TexasEd

the replacement clutch setup that went in last year is operating and holding well now.  i know i'm shifting at 7800+.  i also have the throttle adjusted so it's opening all the way.  just trying to find the right time in the next few weeks to get it to the track.  except for some shock adjustments and removing the tool kit from the back seat, i will track it just as the car is setup for the street.
 

So I never posted it in this thread but it was at that point that I was taking it to get the AC system charged and it backed into a tree damaging the passenger door, front fender and ripping the side mirror off.  I couldn't even look at the car for a few weeks.


I took it to a couple shows with the dents and then I got in touch with a new body shop since the one I was waiting on was taking forever and it ihas been at that shop since Feb 2023.  The engine was pulled and inspected and found to not be the original 302 block so I sold it and the transmission.  Will be installing a built T5 and the plan is to build a roller 351W with stock bottom end and new intake, headers and carb.  I already have the carb.

Where's the drool emogi when you need it.
 

Oh ,that feeling you get from being a picky ass and it pays off!
I let these bake in the sun most of the day ,couldnt hardly cut this stuff it got so hard . They came out fantastic! Of course this is a reverse image because its the mold . I would have made another set of molds except the texture came off the panels and i had to blow it out of the molds ,good thing for spray in mold release !
Now for the trimming ,mounting on a backing and waxing .
The mold is right at 1/4 inch thick and it does not flex .

It's alive!
Finished the little chores; new brake hoses made up and put in. The 'rebuild' saw later model hoses fitted which had the wrong brackets and were real tight on full lock so now I have new hoses with the correct Mustang bracket (incidentally, the same as our Falcons up to about 1973). The original bolt holes were flogged out so I pit some 1/4" rivnuts in for UNC bolts, not screws as I think were original. New brake pads, a few minutes pressure bleeding the system.
Next, I went to put the export strut brace on. It went well until it didn't;
   
The frame appears it is twisted or bent. Hardly surprising on a 50+ year old car but still annoying. I have a Monte Carlo brace that does seem to fit so maybe I need to look again at the export brace to see why. I just chucked the 2 piece ones back on and thought no more about it.
I also researched new spark plug leads. I have Dart Pro 1 heads on it with angled plugs, and the original MSD wires with straight boots were hitting the headers, and starting to melt. They were also damn ugly and too long so were all over the place. No one seemed to have anything that worked, until I thought I'd try a local place with a good rep, https://www.iceignition.com/
They had a set of leads with 45° boots that were made to go around the rocker covers. They also recommended a set of pedestals to keep it all tidy. The best news is the leads are 9mm, the pedestal set was cheaper than other shops had them at, and they were on my doorstep at 11am the next day. Best $220 I ever spent.

I'm going to miss the near-daily deliveries of bling in the future.

These are a Redline brand wire retainer. Compact, neat and a good design. The only criticism I have is the cap screws are too long for a Ford head, and because they are a decent stainless steel, its hard to cut and clean the threads up. I might yet swap these out for studs as I have studs on all the other holes.

This was the worst side with the MSD wires. In the top right are the brake pipes coming from the brake master cylinder, the wrapped hoses are the power steering hoses and there's not a lot of room.

Passenger side. Appeals to my minor OCD issues.

ICE said not to retain the first clamps but I did anyway, as I like to break the rules.
Another benefit of the ICE wires is the plugs to the cap are a lot smaller than the MSD ones, so you can cross the over on the cap and they don't get all jammed up. I am a fan of ICE now and will look at the whole system next time I need one.

Some under-rocker-cover-action. Coz I can :)
I also hooked up a oil pressure light, as the gauge is very slow to react when it does work. I used an el-cheapo LED light that I mounted on a stainless steel flat that I bent up to bolt to the ignition block and routed up under the shroud. It's a temp thing as I am probably going to get a set of Dakota gauges and maybe a new aftermarket bezel and will mount it into the bezel.

