Tim's 1973 Mach 1 rebuild thread - it's done in 2023 on it's 50th birthday!

[timachone]

Here in this thread I want to present the story of my mustang since it passed into my possession in autumn 2013 so far. It is a 1973 Mach 1, T5 (Europe/Germany export-model), 4 speed manual with a 351 Cleveland 4V Q-code (an inofficial Cobra Jet) with some modifications.

Last Sunday I was able to enjoy my first real driving after half a year of working on it. The first time that no funny noises, unwanted pointer-actions or other bloating occurred - pure pleasure. Man, that was cool - the grin did not go away until today! That was the final confirmation to have this car!

I want to dedicate this thread to the long-term and careful restoration of my Mustang. Everything will be kept as original as possible but I will be also not closed against modern modifications. Full "back to the roots" I do not want - some modifications also have quite its meaning and would detract from the fun yet. New works I will paste here again to keep you posted now.

All the work I'm doing mostly at myself - but with partly great support of my dear friend Oliver I have gained through this car and I would like to thank for his dedication, his perseverance, his time and our friendship. Without him I would not be nearly this far and poorer by many experiences and learning processes. But as he says so beautifully: assembling for two is simply fun! He's right - it's a give and take ...

Here is the story :

The purchase was the one - the accommodation of the car the other.

Here some pics after buying it from the seller:

But, before I was able to work on the Mustang properly I had to first build a little workshop in an industrial hall.

Luckily I was able to shelter the vehicle by another good friend, Marc, until I had finished. Thanks also to him at this point for 2 months free parking in the underground garage. The only reason I was able to get the car before and turn the first screw. Here is the picture of my first ride from the seller in its new interim home - everything went smoothly and I was overjoyed. 

Here are the pictures of the workshop, before and after :

A day before the onset of winter it finally happened - here the first image with Mustang in the garage shortly after 20:00 pm - at night it began to snow :

First we went to the intrinsic values since the car did not run as it should. First came the retrofitted Edelbrock carburetor with manual joke down again. To the car I got an original early Autolite 4300 D from 1970 that Oli has overtaken me. This is the uncleaned original constitution:

And I changed to the original Mach 1 steering wheel and Hurst shift knob after cleaning them up too.

Then I changed out the ignition to a Pertronix I - here is the "original" Autolite system - original was a dual breaker point distributor - but he does his work well...





The original intake manifold was no longer present but the Offenhauser aluminum intake manifold seemed not bad to be. Together with the old-school valve covers this looks good. Between the carb and the intake manifold then came a 4V spacer to give the whole thing a little more flow.



The car got a basic setup but did not seem to go as it could and wanted to. The cold starts were very bad. After there was something liquid from the area of intake manifold coming out we decided to replace the intake manifold gasket completely. By disassembling it we noticed that the intake manifold does not sit properly fixed...







After many hours of work and good hope the car was back to not really good starting and idling. During the test run we saw some water between the left cylinder head and the block... That was not a good sign and the decision quickly made: engine back out, heads down :s !










Fortunately an encouraging picture - the original fabrication marks on the cylinder surfaces were still visible and the block has not yet been overhauled. The cylinders itself looked good too. In one we saw a piece of metal like a carburetor linkage - quickly get it out! The compression we had measured before - all 10 to 11 bar so still in good order without outliers. The water seemed to have gone luckily only outwardly - phew ! ...

Now ready for cleaning:







The heads itself turned out to be a closed chamber 4V from 1970. One of the first Cleveland heads for the 71er. There must be one that have thought about something at least in the selection of components many years ago. Unfortunately even the heads went down far too easily. But the screws for the original exhaust headers fortunately too. The valve guides were bushed - not so good - 2 cracks on the original guidances and the tolerances were not so perfect. After much deliberation we decided to leave it that way but incorporate stronger valve springs from the boss to balance it a little.







The back of the valves showed that the car probably the last few years as has been always moved only very briefly and then with too fat carb. One millimeter thick layer of pressed coal! So first of all get down with the dirt and then to the valves . In the right head there were also quite a large number of fine wires - remnants of a defunct oil cap and its wire mesh - it really does not hurt to look for the right from time to time...







The heads amd valves were all cleaned, reshot and the valve seat also.














Where we had been down the heads Oli had the idea to rework the intake ports or to polish them. I was skeptical at first but considering the fact that I had had a pair of 4V closed chamber heads in good original condition from 1971 as a spare too I let him go.











Clean and heads mounted:





Now we decided to change the valve springs into the Boss ones - unfortunaltely after reassembling the heads...





