Category Archives: Project Car

Classic Mustangs – #ProjectSportsRoof’s Marti Report

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Mustang lovers check this out.  There is place in El Mirage, AZ called  Marti Auto Works.  They own the rights to the Ford databases and records prior to 1974 (some models up to 1989).  These guys have everything..I mean everything.  Give them the VIN number and they’ll pile on the data (it’s not free but very reasonable).  They are authorized by Ford to reproduce window stickers and Protector Plates (identification plates that go on the inside door jamb) and more.

If you have a classic Mustang you’ve got to get this report.  I thought I’d share mine with the readers.  The link below is to the .pdf and here is an image.

73SportsRoofMarti

Whether you are just interested in the car history or doing an original restore this report comes in very handy.  It’s pretty cool to see when it was ordered and build and all the original options are there to match.

The Statistics section – so cool!!!  This section lets you know where your car ranks compare to those produce that year.  As you can see above #ProjectSportsRoof is o1 of 76 with that paint and trim coat.   If nothing else it bragging rights and in some small way this may add to the value of the car, but that’s tough to measure.

The list of items in the Door Data Plate Info, helps you determine how original your might be.  For example you can see that my 73 Mustang left the factory with 302 and if you’ve followed my posts on #ProjectSportsRoof you’ll know it now sports a 351C V2 date coded 1972 and a C4 transmission but now it has a date code 1972 C6.

Visit the Marti report site and see what they offer.

https://www.martiauto.com/reports2.cfm

To you have a Marti report for your Ford?  Share it!!!

Thanks for reading.

Tim

1973 Mustang SportsRoof

1973 Mustang SportsRoof

 

1973 Mustang SportsRoof – Floor Pans Getting To It! – Part Three

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I know, I’m getting slow at getting these posted for the 1973 Mustang, but here is the next part.   I’m beginning the cuts on the repop floor panels.

 

 

Like I mention in the video, I”m doing this all in my driveway and garage – it can be done!!!!   Unlike my 1970 Mustang (which started out in better shape) which most of the work on the body was complete, thanks in part to a careless young driver plowing into the back it at a stop light, in a body shop.  While it was there I had the entire car painted.

I’m using a dremel to make the necessary cuts and the Work-Mate table allows a lot of angles to clamp down the sheet metal while I am cutting it.  The painter’s blue tape works great as marking off the cuts and you don’t have to be ‘too’ precise, but you have to be close!!!

Here you can see the first cut.  Now eventually I realized that I didn’t really need the ‘flap’ and I cut it off.

The ‘humps’ are actually where the seats bolt down and you have to keep clear of those with your sheet metal and welds.

More floor pan goodness for #ProjectSportsRoof.

 

Thanks for reading.

Tim

#ProjectSportsRoof

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Welcome back to #ProjectSportsRoof. ….. You can see my 2007 C6 and the 1973 Mustang (#ProjectSportsRoof) and my son’s 1991 Chrysler Le Baron vert and …

1973 Mustang 351C Vacuum System Part II – YouTube

Feb 6, 2016 … #ProjectSportsRoof Floor Pan Rust Removal Video 2 – Duration: 2:07. Tim Sweet No views. New. 2:07. 1973 Ford Mustang Mach 1 for sale with …

1973 Mustang SportsRoof – Floor Pans Getting To It! – Part One

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The last three post we basically a run down of the extent of the rust damage in the floor pan areas on #ProjectSportsRoof.  As you saw the right side was bad, especially the under the rear seat on that side and the left side not as bad.   Interesting enough it ended up being about the same work for both foot wells and a lot work for the whole under the rear seat.  (You’ll notice in at least one of the videos I mentioned that all I needed to do was to buy the panel for under the rear seat – but I was wrong.  Those just are reproduced.  What I ended up doing was purchasing a 3rd foot well pan and “modifying” that to get the whole patched.)

As this is my first time actually doing floor pans, I did a lot of “making sure” up front work to limited the size of the mistakes I might make.  Last thing I needed to do was cut in the wrong place or make the opening to big.  As you know the Mustangs of that era only had  sub-frames and the floor for the most part were what held them together.  A major screw up there and you’ve weakened the structure and then it’s body off complete floor replacement – NOT IN THE BUDGET!!!

Here’s some of the preliminary work.

