1970 Convertible Restoration

[Vicfreg 771]

Hi John, I’ll check my email may be full. Agree they are  stamped that way, but typically that means right hand is passenger side door and left hand is driver side door.

I think in the case of these window guides each door gets one right hand and one left hand. But I’m not sure that’s why am asking.

 

I needed one replacement, so I got it from CJ pony parts. The one I got from them was marked hinge side.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Vicfreg 771]

Hi All.  Back from a short hiatus while working in Canada, now back in the US for a few weeks and catching up on some lost time with the '70 Vert.    After a nice visit up the road in North Carolina at MIke's (latoracing) house, where the car was fitted with a beautiful exhaust system crafted by Mike, along with some less involved projects I previously described, the car headed home.   Mike's shop was the "Foster Home" for much of the car's restoration, and I am forever grateful to him for the top quality work he did, and the attention to detail he paid on every single thing he did on my car.

While there, we fussed with the FiTech a little, but I didn't have time to go through all my troubleshooting to get it to start and run easily.

When back at the house, I noticed I had no RPM reading on the FiTech handeld when cranking the car, but the voltage on the handheld read 11.7 volts.  After discussion with FiTech, they recommended I measure the voltage directly on the white FiTech wire when cranking.  It measured 10.6 volts.   This is at the threshold of the FiTech either working, or not.  In spite of my monster battery cable feed to the front of the car, the limiting issue is the 18 gauge wire that runs to the FiTech that drops one volt in 3 feet.   

So, enter the Buck-Boost constant voltage regulator.   These are DC to DC converters that are used on all types of equipment, commonly on golf carts, where you want to take 36 volts down to 12 volts.   I found one that takes 8 to 40 volts in, and produces 13.8 volts out at any load up to 15 amps.  After some testing and convincing myself it would work, I hooked it up and the car started instantly.

I installed in inbetween my AAW fuse box FiTech white wire feed and the white wire to the FiTech. This is a "key on hot" fused source from my FiTech main fuse panel.  

I then set the IAC (idle air control) on the FiTech, and set my hot idle RPM to 780.   I am running a 393 stroker with a TCI street fighter with a 2300 flash stall.   The FiTech cooperated, and started up at about 1000 rpm, and then ramped down to my target 780.   Yay!

I also used this opportunity to tune my Auto Cool Guy PWM controller. I really love that controller.

Anyway, will keep you posted on my other mini-projects this week.

Hope everyone is safe and healthy.

 

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[Vicfreg 771]

Oh, above see link to video.

Top picture is car leaving foster home...

Bottom pics are BuckBoost Controller (Amazon, or Ebay)

[Mach1 Driver 560]

That's pretty cool- given an 8-40v input it'll give you a constant output at 10A for $32. I've used buck boost circuits on AC but never tried DC. Good info, thanks. 

[latoracing 256]

I had to post a pic of how this project started when it came to me. Its come a long way since and I'm very grateful for the opportunity to be a part of getting it to drive out of my shop. I can't wait to see it all painted up and going to it's first cruse.

[RPM 1,190]

I was shaking my head when I first saw pics of Vic's car. It's come a long way baby, congrats to both of y'all. 

[Mike65 475]

Vic, your Mustang is looking good.

[Vicfreg 771]

Hi MIke.  Thanks.   Catching up on some mini-projects while at home in December.   How is your car coming?   Thought you were getting close to starting the engine.

Next is to do a height adjustment on my front suspension to drop the front about 1/2 - 3/4"

 

[Northernstang 18]

Nice job Vic, sure sounds good.

[Mike65 475]

Hi Vic, the Mustang is at a stand still right now, I still need to purchase the efi unit & install the exhaust before it will run. My wife & I purchased a house in southern Va. just west of Martinsville that we are starting to renovate for when we retire in 2 years & right now the new house is taking up all our time & money.

[Shep69 149]

Nice work Vic . Can’t wait to see the finished product. 
Quality build bud. I’ve got a buck booster coming so will see how it goes.

[Vicfreg 771]

Happy New Year to everyone....   

Working on my holiday punchlist for the car as I head toward paint in 1Q 2021.    Hung my passenger side door today.  Ran into an unexpected issue, my top hinge upper bolt hole in the hinge retaining plate gave up it's final rusty thread when fitting the door hinge bolts.   Mike (latoracing) suggested going up one size to a M8.  I tried that but still insufficient thread.  I found a 3/8" - 16 tap, and re-tapped the hole in the plate, and used an old 3/8" header bolt to chase it.  Worked great.  I found a used 3/8" Ford body bolt with the integral flange, and used that, worked like a charm.

Hanging doors by yourself is usually an exercise in futility.  I used my motocycle jack to hold and position the door, which worked great.  Then, about 40 minutes of up/down/back/forth, etc to get it somewhat aligned.   For those of you who do not have a motorcycle jack, they are well worth the investment.   I use them to install rear-ends and transmissions when working on the garage floor.  They can easily lift 1000 pounds, so also good for moving a chassis around.    

Installed the passenger side front fender, and double checked my ride height in the front, liking the way it looks.

Will do drivers side next. Then, when my new wiper motor comes later this week, will finish installing the wiper linkage.  I posted a question on the tech forum yesterday about what color the wiper arm stubs should be, or if they are covered by the cowl.  Any ideas/pics would be appreciated.

