i got out to my dad's at like midnight on friday, traffic was a beast and my ride had to go "dippin" to a "party" so you know, wuteva wuteva. i woke up pretty early on saturday, and my first agenda was tearing into the mustang front end that we got for free.
as you can see, my dad just cut the whole front end out of the mustang. made for a lot easier disassembly of the front suspension overall.
also, my dad also liberated these parts from the mustang (doors, fenders, etc...)
i think we are hoping to sell them and make him some money on this whole deal, since he's spent a lot of time helping me out.
julie will be mad at me if i don't post these pictures, as i was working on the front end, i took a quick break to hang out with smokey:
in b4 "yay smokey bonez"
here is a picture of the front rims my dad liberated for me. they aren't much, but they will get me on the road, which is the focus. also we only have two of these:
they are the old magnum style rims that were very popular on the mustangs/etc... back in the day. i wish i could find two more to match, because i'd probably clean them all up and keep these.
we ended up moving our base of operations over towards my car, and i got the spindles/etc... all torn off of the mustang front end:
we noticed that our calipers and spindles appear to be from two different years, which gave me a huge headache, but more on that later.
we shifted focus to the master cylinder/proportioning valve that was obtained from the mustang. we are moving from a single reservoir to a more modern style dual reservoir for safety and improved braking.
as you can it all bolts in, and we actually drilled some holes for the proportioning valve. after all of this, we took a break and ran out looking for parts/etc... and returned with the following:
chrome water filler neck - 10 dollars
1967 mustang front disc, rear drum, manual master cylinder - 20 dollars
sunpro gauges - 20 dollars
not pictured: high performance thermostat - 12 dollars, new ignition switch/key - 10 dollars, towels/lucas gear oil, etc...
now to be noted, when tearing apart the disc spindles, something became very obvious to us, and that was that my ball joints for my control arms are the wrong size. so 270 dollars later, i'm waiting on all new lower and upper control arms from the 1962 and up style falcon/comet to arrive. yay.
we got lazy so we went inside and watched dune. my dad hated it. i love it.
the next day we awoke, and it was raining, aka piss on me for getting anything done. we got very daring and ran out to pick a part to scour the junkyard for a new crank pulley/etc...
whether this was cost effective remains to be decided, as it cost us 30 dollars for the pulleys, one of which we aren't using, and 10 dollars to even get in, but whatever.
while we were out, we picked up two more 14" rims for my car. 5 lug. 50 dollars for both:
shifting our attention yet again, we focused on getting the alternator to fit on the motor. we are using a GM style three wire internally regulated alternator, which used to be a big advantage over the ford externally regulated type, but nowadays you can buy a stock ford alternator that is internally regulated as well. oh well this alternator was free so why should i complain?
after we took a quick ride up to ace hardware, we picked up some stainless pipe and a bolt to mount the alternator, on the driver side as well. traditionally, and i am sure someone can prove me wrong, the alternator on a ford goes on the passenger side, close to the solenoid, etc... but we like to do things the interesting way, right?
using the chop saw to modify the stainless pipe to the right length, etc...
here is a picture of us getting the alternator up in place:
i don't remember where i was, probably inside reading up on control arms or something, but when i came back outside my dad had cut a universal alternator bracket i picked up, and mounted the alternator:
lookin good!
next we switched it up, and started working on the rear end, as i wanted to get something MAJOR finished over the weekend, as it felt like we'd spent so much time doing just small stuff that didn't feel progressive. half of working on a car is getting at least something major accomplished so that you don't get depressed and feel like you'll never get to the end of the tunnel. with the amount of parts i'd had to order, it is very easy to get into that mindset, and not realize or partake of the joy that you can get from all of this. my personal goal has been to do something "MAJOR" every weekend, so i can walk away feeling a lot better about the whole ordeal.
we got the rear end put back together, barring some small mistakes here and there (wrecking an oil seal, etc...) and the axles put back in.
my dad got the backing plates sandblasted and painted, they look so much nicer now.
we installed the wheel cylinders which are brand new, into the backing plates, and as well, started fabricating up our brake lines:
my dad has a handy brake line bender, as well as flaring tool, which made short work of all of this, compared to having a shop build all the lines, etc...
next we got out the spring kit/etc... and started putting together the brakes, which i anticipated to be a nightmare, but my dad was smart and took some photos ahead of time which turned out to make the whole ordeal very easy. good thinking pops!
one almost finished rear end:
ready to bolt in pretty much, which will hopefully be the focus of next weekend, or maybe this week if i can get out for a day or so.
so right now i'm waiting on control arms in the mail, my radiator, copper exhaust gaskets (found these on ebay for 30 dollars) and some other goofy junk. next weekend hopefully i will do the following:
bolt in new control arms, possibly the mustang springs (i've heard this will lower my car around an inch on the front end, maybe give it a more aggressive look?).
figure out the spindle ordeal, and calipers, and bolt in whatever makes sense brake wise on the front end.
figure out our radiator mounting, and bolt this in for mockup.
remove the old rear end and install the new one. this should be relatively easy being we've done so much prep work to our old one.
install new gas pedal.
install new master cylinder/brake lines.
if we can get all of that accomplished, i want to put the motor in, but we will see if we can get that far. i'm predicting two weeks before this thing fires up. that makes the first sound of a motor being heard sometime the weekend of the 16th/17th. i hope i can stick to that, and get this baby on the road.
other neat things:
a good friend from old work/buddy of my dad's does painting. i'm not sure how much it will cost me beyond buying paint and whatever else, but he's said that he will paint the car. very good to hear! he paints harleys for a living, and is a pretty great guy all around.
by the time i finish all of this, the car will be damn near brand new. i can look at that in a negative light of how much we have spent, but most everything is a new part so far, and i should have some good confidence in hitting the road and whathaveyou. point being this should be a very reliable "grocery getter".
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