My 73 Mach 1 Restomod

[73' mach 1]

I've been posting here and there as I've been getting things done but I figured I'd start a build thread.

Here is a little back story on this car. The car has 36K original miles on it. Some question if the miles are true or not but I don't know how to tell for sure but some of the things I see really don't leave me to believe that it's 136K.

The car was a barn find by my brother back in 2000 when it had 32K miles on it. The person who he bought it from said it was ordered and purchased by them. The car ended up in a nasty divorce and sat for 27 years. When my brother got the car he put a set of 3:89's, ram-air, painted and added the strips and an electronic (Mallory) distributor on. From there over the last 16 years he only put 4K miles on it and let it sit in the mud! For years I tried to get this car off him so I could do what needed to be done. Well the day came that I got a text saying 8500 and she's yours. I accepted without hesitation.

Over the last year I've started to take things apart and clean up what I can. The interior was factory white and just not my cup of tea. Since I have no intention on ever getting rid of this car I had no problem changing the color of the factory door panels and plastic. With the exception of those door panels and plastic parts everything else that would come off this car will be boxed for safe keeping.

I started by pulling all the interior apart. I found that the floors are not in too bad a shape all things considered. The drivers side front would need to replaced along with the trunk floor. I know the cowl leaks but I don't know the extent of it's damage. The car is garage kept now so no more water coming in. I'll eventually get to fixing that. Keep in mind this is my first time doing anything like this so don't hit me too hard! Lol. I hit the floors with a wire wheel and hit the rust with navel jelly before spraying it with rustoleum.

Parts I have gathered for my near future install include, trunk floor, driver side floor, TKO 600, AP mean street clutch, AP white lightning shifter, FPA headers with Pypes mufflers (haven't decided on H or X pipe, new stock replacement A arms and lower control arms, Eaton springs 1" lowered, TCP 4.5 mid eye leafsprings, I get the shock towers for the 72 so I could use my bilstein sport shocks, Lakewood Bellhousing (I know it's over kill but 250 more dollars is cheap piece of mind), Blue Thunder intake, Quickfuel 750 slayer carb, G3 alternator setup and all new carpet with custom TMI seats. The seats I ordered are in the pics.

I also ordered a new center gauge bezel so I didn't cut up the factory one to install the gauges I wanted. I also added blue LED's the dash gauges.

Here are some pics of my progress. I'll update my pics as they come along. I have a friend with a lift in his garage who is going to help with the rest.

Thanks for looking!

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[73pony]

Nice looking ride.

 

[6972boss]

Nice start! Good looking ride! Love the progress

 

[73429mach]

Very nice! Ryan

 

[timsweet]

Nicely done!!!!

 

[protouringstang73]

Looks like a cool project! Cant wait to see more from this one

 

[Mikes73]

Looking good!

 

[B1John]

Looks good. Keep us posted.

 

[Wide-body71]

You have great taste and vision. I'm glad it ended up in your hands. Looking forward to more pics. Well done.

 

[EBSTANG]

I've been posting here and there as I've been getting things done but I figured I'd start a build thread.

Here is a little back story on this car. The car has 36K original miles on it. Some question if the miles are true or not but I don't know how to tell for sure but some of the things I see really don't leave me to believe that it's 136K.

The car was a barn find by my brother back in 2000 when it had 32K miles on it. The person who he bought it from said it was ordered and purchased by them. The car ended up in a nasty divorce and sat for 27 years. When my brother got the car he put a set of 3:89's, ram-air, painted and added the strips and an electronic (Mallory) distributor on. From there over the last 16 years he only put 4K miles on it and let it sit in the mud! For years I tried to get this car off him so I could do what needed to be done. Well the day came that I got a text saying 8500 and she's yours. I accepted without hesitation.

Over the last year I've started to take things apart and clean up what I can. The interior was factory white and just not my cup of tea. Since I have no intention on ever getting rid of this car I had no problem changing the color of the factory door panels and plastic. With the exception of those door panels and plastic parts everything else that would come off this car will be boxed for safe keeping.

I started by pulling all the interior apart. I found that the floors are not in too bad a shape all things considered. The drivers side front would need to replaced along with the trunk floor. I know the cowl leaks but I don't know the extent of it's damage. The car is garage kept now so no more water coming in. I'll eventually get to fixing that. Keep in mind this is my first time doing anything like this so don't hit me too hard! Lol. I hit the floors with a wire wheel and hit the rust with navel jelly before spraying it with rustoleum.

