SlimeGold 69

I agree. It looks like you got a good deal but check for unibody rust and wreck damage. Frame rails, torque boxes, shock towers and floors are common rust areas. If it checks out solid then pat yourself on the back..you done well, if you find lots of rust ,you better be kissing up to your father in law for all the rust he has to fix:shifty:.

I'm going with a Comp Cams XE-274 roller. Not sure about the heads. I would like a set of AFR 185's but don't know if I can swing the $1500 price tag. I found a set of Edelbrock RPM's for $650, used with about 5K miles on them. They look nice and in G/C so I may just grab them and do a port/polish.

Sounds like you have just about everything you need to put the toploader in. The speedo cable and gear will need to be changed work with the toploader and I'm not sure about the driveshaft. It may need to be longer or shorter, just check it when you get the trans in. If it won't work a driveshaft is easy to find. As for the value, I wouldn't sweat it. If it's what you want then go for it. If nothing else the 4 speed would make it more valuable to most. If It's not numbers matching or a super rare car, have fun with it.

Got the block back yesterday and it's back together. It is 100% zero decked now. The machine shop did a great job and didn't charge me anything. A mock-up is the only way to assure a even deck clearance between all cylinders and I didn't blame them for the deck problem and offered to pay, but they are good people to deal with. After X-Mas I'm going to buy the cam, oil pump and pan to finish up the bottom end.

Very nice! Nothing like a good black paint job for that mile deep shine.

It's no more. It "combined" with 5.0 magazine. There is a bi-monthly out called Legendary Fords that's pretty good if you can find it on newstands. http://www.legendaryfordmagazine.com/homex.htm Seems it's going to just all-online now tho:confused:

I didn't vote for either of them. There all crooks:biggrin:.

I like Edelbrock intakes and they are just about all I use. Like Mach1 said another plus is the weight it takes off the front. Go for it.

Exactly. I hate that it's off, but I want it right.

Well I hit a snag and now it's got to all come back apart:crying:. I checked the piston to deck clearance on the passenger side of the block and all are between .006-.008 down...good there. But last night I checked the driver side starting at the rear and found the rear cylinder's piston to deck was .007, but the next one was more, then the next more until the last cylinder that ended up with .017 down in the hole. So the deck on that side is running up hill .010. So I'm taking it back to the machine shop to get it right. This sucks but I have plenty of time and the .010 will make a diference in compression and quench, so it needs to be corrected. Pre-assembaly mock up would have found this but I got in a bit of a rush.

The short block is together minus the cam, oil pump and pan. All rod clearances checked out and piston to deck averages around .008 down in the hole. With a thin head gasket, quench will still be OK. The block clearance jig worked out good. Plenty of clearance at the bottom of the cylinders with the half-nickle size notches. Next I'm going to order the cam from Summit.

LOL..yeah it took about half a day and I played hooky from work, some things are more important than a job ya know...sheesh.:whistling: The .006 is a little close for end-play but the only boost it will see is from my right foot, so I think it will be fine. That's a good idea on spinning it with a torque wrench. How much torque should it take to spin it? I can spin the crank with my little finger so there is no binding there as of now.

Yeah, 14k is too much. It does look to be fairly solid but assuming you could get it for around 7-9K, the body condition overall would make or break the deal IMO. Check for bad body work, rust is one thing but a car bent in half is just as bad. I'm sure you have found out by now there is no such thing as a 351 Drag-pak..LOL.. it has drum brakes because no one checked disk brakes on the option list when it was new, that's all, nothing special. Drag-packs had nothing to do with brakes, it was a option for 428 cars that included steep rear gears, oil cooler, better rods, etc. Get a look at the old door and see if the data tag is there.

Today I washed the pistons, rods and crank. Put the rods and pistons together, file-gapped all 16 compression rings (.018 top gap and .022 bottom), ringed all the pistons and installed the crank. Bearing clearance was .002 on the mains and end-play is .006. It's going together smooth so far and the Eagle machine work has been spot on. Tomorrow I'm going to knock all the pistons in, check bearing clearance on all 8 and check deck clearance. Should end up being close to zero decked.

Got the block back from the machine shop yesterday. The deck was cut just a hair to true it up, the cylinders where honed with 500 stones for moly rings (less than a .001 removed for piston to wall clearance of .0025), installed cam bearings and they tapped the front oil gallery plug-holes for screw in plugs. I gave it a good bath/scrubbing and a little paint. Next I'm going to start cleaning the pistons and rods, putting them together (floating pins) and the long job of getting the ring gaps in spec.

Sounds to me like a typical BS-er. The world is full of them and it's best to just ignore all there crap. A real 69 Z28?!? A 69 GTO?.. IF he did sell them for scrap he is a DA and I'm sure someone grabbed them from the scrap yard to re-sale. If I had to guess, he has probably never even seen a real 69 Z28.

This is very important but also make sure your yoke is not wore. Check for wear like a groove or even small pits where the seal rides. When I built my 9 inch rear I went thru 3 seals and in the end the problem turned out to be the old yoke. It realy didn't look that bad but after measuring for wear, i found it needed to be replaced. I'm not saying that is your problem but just something else to check while it's apart that may save you some headache.

I have removed/installed mine many times just laying on the ground with the car on ramps and a floor jack on the x-member under the oil pan to take SOME of the weight off the front springs., just enough to raise the front suspension but not completly lift the wheels off the ramps. It sucks but it workes with my small-block long tubes. A lift is 100 times better.

I agree on both points. I like the 70 style better but it's not easy to see when in the car.

One thing I have found to be different is the bottom insert goes all the way under the front of the seat on a 69 and on a 70 it stops before the bottom. This is the reason for different part numbers between 69 and 70 Mach 1 covers.

I may be missing something but what does the insurance you paid extra money for cover??? I thought that was the whole reason to pay insurance..that it covered the full insured value of the item no matter what? I always thought the "safe" thing to do was purchase insurance, but now after seeing this, maybe not. The time delay of your claim may be the reason for this whole mess, but it should have been packed better also. I guess spliting the cost is a fair thing in this bad situation.

I've seen the car your talking about and it does look nice. I think there are still enough Sportsroof "project" cars out there right now tho. Even if you get a Sportroof with rust and body damage the cost of metal work would still be cheaper IMO than starting with a coupe and fitting all the Sportsroof sheet metal, and that's assuming you have a rust-free coupe to start with. However In the future, this may be about the only way to get a Sportsroof other than buying a whole new shell.

Yeah. that's a good idea. Scince you have already purchased the Marti report you could try contacting him and explain your problem and he might run the VIN in question to see what's up.

Thanks. No major mods other than 1 inch drop MU front coils that I cut about half a coil off, KYB shocks and new stock height rear leaf springs. The rear sits a little lower than most stock 69-70's I have seen,but the spings are supposed to be stock replacements..

This is a older one I remember called Born To Run.. It's a red 70 and not a 69 but it had some kind of street racing plot. http://www.imcdb.org/vehicle_158727-Ford-Mustang-1970.html