69 Coupe Aussie Style Restomod

[shaun071 62]

Hi All,

I've been lurking on the forum for a year or so and decided it was time to start a build thread. I've always been a Mustang and Ford fan, owning many Aussie Fords over the years and this is my first Mustang. Unlike most people, the birth of my first child was the trigger for getting a Stang. I owned a 2002 Falcon XR8 ute (like a modern Ranchero) thats a great ride but didn't have enough seats for a family. After looking at getting a newish XR6 or XR8 sedan, as a joke I said to my wife "A Mustang has 4 seats, perfect for a family and won't depreciate like a new car". I couldn't believe it when my lovely lady took me seriously and the search was on!! I found a reasonable 69 coupe on the Gold Coast here in Queensland looked it over and made it mine Now the work begins.

There were parts missing and some rust in the floors but all in all not a bad car and very restorable.

It's currently fitted with

302 windsor

C4 auto

9 inch 3.25 ratio rear

power steering

Manual drum brakes all round

 

Long term plans are for a 5.0 roller engine, AOD, 3.5 LSD, front and possibly rear disc brakes, air con and maybe power windows. At the moment I'm just working on getting the floors done, Australian compliance work (seat belts, child restraints and headlights) and getting it registered and enjoying it as a daily drive.

[indianfiremach 170]

Looks like the start of a good project. I imagine the AOD will make a huge difference in the drive ability of the car.

[mustangstofear 608]

Looks like it's in excellent shape, and from CA. to boot.

[shaun071 62]

Its a 20 feet car- looks good from 20 feet. There's filler in the fenders and quarters and a couple of rust bubbles forming but nothing thats a showstopper. The paint is ok but it will get a repaint down the track. The floorpans had rust- I've replaced them with half pans but looking back I should have gone full length. Too late now!! I've also fitted sports roof seat platforms which are lower and moved them back about an inch.

[shaun071 62]

I had to fit Australian spec headlights for registration so upgraded to halogen lights at the same time- 60w-55w outer and 55w inner. The RH headlight buckets had to be modded so the inserts would fit properly.. I will be fitting relays when I get to sorting out wiring. Big improvement!!

Don't laugh but I do need good lights to avoid kangaroos on the way home from work. The last one I hit did 6k damage to my XR8.

[RPM 1,232]

Cool story and car. Two questions, does your wife have a twin sister? I love her attitude. Re your seat riser relocation, are you going to elongate the access holes in the floor or make new holes?

[jandj1970 13]

Nice build thread mate, where abouts in queensland do you live (north or south) I live in North Lakes Queensland and iam restoring a 70 Mach1. Can I ask who did you buy your car from?

[Zipppo 11]

I have noticed many Mustangs heading to Australia as of late. Seems they are quite popular there.

I was at aU.S.A.F military base called Clark Air Base in the Republic of the Philippines in the early 80's and I recall even then many Aussies looking to buy American Muscle cars to import to OZ. During those years the cars had to be converted to RHD is that still the case? I was told back then it used to cost around $25000.00 for the conversion and import duties. Anyway the value of the Mustangs is increasing here in SoCal as the supply is dwindling due to of course many being wrecked,junked,parted and exported. Nice to see California is still the place to buy nice old cars. The climate here is relatively mild. No salted winter roads as we do not see snow. Very little rain and low humidity keeps our cars pretty nice. Anyway I am rambling good luck with your build looks like a nice starting point.

[jandj1970 13]

Zippo the law in Australia is, if car is 30yrs old it doesn't require converting mate. Cost for someone to convert to RHD would be about $10000.

[shaun071 62]

Cool story and car. Two questions, does your wife have a twin sister? I love her attitude. Re your seat riser relocation, are you going to elongate the access holes in the floor or make new holes?

 

Unfortunately no, she doesn't have a twin,but she's very switched on and thats why I married her!! There was some wheeling and dealing involved though. I have to sell the XR8 and an XB Falcon coupe/convertible project car I have to finance the Mustang.

