TinMan

Ok... I'm finally in a better place.. more or less.. I've never really repaired any serious rust issues before... I inherited my son's old XJ Cherokee for a daily driver... I really didn't know it was in such bad shape or I would have got him out of it sooner.. But here's a before and after shot.. so I'm not afraid of doing this to the Mach now if it really needs it... it's not hard.. just takes a long time.. I will be retiring in hopefully 3 years and would like the Mach to be a solid driver at that point.. so that means it would have to lose the "survivor" status... Want to do things like maybe the Power Tour.. don't want to do racing... I don't want to be afraid to drive it in the rain (only if caught out in it).. I don't really know what kind of shape the floor pan is in, but repair panels are dirt cheap from what I've seen so far.. and there is body panel rust that needs to be done.. bottoms of both quarters, rear wheel arches, door skin, etc.. Freshen up the Windsor. Ever since I was 17, I wanted a stick in this car.. so maybe get rid of the FMX.. I've always wanted a blue one.. but that might be going too far.. Not 100% sure.. just pricing stuff at this point.. where do most folks score interior items? I welcome any thoughts.. even if its to tell me I'm nuts :)

Going through rough times, but I couldn't get myself to sell the Mach... She's parked.. still insured and licensed.. but parked... Might get her out next year, we'll see.. I pulled the gas tank 5 years ago and the gas was still somewhat wet.. so I put it in the shed with the intent of doing something with it some day.. today was the day... here's what a full tank of leaded gas looks like after 38 years... it's dry, but still stinks to high heaven..

Wow. Yes it is a small world!

Mr. RPM.. I really don't know what I want yet... she's still covered up in the garage... :(

Things in life are changing. Considering selling the Mach. Do you think it could get close to $20k? If not, not sure it's worth selling.

My old girl made Ford Muscle Magazine! Story is pretty close, about 80%... but overall I'm pretty proud!! https://www.fordmuscle.com/features/a-51-year-survivors-tale-rob-simons-1969-mach-i-mustang/

You got skills!

That was kinda cool. I realize my Mach is pretty beat up, but you don't see many originals...

Looks real. Shoot is this weekend. :)

Having some health issues so not too many miles on the 'ol Girl this year. I have pulled her out maybe 1/2 dozen times. Had her out yesterday, but just put her to bed as it's raining here. Was at a car show and a guy put a card on the window saying he wanted to do a shoot for Muscle Mustang. We've had a couple back and forths. Not sure it's going to happen, but when I googled his name, he did show up as a contributing author. If it happens, that's pretty cool.

Got a buddy with a 2 post that's going on vacation on September. Mach is going under the knife during this week! All new front suspension. motor mounts, starter and anything else I can think of!

Mustang II was my guess. I remember when they came out. Ford made a big deal about the horse "slowing down" and not at full gallop. Notice legs are not at full gallop.

*poo* Done my 3rd Blackstone report. Lead has been super high, assumed from the leaded fuel of years gone by. This time Copper popped up. Anyone else with a survivor engine? What does your analysis look like?

Years. They move so fast. This girl has been in my life 41 years now. So hard to believe. I just drive her. Really need to do suspension work, but I'd just rather drive. This year has been tough. It rains every weekend, so she hasn't seen many road miles. Of the 41 years owned, the open diff has grabbed both tires less times than I can count on one hand. Another finger happened this weekend! Once I am too old to giggle at stuff like this, it's time to take a dirt nap! So special when she goes sideways!

Biggest issue with a switch is you have to hide it. That's tough. Usually people put it somewhere you can access from the driver seat. If they're gonna steal it, they'll probably find it. Things I've done in the past... Replace dash board switch with kill switch. In my Jeeps i used to use the fog light switch for the kill switch. I've linked several toggles together to make a combination. So many have to be "up" and so many have to be "down" in a pattern. If someone wants it they'll figure it out. I've put them in the trunk, where you have to open the trunk to enable, disable. If fuel injected, i like to do the fuel pump. Likely it will fire, but not for long. No real danger of hurting a computer either. YMMV

It's rare that I leave mine unattended, like at a store. When I do, the distributor rotor goes in my pocket. Only take a few seconds.

Lots of carriers are very difficult to remove from the differential. They are squeezed by the cast iron housing. This spreads the cast iron part apart, so you can easily remove the carrier with the ring gear.

I've made lots of one off tools. This is my favorite! A diff spreader that works on 8.8s and Dana 30s!

We do work for Moog. 30 or so years ago they were a family company. Been bought out many times. Only thing I'll say is it makes me sad from what they were to where they are now. Some of their stuff is still really good.

Every time I bring her out to work on, I don't. I just want to ride. Started really losing low end power. Really bad yesterday.. Started backfiring a bit. No good launches, not even with a brake torque.. So this morning, time to put in points and new plugs... Wow. I must have really messed up the points after waking her.. there was always a lower end bog, then about what I'm guessing was about 2.5k rpm she picked up... Not any more. She's a tire frying fool now! Makes me very happy! I need to measure dwell so I know how to set this again! Also did a compression test. This was cold and dry after probably 100 mile day yesterday. Can't believe she has this kind of compression! Last oil change I sent off to Blackstone labs.. the lead was high but nothing else.. speculated it was simply the leaded fuel from the 80s.. With this compression and hopefully an upcoming good oil analysis, I'm feeling pretty happy about her heart.. plugs also read beautiful..

Thanks Bob.. was looking to replace the 235's with 215's since it's time for new rubber!

I'm at the point of doing nothing to my survivor. I'm not a fan of the factory rally rims, and I've got a set of 17x8 Torque Thrusts part 309-7865 with 4.5" back spacing on her. I've got my 06 GT OEM tires on them, 235x55x17 and they're worn out. The rears would hit the inside fender lip, so I welded a 2x2 square stock on the axle to hit the bumpstops. The front hit the valance, see below. Anyone running 215x55x17's with 4.5" back spacing? Is all good?

Funny how you forget stuff. I completely forgot about this 70 notch back I owned for maybe 6 months in Houston around maybe 1985??. Was just looking at old pictures. Was a factory shaker, 4 bbl and 4 gear. I wasn't making enough money to rub two nickels together and simply couldn't afford to keep it running. One of my proudest moments in life was when my beautiful bride grabbed major 2nd gear rubber in this car! Really wish I kept it, but I don't see how it would have been possible with just starting out life and upcoming family. It's a good memory.

Nice story! Nice car! I was in the same boat, mine sat for 33 years. On mine, it was started every few months for 7 years. This just gunked up the top end of the motor and 5 valves stuck resulting in bending push rods and popping one rocker stud. Point being, if you can't spin the motor pretty easy with a wrench on the harmonic balancer you might want to check more things! :)

I've got a whiteboard at work where I've put up modifications. I've wiped them all off. Kinda happy. Kinda sad.