Filed under: 70 Mustang Coupe, In the shop, Maybe next week, Projects | Tags: Ford, Interior, Mustang, mustang coupe, Parts and Accessories, seat riser, slide rails
70 Mustang coupe
Squeaky Toy is back home. Actually it has been here since Dec 27. Today was productive and the 50ish weather was awesome! I did get the dash and brace back in. No problem. Put the seats back in … Problem! When I sat down in the driver seat something didn’t look quite right. So a bit of surveying the area revealed that apparently the new repop seat riser is not the same height as the factory Ford unit. Crap! A quick run to the house and flipping through the catalog revealed that I did have the correct piece installed. I have run into this in the past and it is not that uncommon Kinda like an inch shorter all the way around. No biggie, now that I know what the logistics are! A set of one inch risers on the driver seat slide rails will solve the problem easily. So it’s off to my steel guy to get some square tubing. Another project for another day.
Filed under: 70 Mustang Coupe, General, In the shop, Projects | Tags: Bob, Christmas, Holidays
70 Mustang coupe
Squeaky Toy is at the metal doctor
Well I have to tell you right now that my stomach hurts! Why you ask? Because I shipped Faye Deans 70 Mustang off to a friend to have some metal work done. And not having one of my “metal children’ under my control is twisting me up. Weird but true. But I am Santa Claus. And finally finding someone up to the task is really a great holiday present, so to speak. Tony is going to fix it up for me. So with a glass of Captain and Doctor by my side I am here letting you know that I am a bit twisted up right now. But Faye Dean says it will be fixed and I can finish it up for her soon. At least someone is here to calm me down. Between Faye and the Captain I think I will be good to go.
My friends at Big Jim’s Towing came and got the 70 this afternoon and delivered it to the shop. So now it is a wait and see as to when it will be finished so I can get it back. It has been a while finding someone to do the work I need done. Finding someone you can trust and getting good work done at a reasonable price has been a long search. But a business acquaintance is up to the task and is taking it on as I write.
So consider yourself informed and even with the holiday and all I may actually make some headway on this car very soon. Hopefully it will be up and running for Gratiot in May. Woodward Dream Cruise for sure!
Stay tuned for updates! I am both anxious and relieved. Now, on with the festivities! A few more Captains and I will be one jolly MF!
Happy Holiday from Bob’s Garage
65 Mustang Coupe
Today was kind of a productive day. After I got my chores done (mowing and edging the lawn) I decided to take care of a small project on the 65. The project was replacing the exhaust manifold gasket. No biggie. Just a simple exercise to see if I can get it done without breaking off any of the bolts or studs. I passed! I have had the gasket for a few days and was going to get around to it eventually. With the Woodward Dream Cruise coming in the next couple of weeks I decided to go ahead and quiet it down for a more presentable demeanor.
And since I was already in a fixer upper kinda mood …. I continued on to a strictly cosmetic project. That of adding a 4th chrome horse to the running herd going across the grille. I picked up a couple of new ones at the swap last week at Mustang Memories just for this purpose. The backer bracket was easily fabricated. Once again no big whoop but it took a bit of artistic adjusting and finagling to get it placed the way I liked it. But I am happy with it now. Most people could care less but I do so that’s all that counts. Right?! Right!
I will put up a pic or two of the new grille if I can soonish.
Like this:
65 Mustang Coupe
Spent the morning rebuilding the shifter in the 65. I started out on a quick mission to replace the damaged boot. But when I got the old boot off I was able to take a good look at the shifter mech. It had been feeling a bit “mooshy”.When I took it apart what a mess! All the rubber bushings had turned to a black putty. Not recognizable as rubber bushings at all. A quick grab for the rebuild kit I had and I went at it. Not hard at all. The hard part was getting all the black goo from the trunnion. 4 rubber bushings and a pair of aluminum buttons and that’s it. Cleaned the bolts up and reinstalled with a dab of lithium on the aluminum glides. Got the boot situated and we are in there!
Now lets go cruise!
65 Mustang Coupe
Finally got around to getting after the brakes on the 65. No big job just a refresh of the brake system. The front ones were getting a bit cranky so new wheel cylinders and a fresh load of fluid and we should be in good shape for the season. Fronts are done the backs are next. Weather and hands permitting I should get it done this week…ish.
Some other things in the wind are a redo of the top of the car. Did a fair job on it many years back but it is showing its age and faded pretty bad. To keep from redoing the whole car I am going to have the top re shot and use a set of C pillar trims meant for the vinyl roof as separators. Leaning toward an off white or steel gray color as a two tone setup.
New rocker panel trim is also slated to go on. Some time before Dream Cruise.
