69 coupe

[potato 10]

My car is a 69 coupe with a 9T01T VIN number.  Paperwork in the glovebox and the inspection stickers on the windows show it was last on the road legally in 2016.  The stack of paperwork that came with the car indicates it was somebody else's project car back in 2012-2013.  They swapped it to a 302/T5 transmission, granada front discs, 96 mustang rear axle with 3.55 gears and discs, some sheet metal.  They did the interior with carpet, door panels, and upholstry.  The body is in good shape.  Its not banged up anywhere and the only rust is in the trunk lid.  

It needed some work on the front end when I got it.  I knew it needed tie rods, so I ordered a set of the total control bump steer eliminator tie rods.  Then when I get it home and get it up in the air, thats when it started snowballing.  The left shock was completely broken.  The top and the bottom of the shock are 2 unconnected pieces.  The ball joints are also looking rough.  So then I'm thinking fine, I'll order new shocks and control arms.  Then I get to taking apart the passenger side and I see the steering link is very loose at the idler arm.  Fine, I walk in the house and order up an idler arm.  The next day I start putting the passenger side together and then I notice some welds where they're not supposed to be.  Somebody has welded the castle nut onto the steering link at the idler arm.  So now I get to order the steering link.

While I've been waiting for the front end to get delivered one part at a time, I've been working on other little things.  Fixing the door lock rods, latches, and locks.  Replace missing PCV hose, replace fuel line and fuel filter, air filter, and oil change.  The car came with 19" rims with tires that were worn through to the steel belts.  I'm not a fan of the rims, so they're getting replaced.  The rims I picked to replace them are backordered for months.  So I went to the local pull-a-part and found some 90s grand marquis "snowflake" style wheels for $100 for the set and cleaned them up a bit to hold me over.

Something I'm not clear on is what to do with yet is my choke.  There's an edlebroke 4 barrel carb with electric choke.  The choke is not connected to anything.  I looked at the wiring diagrams for 1969 cars and did not see a wire to use.  On my 73 mustang, there's a wire on the engine harness beside the oil pressure and water temp that is hot when the key's on.  If there is the same wire on the 69 model, is it suitable to connect to the electric choke?  It looks like the previous owner converted this car to a 1-wire alternator.  There isn't a post on the alternator to connect to.

Still on my to-do list

• door windows are a little wobbly.  maybe need to replace plastic guides
• rear package tray was wet after rain.  maybe need to pull the rear window and install it and seal it up properly
• tail lights are kinda nasty looking.  maybe replace them
• only 1 of my hood mounted blinkers works
• there's some gremlins in the wiring for the interior of the car
• aftermarket AC.  something like vintage air or classicauto air
• I would like to convert the interior to the "deluxe" door panels and I like the idea of the aftermarket dash that kinda looks original but has more gauges
• power steering hose routing looks like spaghetti.  
• replace engine mounts.  One of them is completely separated
• figure out the choke.

 

 

 

 

 

[aslanefe 333]

Little bugs to work out but atleast it does not need body work and paint (besides the trunk).  Check to see if door glasses are glued (and glue still holding), if good, just flip the plastic window guides around instead of replacing them. You will see the wear pattern and figure out how to flip and use the good section of the guides when you remove them. If they are still wobbly, you can put thin plastic or metal spacers under the guides. As far as I know, there is no dedicated power wire in the harness for electrical choke on 69, if you google, you can find ideas on where to get power for the choke (I bet someone will reply to this thread with an answer soon though). Original tail light lenses polish up good (if not messed up real good by someone). Inside of the taillight housings might need a coat of paint.

[EastYorkStang 63]

Just things to work on while you're riding in comfort with that Thunderbird.

[potato 10]

The saga continues.  I got the passenger side put together.  New tie rods, upper and lower control arms, shocks, center link, and idler arm.  I got most of the driver's side taken apart.

While I was up under there, it looks like a need a new power steering cylinder.  And the fuel line from the pump to the carb is leaking.  So new power steering cylinder and fuel line are incoming.

With the total control bumpsteer eliminator kit, I was able to get the passenger side to 0.100" of bump steer as the suspension travels from ride height to fully compressed.  There wasn't enough adjustment to get any better than that.

[rwcstang 201]

looking good so far, the marquis wheels make it look better than those fleamarket looking wheels.

I would only upgrade to larger 17 or 18" wheels if I was doing a large brake upgrade, like I did. what wheels did you order? 

[potato 10]

48 minutes ago, rwcstang said:

looking good so far, the marquis wheels make it look better than those fleamarket looking wheels.

I would only upgrade to larger 17 or 18" wheels if I was doing a large brake upgrade, like I did. what wheels did you order? 

I haven't ordered any yet.  They got bumped down the list a bit since i got these temporarily mercury ones.  I'm going to focus on the stuff the car needs to run and drive safely.

 

The wheels i would like to get for this are the legendary 17x7 or 17x8 cobra style ones in gray.

[potato 10]

Progress continues, slowly.  I got the driver's side back together.  My power steering cylinder mounting stud was junk, so I ordered a new Lares cylinder.

So far, the running count is upper+lower control arms, ball joints, inner+outer tie rods, center link, slave cylinder, shocks.

Then up top, replacing the fuel line between the pump and carb with a hard line.  The threaded portion of the fuel pump was wallered out a bit.  The fuel line wouldn't seal up and had a drip while running.  So now i got a new fuel pump on it.

With the front end all put back together, its almost ready to get back on the road.

[potato 10]

Today's after work project was replacing the motor mounts.  It was a pain in the butt working in tight quarters, but really only a couple hours of cussing like a sailor.

  

[potato 10]

Whew, I got it off the jackstands and back on the road today.  I started out by putting in some 3pt seat belts.  Then the UPS man brought me the last piece I needed to button up my new fuel line.  While it was up in the air, I let it run and get up to temperature and played with the steering wheel to check for leaks.  Everything looked good so I dropped it down and took it for a spin around the block and up to the gas station.

  

[potato 10]

I got an unexpected surprise this morning.  I drove the car to the alignment shop.  Then when the dude's in the parking lot turning the steering wheel to get the car lined up to go on the rack, there was a POP. We looked under the car and found half of a bolt broken off.  It was this bracket pictured below in the orange circle.  The blue bolt is the one that broke in two.  The two green bolts just pulled right out like they were not even attached to the frame at all.  This section of the frame is boxed in pretty well, so I dont even see how to get a nut and washer up inside the frame there to tighten those bolts against.  Am I missing something obvious?  Only other thing I can think of is to weld the nuts up into the frame to bolt to, or to just weld the whole bracket to the frame.

 

[potato 10]

I ended up laying a blob of weld down to help stick that bracket to my frame.  And my alignment guy wasn't quite able to get my car dialed in.  The tie rods ran out of adjustment and couldn't be made short enough.  I took the car back home, pulled the tie rods in half. And then lopped off an inch out of the threads and put them back together.

The alignment guy was able to get everything dialed in pretty good.  Everything ended up in the green and he got it better than some of the much newer cars that come in.  Apparently the numbers indicate that my frame's really straight and it hasn't been in any bad wrecks to knock anything out over the years.