I realize it's been a year since I have posted anything here and since 2013 has commenced I have never felt more compelled to get back into working on the car. The car is currently completely stripped bare and almost untouched since my last post. I have however purchased a few new pieces to get the ball rolling and hopefully make some good progress the next few months.




Upper cowl vent

 Both sides full length floor pans

 Lower cowl panel

 Seat risers with floor pan covers

 and finally purchased a MIG welder, which I am going to attempt to do most of the repairs where possible to save some money, and because may as well try do as much of the rebuild as possible!

That's it for now, I plan on saving some more money to get the car blasted and then primed so I can actually see the extent of the rust, then put it on a jig and rip the cowl out.

Stripped Bare

I have been busy as of late, and not really given the attention to this blog that it deserves. Last update showed the work I was doing in stripping the car to the point where it was almost bare. At its current state I would say it is 99.2% stripped. 99.2% is an interesting figure, but I still have to remove a few clips on the interior and strip some sections of the body to reveal what I fear is more rust and bog then a mexican chop shop.

I have been spending a fair bit of time with my other project

http://holdenhz.blogspot.com/

Not quite a Ford but I still have a large amount of respect for these cars and think they are very cool looking.

Anyway back to where I was at with the Mustang....





Interior....



The prop suspension has been made up and the jury is still out as to whether I actually use this setup or not will post pictures once I take them

January Update

So it is the last day of January and figured it's about time to update where I am at. Have managed to do a fair bit of work in the last few days.
After studying the rear drum setup I struggled to get the little hooks out from the handbrake cable setup. With much effort and a bit of reading online, it was fairly simple principle...Push hooks into the hole at the same time as applying pressure. Pull cable out the back done. Easier said then done but I got them out within five minutes after having a read.



Removed the rear diff and leaf springs all in one shot


Attempted to use a more modern and conventional spring compressor which wont fit up high enough on the springs. Had to make up my own homestyle one thanks to mikes66 who gave me this idea for compressing the springs this way!



One of the spring perch studs decided it didn't want to play nice and snapped off while removing it. So tight my snap-on rattle gun wasn't able to remove them and I had to rely on my own pure force.




My $200 wheel dollys arrived today, not bad for four considering repco and most auto places locally wanted well over $200 for a set.


Now that the front and rear ends are stripped down, I can begin taking off all small clips and attachments from the car. I am in the process of making up some support mounts for attaching wheels back to the car for transportation this will be highlighted in my next post stay tuned!

Goodbye box

After a fair bit of anguish and a lot of inspection I managed to remove the steering box and attached linkages. Gave up using a steering wheel puller and resorted to a more aggressive approach which involved an impact pry bar and a 2lb hammer. The result equally devastating and effective in removing the already cracked steering wheel. What I had now was a damaged un-salvagable steering column, win some you lose some. Definitely my patience was tested today.
Also removed was the caster rods and sway bar.


Managed to remove the front end brake lines with minimal cutting... I say minimal because today I struggled for some unknown reason so I cut the pipe to the rear lines and also cut one of the front sides because the connection was rounded off. So technically I did more damage then I removed parts intact.

Time proberly isn't my friend tomorrow and will possibly jump on it within the next few days with hopefully a great deal more progress. Also in the works some custom fabrication for mounting the hubs once it goes to the blasters, more on this soon!

Stripping continued...

Managed to remove a fair bit of the interior, the engine and transmission. Also removed the front fenders and doors.







While removing the carpets I found a few dimes, cents and this bullet which I thought was pretty cool.


The next step will be to finish the interior which will include removing the rear quarter windows, steering column and hand brake assembly. I also have to finish removing the rear wiring harness. Once this is done I can continue to finish removing all larger steering linkages and brake lines.

The Strip Show

I have been busy in the last two days stripping down the front end of the car. I initially started at the rear to remove the fuel tank and blow out the lines. Once that was done the front bumpers came off.

I started removing components of the engine prepping it to be removed.

I also labeled all the engine and front end wiring harness.

The exhaust is now rendered out of action for good. This is for the benefit of everyone as it was a stock exhaust system with custom manifolds.

The Hard Way Home...

I have one regret with this car, I didn't do a very good job in taking photos throughout this mornings activities so I will retell them instead. I went to pick the car up from the business who stores them, and was surprised to find no battery was installed and an almost completely rusted out left hand inner fender apron. Once I acquired a battery from Repco I then struggled to get it firing and realised there was limited fuel being supplied. After a good 40 minutes of playing around, one of the workers at the storage facility mentioned they more often then not drain the tanks before transportation....sure enough no fuel (what a novice mistake). Filled her up and still nothing. Lots of playing around with the leaking carby and another 40 minutes later I was about to give up and orgnise to tow it, when it decided to fire and run almost perfect.

So dramas of its first start in Perth aside it was an interesting drive home. God and possibly the importer I used knows the last time those brakes actually worked properly. Lets just say it was like stopping a ship. Titanic and icebergs come to mind, luckily no icebergs on the way home. Poor quality jokes aside, it was a real pleasure to be driving my Mustang on the open Perth roads. Lots of looks were received and it may have been due to several factors including the Californian plates, rope holding the boot down or at idle it was rocking side to side as if it was equipped with a large lumpy camshaft (this was not the case unfortunately and was more then likely due to it running rough as all hell).

Not many people are lucky enough to obtain the genuine owners manual of their car from this era. I was lucky enough to find this sitting on the dash and now know the name of rental company who first purchased the car from Ford on February 24th 1967.




I found a document in the car addressed to the previous owner, something about owing $25 to the toll booth.

To save the tyres in one of my previous posts I mentioned picking up some rims and tyres from a Ford forum member that would suit my car. Removed the rear wheels which are exposed to the sun constantly and these are what the car had on her. Personally I like them alot and the tyres are basically new!


The engine is a little more tired then I had anticipated. This however is fine as I have plans to rebuild either the 289 or work with the 302 block I picked up a while back.

The body although looked fine in images also isn't that great and this won't be an issue. lots of spots where you can physically see bog/filler has been used to fix certain areas.



Where to begin with the interior. It is a mess and not much will be honestly salvaged most of it will either be stored for spares or given to other forum memebers in all honesty.







So although customs failed the vehicle only to be reinspected and slug me another $400, I managed to get covered in alot of sand and this fell out of the front valance as i took it off. Not to mention the amount of dust and dirt in the glovebox and what I found in the ashtray...