This is the current ride height on stock replacement spring that hasn’t seen a drivetrain in 25+ years. If it don’t settle out some more, I will be cutting a coli at some point.
   
Pic 5148
 
The more I looked at it, the more I became my worst enemy. The top of the PS pump was leaning out further than I really liked. So, Time to re-drill the top pivot bolt and cut the bracket down.




Yea....I Know it didn't move much!!
 
Decided I didn’t like the alternator up high either. So, I used the Ford bracket as a template for the mounting holes and traced it out on 3/16 plate. I added a spot for an idler pulley and asked the guy at work to weld it up. The alternator is now down low and I hope it has enough surface area to not squeal.


Updated Pics 10/4/2022

Last edited by Bolted to Floor (10/04/2022 12:18 PM)

Looking great! We will need a video of you firing it up.
 

Used a piece of Swagelok tubing to route from vacuum port in the intake runner toward the brake booster. 

 
 Pic 6047
 
Went back to wiring so it can be complete before I drop a battery in to crank it. The interior is mostly complete for routing and some end device connections. Thanks to Bullet Bob for the list of Terminal Supply part numbers
 
 Wiring to the rear is complete with the sending unit for the gas gauge connected. Front running lights and headlight pigtails are in. Relays for the headlights are installed by the Duraspark box on the left fender apron. I got the Painless harness to the Duraspark harness I bought figured out, I think. I got a 3 prong weatherpack connector to connect the power feeds and a tach signal wire from the Duraspark harness to the Painless harness.
 
  The gauge cluster wiring is going to take some more thought and digging. The Painless harness is set up for an ammeter and oil pressure gauge. My car has a tach and idiot lights for the oil and alternator. The 67 shop manual shows diagrams for gauges or lights in the charging section, I just have to merge the two. The 3G alternator adds to the confusion.
 
I started with tracing the wiring diagrams for the gauges to see what wires went where. Next, I traced out the wires in my factory harness to compare what was different. Then I started on the Painless harness to see how they did it. I made several sketches before I finally decided on what I thought was right. A few calls to Painless Tech support and the guy agreed that it should work, I started cutting and splicing wires.
 
Since I didn’t buy the Painless kit for a 3G alternator, which took me a little figuring too. This is another one I think I got right!
 

Pic Alt and Oil Light Model

Updated Pics 10/4/2022
 

Last edited by Bolted to Floor (10/04/2022 12:22 PM)

The exhaust system is a 2 ½” Flowmaster bolt in kit. I was surprised how well it went in. With the slip fitting elbows near the header collectors, I got everything to line up nicely with at least a fingers worth of clearance where ever needed. The ball sockets for the header collectors was butt welded to the end of the elbows. No cutting was required on the kit to get it in my car. The Flowmaster mufflers will be gone when I hear a drone. The next set will probably be Dynomax.
 
  
Pic 6628

 
Pic 6595

 
Pic 6928
Updated pics 10/4/2022
 

Last edited by Bolted to Floor (10/04/2022 12:47 PM)

I have laid under the car on many occasions looking at a route for power steering hoses. I didn’t want to come up over the shock tower like the typical hoses from Borgeson. I used some swagelok tubing to make hard lines that start near the oil filter adapter and go back toward the bell housing. I cut up 4 11/16 electrical box covers to make the first set of plates for securing the hard lines. I used rubber hose to mock up on both ends for connections and made some reference marks to determine lengths and took it all to Katy Hydraulics for real hoses along with pictures of how it would be routed. He suggested steel braid since I would be about 3/4” away from the headers. After looking at my tubing, he suggested using silver solder to attach AN fitting. It would be more cost effective than him recreating the pieces!! Back home under the car, I’m tweaking one of the tubes when I broke a fitting loose, uh oh. I did have the box end of the wrench on the fitting trying to tweak the tubing, DUH. If you’re gonna be stupid, you gotta be rich……….I wish I was!! I left that hanging and I went on the other stuff. It’s the Friday before Easter and I trying to get the car started before the end of the weekend. I did get the fitting repaired the next week and all installed. It's full of fluid and made turning a lot easier.
 
This is what I took the guy as a template

Pic 6790


Pic 6792



Pic 6793

This is what I got back

Pic 6798

 

Last edited by Bolted to Floor (10/05/2022 7:14 AM)

The front sway bar is now installed.


Pic 6833
 
 
Test fit the AC hoses and cut to length. Indexed the crimp fittings and marked for reference when I go back to get the PS tubing repaired.
 
