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TinMan

It is Time

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Well.. Not quite..

 

History lesson.

 

Back in 1969, I was a tike of 9 years old sitting in Pop's puke green 66 notch back at a local Dairy Queen.. Up pulls a blue 69 Mach 1 and I was immediately in love! Could think of nothing else...

 

Eight years pass... for graduation.. we find a one owner red 2 barrel Windsor FMX slushbox Mach.. I was in love... I cherished this car.. bumps, bruises, scraps and all.. waxed weekly.. never driven in rain... she was my Baby Girl..

 

Life gets in the way..

 

Meet my True Love.. get married.. last plate expired 1983... three kids.. mortgage.. responsibility... T ball... soccer... years... decades... all pass..

 

Gray hair.. aches.. pains... pot belly...

 

Collage payments...

 

Pick up a 2006 GT as a daily.. wonderful car.. beat the snot out of her to this day... she asks for more... always performing.. but don't have the gravitas of the Mach..

 

Years.. Years.. Years... She sits in waiting.. covered... dusty.. sad...

 

Payments are done... wife's car paid for.. collage paid for.. what's this??? what's this???

 

We're saving money for a pole barn... a pole barn where she can live again.. be reborn...

 

Torn... was worried about originality.. friend asked if I'd ever sell her.. I was like NO EFFIN WAY.. he said... "build it as you want it!"..

 

So that's where I'm at.. probably 2 years away for enough money to have the barn build and cash for resto...

 

Time to dream...

 

Gotta haves...

 

425 horse MIN...

 

Pro touring...

 

Five or Six gear stick...

 

Shock towers gone...

 

Three link rear...

 

Blown 4 valve?

 

Built Windsor?

 

Time to dream....

 

She will be blue.. as the one I first fell in love with...

 

Last time she saw daylight was in 2006....

 

machtwo.jpg

 

machone.jpg

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Nice car and story. Me, I'd drive it, but mine has been down since 1999. Another rare wife who doesn't "make" the guy sell his car! She's a keeper.

 

Bob

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Getting closer.. Cleaning out garage... Current plan is to get her running again.. cheapo front disc... rebuild 9" rear (will keep)... 4.10s.. Detroit.. discs.... drive her as is... keep saving... then restore... Pics soon...

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Hey, welcome back! In the past year have you made any decision on your power plant? It's hard to beat the proven stout 408 Windsor stroker with bid aluminum heads. The a/m alum block 427 Windsor is something else! Cool thing about building it now is folks have been doing them for 10 years to work out the bugs of the drivetrain. Good luck! 

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Things been a bit rough... 06 GT is gone.. My son has her.. that 's fine... but Arthor Itius killed my abilty to keep..

 

 

Was wanting to build pole barn.. Life got in the way again...  so time to clean out garage (five people living in 1300 ft2 house with no basement.. means garage is junk yard).. filled up 20 yard dumpster...

 

mach1.0.jpg

 

Here she is... really wanting to live again.. I'm totally ready... I'm second owner.. all dents from original owner..

 

mach1.1.jpg

 

Doing real homework now.. Think the Windsor will stay.. really want Jon Kaase P38 heads and a 5 gear.. Time will tell.. Time will tell.. Right now.. plan is to get her back on the road in original glory.. assuming tranny works and floor is still there...

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This is gonna take forever.. but garage is almost all clean... Yanked her out into the sunshine for the first time since 2006... the radials on her were 35 years old and wouldn't hold air...  Had a set of 17" Torque Thrusts that were on my...errr... Crown Vic..and the original Pirelli's from the 06 stang mounted on them... I think they look pretty damn good!!!

 

Change in plans yet again.. Unfortunately.. my father passed.. and I inherited his Stang.. so we're back to building a pole barn.. probably not much change until spring..

 

Was at least fun to sit in the Mach again...

 

Mach1.jpg

 

Mach2.jpg

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Man she looks Damn good to be so old and just sitting.

build the 408 with a nice hyd roller and some AFR's ... 500+ Hp easily attainable since your gonna be running a stick you can go crazier on the cam and it will idle ok lol

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A car like that..I wouldn't paint it or fix anything cosmetic. Get it working mechanically and hold it as the barn find that it is. That car looks pretty damn perfect as is.

