Fabrice's 429CJ 71 project

[Fabrice]

I thought that day will never arrive... I've decided to start on the 71!

I got this 429CJ matching numbers back in 2000. till mid 90's it ran in Paris and then in south west of France very very strong (very very thirsty too).

The PO, a good friend of mine, placed a new Lunatti cam in it, and within few weeks, engine died and never started again.

My friend, in middle of divorce and other stuffs, had no time and brought it to a local 'specialist'. This brave man took his time, removed/opened the engine, the trans and the dashboard for unknown reasons, and with parts all over the place he decided it was time for him to retire and shut down his shop business. Not touching the car further or put it back together.

The car stayed in this garage for 2 years under this guy heavy tortures. My friend tired of all the extra stress in his life at the time, called me and said.

You want the car? Come get it or it goes to the crusher...

18 hours later, I arrived at the garage with a trailer. Went to this garage, all tools, parts where all over like if someone was in a lunch break. I've collected all the parts I could find laying around, each and every bolt, washers, brackets... Then went to another shop where the engine was for check. They found out a lobe on the new cam went round. So after collecting all engine parts over there, put all in the car and went back home. 

As the 73 was under surgery in my garage at the time, it went into a friend's barn till I would come to it. The engine block however went straight to a machine shop I know, where lower engine was checked/put back together. new pistons/rings etc.. and stayed in my garage since then.

20 years passed.



This is what 20 years of dutch dust looks like. 

Last week I went thru all engine parts I got, spited in my hands and so became the 71 next on my todo 

First goal: put the engine together, so I can free some space in the garage.

While busy looking at what I can (re)use, and what I need, I started with the first candidate: the intake.

The heads kept in oil will go to the machining shop for a well deserved bath and valves/surface job.

I have the original one but being as heavy as my wife's mini, I will not use it and use the hoffy my friend placed on the engine.

As it gave a noticeable boost to the engine back then above the original, all it needs is to be refreshed a bit.



Here the lower engine in its time capsule and the dirty intake.

After one hour labor and no real changes, I decided use big gun.



After a high pressure massage, the aluminium started look more aluminium.

Tons of detergent, brushes, belgom, swet and tears later. I got that baby better than new

I still need improve here and there but it starts looking like an intake!





more to come...

 

[Wide-body71]

Huge difference.

 

[luxstang]

Wow, what an Odyssey!

Keep us updated!

 

[Fabrice]

Wow, what an Odyssey!

Keep us updated!

Oh I will!

While adding picts of the progress, I'll post some old and current picts and add some anecdotes of this car.

Here's one showing the patina



While it doesn't look pretty atm, car is almost complete. At least most the 429 CJ hard to find parts I want and need are there.

Engine wise, I might need buy a few specific bolts here and there. I'm not planning to do something wild with it.

With this already revised engine with new pistons/rings + few good parts it should be more than enough.

The interior misses one power window bezel and the middle console ashtray and all it will need is tons of love (make that megatons). 

Body needs its share of attention too, aside the classic rusty trunk+quarter, there are lots of small issues. Nothing serious but I expect to burn a few meters of weld wire on it 

I don't have yet the total picture of where I want it to be, my head is more to the 73 which I'd love to have back on the road this year.

I'd start draw stuffs as I go.

For now, It's all gonna be about saving what can be saved as I've seen in past few days weeks looking online that parts for 429 and CJ's in particular, have sky rocketed since the 80's. Back then it was already more expensive than for a 351C, but now.. man, I know its gonna be a restoration and will have to reduce the shopping list as much as possible.

So in that regard, I took 3 of candidates on the todo today.

First the valves covers. Pitted, dirty, they'll have to get back on duty till I can find the original aluminium ones without loosing an arm.

The funny thing here, I was there when these replaced the original ones. They were cracked and thought beyond repair at the time.

They landed in the junk. Now days, I would have welded them and re-polished with love. Back then, a brand new made in Taiwan covers was way cooler



With bits of love they came back to a presentable state.

and then came one of the parts nobody cares about, till you see how much these cost when you find them.



light rusted on both sides, these will get a either a zinc or thin paint treatment as soon as temp goes above 14c

For now, cleaned/polished it by hand vs aggressive brush to keep as much as the original metal treatment.

Then started on the fan, got more big parts to treat/restore and the order doesn't really matter, I need them all

Picts for that baby next update...

 

[Fabrice]

Fan was next,

After reading a few threads on fans, I've carefully inspected mine. No cracks, no rivets having bad looks.

I could let some company coat it.. nah, how hard could it be??? 2 or 3 hours?



