Travails of the Trailer Queen

[M Beauchamp]

Nice project

 

[Tnfastbk]

What a wonderful story. Well done, Denis! Well done!

Denis:huh: Way to go MOMA

 

[73vertproject]

What a wonderful story. Well done, Denis! Well done!

Denis:huh: Way to go MOMA

I meant the documentation and story. Yes, great job on the restoration, MOMA!

 

[Tnfastbk]

What a wonderful story. Well done, Denis! Well done!

Denis:huh: Way to go MOMA

I meant the documentation and story. Yes, great job on the restoration, MOMA!

OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

 

[73vertproject]

I guess I'm still suffering from the dual personality syndrome I developed before Denis became Shipwright!

 

[mach1mama]

Yes, I think he did a wonderful job of documenting the rebuild. My photography is not the greatest sometimes, but, he has a way with words. Melody

 

[droptop73]

Nice job Melody... and Denis. The car and its chronicle both turned out very nice!

 

[Shipwright]

Ok. I’m back, before I carry on with this series I have to bow to the wishes of She-Who-Must-Be-Catered-To, who after several thinly veiled and outright threats of various forms of retribution, I’m now forced to refer to her car as the “Man Magnet” and never again utter the words “Trailer Queen”.

In my last entry I mentioned some minor issues with the “Man Magnet”. It turned out that the driveline vibration was not caused by an out of balance driveshaft or problems with the differential; the cause was the wheels. When larger brake were installed in the front, larger wheels were required, so 16 X 7’s went in front and 16 X 8’s in the rear, unlike the narrower front the rear wheels had slightly oval shaped lug nut holes, probably to allow some room for play and making it nearly impossible to centre the rear wheels. To centre the wheels a set of concentric spacers should have been sent but none came with the wheels, so we ordered a set but none of them fit very well. Faced with this the wife took some measurements and went to a local machine shop where she had four spacers machined out of aluminium. Problem solved. The only other ongoing problem deals with the carburator (an Edelbrock 650 CFM Thunder AVS 1806). It’s starts right up when cold but is a little difficult to start when hot, it also still bogs when the secondaries kick in and while stuck in traffic it has stumbled and cut out a few times. The only new foible encountered this past driving season was with the tach. The needle wouldn’t budge from zero until she hit about 3K RPM then the needle would go into convulsions, no big problem it’ll be fixed this winter.

Despite the small problems already mentioned, the “Man Magnet” was driven 4,000 miles from about mid May to mid October. At no time was the Mach 1 unable to attend a cruise, car show or Club function for mechanical problems. This year she attended the Atlantic Nationals in Moncton, New Brunswick where the Mach 1 garnered a lot of attention from onlookers. A local television reporter doing a short spot on women and cars used the Man Magnet as a backdrop while interviewing my wife. It’s also at the Moncton car show that she got four offers to purchase the car. One man of obvious means was VERY serious about buying the car for his daughter, my wife had no doubt that if she had mentioned a ridiculous price he might have taken her up on it. Needless to say her trophy collection is getting pretty large (mostly local shows).

Now that her car is working properly I was allowed to take her out for a second spin, (after three years of ownership I’ve driven the Mach 1 twice and been a passenger three times. It’s just not fair) it was fun but I didn’t really like the driving dynamics with raised rear end. I asked why she liked the jacked up rear and she replied it’s the only way she’s able to see the road ahead of her. At 5’4” with the stock ride height she can barely see the road over the long hood. As she comes to the top of a hill or rise she can’t see road at all. So I’ll shut up and let it go, after all safety first.

This brings up to current events. About two weeks ago the “Man Magnet” has gone in for her winter “Spa Treatment”. Over the last several months the wife has been planning and prioritizing what work she wanted done on the car. The plan is to fix the spasdic tachometer cable, completely redo the front suspension by removing all the components giving them a good cleaning replacing any worn pieces, repainting, installing polyurethane bushings all around and re-assembling the suspension. Next on her list is to replace her aging driveshaft with a new aluminium shaft. Getting tired of using a curtain rod to hold up her hood at shows she’s going to remove the original hood hinge assembly with the round spring cross section. And instead of getting a heavy duty unit with a square spring cross section meant for the heavier functional Ram Air hood she’s ordering a brushed billet aluminium hood hinge with a hydraulic ram/piston in place of a coil spring. With the car aging and my wife wanting to drive the “Man Magnet” as often as she can, with the strong possibility of future power upgrades she’s investing in a set of sub-frame connectors. This should greatly improved rigidity and for added insurance she’s having the Mach 1’s sub-frames boxed. That last part has me somewhat worried as the mechanic says that they won’t be boxed in the traditional way, but from the inside so that someone looking under the car would not notice. He ominously warned the better half not to freak when she sees the interior of the car ripped out and floor pan cut. Now I may be I hadn’t her right but is that possible? While the interior is removed she’s going to have a layer of Dynamat installed. Finally and if funds are available replacing the MSD distributor for a shorter one in order to allow the use of the Ram Air air box.

