72 Mach 1 Mustang: Working through roadworthy job list and other tasks

A productive day.

Today I set about making a start on the job list to make the old girl roadworthy.

First job of the day was to get the engine running after replacing the plugs yesterday. This was not a large issue as the engine was going, all be it roughly when I drove it off the tilt tray truck on Thursday.

As suspected the radiator has a hole or 2 in it and leaks. Fortunately someone has put glycol in the radiator so the water looks nice and green, all be it a bit low. I topped up the water and let the engine idle for a bit. I think the carby may need a kit through it or at least the engine needs a good run. (Once the radiator is fixed and the car is roadworthy).

Someone asked, how many miles has the car done. The odometer on the car is 08682 miles. So it has done approx. 10,8682 miles, that's 174,906 km. (Michelle's 2008 Hyundai i30 has done more...)

Earlier in preparation, I picked up some parts from Just Mustangs in Riddell's Creek. This is where I purchased the car from. Russell, the owner, is very helpful and has heaps of parts are good prices. Oh so much cheaper than Australian based Falcon parts! While there I picked up a front guard protector that was very suitable for the car.

Part of the appeal of this particular car is the fact that it is very original. Per my last post, it has all the tags etc. One of the roadworthy items was to locate the engine number as the mechanic could not find it. After some research and some elbow grease and steel wool. The engine number was located on the back of the block on the left side behind the kick down rod for the auto trans. With the help of a mirror the engine number was checked and confirmed that it is the original block and all numbers matching.

Here is a picture of the numbers via the mirror. Due to the mirror they are reversed.

With the help of the good old PC, the picture can be flipped to enable the reading of the numbers.

That reads 232551. This is the last part of the body number that is specific to this car.

Note: Michelle's mirror was cleaned after the exercise.

With the car now turned around and forward into the garage the next task was to replace the rear shackles on the rear springs. While not super difficult, was time consuming. The old rubbers came out looking surprisingly good. It was just the outside edges that had cracked, but the main load bearing part of the rubbers were near perfect. Here is a picture of the old one..

Here is the new left one installed. The right one was also completed.

Once the rear shackles were replaced and while the car was still up on jack stands, I took the opportunity to replace the rear shock absorbers. These are gas filled ones from Scott Drake. As can be seen, there is a fair bit of surface runs around the place, but no deep rust other than the rear quarters.

Next job on the list, while not on the roadworthy job list, was to fix the auto trans gear leaver. It was very sloppy as this is a known feature that the bushes wear out and disappear. I pulled off the small console and selector cover, then removed the whole assembly in order to replace the 2 plastic bushes and then clean up the shifter, re grease the plunger that locks in park etc and then reinstalled. Total cost of repair $2.