The 429 seven blades fan in its juice (what turns out to be 4 different layers of paint that didn't want to react much with solvents).



On the left, several hours past, because you can't use heavy tools to do the job, to not damage the blades

most needs be done by hand. Acetone, thinner were doing almost nothing. All had to be sanded by hand.

On the right, blades and their 4 layers of paint removed.



Hours past, finally the other side. At this point you start hate Ford to have made a fan with so many blades...

On the right side. This was the second day, and the end of the tedious work was in sight...



Then, as I saw the blades are in aluminium, I thought for the work I already done, why not make it look even better

Time for some polish work... 14 blades surfaces. I've lost count of hours at this point.



Satisfied with the raw work, it was time for the taping, primer, paint etc...



and then: tadaaaa! After hours and hours and hours. You got to rediscover the baby after its transformation.

I'll add a thin clear coat layer to it prolly next week.

Ok, its been so much work: one more pict



Next week If I haven't received the door hinges kit for the 73: the oil pan is next.

Some welding on the program..

 

[secluff]

Fabrice, this is really going to be a great build to watch. Considering how many Mustangs have been built over the years, there weren't  very many of these one year cars to start with. For you to have have one in your possession in the Netherlands is nothing short of amazing. I followed Pastel Blue's 429 Vert project from the start, unfortunately he left us just before it was finished.

Glad that you reread the fan posts so you would be aware of how to inspect and carefully handle the flex blades. The 19" 429 blades were not part of the recall but still doesn't hurt to inspect them as part of your normal maintenance. If original, your blades should have "DOOE-A" stamped on it for the ID number.

Agree the OE aluminum valve covers are now priced as if made of gold.  

Back when I was running a 429 in my Gran Torino I threw away several sets of them that were given to me because they were all cracked from over tightening. The sad part is all the ones I threw away then would be repaired now. I Finally found a good set on a retired 72 Police Interceptor that I was also pulling the heads and intake to use on my Hot Rod!

Please keep us posted and especially if you need any help finding any 429 "Stuff"  

 

[Fabrice]

Fabrice, this is really going to be a great build to watch. Considering how many Mustangs have been built over the years, there weren't  very many of these one year cars to start with. For you to have have one in your possession in the Netherlands is nothing short of amazing. I followed Pastel Blue's 429 Vert project from the start, unfortunately he left us just before it was finished.

Glad that you reread the fan posts so you would be aware of how to inspect and carefully handle the flex blades. The 19" 429 blades were not part of the recall but still doesn't hurt to inspect them as part of your normal maintenance. If original, your blades should have "DOOE-A" stamped on it for the ID number.

Agree the OE aluminum valve covers are now priced as if made of gold.  

Back when I was running a 429 in my Gran Torino I threw away several sets of them that were given to me because they were all cracked from over tightening. The sad part is all the ones I threw away then would be repaired now. I Finally found a good set on a retired 72 Police Interceptor that I was also pulling the heads and intake to use on my Hot Rod!

Please keep us posted and especially if you need any help finding any 429 "Stuff"  

For you to have have one in your possession in the Netherlands is nothing short of amazing.

Over the years, I saw very few true CJ's on this side of the pool. I know a german guy and his son in law having 2. He came 1 or 2 times at one of the dutch mustang club meetings (badly tuned, he was running bit more than a liter per km, if you know the fuel price here, you know why he did not visite more often). I knew a guy in France, who had several 429's. This one was one of his. Sold to 2 friends buying cars to have fun and resale to finance their next project. They sold it to my friend in 89 or 90.

While I will not restore it with originality in mind, I will restore/light mod it with love  I enjoy the hobby and will do most myself.

The mods will be light and I will keep all parts I have and do not use so it could be reversed and parts sold with the car, if I was forced & tortured to do so. I don't care about its value. I care about it. Thats all.

Just went back to the garage and checked: looks like it's indeed the john Dooe. What does the S stands for?



[Please keep us posted and especially if you need any help finding any 429 "Stuff"]

Thank you, I will! As said above, for now its about saving/restoring parts, I don't think I miss much but with the engine components, electrics and many other parts laying apart in boxes around. I'm probably wrong about that tho Time will tell.

 

[secluff]

Fabrice, other than the Ford ID number and date code, all other marks would be the manufacturer ID and other in plant use info. The "S" in front of the "DOOE-A" is not part of the Ford number and is most likely the the manufacturer mark. I've seen "CF" on most fans. Since the 914 is a different font from the rest of the numbers it is also probably in plant use numbers. The rest of the numbers appear to be the date code. Geoff (Stanglover) could probably offer more insight on these additional numbers since I believe he worked at the company that manufactured these fans for Ford.      

