Chris73
Member
I've been a longtime user of this site, but this is my first time posting. I appreciate all the knowledge shared here that has helped me many times working on my very first car, my 1973 Mach 1. Figured I'd contribute a little to the site instead of just being a silent observer as I have in the past, and to be honest I could use a little bit of inspiration as life has seemed to get in the way every time I try to work on my oh-so-close to being finished car. For a little background, I'm currently 23 so this has all happened in the past few years. Back in 2014, my uncle bought this 1973 Mach 1 after going to look at the Galaxie next to it:
It had a 351 Cleveland 2V and a C6, and seemed all stock aside from an Edelbrock performer, Holley 600, air cleaner, and possibly valve covers? Still not sure on them.
The next day we got the engine running on a boat tank, drove it around the yard a bit to make sure the transmission worked, and left it there with my uncle as the perfect start to a project. Unfortunately, he didn't have the time or motivation for it, and it sat for a couple years. After me bringing it up at every family gathering for the couple years, when he decided he wanted to sell it he gave me the first crack at it, and that's how I ended up with the very first car I ever purchased as a 17 year old being a 1973 Mach 1 back in 2016. After spending every penny to my name on this car, I had to let it sit a while as I finished high school and started college. It never left my mind though, as i planned and plotted with painters tape how exactly I'd paint the thing one day:
Life happened, as it always does, and it was 2019 before I made any progress on the car. I stuck the car in my father-in-law's barn, threw what little money a struggling college student could at it, and spent all the time I had between going to college days and working nights to make this car into something. With a roof, plywood sheets on the ground as a floor, and (kinda) walls I could finally get the car in the air to do all the basics:
The interior was in pieces laying inside the car when my uncle got it, and it was still that way when I started. There were several extra parts from other mustangs and other old fords which added to the confusion putting it all together. After cleaning out the car and somewhat organizing parts I was surprised to find no rust holes.
With all the help I could ask for from my Dad, we dug into it. We started with the brakes, new pads and a new master cylinder, and after that was working we had a caliper sticking so we replaced that. We replaced all 3 rubber brake lines as they were very old and brittle. I had to make hard lines for the rear end, they were missing for whatever reason so I put new wheel cylinders and shoes in at the same time in hopes that I'd never have to tear into the drums again. My first mod that wasn't out of necessity was a set of Hedman headers, as there was no exhaust in the car when I got it so I didn't want to make exhaust all the way up to the stock manifolds when I wanted headers eventually anyway. As we tried to make the thing run a little better, we found out the distributor had fused itself to the intake, and ended up having to break it to get it to seperate, so I threw a cheapie HEI in it to get me going. Found some old turbine wheels with Hoosier drag radials on the backs for $100 on craigslist and I was running and driving on an old Holley that tried to die every time you came to a stop, with rear tires that rubbed the fenders every time I hit a bump, and in a bare interior with a half bolted down seat and no working gauges, but boy was I happy about it.
Now that I had a running and driving car, my biggest issue was getting it reliable enough to be able to drive to work and college. I had big plans for this Mustang one day, so instead of going my usual route of finding a cheap used carb and making it work, I ate mac & cheese every night to save up for the biggest purchase of my life so far: A holley sniper stealth, as well as a matching Hyperspark distributor and ignition box, along with new tank, electric fuel pump, regulator, and everything else I needed to make it work. At the same time I painted the engine bay, valve covers, intake, and accessory brackets which really stepped up the look of the whole package from this:
To this:
At the same time we were working on the wiring and plumbing for the EFI conversion, I found a killer deal on some torq thrust lookalikes that were being discontinued. I got a set of 17x8s for the front and 18x9s for the back for $380 total, brand new straight from summit racing.
I had my fiance make the stickers for the center caps with her Cricut vinyl cutting machine she made t-shirts with, I had 2 versions but I ended up going with the ones with the silver surround and black horse.
At the same time as the EFI I wanted functioning gauges and at least a little bit of an interior, so I started with new carpet. I just used generic black carpet by the yard since it was a lot cheaper than a real carpet kit. Next there was a lot of time spent on the forum and looking over shop manuals to see how exactly the interior went together. It may not be concourse down to correct fasteners, but it's all together and I'm happy with the way it came out.
So then I finally had a car that was reliable, everything mechanical worked, was street legal, and had a halfway decent interior. Next I drove the hell out of the thing for about a year, including a few trips out of state, cruised just fine whether it was 45 around town or 80 on the interstate. It really gave me an appreciation for how good these cars are even at 50 years old.
Then I daily drove the car like that for a year. Driving 30 miles to college every day, then 20 miles to work, then another 10 miles back home, and it never missed a beat or left me stranded. I loved the car so much I saved up to give it the paint job it deserved, and in 2020 me and my Dad did just that. It was our first time painting a car, but I think we did a great job and I'm happy with it and that's what matters. I've reached my attachment limit for a post and I just realized how long this is, maybe too long for an introduction. If there's any interest I can make a thread showing more of the car like our paint job.
