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

[timachone]

More sections and parts to clean and painting: 

 

[timachone]

New parts stuff  :thumb:

Thanks to Kevin Marti



Had the luck to find some NEW! Classic Services Brake Parts spindles in Germany! For less than 300 Dollars! 







Seems to be from good quality - was a recommendation of Stanglover  :thumb:  and bought from Rockauto! 

 

[timachone]

The rear axle was one of the worst things to clean, maaan, what a mess! It was full of deep, black gunk, like tar! Nothing dissolved it... Nothing! But the old gas from the gas tank I held as a spare for cleaning purposes! After hours in the sun, handling with gas, a toilet brush, some sort of brush on a shaft over an electric drill I got rid of that s**t: 

 

[timachone]

The last thing of the past weeks was installing some roller rockers for pedestial mount from Scorpion instead of the original rockers complete with setting of valve lash and preload the hydraulic lifters. Furthermore refreshening of the intake manifold due to the old carb leaking with new seals and gaskets... There she is: 













Before:

 

After: 



Worst part was cleaning the heads and the valley off of the old gasket and rtv material... 































Done and happy  :thumb:

 

[droptop73]

That's some real nice progress Tim! It should be on the road soon. 

 

[rio1856]

OUTSTANDING!!!! Great Job!!! excellent pics!!

 

[timachone]

That's some real nice progress Tim! It should be on the road soon. 

Thanks, Jeff! Despite there is still a lot of work in front of me - soon now it is the nice part of this restoration - assembling with new or restored parts, step by step  :thumb:

I think I could do big steps forward this year on the car, yeah! 

OUTSTANDING!!!! Great Job!!! excellent pics!!

Thank you very much, very appreciated  :beer:

 

[Stanglover]

Tim, you're doing some excellent work. This car is going to look awesome, a show winner for sure. Well done.

It's hard to believe "someone" thought "RED" was the go-to color for painting all the parts, What were they thinking!

 

[timachone]

Tim, you're doing some excellent work. This car is going to look awesome, a show winner for sure. Well done.

It's hard to believe "someone" thought "RED" was the go-to color for painting all the parts, What were they thinking!

Geoff, 

thank you very much for your words, I appreciate that much! 

I don't know, what they were thinking back then... It must have been deep in the 80ies - besides the fact the car was colored some sort of pink metallic, highjackers and big, rear wheel well touching wheels as I bought it. Like a drivin' lipstick on steroide. As it was a Q-code with a 4-speed and 3:50 gears and furthermore a T5 with mostly all original parts there I looked over it quite a bit. But now I am happy I got rid of that color. And the red - man, it was everywhere and held on very well! The good part of it was that it protected some parts very well, but not every. Now there are some remnants on the passenger side rails left which would be killed by me the next days and then they will be gone, forever  :salute:

 

[Carolina_Mountain_Mustangs]

Lots of great work and congratulations on the new son.
Be careful using gasoline to clean parts just a spark and boom. Next time give oven cleaner a try on difficult to remove grease.
Noticed your rear drums are different from what is on my 73 Mach 1. Here is pic of mine.

 

[Klug]

Nice job, I'm excited to take a run with him....

 

[timachone]

David, 

thank you very much for your words and the wishes on the new little son  :beer:

I gave some other sorts of dissolvants a try before, they were oven cleaner, brake cleaner, engine cleaner, pb blaster... Nothing really worked. I had oven cleaner in mind and tried it because of that. Perhaps I tried the useless one. So I gave the good ol' gas a try and bingo... I did it outside so I thought the fumes could easily escape. 

Thanks for the hint with the drums and thank you for that really good reference photo. Have to check if my fathers T5 has still its original drums... I noticed that they are not the original ones, they have been changed once through the POV. As they are very nice and almost new condition inside I chose to clean them up and mount them back on. Despite I will keep it as factory as possible I cannot totally go the Concourse route - the drums are a good example. Finding good ol' rear drums is almost impossible to find and when, you have to pay that much - eventually all has it's end. Good made aftermarket ones painted in the ride shade will do the trick too  :thumb:

By reassembling I noticed that some things have been changed through the years: the front and rear springs, all shocks, all brake components except proportional valve, booster and the hard lines, upper and lower control arms and strud rods. So I will replace them anyway with new and NOS parts and only restore the restore-worthy parts. Or buy good used ones from the USA. That includes all the bolts - only the good ones will find their way back, all other I already bought from AMK directly. 

 

[timachone]

Nice job, I'm excited take a run with him....

Fabiano, you still have to wait a little bit, but I will hurry up...  :biggrin:

But when it's done it will be an honor to take you for a drive and grab a little cold snack afterwards  :beer:

 

[Stanglover]

Geoff, 

thank you very much for your words, I appreciate that much! 

I don't know, what they were thinking back then... It must have been deep in the 80ies - besides the fact the car was colored some sort of pink metallic, highjackers and big, rear wheel well touching wheels as I bought it. Like a drivin' lipstick on steroide. As it was a Q-code with a 4-speed and 3:50 gears and furthermore a T5 with mostly all original parts there I looked over it quite a bit. But now I am happy I got rid of that color. And the red - man, it was everywhere and held on very well! The good part of it was that it protected some parts very well, but not every. Now there are some remnants on the passenger side rails left which would be killed by me the next days and then they will be gone, forever  :salute:

Tim, that's too funny! "Like drivin' lipstick on steroids" 

That was for sure, a really nice find regardless.

When you get to installing the fuel sender,  remind me and I'll go over again what I did to calibrate the gauge at 1/4 full (19 liters)

All the best moving forward.

 

[timachone]

Tim, that's too funny! "Like drivin' lipstick on steroids" 

That was for sure, a really nice find regardless.

When you get to installing the fuel sender,  remind me and I'll go over again what I did to calibrate the gauge at 1/4 full (19 liters)

All the best moving forward.

Geoff,

thank you!

Oh yes, that would be awesome, I give you a call when I'm there :thumb:

 

[Stanglover]

Geoff,

thank you!

Oh yes, that would be awesome, I give you a call when I'm there :thumb:

Sounds like a plan.

 

[Sheriff41]

I enjoy seeing the great progress and attention to detail in your project.   Congrats on your new pit crewmember Aaron!

 

[timachone]

I enjoy seeing the great progress and attention to detail in your project.   Congrats on your new pit crewmember Aaron!

Thank you very much for your words! 

Yeah, a new crewmember doesn't hurt - especially when we were in the minority in the past  :whistling: :biggrin:

 

[Stanglover]

Tim, I forgot to mention congrats on the new little guy Aaron, so congrats to you and your wife on the new baby BOY. Enjoy him while you can, they grow up way too fast.

 

[timachone]

Geoff, 

thank you very much for your lovingly congratulations, I will share them with my family! Yeah, you are right - with kids your time runs even faster! I exactly know how the birth was on my little daughter before - and boom, now it's 3 years after and she is a lovely little princess with her own strong will! But best is: she loves "loud cars" as she says always and enjoy driving in my Challener R/T. How might she look and enjoy when time has come and the Mustang is ready? And even little Aaron? We will see... In the meanwhile I enjoy time with my kids whenever I can - theses times are worthwile!