What did you do to your car today?

[72MustangSprint]

Not today but the other day. I put a set of Manufacturer's license plates from Michigan on my 73 Mach 1 going to the PITS show. Not one single person noticed them, lol. I got from the son of a retired Ford engineer that carried them home. Well worn from being taken off and on so much going on test and prototype cars headed to the street in 1973. The M in the tag number makes it a Manufacturer's plate.

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I noticed them but got distracted with car talk. I was wondering why you had Michigan plates on a NC car.

 

[Hemikiller]

Since I had the design of the subframe connectors nailed down, I needed to go to work on the tranny rebuild. I had disassembled it earlier this year, and now it was time to deep clean and inspect all the components. All is good except for the synchro assemblies, the hub and slider splines are heavily worn from use and abuse. The trans came out of my 71 Cougar, but was not a number matching part, so I can only assume it was abused heavily in whatever it originally came in. Guess I'll be placing an order with Dan Williams later shortly....  :classic_rolleyes:

 

[Boss1Ray]

Got the convertible out for a local but extended drive Saturday.  The weather was nice but I decided to not drop the top.  Just wanted to get the car out,  drive for a while, check for any issues, fill up the gas tank and just enjoy the car.  Didn't want to hear anything but the 351 CJ .  Didn't take any pics (should have).  Got a few "thumbs up"  from other motorists and passengers.  Car is presentable at about 10 ft and greater.  A great escape from the crazy week.   I definitely enjoyed my afternoon.

Ray

 

[Carolina_Mountain_Mustangs]

I unhooked the trailer from the truck. Today was recovery day and neck is not getting better. I will leave the car in trailer do not have the energy to get it out. My neck is gone. Pain like I have never had. Can take 4 ibuprofen and makes no change in the pain. Getting Dr. to schedule surgery tomorrow ASAP. I have had broken finger, wrist, and elbow along with other injuries and this neck kills them all. Difficult to breathe hurts to breathe deep.
I had located a brake show grinder and will go get tomorrow and leave on the truck. That is the reason people think drum brakes suck is nobody has a shoe grinder anymore. You have to grind the shoes to fit the drum and nobody has them. I will have one soon. Can't stop planning for the future for some pain today.

 

[cwalker509]

Got steering wheel pulled on GT-351. Need to check switch and wires. Yeah, it only took like 5 mins but I got other things to do as well.

 

[Spike Morelli]

I just thought I'd enter a tongue and cheek entry to what I've done recently on my car. In a nutshell.... a whole lot of nothing. As I have posted before, I drive the car everyday, to and from work. My wife and I went to a Mexican restaurant tonight in my car, met another couple, but that's common for us. Very Common for the useage of the car. Point is, although there's a few items I need to attend to on the car, It keeps going day, after day, month after month. My car seems to be comfortable getting used as the factory intended. When I work on the car, It's to drive it, not to store it, and make no mistake, I need to do a few maintenence items......and I will. In the meantime, I keep driving and enjoying the Mach 1 . I use it a lot more than I ever work on it. It's like the DuraCell rabbit.....it just keeps going, and going........Knock on wood.......

 

[mudbilly]

Nice, I try to drive mine once a week to work, 45 miles each way. Taking the back roads to avoid the madness on the highways at rush hours. Just cruisin and enjoying the music.

Working on reducing / eliminating the wind noise where the roof meets the windows. Installed a little fin on the drivers side A-Pillar outside,  and I'd say it reduced the noise by 50% since I can now hear the passengers side louder than the drivers side. Bought a bunch of different shapes from Amazon and will do more experimenting. These are little aeronautic wings that the ricers put in their trunks, fenders, and where else they can to make the car go faster. :classic_tongue:

Windows are aligned a good as they ever will be, and it sounds like the noise is really from the wind hitting the bottom side of the roof along that edge, and not where the roof hits the widows.

Wife thinks the fin looks tacky, but it really isn't noticeable  tucked under like it is. I'll post some pics when I decide on the final version.

 

[Spike Morelli]

Mudbilly,

               I am aware of a few window adjustment points inside of the door, that can affect the "lean-in", and "lean-out" of the glass where it meets the roofline. Perhaps you've already been through all of the window adjustments, but if not, they're worth a try. Whistling air sounds can really drive one nuts. I believe, the shop manual regarding the body shows all the different adjustment points, if you have one to look through.

If your "Roof Rail Weatherstrip" has dried up, and that's the culprit, it's not that difficult to replace. The biggest part to that on mine, was to drop the rear ( stationary) windows to get the weatherstrip in and out, which required removing the rear seat and rear quarter interior pieces. It sounds worse than it really is. It was a two Pepsi job, maybe three.....

