My 71 J code drag-pack

[stockerbill]

I have this 71 Mach 1 that has been a drag race car for most of it's life. It is the car shown at the beginning of the "Performance" section on the 429 Megasite. I bought the car from a fellow who had raced it for most of the 80's and 90's. I acquired it in 2002 and raced in many NHRA and IHRA events over the next several years. Along the way I set an NHRA National Record with it and went a lot of rounds, but never won a race. Runner-upped a couple of times. The car has been parked since 2010, sad and ignored, but stored safely, clean and dry. In the meantime I have been building, tracking and racing an 85.5 SVO. I recently freed up some space in my shop and plan to pull the 71 out of mothballs and take a shot at putting it back to street drivable format. It will be a lot of work to "un-racecar" it but at least the car itself is in pretty decent shape. It was never tubbed or cut up in any way, and although there is some cowl rust it has all its original floor-pans and quarter panels and has a decent paint job, albeit not in the original red. I probably won't try for originality as the original engine and trans are long gone, but I have lots of 429 engines and parts, and it would probably be a better street machine with a 5 or 6 speed trans along with 4.11 gears. Resto-mods seem to be doing well in the marketplace these days anyway.

I found it interesting that the Marti report makes it pretty apparent that this car was ordered for one reason, and that was to go fast. The only real option was an AM radio, since the other things on the option list are all required with the Drag-Pack. I guess the original owner wanted to be able to listen to the radio while the cop was writing up the ticket.... The odometer reads around 75K miles so it apparently saw quite a bit of street driving before becoming a dedicated race car. It has had quite a life.

 

[timachone]

Great car and as you said ordered for only one reason. Fantastic!

Keep us posted on your decisions with the car and post some fotos, please. Great you kept it all the years!

 

[Idaho Chris]

Love to see a picture of the car is full drag race glory!

 

[ponypastor]

I have this 71 Mach 1 that has been a drag race car for most of it's life. It is the car shown at the beginning of the "Performance" section on the 429 Megasite. I bought the car from a fellow who had raced it for most of the 80's and 90's. I acquired it in 2002 and raced in many NHRA and IHRA events over the next several years. Along the way I set an NHRA National Record with it and went a lot of rounds, but never won a race. Runner-upped a couple of times. The car has been parked since 2010, sad and ignored, but stored safely, clean and dry. In the meantime I have been building, tracking and racing an 85.5 SVO. I recently freed up some space in my shop and plan to pull the 71 out of mothballs and take a shot at putting it back to street drivable format. It will be a lot of work to "un-racecar" it but at least the car itself is in pretty decent shape. It was never tubbed or cut up in any way, and although there is some cowl rust it has all its original floor-pans and quarter panels and has a decent paint job, albeit not in the original red. I probably won't try for originality as the original engine and trans are long gone, but I have lots of 429 engines and parts, and it would probably be a better street machine with a 5 or 6 speed trans along with 4.11 gears. Resto-mods seem to be doing well in the marketplace these days anyway.

I found it interesting that the Marti report makes it pretty apparent that this car was ordered for one reason, and that was to go fast. The only real option was an AM radio, since the other things on the option list are all required with the Drag-Pack. I guess the original owner wanted to be able to listen to the radio while the cop was writing up the ticket.... The odometer reads around 75K miles so it apparently saw quite a bit of street driving before becoming a dedicated race car. It has had quite a life.

Good Morning: Do you have any exhaust manifolds for the 429 CJ/SCK motor? Am looking for one. Thanks

 

[jpaz]

Very coo! Great story about your car. Good luck with getting it streetable again.

 

[Hemikiller]

Love to see a picture of the car is full drag race glory!

http://429mustangcougarinfo.50megs.com/performance_data.htm


@stockerbill I'd like to see pics of what you have for a suspension setup.

Interesting that the Marti shows the 5E interior code for the knitted vinyl seats, but doesn't list the Mach 1 Sports Interior as an option.

