Welcome back to my 1973 Mustang project #ProjectSportsRoof.
In the last post I mentioned that some how the shift linkage bar was lost when I had the car in a local shop to help put with the transmission. They took another look around their place and I did the same…no luck. So I purchased a replacement link.
Take a look….warning the audio is not great in spots.
Well we are now moving into, what I hope is an adjustment phase for the transmission. However, it might be something….more expensive!!!
The story didn’t match the damage… View On WordPress. 73 Mustang is back!! Project SportsRoof is Alive! 73 Mustang is back!! Project SportsRoof is Alive!
Well this day was long time coming. My 1973 Mustang has finally returned home and it sounds fantastic!!
You followed #ProjectSporstRoof, you may recall I ran into time issues and ability, to get the transmission mated back up to the engine and the components had to be placed back under the hood and new radiator installed. I had disassembled the engine, send it out to be bored (.040) and crank was milled a bit and rebuilt. That was over a year and half ago. In Feb of this year I decided to get some help getting it running.
A relative had an acquaintance that was starting a second shop here in Tucson to match the success of their first shop that was about an hour way. I wanted to keep the car local so I could check in on the work being done. So I asked and received an estimate and the price was fair. My only stipulation was that the car stay in Tucson and not their out-of-town shop. What I didn’t know was that their idea of starting a shop was to use a garage at a start-up/pop-up used car lot. In return they would be doing really cheap work for the car dealer in lieu of paying expensive rent.
There’s very few times such a plan works out and one day my Mustang disappeared and I wasn’t informed. I eventually (weeks) got a hold of them and found that my car was right where it I didn’t want it…at the out-of-town shop.
Now, I understand business deals falling part, especially when you start-up with little capital and hook-up with another start-up with little capital. What I didn’t like was not knowing that my car was now no longer in the city. Checking on the progress was going to be impossible and as it turned our some of my parts were left/lost at the Tucson shop. An additional problem was that I forgotten to pack a few parts and it took massive coordination effort to get the items to them.
So lets total this up real quick:
1. Missing car
2. Found car
3. Missing/Miss placed parts
4. Lost parts
5. Long periods of un-returned text and voice messages.
6. Lack of trust.
Number 6 is huge!!!
If you don’t have trust in the shop then everything, even the normal things, that arises when you are restoring a car are suspect. Combine that with a newly rebuild engine, never fired-up, well lets just say I was concerned that the proper cautions would be attended to and I’d end up with a pile of ugly Mustang parts in my driveway that I’d have to get rid of or sell the house to afford to fix it!!! So I held my breath and reluctantly had them push on.
Only two real issues came up, one was the drive shaft, it has been repaired a some point in the car’s history and poorly done at that and the yoke was in rough shape. A local shop said that could fix it for a set price, they couldn’t and ended up replacing the shaft and for the original price quoted. The other issue was a panic call/video from the shop, showing my Mustang vomiting radiator fluid in the air like Hawaii’s Kīlauea. That of course is what happens when you put a Windsor thermostat in a 351 Cleveland.
So I reduced my expectations and told them all I wanted was for the car to be mobile. I wanted it driven off the trailer and driven in my driveway and I’d be finished with them. The manual shifting you saw in the video is a result of a lost part.
Now #ProjectSportsRoof is back and I can get on with all the little projects that are left…like installing the shift linkage…yea…that should be first!!!
Thanks for reading and I can now say…there’s more coming up for #ProjectSportsRoof!!!
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, you have to work with what you’ve got, …
If you look back at #ProjectSportsRoof post you’ll see the condition engine bay. During those videos I mentioned that I was going to clean it up and hit it with a rattle can. Again this isn’t going to be a concours restoration, it’s going to look nice and it’s going …
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. Now we start the project that has been dubbed #ProjectSportsRoof (yes I find it necessary to use the ‘hash’). 1973 Mustang Color …
Well win some and you lose some. If you’ve seen my other posts related the replacement of the points and condenser for the 351C you’ll notice that I gave conversion high marks. This was all based on the years of use I got out of the conversion I did on …
Well it has been a while since I’ve updated readers on #ProjectSportsRoof and frankly there hasn’t been a lot going on.
