What did you do to your car today?

[73CobraJet]

A guy was out fixing a shift juice leak (gasket) and replacing the fire maker lines. Getting ready for the season!!

 

[mrgmhale]

Okay, confessions of a Mad Man (that would be me)... Winter Hibernation for us began in mid-November of last year, a typical begin time. The pony cars were parked inside our garages, and one is actually raised on a four post lift with a 1997 Honda Del Sol SI 2 seater sports car under it. Lynda and I have been suffering, along with other enthusiasts during Winter Hibernation, as we do not run our pony cars unless the roads are dry, and there is no salt residue (for snow/ice control) on the street surfaces. Usually it takes two good rains to flush the salt off the streets. We had the first such rain the other day. After one more rain storm, once the roads are dry and temps are back into the 60s and above, we plan to do a lot of cutting around in our pony/muscle/sports cars. And go to as many car shows as we can, locally and regionally.

I also purchased a bit of equipment over Winter Hibernation, and look forward to using some of it once the garage is warm enough to work in for more than 15 minutes at a time. With the equipment we already had, one may wonder what more I might have possibly needed. Well, let's see:

• PicoScope 2 channel oscilloscope for various electric and electronic diagnostic routines
• MicSig SATO 1004 4 channel digital oscilloscope. This is more powerful than the PicoScope, and is an all-in-one tablet unit, not requiring an external PC to use
• SteelMan Chassis Ear, with 4 wireless sound pickups (it can connect to 6 such remote listening/pickup devices) that can be placed anywhere inside the engine cabin, in the trunk, under the hood, under the chassis, and aimed at certain locations to help a tech to locate and identify the source of various vibrations and noises. Gawd, I wish those were available back when I worked as a tech at a Ford dealership in SoCal (70s and 80s)
• Another borescope, but this one has a camera end with three different cameras, all pointed into different directions. One is pointed along the line of the cable the cameras are connected to. The other 2 are at 90 degree angles from the camera cable, and across from each other, so I can see the two sides of where the camera head is located. I figure that will be handy when wanting to see cylinder wall conditions as the camera head is being sent into a combustion chamber via a spark plug hole.
• An Xtools D7 ODB2 diagnostic scanner. If you have been wanting to get a high end OBDII/OBD2 scanner, but do not want to pay thousands of dollars for one, this is the real deal. I got ours for just over $400, including shipping, and with 3 years of updates. If interested I suggest you look at this YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=poTobQ0nw54 All I can say, is, Yowza! I have gotten some other scanners, which are decent but not really as high end as I really wanted. Well, dreams do come true I guess...
• I also picked up a few hand tools, and another DVOM with an inductive ammeter clamp that can measure fractions of milliamps to help track down the cause of parasitic draws on a battery.

So, it looks like I am all set to have some serious fun this Car Season. And, I just may have some projects I can post within this thread, just because if for no other reason. For fellow enthusiasts in the Rochester, NY, area, if y'all have need for any of those tools/equipment, let me know and let's see if we can coordinate some play time at our place with your vehicle(s)...

I do believe this is the year I am going to see if I can work on some cars other than just ours, as ours are really running well right now. I do not want to get bored, you know... You know, the while, "Idle Hands, Devil's Workshop," kind of thing, heh heh...

 

[Tanker2]

Basically a hot stock-ish build. TRW L2379F zero decked, stock crank, stock rods w/ARP2000 hardware. McLeod steel flywheel, Romac damper. Heads are 71 D1AE-GA w/Ferrea 5000 valves, studs and guides, Comp Ultra Pro Magnum rockers, Cam Research solid flat tappet cam 230/235 .560/.560 lift. Will start with a Torker 351 intake and see where it takes me. Compression looks to be 10.5:1 using 66cc chambers, but heads still need to be CCed for real numbers. Should be on the dyno in a couple weeks at most.



Basically a hot stock-ish build. TRW L2379F zero decked, stock crank, stock rods w/ARP2000 hardware. McLeod steel flywheel, Romac damper. Heads are 71 D1AE-GA w/Ferrea 5000 valves, studs and guides, Comp Ultra Pro Magnum rockers, Cam Research solid flat tappet cam 230/235 .560/.560 lift. Will start with a Torker 351 intake and see where it takes me. Compression looks to be 10.5:1 using 66cc chambers, but heads still need to be CCed for real numbers. Should be on the dyno in a couple weeks at most.

