My 69 Vert Project...Let The Games Begin

[opie_803 14]

flight96, i also stole some ideas from Pak. i also used the reflectix and fiero seat conversion, all thanks to Pak.

 

congrats on the progress, it looks great and i second Pak on the hood scoop. they make all the difference. plus, i took my wife and kids for a ride the other night and the got the biggest kick out of the turn signals blinking in it.

 

good luck with the little glitches, nothing ever works first go-around like it should. i am actually about to change out my heads to correct many of my mechanical issues with my motor. i have the open-chamber 4v heads and located a set of quench 4v heads to replace with. more compression... more power!!!:biggrin:

[flight96 14]

Well I got the PS issue resolved. It was loose lines at the rack. A bit of a pain to get in there to tighten them but I got it. I took the car for a second test drive and it handled very well. Tonight I hope to deal with the timing and carb settings.

[Pakrat 1,043]

I forgot you had the randalls rack, I'd love to see some finished install pics with the engine and everything in. That is definitely on my long term list along with a coilover set up once I've had it back on the road for at leats a season or two of pleasure.

 

Hey Opie, I don't know how much road time you saw prior to the reflectix but can you feel a big difference with the heat at all? My tunnel used to heat up big time with my long tube headers and I'm really hoping for some small miracles there.

[opie_803 14]

Pak, I drove it very little prior to my rebuild but we put almost 275 miles on it the other day and the only complaint about heat was from a hole in my firewall that is about the size of a silver dollar. the heat from the motor is blown through. i think it is a factory hole used for whatever but i need to block it off.

 

i am running stock manifolds also. the one thing i did notice was the bolts for the seat belts were transfering some heat. all in all, i am very pleased with reflectix.

 

up side, no mechanical glitches and i still had a 1/4 of a tank of gas left when we made it home. i hope thats good.

[flight96 14]

Yesterday was a good day !!! Had a mechanic buddy stop by to set up the carb and timing and she sounds great now !! What a difference having it set up right makes !!:tongue_smilie:. I got rid of those ugly Accel wires and put on the set of Aurora's I was waiting for. Man they are nice wires !!

 

Tonight I will try to get the exhaust leak fixed (Loose header...).Once thats done I will post another video so ya can hear her....Nothing worse than a damn exhaust leak sound !!!

I drove it for a bit and then went to get the oil changed. It was hilarious to see the guys at the oil change place checking out the car.

She sure rides nice and the Randalls rack makes it steer incredibly ! There are a few creaks in the right front shock area. I'll have to tighten things up I'm sure, as everything is new and some of the parts have been sitting for months (Shocks, tie rods...ect...). So i'll have to make sure its all greased and lubed really well.

I didn't put my foot into her but I did see how it felt at a steady push on the gas pedal a few times (AS per the break-in instructions)...she sure does have some get up and go !! :whistling:

So now its just a matter of dealing with a lot of small things. I should have the chrome parts back from the plating shop this week so I can get them back on. I have one more polish I want to do then the final hand glaze.

Pics and video to follow !!

[Pakrat 1,043]

It's about time you had an ear to ear grin on your face, CONGRATS!

[stangme428 33]

congrats again... getting very close.. cant wait for the video....:tongue_smilie:

[flight96 14]

This is an incredibly sad day...Its almost 5 am and I have not slept...My best friend and brother in law was found dead in his apartment last night. Brad was a very dear friend who has helped me all along with this build as well as being a close buddy and golfing partner. I am in deep shock and depression right now. My wife is a terrible mess. Brad was her baby brother. I know this has nothing to do with the car but he loved to help me work on it. He was as excited as I was to get her started. he helped me so very much. His coveralls still hang in my garage. I am so sad. Why.......he was only 39 !! I will miss him so very much. He never even had a chance to have a ride in the car. We always spoke of how much fun we were gonna have driving that Mustang. Now he will never get the chance....WHY !!?? It was his truck that brought the motor home and it was him that helped me do the install... He was there when I painted it....He was always pushing me to get it done......Im so sad........God bless him

[stangme428 33]

I'm sorry for your loss flight96 hang in there guy.. my prayers go out to you and your family.

[Pakrat 1,043]

Oh man, I am so sorry for you and yours, that is sad news indeed. Maybe you'll be able to find some consolation once they can determine what happened, it's never easy to lose someone before their time, especially when it seems for no reason at all unlike some type of random accident. I know exactly how you feel right now, this past July marked 15 years since my best friend died suddenly in my arms of congestive heart failure, he was only 34.

[Legion 10]

I'm deeply saddened to hear of your loss. My condolences to you, your wife and your families.

[Grabber70Mach 107]

Sorry to hear about your loss, will keep you and your wife's family in my thoughts and prayers.

[Jay H 237 12]

Sorry to hear this.

[jonnybee 10]

Sorry for your loss. hang in there.

[opie_803 14]

sorry to hear this. my prayers go out for you and your wife.

 

a positive is that your project will always provide you with alot of great memories to reflect on.

 

God bless your family during this time.

[70mstang 11]

Sorry for your loss, we'll keep you and yours in our prayers.

[unfrozen1969 11]

So saddened by your loss. I hope that the positive memories of your buddy keep you energized to complete your ride, as I am sure that is what he would have wanted you to do.

 

Bill from Ottawa

[flight96 14]

Thanks all for your warm thoughts. I greatly appreciate them.

