1965 Ford Mustang

[67ChevyRedneck]

Mocking up the shroud. From the pics before the shroud was too big. I removed about an inch from the top part and about 1-1/4 inch from the bottom. They looked pretty rough after cutting them with a dremel cut off wheel.

[67ChevyRedneck]

FINAL mock up. Wohoo! Also cleaned up my cuts and scuffed up the plastic.

[67ChevyRedneck]

Final paint. Also added my new overflow tank.

[67ChevyRedneck]

So, the fit is SUPER TIGHT with all the mounting locations, so to hopefully prevent any rubbing damage to the radiator, I cut vacuum hose and used it as a buffer around the edges.

[67ChevyRedneck]

And after removing the fan a couple times... was about to lock everything down when I noticed the fan/water pump shim laying on the bench... everything went into the car for hopefully the last time. It all goes together like a puzzle... not fun to put together, but it all fits.

[67ChevyRedneck]

Mounting it like I did also kept it really low. With factory mounting the radiator cap supposedly bumps the hood. Plenty of clearance now.

[67ChevyRedneck]

I've been cleaning up the garage as I go, trying to clean it out, get all my crap put up, put parts that won't be needed "soon" in the shed, etc. Doing so I un-buried this:

It's only sitting there, the grille needs to be painted.

[67ChevyRedneck]

As I've cleaned up areas of the garage, I'm also trying to paint/hang up signs. Been making some progress.

I think one of the neatest things was hanging the Pennzoil sign inside of my Jimmie Johnson NASCAR Sprint Cup used tire

[ERASER5]

Originally Posted by 67ChevyRedneck

You're probably 15-20 minutes from me. I drive by BJU on my way to work every day.

There's a car show tomorrow that's literally minutes from you at a place called Lil Rebel.

5:00pm
to
9:00pm LIL' REBEL CRUISE IN
(CRUISE IN)

ALL VEHICLES ARE WELCOME, WITH MUSIC, FOOD, DOOR PRIZES, TROPHIES, FUN FOR ALL, WE WILL BE COLLECTING FOOD AT ALL EVENTS THIS YEAR FOR THE LOCAL FOOD BANKS, ALSO BENEFIT THIS MONTH FOR TYLER TUCKER,.. COME CRUISE WITH US HWY 101 RESTAURANT 864 879-1042


Location: 2608 LOCUST HILL ROAD, TAYLORS, S.C.

I've been to this show quite a few times. Being that it's going to be BEAUTIFUL here tomorrow, I would guess 30-40 cars will show up. If you can sneak away from the family for an hour, you'll enjoy it. The most cars will be there around 6. Great food too.

I'm going to be really sore tomorrow... I must have lifted the radiator in and out of the car 50 times.

So I was trying to figure out how to bolt this thing down... then it hit me... duh... use those body clip thing a ma jiggies... Worked perfectly.

Found the car show. Spent a out an hour looking. Thanks. I'm staying at Half Mile Lake subdivision just off of State Park Road.

[67ChevyRedneck]

Glad you enjoyed it. I really wanted to go but we had a prior commitment with friends over in Easley. My friends and I usually meet there (lil rebel) a couple times a month for dinner. The staff knows us by name. I love that place. Their tater tots and slaw are awesome. How many cars showed up? I've seen as few as 15, but other times the lot was full, the hill above the lot was full, and there were some at the station across the street and the one next to it.

A local show that get's pretty big is put on by the Mustang Club at the Texas Roadhouse on HWY 29 (maybe 5 mins from BJU?) It's the 1st Saturday of each month, and for a local show, if the weather is nice like today, I've seen 150+ cars show up. Next weekend is a decent sized one at the Chic fil a on 29 next to Home Depot (use home depos parking lot). That one can get pretty big too. I hope to have the 65 done to go to that one next weekend. I probably won't though, I'm tearing the front suspension apart soon. I placed an $$$ order with Street or Track yesterday. This car is killing my wallet. My truck was NEVER this $$$. I have to have this crap done by the 50th show in April. I paid a $100 registration fee and she's GOING!!!

Give me more of a heads up when you're heading down next time.

