Heater box and decals

 Where is that water coming from!

While out on a local drive in the Mustang I visited Russel Coulson to check in on the progress of the Eleonor build. Once the visit / inspection was complete, I returned to the Mustang that was in the drive to find water dripping from the right hand side of the car around the firewall area. Upon inspection, I found that the water had glycol in it and then found that the right hand side carpet was wet. Looking a bit deeper I determined that the heater core had failed.

I then sourced a new heater core from Just Mustangs and set about removing the heater box, disassembling to clean it out and installed the new heater core.

Here is the heater box disassembled.

I then washed out the sodden underlay / sound deadening and reinstalled.

Job done!

I then decided that I needed something to break up the solid gold of the bonnet so ordered and installed some 351 RAM AIR decals.

Although the car does not have the Ram air function, the decals look cool.

My next job is to remove the front stone tray and paint strip, repair and reinstall.

From 2 barrel carb to a 4 barrel

 Inlet and carburettor conversion.

Per an earlier post, I sourced a XB GT 4 barrel inlet manifold and then sourced a Motorcraft 4300 carburettor to enable the old girl breath a bit better.

Along the way I have slowly been giving the engine bay a bit of a freshen up.

Here is how it looked before I started.

I then sandblasted the air cleaner and give it a lick of paint.

The 2 pictures of the air cleaners are the same. Just different lighting.

Then I sand blasted and repainted the rocker covers.

Then after a fair bit of procrastination, it was time to do the change over.

I then removed the alternator brackets and power steering pump brackets.

I also cleaned the fan and painted it also.

Then sand blasted and painted along with the bolts.

I then removed the old caby ready for the install.

Rebuilt Motorcraft 4300 ready to go in.

I removed the inlet manifold and it came off very easily.

By the looks of things the inlet manifold has been off as there is silicone on the inlet manifold.

All nice a clean inside..

I installed the end rubbers and the valley cover ready for the inlet to be installed.

Inlet installed and torqued down.

Carby installed

Needed to search for a vacuum leak. Found that the carby was not sealing on the inlet. Also the pipe for the PCV valve was not sealing on the tube from the back of the carby. I made up an adapter to fix that issue.

Then tuned up the idle mixture and idle speed.

Then off for a spin.. Now it breaths much better..

Next step to sort out the painting on the water pump, power steering pump, and the radiator support panel.

Repair / replace / repaint interior trim

 A fresh new look.

Ever since I picked up the Mustang I felt that the rear plastics needed replacing or repairing. Also the crash pad is black and should be ginger like the rest of the trim.

I managed to source original rear plastic trim parts from the US that were from a ginger trim car and in much better condition than those in mine.

The old trim parts are very sun damaged, chalky and pitted and beyond repair but mostly complete. The previous owner had also cut speaker holes in them. Here are the old trim parts now removed.

The new / old panels had some colour fade and some chalky parts but significantly better than the old. I managed to get some paint colour matched to the backs of the new / old panels and asked a good mate who is a car spray painter to paint them for me.

While I was at it, I also striped down the mini centre console that I had previously painted with the wrong paint that was chipping. I also removed the crash pad and asked him to paint that also.

I'm and super happy with the end result.

Here are the parts ready to install.

Here is a comparison from the old to the new.

Here are the parts installed.

I also installed new (repro) sail panels that go from the plastic panels to the roof line.

Here is the new crash pad and centre console installed.

Next step, inlet manifold and carby replacement.