1970 Fastback

[Cantedvalve 128]

So I have a "past work" thread started over on VMF.  It ends (when I get it done) around 7 years ago.  I'm going to put current era work here.

So my car has been in storage for 7 years. Nothing fancy... just a garage.  My son got interested in cars, so we started working on it again.  For those who don't know, I had put a Novi 2000 supercharger on a 351C, and then followed it up with EEC-IV fuel injection.  All that stuff is now off, and I am taking it back to a naturally aspirated street engine. So as this car was pretty much untouched for 7 years, there is a lot of cleanup to do.  The mundane work:

• Stripped out all underhood wiring (wasn't much that wasn't EFI)
• Removed the valve covers for polishing
• Cleaned the engine bay (in front of the shock towers)
• Welded unused and owner inflicted holes closed on the inner fenders

There is more mundane, but that is the bulk of it.  For the new intake I went with another Weiand Xcellerator.  For the ignition, Pertronix Billet Distributor and Flamethrower coil.  I wasn't terribly good with the pictures to this point, but attached are a few.

 

 

 

 

 

[Cantedvalve 128]

So next thing on the list was to get the dash and gauge cluster out.  I had gone with an aftermarket gauge panel... that didn't work.  I really loath when a company advertises a product for 69 and 70 but it really can only work with a 69... yeah that gauge panel was that way.  So I took it out, tore it down, and sold off the gauges. I then set about reconditioning an original gauge panel and putting my original gauges in it.  I also had a dash cap on my original dash previously, and I had cut holes in it for more gauges.  So I needed a new dash cap.  I got that, installed it, and got it painted.  I used the holes that were in the original dash for something a little trick... a magnetic cell phone mount!  Just glued some magnets in there and bam... hidden cell phone mount.  I am thoroughly impressed with myself.

The gauge cluster I used was devoid of the chrome trim (stored my original and bought another).  It had worn off over the years.  The panel was in really bad shape cosmetically, but good shape as far as being intact.  So I cleaned it up and painted it, reinstalled the gauges, etc.  It's stock, just has a nice paint job.

[Cantedvalve 128]

So now to the radio.  This one is a work in process.  I have some(old but good) 6x9 speakers in enclosures that I am going to use in the back, and up front I have a pair of 3.5" Kicker speakers in the dash.  I had to clean up and re-glue the felt on the speaker boxes for the 6x9 speakers. I also painted the grill and trim ring that goes with them.   Now they look new again.  I have small Mustang pins that I got online to adorn the original speaker boxes.

Up front I have a set of Kicker 3.5" speakers in the stock dash location, side by side.  These will run directly off the head unit.  I got them mounted in today.

The head unit itself is a Kennwood KMM-BT515HD Digital Media Receiver.  As the name might suggest, it doesn't have a CD player at all... instead relies on a Bluetooth or USB connection to play stored music.  It still tunes AM and FM as well.

Driving the rear speakers will be a Kenwood compact amplifier KAC-M3004 that can do 75 watts RMS x 4 channels, but I will bridge it to 150 watts RMS x 2 channels.  I plan to mount on the flange right in front of the fuel tank.

 

[Cantedvalve 128]

So mounting the radio.  I went with the "hack up a busted old bracket and put it back together" method.  I cut out the sides, and made metal panels out of 18 gauge for new sides.  It ends up that doing that made just enough room for the cage.  I epoxied everything back together. Then painted it.  I'm happy.

 

 

 

 

[MAC390 327]

Great work there, how long before she runs?

[Cantedvalve 128]

So that was fun.  Then I turned my attention to my life long nemesis.... the cooling system!  With a little research, I found out that those wonderful engineers at Ford like to play jokes!  See, the Cleveland has a unique thermostat.  Other small block thermostats will fit, but they won't work right.  So I have to thank those lovely engineers for making it just that much more difficult.

The radiator.  I had a 24" Northern that was working for me.  I wanted to pair it with a Flexalite 3300cfm fan with shroud, and it would have worked for the most part... until the darn thing fell out of the back of my truck, right onto the core, cracking and distorting it badly.  Oh well.  I needed a bit wider one for this fan anyway.  Enter it's bigger brother, the Northern 26" Race Pro.  The fan will fit flush to the core on this one.  I just have to get it mounted.  The fan came with aluminum brackets.  I trimmed them down (with a band saw, and I still have all my fingers) to not look so... yuck.  A coworker at work used his master TIG skills to weld them to the radiator.  Looks really good now!  He also added an NPT port on the side of the tank as a mount for the fan temp switch.

 

[Cantedvalve 128]

That's only half the battle though.  Now I gotta shoehorn that thing in there!  Like a good impulsive idiot, I didn't bother to measure anything.  Come to find out that the overall width of this radiator is 27". Inner distance between the frame rails is 28".   Whew!

But wait!  I still have to clear the water pump pulley!  Oh crap... interference.  Now what?  Get out the pneumatic cutoff tool and trim that core support!  Blue tape in the pictures represents what is getting removed.  I picked up 1.5" of distance, twice the 0.75" needed to clear the fan.  Woohoo!  I used a pinch seal from Flexalite on the edge that remained to seal the radiator to the support.  After I painted everything.  

