1965 Mustang Ownership Day 160:
So the car has been apart for 7 weeks, seems like eons since we last drove it.
Finally turned the corner where we are putting things together to work out all the wiring/plumbing before taking it back apart to paint the underside. But it feels like so much more progress than when taking it apart.
I have continued to write-up notes after the week-ends or any time I get over to do some work on it, I know, way too much to read, but if I can just help one person realize what is involved and just say no..
Actually we are still pretty excited about how this should turn out.
Since my last post on 1/11:
Starting scraping off patches of loose undercoat, some is permanent, some just falls off
No way 7.25” rear spring plates are usable for new rear, not even close
Strut rods came off in bad shape, one is pitted pretty bad, other has serious thread damage
Ordered drake 67+ spring plates and a couple of johnny joints and swedge tubes to check out
So appears front-end only had a cosmetic collision, nothing bent on body that I can find
Fenders appear to both be original panels, finding original red inside vendors, in front of doors
Some tweaked metal across top of radiator brace, and jack damage on the strut rod frame pieces, but one got mangled from a curb?
Trying to get the gas out, tried to raise one side of tank to make it faster and started a major drip
Noticed when I put pressure on the spout, the sender started leaking too, nice
Frantically grabbing drain pans, cut the hose and lifted tank out with 2-3 gallons left, cleaned up and called it a day
Pulled wheels/adapters/discs ms brackets, and swapped sides, cables fit much better
Assembled the rotors and wheel adapters and measured disc/rotor clearance, 0.008 at tightest spot
Used bolt to measure worst case caliper movement and the cable will still clear without kinking
Sold gas tank with a couple of gallons of gas to one guy, and rest of parts plus old rims/tires to another! $500 cash back and room to work again!
Still at “we sent what we always send” and you can't measure stage with rear-end company
Sent exact measurements with pictures of axle to bearing hub at 2 points and housing width, the tape doesn't lie
Pulled wheels/adapters/discs off again, no longer tighten anything or use all the nuts/bolts, probably till I drive it, lol
Measured bearing shoulder to axle face (B-Dimension) at 2 1/16” vs 2 1/4”, bearing protrudes another 1/8”
Quick Performance concedes screwup, will replace axles with any dimension I want
Get to pick the width, so will space out wheels and measure tire clearance in a bunch of scenarios
Looking over the relations of the suspension components, there is a lot going on
Noticed how upper control arm is angled which may add more caster when compressed, how much is needed?
Looks like the front strut rod pivot to the lower control arm pivot is parallel to the frame
Read install instructions for new ms clutch cable and booster
Splash guard gaskets are all crumbling pretty bad
Thinking the vintage air interior a/c components is the one to go with
Received motor mounts, they look great, bolted one to frame just to check it out
Put two 1/2” washers under a disc on one side, wheel on the other to simulate new axle widths
Tempted to post this as my permanent solution to see if anybody would think I was serious 
67-79 spring plates are still not long enough, and need meat added, or something else
Family day working on cleaning the underside of the car, lots more grease than expected, should have had it steam cleaned
Removed the rear shocks and the last of the brake/fuel lines
Used body hammers to straighten lots of bent edges around radiator and strut supports
Used cutoff grinder to remove the rest of the export brace, my new favorite tool
Removed old steering shaft rubber gasket and test fit new ms pedal brace
Put on rear-tires and checking clearance, looks good inner and outer
Wife was covered with grease from underneath, what a trooper!
Test fit 22 gal gas tank, noticed old spout has a dent in it.
Taped off lots of parts for painting tomorrow.
Brought home springs, spindles to degrease
More cleaning, and more cleaning
Painted miscellaneous suspension parts
Started writing a program to compute caster/camber with various suspension changes
Received a rebuilt sanden a/c pump which should work with the stock bracket with some modification.
Figured out how to do a couple of the harder suspension calculations and added a simple 3d display
Going to get the spring plates from quick performance and return these other ones
Pretty much sure this car has been flown, the landing was a little harsh, finally explains the other damage
Pulled off shock tower covers for the trash, they matched, so thought they were supposed to look that way..
Drilled and fit the MS power brake canister to the firewall/pedal bracket
Used a wire wheel on the outer fenders, and it really cleaned things up nice
Looks like we will just take most of it down to the metal, too much loose undercoating
Cleaned up the area for welding in the camber kit from opentracker
Removed the horns and the hood latch from the front
Found some rust in the left front frame rail under the sheet-metal..