A fresh package of Motorcraft sparks will do better



All reassembled and repeatedly tightened correctly

Then came the big moment :



The big buddy immediately started and ran like a pig! Me and Oli were overjoyed - problem solved!!!

 

[timachone]

Next I wanted my big buddy to be a bit more "muscular" with 2,5" pipes and headers. That's what I bought from Summit:

http://www.summitracing.com/int/parts/hok-6915hkr/overview/

and this

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/SUM-680111

and paired it with a new pair of Flowmaster American Thunder Mufflers 2,5". It fits except for the staggered shocks for which we had to do a little fixing. The Turbo Mufflers of the summit set also didn't fit because the have no centered outlet als pictured but left inlet and right outlet wich is too much width for the staggered shocks!

The headers also needed a lot of fiddling because of their big welding seam which is thought as a direct gasket to the heads. But that was not acceptable for my friend Oliver and me so we decided to flatten them and weld them a little better too for a direct snug fit to the heads. Man, that was a long day and a short night...











For a exhaust gas oxygen lambda sensor



The old crap out of 3 sorts of Mustangs















Finished



The sound know is perfect - brute when gaining speed but not too loud by cruising. The whole thing with the Flowmasters don't drone on the important range from 50 to 75 mph! But when I kick the pedal they bring out the hell on earth

My Mustang gained a lot more kick in several rpm ranges after this so it was all successful - I am happy with it!

 

[timachone]

In the meantime I switched to the electrical sector of my big buddy - in the engine compartment and behind the dashboard. First I stripped away some ugly tangle of wire under the dash und threw out the aftermarket radio - it was horrible:











I changed out the weird turn signal switch in complete - a new turn signal cam brought no improvement - you will see why





















It was my luck that none of the original plugs was cut so I was able to prepare everything back to the original connections. But there was a lot of repair to do because there were many cables disconnected and frazzled out.



I made every switch working again. I replaced the lighting switch, made a functional cigarette lighter out of a new and the original one and reworked my rear window defroster switch out of the original one and a convertible top switch.



The famous instrument voltage regulator was changed out to an electronical one precautionally too



Here is some of my original color under the dash :heart:



I brought back the horns to live and they are completely functional over the original Mach 1 steering wheel ::chili::

I did some researching over the relays too and they all are fully functional now. I will post a picture of the complete set later with all of their functions. I had to add two buzzers - now it is a real buzzer concert if you have the engine running, open the drivers door and enfasten your seatbelt

Aside from that I proved every sloppy connection in the engine compartment and there were a lot! I changed and repaired a lot of wires. I changed the whole lighting system to a switched relay system to avoid dimming lights with modern bulbs. I also added a fuse box for that and gave the horns a relay too. I switched the old worn out voltage regulator to a modern electronical one because of the original Motorcraft heavy duty alternator with 70 amp. The voltage regulator only had 55 amp - no wonder the lights were flickering too



That's the whole new unit overhauled - any ideas to sort the small cables a bit more in a authentically way?



And the best: it works all perfect as it should!


Overhauling the electric I looked after the interior too. The original dashboard showed some signs of other colors than original and the pad has passed away long ago and was covered with an ugly hard-plastic cover...









It was all original





So I sanded it all down with a copper brush and I found 4 different color layers





I primed it all and gave it 2 cans of medium ginger laquer from Scott Drake





The freshly imported original tooling ginger dashpad got an additional layer of medium ginger vinyl dye to match the new dash color too. It looks perfect! I am very satisfied with the result - the spray can laquers of scott drake are a pleasure to work with and they dry in minutes! Very recommendable... And the medium ginger colour is not too light in shade as often mentioned - it is damn accurate. Dark ginger I also ordered would have been too dark - for the dash.



In parallel I worked on the door panels too. I ordered a pair from Don from Ohio Mustang with the right clamps - a real good looking pair. The quality is really good compaired to the original ones









I decided too change them out because of the elbow-checked spot on the drivers side original one. I will keep the original ones safe until somebody is able to repair that because otherwise they are in a very good condition. So meanwhile I protect them with the newer ones. I had to cut out the door handle with a compressed air hand saw and adapt the original parts from the old panel. It all went well. The most complicated part was to install the chrome trim from Re-Pops with the clamps - but after stitching a few times into my hands and after installing the knife-sharp! door clamps it is looking very good

With flash



Without flash



Thats my console I bought from user 73Ford last year - I had to drill new holes in the tunnel because of the formerly small mini-console



It is working all fine and fits perfect - love the tic-toc-clock

I will add some detailed pics of my renewed interior later...

 

[luxstang]

Tim, Great write up. You´ve achieved a lot in that period of time.

As for the wires, turn them into a harness by wrapping them in tape. Simple but effective.