 

So of course there isn’t a rear panel (see above) and the drain in the panel is not plugged with a rubber stopper, but with a metal screw down plate – sealed with seam sealer.

I worked the left side first (some I could keep the car mobile – for pulling in and out of the garage) so I left the driver’s seat and most of the carpet in place.

 

Coming up is the first cuts of the right side floor pan and fitting of the replacement panel.

 

Thanks for reading.

Tim

#ProjectSportsRoof

projectsportsroofprojectsportsroof

 

 

 

 

1973 Mustang SportsRoof – Floor Pan Discovery – Part Three

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Thanks for checking in on the 1973 Mustang project.   Below is the last part of the discovery process for determining the extent rust damage.  Here is the driver’s side.

FloorPanLRr-2

This shot doesn’t look too bad, especially compared with the right side.   Below is a video recap of what needs to happen.

Of course still need to remove the rest of the carpeting. All indications are that everything else is solid!!

 

Thanks for reading

Tim

1973 Mustang Sports Roof – Floor Pan Discovery – Part Two …

Mar 2, 2016 … Among these things are coins and #ProjectSportsRoof had an abundance of lost change. The first coin I found was a nickel. It was under the …
1973 Mustang Sports Roof – Floor Pan Discovery – Part One

Feb 29, 2016 … Thanks for following along with #ProjectSportsRoof. Over the next couple of weeks (giving myself a lot of time to get this all down in the blog) …
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Welcome back to #ProjectSportsRoof. We beginning the actual work on the vacuum system on the projects 351C starting with the valve assembly distributor ( the …
07 and 73

07 and 73

1973 Mustang Sports Roof – Floor Pan Discovery – Part Two – Incidental Find

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As with most car restoration projects discovering what needs to be worked on and to what extent is an experience to say the least.  Sometimes that discovery is a bit disheartening like the rust to floor pans on the right side, sometimes is a major relief  and sometimes it’s cool.

As I began removing carpet – which I’m now sure was 33 years old, it uncovered the normal dirt, pens, papers (no build sheet… bummer) and just about all the normal things that slide between the seat cushions and work their way under the carpet.  That can show a lot about its previous owners and how the car was used.

Among these things are coins and #ProjectSportsRoof had an abundance of lost change.   The first coin I found was a nickel.  It was under the underlayment which I found to be a tough place for nickel to have worked its way.   Interesting enough it was dated 1973.

1973 Jefferson Nickel. Placed by a a worker at the factory? hmmmm....

1973 Jefferson Nickel. Placed by a a worker at the factory? hmmmm….

This reminded me of an often told tail of auto workers leaving tokens of some sort in an inconspicuous place.  Wouldn’t that be interesting.

Over all nearly $30.00 in coins were found and of those 3 were from 1973 (a nickel, a quarter and a penny).  With a huge cap between 1979 and the 2005 (perhaps indicating it’s break in service when the car was left in a field, junked and then saved.

Someone in the Ford factory back in the day leave this 1973 Jefferson nickel so that someone years later might find it?   Interest thought!!!

Thanks for reading.

Tim

projectsportsroof

1973 Mustang Sports Roof – Floor Pan Discovery – Part One

2 days ago … Thanks for following along with #ProjectSportsRoof. Over the next couple of weeks (giving myself a lot of time to get this all down in the blog) …
restored-cars | Tumblr

Welcome back to #ProjectSportsRoof. We beginning the actual work on the vacuum system on the projects 351C starting with the valve assembly distributor ( the …

 

1973 Mustang Sports Roof – Floor Pan Discovery – Part One

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Thanks for following along with #ProjectSportsRoof.  Over the next couple of weeks (giving myself a lot of time to get this all down in the blog) I’m going to take you through my process for repairing the floors in the 1973 Mustang.  I’ll be interrupted by  (air quotes)REAL (end air quotes) work and a couple of car shows between now and then.

As much as I’d like to say I was aware of the rust on the floor of the Sports Roof, I can’t.    I really missed seeing the extent of the damage.  Needless to say I was a bit depressed when I brought it home and climbed in the back seat and notices the floor seemed a bit….’crunchy’.

Take a look at these videos:

You might be able to tell by my voice that I wasn’t overjoyed with the condition of the passenger side floor.  To make matters worse I eventually found out they don’t reproduce a patch for under the rear seat for the 1973 Sports Roof.  More to come on that in a future post.

