Welcome, from Western Upstate NY (Pittsford, a suburb of Rochester)! That is a nice looking 73 Mustang! We have two 73 Mustangs, a Mach 1 that has been deeply restored as a really nice RestoMod, and a Convertible that had been barn stored for over 40 years. If, while you are bringing your Mustang "back to life," you need any photos of our Mustangs to get some assembly details just let me know. I also have a lot of very detailed, and accurate, colored wiring schematics, as well as a plethora of engine/emission control vacuum schematics. If you prefer to get your own schematics, as opposed to depending on me to provide what you need from time to time, my GoTo is Forel Publications. They have a lot of manuals for 1973 Mustangs in PDF file format, and they are very reasonably priced. But, please be aware, in a few of their schematics they have some errors (albeit fairly minor, errors none-the-less), and the engine vacuum schematics in Volume VI of their ShopManual do not include schematics for the 351C engines with a 4v carburetor. I found those missing schematics from a different source, and embedded them into their PDF file. Many of their schematic PDF files are password protected, so you may find it hard to extract certain parts of their information, or even do partial ScreenShots, while preserving the clarity of the information. I found some software that removed the password limitations, not so I can make full copies of their works and sell it to others, but rather so I can make snippets of partial information and make corrections to their document content. Regardless of the few errors and omissions I have found, their documentation is really quite good and in my opinion well worth the price to have the manuals on file. Their web site is:
https://www.forelpublishing.com/clickbank/index.html
Following is a link to video comprised of a series of progress photos of our 73 Mach 1 that we took and placed in a video file for viewing:
Following is a link showing a walk-around video of our 73 Mach 1 on its final day of a 13 1/2 month restoration:
https://youtu.be/_Fl0B-qmlLI
And attached are some photos of our 73 Convertible. Both Mustangs have had some similar work done to them, mostly just us upgrading them to help them be more comfortable for cruising for a while. These are the things we did in common to both Mustangs:
- Installed Classic Air A/C (both were non0A/C cars originally)
- Replaced their idiot light laden instrument panels with Dakota VHX analog gauge panels
- Installed Halogen headlights, with the FoMoCo branding
- Installed a headlight relay circuit to keep the higher current needed for the Halogen lights from over-taxing the headlight switch's internal circuit breaker
- Replaced their mechanical fan cooling systems with dual electric fan cooling systems
- Replaced their brass radiators with a set of Champion 3 row Aluminum radiators with matching shrouds the electric fans are mounted to
- Installed a variable temp thermal control for the electric fan relay circuit
- Rebuilt their alternators and replaced the rotor assemblies with a higher capacity output rotors
- Installed full length ACP center consoles
- Installed WebCams
- Replaced the incandescent rear taillight bulbs with a set of LED panels that provide sequential flashers without requiring a switch 12 volt circuit to be run to the panels
- Installed a Garmin Street 52 GPS display, including wireless video transmission from two cameras (front and rear)
For the 73 vert the engine, transmission, and rear axle are stock (302 2v, C4 tranny, 2,79:1 rear axle ratio gears). But we dit the following additional change to the 73 Convertible:
- Added a front spoiler to give it some more edge visually
For the 73 Mach 1 everything listed above was done by us, plus we replaced the C4 three speed automatic transmission with a 4 speed AOD unit, which allowed the engine RPM in top gear at 60 MPH to from just under 2,900 RPM to just under 1,900 RPM. And with the torque and HP from its engine it is able to overcome the high air resistance at its upper speed very nicely. The gearing with the AOD and its rear axle ration gives us the best of both worlds with really nice low end performance, while retaining some high end performance as well. If you are interested in the APD transplant let me know. I have the entire process on video, and also have several files that identify the various vendors and parts we used for that project.
For the 73 Mach 1 the prior owner did the following work:
- Replaced the original 302 2v engine with a street/strip built 351W (not C), providing 360HP on a dyno
- Replaced the original 2.79:1 rear axle gear set with a 3.5:1 TractionLok rear axle gear set
The 73 Mach 1 already had a Front Spoiler when we purchased it. We also did the following to the Mach 1:
- Added a Rear Spoiler Wing
- Added a Rear Window Louver Slat kit
- Added a Dzus hood hold down kit
We enjoy both the 73 Mustangs nearly equally, but for different reasons. It is a blast having them both.