Ain´t it grand to take such a car for a spin and everything works? I love it when I can throw a 43 year old switch and everything does what it is supposed to do.

We gotta work something out, so I will stop by and have a look at your Mustang. I´ll bring mine along and we´ll terrorize the neighborhood.

If that doesn´t help, we´ll crank up the Marshalls and turn them to 11.

 

[timachone]

Tim, Great write up. You´ve achieved a lot in that period of time.

As for the wires, turn them into a harness by wrapping them in tape. Simple but effective.

Thank you, Mike! And that's not the end - I will keep an update the next minutes

Good tip - that's what I have done with some other wires too - cool

Ain´t it grand to take such a car for a spin and everything works? I love it when I can throw a 43 year old switch and everything does what it is supposed to do.

YES - you're right - THAT'S IT. I love that feeling when all for what it was supposed to be is functional after such a period of time. That's a great feeling - it smells even good

We gotta work something out, so I will stop by and have a look at your Mustang. I´ll bring mine along and we´ll terrorize the neighborhood.

If that doesn´t help, we´ll crank up the Marshalls and turn them to 11.

Hahaha, count me in, buddy! That will mess them up for sure

Hope to see you anytime, Mike! Btw: do you spend a visit there:

http://www.mustangclub.de/index.php/50-jahre-mustangmeeting

I'm in with my wife and some other crazy mustang dudes such as my best friend and mustang-doctor Oliver

Tim


Now to the last big repair my friend Oli and I did a few weeks ago. After driving a little here and there I discovered that the Mustang always lost water after parking and that he always ran too hot regarding the gauges movement. 3 of the freeze plugs were passing away and let the water coming out in lots of drops. After cooling down the engine they sucked in air we assumed so that there was air in the cooling system every time and it could not cool down the engine properly. As a result of this we decided to pull out the engine to change out the freeze plugs and to check out if everything other is in order. By this chance we had to change the clutch too. That was a 24 hours working action with 6 hours of sleep. But it should be worth it...



















Nice freeze plugs - they could easily been punctured through - high time to change them out















Time to flush the whole system - what a sludge...



Georgius - new plugs in there



Worn out clutch against new









All in there



Some beauty treatment





Yeah - the original q-code block - now confirmed



Reassembled with new paint and the new 7 qt Moroso oil pan



And back to work



Started immediately and it was a pleasure to drive with. No overheating! All systems operated well - no water loss, right temperature and oil pressure as showed by the gauges - I was delighted

The only thing that felt weird at first was the clutch. The pedal "stuck" literally on the ground and went back only reluctantly. Soon the error was clear: a lack of one of the 3 springs which is necessary for correct operation of the clutch mechanism. A brake spring had to serve for the original - the real one will come these days from Ohio Mustang!

So my first ride could come

 

[timachone]

My first horseback ride last sunday - cannot get the grin out of my face until today

It drives like a sledgehammer with some sweet roaring. Everywhere enthusiastic faces and comments - I was overwhelmed. Could ran some 120 mph togehter with my friend and his '69 Mach 1 on the german autobahn - awesome!!!











The next projects are awaiting me yet - brake system check, trac-lok differential and beauty work... I will keep you posted soon!

Tim

 

[timachone]

Dear Resto-fans, I would like to revive my resto thread again - there is a lot to do!

Reason for my silence in the recent months was less laziness but rather enjoyment of driving so I've actually made only several details which I now do not want to deprive you.

Meanwhile I am so far that I have completely disassembled the engine because of a connection rod bearing failure which has spoiled last year's season's end - but more on that later. The engine is half back together and I have not missed the opportunity to increase my certified 281.5 hp

To top it all I then would like to restore the original look and shine in its original color "Gold Glow". And this all until Pentecost - a little pressure never hurts

But first a few pictures of the great "driving season" in 2014, which was crowned by the visit to "50 years of Mustang" in Cologne - an awesome party!

My "homies" from the area







Start to 50 years of Mustang in Cologne










A few small jobs over the year. I had ordered a couple of used parts from Don - thanks Don - they are great!

Oil cap stripped, cleaned, painted with black satin finish and fitted with a new PCV ring - the oil has always pushed by the rubber and oiled my left cylinder bank





De-rusted and painted PCV pipe





Then a new PCV valve with angle mounted- at the rear connection to the carburetor I had to improvise a little. The PCV pipe is for a 73er carburetor, which has a much smaller PCV-flange - the tube is normally inserted and held with a piece of hose. Here I have 2 different sizes - the PCV flange of the 1970 Auto Lite 4300D is much larger - so I did hose in hose...



Now for the fine specimens of the engine compartment - the horns...



