Gee's 68 Mustang chat

[Gee]

Mustang 'build' thread here:

Chat away

[Nominal]

Does look too bad, apart from the rust. Hope there's no nasty surprises there.

I always remind my wof man that I don't have any windscreen washers 'fitted' which means they don't need to work to be legal (I think there is a pump but not much else on the car)

[Flash]

Good to see another Tang on here. I'm looking forward to your updates as things progress.

[CUL8R]

TBH tyres look a bit oversized for it, Im surprised its not rubbing in the front lock to lock? 

We normally Recommend 215/65r15 fronts, and 235/60r15 rears (judging by your rims they're 15x8 et0 all around) . Those early Mustangs 66-69 really don't take a massive/wide wheel without issues

The shaking is most likely those Cragars/Keystones with their horrible offset washers. Basically your whole wheel will be gyroing on the hub. No one makes them AFAIK but a engineer could spin you a couple of CBL rings to locate the wheel to the hub 100%, and then your offset washers will line up perfectly.

[j.e.d.]

Yep, did that with my old Camaro.. does the trick

[Flash]

13 hours ago, CUL8R said:

TBH tyres look a bit oversized for it, Im surprised its not rubbing in the front lock to lock? 

We normally Recommend 215/65r15 fronts, and 235/60r15 rears (judging by your rims they're 15x8 et0 all around) . Those early Mustangs 66-69 really don't take a massive/wide wheel without issues

The shaking is most likely those Cragars/Keystones with their horrible offset washers. Basically your whole wheel will be gyroing on the hub. No one makes them AFAIK but a engineer could spin you a couple of CBL rings to locate the wheel to the hub 100%, and then your offset washers will line up perfectly.

Yep @CUL8R, you are bang on the money in terms of these old beasts not liking wide wheels and big rubber on the fronts. I'm currently running 8J zero offset rims all around on my 66. Front rubber is 225/50/15 and rears are 245/50/15. Fronts do rub on full lock due to the bead on the front rims hitting the outer lip on the upper control arm. I'm about to fit 5mm spacers up front to see if that will solve the issue. Apart from the rubbing my setup hasn't negatively affected my road handling. Car is smooth as silk at any speed. But having said this I've completely refurbished my front suspension and the tyres are brand new. I agree with @CUL8Rthat your issue is likely to be poorly fitting rims and may be exacerbated by worn components. How old are the tyres and are they showing any signs of uneven wear ?

@Gee, I've looked through your list of other issues and apart from the rust they are all pretty straight forward fixes. The best thing about these old Mustangs is that they are so easy to work on. There are heaps of really good "how to" videos on the net that are specific to the first generation Mustangs. On top of this parts are plentiful and relatively cheap.  

[Gee]

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.

[Gee]

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.

[Nominal]

3 hours ago, Gee said:

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.

That's easy, just fill it up with water and turn the pump on.

[anglia4]

Yeah another mustang!

I thought the washers on these have a mechanical pump on a pedal, which would explain the hose going inside.

I could wander out to the shed for a look at mine, but it has also never worked in my 12 years of ownership. No WOF man has ever cared about it, nor have I.

I'm fairly sure the vented bonnet will have been standard equipment, but probably not the fog lights. Mine is exactly the same. Except that when I brought mine the fog lights had just been bolted through the grille mesh all floppy like and weren't wired in at all.

Again, yours is very similar to mine being a 289 from 68. The rear side marker lamps point to it being from late in 68, when most of the cars were starting to be produced with the 302W.

Do your seat belts have a separate buckle for the lap belt and shoulder belt? On mine the shoulder belts were a dealer installed option, so are literally just a second belt over the top of the lap belt.

Tire wise, I was always told by the old boys in the mustang club that 225's are as wide as you can go in the rear. Mine had 245's, which I changed to 235's (225's not available that day) and I've rolled the guards a touch as well.

The power steering units are a bit of a ball-ache. I've found it really difficult to bleed properly in the past, and it gets a bit weird and notchy if its got air in it.

[Gee]

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.

[Flash]

My 66 has an electric pump for the windscreen washers. Looks to be factory fitted. The washer is activated by pulling on the wiper switch knob. Turning the wiper switch knob clockwise activates the wipers. Single speed wipers unfortunately.

[anglia4]

Yeah the indicators in the hood vents are factory on a 68.

[Gee]

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.

[cletus]

Cool, I like notchback mustangs

The front wheels look like cragar copies (speedy californian) can't see the rear ones

Easy way to tell is cragars have an alloy center with bits of steel cast into them that weld to the rim 

Speedy wheels are all steel and are a different shape , are a bit flatter

[63Ragtop]

Nice car man, the tyres haven't been sitting in the shed all those years have they?

 

[CUL8R]

Ah those are the Speedy Wheels (cragar copies) which just use tapered nuts. It'd pay to put them on a balancer and check the runout on both rim and tyre.

Checked the front wheel bearings too?

[Otodat]

That driveshaft looks dodgy, do you think it's a home job, maybe UJ alignment out or out of balance? does it have a loop on it?

[Otodat]

Oh yeah dude, had another look, it's not even welded properly at the shaft end. It looks like it was lengthened, maybe to cope with extreme lowering. Personally I would not drive on that, I would say it's where the vibration is. Actually gasped when I saw it lol.

[Gee]

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'.