 

I haven't modded the access holes. If I use a 1/4 drive socket with a universal joint I can tighten the seat bolts. The platforms are between 3/4 and 1" back from standard.

[shaun071 62]

Nice build thread mate, where abouts in queensland do you live (north or south) I live in North Lakes Queensland and iam restoring a 70 Mach1. Can I ask who did you buy your car from?

I'm just north of Toowoomba so not too far from you. The Mother in law is at Morayfield we come down your area every month or so. I'd love to check out your Mach sometime! I bought the car from Danny Guntner at Coomera. It was a private sale, the car was on Gumtree for a couple of months before I bought it. He'd dropped the price by a couple of thousand in the add and I haggled another couple of thousand off that.

[shaun071 62]

I have noticed many Mustangs heading to Australia as of late. Seems they are quite popular there.

I was at aU.S.A.F military base called Clark Air Base in the Republic of the Philippines in the early 80's and I recall even then many Aussies looking to buy American Muscle cars to import to OZ. During those years the cars had to be converted to RHD is that still the case? I was told back then it used to cost around $25000.00 for the conversion and import duties. Anyway the value of the Mustangs is increasing here in SoCal as the supply is dwindling due to of course many being wrecked,junked,parted and exported. Nice to see California is still the place to buy nice old cars. The climate here is relatively mild. No salted winter roads as we do not see snow. Very little rain and low humidity keeps our cars pretty nice. Anyway I am rambling good luck with your build looks like a nice starting point.

Thanks! I did look at the RHD conversion, its relatively simple using Aussie Falcon parts. I decided against it on cost (5-10K) and if I ever decide to sell it can still go home to the States if it doesn't sell here. Mustangs have always been popular here, my Grandfather had a 72 Mach1 and my uncle had a 66 convertible in the late 70's. There's been a big spike in interest lately due to the high Australian dollar relative to the greenback so importing a car is pretty cheap. The other reason is the rareness and very high value of Australian muscle coupes (Falcon, Charger, Monaro) these days. You are looking at 10-20K for something thats restorable and needs another 20-30K spent on it if you can find parts as most stuff isn't reproduced or isn't a good reproduction. Its why I gave up on my Falcon project and got a Mustang, almost everything is reproduced and readily available. I'm budgeting about 20-25K for the Mustang including purchase price.

[Guillaume69 150]

Haven't they produced RHD Mustangs back in the days? I thought they did for UK, Australia and Japan. Aren't there any left?

[shaun071 62]

The original seats had been replaced with Flofit buckets. I found them uncomfortable and didn't go back far enough. After trolling some Aussie Mustang forums I found 2003-2008 Falcon ute seats were a common fitment to classic Mustangs. I picked up a pair from an 03 XR8 for $80. They are very comfortable, flip forward, adjustable recline and lumbar support. Once the standard electric seat tracks are removed I made an adaptor to bolt stock Mustang seat tracks to the base. The adaptors are 1" thick wall tube and have been set up so I get about 2 inches of extra travel rearward. I've got a couple of inches headroom, if its not enough I'll make a new set of adaptors from 1/4 flat steel.

Helping Dad with a comfort test. Miss Shannon 2 weeks old

I'll be getting these retrimmed, a local trim shop suggested vinyl sides with leather for the seat faces. The rear seat will be trimmed to match with the pleats running horizontal to match the fronts

[shaun071 62]

I decided to sell the wheels that came with the coupe. Not sure what they are but look like Weld Prostars, but have Centreline stamped on them and are 15x7 all round. I have a set of 14x6 sports wheels off an 81 Falcon and will get me around until I can afford different wheels. I can't decide between 15x8 American Racing Ansen Sprints or 17x8 Torque Thrust style wheels.

They are similar to styled sports wheels but with round holes. Just my luck, my neighbour tells me he has a set of the rusty chromed styled wheels for his 67 Falcon I could have had for nothing!!

