I get a lot of questions on just what I’m going to do with the Sports Roof. Some of those are posed as inquires of interest and others can be interpreted as “What the hell were you thinking when you bought that!!!”. Truth is I don’t …
#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 …
Dynacorn Mustang body. Dynacorn’s new 1967 Mustang fastback body. Mormon Meteor III. Ab Jenkins’s Mormon Meteor III. For all its grandeur and provenance, nobody paid attention to it at SEMA. (UPDATE: It got a little love …
Here is your #AutoFactoids and Car News Now for this first full week of September 2015.
Auto Factoids
Sept. 7, 1954 – Production of Ford Thunderbird begins
1955 T-Bird
2002 Thunderbird
Sept. 8, 1903 Preston Tucker was born in Capac, MI.
While dubbed “Tucker Torpedo” during production no ‘Torpedoes’ were produced.
Beautiful Cars!!
Sept. 9, 1935 – Studebaker exports 163 Presidents to England.
These are what were shipped
All Aboard!!
Car News Now (C.N.N.)
Automobile reports that the 2017 Porsche 911 Carrera and Carrera S get Turbocharged!!!
That’s the 3.0 liter flat six engine. The twin turbo will produce 379 hp w/ 331 lb-ft fo torque in the Carrera and Carrera S will have 420 hp with 368 lb-ft. That is 20 more horses the current 3.8 liter produces for Porsches.
2017 Porsche Twin-turbo Flat 6 – smoking hot!!
Car Buzz took a look at Audi’s A8 with Armor – it will be bullet and bomb proof – meeting VR 9 ballistics protection standards.
You are gonna need some extra punch to get these moving so there are two engines available. The are the 4.o liter V8 with 429 hp and a 6.0 liter W12 with 495 hp.
With its world premiere headed for the IAA Frankfurt, the refreshed seventh generation Porsche 911 Carrera (991 series) should represent an epic showcase of efficiency, technological advancement, engine development and design curation. Innovative …
Mercedes-Benz’s next C63 AMG is due in about a year and we have some fresh details on the car straight from the head of AMG. The good news is that the car will continue to offer a V-8 and rear-wheel drive, but this time around it will be turbocharged.
It’s almost like Christmas every time part come in for #ProjectSportsRoof.
Here’s what came in this week:
Fresh from North of our border are these wood insert for the door panels. These were part of the Mach 1 Interior package the car was originally ordered with.
Wood door panel inserts.
These look new on the back.
Here is the shot of the Mach 1 interior package.
This image is from a 1972 – but the package is the same.
Also in are the new set of window felts.
These are new.
As I began organizing the garage I ran across a few parts left over from my 1970 Mustang restore. Most were 302 specific however I new set of lower control arms that just so happen to fit the 1973.
Lower Control Arms
With great looking used glass and the fender on the way and we are moving in a positive direction.
If you look back at the video (to view click here) of the exterior walk around for my 1973 SportsRoof you’ll notice the to front fenders were, not perfect!!!
#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 …
Welcome back to #ProjectSportsRoof. I run my car projects much like I run my IT projects. You always have to know where to start and know the end game. As with any project that isn’t being built from scratch, in other word, …
Legendary SoCal hot rodder, racer and all-around Corvette maestro Dick Guldstrand passed away on September 2 at age 87. A few years back, we featured Dick in our Hot Rod Hero column for Hemmings Muscle Machines. In fact, I had the opportunity to speak with Dick on the day he was celebrating his 84th birthday. There is nothing quite like the candor of a retired racer, particularly one who has never truly left the arena. (Chase the link below for the rest of the article from Hemmings.)
If you look back at the video (to view click here) of the exterior walk around for my 1973 SportsRoof you’ll notice the two front fenders were, not perfect!!!
Right Side Fender – lots of crinkles, a few creases and good size dent.
Left Fender – major dent a lot of rebuilding
The right fender has some pretty sharp creases breaking the lines of the finder. The belt line can be fixed but it’s tough to get them back to the original look and I don’t want a ‘bondo’ build out. The left fender is as bad, with that huge dent – almost completely straightening out the belt original fender lines. Again these can be fixed but it takes a lot of work. Additionally, I’m not even sure these fenders are original to the car – one appears to have holes consistent with a belt/side molding.
