What did you do to your car today?

[Mister 4x4]

Thanks! It was a little scary and weird watching the whole front-end drop off with the saw still running in my hands. But, I'm stoked to keep at it... starting tomorrow. Gotta shake the nerves and relax for now.

It's the Auto Hobby Shop at Goodfellow Air Force Base. Best Hobby Shop in the Air Force, IMHO and from what I've heard from others as well. There isn't anything I haven't been able to do since I've been working there.

 

[OLE PONY]

As usual, I was supervised by my cat Shelby:

:dodgy:

I hope Shelby is de-clawed! Since mine was repainted I'm very careful about making sure the cats don't get into the garage!

 

[Mach]

Guys, you convinced me...I just pulled the trigger on a Rust Bullet Black Shell order...gotta trust my brother Mustangers that product is all that you claim...

 

[luxstang]

Mike - that is one sweet car. It looks great no matter what wheels are on it.

Thanx Eric!

I hope Shelby is de-clawed! Since mine was repainted I'm very careful about making sure the cats don't get into the garage!

Nope, she isn´t de-clawed. That´s illegal in most countries outside the US, which is a good thing, by the way.

She doesn´t hurt the paint, as she jumps right on the hood or the trunk without scratching the finish. She spends most of the day on or in the car when the top´s down. She just loves the car.

Maybe it´s the name....


Ok, I did do sth to the car today. I had a friend redo my rear brakes, pads and cylinders and recalibrate the parking brake for the inspection next week.

While he did the brakes I changed the motor oil.

 

[72HCODE]

I have Working A/C for the first time ever

also had an alignment done.

 

[Mister 4x4]

That computer is amazing. Good luck, on the car, I'm doing the same thing. but first, I'm off to buy more Blair cutter bits, and scotch-brite wheels!

Thanks for the kind words on 'Rusty.'

Just don't get any Blair bits from Harbor Freight - there's a reason why I call it the 'Dollar General of the hardware world.' I pulled out a brand-new Blair bit from HF (Drill Master), and the first (that's right - 1st) spot-weld I put it up to today, the plunger-pointer snapped clean off. Glad they were inexpensive, cuz they're definitely cheap.

Today, I got the apron flashing removed and trimmed the frame-rail stubs closer to the torque boxes (more for safety reasons while I'm working on it - I'd get tetanus from this car if I ever do get sliced up for sure). The floor on the passenger side is so bad that I could see straight through when I was removing the seam sealer... so I Sawz-Alled the floor right around it. Just gotta get it loose from the cross-member and rocker and it should pretty much fall out now - LOL! The driver side will be more of a challenge since the floor is a lot sturdier.

 

[71_badmach]

That computer is amazing. Good luck, on the car, I'm doing the same thing. but first, I'm off to buy more Blair cutter bits, and scotch-brite wheels!

Thanks for the kind words on 'Rusty.'

Just don't get any Blair bits from Harbor Freight - there's a reason why I call it the 'Dollar General of the hardware world.' I pulled out a brand-new Blair bit from HF (Drill Master), and the first (that's right - 1st) spot-weld I put it up to today, the plunger-pointer snapped clean off. Glad they were inexpensive, cuz they're definitely cheap.

Today, I got the apron flashing removed and trimmed the frame-rail stubs closer to the torque boxes (more for safety reasons while I'm working on it - I'd get tetanus from this car if I ever do get sliced up for sure). The floor on the passenger side is so bad that I could see straight through when I was removing the seam sealer... so I Sawz-Alled the floor right around it. Just gotta get it loose from the cross-member and rocker and it should pretty much fall out now - LOL! The driver side will be more of a challenge since the floor is a lot sturdier.

Hey Eric, I'd like to see some pictures when you graft in the front clip... How do you go about welding in the subframe? I cut up a junker for mine, and was surprised at the subframe, it seems to just be some folded metal... I guess I'm thinking you weld some tubing or alignment tabs inside the frame and then place the front clip over that? Definitely not for the faint of heart! But inspiring!

 

[vamach1]

Ran the 1/4 mile today at 75/80 dragway in Monrovia MD. 14.90 et @ 90mph with a stock 351 CJ with FMX and 3.50 posi. I suppose that's probably about right and I'm sure with some tweaking I could shave off a 1/2 second.

 

[Mister 4x4]

Hey Eric, I'd like to see some pictures when you graft in the front clip... How do you go about welding in the subframe? I cut up a junker for mine, and was surprised at the subframe, it seems to just be some folded metal... I guess I'm thinking you weld some tubing or alignment tabs inside the frame and then place the front clip over that? Definitely not for the faint of heart! But inspiring!

I'm removing the torque boxes and complete front sub-frame assembly from the car, but leaving the rockers (on the outside of the torque boxes). Once I have the torque boxes and those last bits of frame rails out of there, I'll be sliding the 'new' front clip into place and pretty much welding it back into place the same as the factory did (although with plug welds and beads where necessary). The frame rail extensions mate up to the underside of the floor pans, and the aprons against the firewall. Beyond that, there's not much else really to fasten together.

