1965 Ford Mustang

[JRANGER]

dang, I need to replace my springs as they are i6 springs and since the rear leaf install they bottom out and rub here and there..BLAH!

[67ChevyRedneck]

That sucks. I was looking at old original 1965 mustang pics (from 1965), with "new" springs the cars look similar to how mine does now. Not sure why your back raised up so much? Maybe it will settle some? I'm going to put Eaton springs back under it, they were the original mfg for the springs for these cars.

I'm putting the "GT" springs in mine (front and rear). Supposed to have same ride height, but slightly firmer. VMF has been a huge resource for me.

When I reinstall the springs I'll go to Lowes and pick out some steel pipe that just barely fits over the rod, some thick washers, cut it down, and use that to "shim" the compressor tool. for the new springs.

It will work fine in my C10 and firebird because there is a hole and space for the rod to go through, on the mustang, the bottom center of the spring is the spring perch, nowhere for it to go?

[JRANGER]

im guessing 40 year old i6 springs. So I know the i6 springs had way less weight and were probably sagging. The bushings were pretty bad too! I did upgrade to 4.5leafs but standard eye.

[67ChevyRedneck]

I got my adjustable bars and roller perches today... quality products. Very cool looking too. They came from Shaun at Street or Track. However, I also ordered a 1" sway bar, GT coil springs, and cups (the rubber isolator piece.) I sent a message to be sure nothing happened. He said the stuff he makes comes directly from him, but the other stuff is drop shipped from his supplier and should be here by the end of next week? (I ordered last Friday). Piss. He had really good prices on the springs and bars so I just ordered it all from him. I would have paid NPD a little more, I would have it by this weekend.

Had to take a break tonight. My old ass is a little sore from crawling around this car so much. I'll get the PS off tomorrow and start cleaning parts and drilling holes for the Shelby Drop.

[67ChevyRedneck]

Got the passenger side disassembled tonight. The next two pics show how little room there is to work in these cars. NONE of my ratchets would fit on the upper A arm bolts with a socket. Thank God for Gear Wrench. I was only able to go back and forth a couple inches at a time. It took about 10 minutes, probably would have taken an hour with a regular wrench.

[67ChevyRedneck]

This is for jranger.

The shaft for the coil spring compressor is too long, so I used my old harmonic balancer and a wheel bearing from a rotor. Worked awesome. See pics. When I do the new ones, I don't want to install them this way, so I'm going to buy some steel pipe that just bigger than the shaft and cut it to length to take up the slack so it will fit within the spring.

[67ChevyRedneck]

The DS took about 3 hours to remove and break down. The PS only took about 2. I learned some tricks and it's a lot faster to disassemble it as a whole.

[67ChevyRedneck]

How ridiculously clean this car is... no patches, all Ford metal...

[JRANGER]

wow nice...And thanks for the pics....

[67ChevyRedneck]

How bad some of the parts are. The bushing in the spring perches was gone/split. The pin part was riding on the metal tube and all the bushing was broken and shoved to the bottom where it did nothing. Ball joints were toast too.

[JRANGER]

wow...i dont even want to look at mine now

[67ChevyRedneck]

My LCA's didn't come with zerks, which was stupid, because when I popped the seals off they didn't have near enough grease in them. So I slowly drilled them out and installed the zerks off the old LCA's. I tried to use some brand new zerks I had, but I couldn't get them to start. The old ones screwed right down tight and pumped up with grease easily.

[67ChevyRedneck]

I haven't fully cleaned the bench, but I got my fake diamond plate background up and my clock/gearwrench (metric and standard)/signs up under the cabinets. I love it.

[67ChevyRedneck]

Originally Posted by JRANGER

wow nice...And thanks for the pics....

Originally Posted by JRANGER

wow...i dont even want to look at mine now

No problem. I didn't realize how bad this one was either. It actually had "good" road manners. The lower control arm bushings were decent. I"m somewhat excited to "see" how she drives with all the upgrades.

[Tx Firefighter]

Originally Posted by 67ChevyRedneck

This pissed me off. Toyota of Asheville is where the car came from. They said some of the steering components looked unsafe so they replaced them... hey thanks! HOW ABOUT PUTTING SOME DAMN GREASE IN THEM? I guess it's my fault, I should have greased them when I got the car home. They replaced all the tie rod ends and the drag link. I was hoping to NOT spend ~$140 on tie rods, at least the drag link they installed ($65) should be OK. They were actually MOOG ends too... damn it. NPD's getting ANOTHER order...

I was thinking as I was reading this post, a grease gun might be pretty rare in some dealership shops. I suspect there are front line mechanics out there nowadays who have never owned or used a grease gun. Think about it, since the 80s, grease fittings have become more scarce on new vehicles every year. There's guys out there working in shops who were born in the mid 90s.