The original paint was very peeled off and a little bit rusty - so first everything down with the copper brush and by hand, light scratches with a fine pad, little rust converter and beautiful semi-gloss lacquered - voilà:











Here is also a rare piece, already refreshed by mine:





The so-called "radio bracket" - the ground connection to the body in the radio slot for my original '73 AM / FM / 8-track radio - even behind the music plays


Since my speedometer wasn't correct in mph it was about time to change the speedo gear. It was no wonder that it was not the correct fit: with my big slippers in the rear (275/60R15) and the original 20 pinion gear the mph on the speedometer was lower than in real! So I needed a 18 pinion according to my calculations. Here it is - the process was quite simple:

Loosen the screw, remove the clamp and speedo cable:



Loosen the clamp of the pinion carefully so it can be reused:



cleaning



Mounting of new pinion and the old clamp



Done



Now the Speedometer is GPS-accurate

Here's a calculator with which you can calculate the needed pinion:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/24507551/Speedometer%20Gear%20Selector.xls

Here is a page to calculate the required diameter of the wheels:

http://tire-size-conversion.com/tire-size-calculator/

Tim


My braces I have given the original look again:





And the headlight rings too



My unfortunately by the previous owner cut up center console was irretrievably lost due to numerous wallpaper knife cuts because of an unsuccessful replacement experiment for the wooden foils. It was replaced by a repro from Don. And I have to say: this repop part is something really good - probably the best I've had so far! Thanks, Don!



Thanks to an original! Ginger sports steering wheel in flawless condition (the broken horn ring I could very easily replace with an original NOS part) my interior looks like this now - I think, perfect!





I love it :heart: !!!


Then it was time - out with the miserable rascal!







diagnosis:

a connecting rod bearing of the first cylinder has been pushed under the other so it neatly nailed to the crankshaft bearings and sanded this elliptical. Unfortunately not reusable at first... :s

Fortunately nothing other happens and I got an original Cleveland crankshaft when I bought my Mach 1 with freshly machined 0.010 (connecting rod bearings) and 0.020 (crankshaft bearings) undersize

A week later after a short online-trip to Summit it was really Christmas




In the meanwhile I got an original set of alloy wheels from 1973 incl. orig. caps from Roland from Austria





a little polishing and they are perfect!

Since I did not have them out of factory but only hubcaps (which I still have) and my father has a 73 Q-code T5 Convertible which has noted them on the Marti Report I have decided to give it him for his convertible. All he knows nothing about it so SHHHHT :sleepy:

With the rims and the already purchased rear spoiler which was once on his car it will be probably the most original T5 1973 - convertible in the world. But more important for me - to see my daddy happy :heart: I will look around for a couple of other rims when my money bag will allow this! A little wider in the rear should do the trick too...

 

[timachone]

Then it went right to the whole disassembly of the engine:



First, clean and completely blow-out so that he can breathe freely again. Despite a one year ago already made cleaning there still came out lots of muck ...

After cleaning



The cylinders look very good, even great to see all the machining tracks - original measure!

Then cleaning the pistons from the carbon deposits, rh before - lh after



They look still really good, original measure can therefore be preserved!

New piston rings




Fresh bearings everywhere!





Camshaft - out with the old bearings



New ones in



The new camshaft



A COMP Cam Xtreme Energy .274 (Hydraulic Flat Tappet) - to properly bring pressure in the mid to late rpm-range + some more hp







Not to forget

 

[jbojo]

Wow. you have done a lot of work and your car looks awesome. Keep the updates coming.

 

[timachone]

Next to the crankshaft and its bearings:



And in



timing chain from COMP Cam



Last but not least the pistons - fine-balanced - so the red numbers on top of it ...



Finished!



For NOW! You are now all up to date and I can go on In a few days I will go on - then the heads will be tuned

Tim

Wow. you have done a lot of work and your car looks awesome. Keep the updates coming.

Thank you very much, Jbojo! I will, I will...

Tim

 

[73vertproject]

Wow, I can't believe I missed your thread in the past. What an outstanding documentation, both in pictures and write-up. You've done some great work!

I'm looking forward to hearing more about your build. ::goodjob::

 

[timachone]

Wow, I can't believe I missed your thread in the past. What an outstanding documentation, both in pictures and write-up. You've done some great work!

I'm looking forward to hearing more about your build. ::goodjob::

Hey Doc,

thank you very much - your words are making me happy!

