64.5 Punch List

[daveSanborn]

I'm initiating this thread to report progress on a fellow Mustangers 64.5 car that I've taken on as a project.  He abruptly ran out of space and time to finish putting it back together and I'll use the proceeds from the work to fund something.... probably more partying.

The car is in really solid shape.  No rust on the car that I've found other than a small spot (3" x 3") under the battery tray and the drivers side front floorboard.

He's got most of the work done for the 4 to 5 lug suspension swap done.  A new rearend is installed and a Granada swap has been installed on the front.  The motor appears to be an early 5.0 motor as it has a reverse rotation water pump on it and a partial serp. belt.   He states the motor is "okay", but it smokes a little and is probably getting close to rebuild time.  I'm just going to get it running for him and won't be messing with a rebuild.

His previous owner hacked a few things along the way that I'll be tidying up.....

- the P side front bumper ears were tack welded onto the front frame rail as the two OEM bolts probably froze inside the frame rail/anchor nuts.

- the interior panels/doors/dash were all painted with body color urethane during the last re-paint.

- the wiring appears "shoddy" at various locations.  For instance, some cut connections were re-connected with Home Depot type twist on connectors (as you'd use for home wiring.... or installing a ceiling fan).

The new owner wants a six gauge cluster installed and this is going to be a challenge.  Unbeknownst to me, 64.5 cars do not have an instrument cluster wiring harness.... the wiring harness for the instrument cluster is all part of the main underdash harness.  This is going to take me some time and a little head scratching.... I'm going to have to make individual connections for each of the gauges on the new 6 gauge cluster I guess.

The new owner also has started to run all new brake lines, but none are connected to anything and most are coming up a little short..... he tried buying a kit to replace the lines, but that doesn't work when doing the Granada swap and going from a single exhaust to a dual exhaust.

He also needs the heater plenum rebuilt.

Like I said, lots of little stuff.

Here's some pictures of the car in my ever shrinking garage/workshop:







Not much room at the front of the car.... I can either work on the front or rear of the car, but not both at the same time.



Checkout the rubbing 225/60/15 front tires.  Not a lot of room here either.  They rub BADLY with the wheels turned just a little bit.



I figured I'd start with the DS floorboard.  This way I can get most of the interior back into the car and off of my shrinking shop floor space.  I got the replacement panel butt welded into place on Sunday and finished it off this evening.





It's not overly cramped in the shop... mostly just around where the 64.5 is actually parked.  Whenever I feel claustrophobic, I go hangout by my large workbench which runs 20' along the wall just to the left of the chopper.  There's plenty of room on this side of the shop.



Tomorrow will be fitting the new carpet underlayment, bench bleeding and installing the new master cylinder.  Does a 64.5 car use a brake light switch (on the brake pedal) as used on later year cars.... or is it on the old distribution block? 

[Fast68back]

Kinda off topic, whats that black square on top of the car cover?

[napaguy]

Dave,
I think the brake light switch is located at the end of the master cylinder isnt it? Did you grind the floor pan welds? What is the black coating? Nice work

[daveSanborn]

Um, the bag for the car cover.....

[daveSanborn]

Dave,
I think the brake light switch is located at the end of the master cylinder isnt it? Did you grind the floor pan welds? What is the black coating? Nice work

Yeah, that's what I was thinking too.... he's purchased the SSBC Prop. Valve that has the electrical port on it.  The instructions for the valve state that the electrical port will activate the "taillights" when the brakes are applied.  I may have to rig this so that it activates the brake lights instead.  It'll be interesting.

Yeah, still welding with flux core wire out here.  I ground down any high spots on the welds, primed, applied a heavy layer of seam sealer and then painted.  This is NOT a concours restoration.  He wants it be a clean driver and that's the energy I'm putting into it.

[Midlife]

Flux core welding?  I suggest you use some of the proceeds and buy a MIG welder.

Next you'll be telling us that you are hoping the Feds bring you 'lectricity and perhaps running water!

[pnandy]

Um, the bag for the car cover.....

lol

[70_Fastback]

Flux core welding?  I suggest you use some of the proceeds and buy a MIG welder.

Next you'll be telling us that you are hoping the Feds bring you 'lectricity and perhaps running water!

LoL;  though I concure.

[Fast68back]

Dont let em get you down dave, I'll trade you my mig for the chic on your shoulder, I'll even come pick her up.

[70_Fastback]

Dont let em get you down dave, I'll trade you my mig for the chic on your shoulder, I'll even come pick her up.

Hmm.... I think that would depend on which is used more...  :hmm

[daveSanborn]

I'm actually using a MIG welder... just too cheap to go get a bottle for it and have been running the flux core wire.  My wife keeps asking me what I want for xmas/anniversary/birthday and I tell her "nothing, I have everything I need".  I think it may be time to let her buy me something.  It'll make her feel better and I guess I'll benefit from running the argon mix.

[daveSanborn]

Spent a few hours working on the 64.5 today.

A LOT of the work the owner has done was just "tacked on".  He's sure good at buying parts though!  I've got new parts laying all over the place!

I cleaned out the trunk... zero rust issues and a nice coat of primer/paint was already in place.

I installed the sound deadener pad that sits over the gas tank.  I installed the trunk "plaid" liner.  With the trunk cleaned up I can start putting all of his leftover parts into a tote thats sitting in the trunk.  Someone "bumped" the rearend of the car in traffic.  The rear bumper has a slight inward bend that's good enough for a driver.... but the deck lid latch was hitting the "hook" on the tailpanel.  I had to use a little backyard engineering to "slightly" push the top center of the tailpanel rearward.... maybe 1/16th of an inch was all it needed.  A porta-power sure would have been handy, but I got it done and the decklid closes good enough!