It has been just a terrible 2 weeks. I never for a moment could have thought I could be this sad. I have always considered myself to be a strong man, but this has humbled me to no end.

Brad's service was last Friday and I made damn sure the car was parked right in front. I spent a whole day making sure she was polished up nice and sounding good. The day turned out to be bright and sunny, so the car looked great. Many people loved the fact that the car was there. It was a great tribute to our friendship. The service was very nice and was attended by almost 300 people. From the Chief of police to the guys he worked with down at the Dockyard. He was a very well liked guy... Again, thanks ....

My wife and I are back to work today. We have to get on with our lives, as hard as it is....

As for the car, before this horrific event, I was having gauge issues. I did fix that problem. I took out the cluster and noticed that a few of the cardboard pieces were broken. So I replaced them all with a rubber material. I then replaced the wire harness that I made, with a proper harness from the Mustang Shop. Either fix seems to have fixed the problem. All gauges now work fine.

However, now that the gauges work I notice that the motor is running a bit hot. The needle goes almost to the "P" on the TEMP. I have a "real" gauge that I'm gonna put in when I do the Shelby gauge's in the console, but I think its a bit too hot. I'm running the original rad with no shroud. Maybe I should go to a larger rad ???? Or would adding a shroud cool it down enough ??

Then...Like I need more grief.... I took it in for an alignment. However they couldn't do it. Both wheels are at their max for the camber. There is no adjustment left !!! Now I know its a slot with the bolt through a "washer" so I am considering getting the machine shop to make me a bigger camber washer, taking off the LCA and making the slot larger so the arm can slide further....Does this make sense ???

Whew, that's a lot of typing... Thank you all again for your kind thoughts.

 

Ken

[Pakrat 1,043]

Well I'm glad you are back and trying to move on, it's never easy but it must be done and it never ever means you have to forget.

 

The shroud will make a world of difference, without it right now your fan is just moving warm air around the engine bay instead of sucking cool air thru the radiator as it should. As for the alignment, did you provide them with the specs you want or just tell them to align it at which case they just looked and said they can't? I don't recommend going beyond what might be maxed out already or you could end up adding stress where it shouldn't be and creating bigger problems. Your car could just have years of newer alignment practices added on to it by folks who didn't know how to properly do it on an old car and now it has become a mixed up mess forced into alignment incorrectly and beyond it's limits.

[stangme428 33]

glad to see your back --- i have found that after modifying my suspension on any mustang, i needed to provide the procedure and associated settings to the alignment shop... some shops wouldn't touch it... some would.

 

not sure you'll need it but pro-motorsports has a eccentric eliminator kit if it can help.

 

https://www.drgas.net/category.php?cid=33&catid=4

 

i have not had my car on the road to utilize it, but i do have them installed.

 

take care:biggrin:

[bnickel 10,004]

sorry to hear about your broter in law man, that sucks.

 

as far as the alignment goes i'd be willing to bet your car is suffering from the most common middle-aged mustang affliction which is sagging breasts......ummm, sorry i mean sagging shock towers....ooops :shifty:

 

anyway, the cure is to spread the towers apart and install at least an export brace or the export brace and a monte carlo bar. the way i did mine was to jack the car up, loosen the motor mount bolts, fender bolts, and completely remove the existing shock tower to firewall braces and use a porta-power to spread the towers apart. i did it with the engine in the car and just a couple of pieces of wood between the towers and the porta-power to prevent any damage to the towers. just about totalled the 2x4's though....LOL

[flight96 14]

Thanks again all for your comments....

 

As for the alignment issues,I did give the alignment shop the specs. Is there a special 'procedure' they need to know about ? The problem is there is no more room for the movement.The eccentric is at full circumference.

I have an export brace installed. It was a bit of a pain to get on but not too bad.

As you can see in the pic, why not just make the eccentric larger?

 

Stangme428

What would that kit do to help my issue ? How do you set the camber by eliminating the eccentric ?

[Kiwi John 10]

Geez flight69 I'm so sorry to hear of your loss, sounds like you and your family have taken a real hit.

 

As far as the alignment issues go, what specs are you trying for?

Going by your picture it looks like you are trying to pull the bottom of the wheel in (positive camber). If you can't get enough travel with the eccentric then put spacers (close fitting washers) between the upper control arm shaft bolts and the body. This will bring the uca out further giving you more positive camber.

Theoretically if all is ok you should not need to do this but if all else fails....

If you think you can, you may want to consider doing your own alignment.

I purchased a caster camber guage from Speedway motors years ago when I was stock car racing and from then on I do my own on my cars and truck. I'ts not hard, it even comes with instructions...something to think about if you get it done often.

 

Try to keep positive

John

[flight96 14]

Ahhhh...haaa.... Now that ya mention it I do remember there being shims in the UCA on the drivers side !! Thanks for the tip !! As for the specs I found these on this thread...

+2.0 to +3.0 degrees caster.

-.5 to 0 degrees camber.

1/16" toe in

(Both sides within .25 degrees of eachother)

I will try the shim idea before I try to re-engineer the car...:whistling:

 

 

[flight96 14]

Well this is a tough day. Right about now Brad should be walking into my shop asking me if were gonna work on the car or go golfing... I keep trying to work on the car but can't..... This sucks...

 

One good thing today, I found a hod scoop on Ebay. Look HERE

Edited September 19, 2009 by flight96