Hey, welcome back to #ProjectSportsRoof (1973 Mustang). We are working through the rusted floor pans and I’m about to make the cut for removing rust from the right rear foot-well.
Quick note about the video sequence. As executive director, camera guy (well smart phone guy) and film editor (is that still a real thing?), I don’t always plan out the steps like you might see on a TV show. (There goes my chances of being on Counting Cars – I’ve got a better chance of being a walk-on-the-set zombie on the Walking Dead – I love both of those shows!!!! ) Perfect example is in the next few posts and videos. Instead of stripping out all the carpeting, I made a cut along the tunnel on the right side and just removed that carpet. You can clearly see that. Then I removed the rust from the foot-well (you’ll see that below) and then worked on cutting the re-pop floor patch.
That went so well, I felt confident enough to remove the driver’s seat and the rest of the carpeting. So when I show that video you’ll notice both patch panels on the right side are fitted. There just no ‘do overs’ on this project.
Here are the next two videos. By the way you can see all the videos on my YouTube channel just search for #ProjectSportsRoof and you’ll find most of them.
Once again in the video I mention getting the replacement pan for under the rear seat – above the muffler. However, as I mentioned previously that portion of the floor is not reproduced.
More floor panel work coming up. If you have comments or tips/hints use the comment box below. Love to hear from you.
Thanks for check in on #ProjectSportsRoof. If you remember a of couple months back, shortly after bringing the ’73 Mustang home, I conducted a compression test on all the cylinders. The 351C was running rough (to put it mildly) and smoked like a pile of tires on fire (only the smoke …
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.
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.
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 …
#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 …
Most car enthusiasts know that by the 1970’s all cars even ‘former’ muscle cars, were strangled in terms of power by a host of tubes, solenoids and funny looking flat or funnel like space age devices that were responsible for eliminating harmful emissions. In some cases they funneled fumes back in to the engine to be burned and supposedly rendering them less harmful.
When you are restoring a car of this vintage – especially one like my 1973 Mustang that has been sitting around a while, those tubes/hoses are often cracked, dried, split or ends stretched at the least for missing all together.
You have the option to remove all the space ag hardware (depending on the emissions regulations in your area) or replacing it all to restore to factory specifications. For the purpose of these series of posts let’s assume that I want to seriously limit the performance and power of #ProjectSportsRoof’s beautiful 351C and restore it back to factory configuration.
Now if you are expecting an expert run down on the care and feeding of the vacuum system for this project – you aren’t going to get that right up front. Why? Because it’s really not that straight forward at first and I have a few questions.
As I look at the diagrams for the vacuum system on a 1972 351C, I am not seeing anything that matches my set up.
Let me start back of the engine.
There is a solenoid on the back of the manifold (only bolted there) that I think is some diagrams is shown on the opposite side and in the front.
Here’s a better shot.
As you can see it has no power connected nor hoses. Is that the Solenoid Dist vacuum? I think so.
For the 1972 351C. The solenoid is #12 in the diagram –
Thanks for check in on #ProjectSportsRoof. If you remember a of couple months back, shortly after bringing the ’73 Mustang home, I conducted a compression test on all.
#ProjectSportsRoof. 1973 Mustang – Project SportsRoof – Compression, Rods … Thanks for check in on #ProjectSportsRoof. If you remember a of couple months back, shortly after bringing the ’73 Mustang home, I conducted …
Just before heading off on vacation, I sources a set of used gauges for the Mustang (#ProjectSportsRoof). These are out of a 1973 Mustang and fit in to the dash. If you recall there is a current set of gauges in the Mustang, however they are a newer connected set wedge into the slot where the original single gauges go.
Here is the current configuration.
Here is the current set of gauges. The individual units will look much better.
Drop me a note if you’ve had to clean out the hose for oil pressure gauges.
Thanks for checking back in on #ProjectSportsRoof.
For a long time I thought installing door window felt or window seal was an impossible task. Either you couldn’t get the pieces because they aren’t reproduced or it was done in such a way that make it possible for the Average Guy to make it happen.
It’s been a while since I had to consider replacement – my 1970 Mustang restoration didn’t require new felt, so is wasn’t a concern. But the 1973 SportsRoof needed it badly, as you can see in the video for exterior walk around (click HERE to review). Before I began the search I was concerned that I wouldn’t find them – 1973 was a unique year in a lot of ways (fenders – grille) and with the differences between the 1971-1972 and 1973 it wouldn’t be hard to image these just weren’t profitable to reproduce.
Thankfully I was wrong. I found these on one of the Mustang part sites and they are produced by “Repops” (which I may called something different in one of the videos you’ll see in these posts). The were very good quality, but needed some modifications.
Let’s take a look at them.
Repops’ Window Felt
Just a side note: The audio on this set of videos it not great. I forgot that I had my fan on and at times that over powers the audio – especially when I move in side. My apologizes ahead of time!!!
BONUS VIDEO SECTION: In the last section of the video above I covered a little tip for keeping the interior of the door dry. As I look back, I realize that my 1970 Mustang DID have two holes in the bottom of the door originally. However, they were a bit smaller than those in bottom of the ’73 and prone to getting plugged very easily – which is why I added a few more.
To install the inside felt (the outside is rubber – which make sense) I had to remove the top door panel inside, which was just two screws. Then I need to take a look at how to remove the felt from that piece.
Next two videos show the removal of the felt from the top interior section of the door panel.
After cutting the fold ends of the staples the felt just popped off with a screw driver.
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 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 …
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, …
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