As the regular readers know I do all the work I can on my car, when practical. This work happens in my driveway, which unfortunately has a rather steep slope.
You’ve seen the videos of my work pulling out the engine and the transmission and putting the engine back in and attempting to put the transmission back in.
I few weeks ago, after suffering from a huge bout of guilt for not working the Mustang, I attempted one more time to get the transmission reattached to the engine.
This endeavor, required me to put the car up a lot higher than normal on the stands, to get enough room to maneuver the trans and the transmission jack around. this was a huge mistake. After a few tries I decided to pull the transmission back out for under the car and wait for some help later in the week.
Everything went fine and the transmission was safely strapped to the transmission jack and rolled back into the garage. Since the car was lifted higher for the failed attempt, I decided to lower it back on to the ground. As I lifted the car with my floor jack, so I could remove one stand one of the remaining stands slipped from its place and the car dropped about 5″ on to the tires. This didn’t seem to be to dramatic of a fall until I noticed that the motor mounts had separate (broke to be frank).
That was depressing, to say the least and another set back. Of course this depression was compounded by the fact that I had very limited free time coming up to work on the car. I am a full-time Junior High teacher and I had just signed on to coach our boy’s basketball team which was a lot of fun (we when 10 -2 for the season) and very time-consuming.
I purchased the motor mounts and was attempting to schedule a couple of relatives to help out. That proved difficult.
So a relative mentioned a successful automotive shop that was opening a new location here in Tucson and I contacted them to see they wanted to tackle the engine and transmission re-install, build a custom drive shaft and add headers and exhaust. They looked it over and we agreed on the cost estimate.
So off she goes to get the complete drive training straighten out and hopefully back on the road soon.
There is still a lot of work to be done and as I get ready for my summer break from teaching, I should be able to but more time into it!!!
I have a lot more coming up on #ProjectBeepBeep as well.
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, you have to work with what you’ve got, …
If you look back at #ProjectSportsRoof post you’ll see the condition engine bay. During those videos I mentioned that I was going to clean it up and hit it with a rattle can. Again this isn’t going to be a concours restoration, it’s going to look nice and it’s going …
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. Now we start the project that has been dubbed #ProjectSportsRoof (yes I find it necessary to use the ‘hash’). 1973 Mustang Color …
Ok so these were suppose to kick off while I’m over here in Italy, but they failed to post up, so I’m taking a few minutes to fix that. Oh well as long as I’m typing, here is my favorite Italian road sign: Welcome back to Project Sports Roof (#ProjectSportsRoof). We stripped …
In these next two videos, you’ll see just how ‘off’ these fenders are in some areas and surprisingly how well they fit in other areas. If you have an experience or a hit for anyone taking on this part of a restoration – drop a comment here and we’ll share them. https://youtu.be/Ga9EHbDpSfg https://youtu.be/FBKs7EG4kK0 Thanks …
Well win some and you lose some. If you’ve seen my other posts related the replacement of the points and condenser for the 351C you’ll notice that I gave conversion high marks. This was all based on the years of use I got out of the conversion I did on …
Thanks for checking on #ProjectSportsRoof. So here is the last set of initial questions. Here is an image of the current set up: Any diagram I find has the hose vacuum from the Distr going to the Valve assy. The Valve assy has nothing attached which is located on the front …
#AutoFactoids are back!!! I will be changing them up a bit but they’ll still be fun.
Factoid – The Datsun 510 in the late 1960s it competed with the likes of BMW on the front lines of the then-new sports sedan category. Paul Newman use to race one.
Factoid – Lexus SC300 shared a lot of important parts with the now-legendary Toyota Supra, including the same straight six engine.
Factoid – Ford Probe was basically a Mazda 626, and was originally intended to become the new Mustang. Thankfully, those plans were scrapped because Ford was concerned of the back-lash.