Back on the PS hoses and tubing, I made some brackets to secure the tubing and tightened all the connections. If I had to do it again, I would get one end of the hoses crimped and let the others run long and make the final cut on the car and make the extra trip for crimping.  The hose I used for make-up didn’t act or lay the same as the steel braid. The crimped connectors made a difference in how the hoses would bend. Installed the belt, filled the pump with fluid and lifted the front of the car to reduce weight when I started turning the wheel. It took a quart of fluid to fill the system. It was making noise at first, but after 5-6 turns lock to lock, its easy and quiet.
 
 
Pic 6857


Pic 6858


Pic 6860
This is looking up from the ground
 
The A/C hoses are now installed, but not connected to the compressor. Export bar is on.
 
The top side of the shocks are done too. It wasn’t as easy as I thought it should be. Had to file on the upper shock mount to get the turned through it. The cross piece that the bolts go through may come out of the other shock, but it didn’t look like it was going to come out of these. Had to pull the shocks back off the car to test fit, then bolt the upper mount to the shock before bolting back onto the car.
 
 
Pic 6899
Updated pic 10/5/2022
 

Last edited by Bolted to Floor (10/05/2022 7:22 AM)

It’s time to start trying to tune this thing. Idling it down wasn’t helping and it was kicking back on the starter while cranking when warm and back firing through the carb. Car is way rich from just smelling the exhaust. Using an infrared temp gun and shooting the exhaust ports, there is a 40-50 degree temp difference between some of the cylinders. When I changed the plugs, a couple of them were decent looing but most were black. New plugs didn’t help to even the temps across the cylinders. Decided to follow the Dyno guys advice and get some new plug wires. The MSD’s made it sound better when it started and got the temperature within 15 degrees of each other.
 
Broke out the timing light to see where this was sitting. Used some blue painters tape to make shift my timing marks so I could see them. Had to pull the timing way back to get it to 12 degrees BTDC. Pulled the carb back off to make sure the transfer slot looked right. All the idle screws were sitting at ¾ turn or less out. Turned them out to 1-1/2 turns and called it good for now.
 
Don’t have a working tach yet, so I bought one of the infrared tuning tachs from Harbor Freight. Testing on the wife’s car showed 600 on her tach to an average of 618 on the HF gizmo box. Played with the idle, the HF tool says 850 RPM and it sounds a lot better than it did in the first video.
 


 
Installed the body of the steering column, now I need some seats. Started with the plug on the back of the alternator to see why it’s not charging. Turns out I pushed the wires into the connector wrong. I swapped the outside wires to get the battery charging. One more thing of the list.
 

Pic 6987


This air cleaner is temporary. I bought it from a guy on a Facebook Bump Side page. I really had my doubts that the hood would close.

Pic 6897
Pics updated 10/5/2022

Last edited by Bolted to Floor (10/05/2022 8:05 AM)

Hey John, in your sway bar pic I noticed the strut rod threaded end had only one nut on it. My 69 had a jamb nut also. Just checking, for safety, ya know. Car looks great, can't wait to see it in September.

Years ago, when I was still working on floor boards, I lowered the seat pans about 1” and scooted them back about ½”.
Update on seat pans…. Moving them back did help with leg room but caused other issues. The “a little difficult to get the nuts started” turned into a real PIA about the 3rd time I did it. So, I drilled new holes a little forward of the originals to line up with the access holes under the car. Moving the pans back also caused issues with the how the carpet lays. To get the carpet secured on the top side of the seat pan, it does not fit the contour of the floor.

 
Now to mount the seats, I started with removing the stands from the seat tracks by drilling out the rivets. With a piece 3/16 X 2” angle, figured that would have a little more strength than a flat bar, I cut one side down to ½”, then laid out holes for drilling. The seat pans are on 14’ centers and the seats are on 15’s. The angle is just wide enough to make it all work. The bolts to hold the angle to the seat pans are drilled and tapped to 5/16 x 18 with red Loctite. For attaching the seat rails to the angle, I cut some small pieces of the 3/16 angle and had my buddy at work weld them in place to provide 3/8” of material for bolting down the seat. Those areas are drilled and tapped to 5/16 x 24 for pan head Allen bolts. This will allows the seat track to pass over the bolt head.