How do like the ultra pro rockers? Have you had any problems?

 

[73Steve]

Been busy with my 73 Mach 1 this week. Installed modern 3 point seat belts, new bucket seats, new tail light lenses, new sequential led lights in the tail lights and LEDs on all exterior locations including the headlights. Of course when you dig deeper you find all kinds of things incorrect that need corrected which caused countless trips to the auto parts store. I’m midway thru reinstalling the rear interior panels which were done wrong as well as correcting the rear fold down seat spacing on the sides. Also working on putting the rubber strip back on the bumper to replace the faux electrical tape strip.

I even named the car! Ms Piggy. She’s a pig with lipstick on. Looks good from 20’. Bottom line…am I having fun? You bet!

 

[Stanglover]

Well FINALLY the day was warm enough to fire up the old girl with the garage door open. I went through my usual start up procedure, check oil level, reconnect battery, disconnect HT lead and ground it, bump crank a few times, crank a little longer then longer still. Then I poor a little gas down the vent tube on the Holley 670. Reconnect the HT lead and "go for ignition". It started right up , but objected to the cooler temps. I set the choke for summer, so I ought to reset for cooler days. The old girl is like me these days, doesn't like to do much when it's cold!! It ran a little rough, needing a little throttle prodding until it finally warm enough, but once it did reach a warmer temp, it idled like a charm. I let it sit at idle for about 15 mins, then shut her down. Hopefully, the next time I'll be taking her out for a run.
The other thing I did was to add 150ml (30 mls /lt ) of SeaFoam conditioner to the oil. This is intended as a cleaner before I actually change the oil, going to 10W40 and probably Lucas HotRod & Classic car oil, a much discussed subject of late.
I suppose the next job will be to clean it, not my favorite thing to do I'll be honest. I can't remember the last time I cleaned my daily driver!

 

[kcmash]

Today, just got her off the jackstands, connected the battery and went for drive.

Kcmash

 

[Kilgon]

The weather is finally starting to break so I went ahead and decided to take care of a few things this weekend before heading out for the first drive of the year. I needed a new radiator air deflector that fits between the radiator and the support. I decided to try to make one using a left over pvc louver from a vertical blind. I heated it up use a heat gun to make the bends and was able to make a nice repo. Used some plastic paint adhesive spray and black Sems to finish it off. Looks good. Will have to see how it holds up.

Next little project was to extend the throttle cable bracket out father from the intake. I added a Sniper efi last year the body is wider than a carb making the cable come out on an angle to it. I took a piece of 1/8 x 1" flat steel stock and made an extension to push it out father. The cable is now in line with the Sniper body. I will touch up the throttle cable with a little silver paint to make it look a little nicer.

The last of the weekend projects was to add a kickdown cable. The car has never had a kickdown rod on it, so I decided it was time to add one. I decided to go with a cable for several different reason. One thing that made the install a nightmare is having headers. When using a cable, there is cable bracket that gets attached to the side of the C6 transmission. It's almost impossible to do it with the headers and exhaust in place. After looking the situation over, I decided to move the bracket and I attached it to the sheet metal of the trans tunnel. This was not an easy task either, but at least a lot more doable. The cable is in line with the kickdown lever and seems to work ok. There really isn't any flex or movement in that area so having it mounted on a different structure shouldn't matter. Still need to test drive and make any adjustments if needed.

I will be changing the oil and filter tomorrow to finish things up. I'm planning on taking the car out on Saturday and see how everything works out.

 

[Stanglover]

YAY! I got the ol' girl out on the road today. We had a couple of torrential down pours over the last few days, so any salt has definitely gone........... until we get an April snow storm like we did in 2021, then the salters will be out again.
Only put 11 miles on it, but enough to get a feel for how it's running. I did notice a small oil leak (on garage floor) from somewhere on the back of the motor, right side, but I've not had a chance to fully investigate. I thought it might be the v/cover gasket or the back of the intake (again), but that's all dry. I also noticed a sort of ticking or squealing sound like a throw-out bearing, but again, I'm not sure where exactly it's coming from. Oh joy!
Other than that, great to get her out and run a bit of that last years gas through it.