Got the engine compartment clean and marking holes to be filled
Finished straightening the lips on the strut-rod housings and other little spots
Wore through my first wire wheel, figure I will need at least a couple more
Setup the welder correctly and put some decent beads on some 3/16 steel, I can weld, at least thats what I call it
Cut up some little 18 ga squares and did some more test welds
Mig welding is pretty easy, but very different dialed down for sheet metal
Removed the emergency brake handle/front cable assembly
Verified the underbody paint will work on bare metal
Started opening holes up for camber adjusters
One last verification for axle B Dimension
Modifed rear innner wheel wells to make lip turn in instead of out
First welding actually on the car, pretty cool, passed that hurdle
Cut off outer part of subframe connector to get at rust underneath
Burned through the second wire brush, maybe half done, thats hard work, and messy
Got a real die-grinder bur instead of the cheesy grind stones, made it a real tool!
Finished up the slots for the opentracker camber adjusters in a couple of minutes
Cut, hammered, a replacement plate for the side of the frame rail, good so far
Painted some more miscellaneous parts and touched up others
Measured steering components and added to my suspension model
Sold some extra stuff to a guy with an early 70's Mustang II, thats something you don't see every day
Bought the cheap Hedman headers and a nice Valeo clutch kit
Added some parameters for engine, trans, axle to my suspension model
The lincoln brand wire-brushes are a lot tougher than the others I have used
Started welding the camber adjusters, still learning, every other weld is nice, haven't hit double digit total welds yet
Learned you can't weld what you can't see, so had to lay down to weld overhead
Next thought was, omg, overhead welding!? Starting with the advanced project first!? .. pzzzz, came out good
Was able to get it all welded up, ground down the boogers and it came out great overall
Noticed firewall hood bumper brace was tweaked, tapped with hammer and it fell off in my hand, sweet.
Received my new used shock tower covers, I didn't realize how bad my old ones really were, picture needed
Also got a couple more boxes of miscellaneous parts, down to a couple of big things left
Putting off the inside a/c unit until the last minute, and still deciding on a radiator
Used some chassis saver to paint the pitted part of the frame and clamped my replacement piece
Welded up the sheet-metal piece, seemed ok, but kept getting little cracks along the bottom, burnt up a lot of wire
Really need to put the .025 wire on instead of the .030, but welded up several unneeded screw holes
This copper plate thing really helps for welding up holes, welded up the battery tray holes perfectly and those were pretty large
Spot welded several places where I thought it looked like panels were not as tight as I would like
Finally got brave enough to look at my passenger side air vent, it's crusty, but don't see where the leak is
Pushed out the pins in the old firewall heat insulator, so many holes not going to be used anymore
Looked into what to do about the old firewall insulator, quickly wound up on sound deadening materials
Major stocking seller of different sound proofing materials just miles from my house, not that overpriced dynamat
Tried to replace a door spring, since the fender was off thought it would be easy
First old spring broke in half when I compressed it, and then new one was not going to go on without a compressor
Exhanged my old engine mounts for a bumper, the guy didn't even remember me, talked to him over an hour on a saturday, said he got hit on the head and doesn't remember things, really odd
Trying to calculate roll-centers, but Internet sites do it in 2d and there are some really odd vectors that don't intersect in 3d, these models are approximations at best
Removed the rear-end from the car, it wasn't really in all the way anyhow, ordered different spring plates with the axles
Cut a small strip out of the inner fender well where it had cracked and got rusty near the seam on top
Removed the brace piece from under the battery tray area, it had held corrosion/rust right there, needs a patch
Found only cjponyparts had the radiator support hood brackets, mine looks like it was defective when manufactured
Started to bolt the rear bumper on just to feel some forward process, of course nothing fit right, and need to find a schematic for the bumperettes
Took the engine off of the run-stand and got it all setup to drop in the car, and the lift is 6” too low to clear the front
Raised the car back up level and measured lower control arm movement, strut rod does not push/pull the lower arm
Going to go with the 24” radiator, mostly because I could run 2 electric fans instead of 1 and found a mount method I liked
2 cheap chinese fans more redundant than one big one, and it will provide more clearance around the water pump
So found a really nice lift on craigs-list, looks like the big harbor freight one, but seems too solid to be from there
Sold my old pos lift the next day and made $10 on the deal, if I could just do that a million times a day..
