Travails of the Trailer Queen

[mach1mama]

Hello all. At the request and permission of my wife (mach1mama) I’m using her account to post a series of articles on the 2010 – 2011 rebuild of her ’73 Mach1. The write up has been previously written and posted on several other websites. Before I post it I'm going to make a few statements. 1) This is long write up that consists of 15 parts with lots of photos. As such I will post one part every second day or so. This to allow you, the readership, time to digest it and to make comments. 2) Aside from some advice and assistance in researching parts and performance options I have little to do with the re-build, my wife made all of the decisions/choices. This is 100% her rebuild. 3) If this thread is not in the proper Forum I encourage the Administrator to move it to the proper location.

Part 1 (originally posted 19 Jan 2011)

Before I get into the current rebuild of my wife’s 1973 Mach 1 I should give you all a run down of the car’s history. This 1973 Ford Mach 1 built on 30 January 1973 (48 days behind schedule) came equipped with a 4V 351 Cleveland Cobra Jet engine mated to a 3-speed C6 automatic transmission. The exterior colour was Bright Yellow Gold Metallic Glamour Glow and was ordered with the optional vinyl roof and Ginger interior. The brakes are power discs in front and drums in back with the optional 14” Forged Aluminum Wheels. The car was purchased from Evangeline Motors Ltd (now known as Valley Ford) in Kentville, Nova Scotia, Canada. The original owner drove the car for about 5-6 years never leaving NS. During this time he had the car repainted to a god awful dark brick red colour. The reason for the colour change is kind of funny, apparently there were two other Mustang Fastbacks of the same colour in this small community and the owners where known to do a lot of hooning (who can blame them) resulting in some police profiling. The owner got tired of being pulled over by the local constabulary inquiring if he was the gold mustang that was seen laying long black stripes on the road. So, tired of the unwanted police attention he decided to change the colour to something that could not be mistaken for gold.

Anyway after 5-6 years the owner decided to seek his fortune out west, not wanting to haul the Mach 1 with him he decided to temporarily store it one of his family’s barns, with the intention of returning back home in a few years after making his fortune (yes, you read that right, this is going to be one of those “Barn Find” stories). After a few years out west the original owner met a lovely young lady, got married, settled down in the west and started a family. During this time the Mach 1 remained safely ensconced in the barn back in NS. After about 15 years had passed (about 1995) he decided to sell the car to another Kentville resident, this well-regarded person was one of the founding members of the Nova Scotia Mustang Club serving as its President for several years.

Upon purchasing the Mach 1 the second owner went about doing a complete restoration (body only and fully documented with photographs), as one can imagine after spending close to 15 years in a barn there were some “issues”. There was a fair amount rust and the restoration consisted of replacing the lower third of both front fenders as well as the lower quarter of both doors. The entire trunk floor and rear valance where replaced, as well as both inner engine bay fender wells. The car was repainted back to its original colour. The only work done to the engine was to replace one bent push rod. The interior was untouched.

Here are some photos:

Fresh from the barn. What’s the Ford code for this colour?

’95 restoration photos

New inner fender wells

That’s one rusty butt

Ah! That’s better

Almost there

Post restoration

The second owner took such good care of his pride and joy that currently (2010 photos) the car looks like this:

End of part I. Part II to follow.

 

[73vertproject]

Great story and documentation. I think this is the perfect place for your story. Thanks for sharing!

Doc

 

[M Beauchamp]

Keep it coming

 

[droptop73]

Nice story! I'm looking forward to, As Paul Harvey would say... "The Rest of the Story"!

 

[OLE PONY]

For some reason, I always like hearing about the history of a car. Good story, looking forward to the future installments. Looks like the original Aluminum wheels had disappeared in the "before" restoration pictures, but they were back on in the "after" pics.

 

[mach1mama]

For some reason, I always like hearing about the history of a car. Good story, looking forward to the future installments. Looks like the original Aluminum wheels had disappeared in the "before" restoration pictures, but they were back on in the "after" pics.

You've got a sharp eye. We never could find out from the second owner how that happened (you'll find out why in part 2).

 

[TheJ]

Nice story, documentation and car. You got the trifecta.

 

[72MustangSprint]

great story so far...

 

[Nance]

Thanks for sharing.

