When a seemingly small job snowballs out of control

 Window seals and the rest...!

Today I set about replacing the window to door felts in both doors and on the small rear quarter panels and seeking factory paper work..

Fortunately, Nev put me onto a cheap trim removal set from ebay, so I was prepared. 

This set as saved the paint work and a heap of trim clips and not a screw driver in sight..

I started with the main door outer trim parts as they had hardened and or had gold coloured paint on them from then the car has had a closed door respray.

They came out a treat. So far I have only replaced the outer ones. I have new inner ones that attach to the top of the door trim and are held in with staples. As these are in good condition, I figure I can doo them mid week with out having to take the car out of the garage. So will save this job for another day.

I also replaced the rubber seal that joins the front of the door to the lower part of the wind screen / A pillar. 

This also was a simple job.

I then set about replacing the same type of seals on the rear quarter panels.. Plus I had a bee in my bonnet about seeing if I could find the original build sheet that was most likely hidden under the carpet somewhere in the car.

So the front seats came out, and the rear seat came out then I lifted the carpets and I found 2 build sheets! Both could be removed with reasonable success. The one on the side of the tunnel was face down and harder to remove. The front one is in reasonably good condition.

The first picture is of the front build sheet.

The second is the one from the tunnel that was face down

I will now try and preserve them so they dont get damaged and further.

While I was removing the carpet and the sound deadening on the front passenger side, I found that the sound deadening was damp. Fortunately there was not much rust due to the damp. I suspect that the heater core has a leak.

I have left the sound deadening out to enable it to dry and for the floor to dry also.

While I was at it, I re routed the speaker wires to the door channel so they don't get crimped.

Curiously, there is a hole in the middle of the floor where I think a rubber grommet should go, but it is the same on the drivers side.. So have asked a question on one of the forums.

While doing all this work on the car, I constantly come across old mud wasp nests in the most strange places.. The little buggers have created nests all over the place. So they get removed and vacuumed up. I have not found any living creatures in them as they seem to be very old.

Here are a few I removed today.

While the carpet was out, I found 2 holes in the tunnel that I dont think should be there. I think it is a manufacturing fault rather than rust, so have covered them with 100mile per hour tape and will look to fix them at some point.

Anyway, back to the window seals. Once all the seats, carpet and rear trims were removed, the replacement of the outer seals was relatively simple. Again, the inner ones are attached to the inner trim with staples. I have not replaced these as they as Im trying to figure out what Im going to do with the rear trims as they are fairly dagy but also brittle. So will leave them in place for now.

As part of the dash cluster repair, I had to partially remove the top part of the dash, so today I removed it completely in order to clean up around the dash area and all the dead bugs in the gap near the windscreen. I found that the black crash pad seemed to have new bolts and by the looks of it is a reproduction item. This is not an issue, just interesting to see that it has been replaced.

I have new door rubbers to go around the bottom part of the front doors, so that's a job for another day.

I have placed a post on the 71-71 mustang forum to see if someone can tell me where I can get these rubber parts. They don't seem to be in the Scott Drake or CJ Pony parts catalogue.

The ones on the car have gone hard and are in poor shape.

While I have the rear seat and panels removed I took the opportunity to remove the rear seat belts in readiness to replace them and or use them as examples for what I need. I'm yet to have the discussion with the VASS engineer re how I can mount the new ADR approved rear seat belts as per 1972 Australian ADR's they need to be lap / sash and the ones in the car are lap only.

At one point today, the garage floor was covered in interior parts. I did not take a picture but should have. The back seat and front carpet are now in storage in the train room for now.

I'm now waiting on the new LED light fittings to go into the dash and then I can reinstall that during the week.

Well, thats all for now. The oil sender adapter is still leaking so will have another go at that this week.

Tie rod ends

 Moving down the job list.

As Victoria is now back in lockdown due to a few cases of community transmission of Covid19, all kids sports is cancelled for the weekend. This has enabled me to get stuck into the jobs list on the mustang.

I'm still waiting for the new LED's for the dash lights so the reinstall of the dash has been delayed.

Todays job, amongst others was to replace the tie rod ends on the front steering.

