tony 63C

+1 – although easier said than done. For as long as I can remember I’ve gladly paid extra for domestic made products. They are of better quality, safer, and the money is kept here. And there’s the satisfaction of not supporting an unrepentant tyrannical regime with a bloody record of human rights violations. When they change I’ll change.

Exactly. A small but critical detail inexcusably missed by the reopo manufacturer (Dynacorn in my case). The resultant gap at the front where the molding does not fit the curvature of the fender at the wheel well looks terrible. Had to settle for NOS, at $400 for the pair.

Bingo. I’m of the exact same mindset. Daily I drive my modern disc brake air conditioned creature comfort loaded vehicle with all modern safety equipment. So getting into my factory stock old school musclecar on sunny weekends is an escape that I would not change for anything.

Hi Dave, thanks for your input. One of the wires definitely overheated as the insulation melted. In the picture you can just make out some of the burned remnants on the left side wire. As far as LED’s, yes, low current draw is the big plus, but each of these taillights actually consist of something over 60 LEDS. I’m not sure if the total current draw is less than an 1157 bulb. I’ll try to get everything together this weekend. Rest assured everything will be thoroughly tested and will be watched for quite a while. The last thing I need is a car fire. Lastly, re your comment to “repair the damaged insulation properly”, I’d like to use heat shrink tubing. But I don’t see how I can slip the tubing over the wires without cutting them. Cutting and soldering the wires is something I’d like to avoid if at all possible. And I don’t see how the wires can be detached from the harness connector at the switch. Is there another approach that could be taken? . Cheers, Tony

Thanks for your input Danno. The electrical harness on the car has not been messed with much if at all over its life, and I’ve gone through most everything on the car during my at my five years of ownership. No cruise control, sound system, remote start or alarm, but I did tap power off the fuse block for the electric choke. Although I can’t see that being a cause of this problem. Re the LED lights, at one point I installed an add-on component from the manufacturer to make the familiar clicking noise when using the signal lights. The original LED kit as supplied from the manufacturer is silent. This clicker ended up being faulty and did not work. So I reverted it back to non-clicking. Perhaps this faulty part might have might have caused a current surge ?? We’ll never know. Anyway, after reassembling everything I’ll run the tests discussed previously and hopefully everything will function normally. Many thanks again, Tony

Thanks guys. A current draw test is definitely in order and I'll do that once everything is reassembled. Thanks Mike. Stephen, I started thinking along the same lines after noticing in the close up picture that one wire appears to have the insulation abraded away as if by contact with a sharp metal surface whereas the other wire is clearly overheated evidenced by the melted insulation. There is no evidence at all of any heat damage to this side. A short to ground from this location could be responsible for the overheating in the other wire. I suppose it's coincidence that the heat damage occurred across from the friction damage. >>> As for the wires getting hot, how hot are they? At worst, they should be warm to the touch, but you should be able to hold them. <<< Will check this after reassembly. >>> There is no fuse for the brake switch; power is routed through a circuit breaker on the RH side of the car and goes to the emergency flasher before coming to the brake switch (green/red wire), then out to the turn signal switch (green wire).<<< Thanks for adding this Midlife as I was wondering about how this wiring was fused. I could not see a fuse dedicated to protecting this portion of the electrical system. >>> I found it was corrosion on the terminals. I also had evidence of over heating on terminals and wiring.<<< All clear, no corrosion and connections tight. But thanks nonetheless for your input. Many thanks again guys for giving me some pointers to work with. Sincerely appreciated. Cheers, Tony

My first winter project is replacement of the power brake booster which sprung an internal vacuum leak just before it was time to put the car into hibernation. In process of removing the booster I spotted some heat damage to the brake switch wiring. Picture attached below showing melted insulation jacket on both conductors leading to the switch. Fuses are correctly sized and not blown. The brake switch functions properly, but could there be a problem with the switch causing it to draw too much current? The other thought I had was that about two years ago I put in LED sequential taillights (“Mustang Project” IIRC). Is it possible that this conversion could cause overheating of the brake light wiring? The wiring evidently got very hot and needless to say, I want to prevent any possible fire hazard. I’m most grateful for any input / suggestions. Many thanks in advance for your comments. Cheers, Tony

When I had a 4300 on my car that appears to be the same adapter that I used. It worked well.

It does take some shimming, tweaking and adjusting to get a nice fit. I spent a good several hours to get mine lined up where all gaps are equal like Brian’s car. However, the quality of the bumper also matters. There were / are different manufacturers, and as we all know, not all parts are created equal. I’ve seen some terribly fitting repops.

Super article. Very succinct. Thanks for posting. It's nice to see mention of the early production pie-cut hoods.

To echo 69Machstang, I bought a NOS piece off ebay. I've seen several listed there, so keep your eyes peeled. Regards, Tony

To echo 69Machstang, I bought a NOS piece off ebay. I've seen several listed there, so keep your eyes peeled. Regards, Tony

Hi Rick, Making precious memories. Good stuff. Also doing the father-son car bonding thing with my middle (17 year old) son, but unfortunately not on a classic Mustang. I'm learning more about Honda Civics than I ever cared to. Cheers, Tony

In my case the whole horn button assembly kept falling off. Just a poor design. It's been four years but I remember nuisance horn-sounding issues as well.

