new/old 70 sportsroof project

[x195svt 11]

This is my first thread post on this forum. I have been reading and looking at alot of the other projects here and I am surprised by some of the projects I've seen here. I have seen some projects brought back to life I never would have imagined ever running again. My hats off to you guys doing these projects as I love 69 and 70 mustangs and seeing these cars resurected is great.

 

My project is my first car that has been sitting in the garage for 11 years now. I was 11 or 12 when my dad bought the car (with no engine or transmission) and started working on it he painted it and put a somewhat worn out 351C in it then got back into his love of drag racing leaving the car with a unfinished interior, barely functional wiring and no heat when I got it. The car basicly ran but wasn't very comfortable or nice inside. The car had been raced previously and some of the wiring had been hacked and the original A/C box destroyed and completely non functional. I installed a standard heater box and controls since that was all I could find, I patched the wiring to get things working and gathered a bunch of original but somewhat decent looking interior parts including mach 1 seats dash console and door panels for a few hundred dollars all on my high school summer job budget.

 

The front suspension and steering gear was completely worn out and unsafe and the wiring harness that I patched together shorted out. I was trying to come up with the money to fix the suspension when the wiring shorted then a week later the engine dropped a valve leaving me with a car that completely needed rebuilt.

 

Over the years I let my dad talk me into putting a mustang II suspension into the car so we slowly worked on that project. The car has been sitting for about 5 years now without being worked on but now I am married and settled down and although I don't have a ton of money to throw at it I can start getting things finished up on the front end. I have also located a wiring harness and I have a 351W that doesn't need much but a intake and carb. This time around I think I can do things a little better than when I was 18 and didn't know much better. Sorry for the novel but I figured I would give the back story of how the car has gotten into its current state.

 

Now for some pictures. If you look in the background you can see my dads drag car (yellow 06 all fiberglass mustang with 545ci BBF that runs 5.20's @ 131 in the 1/8th) and my 90lx notch (460/powerglide 6.40's @ 108).

[Pakrat 1,043]

Great Story Jarad, sounds like you have both fun and frustrating times ahead, hopefully you and your dad will get to tackle a lot of it together. Be sure to keep your progress thread updated as often as you can and good luck.

[70mstang 11]

Looks like a really good project. Sounds you have a good history behind it too, which makes it even more fun.

[opie_803 14]

looks like you have a great platform to start with. i found lots of useful information here and i am sure you will do the same.

[x195svt 11]

thanks guys, I have a ton of history with this car and I have always loved it even though I didn't give it the attention that I should have. I regret every day that I did not start looking for parts the minute it tore up buying a very cheap beater and fixing it asap but hind sight is 20/20.

[richkcmo 10]

its not too late. work on it soon and keep us posted.

 

good luck.

[Fordrevhead 29]

yeah looks good. Saving grace of drag cars is they often didnt see a lot of bad weather or high mileage and are sometimes a lot more solid than they would have been otherwise. I'd be proud to still own it!

Good luck

FRH

[x195svt 11]

Yeah the car has very little rust surprisingly I have noticed a spot in the passenger rear and the drivers front floorpan but neither is bad. I have also kept it in a garage the whole time in order to keep it from rusting. The previous owner butchered the wiring badly and the A/C parts way beyond repair he even put a chevy engine in it when he blew up the original engine. He then blew it up and and left the car sitting. Thats when we found it and bought it for 300 when I was 11 or 12.