Klutch

+1 I know a guy who bought a disc brake kit for his Torino from Chockostang. He was very happy with them. I've also talked with the guys from Chockostang on another forum. I think they are a very good option if you want something like the factory Ford disc brakes for your Mustang. I have also heard very good things about Street or Track. But I get the impression they deal in high performance, aftermarket brakes.

Several months ago, on another forum, there was a post from a guy at RBB. He did indicate the original owner was sick, but was still overseeing the restorations. I wouldn't be surprised if he just can't do this anymore. (If he does have MS, that can be an extremely debilitating disease.) So, if the original restorer can no longer do the work, the new people are doing mediocre work, is there any alternative? I've seen re-pop rimblow wheels for '69 Mustangs from NPD. But I have a '70 with a rimblow that's in pretty bad shape. And, indeed, thank you for sharing your experience. That's very helpful.

You went with Modern Driveline for your 5-speed, correct? I'd be very interested to hear about the entire experience, from purchase to install. I plan to install a 5-speed into my '70 Mach 1. I'm thinking I'll go with Modern Driveline as I've heard their kits are very complete. Your Mach 1 is sa-weet! Thanks for sharing the progress. BTW, in a early post, you mentioned the 2V shaker cars must be rare. My Mach 1 is a 2V shaker car. But I'm not sure if they were rare. (As tempted as I am to keep it original, I will install a 4V on my Cleveland. The VIN stamped into the engine block reveals it's the original powerplant.)

Yes, the taillight panel is in. Although, I had a little trouble on the driver side. The left quarter panel has been replaced at some point. Not surprisingly, it's a little off at the back. So, if the taillight panel is straight, it seems a little high on the left. I wasn't sure if should have tried to compensate for this. I left it straight. I'll try to get some recent pictures up soon. I could really use some help with a few things. Thanks for the encouragement, everyone.

Good call on the one piece floor. It should go in easy-peasy and look great when it's done. I installed two long pans. In retrospect, I should have gone with the one piece floor. I'm looking forward to following your build. I too like the Grabber Green Mustangs.

I'm amassing quite a collection of old sheet metal from this poor pony. And the driver side B-pillar is also shot. Yay! I found a farm kid in "50 Miles Beyond Nowhere", Colorado who was parting out a '70 coupe. He had a very nice plasma cutter and happily removed the B-pillar for me. I had it blasted with the rest of the car. I installed that B-pillar a few weeks ago. I'll try to get some pics of it soon. So whattaya think so far?

And here's the new cowl just before I welded it in. It's a Dynacorn. As I recall, the 69/70 cowls come as one, pre-assembled piece, or just the upper. Just as well. My cowl was pretty shot. Time to pin the tail on the pony!

Cowl separated. You can see I also removed the right, front fender apron. It was all rusted out from leaking batteries. (Imagine that.) You can also see the original hood against the wall. Note patch at the front, driver side area. I'll try to get some closer pictures of this soon. I'd like to save that hood. But I fear it's a goner.

I installed the "Premium" long floor pans from Mustangs Unlimited. They're made in Canada by Spectra Premium. I had heard that the 69/70 replacement floor pans look very different from the originals. But these appear to be almost spot-on. The only difference I could see is the extra drain plug at the front. Even the ribs match the original pans. I'm a beginner, self-taught welder. This took awhile. I decided to butt-weld the pans in. I don't really like the overlap look.

Even the biggest nerd looks cool... When he's welding! Here we go...

That's a good point, maxum. I was under the impression the hood locks were part of the Mach 1 package. They're not listed on the Marti Report. Perhaps they were a dealer installed option? I was aware the original "twist-lock" fasteners had been replaced by pins. I'm sure if my Mustang had the original twist-locks, they'd be shot anyway. I'm wondering if I can save the orginal shaker hood. It's pretty rough. It appears someone welded in a patch with a coat hangar and a car battery. I'll try to post some pics of this soon. I'd like to save the Ford hood as I've heard horror stories about the re-pop shaker hoods. A guy in my Mustang club offered me a re-pop shaker hood. I would just have to figure out how to compensate for that hood being a full 1/2" too short at the back. No thanks.

I've heard dialectric grease works well for lubing poly bushings. What say you guys? FYI, I installed the Polygraphite sway bar bushings from PST on a '69 Cougar that used to be my daily driver. Those bushings are impregnated with graphite. No squeaks! And they look mostly stock.

Thanks for the encouragement, guys! Ash, whoa, major bummer about flying halway around the world and getting a rusted out car. I saw pictures of a similar story on another forum. That Australian's car literally had 2x4 boards crammed into the frame rails. I'm further along than the pictures above reveal. Since everyone seems to like pics, I'll post more tonight to get caught up with my build. My Mach 1 was originally Calypso Coral and that's the color I'm going to paint it. In fact, one of the reasons I bought this car was because it's an original Calypso Coral Mach 1. My first car as a lad was a 1971 Fastback. I soon bought a 1970 fastback with a 351 Cleveland and a 4-speed. I loved that car. It was Calypso Coral. :thumbup1: Strangely, I don't see many Calypso Coral Mustangs anymore. It seems a lot of those cars were re-painted red or black. At the Rocky Mountain Mustang Roundup last month, of over 500 Mustangs, there was exactly one that was Calypso Coral. It was a '69 Mach 1. And boy, did it look great!