 

[Cleveland Crush]

Just went on the maiden voyage for this season. Car felt good. This video is my security camera catching my return.

 

[giantpune]

I got my lift installed last week. This weekend was oil change day. I did the oil and air filters on 4 cars and spark plugs on 1.

Today marks the first time I had the 73 up on the lift. This is so much nicer than when I installed the drivetrain and brake lines in it while it was in the leaves and dirt in the back yard 20yr ago.

 

[PoFoMoCo]

Wow sounds like good times for you boys and your first 2023 spring rundowns. We have wind and the occasional tornado but very little snow & ice in this part of Texas. Thankful for that, it means any day can be a Mustang (classic car) day!

 

[DAverkamp]

Just went on the maiden voyage for this season. Car felt good. This video is my security camera catching my return.

Same here to “officially” kick off the season. Left the top up though as not many in my town have seen her this way. The she gets is always satisfying! Happy Easter y’all!

 

[droptop73]

I cleaned the winter's dust off and drove it to work today. Gonna enjoy some top down therapy on the way home. It's finally going to be a nice few days here in Michigan.

 

[mrgmhale]

Been busy with my 73 Mach 1 this week. Installed modern 3 point seat belts, new bucket seats, new tail light lenses, new sequential led lights in the tail lights and LEDs on all exterior locations including the headlights. Of course when you dig deeper you find all kinds of things incorrect that need corrected which caused countless trips to the auto parts store. I’m midway thru reinstalling the rear interior panels which were done wrong as well as correcting the rear fold down seat spacing on the sides. Also working on putting the rubber strip back on the bumper to replace the faux electrical tape strip.

I even named the car! Ms Piggy. She’s a pig with lipstick on. Looks good from 20’. Bottom line…am I having fun? You bet!

It sounds like you are having a blast with the Mach 1. We (also) have a 73 Mach 1, and a 73 Mustang Convertible. We did some of the upgrades you did (LED panels in taillights), LED side marker lights, front parking LED lights, and lost more).

When we got our 73 Mach 1 it only had lap belts, The shoulder belts are not present, and the headliner has no holes where they would have likely been anchored,. Do you have any documentation and.or photos showing where the should belts should be mounted in the roof area? If so, would you be willing to provide me copies of the documents? Thank you!

 

[Stanglover]

Today, I got the car cleaned and ready for our FIRST Cruise Night tonight. Usually, we don't start till the beginning of May, but here in SW Ontario, we are having a mini heat wave, 78 f or 25.5 c and beautiful clear sunny skies.
Time to get the shorts out!!! Till next week when it's back to normal temps. Still time for more snow.

 

[Cleveland Crush]

Have fun at the cruise!

 

[Kilgon]

Well I finished up installing the kickdown cable and changing the oil the other day, While I was at it, I also put a starter heat shield blanket on. It gets really hot being right next to the headers. Got her down off the ramps and jack stands and I figure I take her out and see if the kickdown cable worked or not. Took off and got up to about 40 and mashed the pedal down. Oh Lord, hang on to your shorts. Broke traction and started going sideways. Lucky I was able to handle it and got straighten out right away. Now I need to determine if I really want it hook up!

 

[PoFoMoCo]

I got the faux woodgrain dialed into my rimblow deluxe wheel. I also applied the aluminum band and five good coats of clear on back, side and inside profiles of the wheel. I'll clear the woodgrain and outer edge and blend it all in this weekend.

 

[73Steve]

It sounds like you are having a blast with the Mach 1. We (also) have a 73 Mach 1, and a 73 Mustang Convertible. We did some of the upgrades you did (LED panels in taillights), LED side marker lights, front parking LED lights, and lost more).

When we got our 73 Mach 1 it only had lap belts, The shoulder belts are not present, and the headliner has no holes where they would have likely been anchored,. Do you have any documentation and.or photos showing where the should belts should be mounted in the roof area? If so, would you be willing to provide me copies of the documents? Thank you!

I’ll take some photos when I can for you. Your 73 should have a bolt hole location under your headliner that will accept the lap belt bolt. I do not have actual documentation. Good luck!

 

[ROCKET70]

I took my 2016 Mustang GT convertible for a 130km cruise through Niagara Falls and Parkway.
It was record breaking weather 28 Celcius.