You want to chop up something to build a new car that looks like an old car? Start with another car. IMHO of course.. 

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A car like that..I wouldn't paint it or fix anything cosmetic. Get it working mechanically and hold it as the barn find that it is. That car looks pretty damn perfect as is.

You want to chop up something to build a new car that looks like an old car? Start with another car. IMHO of course.. 

 

What he said.   Dave R.

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Jeep is gone. We're setting into winter here now.. will probably be towards end of March before anything happens...  Was mainly worried about the condition of the floor.. it's not bad.. no holes.. poked with knife..  only a couple small spots where the very tip would poke into the pan..  at some point will be replaced.. but goal for 2016 is to get it running as-is and on the road...  Fuel system will need to be replaced.. I'm already figuring all hard lines as well.. I'll just rock the drums for now...  Getting insurance around as well...

 

Hopefully next post will be her firing up to at least some limited degree!! 

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Good to see someone that still has there first car.. Not easy to do as life moves on..I have sold better cars but always held on to my first.

If you need money sometimes things have to go (1968 500KR that was painfull!!!)

 

Got my mach in 1976... More of a trash can than a car but it had a 4-speed...$400.00

Daily driver for many years for me and my now wife....she always hated it..

For 35 years the car was never in the budget (you need to stop spending money on that thing)

As things have settled down in life in the last 5 years I have found myself the time and some money to get things done right. 

NO cheaping out...

Still a daily driver that needs paint badly....but the running part is very pleasing...

Not a big fan of the over restored paint thing...

Its all about patina and how it got that way...

 

Don't give up...   

post-44083-0-29017700-1453141264.jpg

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Officially started... even slow progress is progress...  funny thing is these are the exact same sockets that originally installed the plugs 33+ years ago!  Spent a few hours vacuuming up spider webs and a few mouse turds.. Pulled the plugs and dumped in some penetrating oil.. will try and see if she spins next week..

 

Any advise on trying to revive an engine that hasn't fired since 1990?  Naturally fluids, hoses, already ordered carb rebuild kit..

 

2016.2.28Engine.JPG

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You can't finish if you don't start. Some days I feel better after a bit of work and small progress than a long day with substantial progress.  

 

I'd remove the valve covers to see if you have any sludge build up. If not, just do what you mentioned. An old time trick used on engines like yours is to run the motor for about an hour with diesel fuel in place of motor oil.  An old family friend who bought many old parked cars used this method successfully. My brother also did it on a 65 Polara 413 ex CHP car (car did 150 when it was a CHP car).

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Haven't heard the diesel trick.. dumped about $150 at Rockauto... waterpump, fuelpump, hoses, belts, ignition parts, filters.. tranny and otherwise.. etc...

 

The valve covers show are from a 289... I still have the originals.. I'll replace.. should be no sludge but will check!!

 

Can I oil prime this engine by removing the distributor and hitting with screwdriver and drill???

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TinMan, I think you need a drill, a socket and an extension to turn the oil pump. The pump turns in reverse on the drill as I recall. Haven't done this kind of work in a few years. Make sure that the socket won't come off the extension. Stripping down an old, junk distributor and using that shaft is a good idea. Good luck.   Dave R.

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Just buying stuff from Rockauto... Talk to the city on Thu to see if they'll let me build a pole barn... hope so..

 

Sprayed a can of pentrant in the cylinders... pulled plugs again.. and with breaker bar could spin engine by hand!!!  Was one "rough spot".. but after about three revolutions..  she spins pretty easy by hand...

 

Have an injury that will take me out for about a week.. which sucks.. cause I hoped she'd fire next weekend..  Thanks Dave for the advise.. I'll spin lots of oil before trying to fire up...

 

Berryman's chem dip is awesome!! thought the carburetor was toast.. nothing stinks like 33 year old oil and gas... but the dip worked wonders... after I heal for a while I'll rebuild the carb...

 

Before...

 

mach101.jpg

 

After (not rebuilt, but very clean)...

 

mach102..jpg

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