Crazy thought ain't it ?

[67ChevyRedneck]

Actually, no, not crazy at all.

My wife's 2011 Mustang has NO grease joints. They're all "sealed units." Ball joints, tie rod ends, everything. The transmission doesn't have a dipstick, as it too, is a "sealed unit."

I was at a car show and a little kid asked his dad why there were two door handles on the door. His dad had to explain that one was a door handle and the other was a window crank. Kid has only been in "modern" cars with power windows and locks.

There are people that don't understand what a 3rd pedal is for...

I can't buy parts for my C10 or mustang anymore over the counter (aside from brake pads/shoes, plugs/wires/cap/rotor) I've had to order just about everything else. Balancer, water pump, rad. hoses, timing set, etc... that was for the 65, the 350's been around A LOT longer, and much more recent than a 289 so it may have more stuff on the shelf. Of course they can all "get it to me the next day" but my point of being able to walk in and get typical wear parts for classics is all but gone

[Tx Firefighter]

That fact hit me hard awhile back. I walked into O Reilly and was looking for a 7" round sealed beam headlamp. A normal old headlight that was used for 60 years or whatever. No deal. Had to order. I realized then how time has marched on and I'm a dinosaur.

[ERASER5]

Originally Posted by Tx Firefighter

That fact hit me hard awhile back. I walked into O Reilly and was looking for a 7" round sealed beam headlamp. A normal old headlight that was used for 60 years or whatever. No deal. Had to order. I realized then how time has marched on and I'm a dinosaur.

A TreX Firefighter?

My sister car pools kids for school. A 1st grader boy did not know how to open the door to get out. My siter said "Pull that leaver." He pulled and waited. Nothing. My niece had to unbuckel, lean past him and open the door for him. The told my sister his mom's van has power doors. He had NEVER opened a car door!

[67ChevyRedneck]

Kid's today...

Thanks to Mother Nature I had to retreat to the front porch for painting.

Bare metal pieces got epoxy first. Everything that was already painted was scuffed and reshot. I don't plan on ever rebuilding this one again.

[67ChevyRedneck]

So, I keep mentioning this "Shelby Drop." Time to actually show what it is. To sum it up:

- Three factors make lowering the UCA an improvement in handling. First, this modification to the suspension lowers the center of gravity on the front of the car; second, body roll is reduced by 7% to 9%; and third, the camber curve is improved.

And if you want to read A LOT more (including a little history) read here:

http://dazecars.com/dazed/drop.html

So this is what the template looks like. If you notice, the holes are not "centered." This is on purpose. The 65/66 cars have the A arms set at an angle, if you make the holes straight down, it will move the mounting point forward or backward. But with the new holes offset (AND ALWAYS TOWARDS THE REAR OF THE CAR) the A arm will be lowered vertically.

You also want to use bolts that are very tight, otherwise you won't get the holes right. I originally tried to reinstall the A arm, but there isn't enough room to drill.

I also had to go buy a new cheap drill. I've needed a 1/2 drive drill about 50 times and never had one, and it sucks trying to find/buy large specialty bits for a 3/8 drill. This job requires a 17/32 drill bit if you want to do it correctly. I ordered my template and drill bit from the link above.

Also don't forget to put something on the backside of the holes so you don't slam into your manifolds with the drill bit.

[67ChevyRedneck]

1. Bolt it up to the car.

2. I used a 1/8" bit as the directions for this kit stated to use, but I didn't want to waller out the template, so I just got a good start, then removed the template.

3. Holes drilled.

4. The shock towers on these cars are about 1/4" thick (seriously). So you don't want to ruin your new expensive bit by trying to chew through all of that 4 times, so the directions recommend going up in stages. I moved up to a 1/4" bit one this one.

[67ChevyRedneck]

1. When drilling your holes make sure you're centered! This is stepping up to a 3/8" bit.

2. 3/8" bit through.

3. Final 17/32" bit through.

[67ChevyRedneck]

1. New control arms come with new zerks... but, you'll never be able to use them by just screwing them in, so I removed the old ones from the old control arms, the ones with the angled head.

2. Shelby drop complete and new zerks are at an angle that can be serviced! This is also an easy way to tell if your 65-68 mustang has had the drop performed... you can see the old holes!

[67ChevyRedneck]

So with that project out of the way, I had to address this mess... yay...

The first thought that popped into my head is... where the hell does the water go (site design/land development civil engineer, I always have to ask myself "where does the water go.")

[67ChevyRedneck]

Oh, there it is! There's a drain hole that was buried under over 1/2" of gunk and old undercoating.