I used the white bulb in the dash and let the instrument housing and bezel set the colors. I did, however, end up keeping the incandescent courtesy lights below the dash and below the quarter-vents. I wasn't feeling the 'hospital' feel that the LED courtesy lights gave off.

That's a beautiful car and still has the original Bartow(?) County plates from 1965. I found an old 1965 Fulton County plate for mine when I moved to Alpharetta. I wasn't feeling that new 'peach' plate  Have the reissue black plates now that I am back in CA (wish I kept the originals).

Enjoy the heck out of it!

Toploader wrote:

Jeff in GA wrote:

Sadly, I've barely put 3,000 miles on it since I did the resto in 2006. I don't think I've driven it maybe 4 months now, which is especially sad since I've moved back to the West Coast and it is sunny and warm most of the year. This post reminds me that I need to change the oil and drive it this weekend.8.7.1

If you don't mind me asking... Why don't you drive it?
I tend to feel that letting a car just sit like that kills them. Maybe I'm missing something, but I don't understand why people build these awesome machines up with the best of the best parts and then they just let the cars sit.

That is a good question that doesn't really have a good answer.  My first thought is that is because I need to move three cars out of the driveway so I can get the Mustang out. I then need to reverse the process to put the Mustang back after I'm finished. I would likely drive it more often if I could just open the garage door, back out, and take off. As it is, I rarely drive any car for longer than 15 minutes between destinations. The last time I went on a good drive with it was up Hwy 1 toward Big Sur/Carmel. Maybe I'll do that again once the slip-out from the Winter storms is re-built and the road is re-opened.

Oh yeah, I didn't drive it when I lived in GA for long stretches of the year due to lack of AC. Combined with vinyl seats, it was a recipe for swamp a$$. I ultimately added AC and then proceeded to move back west and live near the ocean where it isn't needed. I went from owning a home with 3 AC units to now having none.

Having typed this out, I can see that I need to put in the effort and drive it more. It takes me some work to get it out, but I always great driving it ... like when I was 20-years-old and daily driving my '65 GT coupe like a bat out of hell. Those were the days. 

RTM wrote:

Has anyone installed new seals in there 65/66 vent windows and if so did you need this toolto do the job?   If the tool is needed, does anyone have one i could rent?  Kind of pricey for a one time use item.

I figured that I had enough money into the vehicle and the seal would likely last longer than I would so I went ahead an bought the tool, set the rivets, and then sold the tool for less than I bought it. I viewed it as a tool rental. BTW, the tool works well.

I have them on the front and rear axles in my Jeep. I swapped them in when I last serviced the axles for easier trail fixes when breaking an axle. They have worked flawless for me and haven't leaked one bit. I may add one to the transmission the next time I drop the pan just so I don't have to deal with scraping off the old RTV.

I have the same setup with JBA headers and the Magnaflow X-pipe kit. To me, the mufflers were too loud and the drone was uncomfortable at highway speeds. I swapped them out for Dynomax Super Turbos and have been much happier.

It is my anecdotal opinion that the noise/drone is more pronounced in the fastback than it is in the coupe and convertible in the 65/66. Granted, that is based on personal experience with only one of each body style.

Thanks for the suggestions. I will look into them. Rock chips aside, I am trying to avoid the mess I just experienced a few weeks ago driving my Prius across the country. The bugs were a nightmare to get off the front, and that is without a front grille and exposed radiator to get the little buggers out of.

I am headed to the Central Coast of CA, near San Luis Obispo; trading in the heat and humidity for ocean breeze and less traffic.

Ford Performance 10.5" pressure plate with disc and throwout bearing $220 (bolt and dowel kit sold separately $14)

Ford Performance cast iron flywheel $140

You can spend more if you want, but these will get the job done nicely for a 300 hp engine.

I have a Steeda Tri-axe with a stock-looking handle and knob. Considering the length of the handle, the shifts are relatively short and precise.

I have no experience with it, however, American Muscle has a very similar looking shifter for $70. It is mostly well-regarded in the reviews, so perhaps maybe worth a try.

http://www.americanmuscle.com/t5-t45-mustang-short-shifter.html

 

I'd much rather sleep during a rush-hour commute and let KITT take control than continually stare at the brake lights in front of me.

It may not be the most attractive aluminum radiator, depending on your taste, but Jeg's has a 2-row starting at $176 on up to a HD 3-row for $228

http://www.jegs.com/i/Champion-Cooling-Systems/166/EC251/10002/-1

I believe that there are 2, maybe 3 different drive gears available on the T5, depending which model transmission you may have. You can pull the speedo gear out of the transmission and look inside and note the color of the drive gear to tell you the number of teeth and then determine the corresponding speedo gear based on gear ratio and tire size.

That said, what I do is take a baseline with the existing gear and then purchase the new gear to correct the recorded with actual measurements. You can either do this by comparing measured speed vs. actual speed or measured distance vs. actual distance. To me, the accuracy of the odometer is more important than the accuracy of the speedometer (in a perfect world there would be no deviation, but I have not found that to always be the case on these old gauges).

What I do is note the starting and ending mileage on a drive of known distance (longer is better). Use this ratio to determine the needed speedo gear:

needed gear teeth = (measured distance  / actual distance) x existing gear teeth

You can achieve similar results by substituting distance with velocity.

The ID tag 1352-251 does correspond to an aftermarket T5, which is what Modern Driveline would be selling I imagine. I've had engines sitting longer than 8 years which fired up and ran fine. If it spins freely, you can run it through the gears, and it truly looks unused, it seems like a pretty good buy to me.

Part# 1352-251 A/M Application 79-93 Tq Cap 330 Gear Ratios 2.95 1.94 1.34 1.1 0.63 - 2.76 Speedo gear 7 Input Length 7.18 Pilot Diameter 0.668 *notes - c,e

* This is part number that can be found only on the aluminum tag, bolted to the extension housing. Each part on the trans has a similiar part # but that is for that specific part, it will not help you to id transmission.

M/S = Motorsport or Ford Racing 
A/M= Aftermarket 

Notes: (a) Ford ms m7003a (b) improved steel (c) aftermarket (d) carbon fiber 3/4 blocker 
(e) cobra tapered roller pocket brg. (f) Ford ms 7003x (g) Ford ms7003z 
All input Splines are 1 1/16- 10T 
All Output Spline are 28 T