I'm baaaaack....

Sorry about that folks.  I've changed jobs and subsequently had a new email address, which was unable to access my blog.  But as you can see, I've worked it out.

Sadly, the poor Mustang has been neglected over the Xmas holidays. But a few updates are in order.

My first shipment of Mustang parts arrived.  Parts in America are soooo cheap. The hassle is getting them over here to Oz.  But I have a cunning plan.

First, a big 'thumbs up' to CJ Pony Parts.  Competitive prices and free shipping... within the States.  So I signed up with a mob called Shipito, who also deserve a big 'thumbs up'.

My parts are delivered to Shipito, who then forward them on with some very good rates.  And the service is excellent.  They broke up one of my packages into smaller sizes to get better shipping rates. (no, they didn't break the parts)

Works a treat, although it takes a while to receive them.  But it's not like I need them tomorrow...

BTW - I got a new instrument bezel to replace the old one that had gone a dull black with grey-coloured chrome trim. And a new dial face to replace the milky white one.

Excellent...

Fear of hose clamps

Groan... yet another nasty surprise to fill me with dread and rip apart the insides of my wallet.

Being a bit naive, I decided to strip the seats and prepare them for the new upholstery. I knew they were in a bad way...

but was unprepared for what lay underneath...

The frames were a mangled mess.  It looks like they've been repaired a number of times in the past and I don't think they could take another repair job.  They are STUFT!  So now I've had to go and locate a new set of bucket seats...

Anyway, enough complaining... back to the subject of the post... you notice a couple of hose clamps in the first photo?  They actually hold the metal frame together... the large tubular frame was actually busted in two and held together with those hose clamps.

Now, check this out...

This is me, removing a hose clamp that's holding the ignition switch in the dash... WTF???

The car is almost stripped now and I have over 30 hose clamps, about 6 of which were actually used to attach hoses.  It's reached the point where I break into a sweat whenever I see one.  Who knows what horrors are hidden beneath them?

Beware the hose clamp...

My extra parts have arrived

When I bought the car, the previous owner also had a truckload of restoration parts that I also purchased.  They have now arrived and it's like an early Xmas. Well, actually they arrived a month or so ago, I'm just catching up...

Check out the wheels... sweeeet....

And a pony interior.

Boxes and boxes of goodies...

Woohoo!  An original centre console...

And if that wasn't enough... my wiring harness arrived about the same time... swoon....

So... if I take all this...

and add it to this...

then I'll get...

How easy is that?

Painting the Engine

Ok, ok.... I'm slack... I get it... but I'm an important man and got a lot of important things to do.

But, I have managed to do a fair bit to on the Mustang, so thought I'd take the opportunity to blow out my server quota with a few photos.

In our last semi-exciting episode, I had just removed the engine from the car. Although a lot of different things have been done since then, today we'll continue following the engine on its exciting journey to restoration... well, a paint job at least.

First I stripped off all the non-essential (i.e. - easy to get off) bits.

I painted the manifolds first in a high-temp grey.

The harmonic balancer was next...

Yeah, the rubber is old and cracked... it'll need replacement one day.

Next, the valve covers are run through the media blaster to get all the old paint off, then sprayed with etch prime.

Then the tedious part... cleaning the engine block.  A dozen cans of degreaser and a high pressure hose gets most of it.

But getting all the nooks and crannies clean requires a bit of elbow grease... and time.

Finally, she's ready to go and the painting begins.  Note that I'm using Ford Blue, which is a standard colour that's been used by Ford for a million years or so.  Well, except for 1965, which was a lighter shade.

And here we are...

Now it's time to finish up all the bits and pieces and bolt them back on.  You can see the end result in another post.

Removing the engine

I know, I've been a little slack in keeping the updates coming... but I've been busy.  It's not like I had a lot of spare time when I acquired this thing  ;o).

First off is to disconnect and, where possible, remove everything that isn't bolted down.  er... you now what I mean.

I started with the alternator and the carbie.

Now at this stage I noticed something strange... where was the timing marker?

According to Chilton's it supposed to be just to the left of the fuel pump... sigh, something to worry about later...

Next I removed the heater box and hoses...

Followed by the water pump...

And... WTF?

The timing marker was hidden under the water pump.  Ummm... it's either a) the wrong engine, b) the wrong timing cover, c) the wrong water pump, or d) any combination of the above.  Still investigating that one...

Anyway, everything is eventually removed and disconnected and we're good to go, so time to bring in the engine hoist.

And with a bit of TLC...

Out she comes, no worries.

The engine now sits in the corner of a garage awaiting cleaning and painting. The engine bay is also ready for a good clean, then some bashing with a hammer to patch up the radiator damage before bringing in the welder.

Much, much more to come...

Mustang makes the man

I've been a bit slack, but only because I've been very busy ripping bits out of the engine bay.  I'll post an update on the weekend.

In the meantime, some light relief in the form of a Ford advertisement from the late 60's...

lol... (true but)

Tackling the engine bay

Yeah, way too much time on my hands...

Ok... interior is too expensive at this stage of the game, so I'm going to focus on the quick win stuff that shouldn't cost too much. But remember I did say that about the interior. Sigh...

Anyway, I gotta toss the over-sized, giant, mega radiator and put in our new 1966 repro. This will allow me to put everything back where it belongs and basically tidy up the engine bay.

So I drain the water, disconnect the hoses, remove a couple of bolts and tada... out she comes.  Now I've been told a billion times I exaggerate too much, but check this out.

The radiator on the left is what should be in there. Ok... maybe I exaggerated a little, it's not quite twice the size.  Well, excuuuuuuuuse meeeeee.....

Unfortunately, they had to alter the engine bay a bit to fit that monstrosity in, here's the result.

Nice....  so looks like I've got a bit of patching to do.  You notice the plate of scrap metal sitting on top of the platform in the 2nd photo?  That's what's left of the old battery tray.  Why unbolt it when you can slice it off and hammer it back out of the way?

Oh, did I mention the custom battery tray they replaced it with?

That is a piece of plywood held up by two shelf brackets... I kid you not.  You can see some rust bubbling up above the tray (battery acid), so that's going to have to be cleaned up.

Anyway, talking to the experts at Caloundra Brake and Clutch, it would be much easier to do all these renovations if the engine was not in the way.  So although redoing the engine bay was low on the to-do list, I've gone this far so I might as well bite the bullet and just get it out of the way...

So stay tuned for our next exciting episode when I attempt to dismantle the engine.  What could go wrong?