Some ambitious goals for this week...

I've got a couple more pictures of the newly shipped suspension parts (coil springs, insulators, U-bolts), but I thought I'd post on what I hope to accomplish this week.  My company gives us off the week after Christmas (well, this year anyway), so I hope to get quite a bit done.

• I got some more sanding done on the front...just about all of it is gone.  Hopefully I can get the last of it.  Shouldn't be too hard.  
• I'd like to get some aircraft stripper and give it a whirl on the fenders/hood, to see how much crap I can remove.  Problem with that is, I don't really know what to do after that.  After stripping all the paint off, to bare metal, I'm pretty much guaranteed to get surface rust on the body.  I'll need to coat it with something, but I don't know with what, or how to coat it.
• This is not really a goal, but would be a nice milestone.  I am supposed to pick up my leaf springs from Dallas Mustang, but I'm not sure if they'll have them this week.
• I will attempt installing the clutch and brake pedal parts on the brake pedal support bracket.  But, I'll also be removing said bracket, to get it ready for welding (roller support bearings).
• Thought about removing the stock export braces, but, I'd like to remove the engine eventually, and redo the engine bay...maybe.  Sheesh it sucks that I'd have to strip all of that off, after I primed & spray-painted it a couple years ago.  But, do I want to do it right?  Maybe.  Decisions decisions...
• Sanding down the interior, and removing the rear quarter panel parts.

Oh well, time to get to work.

Shipment #1

And there's more to come!

Vendor Complaint

I'm not normally one to complain about vendors because I think they all have their pros and cons (just the nature of the business), but as a former restoration parts business-owner, this kind of thing irks me.

Mustangs Plus is a good company.  They provide a large variety of parts, at good costs, and have good catalogs and service.  I went to purchase a 4-1/2 leaf mid-eye leaf springs kit (the kit comes with the springs, shackles, 2 bolts, and the U-bolts), and proceeded to checkout.  Since leaf springs are obviously very heavy, I knew about the $15 box charge their site specified.  No big deal.

However, upon arriving at the shipping confirmation page, I noticed the additional shipping price was VERY high - $59 and change, bringing the total to about $75.  I guess I would have dealt with this, as shipping this from California can cost quite a bit. 

UNTIL...I checked what the shipping would be on just the leaf springs.  So, excluding the shackles, 2 bolts, and U-bolts, the shipping was $41.  Surely the price to ship these objects does not come out to $18.  So, I called Mustangs Plus on this.  After speaking with the customer service guy (who agreed, by the way, that they could ship it all in one box and it would be close to $41), he said the shipping would be....

HIGHER!?

Yes, $65, plus the original $15 box fee, which comes out to $80.  So after originally agreeing the price should be ~$41 + $15, he "changed his mind" saying it should be $80.  No thanks, pal.  I don't appreciate a company

1. apparently trying to make their profit off of shipping
2. changing their shipping policy after I could have ordered it at a lower price.  

 So in the end, CJ Pony will get my business for the shackles and U-bolts, because they offer free shipping.  And Dallas Mustang (though I despise them) will get my order for the leaf springs.  They were the only other company I could find offering the 4-1/2 leaf mid-eye leaf springs.

Until tomorrow, when I can post some pics...

Parts get ordered today!!!

Sanding and more sanding

I'm making a lot of headway on sanding the front aprons.  Admittedly, I wish I was a lot further along than I am, but I'll do what I can.  Obviously with the holidays being among us, things are a lot more busy.

I picked up a few tools this past weekend:

A set of 4 chisels, ranging from 1" wide to 1/4" wide. 
A set of snap ring pliers
A 5-piece set of new pliers/cutters. 

The chisels are for the nasty undercoating crap all over the body.  The snap ring pliers are for the eventual T-5 rebuild, and the pliers/cutters are just for having :)

Well, that's all for this evening.  I'll probably have more time to work again on Thursday evening, and will hopefully "finish" one or both sides of the aprons.  Then I can move on to the front...and who knows where I'll go from there.

Tools you should get

A shop-vac!  Man, sanding this car down, and removing all the undercoating, is nasty.  Literally pounds and pounds of crap have fallen off so far, and I'm just getting started.  I recommend getting a shop-vac to get all this up.  Now I just need to find a semi-cheap one. 

Also you can't underestimate an air compressor.  I don't have one of these, and it will be a while before I get one...I can't wait.

Clutch Pedal Notes

If I haven't pointed it out before, I'm totally new to all this manual trans. stuff.   So when I got all the clutch pedal parts in the mail, it took me a few days to realize some parts were not there. 

