult. Wish me luck…
Thanks,
Lance
This is Geraldine and her build thread. My name is Lance, my wife Janet and I have always wanted a classic muscle car. My wife decided to bite the bullet and spend some of her savings on a 72 Mustang hardtop 351C 2v (and who am I to argue
). Her car her preference, hence the name “Geraldine”. The idea is that we do the work that we can and hire out the rest. We want this car to be our own. Moreover, by “We” I mean she wants to be involved getting her hands dirty and learning all she can along the way. It is cool seeing her researching and learning about the car and I like that we are doing this together. I am a novice myself but I have never been afraid to try things. So here we go!!Geraldine showed 7044 miles when we got her. We believe that is 207,044 miles. Over all the sheet metal is not too bad. She has some dents and dings and the paint is pretty faded. She has little to no rust that we have found. The floor pans and the trunk pan look awesome! We think she was garage kept and around the San Antonio, TX area her whole life. There are some gaps in the timeline but we are trying to fill those in. The driver’s side under the back window is the worst rust we have found so far...
The hood had a bow in it, but that just gave us an excuse to get a NASA hood and ram air.
The overall plan as it sits right now is to get her mechanically sound and then start prepping for paint.
If I can get a warm fuzzy about it, we may pull the engine before we send her to paint and work on cleaning and freshening up the engine while the car is gone. I have never done anything like that so we will have to see how that goes.
She starts easy, runs good, and has plenty of power. The PO said, he was told the engine had been rebuilt at some point but he did not have any info. However, he had receipts for work he had done. New gas tank, rebuilt trans (FMX), new engine mounts and trans mount, new shocks front and rear, new springs in front, new lower arms and new bushings all thru the front end and steering, new rebuilt carb.
This is a factory A/C car but all of the compressor hoses were cut out and the PO said it was like that when he got it. He also removed the compressor when he was changing out the power steering pump. The compressor is currently in a box in the trunk with the mounting brackets. Right next to the old carb. I see a classic air system in our future.
Something I have noticed. Cruising at highway speeds there is a surge happening. I will most likely need help/advice figuring that one out…
Over Thanksgiving we took advantage of CJ Pony Parts black Friday sales and saved just over $500. Unfortunately that meant we spent over $1700. Part of what we got was a new Steering wheel, Rear Spoiler, NASA Hood, and all of the ram air parts.
Here is a pic with the new spoiler and hood. Let me tell you, putting that new hood on with just me and my small wife was not an easy task!! She's a real trooper!
The rear leaf springs are very tired. I have new springs waiting to go on. The 9” diff is leaking so my plan is to pull the axel out as I change the springs and clean/paint the whole thing along with a thorough inspection. It does not look like the pinion is leaking just the main gasket. I am crossing my fingers that it is just that simple.
(Look at those beautiful floor pans.)
I does look like the rear end has been replaced at some point (appears a junkyard wrote “88K” on it) but I do not know how long ago that was. The axel and springs have a very different patina then the rest of the car so I am thinking they swapped the whole thing as a complete assembly. While I am doing an inspection, I will figure out what the gear ratio is. I checked while I had it lifted and the tires spin opposite directions so I think it is just an open dif.
I have Monday off for MLKJ Day so I am starting in on the rear end this weekend. I have watched some videos and it looks like getting the old bolts out of the leaf ends may prove to be difficult. Wish me luck…
Thanks,
Lance
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