Also had to adjust my CVF pulley alignment, as I noticed the serpentine belt starting to fray.  This was odd, as I broke the engine in on the test stand with the serpentine system, and had no issues.  Then, looked at some pictures, and remembered I had bypassed the power steering pump during the break-in, and this also required me to remove the idler pulley and use a shorter drive belt.   I double checked my pulleys with a straight edge, and the idler pulley was off.  I pulled the idler pulley and there was a 1/4" thick spacer/washer under it.  Removed that and all seems ok now.

Buck-Boost controller seems to be working, as car is starting fine.  

 

 

[Vicfreg 771]

Not Chip Foose for sure, but my sketch of the future state of my car.   Will likely be 1963 Corvette Sebring Silver, or 1967 Ford Silver Frost Poly.  Also plan to steal some 1970 Cougar Eliminator stripes for the side.  More to come on that.

 

[Mike65 475]

Vic it looks like it is coming along nicely. I like the color choices you are considering, & I think the Cougar Eliminator side stripes will look cool on your Mustang. The color of the 69 in the last pic you posted is almost the color of my 2000 Ranger which is called medium platinum metallic.

 

 

[Vicfreg 771]

Continued my wiper install.  Had to source a new motor assembly got a rebuilt one.  Used the grommet and plug from the old one.  Followed my somewhat anal wiring process which is  to heat shrink the individual wires together, stagger the cuts and splices/crimps, heat shrink the splice area, tape wrap the rest, and them put in my favorite fabric wire loom. A little work but in the end, leak tight and solid connections that look good.

[Vicfreg 771]

Then started my final pre-paint fun project, which was to re-assemble my convertible top.   I had taken it apart about 4 years ago, and took detailed pictures of the whole assembly and each piece.  Then, cleaned, sanded, blasted, painted, powder coated all the pieces.  Along the way, acquired some extra bows and folding side pieces as spares if I needed them.

These tops have the weirdest assortment of specialty bolts that you will find on any of these cars. Many use plastic bushings, similar to what you will find in the clutch/brake pedal assembly.   I would like to have some of those also.....As far as I know, the bolt companies, like AMK, do not supply a kit of bolts for the '69 or '70 tops.  If anyone knows where to get some, let me know.  I am missing 2 of the bow mounting bolts which are 5/16" diameter shoulder bolts with the threads ground off on  2 sides, and use 2 special "lock" washers and an acorn nut to hold the bow in place.

Anyway, some pictures I took along the way.  I will go back and take some detailed pics of each connecting joint, but had to head back to Canada for work for a while.  

There is also a cool eccentric bolt that you can use to adjust the top height.  Very neat idea by some long-forgotten engineer working in the basement of Ford somewhere.....  ingenious.

1st 2 pics - all the top parts.  Lot's of elbow grease and blasting went into this pile of stuff

3rd, 4th pic.  Long shoulder bolt used for the main lower swing are where the piston mounts.  This bolt has one of those nuts that are ovaled inside, similar function to a nylock nut today.

5th pic. There are 4 of these bolts, used to hold the top bows onto the frame, and connect the mid rail lever arm to the main lower swing arm.  The lock washers are cross hatched and the top bow is sandwiched between these.  You will see this in the assembled top picture.

6th and 7th picture.  This is the main lower swing arm.  The hydraulic cylinder is mounted in here.  The removable plate will allow you to change out the cylinder from inside the car once the top is installed.   

8th and 9th pic.  Top frame sitting in place.   Front bow is missing, as I am trying to find those bolts.....The rear bow mounts to the main lower swing arm.

[Vicfreg 771]

Oh forgot the eccentric bolt.   It has an allen wrench hole where you can rotate the eccentric and it moves the top frame up and down.  There is a small dimple in the connection area that prevents the rotation of the bolt head.  Works kind like a lower control arm camber adjustment nut.

Last pic is something I recently found at Advanced Auto Parts that I really like.  It is Flat Black primer/paint made by Rust-oleum, and it has a small brush applicator.  I found it with the auto touch up paint.  I use it to finish some of these old bolt heads/nuts after I am done working on them.   I wire brushed/cleaned most of these by hand, as my original top was pretty rusty.  

 

[Mike65 475]

Looking good Vic. I didn't realize how parts were associated with the convertible top frame.

[Kris 90]

The convertible top is a lot of work to redo. I did mine at the end of the summer and like Vicfrev said it’s full of specialty bolts. Almost all of the parts are impossible to find too. I got luck and found a 69 cougar convertible at a salvage yard near me. Got the parts I needed along with some spare parts if mine ever breaks. 

[Vicfreg 771]

Hi Kris.  Any hints or lessons learned from your recent experience would be greatly appreciated.  I have restored a number of cars, but this convertible stuff is uncharted territory for me.

Also, I live in the Charlotte, NC area, not sure where you live and who did your top.

[Kris 90]

I haven’t installed the soft top yet just rebuilt the frame. I’ll top the soft top on this next spring or summer when it warms up. 

[69RavenConv 286]

Appreciate the tip on the Rust-Oleum. Gonna pick some up. 

[Caseyrhe 650]

Looking good!!

[Rich Ackermann 174]

I did my 73 vert roof 4 years ago. Fortunately it was straight and all the hardware was there and usable. I replaced the rubber weather striping with repro stuff. I have had three 73 verts over the years and know them real well, but never had a 69-70 vert.

 

[Vicfreg 771]

Thanks Rich.  Looks like exactly the same configuration. Dimensions obviously are different.   

I just need a couple bolts, I will find them somewhere, or I may try to 3D print them....