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Broken heating housing repaired, and restored with new seals, finally all upholstery done and tadaaaaa. after 5 years back on own wheels!

Back in the 1980's a buddy of mine dropped a stock 460 into a 1970 Mach 1 Q code 4 speed. His car was missing the 428CJ. The car was not that fast. Spark plug changes were not fun. Even though it was already a big block car, he had to do a lot of changes to get the 385 series (429/460) engine to work in the car. I almost dropped a stock 429 into a previous 70 Sportsroof I had back in the 1980's. I ended up putting a mildly built 351C in my car instead. I'm glad I didn't put the 429 in the car.

This thing is fun to drive ,especially in track mode !

Nope: when you replace the circuit board, you have to loosen the nuts holding the various gauges. The posts can easily contact the metal housing when reinstalling and tightening the nuts, shorting out the CVR output and the gauges will not work. This is a chronic problem for 69/70 dash clusters. The cheapest solution is to remove the circuit card and place black electrical tape over the rectangular cutout sides so that the posts won't contact the metal housing. Re-install the cardboard insulation pad, the circuit card, and tighten the nuts. As a check, you can measure the resistance between each post and the housing metal. If you see 1 to 14 ohms, one of the gauges is shorting out, causing the others to short out too. The ammeter, if shorted, will cause a massive short and because the lines are not fused, can cause a fire. Bad design by Ford.

Rich, thanks! I will use the later model year set, and find some. I had a long discussion at the stop about paint on/off the car. The entire car will be assembled for final body seam alignment and fit up. Then the car will be painted assembled. The front fenders will have bedliner type paint on the inside. The trunk lid, cowl, stone deflector valences, etc will be painted off of the car. The reason for this is to ensure the final seam alignment and fitup can be done with body panels without the final top coat. Expecially with the way the Mustang hoods mount, it is almost a certainty that the hood will never go back to the right place if you remove it. It also allows the paint shop to totally mask my car only once, as the undercarriage and engine bay are done, and they will wrap the tires/wheels and mask the car off to the floor.

Hi Vic, Yes, I used Ford 1971-73 rubber door jamb boots. They have plenty of space to run wires, they look stock if that matters, and they fit in the stock door jamb and kick panel positions on a 1969-70. The factory grommet hole sizes are larger on a 69-70 than the 71-73. If you have the luxury of drilling fresh holes, than the kick panel hole is 1 1/4" and the door jamb hole is 1 5/8". You can use the factory dimples if you have them. IF you are retrofitting them into a door that already has factory holes, then I suggest cutting off the grommets from the 69-70 harness and inserting the 71-73 boot ends into each of the 69-70 factory grommets or inserting them into another grommet of similar size. I had a factory door and a repro door, so unfortunately I had to do one of each. Inserting the boot ends into the factory grommets worked well, but just for added assurance, I used some black 3m rubber weather-strip glue to make certain they stayed together. They are many to choose from on eBay. Here is a set of 1987 Ford boots that look to be the same as the 71-73 boots.. https://www.ebay.com/itm/325160428669?hash=item4bb512647d:g:n0EAAOSwwp1iZDXr Then again you could find a set of aftermarket boots. https://www.keepitcleanwiring.com/catalog/Wire-Management/Billet-Door-Looms/KICDLOOMBLBK/12-Inch-Black-Stainless-Steel-Door-Loom---Pair Below is a picture of the 71-73 boots installed in my 70 Mach 1 (Top Left) using the factory holes, Installed in my 73 vert (Top & bottom RIght), and a pair of boots (Bottom Left).

your sensor of the fan activity should be located at the exit of the radiator/entrance to the engine (lower hose). basically, if the radiator (without fans) is able to adequately cool the fluid before it enters the engine, then there is no point in turning on the fans or have them turned up. locating that sensor in the intake manifold will basically have you running the fans more necessary. which of course won't hurt beyond consuming a little more energy/power at certain times.

Just adding my two cents to this thread... I found that modern tire design and brands, such Nitto do not make many, if any performance tires below 17 inch diameter. On my 70 Mach 1 M-code, I went with 17 US Mags Bandit rims and Nitto NT555 G2s. I have factory height big block constant 640 lbs rated coil springs up front with Global West suspension and a 1" Shelby drop (upper Arm Control). Global West Plus 3 upper arms have 3 degrees of positive caster built into them. This will eliminate the need to pull the lower arm so far forward in order to get the optimal alignment. In the rear I have stock height 138 lbs rated/Competition Handling Eaton rear springs and an aftermarket 1" rear sway bar. The US Mags Bandit front 17x 8 with a 1 Offset and 4.54 backspace with Nitto NT555 G2 245 x 45 tires. The rear US Mags Bandit front 17x 9 with a 8 Offset and 5.31 backspace with a big Nitto NT555 G2 275 x 50 tires. I prefer the look of a larger width and height rear tire. I did have to roll my rear fender lips. I also lightly rolled the front fender lips too, but I don't think I needed to.

You can get a crate engine from Ford that is a stroked 351 in 427 or 460, with a warranty, and it'll fit a whole lot better than a 429 that bounces off the shock towers: https://performanceparts.ford.com/engines/#351 In any event, you'll be needing a 9" rear end, and that sure didn't come with a 6.

Front 17X8 245/45 0° offset Rear 17X9.5 275/40 0° offset Stock suspension with no rubbing anywhere. Edit: I did roll the fenders. Got it back on the road last Friday after a 9 year resto.

You should be seeing 1 ohm or less between chassis ground and the battery ground. Anything more than that, and you'll begin to have problems. Ask me how I know... OK...I'll tell you. My wife is trying to put me 6 feet underground so I can test continuity to ground...I'm trying to convince her that a copper or steel red/pipe stuck in the ground is just as good but she's not having any of that...