73 coupe, time to fix and mod

[Jase.Heuer]

so found the culprit for the charging system.. the alternator was bad so new alternator and voltage regulator (suggested to me to change one with the other) and now she is charging like she should.

 

[Jase.Heuer]

So LOTS of fun yesterday.... apparently the previous owner decided to seal the thermostat with silicone so it would not leak... so it efectivly sealed it so it would not open. so it has been fine for the 2-3 min trips but i decided to drive to the grocery store with her and well lets just say it was a perfect tv show style steam show. so i pushed her back the ~2 miles to the house in the lovely southwest weather and proceded to replace the thermostat and check for water in the places it should not be. looks like i got away with just needing a new radiator cap and some coolant but i have started to learn how special the previous owner was. so new rule never buy from people that do not even know what size enging it is when selling you a car.

 

[afeng79]

I'm guilty of sealing Windsor block thermostats with silicone IN ADDITION to a gasket. That's mainly because the flange opening on that particular intake manifold was warped and would NEVER seal perfectly. This was on my 79 F100. If you have that problem a new intake manifold will fix all seal problems. Also I found the best way to clean out a cooling system is by running a garden hose through the upper and lower radiator hose. I did this when I found muddy color antifreeze from rust in my system.

Also, not sure what the history on the motor is but I just ran Seafoam through my 351W (junkyard swap motor) in my 79 F100 and it made a hell of a difference (in a good way). Might help clean out deposits and other stuff in the motor if the owner was that bad with engine maintenance.

 

[Jase.Heuer]

so just a quick update (with pics)

so i blew my radiator cap and sent antifreeze all over

(all the dark on the road is from my car)

this was shortly after finding out that she will not let me use the gas station to fill her tank... yet to find out why but she just spewed gas all over the ground and i only put 3 gallons in

but now that she is resting in the garage i got all the vinyl to trim off but i had to work on my other car so she got "the black spots" as my daughter said. i covered the holes with gorilla tape for now just to keep the rain out.

and finally my dad sent me the old suntune mini tach he had from his 1968 fastback so i installed that and now my dash looks a bit cluttered but functional.

and now i just need to, as suggested, seafoam my car and back flush the cooling system...

so sprayfoam or seafoam

 

[afeng79]

Sprayfoam, seafoam, must be the same thing :chin: I followed the directions on the can and did it through a vacuum port, then some in the tank and some in the crankcase. Oh yea and it will smoke like crazy. Be prepared for quite a mess flushing the radiator. My neighbors still look at the brown stains on the street gullies from all the rust i flushed out!

 

[Jase.Heuer]

So I was told by Don65Stang and Jarpine that i should share the story of how i came to have Meg... oh yeah decided on a name for her. So her is a little story for ya'll

The origin of Meg.

So I have desired a 1971 ford mustang Mach 1 for many years now, but being in the army and always moving it’s hard to have a project like that. So when I got orders bringing me back to the States in March of 2015 I decided I was going to get my mustang. I had my hopes set on the iconic hunter green 71 mustang Mach 1, but the fact that I have a little to tiny budget for this I decided that any 71-73 mustang in decent condition would work. So the search began and I found several cars, most of them way outside my price range. Then I found Meg. I just happened to be looking on a military car swap site and a fellow soldier had just listed her, she is a 1973 302 white base coupe, and she looked rough. I emailed him and began asking the questions, how are the floors, why is she not running, and so forth. After several weeks of talking I decided that $$,$$$ was more than I could afford so I thanked him for his time and the search continued, that was until I received an email from him saying that he just got orders to Germany and really wanted her to go to someone that would get her running, his fear was that if she did not she would end up as a parts car. So after a quick exchange of emails we had decided on a reasonable price $,$$$ and we just had to work out how to get her to me. His report date to Germany was just before my repost date to the states so how to make it work. Then the crazy kicked in. I proposed that we exchange items through the mail. He sends the title and the keys and I send the check. Now where to store her. He was stationed in Arizona and I was headed to Texas. So he said he had a storage locker that was big enough for the car so it was settled. About a week later I received the title and 4 keys in the mail. The door, the trunk, the ignition, and the locker key. So I sent out the check. Two weeks later we flew out of Germany and landed in Dallas Texas, met up with family and proceeded to Fort Bliss. The first weekend at fort bliss I rented a U-Haul pickup and car trailer and headed out to Arizona. After almost 5 hours of driving I arrived at the storage locker and then the moment of truth, had I just sent off $,$$$ for a set of keys and an empty locker or was my new project inside. I opened the locked and there she was, sitting waiting for me to take her home. I got her on the trailer and headed home. Once I got home it took about 2 months and I got her to start, and the rest is history......

