My 1969 Mustang Sportroof S code restoration project 4 years in the making..

[7TCatvert 24]

I originally posted this on the old site and when they moved to the new site went to garage... I redid my photo bucket site and wrote up the whole story.

 

 

Back story.....I bought this barn find in 11/2011 and it has been a start and stop restoration since. The car was a drag car at some point. The lady I bought it from had been her everyday driver in high school in the early 80s. Her dad had fixed it up for her to drive. They painted the car from Medowlark yellow to a light blue, installed factory a/c and console. She believed he rebuilt the engine and transmission. She remembers the car having a steering problem late in her senior year 1984 and her Dad was going to work on it and just never did. She had bought an Escort for the gas mileage and just drove it instead. Her Dad never got around to fixing the steering ( bad tie rod) and so the car sat in the barn until he passed away in 2008. Her Mom sold the farm and she had the car towed to her garage in St. Louis.

 

I heard about the car in 2010 from her boyfriend and arranged to look at since she wanted to have it restored for herself. I had restored a couple of 69 Mustangs and Cougars so I new what it would take if she paid someone to do the work. I gave her an estimate of what a shop would charge. She was a little surprised. She also had a couple of other restoration places give her estimates and I guess I estimated a little low. She wanted me to restore it for her. I had never did work for anyone and did not want to since I have a regular job and flipped a few cars just for fun. I made her an offer to buy it outright, but she did not want to sell, but had nowhere near enough money to get it restored. She also believed the car to be worth 2x what I offered. I showed her how much the car is worth done minus how much to restore it and that's the number I gave her. 3 months later she called and accepted my offer.

 

I was thrilled. The 69 Sportroof was my #3 bucket list car and a BB to boot. I did promise her that when I was finished, if I did want to sell it I would offer it to her first. I will have to call her soon, just to let her know it is finally done.

 

The car was a solid project. The floors, torque boxes and rear boxes were all original and solid. The car had been under coated very heavily. The fenders and door were I great condition just a little rust in the corners and lots of door dings. The hood was from a 70 Mach it had the orginal hood latches and Mach scoop but it had more bondo in it than I had ever seen so I bought a repop one, ford orginal tooling, very nice piece fit great. The bad part was the rear quarters. There was not a lot of rust but enough around the wheel arches and and lowers that since the outer wheel housings had been cut for big tires. So two new rear quarters that I did not anticipate having to replace which added a few dollars to the cost. I also had to replace the battery apron which was no surprise since that acid rots out those areas on a lot of the fords. The paint and body work were done by a friends body shop who has done a few of my cars. He is a half old car half new car shop. Which is good and bad. The good part is that new car repair work is profitable and it enables him to do old cars at a reasonable price. He only does a couple of old cars at a time and his guys enjoy doing work on the old cars in between the new cars. The problem is that new cars come first since they ar more profitable and sometimes the old cars get pushed to the side. If you know this, and I do, it is not a problem since he lets me pay for the work they have done not the work they are going to do. That way It keeps him motivated to work on it and me with cash to incentivize him. I did do a color change. The car was meadow lark yellow which I just felt was not muscle car enough. I picked Night mist blue ( caspian blue) which was a color I saw on a 66 fastback and liked a lot. They Ricks auto body in Alton,IL painted it chroma base with clear coat. The hood scoop is for a Cougar, not as tall as the boss 9 scoop and wider than a Mach 1 scoop just to give it a different look. I also added a front and rear aftermarket spoilers. The louvers are aftermarket and do not screw into the sheet metal( just could not do it.) Rather they go under the gaskets.

 

Engine...I did pull the engine and transmission thinking to freshen them up before putting them back in. The previous owner told me they were rebuilt, well in the years sitting the car was not stored the best and upon taking the engine apart it had been rebuilt but one of the Piston walls were bad so need to be resleved. At this point I need to say that when I say I, I really mean my best frien Dan Miller at D and K transmissionson and I. We decided to do a full engine rebuild. Had the heads redone for unleaded gas and a much hotter cam to unleash a few horsepower along with a new alum manifold. The C6 was torn down in good shape according to my best friend and transmission expert, but he happened to have rebuilt toploader that was going to go into his Dad's car but his Dad decided to go with a t5 so he convinced me to putting the 4 speed in my car. Seemed like a great idea at the time and it is today but the 3 years in between not so much. FYI piecing together a 4 speed for a big block is hard and expensive. Oh yeah since the rear end is out might as well rebuild that also with a locker and 3.53 gears. The carb is a Holley 635 street avenger. The stock one was gone and the street avenger series is easy to work on. The exhaust manifolds were in good shape had them blasted and powdercoated. Installed a 2 1/4 new exhaust pipes and with flow master 40s.