The lower clutch rod (attaches to the equalizer bar and pushes on the clutch fork) was missing, but is now on it's way thanks to the very helpful seller. 

I will also be upgrading the clutch linkage to heim joints, and adding a roller bearing assembly to the brake pedal support (see image below).  The heim joints method should save on the pressure it takes to push the pedal, but I don't think I'll be adding the bearings - I don't have a welder, nor do I know how to weld.  I can always do this later if necessary.

Thanks to Mustang Steve for the image.  I'll be buying his kit - it looks slick!

Out with the old

Found a fellow Mustang driver who is converting from a manual transmission to an auto, so he was needing an auto pedal (and I was needing a manual pedal and clutch pedal, along with all the miscellaneous parts).

So, I spent about 30 minutes removing the various parts today.  The pin that holds the assembly together is a pain in the neck to remove.  I found it easiest to use a punch to push it out of the shaft, rather than trying to pull it out of the shaft.

Here's some pics of the auto pedal assembly:

(The blue punches represent the walls of the pedal support assembly).

So I bid farewell to the auto pedal, and say hello to the clutch pedal and....

The List

Per the recommendation of a friend, I decided to make a list.  This list is a list of things that I want to do to the car, before it is "ready."  This will hopefully keep me in check, somewhat, and establish something to go off of when it comes to "the next thing."  So, without further ado...

• Transmission & Drivetrain
• T5 Swap (sell the C4 parts)
• Heim Joint Clutch Linkage
• 8" Rearend rebuild (possibly incorporate ~3.2 gear ratio)
• Electrical
• Electrical Wiring & Routing
• Electrical Antenna
• Relay Panel
• DSII - new coil, module, and location (also counts as Engine work)
• Stereo/Speakers (also counts as Interior work)
• Exterior
• Sanding down all body panels
• Paint
• Undercoating
• Suspension
• Rebuild Suspension
• Braking
• Rebuild brakes
• Disc Brake Install
• Interior
• Sanding
• Insulation
• Interior Installation
• Stereo/Speakers
• Console
• Engine
• Carburetor Rebuild
• AN Fuel Line Fittings
• Thermal Clutch
• Exhaust
• DSII - new coil, module, and location
• Reassembly
• Possibly GT Fog Lights
• Reassembly

Obviously this is a somewhat-vague list.  Things will need to be done to achieve some of these, and they aren't explicitly written out.  But this should provide an overall list from where I am, to where I want to be.   Will update the list as necessary.

Taking it Apart

Well, I'm in the process of disassembly.  So far I've removed:

Front Bumper
Front Apron
Front Rock Guard
Headlight/Grille Assembly
Passenger side Fender
Drivers side Fender
Passenger side Splash Guard (I think that's what it's called?)
Drivers side Splash Guard
Most of interior

By far, the fenders were the most annoying things to remove.  There are so many screws randomly hidden.

I also found that the Drivers side Fender must be a replacement.  How did I come to this conclusion?  Because here's what is behind the fender (the splash guard):

The next thing on the agenda (once the $$ gets here) is to order the suspension components.  Here is the Parts List:

480# Coil Springs (NPD)
Coil Spring Insulators - Midolene (NPD)
*4-1/2 Mid-eye Leaf Springs (Mustangs Plus)
1" Front Sway Bar (Mustangs Plus)
KYB Gas-A-Just Shocks - set of 4 (Mustangs Plus)
Lower Control Arms (Mustangs Plus)
Upper Control Arms (Mustangs Plus)
Sway Bar End Links (NPD)
Sway Bar Frame Bushings - rubber (NPD)
Rebound Bumpers (NPD)
Lower Control Arm Bushings (NPD)
Export Brace (NPD)
*U-Bolts (Mustangs Plus)
*Leaf Spring Shackles (Mustangs Plus)
*Leaf Spring Hardware (Mustangs Plus)
Roller Bearing Spring Perches
UCA Drop Template


* Indicates part of a kit, which saves ~$40.


From here, I'm not exactly sure what the next step will be.  There's a lot of different directions I could go - removing current export brace, removing old rear end, disassembling old UCAs, repainting gauge panel (to make brighter), or just starting sanding away.

We'll see.

