Gee

Automotive archaeology. I need to fix the rear window winders which means removing the back seat so I pulled the base for a look. Seems a previous owner though pink bats was a good sound deadener? Maybe the passengers arses were getting hot from the exhaust? Also since purchasing I've been having debates about the colour. The door plate says 'Brittany Blue' but my eyes say something else. Maybe it was Brittany Blue at one stage. Now I need to decide what to do with the paint. If the current issues pass a warrant should I leave it till I do the lot and then restore it back to original? I do quite like the original colour but the current one is more unique. I may also see about the dents and if they line up with the ones from the driveshaft.

Finally found some Type F and topped up the trans. It took around 1.5l so was definitely low. Did have a wee issue topping up with the car idling in park to check level... Plastic funnel and hot headers not a good mix. Muppet.

Can anyone recommend a driveshaft guy out west? It is a bit of a hike for me to take a shaft east during work hours. My other thing is I can sense some scope creep coming on. If I remove the shaft I'm going to dump a bunch of fluid so I may as well yank the trans and fix the leak and service it. While it is out of the way I'd like to fix the floor damage even though it is really only cosmetic. I also want an overdrive gear somehow eventually which would need a shortened driveshaft.... I'd prefer to limp along for a bit till I can do it all but I have a feeling one driveshaft has let go in the past and I have seen videos of driveshafts destroying trans output housings... Sometimes you shouldn't look too hard.

I found the JJ explanation just after I posted it. Doesn't really matter but good info. The car sat for a long time and the damage was caused when it was lower I assume so not surprised they are that old. Bit of cracking as well so need new ones. I'll have to look at the drive shaft. I think it is a replacement after the first one shit the bed but who knows where they got it.

As if after 25 years fixing shit I needed a reminder of how to fault find I noticed smoke coming from the right side on the motor way. After googling likely causes and thinking head gaskets or rings or valve stems I thought, 'what did I muck around with last?' Red shit everwhere. I had tried to tidy up a trans cooler liine that was getting squished and caused a major leak. A new bit of line later and hopefully no leak or smoke. Also got a reminder of why I don't like Supercheap. 'I'm after some ATF' "what is your rego?' '68PQNY' 'Mustang?' 'Yep' 'Manual?' 'Er, no. Auto' 'ok, ATF Type F' Me not trusting him much now 'can I just Google that to check' 'sure' "open Google' 'Do you want the Supercheap site' 'No, just Google, type in C4 Trans fluid' much dicking around later confirmed F Type fluid 'I didn't see it on the shelf, can you show me' He grabs LS trans fluid 'That's not F type, have you got any F-type?' he asks a mate who checks and says 'none in stock' Yeah, good chat lads.

Picture of tyre damage Fronts are ok but on the hoist were reall close to the upper control arm at full droop. Fine down. Fronts are 225/60R14's and rears are 245/60R14's. I'll probably go down a size when I have to replace them as they don't need to be this big (words rarely heard). There is no rubbing now. I may also consider some new rims but I like the SS look and don't really want to spend the coin just after buying the car. Bit harder to justify to the Minister of War and Finance. Bit rough, she was dead keen on me buying this, but might have to spend a bit on her hobbies first. You can just see the P/N on the wheel 7JJX14 which I assume means it is a 14" x 7" wheel and JJ? I think this might be the offset, so says Google.

It's not exactly 'weld porn' but seems ok from what I could see. The car is probably stock height unless the rear springs are lowered. They are still at the stock eye setting and no blocks. It was a lot lower though as the guards are rolled and the sidewall damage would not happen at its current height.

Not sure on the rims. The centre is welded to the rim in short bits. You can probably see that in on of the photos. Now sure if this is a pressed in bit or steel to steel. I think the front tyres are new. They are mint with no flat spots I can find. The rears are a bit older I think. The right rear has a lot of scrubbing, I take a photo later, and it is also more worn than the left. Maybe a replacement or maybe a one wheel peel? There is no drive shaft loop, don't think the factory ever did that. It could be out of balance, I think they probably grabbed one off the shelf from somewhere. It has the white paint pen '67-70 mustang, C4 or manual' written on it. The car shakes like mad over 60mph and it comes through everything. Does not feel like a front wheel out of round, I have had that a few times before on other cars. I am tossing up whether to pull the power steering ram myself sometime or just take it in somewhere and get them to do a few things at once. Would be much easier but part of me is like 'maaaate, do it yourself'.