I installed all of the passenger compartment sound deadener, the passenger compartment to trunk filler panel, the package tray and the new dash pad.  I bench bled the master cylinder and installed it.  I connected all the rear brake lines and while under there noticed that the shackle bolts were installed "hand tight".  I tightend all four of the nuts .

The largest area of work consisted of removing the old battery tray as it was fairly well rotted.  Finally got the almost disintegrated top two bolts out and found underneath it the apron was swiss cheese.  I cut out about a square foot of the metal that was rotted away and welded in a patch panel.  Primered, painted the apron and installed the new battery tray and battery.  Hooked the new battery up momentarily and checked what electrical items I could that were unaffected by having the instrument cluster, steering wheel and TS lever still uninstalled.  I installed a new horn.... but could only find a location for one horn vice the normal two.  Did 64.5 cars only have one horn?

I mocked up a good location for the new SSBC prop/distribution valve and started bending and flaring new lines to get it plumbed up to the master cylinder.  Missing the large sized fitting that screws into the master for the front brakes, I ran into a dead end here.

I've got a small order in with NPD that should be here on Tuesday allowing me to get the heater box rebuilt.  Once that's done I can finish installing the rest of the interior.

Feels good to be working on a 'stang again!   

[AzPete]

Sounds like you are moving right along. Always nice to spend someone else money.

[tarafied1]

- the wiring appears "shoddy" at various locations.  For instance, some cut connections were re-connected with Home Depot type twist on connectors (as you'd use for home wiring.... or installing a ceiling fan).

what's wrong with that?  :expl

[napaguy]

Dave,
No progress pics? What are you using to prime the areas you fix?

[daveSanborn]

No progress pics? What are you using to prime the areas you fix?

I'll try and get some pictures posted as significant progress is made.  I'm using rattle can 3M primer.

[daveSanborn]

Um, I finished the car last Saturday.  So much for updating the thread as progress was made.  I snapped a few pictures before the owner showed up to pick the car up and I'll post them here when I get home.

Overall, it was a fun little project.  I took it on it's maiden voyage test drive last Thursday afternoon and it was different to be driving a non-PB/non-PS Mustang around the neighborhood.  The owner showed up Saturday around noon, took her for a spin and came back with a shit-eating grin on his face.  To say he was happy would be an understatement.  Without a lot of local miles on the car I recommended that we tow it back to his place (almost a 3 hour drive), but before doing so on Sunday we jumped in all 3 stangs and headed off on a 40 mile R/T to the nearest Hooters.  The cars drew the usual parking lot gang of camera phone picture takers as we had lunch and drank a few beers at their outside tables.

Some things with the car that I was not happy with...

- he'd bought a 65 dash pad and I installed a 6 gauge Autometer gauge cluster.  The 65 dash pad is designed to be retained to the dash by the stainless trim/brightwork that normally would have surrounded the Falcon style 65 gauge cluster.  Without using the original cluster, the trim couldn't be used either... making the dash pad very ill-fitting as it wasn't attached with anything but the trim along the base of the windshield.  I recommended that he order and install a '66 dash pad to solve the problem.

- he'd bought his new carpet through Mustangs Unlimited.  Upon opening the box I found it to be a "one-piece" carpet.  It was molded very well around the seat risers and the carpet eventually laid right into the shape of the floorpan, except that it was too short at the front edge.  Due to the form fit over the seat risers and the floorpan/toe board joint, there was no way I could simply "pull" the carpet further forward.  I suppose you wouldn't notice it unless you were actually sitting in the car, but I recommended he replace it with a 2 piece carpet (because I know these fit w/o issue).

Other than these two areas I was pleased with the overall success of the venture.  Ultimately I had 75 hours billed to the project and based upon the amount of work that was done he got a helluva deal, but I enjoyed myself along the way so we're both happy.

I'll get some pictures posted soon. 

[Fast68back]

So whats next?

[daveSanborn]

I'm booked up with partying until the 3rd weekend in October.... unless you have something planned that weekend?

It starts this weekend with the Dillon, SC Mustangs at the Border show.... the following weekend I have a back-how being dropped off the assist in felling 7 pretty big trees and clearing a 1/2 acre piece of land I recently purchased, the following weekend will probably be more of the same back breaking work, come the weekend of May 2nd we have 4 prime seating tickets to a Greensboro Collesium Bruce Springstein concert, mid-May is MB Bike week and then the warm weather is upon me and the wife wants to take the boat out at every opportunity.  October closes with MBB and this year we're planning on the Daytona Fall ralley.

[Fast68back]

Commin soon to a city near you, the Sanborn summer tour........ Sounds like a fun summer planned, other than the clearing brush part.

[Midlife]

If you need someone to use a ticket for Da Boss, just let me know. :naug

[daveSanborn]

Pictures.....

[Fast68back]

Nice.... Two questions though

1. Any plans to recover the front seats red or rear seat black?

2. Is that yellow dodge the same color as jeremy's car?

[Havok1]

Looks great Dave!  It really turned out well.  Did you make him pay extra for the 2x6's in the package tray?   :boo

[daveSanborn]

All good questions that were discussed between he and I.

It is in his plans to recover the rear seats in black.  He'd asked me to vinyl "spray paint" them, but I advised against this.

No, I think the Dodge is a shade or two lighter....

The 2x6's were provided at no charge to help seal out some nasty exhaust fumes.  With no tailpipes on the car and the mufflers ending right under the rear seat, the fumes were "eye watering" and a new exhaust system is high on his list.