- Joined
- Jan 7, 2015
- Messages
- 8,032
- Reaction score
- 526
- Location
- Western North Carolina
- My Car
- Multiple Mustangs!
We all know how working on one of these cars runs into what I call the Snowball effect. You start with one little thing that turns up two more that turns up 4 more projects.
Well last Saturday I took the 73 vert on it's longest trip to Charlotte to the MOM for a show and to check on the Mach 1 in the museum.
It was blazing hot and I was running down I-85 going 70+ at times. I do not know how old the tires are on the car got them off the crashed vert I bought about 3 years ago. The are Kelley tires made in South Africa so not a great quality product but they looked good and period correct narrow white walls. I had polished up and restored a set of 4 Sport Wheel cover took 11 covers to make 4 decent ones. Hours and hours of polishing and masking off to refinish the argent paint.
So just at the exit for the MOM the car starts to shake violently and I slow way down. I take my exit and pull into a Wendy's parking lot and boom the right front tire has steel belts sticking out. So I limp the couple miles to the MOM and park at the show and get out and watch the tire go flat.
Steve, runs the museum, came over and told me where the closest tire store was. I spent a couple hours in the museum wiped down the Mach 1 and talked to some of the show entrants. I packed up about 1:00 and headed to find a spare tire. There were no 14" tires to be found in Charlotte. Nobody keeps them in stock have to order them due to no demand. So I headed home and reduced speed to 55 with no spare.
To keep the tires matching I need a new set of 4 tires and probably should get 5 in case it happens again. So I decide to keep the other three good tires for rollers and polish another set of the forged aluminum wheels for the 73. I pick through the one's I have and pick the 4 best.
It takes about 8 hours to get 4 wheels ready to polish. File the rough spots, clean all the tar off and the back side of three of these had been painted so that took forever to get off. Have several sizes of wire brushes to get into all the areas on the back and special care of the bead lock area so they do not leak.
I got the 4 cleaned and ran one through the blast cabinet to even out the look of the back side.
Then to the drafting table to sand with 1,000 grit and water and then polish. I get the buffing heads at Harbor Freight, cheap but will do 4 wheels then toss. So got one polished yesterday will do the other three today and decide if I want to do one more for spare that I can rotate out just in case.
Oh btw the spare in the vert had never been on the ground so before I went to the MOM I swapped it out for another roller. Glad I did a 46 year old tire might be a little fragile. Looks good at show though.
It was almost 100 deg. and the 351 C with .050" over bore, came, flat top pistons and AC did not have any heat issues, hurray. I had installed a Hayden transmission oil cooler to take a little more heat out of the radiator. At least now I have some confidence in longer trips in the car. Sat for 27 years because the PO had put the R.H. head gasket on backwards.
When I looked up the tire size for an F-70 X 14" the chart said 205 but I know the tires on the steel wheels were 215. Can you push it any farther with only a 6" wide wheel or are they going to round out? Going to go with just the Cooper Cobras this is not a show car my driver.
Well last Saturday I took the 73 vert on it's longest trip to Charlotte to the MOM for a show and to check on the Mach 1 in the museum.
It was blazing hot and I was running down I-85 going 70+ at times. I do not know how old the tires are on the car got them off the crashed vert I bought about 3 years ago. The are Kelley tires made in South Africa so not a great quality product but they looked good and period correct narrow white walls. I had polished up and restored a set of 4 Sport Wheel cover took 11 covers to make 4 decent ones. Hours and hours of polishing and masking off to refinish the argent paint.
So just at the exit for the MOM the car starts to shake violently and I slow way down. I take my exit and pull into a Wendy's parking lot and boom the right front tire has steel belts sticking out. So I limp the couple miles to the MOM and park at the show and get out and watch the tire go flat.
Steve, runs the museum, came over and told me where the closest tire store was. I spent a couple hours in the museum wiped down the Mach 1 and talked to some of the show entrants. I packed up about 1:00 and headed to find a spare tire. There were no 14" tires to be found in Charlotte. Nobody keeps them in stock have to order them due to no demand. So I headed home and reduced speed to 55 with no spare.
To keep the tires matching I need a new set of 4 tires and probably should get 5 in case it happens again. So I decide to keep the other three good tires for rollers and polish another set of the forged aluminum wheels for the 73. I pick through the one's I have and pick the 4 best.
It takes about 8 hours to get 4 wheels ready to polish. File the rough spots, clean all the tar off and the back side of three of these had been painted so that took forever to get off. Have several sizes of wire brushes to get into all the areas on the back and special care of the bead lock area so they do not leak.
I got the 4 cleaned and ran one through the blast cabinet to even out the look of the back side.
Then to the drafting table to sand with 1,000 grit and water and then polish. I get the buffing heads at Harbor Freight, cheap but will do 4 wheels then toss. So got one polished yesterday will do the other three today and decide if I want to do one more for spare that I can rotate out just in case.
Oh btw the spare in the vert had never been on the ground so before I went to the MOM I swapped it out for another roller. Glad I did a 46 year old tire might be a little fragile. Looks good at show though.
It was almost 100 deg. and the 351 C with .050" over bore, came, flat top pistons and AC did not have any heat issues, hurray. I had installed a Hayden transmission oil cooler to take a little more heat out of the radiator. At least now I have some confidence in longer trips in the car. Sat for 27 years because the PO had put the R.H. head gasket on backwards.
When I looked up the tire size for an F-70 X 14" the chart said 205 but I know the tires on the steel wheels were 215. Can you push it any farther with only a 6" wide wheel or are they going to round out? Going to go with just the Cooper Cobras this is not a show car my driver.