So, list now: Shudder at anything over 60MPH 'Digital' steering at highway speeds, mint at low speed Rust in both A-pillars and possibly C-pillars as well. Not sure how it got a warrant on the first but the second could be a reaction to the lead filler Scrape marks in the left rear tyre sidewall. Probably scrubbing before they rolled the guards but again not sure how thing passed a warrant no washers. The squirters are missing and the pump has no electrical connection. Again, warrant Strong smell of petrol fumes with a full tank. Ripped driver seat Drivers seat does not tilt forward no trans kickdown has one. Probably needs to be tighter and the spring should go to something a bit more legit rear windows don't wind down No choke - Don't care, it's wired open. Will be irrelevant with a later mod. Dash lights don't seem to work Oil and temp gauges may work but not accurate, not sure about oil as the needle is straight down and never moves. Oil gauge actually does work, finally saw it move from none to some pressure Random extra wire on starter solenoid that apparently shorts the car out and kills it. I think this is a ballast bypass wire and is not needed due to having a pertronix Power steering ram could use a rebuild with new lines Fix trans leak

Had a look for leaks and the engine is surprisingly clean. It may have been cleaned up prior to being sold to me but I've done over 1000km now and the donk is bone dry. Power steering ram, no so much. Again I didn't take a photo but the you can almost see the boot on the ram. There was a bit of new fluid there and these hoses are buggered. Warrant fail again? Old mate Ted says sometimes they get a mobile warrant guy who checks most things but doesn't use a hoist so wouldn't spot this. It works and not a bad leak but will need to be added to the list. Also found a bit of a leak on the trans Oh, and I do have a kickdown. I'm used to 'newer' Fords that have a kickdown rod. This comes of the throttle shaft on the firewall not the carb. But loose maybe? Not sure how effective the spring is either. Good enough bro? Also noticed the cooler lines are a bit close to the header Pretty normal but maybe I'll wrap them somehow when I can be bothered. The hose at the front was also smashed between the sway bar and the lower radiator hose on the hoist (again no photo). Probably ok under load but could be routed better so I cut about 4" out and now it is much clearer. Ted also noted the trans mount is a bit skew, not sure if this is normal.. seems fine apart from being not straight. Maybe we are just a bit OCD.

Next check was the wheels shit photo and hard to measure the pilot hole. It is not a nice machined face in these as they are never meant to be hub centric. Not sure if I can even use a hub centric ring here. but measured the hub pilot anyway Will see what I can get but not sure if anything will improve.

Productive morning. Chucked the muzzy on a mate's hoist to look underneath and take a wheel off for a look. Found quite a lot. First up was looking a causes of vibration over 60mph. Better check the drive shaft. Quite a lot of output shaft showing and a bit of play but this is at full droop so... ok maybe? unis seem ok, bit of gunk on the diff housing. What up here... Shit photo but at one point the drive shaft has played panel beater. No way this could happen normally (I don't think) as the pinion snub should stop this but I think the car was a lot lower based on the sidewall damage on the right rear tyre and maybe the uni shat the bed and made a mess. Otherwise it all looks ok. It seems to have a new driveshaft. I forgot to take a photo but it still has writing on it from the place they got it.

Here's some random pictures of the front seat belt cause someone asked how they worked.

It seems Scarles (among others) sells Wheel hub centric rings so I'll just need to measure them. A mate at work bought from them for his Alfa with BBS rims due to the same issue but he had to buy close and machine them to exact fit.

The washer is a foot pump, not sure if this means you have to keep pumping. The hose goes to the electric pump and the wipers move so I can tie the pump into the wiper somehow as long as I do it in a way that doesn't make the washer come on every time I turn the wipers on. The indicators in the vent are wired up nicely so looks factory and the fog lamps are physically installed like factory but the wire is wound around the loom, not in it, and it has a very 90's switch on the dash. The seat belts are proper inertia reel front and fixed rear, both 3 point. They were actually a selling point for me, they are not common but make me feel a bit better about regular cruising. The pwr steer is weird compared to my Fairmont as it has the separate ram. The pump could be low on fluid but I'll have to check that hot.