Auto Factoids are back!!!! Lets just get started. Happy Birthday (Sept. 8, 1903) Preston Tucker – nice cars!!! On Sept 9th 1935 Studebaker put the first car on a Pennsylvania RR rail car headed to NYC but the final destination was London. (Actually there were 163 cars in that shipment.) These are …
Here some interesting facts for the new in 2008 LS9 engine. – It was a combination of upgraded LS3 and LS7 components and took 3 years to develop – All 2000 units were hand-assembled in GM’s Performance Build Center in Wixom, Michigan -It displaced 6.2 liters – Bore and stroke 4.06×3.62 with a compression ratio of 9.1:1 – …
Spend a few hours on this 2017 Labor Day, laboring over #ProjectSportsRoof and I wish that labor paid a bit more dividends.
The goal was to mate the transmission back to the engine but unfortunately that just wasn’t going to happen today. The engine is set back a bit too far and tilted (on purpose). Problem is if I bolted them up the engine hoist would be able to lift the engine and trans due to the height I needed the car to work on the transmission.
So I pulled the transmission out from under car and placed its wheels back on the concrete.
It was a major effort to get the car up high enough to get the transmission out. I pushed the boundaries of safety with a floor jack and a couple of jack-stand.
As I stated in the video I may just take it down the street and have them get that straightened out for me.
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, you have to work with what you’ve got, …
If you look back at #ProjectSportsRoof post you’ll see the condition engine bay. During those videos I mentioned that I was going to clean it up and hit it with a rattle can. Again this isn’t going to be a concours restoration, it’s going to look nice and it’s going …
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 …
Mar 15, 2017 … Did you think I sold #ProjectSportsRoof? Nope. I’ve been busy and I’ve been serving as editor to another cool project – my constant reader Bill’s …
#ProjectSportsRoof has been…languishing a bit but I have a new transmission jack and I’ll be back to it in the next week…right now it going to be about 120 …
April 16th, 1908 – Oakland car company sold it’s first car. Oakland was formed in 1907 by Edward M. Murphy. He was originally a buggy maker and then sold a 4 cylinder car designed by Alanson P. Brush. It was a 4 cylinder car.
I believe they actually began producing cars in 1907.
The mother of all debuts, the Ford Mustang was on April 17, 1964. Little did any one know what a success that little car would be. There were 3 engine available for the 64 1/2 Mustang, the 170 inline 6 cylinder, the 260 V8 and the 289 V8. There were 97, 705 hard tops produced and 28,883 convertibles.
1964 1/2 Vert
1964 1/2 Coupe
April 17, 1969 another Ford debut the Ford Maverick. Just 5 years the Mustangs release Ford tried again to capture the magic my debuting the Maverick. The Maverick was offered only in two door platform on a Falcon chassis and sported only one engine, the 170 cid. That engine was called the Falcon 6 cylinder with produced about 100 hp. Over 127k were produced in the first year.
1969 Maverick Clay moc-ups. I think the top model would have been a great look. Although it did look a bit like the Mustang
Lincoln becomes a separate division of Ford in 1955 on April 18th. It came in a Custom and Capri series. It took the form of 2dr, 4dr and convertible. Believe it, or not the 4415 lbs car was considered “Sport” model.
Two door Capri
18 April 1964 Sunbeam debuts the iconic Tiger. The Sunbeam Tiger a collectible car. It only came in a convertible with 260 V8.
Referred to Sunbeam Tiger MKII or Series I
On April 22nd back in 1954 Hudson and Nash merged to from American Motors Corporation (AMC). This would mark one of the last independent auto makers and brought us such coolness as the Marlin, AMX, Javelin, Rebel and don’t forget the Pacer and Gremlin. Here are two examples of the AMX from a local car show here in
Hope you all had a great Turkey Day!! Here is the line up of Auto Factoids for the first week in December!!! Nov 30 1960 De Soto ceases production. The last De Soto produced were really the Chrysler Windsor, most did not sale, even though dealerships continued to received cars after the …
Here are your Auto Factoids #AutoFactoids for the beginning of June, 2015. May 31, 1927 – Ford produced the last Model T. There is some debate as to actual date and it’s said that the 15th million Model T rolled off the production line on May 26th, 1927 and the Henry …
Kaiser-Fraser formed July 26, 1945 – The Kaiser-Frazer Corporation was the result of a partnership between automobile executive Joseph W. Frazer and business man Henry J. Kaiser. In 1947, the company acquired the automotive assets of Graham-Paige. Interesting enough, Kaiser had no automotive business experience. In 1953 the company became …
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 …
Here are your Auto Factoids (#AutoFactoids) for the first week in Feb. 2015!!! I think we can call this Kaiser Week as 3 of our factoid are related to the Kaiser auto manufacturing. In fact the month starts right off with Kaiser factoid. Feb 1, 1947 – Graham-Paige sold out to Kaiser. …
Welcome back to #ProjectSportsRoof. I’m finishing the re-positioned shifting rod above the transmission’s cross member.