Longer term my wife absolutely wants to ditch the carburator altogether and go with a four injector throttle body injection system either a Holley or MSD unit and maybe, you know, a new cam and intake. A traction lock rear end is also a possibility.

The “Man Magnet” at the Atlantic Nationals

Interview with car in background. The person being interviewed is “NOT” my wife.

Night shot at the nationals.

More shots from the Atlantic Nationals. Reflection of red Fastback.

Reflection of the “Man Magnet”

New parts for the front end, starting with Energy Suspension front control arm bushings.

and Moog front upper control arm assemblies.

Competition Engineering weld-in steel sub-frame connectors, 2” thin wall steel tubing.

Your taxi awaits to take you to your winter “Spa Treatment” Ma’am

You look fantastic for a 39 year old. I must say, you have a really nice butt!!!

Original interior removed from car awaiting a good cleaning.

The interior condition of the floor pan, the replaced rear sections was coated with three coats of stone guard when they were replaced last winter. They’ll probably just put Dynamat over it this year.

More to follow.

 

[OLE PONY]

Another great installment about the "Man Magnet". Sounds like Melody is having a great time with it.

 

[73vertproject]

Great work you two. I really enjoy reading about the adventures of the Man Magnet.

 

[mach1mama]

Another great installment about the "Man Magnet". Sounds like Melody is having a great time with it.

It doesn't matter where I go with the car, filling up at the gas station or out for coffee with the crew, guys always come up and ask about the car. That's why I call her the "Man Magnet". The first time I drove it in the city I gave my best friend a ride in the car; I had guys hanging out he window of thier trucks to take a picture of the car. She always attracks a crowd. The folks at the Nationals in the evening where standing out on Main street waiting for me to start the car up so they could hear the engine, that was a bit of a trip. Melody

 

[71_badmach]

She is a beauty! Really like the vinyl roof

 

[mach1mama]

She is a beauty! Really like the vinyl roof

Thanks.

 

[mach1mama]

Another great installment about the "Man Magnet". Sounds like Melody is having a great time with it.

yup

 

[Shipwright]

It’s been a long time since the last instalment in the ever lengthening drama that is the “Man Magnet”. After weeks Melody got her Mach 1 back from its extended stay at the automotive “Spa”. Although it was gone for a while a lot new equipment was installed and nagging old problems where finally rectified.

First off the mechanic, being was fed up with tinkering with the Edelbrock 650 carburetor trying to get it to work properly, tore it apart to find out what was causing the hard starts when warm and bogging when the secondaries kick-in. It turns out that one of the floats was improperly set, with the float adjusted all the problems disappeared. The Man Magnet now starts instantly whether the engine is hot or cold and when you push hard on the loud pedal she leaps with no hesitation. Despite the improvement in performance the wife still wants to eventually get an injection system.

The second issue deals with the venerable C6 tranny. After last years rebuild and the addition of a mild shift kit the C6 worked much better than before but seemed a little schizophrenic (it had a hard time deciding what gear to be in) and seemed to lack “Snap”. So after the removal of some old emission related plumbing (don’t ask, I have no idea what it could be) a test drive was conducted and when the transmission down shifts the “Snap” is there.

During the test drive a more serious problem arose, if you’ve read the previous write up you’ll know that the brake system had been updated with larger front discs and a rear disc conversion installed. The brakes worked great, at first, but slowly almost imperceptibly as time went by they got mushier and mushier, so that by the time of C6 test drive there was a definite problem. After many hours of trouble shooting the problem was localized to the front driver side calliper, after further testing the culprit was found to be a defective hose. A quick hose replacement solved the spongy brake issue. I’m still trying to con her into modern 12” four piston front and two piston rear brakes, I’ve got to much invested in both of them.

And finally, the last previous issue tackled was the oversized MSD electronic distributor that prevented the wife from fitting the Ram Air airbox to the carb. After many hours of research, test and trials and the unwillingness of my wife revert to a shorter OEM stock distributor, it was decided to retain the MSD unit and modify the airbox instead to allow its use. Although I am personally not fond of the idea, it’s not my car so I’ll be quiet about it.

This completes old business, now let’s move on to new business.

The big-ticket item for this year was the addition of sub-frame connectors. These were going to be welded in, but first the entire bottom of the car was stripped of the old rust proofing material. The majority of the work was done by Melody who spent many hours under the car scrapping the crap off. Next the sub-frame connectors welded in (more on that later). The underside and the front wheel wells were then wire wheeled right down to bare metal. All the raw steel then received two coats of Rock Guard followed by five coats of black paint. The inside floorpan of the Mach 1 also got treated to a layer of a rubberized type of sound deadening material as well.

The method used to install the connecters was not something I had seen before, but that’s not surprising seeing as I’m a novice to the modification world. The floorpan on these cars are not flat, they have dips and valley. I thought that the connectors, being 2” square tube, would bolt on the front, rear leaf spring, with the front part welded to the front sub-frame and the tubing would be welded wherever it made contact with the floor pan. This is not what was done. A 2” wide section of the floor starting from about the middle of the front seat on both sides of the car going back to inside part of the front of the rear spring was cut up out. In this opening the connector slid part way into forming 2 slight humps in the rear passenger floor. The connectors where then fully welded right to the floorpan (you’ll understand when I post the pictures) and to both the rear and front sub-frames. My wife noticed a marked improvement in the rigidity of the structure and claims that the body panels line up better.