Pics of the A-pillar rust. I chatted to Mosele P&P and they said they'd have to paint the whole rear of the car which would also deal with the C-Pillar issue. I didn't bother taking a photo of that as it is really hard to see. It would need to be paint matched though as it is not a Ford colour, more fun.

To add to my list: Shudder at anything over 60MPH 'Digital' steering at highway speeds, mint at low speed Rust in both A-pillars and possibly C-pillars as well. Not sure how it got a warrant on the first but the second could be a reaction to the lead filler Scrape marks in the left rear tyre sidewall. Probably scrubbing before they rolled the guards but again not sure how thing passed a warrant no washers. The squirters are missing and the pump has no electrical connection. Again, warrant Strong smell of petrol fumes with a full tank. Ripped driver seat Drivers seat does not tilt forward no trans kickdown rear windows don't wind down No choke - Don't care, it's wired open. Will be irrelevant with a later mod. Dash lights don't seem to work Oil and temp gauges may work but not accurate, not sure about oil as the needle is straight down and never moves. Random extra wire on starter solenoid that apparently shorts the car out and kills it. I think this is a ballast bypass wire and is not needed due to having a pertronix

With the window washers I can get the squirters for around $16USD and can wire them up easy enough. The tube from the bottle goes into the firewall for some reason so I'll have to chase that.

So the car was parked for about 12 years prior to me buying it, didn't know that till I picked it up but I did notice the rego on Car Jam and didn't click. The tyres are in good knick apart from the sidewall damage but could be out of round from sitting. The vibe does seem to settle down. The tyres are 225/60R14 front and 245/60R14 rear and I assume they are Cragar SS wheels with Mustang centre caps. There is no rubbing now but all the guards are rolled and it is not that low, at least not compared to my XD. I had a mate with a 67 coupe years ago (the inspiration for me buying this) which had 215/265 BFG's on Cragars with no issues but I don't know if he needed adaptors of any kind. The main reason I sold my Fairmont was I was too attached to it and it needed to be mint. When I broke rare as rocking horse shit plastic bits it annoyed the shit out of me and I needed to pass it on to someone who would look after it but not be so fussy. Mustangs on the other hand are common as dirt and easy to get bits for as mentioned above plus my basic poor mans Muzzy can be modified as much as I like (it already is) and no one cares.

Car nerd stuff, the door plate shows a code of 8R01C139128 but the chassis stamp on the front guard is 8R01C121772. Decoded means: 8 = 1968 R01 = manufactured in San Jose C = 2V 289 plus S/N of car. Car Jam agrees with the guard stamp but the actual VIN is on a plate on the dash that always gets covered by the dash pad when people restore them. I'll have to see if I can dig it out carefully. The Bottom numbering means: 65A = Coupe with standard interior and bucket seats Q = Brittany Blue (not the current colour) 088 = Not sure 71 = Los Angeles 2 = 2.79 Diff Will have to take this with a grain of salt for now as the plate may have been changed with the door at some point.

Mustang 'build' thread here: Chat away

So I recently sold my XD Fairmont (below) and bought a 'new' 68 Mustang. I got it sight unseen off Trade me from Christchurch and thought 'I've watched a lot of Roadkill, but really what could go wrong'. The car is a factory C-code V8 which is a 2 barrel 289 base model but it has power steering and 3-point seat belts so a bit of an upgrade. I think the vented bonnet and fog lamps are an add on by a previous owner and also the dual exhaust with 66 GT cutouts in the rear valance. Luckily I made it home to AK with no major issues but being fussy I have made a list of things to sort. Shudder at anything over 60MPH 'Digital' steering at highway speeds, mint at low speed Rust in both A-pillars and possibly C-pillars as well. Not sure how it got a warrant on the first but the second could be a reaction to the lead filler Scrape marks in the left rear tyre sidewall. Probably scrubbing before they rolled the guards but again not sure how thing passed a warrant no washers. The squirters are missing and the pump has no electrical connection. Again, warrant Strong smell of petrol fumes with a full tank. Ripped driver seat Drivers seat does not tilt forward no trans kickdown rear windows don't wind down Probably some other stuff I've forgotten but a bit to keep me busy.