I was originally thinking of welding some square tubing into the ends of the frame rails as you were thinking, then grafting the 'new' front end on, but decided to just deconstruct the front sub-frame from the car and put the entire new one back in, on Scott's advice. After seeing 71Mach's 'clip, I'd even thought of taking the 'roof pieces' off the torque boxes, but decided not to until I found our how the bad-off the floor pans are. Ford got all of their structural rigidity by using geometrical shapes along with all of the impression beads stamped into the sheet metal. I'm thinking that as long as I can get everything back into the same places, it should be just fine. I will, however, look into joining the front and rear frame rails for some added rigidity once I get everything back into place.

But yeah - I'll be keeping up with the pictures. You can see pretty much all of them here:

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.147623841915209.26167.100000027814872&l=e22ae6a183

Stay tuned. It's going to take me a little while to get the new front end up under there, as I only have usually 2 or 3 solid days of working on the car per week - I had some leave to burn this week, so I've had 4 days (counting tomorrow) to work on it and made some good progress. Not to mention, I discovered that my lower firewall/floor pan on the passenger side is actually pretty bad, so I'll need to attend to that once I get the torque boxes out.

 

[rpmcarter]

CRUISE' IN's HERE I come

Had to put a new mini high torque starter on (had to) on the 71 Mach I. Since then I had a bad short draining the battery after a little driving time. So a car buddy and I checked everything... reworked the wires... cleaned up a bunch of stuff, found two possible culprits grounding out, put on a ground cable and now she looks a lot neater and the charging tested at 14.6!!!!

test drive proves the work to be successful SO FAR!

ehhh even let the wife drive it.... what does she do?? punches it and we are 200 feet from a stop sign!!::help::

Okay so the second run..... to a cruise in, lights worked great and she cranked up upon request. All is good with the wiring repair!

 

[Mister 4x4]

Got the torque boxes out today. Still gotta go back in and trim away all the leftovers (more drilling out spot welds) and finish removing the frame rails while still keeping the tranny cross member intact and stuck to the hump.

Looks like the firewall-to-torque box joint on the passenger side was rusted through (so I just cut it off along with a portion of the floor pan. Actually did almost the same to the driver side, but I was less aggressive around the steering column panel.

Done 'til next weekend. Gotta order some floor pans and try to find some sheet metal to patch the lower firewall now.

 

[mach71351c]

Eric your a brave man good luck I am cheering for you. Mike.

 

[Mister 4x4]

Eric your a brave man good luck I am cheering for you. Mike.

Thank you sir! I'll take anything and everything I can get at this point.

 

[Don65Stang]

Wow Eric. That's all I can say... WOW!

 

[Mister 4x4]

Wow Eric. That's all I can say... WOW!

I know... it's a huge mess. But at least I'm getting some progress now. Would you believe me if I said I've never done anything this involved before? I'm pretty much learning on the fly and making this up as I go. It's amazing how much confidence you can get by having the right tools, support, and advice (not necessarily in that order).

Just ordered a pair of full length floor pans from OMS. Can't wait 'til I'm at the point of dropping them in.

 

[luxstang]

I passed the inspection for the renewal of the registration without a single objection. (That would be the Mustang, not me!)

Here we go for another two years of driving pleasure!

 

[downwardspiral]

I have been fighting with my exhaust manifold bolts for 2 days now.. I got the difficult (drivers) side out today, along with 3 on the PS. To anyone doing this job I would reccomend at least 1 can of PB Blaster, a 14mm flexible ratcheting wrench and a 14mm Grip Tite socket (14mm fit my rusted, stripped, old manifold bolts tighter than 9/16). I did what I could from the top with the flexible ratcheting wrench then went underneath to remove the rearmost stud. I needed to cut off part of the stud in order to use the socket, but the grip tite sockets saved the day. In this process, I picked up some headers which don't look like theyll fit. For the time being I am going to hack up the headers to continue to run my car NA. I will be going turbo soon, and now I am considering ripping everything out at once and putting in a rack and pinion along with a 5 speed. I forsee alot of clearance issues with the steering equipment, and if i wasn't going turbo the clutch fork would be a big issue too.

 

[Steven Harris]

Cleaned on my transmission for the install the next time I am back stateside.

 

[71coupe]

On another website I frequent this is by far the most popular thread there. I thought I would try it here.

Now guys we're not talking the daily driver or momma's car. Let's keep this specifically devoted to posts on our 71-73 Mustangs. Like usual no flaming, constructive opinions and commments please.

On another website I frequent this is by far the most popular thread there. I thought I would try it here.

Now guys we're not talking the daily driver or momma's car. Let's keep this specifically devoted to posts on our 71-73 Mustangs. Like usual no flaming, constructive opinions and commments please.

I'll get it started... Today NOTHING, Yesterday I drove it to work and cleaned up the charcoal cannister for repaint and reinstall. I took it off earlier this summer and have terrible fuel smells coming from the car. OOPS

This past weekend..the motor was sent to the machine shop. $2400!

Rebuild the 302 with mild cam and perf perf pistons, rebuild the fmx, and recore the radiator. Rebuild with all new parts from sealed power for the motor and all new parts for the fmx. So...you think I got ripped off??

 

[72HCODE]

re-adjusted my hood down 1/4" and lifted my fenders about 1/4"+