Since I just eliminated some of the core support, I had to also modify (shorten) the upper bracket so that it would grasp the radiator again.  I sectioned out an inch.  I also welded in a 1/2" increase in height for the lower saddles... more on why later.  That pretty much brings us up to date.

 

 

[Mike65 475]

Nice work.

[Cantedvalve 128]

@MAC390 not much longer.  Wiring, fuel pump, fuel lines, radiator hoses... that's about it to make it run.  After that though, I still need to do the interior... which I have already started on.  I work on the car at my dads house, but I bring home parts to my house to clean and paint.

[MAC390 327]

Coming along well, like the cooling system mods.

[Midlife 814]

Very nice!  And kudo's for making things up as you go.  Enjoyable, eh? 

[Cantedvalve 128]

@Midlife Did you ever see it with the supercharger?  Here are a couple of photos... one carb, the other EFI.  Granted, I abandoned the EFI when I stored the car, so I never got it tuned.  I think the computer was faulty... I know the pump circuit never worked for me.

 

[Cantedvalve 128]

Haha... check the second to last photo... look what I was holding the radiator bracket on with!  I guess I couldn't find the bolts that day.

Also, for anyone curious, the pulleys are from CVF Racing and are extremely well made.

[RPM 1,190]

Guess I missed this thread somehow.  Very nice work CV! I love my CVF pullies,  quality and made in USA! Pretty cool that your boy likes the Mustang. Gotta love those tig welders. 

 

[Cantedvalve 128]

And cheaper than the competition.  Available in black. And yes... USA!

[Cantedvalve 128]

So I've been working on the interior.  Why you ask?  Well because in order to go much farther, I need to get the gauge panel in, and get power to the coil.  So like a good ADD-riddled Mustang owner, I went full bore into refinishing stuffs.  I had originally decided on satin black for interior trim, including the lower dash and headliner trim, both of which I knew were the "black metallic" as I am calling it.  I had everything painted and done... then the nagging thought in the back of my mind... "but it isn't right..."

So now I had to set off on an adventure to find a black metallic that was enamel compatible - that's right you purists, I'm using enamel.  Three reasons... a) enamel is prevalent, plentiful, and price effective, 2) I had read that it would lay down thinner than lacquer (right or wrong, that is what I read... not on this site), and iii) I know how to spray enamels... no experience with lacquers.  Given the results, I am beyond happy.  I found a Rustoleum Carbon Mist Metallic at a local Home Depot (I found a Universal Black Metallic by Rustoleum too, but that was like spraying glitter).  I used semi-flat black and topped it with 2 light coats (from 12+ inches away) of the metallic.  The hue matches what original I could find almost perfectly.  There is more metallic to my method, but IMHO there wasn't enough from the factory, as you could only really see it when it was wet.  I started with the headliner trim and the glove box door...

 

[bigmal 225]

I like that black metalic. Looks great.

[Caseyrhe 650]

Looking Good man!!!

[Cantedvalve 128]

... and proceeded to the rest of the trim pieces.  Right now, the only satin black left up front is the dash, gauge cluster, and passenger panel.  Oh and radio bezel and steering column plastic collar thingy.

 

[Cantedvalve 128]

Close up of trim pieces

 

[Cantedvalve 128]

I've since done everything except the dash pad with the metallic.  I've also decided to do the grille and headlamp buckets in similar fashion.  That will likely spread to light bezels as well, over time. It is definitely going to be darker than original, but it's not terribly hard to reverse if it doesn't look good... but I think it will.

I did figure out how I am going to "bypass" the resistor wire for the Pertronix setup. There is a green/red stripe wire that originates from the same place.  It normally goes to the voltage regulator, but I am on a 1 wire system so I don't need it.  I bought and extension harness for the gauge and coil feed harness.  I cut the coil wire, and redirected the green/red stripe into that extension. Keeps all original wiring intact and still accomplishes the goals.  

 

http://www.1970sportsroof.com/images/IMG_0270.JPG

 

[Vicfreg 771]

Noted your kick panel speaker comment in an earlier post.   I put a post on the forum on this topic to show what I did.  

Also have the CVF pulleys, love the quality and price.  

 

[Cantedvalve 128]

I have been suffering from back pain the last week or so. Was play wrestling with the boy... I think maybe I overdid it.  But I won and that is what counts.

 I did start on the upholstery.  The driver seat was split, so I started with that one.  I am using Distinctive vinyl over Dashes Direct foam.  I reused the original burlap as it was in great shape.  A couple notes on the Distinctive vinyl... no listing pockets on the bottom edges of the seat bottom vinyl.  I used a small awl and poked a small hole in the vinyl hem on each side and put wire in there.  Worked very well.  I am satisfied with the quality of both Distinctive and Dashes Direct.  One thing I added was some foam on the back of the seat back where that jute was previously.   This helped straighten out the vinyl and take up a bit of extra slack.

http://www.1970sportsroof.com/images/IMG_0370.JPG

[Cantedvalve 128]

I didn't end up doing this... removed to prevent confusion.

[Vicfreg 771]

Ok, I will have to ask....why do you want to be able to remove the fuse block?

I really like the connectors...great find!