I'm a long way from building the engine. But I found a nice set of Aussie heads on Craigslist. A Pastor in Boise was selling them for a very reasonable price. They're fresh from the machine shop. And they've already got screw-in, adjustable rocker studs and Boss 302 pushrod guides. They also came with a new set of roller rockers. But they're BB Chevy rockers, which will work, but they're less than optimal. I'll sell them to a Bowtie Guy and pick up some Harlan Sharps, or something similar. I'll have the heads checked out at a machine shop before bolting them on. I live at 7,000 feet above sea level and I'm thinking the Aussie heads will work well here.

More pics of the teardown process. And, eventually, after I had the car media blasted. I know there's a lot of controversey whether a car should be sand blasted, but I think it turned out pretty well. And I'm sure glad I didn't have to hand sand the entire car. My Mach 1 had the original paint, a bad Earl Scheib paint job and a coat of orange primer.

During the teardown, I found two build sheets. The one under the front floorboard carpet was completely shot (like the floor pan). But the build sheet under the rear seat was actually legible. Although this Mach 1 spent its life in the desert, it still has a lot of rust. However, I was optimistic that the frame rails and torque boxes were solid. Turns out I was right about that, which is nice. Apparently, the desert saved those, but not the battery tray, radiator support, cowl, floor pans, trunk pan an lower, right-rear quarter. Such is the way with a Mustang. The trans is the original 3-speed toploader. (As I said, no options.) I didn't know a Mach 1 could come with a 3-speed manual until I found this car and did some research. I plan to replace it with a 5-speed. According to the Marti Report and previous owner, the car was originally purchased in El Paso, TX. The guy who sold it to me bought it from the original owner in 1977 and had kept it, outside, in Las Cruces ever since. So, I'm the third owner of this Mach 1 of which the previous owners got a LOT of use!

I knew the previous owner had riveted sheet metal to the bottoms of the floor pans (and elsewhere). But I was pretty surprised when I removed that sheet metal, turned it over and saw "LOADING ZONE". As you can see, the other side was also a road sign. What's nice about this car is almost everything is there and original. What's not so nice is almost everything there was completely shot. The car ran and drove when I bought it. Supposedly, the Cleveland had about 50K miles on a rebuild. That may be the case, but the carburetor was dumping so much fuel into the engine, it was very gunked up inside.

Here's what I started with. I picked it up just north of the Mexican border in Las Cruces. I had been looking a long time for a 69 or 70 Mach 1 project. I wasn't finding much in Colorado. What I was finding was either already restored and very pricey, or completely shot and very pricey. A friend of mine and I drove over four hours each way to look at a '70 Mach 1 on the Eastern Slope of the Rockies. According to the seller, it needed new floor pans, but was other wise, "Good to go!". Of course, we found a completely rusted out Chicago car. So, I didn't mind driving to Las Cruces to look at this car. You'll see in picture 8 the shaker has "351" badges on it, like a '69 shaker. I assumed the previous owner added the shaker, from a '69 Mach 1, at some point. But I got a Marti Report which revealed it's a factory shaker car. Since my Mustang was built in July of 1970, making it a very "late" car, I'm thinking the guys at the Dearborn factory just threw on a leftover '69 shaker. Other than the Mach 1 package, the shaker was the ONLY option ordered on the car. It's a 351 Cleveland 2V car. Since it's not really a "valuable" Mach 1, I don't feel so bad about doing most of the work myself.

Greetings. I've been working on a 1970 Mach 1 for the past year. I'm pretty good with mechanical things, but don't know much about body/sheet metal work. Asking around and looking online, I heard just so many stories of project cars sitting at local body shops for two years with absolutely no progress. So, I decided to buy a welder and dig in myself. I've been following Buckeye Demon's build for awhile. I've learned a lot from Buckeye as well received much inspiration. (Thanks, Buckeye!) So, I wanted to share my build here and, hopefully, get some tips and suggestions as well. I'll try to post a pretty detailed photo essay of the journey thus far. Hope you like it. And, if you see something really biscuit-headed I did, please don't be afraid to point it out. I don't at all mind constructive criticism.

I'm thinking Buckeye's Mach 1 should be held up as the Rosetta Stone for the term "Restomod". At first glance, Buckeye's car looks factory original. But closer inspection would reveal it looks better than factory original. And, of course, the drive train is better than factory original. It looks like a '69 Mach 1 should look. But it has been built will excrutiating detail and it performs better. I think that's what restomod should be all about.

Stunning pictures and fabulous sound. What more could a Mustang fan ask for?

That looks downright spiffy, Buckeye. Did you mention previously what type of mufflers you're running? If so, I'm sorry that I missed it. Thanks again for taking the time to share your build progress. It's inspirational, very helpful and downright fascinating. I'm already applying what I learned from you on my '70 Mach 1 build. And I know I will continue to do so.