 

[cobrajet99]

Hi mach1mama's other half, Excellent write-up, I can't wait to read the rest of the story. I'm sure it will be a very interesting story!

 

[mach71351c]

Very cool. Great story.

 

[whitesoc]

Great Story and nice to see a Canadian car survive!

 

[julieloiuse]

That was a nice share. Im excited to see the improvements!

 

[mach1mama]

Part 2 (originally posted 22 Jan 2011)

I ended part 1 in 1995, let’s rewind the clock back to the July 1988 for a moment. At this time I was a single Leading Seaman serving in the Canadian Navy with no debt and wad of cash burning a hole in my pocket. With my newfound wealth I decided that it was time to purchase my first new car. Up until this point I was happily driving used GM vehicles and fully intended to buy another GM product but, due to GM’s non-sensical vehicle packaging (another story for some other time) and no other cars from the other OEM really excited me, I made the smart decision and purchased a brand new Mustang GT.

Although this is promotional photo of an ‘87 it’s identical to my ‘88.

So on Halloween night of that year I got myself costumed up and went out to Halifax’s version of Mardi Gras, for those of you unfamiliar with the Maritimes during the eighties, on Halloween night several blocks of the downtown core were blocked off to allow an impromptu semi-sober midnight parade to occur. It was at this particular event that I met an interesting young lady, we partied the rest of the night at the end of which I drove her and her roommates back to their apartment. Before leaving I asked the young lady in question if she was interested in going to Peggy’s Cove (a famous tourist attraction here in Nova Scotia) the following weekend, she accepted my invitation. One thing led to another and we were married four years latter. The reason I’m telling you all this is because the major reason she accepted my initial request for a date was because I owned a Mustang and she “LOVED” Mustangs. Everything was great until June of 2002 when literally on a five-minute errand to Penhorn Mall my ’88 was stolen, never to be seen again.

These photos where taken two months before my beloved 5.0 was stolen

As you can imagine I was extremely distraught at the loss of my pride and joy, my wife, seeing the state I was in told me that I could buy any car I wanted (within reason) as long as we reached certain financial milestone and she got to choose the colour. Five years latter in 2007 (after looking at everything from a Audi TT, 350Z, BMW Z3, Subaru WRX, GTO. etc…another story for another time) we purchased a 2008 Shelby GT500 Grabber Orange Convertible.

This brings us up to 2009, we attended our second Mustang car show at Valley Ford in Kentville (sound familiar?) when the wife saw a ’73 Mach 1 for sale. She asked me what I thought about buying it, I personally was a little nervous about purchasing a car that old and suggested that maybe getting a newer 5.0 Fox body convertible with five speed stick would be better for her. Upon hearing this she dropped the subject (yup, I know, I’m an A-Hole). A week later she broached the topic again and it’s at this point that I realized that she really, REALLY wanted this car. I couldn’t break her heart so I agreed to the purchase as long as she realized that old cars can be expensive and that she would have to deal with any repairs, modification etc… herself with minimal help from me (that A-Hole gene was exerting itself again) and pending some preliminary investigations into the cars history. As members of the Nova Scotia Mustang Club we contacted other the members of the Club to see if anyone knew of the cars history (see part 1). We also discovered the reason the sale, unfortunately the second owner of the car was fighting a long difficult battle with cancer and the prognosis was not good. With the end in sight he decided to sell all his extraneous assets before his departure in order to spare his dear wife the ordeal of doing so after his death as well as ensuring he got the best price for his possessions. When my wife and I made the sale he was very happy that the car was going to a mature club members who would not “pimp” or “hot rod” his baby and that the car and would stay in the province where it has spent its entire life.

He passed away early 2010.

The very first time the wife saw the car. The gentleman seated behind the car is the second owner. Rest in Peace Bob.

End of part 2. Part 3 to follow.

 

[OLE PONY]

Great storytelling! Can't wait for the next installation.

 

[mach1mama]

Great Story and nice to see a Canadian car survive!

My car was originally purchassed at the Ford dealership in Kentville and has been in Nova Scotia it's whole life.