Parts I have gathered for my near future install include, trunk floor, driver side floor, TKO 600, AP mean street clutch, AP white lightning shifter, FPA headers with Pypes mufflers (haven't decided on H or X pipe, new stock replacement A arms and lower control arms, Eaton springs 1" lowered, TCP 4.5 mid eye leafsprings, I get the shock towers for the 72 so I could use my bilstein sport shocks, Lakewood Bellhousing (I know it's over kill but 250 more dollars is cheap piece of mind), Blue Thunder intake, Quickfuel 750 slayer carb, G3 alternator setup and all new carpet with custom TMI seats. The seats I ordered are in the pics.

I also ordered a new center gauge bezel so I didn't cut up the factory one to install the gauges I wanted. I also added blue LED's the dash gauges.

Here are some pics of my progress. I'll update my pics as they come along. I have a friend with a lift in his garage who is going to help with the rest.

Thanks for looking!

Nice progress Chris! Have a great Christmas...see ya some time soon.

 

[mach71351c]

I'm a fan of where your taking your car. Look forward to seeing the progress.

 

[BeerDontCount]

Nice build plan. I am interested in many of the same mods. Let us know what you think as you go.

Scott

 

[73' mach 1]

I've been posting here and there as I've been getting things done but I figured I'd start a build thread.

Here is a little back story on this car. The car has 36K original miles on it. Some question if the miles are true or not but I don't know how to tell for sure but some of the things I see really don't leave me to believe that it's 136K.

The car was a barn find by my brother back in 2000 when it had 32K miles on it. The person who he bought it from said it was ordered and purchased by them. The car ended up in a nasty divorce and sat for 27 years. When my brother got the car he put a set of 3:89's, ram-air, painted and added the strips and an electronic (Mallory) distributor on. From there over the last 16 years he only put 4K miles on it and let it sit in the mud! For years I tried to get this car off him so I could do what needed to be done. Well the day came that I got a text saying 8500 and she's yours. I accepted without hesitation.

Over the last year I've started to take things apart and clean up what I can. The interior was factory white and just not my cup of tea. Since I have no intention on ever getting rid of this car I had no problem changing the color of the factory door panels and plastic. With the exception of those door panels and plastic parts everything else that would come off this car will be boxed for safe keeping.

I started by pulling all the interior apart. I found that the floors are not in too bad a shape all things considered. The drivers side front would need to replaced along with the trunk floor. I know the cowl leaks but I don't know the extent of it's damage. The car is garage kept now so no more water coming in. I'll eventually get to fixing that. Keep in mind this is my first time doing anything like this so don't hit me too hard! Lol. I hit the floors with a wire wheel and hit the rust with navel jelly before spraying it with rustoleum.

Parts I have gathered for my near future install include, trunk floor, driver side floor, TKO 600, AP mean street clutch, AP white lightning shifter, FPA headers with Pypes mufflers (haven't decided on H or X pipe, new stock replacement A arms and lower control arms, Eaton springs 1" lowered, TCP 4.5 mid eye leafsprings, I get the shock towers for the 72 so I could use my bilstein sport shocks, Lakewood Bellhousing (I know it's over kill but 250 more dollars is cheap piece of mind), Blue Thunder intake, Quickfuel 750 slayer carb, G3 alternator setup and all new carpet with custom TMI seats. The seats I ordered are in the pics.

I also ordered a new center gauge bezel so I didn't cut up the factory one to install the gauges I wanted. I also added blue LED's the dash gauges.

Here are some pics of my progress. I'll update my pics as they come along. I have a friend with a lift in his garage who is going to help with the rest.

Thanks for looking!

Nice progress Chris! Have a great Christmas...see ya some time soon.

Thanks Eric, same to you and your family. I'll surly keep everyone posted on my progress.

 

[73' mach 1]

It's been a little bit but I was able to get back to this project last weekend to get the motor out. Was too bad getting everything out. Now it will be time to tear it down to refresh the bottom end. Still not 100% sure on the direction I going on the engine build yet. I know for sure it will be a very mild street setup. I'm hoping to utilize the stock crank. One cool thing I notice once everything was out...a lot of people have questioned the claims on this car being a true 36K mile car. Well, I saw this stamp on the clutch and it says  June 12 1972. So I'm thinking that she's a true low mileage car. Anyway, I'll do up the engine bay while everything is out. Here are some pics.

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[73pony]

Cool. Good luck. Keep us informed. I am in the process of doing the same thing.

 

[mach71351c]

Looking forward to see your project come together.