Just to issue a reminder as you might be wondering why you see the back seat now in the car as in the previous video it was out, but my goal is to have this as a rolling project and able to at least speed on down to the local petrol station fill it up and grab a Pepsi. (You just can’t work on a car without a Pepsi!!! – Hey maybe they’ll sponsor this rebuild and I’ll change the license plate to read “1973DrinkRealSugarPepsi”.)

O.K. so if you were listening closely you’d realize that I started the floors back in Dec (2015) and it’s now the last day of the Feb 2016 and I’m just getting to post this up now.  So it’s taken me a good chunk of time to do this all by hand – including all the cutting with just a hand-held dremel and some metal snips.

I appreciate any and all comments so let ’em fly!!!!

BTW day on this Leap Year day – we’ve surpassed 20,000 registered user on this blog, thanks everyone!!!

Thanks for reading.

Tim

#ProjectSportsRoof

 

projectsportsroof

1973 Mustang Sports Roof – Vacuum System Part IV

1 day ago … This will be a longer post as I finish up the vacuum system on #ProjectSportsRoof , the 1973 Mustang Sports Roof. We have to make a repair, …

 

1973 Mustang Sports Roof – Vacuum System Part IV

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This will be a longer post as I finish up the vacuum system on #ProjectSportsRoof, the 1973 Mustang Sports Roof.  We have to make a repair, hose to the master cylinder, charcoal filter, and the transmission.

Take a look at the broken vacuum “T”:

 

So from the broken “T” I moved to the master cylinder and then to the transmission and finished off with the charcoal canister.

 

 

One final task to finish up the vacuum system and that is the charcoal canister that is supposed to catch the fumes from the gas tank.

 

Back at the beginning I mentioned that I need to get this done because the Stang was coming due for its renewal and smog check.  Just a couple of days after finishing I planned driving over to the emissions testing facility and I got my renewal notice via email.  Here in AZ you can register you car online after you pass your smog check.   The notices normally tell you that a an emissions test is required.  My said “No Emissions” required!!!!!!!     Well the vacuum system needed tending too anyway and now it’s check off the list.

Thanks for reading

Tim

 

projectsportsroof

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Jan 7, 2010 … Thanks for checking back on #ProjectSportsRoof. Progress is being made and I’d like to finish up these post on the install of the Mach 1 grille …

1973 Mustang Sports Roof – Vacuum System Part I

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I am sooooooooooooo  far behind in my blogging in general and specifically with the work on #ProjectSportsRoof.  I’m catching up this weekend (actually it’s going to take a week or more to go through the videos) with the work I’ve done on the vacuum system.

The goal started out to get this all completed before the end of January when I had to renew the registration, but first it needed to pass emissions.  So I had to hustle.  The next few blog post cover this process.

There are some questions that come up and most of them were solved.   In particular the Vacuum Distribution Solenoid locations.  All the diagrams I pulled off the web were for non-A/C cars.  This solenoid was moved to the back when A/C was installed.  Take a look.

Of course the long vacuum hose leading down under the firewall does in fact run to the transmission.

More coming on the vacuum system.

Thanks for reading.

Tim

#ProjectSportsRoof

projectsportsroof

1973 Mustang -Project Sports Roof – Mach 1 Grille Part I

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As with most plastic exterior trim pieces on Arizona cars, the original grille in #ProjectSportsRoof has seen better days.  Although this one is still mostly intact, it is brittle with a few missing tabs.  Couple that with the look of the Mach I grille for the 1973 Mustang and I have to say I really like the look of it better than the standard.

Install is quick and easy….yeah…right!

 

 

More coming up on #ProjectSportsRoof.

Thanks for reading.

Tim

projectsportsroof

 

 

1973 Mustang – Project SportsRoof – This Just In – Cooler and Gauges

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Just received a few more parts in for the 1973 Mustang project.

Check out the video.

 

Thanks for reading.  Keep checking on #ProjectSportsRoof.

Tim

1973 mustang mach 1

1973 Mustang – Project SportsRoof – Money!!

#ProjectSportsRoof will be the way I want it, which I haven’t nailed down yet, so suggest way by dropping me a comment (got your crate motor idea swimming around in my head, Bill) and that will happen fast or slow and cost …