If you recall from earlier posts, the car came with two fenders. Although a bit delayed getting into town they did arrive and I took a look at them. I determined they were going to be as much work to fix as the fenders currently on the car. That’s way I opted to not add to the clutter in my garage by dragging them home.
So that left me with attempting to find good original fenders or repros. You’d think finding used fenders shouldn’t pose too big of an issue, Mustangs are everywhere, right? True in many respects, however, the 1973 Mustang had unique fenders. Often the 1971, 1972 and 1973 Mustangs are thought of as being the same car, but for 1973 the major difference is the change in bumpers that were Federally mandated. For 1973 the Mustang got the urethane bumper and no longer required the filler panel, which the ’70-’71 fenders accommodated with 4 screw holes to attach the panel.
Given that, it’s no wonder that most of the used fenders will need a lot of work, if you do find them and I already have a set that needs repair.
So that leaves me with reproduction sheet metal. There are a lot of forums out there that discuss the differences between ‘brands’ and I’ve done the research and the results were not conclusive.
There are 3 main providers of repop sheet metal, Dynacor, Legion (or Gold Legion) and Goodmark. There’s a lot of discussion on which are the best, but apparently the all come from the same place in Twain. Part of that discussion was that the manufacturer sells the sheet metal parts by quality grade and the above mentioned companies are some state what quality grade they will buy or have an exclusive deal to only get the top grades while the other companies are left to the poorer quality. I don’t know how much truth there is to this, so it’s grain of salt time. But the over all conciseness was that use parts would be better and the real difference for reproduced sheet metal comes down to the dealer’s customer service (read – return/replacement policy).
Even pricing varies by dealer. Summit has fenders for my ’73 Sportsroof for $365, NPD has them for $392, Ohio Mustang Supply for $315 and Laurel Mountain Mustang for $294.00. That’s a pretty good range.
As I posted before, after a vigorous (not read ‘desperate’) I finally found my next personal project. The 1973 Mustang Sports Roof Fastback is what I settled on.
Welcome back to #ProjectSportsRoof. I run my car projects much like I run my IT projects. You always have to know where to start and know the end game. As with any project that isn’t being built from scratch, in other word, …
This is the wrap up on the compression testing for the 1973 Mustang w/ a 1972 351 Cleveland power plant.
You’ll might have notices that I referred to the remote tester, which is my code for remote starter…yeah…that’s it!!!
All of these tests were dry test and I should have done a wet test on cylinder 2 to help determine if the rings were shot, I’m thinking it’s just a valve issue.
The left bank of cylinders looked like this:
Cylinder 5 (front right) – 160
Cylinder 6 – 155
Cylinder 7 – 160
Cylinder 8 – 140
Here are the videos.
Cylinder 5
Cylinder 6
Cylinder 7
Cylinder 8
Those are some pretty good numbers. But the heads will have to come off and sent out for a spa day…UNLESS…I replace them with something else? Like?????
I’ve done all the clean up and all the adjustments necessary to get a good reading on the health of the ’72 351C engine in my 1973 Mustang. The next step is to check.
There is a quick walk-through of the 351C tucked between the fenders of the 1973 Mustang Sportsroof. (It took about 5 takes to get this video…a slight improvement.
#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 …
Continuing on with the leaks and Pertronix install on the 351C, below you’ll see the cleaned up valve covers (BTW – only the right side was leaking – which may explain.
I’ve done all the clean up and all the adjustments necessary to get a good reading on the health of the ’72 351C engine in my 1973 Mustang.
The next step is to check the compression.
First up was to warm the car a bit and then pull the plugs.
Here’s what the plugs looked like:
A very handy device to have is a remote starter (it keeps you from having to run back the cockpit and turning the key). Just clip on to the positive terminal and S terminal on the starter rely and push the button.
There is a quick walk-through of the 351C tucked between the fenders of the 1973 Mustang Sportsroof. (It took about 5 takes to get this video…a slight improvement.
#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 …
During the course of a restoration that are the major processes that need to be tended too, like body work, engine rebuild or interior work that takes the lime light and.