The next item on the list was the front suspension. The car had a tendency to want to “wander” all over the road and it took constant steering wheel corrections to keep her between the lines. So, every nut, bolt, bushing, ball joint and steering component was removed, inspected, replaced if needed, painted, lubricated and re-assembled. All the rubber bushings were replaced with polyurethane, if available. The parts that needed to be replaced includes; both lower control arms and ball joints, idler arm, and both front upper control arm assemblies as well as all the rubber. After it was all said and done the Man Magnet received a front end alignment and the steering wheel was centred. The result is a wonderful improvement in control and feel, while still not up to modern standards, it is a vast improvement and is very safe.

The last addition was the replacement of the original steel drive shaft with a lighter aluminium one.

Finally every year there is something that happens that really annoyed Melody last year it was the headers, this year it was the beautifully machined billet aluminium EMS hood hinges and hydraulic ram. These hinges were one of the most expensive parts that she has yet purchased for her Mach1. She specifically ordered a set designed for a1973 Mustang with the heavier Ram Air hood, the invoice reflected that fact, however when she tried to have them installed the mechanics could not adjust them to allow hood to close properly, there was huge gap at the back of the hood Another problem when trying to open or close the hood the hinges would bind and wabble. After close inspection of the hinges and checking out the EMS website it became apparent that they had sent my wife the wrong hinges. At this point my wife was very upset and didn’t want to deal with trying to get the proper ones, so she returned them, had her original hinges re-installed and will continue to use a curtain to keep her hood open at car shows.

And now, a photo montage of this years improvements.

Modified airbox.

Scrape, scrape, scrape.

Mocking up for cutting and welding.

Sub-frame connector welded in place. You can see where they intrude into the passenger compartment.

Sound proofing in the rear is nearly completed.

New steering and suspension parts.

Old suspension pieces coming off.

Old parts cleaned up, assembled and primed for paint.

Old, heavy drive shaft.

New, lighter drive shaft and painted bottom.

The offending hood hinge. Looks nice, but doesn’t work.

And finally, ready for flight.

.

I’ll keep posting up-dates as they occur.

 

[73vertproject]

That is simply awesome, Denis and Melody. Thanks for the great documentation and story telling!

Doc

 

[Tnfastbk]

Finally every year there is something that happens that really annoyed Melody last year it was the headers, this year it was the beautifully machined billet aluminium EMS hood hinges and hydraulic ram. These hinges were one of the most expensive parts that she has yet purchased for her Mach1. She specifically ordered a set designed for a1973 Mustang with the heavier Ram Air hood, the invoice reflected that fact, however when she tried to have them installed the mechanics could not adjust them to allow hood to close properly, there was huge gap at the back of the hood Another problem when trying to open or close the hood the hinges would bind and wabble. After close inspection of the hinges and checking out the EMS website it became apparent that they had sent my wife the wrong hinges. At this point my wife was very upset and didn’t want to deal with trying to get the proper ones, so she returned them, had her original hinges re-installed and will continue to use a curtain to keep her hood open at car shows.

They are not wrong they just will not work. I went through the same thing less than a month ago with these but they are still selling them. I have a thread or its in "what did you do " about the whole mess

http://www.7173mustangs.com/thread-what-did-you-do-to-your-car-today?page=199&highlight=ems

 

[Steven Harris]

Amazing!

Nice work - keep up the documentation.

 

[Shipwright]

They are not wrong they just will not work. I went through the same thing less than a month ago with these but they are still selling them. I have a thread or its in "what did you do " about the whole mess

http://www.7173mustangs.com/thread-what-did-you-do-to-your-car-today?page=199&highlight=ems

After reading your link I can safely say that the problems you had exactly mirrored the ones on the Man Magnet. The reason my wife was so upset, which is very unusual for her, is because of 1) Cost. It cost the wife close to $800.00 (remember we're Canadian) for these hinges. Luckily our Canadian supplier (Mustang Shop.ca) was very understanding and took them back with any cost to us. They also, without her asking, sent her a pair of concourse replacement hinges (without springs:huh for free. 2) Melody really loved the look of them and was very much looking forward to installing them, so she was very disappointed when they didn't work. 3) She was very much torqued out of shape because she spent a lot of cash on what looked like beautiful and supposedly highly engineered billet hinges that ultimately were totally useless.

If EMS is going to charge that kind of cash for their products they’d damn well better make sure they work first. EMS can ill afford to anger the type of customer that can afford items like these, word gets around. Now if they get their act together and fix the problem I might be able to convince her to try again, but I doubt it, she can be very stubborn.

Could you possibly PM me or mach1mama with the phone number of your contact at EMS, my wife may have a few choice words for them.

 

[Shipwright]

Update.

Melody just got back from her first "Run" since the last bunch of work. She stormed in the house just jumping for joy at the improvement in all facets of the car.