Anglia4's 68 Mustang

[anglia4]

Discussion - //oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/47057-anglia4s-1968-ford-mustang/

 

The story of this car starts a very long time ago.

 

When I was about 18 I brought this 68 notch off Ebay and went about importing and getting it on the road.

A couple pics from the Ebay ad:

 

 

 

 

Its a mostly original 289 with C4 auto. When I bought it, it was meant to have had new shocks, brakes and tires. It had new tires, but was undriveable with the shocks it had, had nearly worn right through a front rotor and also had a broken windscreen.

 

The very first time I drove it, a power steering line burst onto the exhaust and the bloody thing caught fire! Like big fire, out the hood up the windscreen! Luckily it didn't really do any damage.

 

After replacing the windscreen, shocks and brakes it finally got complied. But the engine had a rattle which we suspect is a broken piston and to this day (~7 years later) still haven't got around to investigating. In the mean time the car has been running a 302w that we had spare. We ran it with an AOD 4 speed for a while too as the C4 needed a rebuild.

 

I did some other tinkering with it during these times:

 

Tried some 17" Mach 1 wheels that I had on, young me thought they were great, older me is less keen.

 

I made a start on a silly big sound system. Again young me...

 

But then I had to go off to uni where I couldn't afford to run or maintain the beast. So my dad agreed to buy it off me on the proviso that one day I could have it back. So I went ahead and brought a more modern, low maintenance alternative:

 

My 2004 Mach 1

 

Along the way I've still had a bit of fun borrowing the 68 off the old man now and again:

 

I drove it to Christchurch in the snow once:

 

It made friends;

 

 

It featured in our wedding:

 

 

Basically its been used lots across the family

 

 

I've been wanting to buy it back for quite a while so I spent a bit of time lately cleaning and polishing my Mach 1, took all my pictures and wrote a nice long Trademe ad, then speaking with dad just before I listed it he mentioned that he really likes the Mach and perhaps we could do a deal. Sure thing! So a deal was struck, keys swapped, and tonight I got my beast back!

 

 

Future plans involve lots of polishing.

Dad already has a new front bumper on the way to replace the rusty one.

I put some long tube headers on it a few years back but I'd like to rebuild the rest of the exhaust as its a bit choked and cackly.

Ultimately one day I'll rebuild the 289.

I'd also like to swap the 14's for 15's and drop the front an inch or so.

 

Polishing and driving in the mean time though.

She is a power steered, boosted disc brake cruiser and I'm glad to have her back!

[anglia4]

We are heading to Wanaka next month for a mates wedding. Been planning to take the Mustang but also want to take my mountain bike.

 

So the other day I widened the roof rack I made for the Cortina to see how it would fit/look and made a bike mount.

 

 

 

Looks a bit silly but gets the job done 

 

I took it to a car show yesterday and the rack got plenty of comments. The guys in the Mustang club weren't fans haha.

I was walking behind a couple of guys who were going on about how it was "Ruined" haha I told them not to laugh too hard as it served a practical purpose and then jumped in and drove off. They looked a bit embarassed at being busted bagging my car.

 

[anglia4]

Been looking at wheels a bit for this, I like the torque thrust style but not a fan of the current balloon on 14 style. Dads got a 66 with mild low and 15" magnum 500's and it is perfect.

I think the above would be spot on for my car, they're 16", little bit of a beating with the lowering stick, roll the guard lips. Profit.

It's had a charging fault lately which we narrowed down to the voltage reg, so we've swapped it out for a more modern, reliable and cheaper unit. Stoked.

My new front bumper has arrived as well so can't wait to fit that.

When I first bought the car it had fog lights in the grille but there was no wiring and they were just hanging from the grille mesh... I like the look though so I've got some stainless flat bar and wiring gear to put the in right.

I also rigged up some fans in a hurry once straight off the battery as it was overheating in the Americana parade. So while I'm under there I'm going to wire them in properly with switches and fuses and all those good things.

Lastly, I think it's using way more gas than it should, so I've got a bid going on an EFI manifold from a 96 5.0 as I want to inject it.

[anglia4]

New bumper arrived today

[anglia4]

I did a wee bit of work over the weekend.

I spent a bunch of time making a nice wiring loom for the fans and fog lights, I've nearly finished that, just need to do the final termination.

 

I also made some new brackets for mounting the fog lights into the grille.

 

 

Hopefully will get a chance to finish putting that together one evening this week then I can change the bumper this weekend.

 

I've had to make a bit of a mindset adjustment so that I remember to always use genuine 'merican UNC fasteners too.

