You just have to read the entire article and then seem my comments.
I make no judgement (like some of the other commenters) on whether Aaron is a “real car guy”, in fact I’m sure he is a ‘car guy’ – just one of ‘THOSE’ car guys. (If you are a real car guy you’ll know what I mean).
Courtesy of BMW By Aaron Miller @aaron_m_miller
I’m going to take a lot of heat for what I’m about to say. While no manufacturer can expressly admit it, behind closed doors, deep within the bunkers in Detroit, Munich, Stuttgart, and Tokyo, most engineers will nod in agreement. With enough soul searching, quite a few of my fellow automotive writers will find themselves agreeing, too. The visceral allure of the manual transmission as we know and love it isn’t….
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 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.
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!!
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 …
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) …
Welcome back to #ProjectSportsRoof. We beginning the actual work on the vacuum system on the projects 351C starting with the valve assembly distributor ( the …
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….
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!!!
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) …
Welcome back to #ProjectSportsRoof. We beginning the actual work on the vacuum system on the projects 351C starting with the valve assembly distributor ( the …
Welcome back to #ProjectSportsRoof. We beginning the actual work on the vacuum system on the projects 351C starting with the valve assembly distributor (the valve on the water pump. Here is a pic:
Here is the video:
As always when I’m holding the camera and recording I miss a few things, like there are only two vacuum connections on the valve assembly distributor and the vacuum hoses I referred to at the end go to the charcoal canister – that supposedly filters gas fumes.
Here are the clamps I used.
I’ve got more coming up on the vacuum system and then we’ll jump into the floor pans.
I don’t often post up cars on Craig’s list or elsewhere, but I happened to run to the owner filling up the Ranchero at the Shell station down the street.
The pics in this post are from the Craig’s list ad, but I can tell you body is in great shape and straight. The wheels are awesome looking. The engine sounds strong and the interior is in great shape.
Take a look at these pics and it looks even better in person.
Has the 400 in it…very cool (only a 2bbl carb….needs 4bbl – easy) Will need a transmission – easy to find a used one.
Wheels are great looking. Engine was pretty clean. Interior was great condition. Sounded awesome!!!
Body was in great shape. Originally delivered to DSO 74 (Seattle), so it’s a west coast car.
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 on this ‘plain old’ sports roof.
This was pretty much straight forward, with a small change.
If you recall on the last post we started with a NOS Mach 1 grille I acquired from Ebay…..SCORE!!!
NOS in original box
Box label – so what? Hey it’s cool!!!
For now I’m using the signal lights from the old grille and a new proper pony badge.
New Pony Badge
The new badge is different from the original (that being just a large Mustang running), which I preferred. Of course this new badge is made in Taiwan and not as sturdy as I would have liked. In fact while tightening the one of the nuts provided the prong sheered off. Luckily there were enough threads to make it secure.
Here it is installed:
Here are a couple of videos on the install.
Now there are still a few thing I need to buy to finish up the grille:
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 …
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.
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 the 1970 Mustang 302 engine. One install and no problems.
As you know I had the heads rebuilt for the 351C and after re-installing them and all the components (intake, distributor…etc.) the car would not start. Popping the distributor cap showed why:
Drop me a note if you’ve had a similar experience.
#ProjectSportsRoof. 73-17. 1973 Mustang Project Sportsroof – Engine Walk-Through. 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 …
#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 …