Thanks for checking back on the #ProjectSportsRoof progress. Wrapping up the Pertronix install, I’ll had an issue. After install the system the car would not start.
During the course of a restoration that are the major processes that need to be tended too, like body work, engine rebuild or interior work that takes the lime light and a the bulk of the time spend on the project. There are often small gaps when there’s a some free time, like waiting for parts, etc. or just a break for the big stuff to take care of some of the little.
For example: If you’ve watched the videos, in particular the engine walk through post (Link it) you’ve seen the radiator reservoir was….um…a little lower than what would be considered normal.
A tad bit low.
Broken!
Here’s a little clip on the repair.
It’s always great to accomplish something on a project, even the little things.
There is a quick walk-through of the 351C tucked between the fenders of the 1973 Mustang Sportsroof. (It took about 5 takes to get this video…a slight improvement.
Continuing on with the leaks and Pertronix install on the 351C, below you’ll see the cleaned up valve covers (BTW – only the right side was leaking – which may explain.
#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 …
Thanks for checking back on the #ProjectSportsRoof progress. Wrapping up the Pertronix install, I’ll had an issue. After install the system the car would not start. So I re-gapped the Pertronix and still it wouldn’t start. I was sure I didn’t screw up the firing order when I put the new cap on, but I pulled out the book and rechecked. Not the problem.
So I went about putting the points and condenser back in and it still didn’t fire up, put the old coil back on and still no luck. I put the Pertronix back in and of course the beast would not fire up.
This video covers it.
If you read the previous post and watched the video, you would have noticed gas seeping from a crack in the rubber line just above the “steam punk” fuel pressure gauge and the collection of hose clams. Truly a work of art – no doubt, but totally a mess.
Ye,s I should have looked that over better and replaced it prior running the car. However, it’s better now and a solid temporarily fix. Here a clip.
Again, this is a temp fix and a proper line will be installed eventually.
Here’s a wrenching tip: When install hose clamps on a gas line, be sure you’ve tighten them all before your start the car. Gas has a tendency to not flow in the desired direction, when not well contained. Yeah…gas everywhere and not just a little. Here’s garage tip: Cat Litter – buckets full!!! ‘nough said!!!
Thanks for reading and as always….let me hear from you.
As I march down the dark path that is the diagnostic process to find out the health of the 351 Cleveland, the first steps are to clean up a few leaks (mainly so it.
As I posted before, after a vigorous (not read ‘desperate’) I finally found my next personal project. The 1973 Mustang Sports Roof Fastback is what I settled on.
Continuing on with the leaks and Pertronix install on the 351C, below you’ll see the cleaned up valve covers (BTW – only the right side was leaking – which may explain.
Continuing on with the leaks and Pertronix install on the 351C, below you’ll see the cleaned up valve covers (BTW – only the right side was leaking – which may explain the gunked up spark plug).
As I was cleaning up the valve cover gaskets and notices a couple more issue that need addressing.
Let me know your thoughts on the transmission cooling lines.
Finally we get to the main event for this past weekend wrenching, the install of the Pertronix Ignition system. (Yeah…I didn’t think I’d get here either.)
This a relatively easy install, unless you are me!!!! You’ll see in the video – it really wasn’t related to the Pertronix.
Here’s what is being installed.
It will replace these.
Now I’m not going to show the install CJ Pony had a good video on the process and I don’t have a camera guy to take the shot. Here’s a link: CJ Pony Install
So the audio is not that great on this clip but it is running better then previously. You’ll notice toward the end of this clip…a new problem!
I’ll address that in the last part of this section.
There is a quick walk-through of the 351C tucked between the fenders of the 1973 Mustang Sportsroof. (It took about 5 takes to get this video…a slight improvement.
#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 …
Welcome back to #ProjectSportsRoof. I run my car projects much like I run my IT projects. You always have to know where to start and know the end game. As with any project that isn’t being built from scratch, in other word, …
I get a lot of questions on just what I’m going to do with the Sports Roof. Some of those are posed as inquires of interest and others can be interpreted as “What the.
As I posted before, after a vigorous (not read ‘desperate’) I finally found my next personal project. The 1973 Mustang Sports Roof Fastback is what I settled on.