The old tie rod's has perished rubbers so needed to be replaced. I suspect the ones on the car are the originals as they don't have grease nipples on them.

The task to replace them was relatively simple.

Fortunately, new tie rod ends are relatively cheap at about $35 each. 

Once the tie rod ends were replaced, I then set about replacing an old main water pipe hose clamp as the main lower radiator water pipe was leaking. After a quick run to Autobarn (click and collect) I also picked up new new heater hose pipe as the hoses on the car are fairly old.

Before long, the hose clamp was replaced, the heater hoses were replaced and the water temperature sensor was replaced with a variable sensor for the new gauges I have to install.

I also had another go at reinstalling the oil pressure gauge adapter into the back of the block. Again this has not been so successful as the adapter has a taper on it and it not sealing. I tried some high temp sealant but this did not fix the issue. I'm just being cautious in not over tightening the adapter as I don't want to damage the thread in the block or break the brass fitting. I will have another look at this tomorrow to see if I can come up with a solution. It is not leaking much but is leaking and this is not acceptable.

The next job is to replace window and door rubbers in the 2 doors and back quarter windows.

Then I will install the wires for the gauges ready for the dash to be reinstalled.

Dash lights not working

 Can't see the gauges.

After doing some reading about the dash lights in the 71-73 Mustangs, I found that the illumination is fairly poor from the factory globes. Looking at my car, the dash lights are dim and a number of the other globes do not seem to work. So I set about removing the dash to clean it up and find out why things were not working. Only the alternator light seems to work. 

In preparation for this task, I found that the dash lens was a bit cloudy, so I picked up a new lens for the dash from Custom Mustangs.

Once I removed the dash I found that there are 13 wedge type globes in the back of the dash, all held in by plastic screw lungs with brass tabs in them. Of the 13, only 1 was working. The rest had some corrosion on the contacts of the globes.

This picture is before disassembly.

After a bit of work with a small file, I cleaned up the tabs and got all the globes working. While researching the various types of LED's that can be purchased via ebay, I found a forum discussion that suggested that I leave the globes in the high beam, indicator, brake warning, temp warning and oil pressure warning lights and only replace the illumination ones with LED's.

I have now ordered the LED's and hopefully will arrive later this week to complete the install.

I have now reassembled the dash with the new lens and have also cleaned up the assembly and removed 48 years of dust and grime. For the indicator lights, there was foam that sealed the dash assembly to the dash fascia. All this foam had failed and was like dirt. I found some black packing foam and have cut it to shape to replace what should be there.

These are a few test cuts before I found the best way to install.

I also took the time to disassemble the air vent and clean that also.

It also has some light foam attached with double sided tape to provide some resistance to the went so it can be swivelled.

The vent is now clean and works a treat.

Once the new LED's arrive, I will install, test and then reinstall the dash.

I smell a fuel leak

 Hmm Fuel on the drive way. That's not good.

During the week I backed the mustang out of the garage to test some new gauges I purchased. During the testing I found that there was a smell of fuel and then noticed fuel dripping from the fuel pump that is located on the side of the motor. I grabbed a few pics and send them to Nev to confirm that the fuel pump was on its last legs. Sure enough, it was leaking from the join in the middle of the pump.

After a few phone calls and a bit of internet searching, I found the price for a new pump at Rare Spares was the best price. So off to Roxbrough Park to pick one up.

The install of the fuel pump, although slightly hindered by the power steering pump, was a relatively simple task made much easier by having the car at home and cold rather than the fuel pump failing on the side of the road somewhere. I have now replaced all the rubber hoses associated with the fuel line, the fuel pump and the car was fitted with a new fuel tank before I picked it up. So hopefully, no fuel issues. in the future.

More to follow...

A few more little jobs

 Jobs, jobs, jobs

Not pictures to show for the progress at this point. Just recording what jobs have been done over the last week or so.

I have been away in Brisbane for work so the work on the Mustang has been a bit slow.

Last weekend I finished adjusting the drum brakes. It was not pulling up very well so I decided to buy a drum brake adjuster tool rather than using a screw driver on the adjuster cog. This was much simpler. I found the front left to not be adjusting, so pulled the drum off and found I was turning it the wrong way. So once this was found, the adjustment came easy and now the brakes are working nicely.