Next I’ll need to go top side and give the selector a try. If that is working properly, hitting the proper gears I can spin the torque converter and properly torque its connection to the flex plate.
If you look back at #ProjectSportsRoof post you’ll see the condition engine bay. During those videos I mentioned that I was going to clean it up and hit it with a rattle can. Again this isn’t going to be a concours restoration, it’s going to look nice and it’s going …
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 …
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 …
Well it’s been a long week getting her back on the road. But she drove well enough given her condition.
I am looking for opinions on kits for front suspension rebuilds, mine is shot. At this point I’m probably looking for the cheapest most comprehensive kit given my pony’s condition.
My entire front suspension is not suspending, or bouncing, or quiet. Its time for a full rebuild but I’ve been waiting to blow my motor to justify a full car build! It’s been on its last leg for at least 10 years so at this point I’m trying to see how far I can go to prove Ford’s reliability before tearing her down and she just won’t die! A true survivor.
Also I have a mean top end tick I have lots of play in my lifters, I’m assuming that’s the problem. Already replaced the valve caps, but I probably lost one or two again, any tips or tricks to adjust these ticks?
Although she really like cruising at 50 mph everywhere! I had a hard time keeping it under that speed.
Josh,
You will get a lot of opinions and have a lot of options. Basically is comes down to what you want the car to be. If you just want a cruiser I think you can’t go wrong with just building like it came from the factory. I did that with my 1970 only difference is I use polyurethane bushing. Polyurethane bushing improved the ride without ruining the feel of how the car would have handled when it came from the factory. Properly greased the don’t squeak. If you want it a bit better ride you can upgrade components as you go.
I recommend the RPS kit (it is under $300)
Front Suspension Kit, 1968 – 73 Mustang Restoration Parts Source FDSUSKIT3 – RPS – 004 This suspension kit includes new upper and lower control arms with bushings and riveted ball joints installed, new spring perches and insulators and new strut rod bushings with washers.
Replaces that is, boot as in shifting boot. (Were you thinking…since I just got back from the Barrett Jackson Auction.. I was considering getting rid of the Stang ? Nope..but I tell you there were a couple of cars I’d even swap for…that’s for sure!!) When the 4 speed trans got …
If you searched and found or followed my posts on restoring the dash-board of my ’70 Mustang, then you might recall my planning/scheduling issues. As I was taking the old dash pad off, I realized that I hadn’t order the plastic pillar molding. When I finally called a few Mustang parts …
I’ve the pillar post moldings painted and ready to installed. I put on 3 coats of paint. Now I have to remove the dash pad (again) and install. That will be later this week, my Corvette is still in shop and the Mustang is my back up car. Thanks for reading more to …
Ok now I’m excited. The dash pad replacement arrived and it looks great. Here are some pics: I ordered this part from Dallas Mustang, but I thinking I should have ordered directly from DashesDirect.com I’ll check the web site and see if it was cheaper there. When you have an average guy’s budget …
If you look back at #ProjectSportsRoof post you’ll see the condition engine bay. During those videos I mentioned that I was going to clean it up and hit it with a rattle can. Again this isn’t going to be a concours restoration, it’s going to look nice and it’s going …
I thought I’d take a minute and catch the readers up on #ProjectSportsRoof. I wanted to touch up some of the engine bay components, horns, vacuum canister and battery tray. I didn’t want to alter some of these too much, I like having the numbers, logos and other info visible, not …
