First Car - 71 Mach 1 rebuild

[4thesporty]

This was my 71 m code four speed car when I bought it. It was a basket case unlike yours. But I was able to make it mine so all is good. good luck with your rebuild.

You did a great job on your car. How long did it take you?

 

[Tnfastbk]

You did a great job on your car. How long did it take you?

Thank you. Probably 5-6 years. But when it was done it was paid for as well. Usually if I had money I had no time and if a had time I had no money. So basically I paid for it with overtime money from work shutdowns.
I'm not sure they are ever finished if you drive them a lot. Mine has been on the road now for maybe 13 or 14 years.

 

[4thesporty]

That's a good timeline, it's hard not to get impatient when every car show or youtube video you see has guys dropping loads of money all at one time on a project, their full time job is to work on said project, then they are able to condense down a few weeks of full time work into a 30 minute episode with a beautiful car at the end of it.....obviously not realistic for the vast majority of us grinding away.

 

[4thesporty]

Since I’m past the troubleshooting and “just get it running” phase today I decided to ditch all the rubber fuel line/hose clamps/plastic filter that was running across the top of my engine and it’s inherent fire risk.

I installed all metal line, added a place for a pressure gauge, metal filter, as well as a check valve before using metal braided line down to the fuel pump. All -6AN fittings.

 

[4thesporty]

Also cleaned up my JY charger steelies, primed, and fogged them black. I ordered some tires I’ll have installed this week and will run these mismatched wheels until I decide on a permanent set.

Rears are American muscle 18x10 and will have 275/35/18

Fronts are 18x7.5 steelies and will wear 225/40/18

I’ll hold on to those drag slicks currently on the rear wheels for another day.