[67ChevyRedneck]

Forgot to post pics of my shims. I couldn't get them to turn out, the camera kept focusing on the wrong thing. I picked up the spacers at Lowes and cut them down to size with my dremel cut off wheel.

[67ChevyRedneck]

I don't know why, but I think she looks cool all wrapped up in plastic!

[67ChevyRedneck]

Boring pics... wheel wells sanded down and in epoxy. I've also cleaned the crap out of and rust encapsulated the area "behind" the rolled fenders, because the undercoating cracked off when the fenders were rolled. I'm amazed at how rust free this car is still...

[67ChevyRedneck]

More boring pics... this time in black... the black is more flat and blends in better when it dries.

[67ChevyRedneck]

I've been waiting to take this shot for a long time. I've been running the car with only the new wheels on the DS since last September (stupid, right?) That's because of the slight rub issue. Looka' dat 'phat 'azz!

[JRANGER]

lol

[67ChevyRedneck]

...and I want to once again complain about these cars... Who puts the radiator hose at the same height/above the damn filler neck? I had the same issue with the old radiator and forgot about it.... I left the system open to let it circulate and fill... then all of a sudden, WHOOSH! Water/antifreeze come blowing out of the radiator (again, I did this before, I swear I never learn...) so I quickly capped it off with only a minimal mess. I then had to slowly burp/fill the system using the small new overflow I added. I think after about 20 times the motor/radiator are finally full. I love this car, I have ZERO intention of letting her go, but I honestly think this will be my only classic Ford, unless I find a good deal on a 40 Ford Pickup. I've wanted one of those since I was like 8, but you can bet your ass she'll be CHEVY POWERED!!!

[67ChevyRedneck]

Originally Posted by JRANGER

lol

Man, I used to have NO interest in these coupes, the only early mustangs I ever wanted were fastbacks. Take away the value part of the equation, and I don't know if I would trade mine for a fastback... I'm really diggin' how the old girl looks!

[ERASER5]

Ford tough with Chevy stuff!

[67ChevyRedneck]

Crap... what did I just do... this car has to drive to Charlotte, WHEN? Oh yeah, I'll be "out of town" in Raleigh for a full weekend, so I really only have this weekend and next to have it painted, done, and aligned.

[67ChevyRedneck]

Look ma! 4 Piston Calipers!

[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...

[67ChevyRedneck]

...and she's nekked,,,

The springs, shocks, perches, upper and lower control arms, tie rod ends, idler arm, and strut rod will ALL be replaced. I'm pretty much only keeping the spindle, rotor, and caliper.

This suspension was WORE OUT! The upper and lower ball joints are TOAST! The rubber in the spring perch was all chewed up/rotted. Even though there was very little play in the rotor, the bearings/races need to be replaced as well... it looks like they've been run a little on the dry side. The lower control arm bushing was shot, but the uppers actually looked OK.

...and the upper control arm bolts only took a "bump" to loosen.

...and I removed the spindle nut by hand... I've put over 4,000 miles on this car.

What's funny is that with what I've described the car should have been shaking going down the road, wandering all over the place, and chewing up tires. Tires had even wear, the car has almost no vibration at any speed, and she never wandered. Weird...

[JRANGER]

wow craziness. ??? Did you need a spring compressor to remove the spring safely? Do you need one to put it back in?

[67ChevyRedneck]

Yes, and yes. I used the $35 Autozone one. I could have rented it, but I'm going to need it for this, my C10 drop, and my firebird...

Turns out the shaft is too long??? I ended up removing the shock tower caps and bolts, and using an old harmonic balancer as the top plate and just used the bottom part of the compressor. Worked well, but was a little hairy as the spring was still under a little tension when I reached the end of the threads, but just barely. I ran a steel cable through the A-Arm bolt holes to hold it just in case.

I just placed my remaining suspension parts order with NPD. Comparatively, they actually have pretty good prices. Their MOOG ends were ~$15 cheaper than O'reilly (only one I could find that carries them) and competitive with fleabay prices.

I also picked up some TIMKEN USA made bearings at Autozone, only place that still sells Timken locally. If the original Timken's made it 50 years...