'71 Torino GT

[Big Secz 26]

Scored a great deal on an original Ford Sport steering wheel on eBay. A little cleaning and the wheel looks brand new. Got a great deal, scored the wheel for $60 but had to order a new horn button from CJP which cost more than the wheel. This came out of a '78 Mustang. Here's the before and after.

Edited April 20, 2013 by Big Secz

[Pakrat 1,043]

That cleaned up real nice, a little different than the typical Grant. Did the center polish up or did you have to paint it? What diameter is it? What does the horn button look like? I wonder if it was from a Cobra or something, I don't recall wheels that nice in the II period.

[bnickel 10,004]

That cleaned up real nice, a little different than the typical Grant. Did the center polish up or did you have to paint it? What diameter is it? What does the horn button look like? I wonder if it was from a Cobra or something, I don't recall wheels that nice in the II period.

 

 

hey Pak, Ford called these the Sport wheel. I have the exact same wheel in my car just with a different horn button. the horn button in my car came from an 81-82-ish stang and has the red, white and blue stripes as the entire backgraound with the running pony in the center. I also have an original leather wrapped one from a mid 70's cougar XR7. those wheels came in nearly all of the ford product line from about 73 or 74 until around 83 or so. most commonly found in mustang II's (Cobras would typically have a leather wrapped version), mavericks and pintos (typically found in the Stallion special editions and some grabbers), some full size Fords and Mercs, Granandas and Monarchs (if you can believe it) and and trucks and Broncos. you have to be careful when you find them because some of the 80's versions DO NOT have the horn contacts on the back, those were mostly found in Fox body cars that had the horn button on the turn signal stalk.

[Big Secz 26]

I didn't have to paint it at all. Just cleaned it up with scotch brite. The metal has sort of a brushed finish on it to begin with so the scuffs from the scotch brite don't really show up at all. Just scuffed ti to get the rust off of it and then wiped it down with a cleaner to get rid of all the dust.

[Big Secz 26]

Threw a coat of paint on the trans this past weekend. Just waiting on a couple of parts to arrive this week hopefully, and I'll be putting the engine and trans back in the car this Saturday.

[Big Secz 26]

Still waiting on a few parts to arrive before I can put the engine and trans back in the car. So I spent the day doing what I b.s. work mainly on leaning, sanding and painting parts and putting them back on the car. Headlight brackets, hood latch support, a bunch of bolts, etc. were ally sanded and painted. I don't think it looks that bad considering this was a "freshening" and not a complete tear down restoration.

[Big Secz 26]

Well, a little more progress. Finally got the engine and trans back in the car today. Was able to install a new kick down rod shaft in the trans as well. That was a pretty easy job. Next weekend I'll be working on hooking everything up.

[Big Secz 26]

Really close to being done. Here's the before and after.

[Pakrat 1,043]

Hard to believe that is the same engine bay, nice work! Amazing what a little TLC and attention to detail can do.

[Big Secz 26]

Thanks, Pak. There were times through this where I questioned whether or not it was worth it. But now that I'm coming down the home stretch, I'm glad I did it. I also installed the grill inserts and surrounds. The surrounds were restored by a guy in Michigan and I hit the inserts with some black trim paint. They should be argent colored but I like the black better.

[Big Secz 26]

Made some great headway today. Three friends came over and we had an all out blitz knocking stuff out on the punch list. One of the big things accomplished, aside from being able to finally start her up, was installing the exhaust. I opted to go with the Waldron's 2.5" pipes and Pypes mufflers. The only issue is that because the Pypes mufflers are smaller than factory we had to add about 6" of length to the intermediate pipes. But the kit bolted up and the pipes are tucked up perfectly. My only complaint is that the pipes are not mandrel bent so there are wrinkles in the bends which aren't the prettiest.

 

One issue we ran into was with the MSD Ready to Run dizzy. When we finally got the car started it ran really poorly. We narrowed it down to the factory wire feed to the coil. In order for MSD to run properly it needs 12V, the factory wire feed must have some sort of resistance wire that prevents it from getting enough volts to the coil. We ran a new 12V switchable feed and she fired right up. A little timing adjustment and she runs like a sewing machine.

 

Only a few more minor things and then its on to modifying the Procar seat adapters for the front seats.

[Pakrat 1,043]

Nice! Maybe we can a get an inside ride video like you did with the old stang once you are ready to rock.

[Big Secz 26]

Yeah I'll take some video and some more pics once it's done. This weekend I'll be replacing the PS components and then that completes everything on the outside and then my focus will be on the seats.

[Big Secz 26]

Well, the seats are finally in the car again, for hopefully the last time. Spent the entire day modifying the Procar seat brackets. The seats are basically sitting on the floor now, but now I have ample headroom and can comfortably get in and out of the car. Would love to spend a day with Procar and show them just how effed up their seat brackets are for Torinos.

[Big Secz 26]

A little bit closer to being done. Here's a video of her idling with 2.5" pipes from Waldron's and Pypes Performance MVS13 Mufflers. I also cut 1/2 a coil out of the front springs and like the stance much better.

 

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10201751674814292&l=2966833594019316205"%20onclick="window.open(this.href);return%20false;

[Grabber70Mach 107]

The car is looking nice, don't do facebook so I can't hear how it sounds.

[Big Secz 26]

The link provided should allow you to still view the video even if you don't have a FB account.

[Mike65 475]

The link provided should allow you to still view the video even if you don't have a FB account.

 

I cant see it, Facebook is saying this content is currently unavailable. :(

[Big Secz 26]

Let's try this:

 

http://youtu.be/DzdPBzOS0-Q

Edited August 4, 2013 by Big Secz

[69SlowResto 19]

It looks and sounds great! Good job...it must be nice to be so close to completion.

[Big Secz 26]

Well since the Government decided that it wasn't important enough for us Federal employees to come to work I decided to take advantage of the day off and do a little something on the Torino. For the most part the car is done, but one project was lingering. Swapping out the original rim blow steering wheel for an original Ford GT wheel out of a '78 Mustang.

[bnickel 10,004]

i have one of those in the stang and a leather wrapped one for the cougar too. both of mine have different horn buttons though

[prayers1 153]

Very nice, I like it. I'm in the market for as new steering wheel and was eyeing a Grantt that looks real close to yours. What years were those made?

[prayers1 153]

Its't this weird. I was checking eBay for a 78 steering wheel and I came across an all black Mustang / Fairmont/ Truck steering. Looking close at the Fairmont, I noticed thats the steering wheel I have now. I thought mine was an aftermarket brand and I didn't know that was an Fairmont horn button emblem. The metal handles are a little rusty, I wonder what it would look like painted black/charcoal metallic, like the interior.

 

Where can I get a Mustang horn button

[Big Secz 26]

There were two types of these wheels made. The vinyl wrapped one which I have, and a leather wrapped with with the finger indentations in the back of the wheel.

 

These wheels were in Ford cars, trucks and vans from mid '70s through early '80s. They are a lot sturdier than the Grant wheels. Mine had some surface rust on the spokes but was able to use fine steel wool to clean them up and then just used a vinyl cleaner for the rest of the wheel.

 

As for the horn button, my original one that came with the wheel was broken so I ordered the replacement from CJ Pony, but the damn button cost me just as much as the wheel.

 

http://www.cjponyparts.com/silver-horn-button-assembly-1979-1982/p/HBG7/