These days I will update soon - weekend is coming

Tim

 

[timachone]

Weekend is now over again :s But I was hardworking

This time I had to clean the heads including the valves and changing to the specific COMP cam valve springs. Since the heads were less than a year ago already down and have been overhauled including the valve seats this time it seems to be not a big act. Interestingly though what they look like after one year of burning fuel... They seem to have worked very well last months

But from the beginning! Here is one of the heads, still together, so to speak, "as just taken off" - looking at the valves the engine seems to raced very well - the far right is an inlet valve which only reason to be so oily black is because it has been sprayed with WD40 in preparation to cleaning before I remembered that I wanted to take a picture ...





The last burrs (most of them has been already ground off last year) grinding away to optimize flow - before:



during:



after:



Now, the "old" boss springs which I had used last year, came out again - compared to the new ones next to it:





Then removed the gasket material and other muck with the grindstone and now the valves out:



Here they are - nice cleaned and ready for further use - still looking great and they had only barely covering:



In there again - nice lubricated. Valve seat was great and the valve clearance was still acceptable



The new 3-part valve springs in their new location - what a sight - they are matching the original exterior color gold glow





Man, am I curious to see how it runs, the beast

Tim

 

[jbojo]

Looking very nice Tim, What's the lift on the cam going to be?

 

[timachone]

Looking very nice Tim, What's the lift on the cam going to be?

Thank you very much, Jbojo

The lift will be 0.562 / 0.565 intakte/exhaust...

That's the beast, an Xtreme Energy 274H:

http://www.compcams.com/Company/CC/cam-specs/Details.aspx?csid=848&sb=2

It delivers a good power band for my Cleve - have 3.55 gears on a 4-speed top-loader instead of an auto so I think that thing will do

Tim

 

[timachone]

Now it is time for some news again!

For me it was Easter earlier - got some goodies from Don from Ohio Mustang

I have to thank Don for his excellent service, speed and perfect packacking again so all the parts came fast and in one piece ::thumb::

Thanks, Don!

Now let's the pictures speak for itself:

































The ram air system is awesome quality - why buy an original one if you have not a ripped original Boss or something like that... Don have not promised too much!

 

[timachone]

After a serious gastrointestinal infection the last 2-3 weeks I did not come across to what I have planned ... Nevertheless it went a little further - here are the preliminary results:

Got my engine compartment completely eliminated:





Here, a few small spots which are looking not so nice. But they looked worse than it was - cut them out and made some small sheets...





Back in the trunk there was apparently some water there in the past - classic weak point ... What did the previous owner? Bonds everything with silicone to seal and clean! Unfortunately, not so good result a few years later...







But here, too: after grinding the whole I put a few weld spots there and the switzerland-cheese-look was over! After that there must be some nice and smooth brushing - pictures of this next time here...

The passenger side fender showed an inadequate attempt of repairing some rust spots by aluminum foil and bondo. But this was only a visual win back in the days - the results of this can be seen here:





Short work:





Some nice and smooth brushing in the future then it will hold likely longer than the rest ...

By disassembling I also saw that I seem to have taken apart some of the winter supply of a squirrel - sorry for that, little Scrat ...



On the motor it went a little further:








Here are the results of the last few days - I have decided to make the engine ready and tadaaa, he's done

First, I stripped the original valve covers, dedented (if possible) and cleaned - a lot of work that was worth it!

Before:



After:





Then the whole on the engine and taping:





Finished!







Now we had to continue with the less enjoyable work - grind, grind and grind again the engine bay...


After Don's supply I could not wait a long time and had to paint something - comes out hot on the parts this color - VHT SP761 - Concourse Ford Blue - fits perfect! Here again in close-up for dreaming






The decals for the 351C 4V and the Cobra Jet - air filter lids unfortunately don't really fit on the ram air's lid. If a 351C 2V-Decal could fit as only was standard on Mustangs from 72 1/2 and 73 I cannot say because I do not have one. The decals appear to be suitable only for the normal air filter lid. Or the Ram Air is modeled after 71er system that might have a different radius.

Anyway - after only a brief disappointment there was only one way out:



Fits and definitely looks cool! Not quite 73-compliant but who is interested in that ...!?! I am not - if you have a specific goal sometimes you have to make compromises


The slightly less beautiful part of the last days was the grinding of the engine bay - what a grind ... A few cleaning fleece discs further I am now through the woods. A few details, some rust converter and then a layer Brantho-Korrux anti rust primer before the semi-gloss black gains the upper hand. It takes maybe... But I'm even more excited when finally the newly overhauled engine could move in and everything will be taped to turn to the outer body!



Cheers,

Tim

 

[sdstang]

Tim,

Nice to see all the work you've done on your car! Im almost on my second year of my resto so I know how much effort you've put in.

 

[luxstang]

Wow, Tim! You really mean business here! Respect!