Thanks for the great forum with all the useful knowledge,
Chris
It had a 351 Cleveland 2V and a C6, and seemed all stock aside from an Edelbrock performer, Holley 600, air cleaner, and possibly valve covers? Still not sure on them.
The next day we got the engine running on a boat tank, drove it around the yard a bit to make sure the transmission worked, and left it there with my uncle as the perfect start to a project. Unfortunately, he didn't have the time or motivation for it, and it sat for a couple years. After me bringing it up at every family gathering for the couple years, when he decided he wanted to sell it he gave me the first crack at it, and that's how I ended up with the very first car I ever purchased as a 17 year old being a 1973 Mach 1 back in 2016. After spending every penny to my name on this car, I had to let it sit a while as I finished high school and started college. It never left my mind though, as i planned and plotted with painters tape how exactly I'd paint the thing one day:
Life happened, as it always does, and it was 2019 before I made any progress on the car. I stuck the car in my father-in-law's barn, threw what little money a struggling college student could at it, and spent all the time I had between going to college days and working nights to make this car into something. With a roof, plywood sheets on the ground as a floor, and (kinda) walls I could finally get the car in the air to do all the basics:
The interior was in pieces laying inside the car when my uncle got it, and it was still that way when I started. There were several extra parts from other mustangs and other old fords which added to the confusion putting it all together. After cleaning out the car and somewhat organizing parts I was surprised to find no rust holes.
With all the help I could ask for from my Dad, we dug into it. We started with the brakes, new pads and a new master cylinder, and after that was working we had a caliper sticking so we replaced that. We replaced all 3 rubber brake lines as they were very old and brittle. I had to make hard lines for the rear end, they were missing for whatever reason so I put new wheel cylinders and shoes in at the same time in hopes that I'd never have to tear into the drums again. My first mod that wasn't out of necessity was a set of Hedman headers, as there was no exhaust in the car when I got it so I didn't want to make exhaust all the way up to the stock manifolds when I wanted headers eventually anyway. As we tried to make the thing run a little better, we found out the distributor had fused itself to the intake, and ended up having to break it to get it to seperate, so I threw a cheapie HEI in it to get me going. Found some old turbine wheels with Hoosier drag radials on the backs for $100 on craigslist and I was running and driving on an old Holley that tried to die every time you came to a stop, with rear tires that rubbed the fenders every time I hit a bump, and in a bare interior with a half bolted down seat and no working gauges, but boy was I happy about it.
Now that I had a running and driving car, my biggest issue was getting it reliable enough to be able to drive to work and college. I had big plans for this Mustang one day, so instead of going my usual route of finding a cheap used carb and making it work, I ate mac & cheese every night to save up for the biggest purchase of my life so far: A holley sniper stealth, as well as a matching Hyperspark distributor and ignition box, along with new tank, electric fuel pump, regulator, and everything else I needed to make it work. At the same time I painted the engine bay, valve covers, intake, and accessory brackets which really stepped up the look of the whole package from this:
To this:
At the same time we were working on the wiring and plumbing for the EFI conversion, I found a killer deal on some torq thrust lookalikes that were being discontinued. I got a set of 17x8s for the front and 18x9s for the back for $380 total, brand new straight from summit racing.
I had my fiance make the stickers for the center caps with her Cricut vinyl cutting machine she made t-shirts with, I had 2 versions but I ended up going with the ones with the silver surround and black horse.
At the same time as the EFI I wanted functioning gauges and at least a little bit of an interior, so I started with new carpet. I just used generic black carpet by the yard since it was a lot cheaper than a real carpet kit. Next there was a lot of time spent on the forum and looking over shop manuals to see how exactly the interior went together. It may not be concourse down to correct fasteners, but it's all together and I'm happy with the way it came out.
So then I finally had a car that was reliable, everything mechanical worked, was street legal, and had a halfway decent interior. Next I drove the hell out of the thing for about a year, including a few trips out of state, cruised just fine whether it was 45 around town or 80 on the interstate. It really gave me an appreciation for how good these cars are even at 50 years old.
Then I daily drove the car like that for a year. Driving 30 miles to college every day, then 20 miles to work, then another 10 miles back home, and it never missed a beat or left me stranded. I loved the car so much I saved up to give it the paint job it deserved, and in 2020 me and my Dad did just that. It was our first time painting a car, but I think we did a great job and I'm happy with it and that's what matters. I've reached my attachment limit for a post and I just realized how long this is, maybe too long for an introduction. If there's any interest I can make a thread showing more of the car like our paint job.
Thanks for the great forum with all the useful knowledge,
Chris
