another weekend

monday morning and a new update, as per usual:

i got out to my dad's late, like we are talking 2-3 in the morning. my buddies car kept breaking down for unknown reasons, and i have to look at it tonight as well. my dad woke me up bright and early on saturday, and we went out junkyarding in hopes to find a brake caliper mounting bracket in a junkyard. we went to:

ecology
pick a part
and a few other places until we got a tip on a dude in san bernardino who has a load of cars from the 60's sitting in a real junk yard. within 5 minutes, the guy had what we needed, and we scavenged for other parts (maybe going back at some point). the part ended up costing us 50 dollars, which is unusually high, but pretty on key with what it would cost anywhere if you could even find it.





in that picture you can see the brackets attached to the spindles. finally!

what you can't see is my dad made a bushing adapting one of the spindles to fit the granada bracket, as for some reason the bolt hole had changed in whatever year it came from.

we made some other rounds and picked up a new water filler neck (the spectre one would not work), distributor clamp, and silly things we needed.







i tore apart my old control arms, and removed the spring perches. i cleaned these pretty good, and then painted them for good form.



also, here is a better picture of the alternator setup that my dad has working right now:



we got the spring perches mounted on the control arms, and then put those up in place.





i also started chipping some residue off of an old spring guard, i still need to do the other side:



my dad ran in and cleaned up some of the other suspension part.





we got the control arms up in place, and then mounted the spindle. what a great feeling.







my dad mounted one of the junk rotors, and a tire to see what our clearence looked like (we are moving to tires about two inches taller overall, etc...)





the next morning we went out and got some shocks, as well as borrowed a coil spring compressor.











next we got one of the mustang springs and started sucking it up!





we lowered it in and with some banging, got it in the perch.





these springs are incredibly stiff, and i'm not sure if they are going to work, but we have yet to see. they seem like they will raise my front end quite a bit in comparison to the original springs, and we might switch back over.

after we had both springs in, we turned our focus to finishing the radiator mounting. my dad got his plasma cutter hooked up, and marked out a few spots we would need to eliminate for the radiator to fit.





sure beats using a torch/cutting wheel.

next we mounted a piece of tube steel we had picked up, for the radiator for rest in (along the bottom rail).









having a welder as a dad sure helps.

sitting on the rail:



next we measured out the top mount, and made some holes/cut it fit into the frame.





next we got down to brass tacks again, and welded the piece in place.









i didn't get pictures, but we laid down rubber for the radiator, as well as used a rivet gun to add screw in's for the radiator (i had never seen this type of rivet before, and was really stoked on it)













my camera got funky, but here are some pictures of the rest of the night:



shocks installed!



installing tie rod ends. we ended up going to autozone twice to find the right tie rod ends, the first time we went, we got two tie rod ends that were wrong, but in the right box. what are the odds.

from here i took the long drive home, and i'm sure i'm missing a lot of detail, but my dad informed me that he has purchased the front brakes (cross drilled rotors too!), and those will be here for next weekend. we had hoped to get the rear end in but my brother was being lazy, and my best friend was too busy with midterms.

here's to next week!

rear end and control arm progress

my dad got bored and finished the rear end! here is to boredom!








new control arms. you can see how the new ones have bigger ball joints, as well as the lower ones being a little beefier.

when the cat is away, the mouse will play

came home to that last night. bummer on the dude spray painting his dumb ass logo on it, but whatever. it'll be covered by a fan anyways, and shroud, and this will definitely get the job done.

my dad went and machined the extra grooves off of the pulley that we are using:



came out looking really nice, and it looks like he got a fan belt that fits and mounted it all up:



my dad also picked up four tires for me yesterday, as well as got new valve stems for the rims, which is awesome. the tires i think are on the far left in this picture, they are 215 70 r14's that should work pretty good for now:

back once again with the renegade action

well, here it is, monday, and it's time to update this beast!

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".