T-5 Toys

Headed out to a new "classics" junkyard this morning (dang it was chilly) to look at a 66 Falcon.  Well, I found the Falcon but didn't find anything useful in it.  I did, however, come across a 67 Mustang Coupe, with an I6 in it.  It had a manual transmission in it at one time, but it's long gone.  Luckily, the bellhousing, clutch fork, throwout bearing, block plate, flywheel, clutch, and pressure plate were still there.  I got the guys to lift the engine out of the car, and started removing parts.  I didn't need all these parts, but I did manage to get the bellhousing, clutch fork & throwout bearing, block plate, and 9" flywheel, all for $60 + tax.  Not a bad deal!!

I'm still on the search for the clutch pedal from the 65-66 Mustang (and brake pedal, that'd be nice).  I believe a 65 Falcon pedal would also work, but I  a) am not sure, and b) don't have a 65 Falcon to pull one from.  That search will continue on for a while.  As for now, I've got a lot of cleaning up to do, then I'll post some pics.

Carpet Removal

I spent much of this past weekend pulling the carpet out of the interior.  The carpet was in terrible shape, and appeared to be about 5 different colors.  The floor pans underneath was the goal though - we had looked under the car and visually inspected them, but nothing is as good as looking from the top (where water tends to collect).  After pulling everything out and filling several trash bags, I found that they were really not in too bad of shape.  The drivers side was in significantly better shape (not that the passenger side was bad, however).  On both sides, in the rear floor pan, there were 5-10 pinholes.  Not exactly sure what I will do there to fix them.

Another new goal I have is to swap the C4 Automatic 3-speed to a T5 manual 5-speed.  I've looked at the costs and the fun-factor, and it's too appealing to turn down.  Will be quite a few months of part- and deal-searching, but I think I can do this swap for less than what most people have done it for.  After all, I'm a cheapskate :-)

Edit:
Here are some pictures of the carpet removal:

Ignore the large hole on the lower left.  That's the hole for my 3-point seat belt anchor.  I'm not sure I like it, honestly - it's kind of warped, which makes me worry about the strength of the floor pan sheet metal. 

Front Suspension

It's all gone, finally!

Now to play the waiting game (i.e. saving money) for the new parts. Here's a few, off the top of my head:

480# coil springs from NPD
Coil spring perches and insulators
Rubber bumpers
Upper Control Arm shaft rebuild kit
Upper Control Arm ball joints
Lower Control Arms

I was going to work on the rear, but seeing as the front is jacked up, it made the rear "drop" slightly. I can't even get under it. So, I'm not even going to bother until the front is complete.

Gone

All the Ball Joints have been disconnected from the spindles. The spindles were then removed, obviously, from the Upper and Lower Control Arms, and I examined the brake lines.

On the stock drum brake setup, the steel brake line comes through the shock tower and heads straight down to a bracket, where it couples with the rubber brake line. The rubber brake line then allows for movement when turning the wheels. The bracket/rubber brake line are all on the rear-side of the spindle (in other words, away from the front of the car) because the input to the drum brakes is on the rear side.

On the new disc brake setup, the input on the caliper for the rubber brake line is near the middle, but angled toward the front of the car. Thus, the old brake line setup will not work. It was suggested to me to buy a brake line adapter from Mustangs Plus which will route the brake line more forward (towards the front of the car) so that the rubber brake line does not kink.

Here is a mock-up of what the new brake/wheel assembly will look like on the car.

From Blog Photos

And here's a mock-up of the new wheels on the car.

From Blog Photos

Still lots of work to be done before those can actually be installed. List includes:

New Master Cylinder installed
New SS Brake Lines installed
Brake Line Brackets mounted
Brake/Wheel assembly double-checked
New Upper/Lower Ball Joints
Upper/Lower Control Arms cleaned/de-rusted
New Tie Rods installed

And probably a few hundred bucks to blow, too. :D

One more down

One more ball joint is loose, but it's past 10:00. Hopefully tomorrow the bottom one (which is always harder to break loose than the top ball joint) is a little easier to break free.

Glass shards

After I removed the ball joints, I realized my hand hurt. Turns out, there are dozens of microscopically small glass shards in my hand. I have no idea how it happened...but holy crap, it hurts.

I worked on removing the other two ball joints (Driver's side) last night. They are REALLY stuck on there, so I sprayed some WD-40 on them. Hopefully that will loosen them just enough that after 20 whacks with the sledgehammer, they'll fall loose.

Then, it's on to the new brakes.

Wow, 2 years?

I suck.

From Blog Photos

Old brakes removed - new ones would go on, but I tore up my hand, somehow.

Sledgehammers are the ultimate tool when getting a spindle off a ball joint. You can't beat it...