Re: 1965 Ford Mustang
 

WOW!!!! What site? Im on a few of them... They are basically the same way...Stangfix.com is a good one but not many comments but if i have a question thread for help i always get answers. vintage-mustangs.com seems to get a little more action for me.

Re: 1965 Ford Mustang
 

Um...Where is that update? lol

Re: 1965 Ford Mustang
 

Time to fix the nasty ass leaking mess under the hood!

Let me start off by saying that we are spoiled with the 67-72 pick ups... you don't have to take off 4 parts to get to the one you want to take off, and in a somewhat particular order (an order I forgot a few times during reassembly and made more work for myself!)

The engine was nasty. It was obviously leaking pretty bad over the years.

The timing chain wasn't too bad, but there was no way I was ever going to do all this again!

Re: 1965 Ford Mustang
 

The engine cleaned up pretty nice. It also looked pretty clean from underneath. The oil pan was sludge free, but I replaced the oil pump and shaft anyway.

This was quite a pain in the ass as well. I had to remove the sway bar, steering drag link, and a cross member that goes under the pan. Everything went back together OK except when I went to reinstall the cross member the bolt hole had stripped the threads OFF from rust. They're gone. NOT GOOD on a unibody frame car with NO ACCESS to the inside. I had to order a 1/2-13 helicoil kit. Probably won't come in until after the holiday :(

But I did get the pan cleaned up and back on! I used the new $$ one piece felpro gasket. Worth the money!

Re: 1965 Ford Mustang
 

Before I finished up under the car I installed some new motor mounts. I knew the trans and motor mounts had cracks, but didn't fully realize how bad they were. The driver side FELL APART when I took the bolts out.

I painted up the new ones and put them in. Actually one of the easier things I'd done at this point!

Re: 1965 Ford Mustang
 

Timing cover, new balancer, new fuel pump, new lines and filter installed.

I did a lot of research on this and apparently 289's only have one orifice for an oil pressure gauge? I *think* there is another one at the back of the block on the top like a 350, but the only thing I found back there was some form of kick down or something for the trans (sorry, I don't know Ford's very well yet.)

So I had to "make" this little set up because I wanted my idiot light and new pressure gauge to work (more on that later.)

If you notice, there is a fuel filter installed... I looked the car over thoroughly AND rebuilt the carb... NO FILTER ANYWHERE! I guess this is where a lot of people put them. There is supposed to be one at the carb, so I ordered one, but it's so long that by the time you install it and add a hose to it, it would pushing against the dizzy cap, so I scrapped that idea.

Re: 1965 Ford Mustang
 

Piece by piece, you are going to have a knew car!

Re: 1965 Ford Mustang
 

Water pump and various other little parts going on, pulleys, etc.

This was also the start of the Vintage Air install.

Re: 1965 Ford Mustang
 

I missed this pic earlier, and apparently there is a new 30 min time limit on editing... so...

This is how bad my mounts were...

Re: 1965 Ford Mustang
 

Thank you! I'll post more later... BBQ time!!!

Re: 1965 Ford Mustang
 

These are just some shots of everything going back together. Pulleys, etc.

The first pic is how my engine bay used to look with the factory A/C. Ford painted them black. The Sandens are aluminum? and would stick out in an engine bay that's mostly black or gold. So I scuffed it up really good with a red scuff pad and painted it black. Hopefully it will hold up. I also drilled and tapped on of the unused mounting "ears" and installed the Ford factory A/C logo on it. I think it looks cool.

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/a...1&d=1337914681

Re: 1965 Ford Mustang
 

Not a big fan of rubber fuel line if you don't have to use it... so I fabbed up this line, bent and flared it. The line normally goes down by the timing cover, but the new V/A bracket almost completely covers that area so I ran it around the bracket, actually looks pretty decent on the car. (You can see it in the last pic on post #88)

Re: 1965 Ford Mustang
 

All of the vintage air stuff up front all sealed and mounted. I "blacked out" everything. One thing that drives me nuts about my C10 is that I left all the lines and brackets silver on the V/A kit for that. Stands out from behind the grilled 50 feet away, so hopefully this will blend in a lot better.

Re: 1965 Ford Mustang
 

I mentioned earlier I wanted to install some gauges. I wanted them to somewhat blend in, so I color matched them to the dash. I still have to mount the tach but it's pretty much done. I even fired the engine up and the oil and temp gauges appear to be working well.

Re: 1965 Ford Mustang
 

And last for now... I have always loved the GT grille. I don't care if it's not correct for my car, I want it, so I bought it. Damn is all that crap expensive!!!

I couldn't help but mock it up. Grille needs to be painted still... but damn it looks good!

Re: 1965 Ford Mustang
 

DAYUM BRO!! You weren't kidding about a big update!! Great work and I love that fog grille too!! Its on my list of things I cant afford to buy right now! lol GREAT Job as usual!