54 Ford Lowrider Project
I just spent a couple of hours this morning in the shop fabricating a new fuel feed from the fuel pump to the carb of the 54. And as usual I was dead on , again, by getting a much longer line than I needed because there is always the possibility of turning the piece into a very nice misshapen pretzel. And to be consistent I did just that on the first pass. After starting anew I did it OK on the second attempt. Came out nice actually. I do need to fab a support bracket for the mid point.
The next auto plumbing chapter will be the long lines for brake and fuel heading to the rear. I will be fabricating these myself and it may get interesting working upside down under the car. But definitely doable.
One thing I have noticed in the last couple of months in this project is that I have been able to get a lot of the basic needs done out of my military style parts bins that have been collected and sorted over the years.Lots of scavenged brass inserts and fittings, many types of automotive nuts, bolts, washers and lock nuts, salvaged electrical knick knacks and the like. The hard part is locating them in my goodie bins. But diligence pays off and I usually find them. I am proud of myself for being a auto scrounge! This Rat Rod thing is a real picker upper from a project standpoint. Use what ya got. Most of it I do have, just got to find it.
And my son, Steve, told me after attending the Billetproof show to quit being so nit pickey about the details and get to it! It’s already better than some out there. OK! OK! I’m working on it! Geez!
This is a quick catch up note from the Garage. Two and a half days of work and my hands actually holding out and the weather being nice let me get tons of work done. I am scaring myself but am still going at it.
In the last couple of days here is what we have -
- Timing cover, water pump and fuel pump on
- SkyDome speedometer unit stripped, rebuilt and repainted. New wiring and lamps installed
- MagiAire heater panel disassembled, cleaned and reassembled
- Dash gauge panel installed and pre-wired
- Dash totally removed, stripped down, cleaned up. Scuffed primed and painted whole dash and its parts.
- Dash reassembled with gauge panel. New wiring common box installed.
- Heater box units, inner and outer, refurbished and all the firewall mount holes updated to rivet nut threaded inserts and reassembled with new seals and hardware
This is a pile of work and I really am in good shape despite all the mechanical work. Hurray for Advil and Captain Morgan! Advil in the AM and Captain Morgan in the PM.
With the dash out of the car it is making the prep work for the wiring a whole bunch easier. basically looking right at the firewall and kick panel areas. I guess I should have done it a lot earlier and saved a wee bit of pain and agony from contorting under the dash.
All the nifty details will be up over at Bob’s Garage Pair-A-Dice project as soon as I can get them updated. For now take my word for it.
Till next time
Fuel level and water temp gauge retrofit
Factory gauge panel
The factory gauge panel is fairly simple and has all the necessary info in front of you. When it came time to clean up the unit for reinstallation a cursory look revealed that once the factory 6 volt elements were removed that the mount holes were damn close to a standard 2 inch gauge size. The panel came apart easily and after a quick cleanup I was able to take a closer look at the frame unit. A quick check of the holes that the original gauge units came out of revealed that they were almost dead on the 2 inch aftermarket gauge size. I said almost. With some simple and quick Dremel work the aftermarket units fit in each location snugly.
Updated gauges
Now that the gauges fit the frame I had one other issue to deal with. The aftermarket gauges come with chrome bezels and glass faces. The dash panel also has a glass face and bezel. To make it all fit in nicely I had to eliminate the bezel and glass faceplates on the two gauges. No biggie really. A quick careful buzz with the Dremel around the outer collar of the chrome bezel, where it is crimped over, and it literally fell away. With that done I simply set the defaced units back into the fitted frame and after some quick depth adjusting I reassembled the panel. And everything was where it belonged in the windows and readable.
See the whole thing at Bob’s Garage
R&R Wire Loom kit
In the latest chapter of the new wiring for the 54 Ford Pair-A-Dice project I have been working on all the relay modules for the wiring system. Relays are the only way to go for lots of wiring solutions. My needs are no different. Going to use a bunch of them. One particular section of 4 is for the headlights, horn and cooling fan that will probably end up on the front core support somewhere. While not a really big deal I wanted to mention that I am using some relay modules from a company here in Michigan. I ran across these at a local Dearborn Restorers swap and I must say they are awesome. The cool part about these units is that each unit can be key-stoned to the next unit to create a solid relay module. Clean, simple solid. No more tie wrapping them together. The wiring build is straight forward and each unit can be a 4 or 5 pin base. Simply crimp and snap the terminals into the base. No biggie. I like these units a lot! I will be using these for all the relay needs in this project. Check these guys out if you get a chance.
>>> R&R Wire Looms / Hudsonville, MI / Website Link
Spent a bit of time yesterday fitting the Holley R7448 with a manual choke kit and doing some logistic work for the spring return fitting. Nothing major, pretty straight forward stuff. Simple pattern for the spring return bracket, cut out of flat stock and drilled to fit the intake bolt pattern and we should be good to go. Film at 11!