Pic 7229


Pic 7230
 
Bolted the tracks on tonight and got them in the car. Moving the seat pans back made it a little difficult to get the nuts started, but it wasn’t too bad. The driver seat is power and it goes up, down, back, & forward with no issue. With the seat all the way down and positioned were I want for reaching the pedals, I have about 3 1/2” of clearance between my head and a bare roof. I will lose a bit more with carpet, but I think I am good for now. If I’m not once the carpet and headliner go in, then back to the drawing board!!
 

Pic 7234


Pic 7236


Pic 7237

Now to make sure the steering column is where it’s going to stay.  
Pic updated 10/5/2022

Last edited by Bolted to Floor (10/05/2022 8:20 AM)

I went with Wesco for seat belts. If you haven’t dealt with them before, be aware that custom colors are non-returnable. Customer colors are also made to order which increases the delivery time. It’s all listed there on the website when you go to the tab for the colors. I ordered one belt for the back seat since they were the cheapest and I wasn’t sure the color would be what I wanted. I wasn’t smart enough to ask for samples!! Got the hardware set to install the plates for the high point mount. The plate was meant to be installed with pop rivets, but it didn’t sit flat with the area. So I drilled and tapped to 1/4-20 for hex bolts with a fender washer. One of the hex head bolts on each side was pushing out on the head liner. So those got swapped for a pan head Allen bolt with a little grinding to flush it up.

Pic 7516



 Pic 7498

 
 The headliner and glass got installed, but the trim was still with the guy that was taking out the dents and polishing. It has since been completed, but not installed. There was no good way to turn this pic!!

Pic 7515
Pics updated 10/5/2022

Last edited by Bolted to Floor (10/05/2022 9:06 AM)

The ride back and forth for the inspections told me that there are more creaks than rattles and that the back tires rub the inner lip of the fender well and that those Bilstein shocks make it ride like a 1 ton truck. I cleaned up and re-installed the old helper springs and it gave me enough clearance on the back end. The next drive was over 10 miles. As a plus, the helper springs didn’t make it ride any worse!! Looks like it’s time to try a cheap set of Monroes. On the down side, the front springs are settling to the point I will have clearance issues in the front now. They were in the car when I bought it, I haven’t cut them and it doesn’t appear to have been cut by anyone else. When I was blasting them a while back, I did find a Moog part number, I think. The saga continues. Picked up the bumpers from the chrome shop and they look nice. For 8 bolts, I couldn’t believe how long it took me to get it installed where it looks right. Took a lot of time on Saturday to get the front installed mounted.

Pic 7637


Returned the first dash that had a rip at the defroster vent and the new one arrived on Friday. Had to take more stuff off the dash to get it installed. It’s in now along with the AC registers and controls panel. Dealing with the dash area, there has been a lot of install, remove cause I can’t install other piece, reinstall, rinse, and repeat!! 
 
Pic 7634



 Pic 7635
 
 Changed out the back shocks to the Monroe’s and that softened up the ride. New front springs made it today and the front Monroe’s will go on with them over the weekend.  We did take the care for another ride Monday evening after the shock change. Around the neighborhood went well, then we got out on the main road. Wound up first gear, and hit second to accelerate QUICKLY!! Started smelling antifreeze!! The nearest parking lot was a church. A quick look under the hood and one of the heater hoses blew apart at a connection. I had used the spring clamps, guess I need to upgrade to the worm style. Managed to get the hose back together, buy some water from a nearby convenience store and took it back home.  To be Bash ready, I need to install new coil springs, Monroe shocks, and get front end aligned, Air conditioner operational, Carb work, and Interior panels…

Pics updated 10/5/2022

Last edited by Bolted to Floor (10/05/2022 9:15 AM)

Thanks John. I am working feverishly toward that goal.

Found something old and new today!!

Working at swapping the coil springs and found a crack in the driver side shock tower. This picture is from the fender well side. The underlined area is what I knew about and tried to weld years ago from the engine compartment side before it went to the body shop. A testament to my welding skills, right??


Pic 7656

The next picture is what is looks like in the engine bay today.


Pic 7678

I would rather have someone with better welding skills weld it up this time versus changing out a shock tower. I wonder how much worse it can get if I drive it 600 to 800 miles before it gets welded?

Edit for pictures

Last edited by Bolted to Floor (10/06/2022 8:23 PM)

Jwarley wrote:

Steve Buzek is a great welder & we also know of a welder who welded the hole in my block out there near Waller.

 
I’ll be reaching out to him.