 

[stockerbill]

Good Morning: Do you have any exhaust manifolds for the 429 CJ/SCK motor? Am looking for one. Thanks

Alas, no, I don't have any of the OEM exhaust system. The car had a set of custom built headers on it when I got it, which eventually rusted away and were replaced by big tube Hooker headers. The fellow I bought the car from had quite a few of the OEM parts that were taken off the car, which I still have, but notable missing components were exhaust and emissions items. I have seen them occasionally on e-bay though.

 

[stockerbill]

Love to see a picture of the car is full drag race glory!

Here are a couple from over the years.

 

[bkdunha]

Nice car to have ordered in the day. It would be great to see the transformation back to street car.

 

[stockerbill]

http://429mustangcougarinfo.50megs.com/performance_data.htm


@stockerbill I'd like to see pics of what you have for a suspension setup.

Interesting that the Marti shows the 5E interior code for the knitted vinyl seats, but doesn't list the Mach 1 Sports Interior as an option.

Due to NHRA stock class rules my suspension was not modified a whole bunch. I had Calvert drag shocks in the front and Rancho adjustables in the rear. The car came with a pair of Koni SPA-1 front shocks which I still have. I also changed the rear springs to Calvert mono-leafs and used Cal-Track traction bars which are the defacto standard for leaf spring drag cars. I'm actually not sure what the front springs are, might be the OEM, might be something else. When I raced it I had new but standard upper and lower arms in the front along with a spring perch with a poly bushing. Right now the car has a full set of rollerized Open-Tracker arms and spring perches on it that I got for a great price, although it is not legal to run them in stock class. The front sway bar is removed and the frame rails have been notched where the upper arm rests on full droop to give a little more travel on launch. There isn't anything fancy about it. If I had kept racing it I would have probably put a set of double adjustable shocks on the front as it bounced too much coming down from a wheelie on launch. I do have Wilwood disk brakes front and rear with a Chrysler style master cylinder, no power brakes. I have kept everything that has been taken off the car.

I've never been very clear about how the interiors were configured with the Mach 1. Some early literature seems to imply the Mach 1 came with a standard interior and the Mach 1 was optional, while there is other info that implies that the Mach 1 interior was standard. I don't know but when I got the car the interior had the molded door panels and Mach 1 style seats, although in pretty bad shape, and all the Vermillion pieces had been dyed black. I also don't know the exact configuration of the Vermillion Mach 1 interior; what was red, what was black, etc. I have seen pictures of various configurations. Even on the Megasite there are pictures that show some cars with red carpet, some with black carpet with red inserts, some with red consoles, some with black consoles. TMI makes Mach 1 front seat covers that have black with red stripes, red with black stripes, and red with red stripes. Who knows which seats go with which interior code?

 

[c9zx]

I love the monster wheel stand! Thanks for sharing. Chuck

 

[Fabrice]

Awesome.
When I see the picts, my blood boils to not be able yet to try my freshly rebuild 429 CJ!

"Resto-mods seem to be doing well in the marketplace these days anyway."
Who cares! Such car is a car you own till your last breath!! :O

 

[Sheriff41]

Great pictures! Thanks for sharing them.

 

[Hemikiller]

Due to NHRA stock class rules my suspension was not modified a whole bunch. I had Calvert drag shocks in the front and Rancho adjustables in the rear. The car came with a pair of Koni SPA-1 front shocks which I still have. I also changed the rear springs to Calvert mono-leafs and used Cal-Track traction bars which are the defacto standard for leaf spring drag cars. I'm actually not sure what the front springs are, might be the OEM, might be something else. When I raced it I had new but standard upper and lower arms in the front along with a spring perch with a poly bushing. Right now the car has a full set of rollerized Open-Tracker arms and spring perches on it that I got for a great price, although it is not legal to run them in stock class. The front sway bar is removed and the frame rails have been notched where the upper arm rests on full droop to give a little more travel on launch. There isn't anything fancy about it. If I had kept racing it I would have probably put a set of double adjustable shocks on the front as it bounced too much coming down from a wheelie on launch. I do have Wilwood disk brakes front and rear with a Chrysler style master cylinder, no power brakes. I have kept everything that has been taken off the car.