 

[MKSpeedlab]

Yesterday some friends came to help out and we tackled some of the front suspension in the car. On the list was pulling out the original coil springs, the shocks that were in it, the strut bar bushings, and lastly replacing the inner and outer tie rods on both sides. So a pretty nice overhaul, and then maybe next year I will do new roller control arms, and do the roller idler at the same time. Everything went pretty smooth, and I must say that I am very happy with my new impact purchase. I got a new Milwaukee Midtorque cordless impact and it didnt find a bolt it couldnt remove. Im just waiting for the tie rods to get here as Fedex decided that they didnt want to deliver them last week as scheduled. But cant wait to see how it drives/handles once its back on the ground. First stop will be an alignment using the specs that Opentracker provided. 

 

[droptop73]

The engine compartment is cleaned up and ready for paint. I'll handle the masking and paint later today.  I have most of the stuff that needs to go back in cleaned and ready to install. I may have to take and post some pics.

 

[cwalker509]

On 72 Mexican Mustang:  Got the horn figured out.  All electrical seems to be working EXCEPT the w/s washer pump is not working (checked and ordered one for a 68 T-Bird, closest I could find) and the wiper motor is weak.  Buzzer seems to be dead as well.  Turn signals and brake lights are working.  I no longer believe I have a head gasket issue (tentative YAY!).  replaced seat tracks on driver's seat (had NOS one and pulled one from another seat so should be good to go).  Ammeter not working.  I think it is just about ready for inspection.  Did not want to take it with the brake lights out.

 

[Spike Morelli]

.  Ammeter not working. 

When I first bought my Mach, lo some 30 years ago, the Ammeter wouldn't move either way, charge or discharge. I was working at a shop, and the owner had a look at it and told me , wiring-wise, it was hooked up correctly. I guess it's just a bad guage, but I've never replaced it since I bought the car. I'd really like to replace the whole 3-guage set-up with some matching AutoMeter red-orange pointered , factory appearing guages. To do so will require some adaption, and I just don't want to stop driving it to do the adaption , just because of that. The Oil Pressure and Temp guages , in that trio, work fine. One of the advertisers converts the Amperes guage to a factory looking Voltmeter. I kinda like that simple modification.

 

[cwalker509]

When I first bought my Mach, lo some 30 years ago, the Ammeter wouldn't move either way, charge or discharge. I was working at a shop, and the owner had a look at it and told me , wiring-wise, it was hooked up correctly. I guess it's just a bad guage, but I've never replaced it since I bought the car. I'd really like to replace the whole 3-guage set-up with some matching AutoMeter red-orange pointered , factory appearing guages. To do so will require some adaption, and I just don't want to stop driving it to do the adaption , just because of that. The Oil Pressure and Temp guages , in that trio, work fine. One of the advertisers converts the Amperes guage to a factory looking Voltmeter. I kinda like that simple modification.

Agree on the voltmeter conversion. I have 2 sets of gages that are not installed. I need to see of either of those work as ammeter. Then I need to send the non-working ones off to be converted.

 

[droptop73]

The engine compartment is painted with Krylon satin black.  The rattle can restoration of the suspension is also going back together. I used VHT gloss black chassis paint on the suspension.  Most of the parts have been cleaned, painted and ready to go back in. 

I need to route the new wiring harness and put stuff back together. 

 

[Carolina_Mountain_Mustangs]

On the slow wiper motor on the Mexican mustang. Take it all apart clean and replace the dead dried up grease with Lucas Oil Red N Tacky #2 way better than the old litheium white grease.

 

[bdennis]

I purchased mine last week and today I had mine delivered.

72 Mach 1 H code, auto.

 

[droptop73]

Some small progress on the old yellow car. I re-installed the strut rods with new Global West bushings and put the brake lines and fuel line in with new grommets. Small steps... 

 

[droptop73]

I got the front end section of the wiring harness routed through the driver's side frame rail and then from side to side. Over the weekend I want to have more wires routed and connected. I have given myself a June 1 deadline to be on the road. Hopefully I can shave some time off that. 

Back to studying the Painless harness installation manual... all 132 pages. 

The first photo shows going from the original firewall grommet to the framerail. The second is coming out of the famerail to the radiator support. I haven't fully decided where to route the harness to the lights and horns. This part of the harness is just for lights, horns and possibly electric fans. The engine harness will come out of the firewall above the tunnel below the vacuum lines. 

 

[bdennis]

Installed a new set of plugs. Oh man, the guys with the big block cars must hate changing plugs. The 351 Windsor is so much easier than the Cleveland..!

 

[droptop73]

Installed a new set of plugs. Oh man, the guys with the big block cars must hate changing plugs. The 351 Windsor is so much easier than the Cleveland..!

It's worse when you have big ham hands like I do...