The switch is in the OEM oil pressure hex thingy, I drilled and tapped a new hole and ran a wire through the temp/coil/oil harness.
I've only driven it for about 20 minutes around the district and can offer you these thoughts;
* The Borgeson power steer is a massive disappointment. It is heavy at parking speeds, but with a couple of thousand revs it lightens up. Hard and uncool to do so when you are trying to park. At speed it is nice, a decent weight to it. I will see if I can get a smaller pulley for it. The pump has a minor leak. It looks like I need to put mount studs on it, which are 40 bucks a set over here. Very annoyed they are not supplied with the pump, for the price of a takeaway lunch Borgeson could include them.
* This thing is crisp and likes to rev. With a new engine, gearbox and diff I need to take it easy but with the little bit of running and not putting a load on it, it wants to go. The flywheel is like a NYC pizza pie in thickness but it does have enough torque to lug down to ~1,500 in 4th and still pull cleanly. It has a serious bumpity bumpity bump bump bump idle to it.
* The TKO600 box is nice. Gearing is great, no big rev drops on changes. Driving a LHD manual transmission car for the first time has it's own challenges but so far so good. I have a Hurst shifter for it which is a bit long and rat-roddish so I may have to investigate alternates.

* 3.50 gears may be a bit low. 5th on this box is only 0.82 overdrive so it will be humming at highway speeds. Maybe 3.25 would be a good compromise but I'll see how it goes. I can't see me doing interstate trips regularly so it may be nothing to worry about. Glad I didn't use the 3.89 I originally bought for it.
* I used a 24" radiator and so far have not seen it top 195° when idling. I have set the fans to come on at 185° and the second one at 190° and it seems to keep it cool. Perhaps my ebay special radiator I last used wasn't as good as I thought, or maybe a new block with no crud blocking the tubes is the reason. Either way, I hope I don't have cooling issues.
* It's loud. Probably too loud and I am going to see if I can get quieter mufflers. Possibly using Flowmaster Super 44's, but I'll take it to the exhaust shop that supplied me all the pipes and see what they have. He rolls around in a 80's Chev Caprice so he is down with hot rodding.
Next step is to get it inspected and re-registered then start rolling it around on longer runs until I know it's reliable and not going to embarrass me.
So here it is, idling away. The rear springs will hopefully drop a bit more. The hood scoop is off as I have yet to put in the LED flasher kits and it's got shed (barn?) dust after being tucked up for 4 months, but it's mine and I did it myself.

IMG_5558.MOV

We had an extra space in our garage for the car but it was full of stuff from my dad's old house and all my hunting gear so I waited for a weekend in July when my wife was out of town and cleaned up everything and epoxy coated the garage floor. It was a lot of work but definitely worth it. I also had to sell my table saw and radial arm saw.
 
Before:

 
 
Kitchen while this was in progress (Don't tell my wife):
 

 
After:

 
 
I guess you could say I was nesting.

This is the story of my reunion with my first car I had when I was 15 and was built in the year I was born. Some of this might be on the forum in other threads but I wanted to have a single thread to cover the story from the beginning.
 
In the late 1970's the original owner, who was in his late 60's, lived across the street from me in San Antonio. I was in elementary school and I used to help him wash it on the weekends. My parents divorced before I got to 6th grade but my dad stayed in the old house and my brothers and I came to visit on the weekends. I still helped the guy with his car when he needed it and I think this involvement played a part in what was to happen later. My stepfather was in the Air Force and we moved overseas to Scotland before High School.
 
I was planning to move back to Texas for sophomore year due to teacher strikes when my dad came to visit in Scotland. I was 15 and would be 16 when school started so we talked about taking driver's ed and he asked what kind of car I would like to drive when I got back. I said, "One like the Mustang our neighbor has." When I got back I found out my dad had already bought it. The car was my dad's and I just got to drive it but I did all the work on it because my dad did not have patience or very much mechanical ability.
 
I drove it through most of high school except 11th grade when I went back to Scotland and during the summers in college. I did not want to take it to school. My dad sold it to my brother in 2005 and towed it out of Mississippi before Hurricane Katrina hit. I had just gotten married and was in the process of buying a new house at the time. It sat in my brother's driveway in Virginia with no protection except a car cover for 6 years. One day I was watching a show with my wife and pointed out that I had a 69 Mustang in high school, she said maybe you can get another one some day. I told her maybe I could get the same one, and she raised her eyebrow.
 
I worked out the financial deal with my brother and got in on the truck to haul it back to Texas right around my birthday.
 