Took the wife out for a nice dinner and Friday night entertainment, then we went and put the engine in, priceless
New mounts with the larger tube diameter don't have much if any lateral adjustment, but all is good.
T5 mount is all the way back on the slides, and shifter just fits in the tunnel, no fore/aft play at all.
Would prefer to move the engine back up to another inch for better shifter alignment.. Have plenty of room at the firewall/mounts.
Attached my right spindle and upper control arm and testing the movement up to full bump
Concerned that even before doing the Arnell drop, the ball joint will bind before the suspension will be limited
Popped the chrome off the front windshield and was able to just push the windshield out, no rust/issues
Got my new radiator and ran over to set it in, 24” is so much wider than the old one, well 8” wider to be exact, huge..
Laid the efi harness out, would like to go through the firewall on the drivers side, but it wants to go passenger
Finally got my new axles in, was really my fault for the delay, also got new spring plates, way better than oem
Finally got a copy of Milliken & Milliken and I think I have the anti-dive calculations much more accurate, time to model the springs
Everything I go work on the mustang I am measuring or re-measuring different parts
Made it so I can select any 2 points in my program and get a measurement to test on the car to verify
Really avoiding heading to the shop to work on the car, kinda feeling burnt out and a little overwhelmed at times
Changed out the new axles with the new ones, they really fd this up and cost me a lot of hassle, but at least they were responsive
Plenty of clearance between the disc rotor and the caliper bracket, actually 3/16” added by the longer b dimension
Attached the leaf springs to the rear axle and put the rear-end on my k&l fat jack, worked really nice
Test fitting the headers, got it to slip in on both sides without adjusting the motor
Ran the clutch cable to the transmission, it is going to be really close to the header, it didn't need to be that close
Was looking at my upper control arm, gee if I just cut a wedge out, bend it down, weld it up, it would shorten it and change the angle
Not afraid to cut and weld anything at this point, but would I want to drive the car with that knowledge?
Put the rear-end back in the car, this is the 2nd time putting it in, and it will have to come back out for paint
Went to bolt in my test steering box, kinda hard to do with the motor in, but easy once I cut the shaft in half
The box holes had to be re-tapped, they were really gummed up, same with my good steering box, probably spent 20 minutes just cleaning threads.
Installed the mustang steve pedal support assembly in the car and bolted up the power brake diaphram
Grabbed the new 69? accelerator pedal, but no idea where I should bolt it in at, will look for some pictures
So started messing with my epas, I need to lop another 4” or so off the shaft and one more cut for final
Also need to separate the control box and extend the wiring, but starting to see how the lower part will all fit
Bolted on my master cylinder and slipped the header back on, looks like no issues on this side
Why don't the brake lines go directly out the hole in the side instead of through the shock tower, that would be shorter/neater?
Fuel lines is going to be tougher, the header is down the middle and I need to get the lines to the engine side.
Maybe get the us car too subframe connectors and run the fuel lines right down the rail instead of in the tunnel
Jacked the rear-end up into position and got out the dreaded emergency brake cables from h..
Definitely like the idea of running the brake lines out on the frame instead of across the rear axle, looks like a nice fit when clocked forward
Test fit the new hood mount support brackets, need to drill and prepare to weld to the radiator support
Looked at the t5 mount again, maybe I can re-drill the rubber mount to get another 1/4” or more out of it, e-mailed moderndriveline
Leveled the car again to take more rear-end measurements, want to get the final dimensions to order a driveshaft.
My estimated length was within 1/4” of what I just measured, the program was off because I didn't account for the offset pinion
Still need to decide on chromoly or aluminum for the drive-shaft, will have to see what my local shop recommends
Got more accurate drive-line measurements and calculated the relative angles in my 3d model
Will go back to see if they concur with a new digital level I bought that has a .01 accuracy
Test fit the radiator again, my plan was to bend the excess tin 180 into the engine compartment to provide mounting ears
I really have quite a bit of room between the radiator and the engine and could maybe fit a condenser inside instead of out
So need to find a condenser that I am going to use and make sure I take the whole thing into account before I cut it
Put it off as long as I possibly could, I am going to go with the Vintage Air system for inside the car, need it to do the wiring
Probably need to go look at another mustang and get a few measurements off of it
Started making a cardboard template for a panel to separate the trunk from the interior for maybe some safety and sound deadening
So lots of progress, most everything has to come back apart for paint, but I need to test fit and complete final cutting/welding
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afnid wrote:
