Fredensborg's 1973 Mach 1 improvement/build thread "Sleipnir"

[Fredensborg]

Well, here goes nothin'...I've had the car for almost 20 years now and have just recently gotten it drivable. My son has been taking an interest in it a lot lately, so I will post updates on here from time to time as we do little (or maybe big) projects to the car. 

We had a pretty fun week this week! After years of being a captive in the garage, we went through a couple tanks of gas and just enjoyed driving around town! We even drove to grandmas house 30 miles away for its first real test of road worthiness, then we got down to brass tacks and rolled up our sleeves to see what we could come up with. My son and I replaced light bulbs in the glovebox, and trunk (didn't even know there was a light in there!), we "fixed" a broken radio knob (will have to order a replacement in the future), hunted for and found a thoroughly destroyed build sheet, did some trouble shooting with the courtesy light switch on the drivers side and ordered our first couple of parts...a NOS dome light lens, and the aforementioned courtesy light switch for that driver door! 

We made a list of everything we could think of together that is currently in need of attention:

1. Slight door sag

2. Tach quit working

3. Temp gauge doesn't work

4. Reverse lights do not come on

5. Right turn signal indicator on the dash does not illuminate

6. Steering wheel has a pulsing "rattle" at about 65 mph, disappears at 70+

7. A "howling" noise at 55 mph, any slower or faster...no noise. Weird.

8. Trip odometer will not reset

9.  "Park" light on dash will not illuminate

10. We want a set of Louvers

11. Weather-stripping replacement

12. Dash rattles above the heat/AC controls, makes an annoying noise

13. Headliner sagging by rear window

14. Clock quit working

15. Dash lights are  VERY dim

16. Windshield washer sprays don't work

17. Fix A/C

18. Trunk needs torsion rods.

19. Motor has a "tick"...lifter noise?

I'm sure we will find plenty of other things to monkey with as we go along, but we wanted a list of relatively simple things that I think a father and son can attack. I'll probably be putting up threads on some of these issues in the near future.

If we have some success in fixing some of these issues, next year we might have the motor taken out and freshened up, but that's a big step and probably a bit more than we can chew right now. Someday a more complete restoration may be in order, but I'm not going to rush into anything too crazy just yet...start small, and work our way up. We've been dreaming pretty big all week though...motor, tranny, suspension, locking differential, and of course paint. I've learned a lot about these cars from this forum, and still have a lot to learn. Thanks everyone for the help already received, and I hope your ready for a whole lot of possibly stupid questions! Hopefully my exploits will at least make for some entertaining reading.

 

[machattack]

Build those lasting memories with your son. Its always exciting to me seeing a restoration ready to start. You got a pretty good list already, Im sure more will be discovered. 

Have fun, look forward to your writings.

Rod

 

[timachone]

Yeah, let's go - I am looking forward to your progress - have fun! 

 

[Fredensborg]

Got some parts from MotorCity Mustangs today! A small project, not really worth mentioning, but the first thing we have fixed or replaced so it is worth a small celebration I think. Got a NOS dome light lens and popped it in, looks great! Hopefully the first of many fixes to come! My son was pretty excited when he saw the package in the mailbox! Man this is fun!

 

[timachone]

Great and easy start - I am happy with you  :thumb:

 

[TheDude]

Awesome project and great to spend time with your son like that. The time I spend working on my car with my son are the best for sure. And looks like you are starting from a very solid foundation (at least compared to mine) so lots of nice manageable projects to nip away at that'll make a big difference. 

 

[Kilgon]

Great to see farther son/daughter projects.  They grow to fast and are gone before you know it.  Looking forward to seeing more on your progress.

 

[mach71351c]

Jason after looking at the pics of your car let me just say congrats you are way ahead of the game. Repair and refine that ride don't tare it down.

My brother bought a 70 Boss 302 back in 79 for 3.200 bucks. lucky S.O.B.  After a couple years the engine gave up the fight and was stored in our parent's basement in Connecticut for years. Winter of 87 Our Dad hauled it out to California where my brother moved 2 years before. I flew out for the summer to help get the Boss on the road.  My brother bought  clean running and driving 70 coupe for 500 hundred bucks We installed the 302 2v c4 and 8 inch from the coupe into the Boss. At that point a driver restoration began. He sorted the car out and restored  small parts like hinges latches headlight buckets bumper brackets suspension ect ect. So when it came time to do the full restoration those parts got boxed up and stored. 

If I could make 2 suggestion don't use gloss black stick with semi gloss or satin black. Gloss black looks fake and cheap in my opinion 

For parts use Don at Ohio Mustang, Motor city Mustang and N.P.D.  C.J pony arts has really gone down hill in the past few years.

Look forward to seeing memories being maid with your kids. 

 

[Fredensborg]

Well, the boy and I attacked the mustang with gusto today! Got a bunch of parts in the mail we have be waiting for, and wasted no time getting started. 