>>> Grant. That says it all, IMHO...<<< +1 - used to have the same wheel with the same problem. It's now thankfully long gone. A stock restored factory wheel has taken its place.

Thanks Cappy. I was curious to find out which approach was taken. Cheers, Tony

Agreed, sharp looking 1970 Cappy. BTW, how did you drain your rear end? Cheers, Tony

Hi SA69mach, thanks for your positive feedback. I didn’t want to do the job twice, so did not rush anything. And the spring weather here has been lousy so there was no hurry to get the car road ready. Sorry to hear that your gasket swap didn’t go as well as you had hoped. The Milodon pan gasket surface is identical to the stock Ford pan, so I’m sure the Fel-Pro will work. But the Milodon gasket will also work well providing it gets a little extra attention. Cheers, Tony

The install’s done and finally got the ol’ girl back on the road this weekend.The original pan gasket was glued on both sides, so dropping the pan was a nuisance, as was the gasket scraping.But otherwise no other hang ups. Thanks again to the members that chimed in with a helping hand.It's what makes this forum great.And to pay it forward, if you’re still facing the same job here are some tips.Unless you're blessed with a hoist or pit, jack up the car as high as you safely can to give yourself plenty of work clearance.Needless to say, properly place jack stands if not using wheel ramps, block rear wheels, etc.Safety first - no short cuts here. Make sure the gasket surfaces are hospital clean, and go the extra step and use a tap to clean out all 22 bolt holes to allow for proper torqueing to spec (15 ft.lbs).Use a criss-cross pattern from the middle outward, and do it incrementally. I tightened the bolts up to spec over four separate runs around the pan. I purchased a Made in USA Milodon pan recommended by Max Power (thanks again Max).This statement on the Milodon website echoes many of the negative reports on the web about aftermarket pans and poor fit, leaks, etc: “overseas factories don’t know if they are making oil pans, bed pans, or flower pots. And it really does not matter to them, they just stamp them outâ€.With the Milodon you’re getting a product that looks a piece manufactured with care and attention to detail.Well worth the additional $70.It needed only to be painted Ford Blue to maintain as stock a look as possible, although my wife wanted me to leave the trademark gold iridite finish. Sorry honey. It turned out that the stock oil pump pickup cleared the baffle that Milodon installs in their Stock Replacement pans.And being the same depth as the stock pan meant that the clearance to the bottom of the pan would fall between the required ¼ and ½ inch.Be sure to double check that you do have the proper clearance.Ultimately there was no need to change the pickup. I used a Milodon one piece gasket, but because these are so ‘floppy’ some Permatex High Tack was necessary to keep it in place on the pan rail as the pan was lifted into position.Although the Milodon's a good quality gasket, the Fel-Pro one piece is reinforced and does not flop around, so you may want to consider one of those instead (see below).I did not apply the High Tack sealant to the front and rear main seal portions as I wanted to manually push these up into their respective grooves to ensure that they were properly seated before bolting up the pan.Two 2-inch long temporary studs were installed to hold the pan up while this was done.One word of caution: if you do use a Milodon one piece gasket you'll notice it has ‘tabs’ that are designed straddle the block's gasket surface and position the gasket (see pic below). You need to be extra careful that these do in fact get into place or otherwise they can be pinched and cause a leak.This almost happened to me. There you go. Take it slow and easy and you’ll also have a leak free installation. Cheers, Tony

I used TSP and dishwashing liquid, RIT dye, chrome polish, and plastic polish (same stuff used o take out scratches from acrylic headlight lenses) to bring mine back to life. No need to spend the big bucks to get fantastic results. Cheers, Tony

Chevron Supreme, but only because it is ethanol free up here in Canada. Ethanol supposedly reacts with and corrodes the metal alloy that carburetors are cast from which eventually messes up the fuel metering.

Thanks Bob. I called Milodon and did not get any confirmation that the Milodon #30730 351W stock pan could use the stock pick up. The fellow I was speaking with said different pickups are required for the different passenger car pans that came with the 351W in 1969, which made sense at the time. But I checked afterwards and found that all 351W passenger car pans were the unchanged to 1975, so this guy was evidently shooting from the hip and missing the mark. I hope I'm more impressed with the pan than Milodon's customer service. Better safe than sorry I've purchased another pickup. Cheers, Tony

Thanks again M.P. Ordered the pan and one piece gasket last week. Re-reading the blurb on Milodon site, their stock pans are "replacements for factory oil pans - for engines that...just need a new stock style pan", and presumably of same depth, etc. Other than possible issues with the baffling, which I somehow doubt, I'm puzzled as to why a different pickup would be needed. I'll need to make a call to Milodon to confirm. Cheers, Tony

Many thanks for your reply. Yes, idler arm will be detached from its frame mount location. I don’t quite understand what you mean by “I just fit the frame rail . . .” - ? Do you mean setting the jack stand up carefully under the rail? Regardless, it’s clear from your reply that it won’t make any difference whether I use car ramps or jack stands. There shouldn’t be any shifting and the cross member will line right up. Many thanks again for your assistance! T.

Is there a preferred method of jacking up the car for pulling the cross member? It may sound like a dumb question but I’ve heard that body flex might make it difficult to line up the cross member when the time comes to reinstall. I was considering using ramps to elevate the front of the car. Or are jack stands under the frame at the torque boxes better? Or is there no difference at all? Regards, Tony