[anglia4]

And they work!

I've also finished wiring the fans in properly with a real switch so I don't have to lift the bonnet when I get stuck in traffic.

[anglia4]

I've been toying with the idea of painting the wheel centers.

Any suggestions on what colours might look good?

[anglia4]

Discussion goes here mate -> //oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/47057-anglia4s-1968-ford-mustang/

[anglia4]

I saw Ladaspeeds MSPaint photochop and thought "I can do that!"

 

 

I think it would look better than I expected with a little bit of low on the 14's.

 

Maybe some Red:

 

 

I'm feeling the Orange though, I think the colours will go fairly well together and get just enough hate from the oldies.

 

 

Original for comparison:

 

[anglia4]

I made a start on fitting the new bumper. The old one was never on straight so I've got a few hours of pissing about ahead of me to get it to fit.

I also stripped down the 96 XR8 manifold I bought to start thinking about my fuel injection setup.

Comparing with the performer289 manifold the ports are a bit smaller so might need to massage them to suit the heads.

Otherwise it looks like it should fit sweet as.

[anglia4]

So a while back (just before I bought the car back) a bloke came around to dads and had a bit of a chat and took a few pictures as he was writing a book on mustangs in NZ. Fast forward to the other night when I was at the warehouse and spotted the book on the shelves!

 

 

We were renovating at the time so the cars a bit dirty but he mentions that in the story, its a pretty choice book, I recommend it

 

(hopefully that doesn't breach copyright too bad, all credit to Steve Holmes!)

 

I haven't taken any pics but the new bumper is on and looking great.

 

I have bought some springs off trademe so lower it a wee bit, but the rear tyres have always rubbed a whisker with a car full or on big bumps, so I really should roll the guard lips. I borrowed my mates roller a few weeks ago but then didn't have the balls to do it haha.

 

I'll have another go later, I really want it lower!

[anglia4]

The annual Mustang Convention is coming up in Labour Weekend, its a massive event with 120+ cars registered and this year its in New Plymouth.

 

I thought I'd start getting the beast all spicko the other day and gave it a really thorough wash and dry.

My last phase of the "very thorough dry" was to dry it off with a microfibre, unfortunately I picked up one that I had once used for polishing and left a greasy film of damp polish over every inch of blue paint on the car... Very fucking thoroughly...

So I had to wash the whole thing again to get it off and by that stage it was dark, so not as clean as I had hoped. Oh well.

 

The kenwood stereo its had since I bought it only gets stations ending in an odd decimal point for some stupid american reason (93.1 93.3 etc) and ALL the local stations are even points. Lately I've been sick of listening to my ipod via a tape adaptor which is starting to pack up, and I found a new CD player I forgot I had, so I got busy today and made a nice bracket and fitted it in. It sounds great, I dunno why I didn't do this years ago.

 

 

1.6 welds so nice with the TIG, don't even need to use filler

 

 

 

Sorry for the state of those photos...

 

Also, when I brought the car into the country 7 years ago the handbrake lever was broken and it failed compliance on it so we made a "temporary" one to get it through while a replacement came from the states. Its been on the shelf for 7 years and I finally fitted it today.

I bet the fucking thing will break next week and I'll be putting the "temporary" one back on haha

 

 

Ive also bought some spare front springs for 1-way adjustables and will fab some blocks for the rear at some stage.

Then I need to do something about the tyres to allow it to get a bit lower.

I'm not excited about that job though, I'll probably put it off for a while cos I hate putting springs in and out.

[anglia4]

Wow, I haven't updated anything on here in a long time.

The old muzzy has just been doing its thing. Usually it starts, and we drive it places, and put it in the shed, and then it starts (usually....) and then repeat. Very little has happened in between.

Road trips:

Weddings:

General good times:

Precious cargo:

Moving cities:

Yes, that was all in the trailer with the car. Yes it got damaged (despite extremely careful packing), but not bad enough to be too worried about.

Old car stuff:

The alternator doesn't keep up with the headlights if you are at idle in traffic for a long time...

 

I've just been fixing up a few things in preparation for Americarna this week so thought I'd update on here.

Little things, like my electric fans have stopped working, and I'll definitely be needing those for americarna!

The rear speakers haven't worked for years... not sure why I put up with that so long, turns out I just needed to plug them back in and cable tie the wires out of the way of the stroller going in and out of the boot.

The parts being collected for lowering and EFI conversion are still sitting on the shelf, but other projects have been in the way and this is the one thing that just keeps on trucking at the moment, so I'm not keep to pull it to bits any time soon.