It is a 1969 Mustang Fastback that is almost original. It's 302 2bbl. The only mods are that it has dual exhaust on the original manifolds, the interior was replaced around 1985. It has a dealer installed Mark IV Custom AC system that goes under the dash and power steering as the main options.
 
Here is the car in 1986:

 
In my brother's driveway in June 2011

 

So I never posted it in this thread but it was at that point that I was taking it to get the AC system charged and it backed into a tree damaging the passenger door, front fender and ripping the side mirror off.  I couldn't even look at the car for a few weeks.


I took it to a couple shows with the dents and then I got in touch with a new body shop since the one I was waiting on was taking forever and it ihas been at that shop since Feb 2023.  The engine was pulled and inspected and found to not be the original 302 block so I sold it and the transmission.  Will be installing a built T5 and the plan is to build a roller 351W with stock bottom end and new intake, headers and carb.  I already have the carb.

Yes, doing the modern drive line conversion.  Pretty excited to make the car faster than my 2013 F150 twin turbo truck.

Had a surprising weekend with my stang 'Penny' guys.  I had signed up for the Keels & Wheels "Concourse de' Elegance" show in Seabrook, TX.  Ive been twice before (last before covid), but this show is full of amazing vehicles, and I have been happy they let me even show.  
Well, I wanted to see if there was anything I could do to "up my game" in a short amount of time, and I noticed that the trunk was 10pts of the score.  I've never liked the stock treatment and said I wouldn't do it, but I never seem to get around to "doing it right" like I said I would.  So, to try to improve my score I bought the stock trunk liner, jack bag, and spare-tire cover.  Spent a little bit of time laying it in there, and trying to make it look decent.  Came out like this:

All I had to say was: "Well, it certainly looks better than nothing/what I had".  So I went with it.

The surprise came when I checked the judges sheet Sunday afternoon:  "Best in Class"!!  Unbelievable!
I've only put the car in maybe a half-dozen shows, and I've never done better than second place anywhere.  But the real surprise is that the show in Seabrook is one of the more prestigious shows (at least around here).  
It rained on Saturday, but didn't take any sunshine out of the day for me.  Aaron Shelby was here, and gave me a big "congrats" when I left the show - certainly an amazing day for me:

Put the Grande hub caps I got from Vic on my 69 Grande. Thanks Vic.

Man that sucks. After all the hard work you done.
That car is like family, watching your kids grow up with it. You gotta keep it till the last one graduates and you take each one in it.
I did the MDL cable clutch conversion on mine and very happy with the fit and quality. Happy to recommend it.

Not to hijack your thread, but...
I'll be there in late September and will have to meet up with all y'all. 
 

So I never posted it in this thread but it was at that point that I was taking it to get the AC system charged and it backed into a tree damaging the passenger door, front fender and ripping the side mirror off.  I couldn't even look at the car for a few weeks.


I took it to a couple shows with the dents and then I got in touch with a new body shop since the one I was waiting on was taking forever and it ihas been at that shop since Feb 2023.  The engine was pulled and inspected and found to not be the original 302 block so I sold it and the transmission.  Will be installing a built T5 and the plan is to build a roller 351W with stock bottom end and new intake, headers and carb.  I already have the carb.

So I never posted it in this thread but it was at that point that I was taking it to get the AC system charged and it backed into a tree damaging the passenger door, front fender and ripping the side mirror off.  I couldn't even look at the car for a few weeks.


I took it to a couple shows with the dents and then I got in touch with a new body shop since the one I was waiting on was taking forever and it ihas been at that shop since Feb 2023.  The engine was pulled and inspected and found to not be the original 302 block so I sold it and the transmission.  Will be installing a built T5 and the plan is to build a roller 351W with stock bottom end and new intake, headers and carb.  I already have the carb.

@AusTex70 I saw this post and I live off Anderson Mill in Cedar Park.  If you want to get together, drink a beer or work on stuff let me know.  My 69 is in the paint shop for a while.  I've taken about every part off it and put them all back on so I could help with your reassembly.
 

@AusTex70 I saw this post and I live off Anderson Mill in Cedar Park.  If you want to get together, drink a beer or work on stuff let me know.  My 69 is in the paint shop for a while.  I've taken about every part off it and put them all back on so I could help with your reassembly.
 