Re: 1965 Ford Mustang
 

Making it yours one... well two steps at a time. It looks like I forgot to put the quotes around "knew" in my last post. As in "to know intimately" since you are going over every detail of this car. I like the make-it-the-way-I-like-it attitude.

Re: 1965 Ford Mustang
 

Thanks guys, it means a lot. I'm slow at all this. Fords are completely new to me. This book was highly recommended by some mustang guys. It has saved my ass. Very well written and simple to follow.

Re: 1965 Ford Mustang
 

But, let me tell you a story about a bolt...

This little guy stripped out (seized from rust) so I used an impact to remove it. Bolt came right out... as did the rusty threads. The PS was fine, just the DS was rusty. Only the threads were rusty... weird, after a cleaning the bolt was still 100% OK. No other rust or patch panels anywhere on the car...

On Saturday I drove to 7 different stores to find a 1/2"-13 Helicoil kit. FINALLY found one at O'reilly. But they didn't have it, their store 15 minutes away had it. Went to that store. Apparently they thought they were supposed to send it to the first store. Their parts guy left with it before I got there. Had to go BACK to first store to get it. So after 3 hours on Sat and a really upset wife who thought we were going on a short adventure... I had what I needed. The tool kit was $28 though!

Had fun sat night and a fun day Sunday with the wife, saw Hangover III and Fast 6 and didn't get to the car.

So I go to work on it today. I knew I needed a 17/32 drill bit, however the bolt hole was literally shaved smooth from the impact removal so I thought I could thread it...

Nope...

Off to Lowes. $16 for a drill bit. Took about 2 hours total to get it all done.

So overall - About 5 hours time. $44. One hell of a sore shoulder and I have the damn thing fixed!

Now, I'm not a fan of Helicoils. However, in this instance it was my only viable option. My other option was to cut a hole in the side apron/frame of the car and replace the capture nut in there and weld my hole up... after I first removed the DS suspension from the car... yeah... no... The bolt torqued down tight like the other side, so I'm good with it.

There's also a lot of thread in there, that hole was probably more than 1/2" deep.

Re: 1965 Ford Mustang
 

After that fiasco was done, I went on to tackle some left over bits. Put the cross member back on, (you can see the offending tubular cross member in the 2nd pic right behind the hump in the oil pan) then it was time to fix the massive trans pan leak...

Whoever put the rubber seal on, used RTV and it was leaking like crazy. I removed it, replaced the filter, painted it black (it was blue and looked cool, but the only high temp paint I had was black), and put a new cork seal with NO RTV on and torqued it down correctly. I also put a new trans mount on. Old one was decent, not all torn up like the motor mounts, but it had "squished down" quite a bit.

*The rubber trans lines you see have plenty of clearance around the balancer pulley and sway bar, it's just the angle of the pic. That's actually factory for a 65 mustang. In 66 they ran the steel lines all the way to the radiator. The way the lines are horse shoed under the car, it would have been difficult to swap, so I just cleaned up the lines, ordered new stub outs from the radiator and put new rubber line on.

Re: 1965 Ford Mustang
 

Engine bay almost done... it would be done if NPD would have sent my order when I ordered it... I didn't realize you needed a "mounting kit" to mount the fan shroud. I placed my order Wed. at 4:13PM. I figured they would get it shipped out sometime on Thursday and worse case I would get it on Saturday. I'm only 2 hours from their store location where it would be shipped from, but nope. They shipped it at 5:23 Friday evening... damn it. So it should be here tomorrow.

Re: 1965 Ford Mustang
 

Off jack stands for the first time in about a month and the first bath in about 6 months!

I couldn't go for a ride though :( I barely had enough trans fluid to get it almost to the Low mark so I could get it off the ramps and back into the garage (jack stands weren't high enough). I didn't want to risk it, so it will have to wait until tomorrow. My wife actually asked if we could go for a ride today :( I hate saying no when she actually wants to go.

I was able to get the hood latch and bracket back on, but the grille still needs to be painted, so it's off... I actually really like the blacked out look... looks meaner...

Also, I was terrified I might have had the timing one tooth off on one of the gears (old chain loose, obviously the new one is tight) but it runs like a top. I lined the marks up... I'm just paranoid sometimes.

Re: 1965 Ford Mustang
 

Two steps forward and a couple back... sigh...

My fancy oil pressure gauge set up started leaking after a pretty good shake down run. It's my fault. I've read TONS for pros and cons for sealing oil pressure stuff... in my case NOT sealing it did not work. The brass fittings were ok, but the oil pressure unit was steel and leaking, then it's jammed in between the block and the fuel pump so I made it worse when I tried to fix it, ended up accidentally breaking the plastic part off the oil pressure unit... sigh...

So I bought brand new fittings and a new oil pressure unit. I had to remove the fuel pump to get it all off. This time I sealed it all. It had better not leak this time!

But before all that mess, I decided to address a slight lifter tick it has, so I played with the valve adjustment. I made a neat little card board oil catcher that worked well with the engine running. It was kinda cool. It's definitely quieter now, and I've at least confirmed that all 16 lifters are working.