I've never been very clear about how the interiors were configured with the Mach 1. Some early literature seems to imply the Mach 1 came with a standard interior and the Mach 1 was optional, while there is other info that implies that the Mach 1 interior was standard. I don't know but when I got the car the interior had the molded door panels and Mach 1 style seats, although in pretty bad shape, and all the Vermillion pieces had been dyed black. I also don't know the exact configuration of the Vermillion Mach 1 interior; what was red, what was black, etc. I have seen pictures of various configurations. Even on the Megasite there are pictures that show some cars with red carpet, some with black carpet with red inserts, some with red consoles, some with black consoles. TMI makes Mach 1 front seat covers that have black with red stripes, red with black stripes, and red with red stripes. Who knows which seats go with which interior code?

Thanks for the suspension info, as you said, your setup is pretty much the standard for the Stock class racers. Amazing what can be done with a 9" tire.

The base interior was standard on the Mach 1, the M1 Sports Interior was an option. Lots of bad info out there regarding this, and I can see where it would be a problem with the way Ford marketed it.

The Megasite has a bunch of pics of interiors that are a mish-mash of parts, many of which are incorrect. The vermillion, in my experience, follows the same color layout as white. The carpeting, console and dash were all black. The molded door panel carpet would also be black, as well as a fold down seat trap door, it's carpet and the associated trim panels. The only question I have is the color of the runners in the M1 Sports Interior carpet - black, or red?

 

[mjlan]

Awesome car! Knowing a lot of its history is neat as well!

My J code was optioned with the M1 Sports Interior and I have similar questions: namely whether or not the metal dash panel was painted or black. My car is Bright Blue Metallic w/ code 5B blue interior. Right now it has a black panel and pad in it that isn't original. I'm sure that the lighter interior colors (white, ginger maybe?) had black painted metal dash panels to cut down on sunlight reflecting onto the windshield, but I have seen some examples of painted (non-black) metal dash panels...

Sorry for the hijack- good luck in getting the car back on the street! A 4.11 drag pack 4 speed would be fun!

 

[Hemikiller]

Awesome car! Knowing a lot of its history is neat as well!

My J code was optioned with the M1 Sports Interior and I have similar questions: namely whether or not the metal dash panel was painted or black. My car is Bright Blue Metallic w/ code 5B blue interior. Right now it has a black panel and pad in it that isn't original. I'm sure that the lighter interior colors (white, ginger maybe?) had black painted metal dash panels to cut down on sunlight reflecting onto the windshield, but I have seen some examples of painted (non-black) metal dash panels...

Sorry for the hijack- good luck in getting the car back on the street! A 4.11 drag pack 4 speed would be fun!

Blue Mach 1 Sports Interior would have a blue painted dash frame and top trim panel, blue dash pad, side panels and the center gauge panel with woodgrain applique. Pic below from the 429 Megasite. The only obvious issue is the column and trim collar are black, but should be medium blue as well.

 

[71ProjectJunk]

Looks like that is a well kept car, so it should not be too hard to put it back on the road. As for the interior, it seems that your car came with the base interior as it does not have the Mach 1 interior option.

 

[mjlan]

Thanks Hemikiller

 

[Hotstang]

Looks like that is a well kept car, so it should not be too hard to put it back on the road. As for the interior, it seems that your car came with the base interior as it does not have the Mach 1 interior option.

Don't understand, my 71 Mach 1 looks just like that...only black.

 

[turtle5353]

Not Mach 1 interior. Deluxe interior. Any car could be ordered with deluxe interior. Many Mach 1 have standard interior. It’s all in what was ordered.