Grandpa's Mustang

[Bill Bailey 15]

Well, now that I have finally acquired my grandpa's 1969 Mustang he bought new, after buying it from my aunt, the work begins.

I don't think the car has been on the road since 1989, so I'm going through all the systems to get it road worthy.

The break lines are shot, so I have a line kit ordered. And I'm replacing all wheel cylinders and rubber break lines. Break pads and hubs still look surprisingly good.

Gas tank had about 4 gallons of nasty brown crud. So the old tank is out, and I bought a new one.

I have already soaked and rebuilt the carb. It was froze up.

Leaf springs look terrible, so replacing them, too.

Dash pad was baked, and the bezel above glove box was cracked. I replaced both.

I found some rot under the battery tray into the frame. I assume from a leaky battery at one time. I also found some rust on the trunk extensions by lower rear fenders along with a couple other spots on the car. Thankfully the floors, frame, and trunk pan are solid. At some point I will tear down the car completely apart to do a full blown rotisserie restoration.

But for now I'm just going to drive the car as it is.

 

 

 

[69ShelbyGT350H 61]

From the photos your car looks nice. Standard interior with the fold down back seat. Event he Philco radio is still there. Reminds me of my 69 GT when I got it in 1979.

[Bill Bailey 15]

Radio works, too. :-)

[unilec 57]

I like your plan of just getting the car roadworthy and enjoying driving the car, the interior looks to be in very good condition anyway, well done, i bet you can't wait to get in on the road.

[Bill Bailey 15]

Thanks. Yes, I'm anxious to drive it. 

[Bill Bailey 15]

I got the passenger leaf spring off, and surprisingly not one bolt broke. 

[69RavenConv 286]

 

1 hour ago, Bill Bailey said:

I got the passenger leaf spring off, and surprisingly not one bolt broke. 

That's impressive, I had to use sawzalls and angle grinders to get mine off  :)

[Bill Bailey 15]

I'm just waiting on parts to arrive.

I should have it road worthy in a week if the parts show.

[MAC390 327]

What a great car , you are so lucky.

[fvike 173]

Nice car. I wonder what a detailer could do with that paint. Probably magic.

[Mike65 475]

23 hours ago, 69RavenConv said:

 

That's impressive, I had to use sawzalls and angle grinders to get mine off  :)

X2 I had to use a large cut off wheel on my angle grinder to cut the front leaf spring bolts to get them out.

[TinMan 77]

Nice story! Nice car!  I was in the same boat, mine sat for 33 years. On mine, it was started every few months for 7 years. This just gunked up the top end of the motor and 5 valves stuck resulting in bending push rods and popping one rocker stud. Point being, if you can't spin the motor pretty easy with a wrench on the harmonic balancer you might want to check more things! :)

[Bill Bailey 15]

10 hours ago, TinMan said:

Nice story! Nice car!  I was in the same boat, mine sat for 33 years. On mine, it was started every few months for 7 years. This just gunked up the top end of the motor and 5 valves stuck resulting in bending push rods and popping one rocker stud. Point being, if you can't spin the motor pretty easy with a wrench on the harmonic balancer you might want to check more things! :)

I pulled the plugs, and squirted marvel mystery oil in all the cylinders. I let it set a week before I tried spinning it by hand. It wasn't frozen at all, and spun fairly easy.

[Caseyrhe 650]

I will use an old dist shaft, with gear removed attached to a drill, running it in reverse to flush out and prime the oil channels, turn over by hand several times, then install dist right before starting

[Bill Bailey 15]

One spring done.

[Bill Bailey 15]

Found some bad rust on the passenger side front frame rail. Also a large hole under the battery tray. There is another bad spot on the lower frame rail near the cowl of the passenger side. And a couple bad spots on the upper inner fenders where they bolt with the fenders. 

So I took the front end off, and will need to pull the motor and trans to be able to make the repair.

Both front fenders are mint. No rust at all. :-)

The front frame rail replacements and lower frame repair piece were less than $100 total. So that's good. But I'll have a few hours into fixing it correctly. 

While the motor and trans are out, I'll go through them too.

[Bill Bailey 15]

Motor and trans are out, and my Mustang is heading to the body shop next week.

[Mike65 475]

The rust holes on the top of the inner fender panels is common on 69/70 Mustangs my 69 Coupe had it in 4 spots I had to patch, & the bottom of the battery tray is from battery acid, also very common which mine had also.

[Bill Bailey 15]

Well, since I found some rust on the front floor pans after pulling out the carpet, I decided to pull the entire dash and workings from the interior.

 

It's going to the body shop next week.

[aslanefe 333]

 Make sure to check the cowl for rust.

[Bill Bailey 15]

7 minutes ago, aslanefe said:

 Make sure to check the cowl for rust.

Will do. Thanks

[aslanefe 333]

2 minutes ago, Bill Bailey said:

Will do. Thanks

Easy way is to run water with a hose  into cowl, on both sides one at a time and watch the water run or drip inside. Your floor board pictures, especially the drivers side looks like cowl leak to me.

[Bill Bailey 15]

On 03/04/2018 at 5:15 PM, aslanefe said:

Easy way is to run water with a hose  into cowl, on both sides one at a time and watch the water run or drip inside. Your floor board pictures, especially the drivers side looks like cowl leak to me.

Cowl doesn't leak. :-)

[stangs-R-me 120]

After seeing that floor, I was going to say check the cowl ... that is great news that cowl is good.

Doug

[Bill Bailey 15]

Body shop is finally working on my Mustang!