 

[Fabrice]

Fabrice, other than the Ford ID number and date code, all other marks would be the manufacturer ID and other in plant use info. The "S" in front of the "DOOE-A" is not part of the Ford number and is most likely the the manufacturer mark. I've seen "CF" on most fans. Since the 914 is a different font from the rest of the numbers it is also probably in plant use numbers. The rest of the numbers appear to be the date code. Geoff (Stanglover) could probably offer more insight on these additional numbers since I believe he worked at the company that manufactured these fans for Ford.      

Thanks for the explanation Steve.

Reminds me I should have posted a pict of the vin earlier.

Currently black/gold with a massive hand made airbrush illustration on the hood (picts soon)

I think it should be dark green but no idea about the stripes/decals if any and what colour they should have.

Not that I want to reproduce tho, just starting to think about colour combos...

 

[NOT A T5]

Hey Fabrice...NICE work so far!

 

[Fabrice]

bolts bolts and bolts and bolts...

As all parts were collected in a hurry, nothing labelled or even per familly, got like a bucket of old bolts...

while most are for the engine, some are for the c6, and some... well I duno.



Hours of sorting later I got I think all the engine bolts. excepted one important.

Its one to secure/adjust the valves. So if one of you has one left over of the same kind, please PM me!

Here's the baby I need.



As valves retainers, studs, springs etc... were not found yet, needed go deeper into my small garage attic.

and after throwing loads of old stuffs away, opening boxes and boxes. Finally found them back along with the original intake.



unlike the rest of engine parts, I did store them, and all are ok, in oil, no parts missing.

So next week, the heads will go to an ultra sound clean up at my fav machine shop + valves guides/seats check.

And I should be able to reassemble them after that.

Mostly busy on the 73 this weekend, I did also these for the 71.

Pre-cleaned and check for cracks what's Ford calls the cylinder front cover, aka engine front cover or timing chain cover.

(thx to Secluff, I know now its having 3 names)



I need buy some chemical paint removers and try one of these rust desolvers to finish it.

For now, this one will wait.

Then the fly wheel. full of light rust, it returned to a shiny state after a massage.

Found small damages on 4 teeth, few bits of metal gone, but plenty surface to engage the started motor without problems.





Next weekend if I have the rust desolver in house, i'll remove more of the rust chemically and

protect it with a thin paint layer.

Question here: What kind of grease should I use for the teeth?

to be continued...

 

[Carolina_Mountain_Mustangs]

WOW I thought I got great deals a free 429 mustang, lol.

On grease for the teeth on the flex plate you do not need any. It would simply sling off when the engine is running. The engine tends to stop in a few places all the time so you will see uneven wear on the teeth from the starter engaging the teeth, that is normal. If none broken you are ok.

I can probably come up with the Power Window Bezel you are missing if you do not find but the clips that hold it are not easy to find for sure.

If you put the engine together and are going to let it sit go out and turn crankshaft to different position once a week so the same valve springs are not compressed all the time. If it is going to sit for a while put some lube on the valve seats also to prevent any rust there.

Really the engine should be the last thing you build for your car so it does not sit there.

When you do go to start the engine crank it over enough to build oil pressure before hooking up ignition or use a drill motor and long shaft to prime the oil system.

Do not let the engine idle when you first get it running. Do a quick timing set and keep the RPM in the recommended range of the cam manufacturer. That is probably what wore the other cam out. Slow idle beats the cam and lifters to death. Racing parts are not made to run on the street and have a short life span if not used at proper idle RPM.

Keep the pictures coming as you put the puzzle back together. I am sure members are willing to send you any pictures you need for reference. I could have gotten valve covers at a recent show but I did not even price them since I do not have any 429 cars. I do have a PI engine I am going to clean up and sell since I will never use it. I like the 351 C much better.

Cheers,

David

 

[secluff]

David, sorta funny how some parts are junk you couldn't give away one day and later are priced like gold. I believe Fabrice needs a set of the original CJ style valve covers.

My 429 buddies were busy installing all the fancy aftermarket valve covers on their engines and would give me the OE aluminum covers since that was what I was running on my 429. Most had stress cracks around the bolt holes from over tightening so I just piled them up and let them collect dust for years. When it got to the point you just about had to walk sideways to get through the garage, those were some of the causalities of the clean up. Now days those would have been repaired!

The 71-72 Police Interceptor also ran the CJ valve covers, so if you see a set you might let Fabrice know. (Do you know what year your PI engine is)?  