 

Suspension...well it had drum brakes. I had done a disk brake conversion on my cougar and it made a world of difference. That was something that had to be done along with new brake line and new rear drum brakes. Since the rest of the suspension was old and some bent ( orginal problem with the steering, she hit something because quite a few pieces were bent) replaced everything and upgraded the sway bar to a larger one. The wheels are AR torque thrusts and 255/60/15 in rear and 225/60/15 in the front.

 

Interior....Since it had been sitting in a barn for all those years, it became a mouse house. The interior all need to be replaced. I opening the door you could smell it tore it all out cleaned what I could painted or replaced what was needed. Since interiors are relitively inexpensive and easy to do, I recovered the seats and ordered everything else that was replaceable. Most of hard plastic was good and just needed some good sem paint. The steering wheel was just a black plain one, so I went to a gt retro wood wheel looks nice, much better than the grant, imho. I bought some Mach 1 wood gauges and clock panel and should look nice together. I also took and used sound deadner on all the panels.

 

Electrical...I sent out the wiring harness and had it rebuilt there is a guy who will go through everything and repair all the old wiring and connections test everything and make it operate as new. He does a nice job and saves money over buying new and time since you know everything will work. I did upgrade the ignition to the Petronix which helps it start right up, along with the electric choke. I did replace the front headlight harness and steering column wiring. I also had he tach upgraded to one with the the new guts, rocket mans.

 

 

Ext trim and weatherstripping...all the gaskets are new, the front windshield and door glass, all of the chrome pieces were replaced, along with the marker lights, door handles, window trim and drip rails.

 

The car just got back from the body shop having the finally panel adjustments, touch ups, painting the spoiler, scoop and wet sanding. The car is smooth as glass.

 

As of 12/2015 the car is basically done. I am driving it some. I still have the Hvac to work on so the dash is out so I can get to all the hoses and wires. No ac, decided the factory ac that was added need too much to get back so may do a vintage air at some point. I will need to install a radio and speakers. .

 

The car runs great it is very fast and the 4 speed is a blast to row. I plan on keeping it for a while, four years is a long time to work on something and not enjoy it. I also have way more money in it than I had budgeted and it is not worth what I have in it but it is exactly the car I envisioned as a kid!

 

Day I got it home for the first time..

 

Finished...

 

 

Complete catalog of the pictures as I have gone along.

http://s225.photobucket.com/user/foour-55/slideshow/1969%20Mustang%20fastback%20390

[Rsanter 152]

Nice, I would be happy to drive that around

 

Bob

[prayers1 153]

Very nice write up and documented with good pictures.

I can appreciate all of your hard work, you should be very proud of yourself.

 

The car is Sharp looking!!!!!!

 

One thing I did notice.

No burnouts in front of the house;)

[7TCatvert 24]

Won't do a burnout...too much power and not enough grip....going around a turn I can get a little bit....

 

 

I got a trade offer today from my body shop....the owners son wants to buy it for 25k plus 2 69 mach1s...the one is a total parts car been sitting outside of 15 years has a fold down seat and 4 speed 351w....second is an s code mach1 automatic 390 is in pieces has a running 351c that comes with the car....been in a garage for 20 years, red with white interior, needs rear qtrs, outer wheel houses and not sure what else did not get a real good look at it 2 years ago....

 

 

Why...With the money I could afford my bucket list #2 car a Pantera....what it means is starting from scratch again, but been there once know what to expect and will have a good start on it, but no money to do anything for a year or two....

[shaun071 62]

A Pantera would be my ultimate car. No cash though!!

[7TCatvert 24]

 

 

Nothing too exciting made a new air cleaner. I took an 83 Mustang gt dual snorkel and took off the snorkel powdercoated it black, added some screens and done...did not like my aftermarket one looked too small

 

d