Re: 1965 Ford Mustang
 

And before I played with that (I somehow got out of work at 4 today, yay for me) I prepped the cabin for the vintage air dash unit. I pre drilled the holes for the brackets and covers, then got busy with a red scuff pad (one of my new favorite tools) and some rust encapsulator.

Mustangs are known for rust. ESPECIALLY cowl rust, which is why I'm so giddy when I look under the dash. This car HAD to be garaged most of it's life. That's the original interior blue and very light surface rust, it actually looks worse in the pics than it really was.

Re: 1965 Ford Mustang
 

And all encapsulated. I'll be putting some dynamat on the firewall after it dries well, and then I have a nice new fat firewall insulation pad for it.

Re: 1965 Ford Mustang
 

I know that feeling..My oil gauge is still sporadic....I need to look under my dash but looking down the cowl everything looks good.. Great job

Re: 1965 Ford Mustang
 

Looks great.
FWIW I had a leaky oil psi sender once. When I investigated I found sender threads were BSP.

Re: 1965 Ford Mustang
 

I test fitted the V/A under dash unit... what a pain in the ass by yourself. I got all the holes marked and drilled, pulled it back out and sprayed the brackets again (they were all scratched up, overkill, but yeah...)

I got the firewall cover plate and cowl cover plates siliconed and installed, and I got the dynamat up.

The good news is that my new oil pressure set up hasn't sprung any leaks yet!!!

I'm going to try to push to get the V/A kit installed before the weekend is over so I can have A/C for the power tour. It's supposed to rain sun/mon which means I'll probably have a short day at work on mon and may be able to get the A/C charged! Once the unit is in, it's just some hoses and a few wires! I think I have most of the hard pieces already mocked up or permanently installed!

Re: 1965 Ford Mustang
 

I got the new firewall insulation in. This stuff was a thick nightmare to cut, even fresh blades didn't want to go through it!

The unit is all assembled and bolted in. I think all I have left is wiring and running the hoses. I can't find the damn safety switch, I know I had it... ought to be fun.

Re: 1965 Ford Mustang
 

That little spacer represents a lot of wasted time. The clutch that was on my car had a 2-1/4" mounting depth (I have the tape in the wrong spot in the pic, should be farther back on the mounting area, that made it 2-1/4"). EVERY place I searched, and I mean EVERYWHERE only sold one with a 1-3/4" mounting depth, with as skinny as these Mustang fan shrouds are, that little 1/2" put my fan outside of the shroud.

I literally looked everywhere, Ford, Rockauto, all the chain stores (adv, a-zone, oreillys, napa) and they all sold the shorter one and couldn't find the right one. Even the mustang forums I looked for help on were of no help. I don't know what the deal is, but this fancy $20 spacer saved my ass.

Re: 1965 Ford Mustang
 

V/A heater hoses routed. The fancy duhickey is an electronic valve to open/close the heater core for A/C/Heat mode.

Re: 1965 Ford Mustang
 

That is nice.
You don't mess around; even using the auto choke.

Re: 1965 Ford Mustang
 

Aside from the V/A hoses and wiring... engine bay is cleaned up and DONE. Should have that all buttoned up tomorrow. I hope to get it charged sometime this week before the power tour... it's been pretty hot lately, and even with the dynamat and jute padding it still gets a little warm in the car.

Re: 1965 Ford Mustang
 

Thanks. Since my truck looks like ass under the hood, I figured I'd try to actually do this one right since it already had a good start.

Re: 1965 Ford Mustang
 

I had to take a break and fix the headlights. They were horribly aimed and the DS recently blew. I bought these from NPD. I paid a little extra for them, but they have the FOMOCO logo in the middle, looks cool to me. I got them aimed a lot better Saturday night and can actually kinda see at night now. Before I had to drive with my High beams on and they still sucked.

Re: 1965 Ford Mustang
 

Then it was back to the A/C. A week or so ago, I rebuilt the factory control unit using the V/A electronic conversion kit. REALLY creepy looking, especially if you were a little kid like I was in the 80's when Freddy Crougar came out... to be honest, I couldn't wait to get this thing back in the dash, it really freaks me out...

Re: 1965 Ford Mustang
 

lol i can see what you mean...

Re: 1965 Ford Mustang
 

I love these Vintage Air kits, the wiring is SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO easy. It took me more time to route my wires than it did figuring out where they go.

I did make a mistake though... I should have run the wiring through the firewall BEFORE I installed the under dash unit... oops... what should have taken 5 minutes took 45... live and learn. I'm sure if I do it again in 5 years I'll forget again...

Re: 1965 Ford Mustang
 

A/C lines routed somewhat neatly.

Re: 1965 Ford Mustang
 

Neat trick I learned from TV. Slit a rubber hose and use it was a grommet so you're good expensive rubber parts don't wear against a metal surface. In this case, 1/4" vacuum hose worked well.