On a different subject, were you able to find a vacuum advance for Anderslober and mwilson7 at the closed NAPA warehouse? He should be able to cross the Ford and Motorcraft numbers I sent to you even if he could not find them by application.

 

[Fabrice]

@David

yeah free comes at a price

The prob is not to restore the parts or the time it takes, I don't mind dirty hands (and strangely, I even enjoy restoring old rusty metal back to shiny state). The annoying is that the dude who "worked" on it made a mess (understatement). Its easy to take things out, less easy to put it back when you are not that person, not knowing exactly what went out, in which order and where the stuff missing is. That's why sorting all bolts and make sense of what they are and where they go is tedious.

As about the engine should not be done first. Well, I saw your new rotisserie in your spacy surgery room. Take a look at my garage, seek the diffs with yours and you will quickly understand why all the engine parts currently taking space needs be back together. I do not plan set valves springs under stress, but they will be assembled and valves cover on/tightened by hand. All engine dripped in a generous bath of oil. The fairly far day from now, that I will actually try to fire it up, I will for sure, oil bath it again first, and pre lub all and ensure the oil pump is loaded. And use breaking oil with zddp (and bit every next oil changes added each time). Its probably why one of previous Crower cam lobe went south. For now, it's about having space, book some progresses and start think of how i'm gonna do with the rest of the car.

If you have one damaged Power Window Bezel, I would solder/weld/make whatever missing clips. Its not even on the prio's list but would be nice to have it already. Its also the kind of small work that can be squeezed in the planning during the week. So PM me at will

@Secluff or @david, Do you have a 'valve stud bolt' around you could miss?

 

[Mach_One]

Nice work! Locating parts for the 429CJ cars is no easy (or cheap) task.  No many of these cars were made to start with, way less of them now.  Keep plugging away, you're doing great!

 

[Fabrice]

@mach_One

[Keep plugging away] thx, I will try

So today, was the oil pan next on the todo..



Let's be honest, while I want to keep as much as the original parts, in this case, the oil pan, that has been modified to hold up a few more oil,

when I've looked at it, I was like "this thing looks so bad, so much rust, dented and how the hell i'm gonna get that rust in the inside away??"

So I went dream shopping on Summit site and other sources...

Today, I thought: Nah, that's too easy, let's get to it!



Here after the outside was gun burned to get the many layers of paint added over the years.

Dollied out most dents out, metal brushed etc etc but still lots of rust to go.. and the inside is still untouched/rusty.

As I knew the inside would be a massive pain,You don't want rust in an engine. So I went looking for some options.

99% sure I would regret my money spent. But as I need every bits of help to get that rust out, I invested once more in one of these magical rust killer solution, called Rustico.

After grease/dirt and oil were removed, I started apply this chemical.

REALLY IMPRESSED!

For the first time after trying tons of rust killers, most changing rust but not removing it, I've finally found one that does work,

and not like a bit, it really works!



I mean, I'm totally impressed, did inside and outside, rust is gone! The picts speak for themselves! Its not cleaned or anything yet.



As the happy owner of a reborn oil pan, tomorrow I'm gonna first weld that small crack on the shield, and start cleaning/painting.

Meanwhile, I've put some other stuffs like the flywheel, bolts etc.. into the solution, really curious to see how that will look by tomorrow!

 

[secluff]

@Secluff or @david, Do you have a 'valve stud bolt' around you could miss?

Fabrice, sorry I must of missed the above when you posted it.

Do you need the rocker stud that that goes through the push rod guide plate or the 3/8" nut that fastens the rocker arm down? The CJ valve train is the same as was on my 72 Police Interceptor heads. I have very little left from my 429 days but may still have some of those type pieces. Just let me know.  

 

[Fabrice]

@Secluff or @david, Do you have a 'valve stud bolt' around you could miss?

Fabrice, sorry I must of missed the above when you posted it.

Do you need the rocker stud that that goes through the push rod guide plate or the 3/8" nut that fastens the rocker arm down? The CJ valve train is the same as was on my 72 Police Interceptor heads. I have very little left from my 429 days but may still have some of those type pieces. Just let me know.  

I just need the nut (see pict with 3 same nuts). I've looked everywhere, and I don't have it. So if you have one to spare i'd be happy to buy it from you 

I may also miss some intake bolts too, i dunno atm. I will know for sure when I'll try the intake on the block. For now, I prefer it stays in its sealed plastic till I have the new cam, lifters etc...

 

[Fabrice]

oil pan welded, painted.

c6 pan same treatment

flywheel ready