 

[1973grandeklar]

My son's 1972 coupe had a hard time filling with gas. And this was a new gas tank! I had him pull the new tank and check the line that goes to the charcoal canister (connects to the top of the gas tank). This was totally plugged. He fixed this and the tank fills good now. He also found that removing the cap no longer has pressure behind it. The charcoal canister is not hooked up to anything, but the line from the tank plugs into the top of the canister. Not sure if this will work for you, but it worked out for him.

 

[afeng79]

That's a story to tell to the grandkids. I too was in a similar situation with budget and as you said, the military makes it hard to have a project car (we all know they don't move cars for us in CONUS). I'm glad she's getting restored. I have a few places in El Paso for bodywork I might be able to recommend that my family has used for years (whenever you get to that point).

 

[Jase.Heuer]

So I took the intake manifold off to take it to a machine shop. Now she's sitting there unable to breathe. Now hopefully the machine shop will be able to fix the two ports going into the water passage

 

[tizzdizz]

Nice 73, keep up the good work. What are your plans with the trim holes from the vinyl top? Plug them up? or replace the top down the road?

 

[Jase.Heuer]

I plan on plugging them up. The car is not a grande I don't know when the top was put on but I'm pretty sure it was not factory.

 

[Jase.Heuer]

So I took the intake in and 24 hours later I have it back. The ports look great.

Now to finish polishing it.... Sorta and hit it with some high heat clear coat.

Oh and this is what came out of the cooling system.

 

[Jase.Heuer]

so i got the intake back from the machine shop and decided that i did not like how it looked polished so....

So pretty and Blue

 

[Jase.Heuer]

so i got a 1" space from my father, he has had it for over 40 years with the plan to use it again, and got some gaskets and now the intake is back on.... when it was off i used a wet/dry vac to clean the block and wow did some sludge come out.

All clean and ready to put in

test fit with the new studs and spacer

ran out of time for the day so set it in to keep dirt out of the engine

got it in waiting for the sealant to harden

Got the distributor in and the intake torqued down

and the carbs on and everything is hooked up and the hood even closes right

 

[Jase.Heuer]

So it has been a while but i have an update... so i decided that i was not going to have the time or tools to properly repair Megs engine so i decided to take her to the shop to get fixed. She is currently with Daniel Sanchez at S and J Automotive in Anthony New Mexico.

He has Pulled the engine and transmission to be fixed up

 

[Jase.Heuer]

so made a decent score this weekend. I found a set of rims for Meg.. no not Mag and not original but they are mustang rims and they only cost $40. that's $10 a rim.... couldn't pass this up.

Planning on painting them like this:

 

[73pony]

Hard to tell what size they are in the pic but are you sure they will work with that back spacing? Depending on how wide they are you may run into binding on the front suspension.

 

[Jase.Heuer]

They are 225/60 R16. They should fit just fine the only thing is I will need spacers because the offset is different. But they will not rub on anything

 

[Jase.Heuer]

so in anticipation of Megs return to life i have done several things... some of them not to smart lol

so i got a new air cleaner that is oh so pretty

and looking into texas laws i found out you can use i license plate from the year your mustang was made if the numbers are not is use... sooooo i ordered some 1973 texas plates that were never used just to find out that they have to be 6 character plates and what did i order

yep 5 character plates..... so i can do vanity classic plates

and request the same characters and swap them and hope that no one notices or i can chalk it up to an oops. decisions decisions.....

well she should be out of the shop in the next week or two then it will be off to the daily commute.... and maybe some weekend fun