While I was in high school, i stumbled across a red 1969 Mustang Fastback for sale.  The asking price was $6K and it was in pretty decent shape.  The downside is that as a high school student I didn't have the $6K.  But I was able to secure a personal loan from a family friend, with the agreement that I had to pay it off within 1 year.  I worked my ass off that year and made the final payment just before the 1 year mark.  Later that same year, I enlisted in the Marine Corps, and after several months of basic training and then technical training for my job within the military, I went home on leave and picked up the Mustang.  I drove it to Virginia, and then several months later I crossed the country with it to San Diego, CA.  I planned to be in San Diego for at least 3 years (I never left), so I decided to take the opportunity to go through the car, restoring and repairing what I could.  Unfortunately, I bit off more than my wallet could handle at the time (hey, who hasn't with these things?), so the project ended up taking much longer than I had originally planned.  So much that I eventually, and very reluctantly, decided to sell the car to an older gentlemen that was planning on finishing the restoration with his son.  I have no idea what ever happened to that car, but I hope it's still on the road and not sitting in a junk yard somewhere.
I always regretted selling that car, and over the years I'd looked casually at picking up another one but it never seemed like the right time.  That is until last year, when I was window shopping online and found another red 1969 Mustang Fastback for just the right price.  Not perfect, but not a bucket of junk either, which is exactly what I wanted.  So after a few exchanges with the seller, I took a road trip to Vegas to see the car in person.  I test drove it and it was like a freaking time machine.  As soon as I sat behind the wheel I felt 18 again.  I bought it on the spot.
So that was a year ago, and I've been slowly going through the car making upgrades and improvements.  I replaced the cooling system, swapped in a completed MSD system, and upgraded the stock dash instrument cluster with one from Dakota Digital.  Then earlier this year I came across a local body shop that does absolutely amazing work (Sylvester's Customs).  I drove out to see the owner and spent a few hours learning about his shop, his employees, and his process.  At the end of the conversation he agreed to put my car on the waiting list and I couldn't be more excited!
Now it seems that I'm all in on a restoration/rejuvenation.  I'm not planning on going all original, since I like the idea of taking advantage of the 50 years of auto advancements since the car was launched, but I'm mostly keeping with the original look of the 69 Mach 1.  I'll be using this thread to keep track of all the work that I do to the car over time.  Right now I'm in the middle of swapping out the Ford 8inch rearend with a 9inch from Currie, and replacing the C4 with a Tremec TKX swap from SST.
My original Mustang from high school:

 
My new Mustang:

Running update.
I changed mufflers as the ones on it were just too loud. They had a real high noise to them and were just not practicable. So I spoke to the muffler guy who I bought the pipes off. He recommended Redback mufflers, which are made locally here. They are a triflow design so have perforated pipes inside with baffles. The flow needs to go in, come back then go back out but at high load the holes allow the gases to basically straight line outta there.
He was pretty impressed with the amount of air coming out of the pipes. He said it was better than the 502 in his 80's something Chev Caprice. That made me feel pretty chuffed. Result is much better noises levels are driving speed, no raspy intake on over run. He tells me as they get more carbon in them it will quieten down at idle.
Pulled the engine temp sender, cleaned off the thread sealer - which was very little - and re-installed.
Next, I had issues with the Sniper. It started running real bad and the AFR was going straight to 36.5. Wouldn't idle, barely revved and was pumping out black crud from the exhaust. This isn't my area of expertise so hitting up the Holley forum for answers, as It started right after I had the mufflers changed, the first question was did you unhook the battery? D'Oh, the shop did not so I was freaking about fried electronics. I was told it was probably a bad WB02 sensor. What was getting me was it would run fine from start, then when it was stopped it would go bad on restart. Looking at the sensor I had managed to place it near flat in the pipe, so I guess moisture was accumulating and killing it. Expensive mistake.
Today, I put a new bung in closer to the collectors and with more of a downward angle. Fitted a Bosch sensor to it. Deleted the file from the Sniper, loaded it all up again using the setup wizard.
Before driving it I also fixed the radio power wiring. I had put it to what I thought was the original radio power wire, but the new unit must take more amps as it kept blowing the little 1AG 4 amp fuse. I bought an aftermarket blade fuse holder and intended to hook it into a wire with switched power. Of course, being 'rebuilt' this was not going to be a simple job. Turns out the aftermarket voltage regulator fitted was just spliced into a wire, no solder or anything, and a bit of electrical tape wound round it. And the tape has falling off the exposed wiring was right next to the dash support bracket that goes to the booster. And the tapped wire was falling off. A bit of work and I had soldered a new wire in, terminated it to a clip plug and ran 2 power wires out to both the voltage reg and the radio. Put a 15 amp fuse in the radio circuit and put it all back together.
Took it for a run, about 6 miles. Temp gauge was working as it should. Thankfully it ran great, no issues, started learning again and was as smooth as a late model car. I really am a fan of the Sniper, it is a smooth system and the engine runs fine. Cold starts and running are nothing like the good old days of pulling a choke and dipping the clutch. The best bit is with the new engine I just enter the CID, cam and ignition type into the screen, tell it what cam it has and hit save and it just runs. Well worth the cost. No going to a dyno, hoping the guy knows what he's doing and worrying about it.
Before the WB02 broke I had started to lean on it a bit. Purely for research purposes Officer. 1st gear it just lights up the rears at will, regardless of road speed. 2nd gear on a rolling launch it will light the rears up. It's a bit grumpy in gear under 1,200 rpm and will shunt, but also happy to take corners in 3rd gear and pull away cleanly. I have not yet taken it on a road with a limit higher than 40mph so not sure what revs it's doing. Hopefully with a bit more running around the suburb I can iron out all the glitches and then take it for a decent run.
The only hassles I have is the power steering pulley is not right, it appears the belt is slipping as I have black dots all overt he front of the engine. It is also very heavy when parking but improves when a few revs are up. Spent a bit of time trying to find an alternate. Borgeson advised they only supply the thin groove pulley - despite (as far as I know) every small block Mustang has a 1/2" wide power steer belt. Why they supply a thinner pulley I don't know. It seems a pulley off a local Falcon is the answer and I am going to a wreckers on the weekend to suss it out. The bolts supplied with the pump are also BS. Saginaw recommends studs for the rear mount pumps as they seal the canister, but Borgeson give you bolts. Along with the shiite bracket to mount it, I am not impressed at all with their set up.
The rear main is also leaking. I am super pissed at this, it's not that much work to change but I really do not need to do it, especially as Scott Drake promotes themselves as high quality parts. Maybe it's me and installed it wrong, but I put enough silicone on both sides of the seal and gasket I would have thought.
Lastly, my new-found power level may be over powering the shocks. Or, I need to adjust to a 50+ year old car handling. It feels as if the car is hauling sideways when giving it hard acceleration and seems to wallow on shallow corners. When you stop accelerating it then moves back the other way. I realise that's not a great description. It has Koni shocks all around, slightly heavier springs in front (along with alloy heads and intake) and standard springs in back. Maybe I am just used to late model cars with steering racks, watts links and sharp suspension.

A few updated pictures. Hoping to get it painted this summer. 
 

New foam and seat covers. These are the TMI with larger bolsters. 
 

Fourth of July weekend fun

The original Ididit columns were only designed to fit GM steering wheels, but now are made to fit our Fords. The slip ring assembly for the horns didn't line-up.
I don't know when these became available, but it was news to me, so this is like a public service announcement ;)
I only checked for the 69, but the things to look for:
The top of the column is a close match, the original was 3.965, and the new one is 4.00
It has the the EM flasher switch and turn signal switch
This column will only work with the original factory power assist (or manual), but not Borgeson
The slip ring works, fitting the original steering wheel so the horn will work.
It is collapsible just like the OEM to meet safety regulations.
The whole thing is said to be a direct replacement, giving you a tilt wheel.
The part number for a 69 paintable column is 1300646010 (currently $781)
The rag joint is 3000053434
I haven't tried this yet but now we have an alternative to finding the unicorn OEM columns
 