Some weeks back I purchased a new AM/FM antenna with a rectangle base to match the factory one. I then set about replacing the antenna. I removed the plastic cover inside the wheel arch to enable me to get to the rubber bung for the cable. It was nice to find no rust in the bottom of the A pillar. Soon the antenna was replaced and moved onto the next job.

I purchased new wiper rubbers and rubber tube to get the windscreen washer's to work. The blades went in nicely, and then set about trying to get the washer to work. Fortunately the powered pump on the bottom of the factory washer bottle works perfectly. The pipe from the bottom of the bottle to the bonnet is taped inside the main wiring loom and I have found that the pipe has a hole in it or is blocked. So I have left the original pipe in place and run another pipe along the side of the wiring loom. After cleaning out the washer jets and a bit of messing around I now have the washers working perfectly.

I'm also working on cleaning out the gutter where the boot rubber sits. It is a messy job as the factory one is glued in place. This is a slow job and am plugging away at cleaning it out with a solvent that does not harm the paint.

As the car came factory with the basic dash set up, it does not have gauges for the engine oil pressure and engine water temperature. It just has "idiot" lights.

I have purchased a simple 3 gauge set that I will mount under the dash so I can keep an eye on the engine's vital signs. These gauges are yet to be installed.

I still have my large jobs list to work through so thats 1 step at a time.

I am about to order the front seat belts.

I have new tie rod ends to install and then will go and get a front end alignment.

I have found that JustMustangs has the replacement bottom rear quarters, so will go and pick those up in a week or so.

Once the belts are done, I can arrange to take the car to Ferntree Gully to get the exhaust replaced.

Until next time..

Great day for brakes

 Another big job done.

Today the weather was great, a perfect day to drive the Mustang out of the garage, put it up on axle stands and fix the brakes.

The factory brakes are drum all round with no power assist. In order to get the car roadworthy, I have decided to just fix the brakes as they are and then in the future convert the front drums to disk brakes.

Fortunately, parts for the mustang are cheap. I was able to pick up a new replacement master cylinder for $125 and wheel cylinders for $25 each corner. If it was a Aussie built Falcon the prices for parts are about 4 times the cost in some cases.

My good mate Nev came over in his 66 convertible Mustang in Spring time Yellow to help out for the day.

We got suck into it in disassembling all the drum brakes, gave them a good clean and reassembled the drum brakes. During the reassembly process we found that one of the rear wheel cylinders that I was supplied with was incorrect in that the brake line entry point was in the wrong spot. Usually there is a left and a right brake cylinder, however, for my car they are the same. Im not sure if someone has installed the incorrect one in the past and the brake lines re-bent tosuit or if the 7/72 Mustangs are just that way. I just dont know. After a quick spin to Just Mustangs in Riddell's creek to replace the problem wheel cylinder, we returned home to continue the works. The master cylinder was replaced and the brake lines cleaned out before the brakes were blead and wheels put back on. The rubber brake lines to the front brakes had already been replaced, so there was no need to change them. The brake line to the diff was the original, so I replaced that brake line during the process. 

Nev was impressed with the car and commented that the body looked great with no rust in the usual places. Sure it is not a show car, but will be great to cruise in.

Here are a few pics of the works being done.

The front drum brakes are rather large!.

Once the works on the brakes was done, we turned out attention to the radiator. It has a small leak in it and not holding water. Nev had a spare reconditioned 3 core side tank radiator as a spare for his XB GT. So brought it over to loan to me while I get the one for the mustang fixed. The original radiator is a single core side tank unit. I will look to get it rebuilt as a 2 or 3 core and swap it back into the car at a later date.

While I was under the car, and planning for new exhaust hangers on both sides, I located and cleaned the diff tag. I have now confirmed that it is date correct, is a 2.75 ratio and is not a LSD.

All this work is ensuring that I get through the jobs list.

The tasks left to complete are:

Replace seat belts.

Replace muffler and rear part of exhaust. Will change to a twin system.

Replace rear main seal on the gearbox.

Repair the rust in the bottom of the quarters.

Replace tie rod ends.

The list is getting shorter fortunately...