[jandj1970 13]

Yeah mate I bought my mach1 off a guy at coomera, he was called chevy thunder down under I think. I like what you done with the seats, mate ill PM you my email so you can tell me when your coming down.

Guillaume69, yes I think they did do RHD mustangs Early on. They used aussie falcon parts, but I don't know how many there where imported.

[shaun071 62]

They imported 200 66 coupes and did the conversion here using local Falcon and compact Fairlane parts.They were sold through Ford dealers but the conversion was carried out by outside suppliers. There was an article in Australian Muscle Car last year. We also got about 200 2001 Mustangs that were converted by Tickford, the local performance arm of Ford Australia. There's always been specialist importers that sold new Mustangs but they weren't factory endorsed. Thats where my Grandfathers Mach 1 came from.

[Guillaume69 150]

Yep, just found something in Mustang Monthly about it. They report 48 brand new 65 and then 161 new 66 the following year. That would be pretty cool to see how many of these are still out there...

[rwcstang 207]

Very nice project you have there!

[shaun071 62]

And now we have the seatbelt saga.....

To get the coupe registered it has to be inspected/modified for Australian compliance. This isn't that big a deal, you have to fit Aussie spec lap/sash inertia reel front belts, lap sash rear belts, child restraint points in the rear and Australian beam pattern headlights. I decided to go with inertia reels in the back as well, mainly so you don"t have belts lying around everywhere. I made the mistake of getting a so-called professional to do the belts and child restraints. The scary part is this fool was recommended by the local compliance engineer!! He had the car for 3 weeks and while the rear belts are ok, the fronts and child restraints are a joke. What do you think??

inertia reel just out in the middle of the floorpan and twisted in relation to roof mount

Mounting bolts not in "safety", reinforcing plate not shaped to floorpan or rounded corners

The existing hole just to the left is in a perfect position for a child restraint bolt, just needs a reinforcing plate

I have to admit I didn't check the workmanship at the shop but a week after the car was home. To say I wasn't impressed was a gross understatement. I could and in fact now have done better myself. I did go back to see about getting the job done properly but got a heap of excuses etc and more importantly he didn't offer any of my money back or offer to fix it. I did check about legal options but that would cost almost as much as fixing it myself. I work at a military base with a lot of guys that get performance work done on cars, so the story of what he's done and the photos of his work standards have done the rounds there. I know of a few people who took their cars elsewhere after seeing what he did to my car.

Edited January 29, 2014 by shaun071

[shaun071 62]

Seat belt saga part 2, Front belt installation.

The factory belt mounts are in the wrong spot for an inertia reel- the sill point is too far forward and the roof point is 3/8 unc and too far back. After some more trolling of Aussie Mustang forums and checking with Gasoline Alley Restorations in Brisbane for advise, I bought some of their belt/child restraint mounts and got to work.

I'm happy with how the belt installation turned out. The rivets holding the plates in are legal here and are just to stop the plate spinning. Gasoline Alley said you have the option of plug welding, rivets or even sikaflex to hold them in place. The state transport department has a full set of specifications on seat belt installations including dimensions of reinforcing plates, hardware specs that was very helpful. The drop link from the roof places the belt in a more comfortable position and the belt is mostly out of the way of the door opening allowing easier access to the back seat.

[jandj1970 13]

Seat belts look alot better now mate, gasoline alley aren't bad to deal with.

[shaun071 62]

More progress finally. I made a plate up to fix some rust under the battery tray

Most of the progress has been in gathering parts to start on the suspension rebuild and power front disc brake conversion. I lucked onto some leather upholstery for the BA Falcon front seats on ebay

[jandj1970 13]

Looks good mate.

[Glenn83 19]

I'm very interested to see how your seats work out, because I want to put the same seats in my 69 fastback, I've seen those leather kits for sale on ebay, if you could put some more pics up when you put the leather covers on the would be real handy.