Been a while since posting. I have been copping some serious static from my wife for neglecting chores around the house so I took a weekend off to do some much-needed tasks like tree pruning, mulching gardens and pulling weeds. Let me clarify static - nothing is spoken or done, there is just this aura that emanates from her to me and the pressure waves go through your body. Y'all know what I'm saying.
Progress so far has been one forwards, 2 backwards. The pulley for the Saginaw P/s pump arrived, but the offset was too deep and I couldn't use it. 96 bucks gone. Whilst waiting for the pulley to arrive, I hooked the power steer up and threw some fluid in it. The reason for putting fluid in it escapes me, as it is not ready to start, but lucky I did as the whole lot fell on the floor overnight. One reason was I didn't tighten the mount bolts on the rear of the can up, and as the bolts go into the reservoir the fluid found the path of least resistance. But, when tightening up the bolts I still had a leak. The interwebs seemed to favour the fact that as the kit was supplied with bolts and not studs like GM did, the seals behind the can were not sealing and leaking. So I started looking at studs. Down under, we get bent over by nearly every vendor and all I could find was a set for a Pontiac for 40 bucks. Plus freight.
I found an old guy who did power steering and spent well over an hour in his shop. The first thing I learnt was Saginaw pumps are basic; when you pull the reservoir can off there are 3 seals that sit in recesses in the actual pump body to seal the reservoir. Well, lucky me, the two orings (square section seal actually) were ripped behind the mount bolts and that's what caused the leak. Next was the pumps supplied by Borgeson have some foreign matter in them and they are not clean.
With new seals and a bit of hope I put the pump back on, put in about a half a quart of fluid and put a jug under it. After 2 weeks no red stuff so maybe I won that one. I am going to risk the smaller section pulley and hope it does not make life miserable.
Next I got the driveshaft back. This is a whole new shaft with 1350 joints and a billet FMX yoke (which is what is used on a TKO, don't get ripped by buying a 'TKO' yoke). It's only money, but a weeks pay money hurts.
The diff and axles went off to the diff guy for a rebuild, 3.55 gears and a True track, whilst the rusty wheel bearings will be replaced.
I started to drain the housing of oil, and was not surprised at all when I felt chunks in it. Oh well, another amateur item in the 'rebuild'. So, I pulled the housing out to clean it properly. Along the way I will replace the brake pipes as they look original and have some corrosion on the ends. I hate tube nuts, they always seem to round off on me even with correct tube spanners.
Whilst looking at the rear, I decided to take out the springs and get them reset and dropped. Good thing too, the front bushes were old and the clamps were all loose. A day later I have newly reset springs, no rattles and an inch lower than the day before. I think it will look how I want now, both tyres (tires) just under the guard lips.
Next, the radiator. Rightly or wrongly I bought an ebay special radiator for it previously, which had clogged up with the crud in the old motor. This is 26" wide and quite tall - about an inch off the hood base) so are a big unit. As they are only $180 to buy, I bought another one. But when I go to fit it, they have a 38mm lower tank width (about 1 1/2") and a 60mm (or 2 3/8") top tank and no original clamp bracket will fit. I can space the original lower brackets out with rubber (or make up a new C bracket) but the top is stumping me. There's not enough material on the OEM bracket to straighten and re-bend to fit and the aluminium options here are not attractive. But, today in speaking with a work mate he has a small sheet metal folder so I may be able to knock something up on that. Mounting it on the side of the front panel is an option, but it needs spacer brackets which will look ugly, so I will try to stay with the upper and lower clamps.
I then bought some 2.5" exhaust pipe to start making up a new exhaust. The shop had a pre-fabricated X pipe cheaper than 2 x 90° bends, so I grabbed that. But, the inlet and outlet are straight and not angled so I need to do some funky cuts to get them to line up. I left that for another day when I was in the mood. The plan for the exhaust is to stop it at the mufflers and use drop pipes. If it's too loud you're too old.
Did some online shopping; new front spring bushes, front brake hoses with the correct brackets, red tracer wire for the reverse light wiring and a 90° cable end terminal to neaten up the starter motor cable, as the shorty headers won't allow a right hand terminal due to space.
I put the steering wheel back on, to complete the dash. As I used a RH drive boss for the new wheel, the indicator cancel lugs were in the wrong place. I bit of fencing wire - true - and some precision measurements had it on the spare lug on the indicator switch and now my turn signals cancel at the same spot either way the wheel is turned.
The registration ran out March 5, so I only have 3 months to have it inspected and re-registered without hassle.