 

[73vertproject]

Man, I love the story almost as much as I like the Mach! ::goodjob::

Doc

 

[mach1mama]

Part 3 (originally posted 26 Jan 2011)

So, with the sale complete we head down to the local Access Nova Scotia branch to get the ownership paperwork done. When that’s done we head out of Kentville with me driving the GT500 and my wife driving her Mach 1. Just before exiting the town she gets me one walkie talkie (that we brought along) and suggests that we stop at a gas station to fill up before heading back home. I have to stop here and mention that my wife although liking cars, did not get her drivers license until 1993 (fear of her kicking me in the family jewels with her very pointy shoes prevents me from mentioning her age) and the cars she drove since where no older than my ’88 GT, so she was unfamiliar with ’70’s technology. Anyway, here we are at the gas station, the wife gets out of the car and walks around the car a couple of times with a confused look on her face. She can’t locate the gas cap, I had to show her that the rear mustang medallion was in fact the gas cap with that problem solved we head out on the open highway with me in the lead. During the drive back I fielded a lot questions from the wife who didn’t know where to find some basic controls such as the how to turn on the headlights? (Pull, don’t turn the knob), how do I turn off the high beams? (Button on the floor next to your left foot), what’s the speed conversion from metric to US? (100 km/hr is about 62 m/hr, the car was made pre-metric system in Canada), where are the four way flasher switch? (Pull the small know located on the steering column), etc…. Halfway home we stopped at a gas station because the wife was concerned that the car was running hot with its original radiator and wanted to let her cool down a little. Once that was done we had an uneventful drive to our local shade tree mechanic to give the car a once over and to issue us a Certificate of Mechanical Soundness.

During the inspection we made a long list of problems, some minor, some not so minor. The small stuff consisted of a few burned bulbs (fixed on the spot) a non-functional windshield washer pump, a seeping transmission oil pan and differential seal, a worn “U” joint, a loose and arcing ground wire (also fixed on the spot), a sticking high beam floor switch, the radiator was on its last legs, the rubber in the motor mounts were cracked and deteriorated, the rear leaf springs where sagging and the carburetor needed a good cleaning. The only problem that would have to be taken care of as soon as possible was a seeping gas tank. While the car was on the lift we gave the underside a thorough inspection and discovered that sometime in the past the car had probably gone over rock because the lower radiator support bulkhead, and front cross member were dented and severe rust had taken hold, eventually they would have to be replaced. The rock also put a shallow crease in the oil pan and pushed the passenger side exhaust pipe up against the floor pan. Everything else was in very good condition.

So the next day the wife starts making appointments to get things fixed. First thing on her list was to replace the original single core rad with a new three-core unit and a lower temperature thermostat, hoses and a transmission cooler for good measure. Next was the gas tank. In the next five months (July – October) she had the carburetor cleaned (more on that later on), replaced the windshield washer pump, floor mounted dimmer switch, next came plugs and ignition cables, installed an electronic ignition system in her distributor and had one leaf changed and one more added to both rear springs. As a temporary measure she used rust converter and painted the corroded front structural members.

During this time the car was driven to various car shows and club functions putting on about 2,000 miles. Late in the fall however, the carburetor started acting up, the choke was getting stuck closed producing a rich condition, which would eventually cause the engine to stall out. This was beginning to occur more and more often. Fed up with the situation she stored the car early (mid October) and started saving for a new Edelbrock 650 cfm unit to replace her stock 605 cfm Autolite 4300 D. When it arrived we were disappointed to find out that the bores would not match the stock intake, two more attempts were with another Edelbrock and Holley carburetors over the winter months, but they also did not fit the stock intake. Faced with this dilemma she decided to send the OEM Autolite to the local carb guru for a complete overhaul. Once overhauled and installed it worked much better but was still somewhat tempermental.

Don’t mind the spots, these were taken in the rain

The interior is in pretty good condition considering that it is totally original.

Trunk area.

Aging rubber in the motor mounts.

The wife never opened the hood at car shows. I wonder why? Despite the engines appearance it did work reasonably well.

Here you can see the new radiator and transmission cooler.

Old carb. New carb. Does anyone see a problem?

A more detailed comparison. That’s the stock EGR plate that’s fitted between the intake manifold and the carburetor.

End of part 3. Part 4 to follow.

Please bear with me I promise to get to the current restoration with photos in the next part.

 

[T-K]

:goodpost:

Great story, enjoyed reading it so far::thumb::