 

First things first, we tore out all the old stuff. I was pleasantly surprised to find that nothing really gave us much of a fight. I had been soaking everything in AreoKroil for the last week or so, and it seems to have done it’s job well…no torching, no cut wheels…just a cheater bar here and there and we had it all off. Here’s the old and new side by side…those leaf springs were pretty tired! 
 

My son was a huge help, I did the physically difficult tasks of breaking things loose then he took over and got all the nuts off. 
 

the u-bolt shackles came right off! These babies are coming with me to work tomorrow to get sandblasted and painted!


After we got the old parts torn out, we turned our attention to cleaning everything up a bit. I don’t know when I’ll have the rear end tore down like this again, so I plan on thoroughly scraping, degreasing, and painting everything as best we can without actually unhooking the driveshaft. I was pretty pleased over all with the condition of everything under there, the car looks pretty solid. I think the leaf springs are original, as there is some blue overspray on them that you can see if you look close…

here’s a few random shots of the undercarriage at various point of disassembly…


 
I have to work the next 4 days, but we plan on doing some clean up and painting the rest of the week. Then reassembly with the new parts next week, really looking forward to getting back on the road and testing out all these new components. I do have a couple of questions on some things that I will post about separately…but overall, today was a great day

 

[Steve McMahan]

Looks like a great project.

 

[Aus73Mach1]

A great project for you both. Not sure if this will help. Mine was a total resto with most parts sand blasted. Instead of using normal primer and paint on the bare steel pieces, nuts, bolts, etc I cleaned up any bare metal and used a cold galvanizing paint. This stuff bonds to clean steel, no primer or sealer. You need to get rid of all rust but not with rust remover or converter as this interferes with the galvanizing bonding. Rusty bits I dipped or brushed with 50/50 pool acid/water after wire brushing loose rust & dirt. Dry and wipe down with acetone or wax and grease remover, then spray the cold gal. Finish is satin black and doesn't chip. 

I did all the rear parts, diff, spring mounts, u bolts, drums, etc. It's  great on coil springs as well it will coat them but not crack when stretched. The brake drum in the following photos has done about 2,500 miles and no sign of burn discolouring.

Its easy to spray in tight spots, no mixing paint and great to small bits at a time. In expensive and touches up very well for those bits you might miss. Also available in silver.

 

[Fredensborg]

A great project for you both. Not sure if this will help. Mine was a total resto with most parts sand blasted. Instead of using normal primer and paint on the bare steel pieces, nuts, bolts, etc I cleaned up any bare metal and used a cold galvanizing paint. This stuff bonds to clean steel, no primer or sealer. You need to get rid of all rust but not with rust remover or converter as this interferes with the galvanizing bonding. Rusty bits I dipped or brushed with 50/50 pool acid/water after wire brushing loose rust & dirt. Dry and wipe down with acetone or wax and grease remover, then spray the cold gal. Finish is satin black and doesn't chip. 

Wow that looks really good!! I'd love to get mine looking like that, but I don't have a sandblaster at home and I cant drag my 9" to work with me. I also don't really want to unhook the break lines and drive shaft if I don't have to...I did use a wire wheel on the axle as best I could, but I don't think I'll ever get all the surface rust off that way, I was just going to Rust-o-lium it and call it good. But maybe I will try to chemically remove the rust as you suggested, I didn't even know that was a possibility. So, using a muriatic acid solution take off the rust? And what is the acetone for? to neutralize the acid? And when you say wax, you mean car wax? like turtle wax or something?

 

[Aus73Mach1]

Yes, that's the acid, hydrochloric by another name. Wear gloves and wash off all parts with water and dry quickly to prevent surface rust forming. The "wax & grease" remover I referred to is a pre-paint cleaner to remove oil, wax & other contaminants. No need to sand blast everything. I wire wheeled/brushed lots of parts prior to the black gal treatment. I did all the brake lines as well.

I would take the extra time to pull the rest of the diff out seeing you are that far in. You need to fix that oil leak, a lot easier with it all out. Removing the tail shaft is no big deal, mark everything before removal and only a brake bleed after re-installation.

Here are a few other parts treated the same way a while ago, left over from my project.

David

 

[Fredensborg]

Sandblasted and painted the u-bolt/shock brackets today…gonna sandblast the drum covers tomorrow. 

 

[Fredensborg]

Got my drum covers blasted today!  

 

[mach71351c]

I like what I'm seeing! :thumb:

 

[tony-muscle]

Great job. Great start! Nothing better that seeing the undercar changing from rust to nicely painted.

 

[Fredensborg]

Off to Wisconsin Dells for a few days with the kids tomorrow, but I got the drums primed and painted before taking off. Gonna detail and paint that 9” when we get back. 

 

[71 gbvert]

LOL…your last post brought back memories - squeeze in some garage time with my Mustang, then family time somewhere in the Dells for several days, then back to the garage. Definitely been there and done that.  Enjoy!