Two steps forward, one step back

After our milestone drive around the parking lot last Saturday, we were full of ambition the next day.
As rewarding as the test drive was, we still had a lot to do on the engine before we could crown it "reliable". There was a nagging oil leak along the driver's side of the oil pan. Four of the five freeze plugs were weeping as soon as we filled the engine with coolant. And we used about a pint of gas to drive the short 200 yards around the parking lot. Some obvious adjustments were needed. Be we were energized!
We decided to let the car sit on Sunday and tackle the doors. The passenger door has been on the car for a while, but the window and latch assemblies had yet to be installed. My plan was to disassemble the driver's side door as we reassembled the passenger side, to use it as a guide as to where each blot and bracket went. So, we pulled the driver's door off the shelf where it had been resting for the past 18 month to find that it was missing all of the tracks and regulator components for the window. Completely gone. I hadn't noticed it when we took it off, and by chance we chose the passenger side to restore first, otherwise we would've been aware of the missing parts nine months ago. OK, setback number one.
We then decided to complete the reassembly of the passenger door. I also set Daniel up to put a coat of hi-temp paint on our exhaust system, to keep it looking fresh for as long as possible. I had a recollection of purchasing some special exhaust pipe paint, and looked high and low for it. Couldn't find it, so I told myself that it must be my poor memory. I did have a can of aluminum motor paint, which I handed to Daniel with a brush. It was pretty hot here last Sunday, so the paint was curing up almost as soon as he applied it. Brush strokes which normally would flow out hardened in place. Daniel was getting frustrated and you could see it in his work product. Just as he applied the last daub of paint, I stumbled across the expensive super special hi-temp primer and finish paint. Dang! Setback number two.
Turning my own attention to the door, I quickly figured out where each nut and bolt went. Well, almost. There was one small stop bracket in the bottom of the both that, for the life of me, I can't figure out where it would go. Got the window back in, new rollers on the window regulator, things working somewhat smoothly, then went to put in the door latching assembly--and realized it needed to go in first. OK. Disassemble part of the door track, and finally things were coming together. Got everything connected and closed the door to check alignment. It aligned and closed like it had just came off the factory floor. Finally! Some progress! Went to open the door again and---it wouldn't budge.
The latch seemed to be jammed, even though I had closed the door softly. Trying not to damage anything, I pulled and pushed until it finally came free. A little spray lube on the outer latch mechanism, closed the door and again it worked good. It even opened back up, twice. Then it was stuck again, and no amount of pushing or pulling would get it open. Setback number three.
Daniel had given up about twenty minutes prior to that and gone home. I, too finally threw in the towel in frustration. Needless to say, the rest of the day was spent going over in my head what could possibly be wrong.
Daniel had school commitments on Monday, so I took some quiet time that afternoon and looked over the latch from the drivers door. It seemed to work smoothly, but I could see spots in the gear mechanism on the back that could possibly cause problems. So, again I disassembled the passenger door, and pulled the latch completely out. Sure enough, the mechanism was really sticky, even though I had sprayed it liberally with lube before installation. More spray, some cleaning, and some grease, and soon it worked as smoothly as the other one. By now I had become expert in reassembling a Ford Mustang door, so it went back together quick. I was relieved to close the door and open it again, as smooth as silk. Another hurdle conquered!

Finally working right

The weeping freeze plugs had me even more upset, because we had been very careful to install the new ones, because I knew they were fragile. I tossed the problem to my mechanic, who looked up the part number of the plugs we installed. His book showed that we should be using a plug .01 inch larger than the ones we had. He also loaned me a great tool for pressing the plugs in correctly. Armed with knowledge and new plugs, I took Tuesday afternoon to drain the engine and pop out the five plugs along the side of the block. There are two additional ones on the rear, one of which is behind the flywheel. Those, hopefully, won't give us a problem.
The new plugs were definitely tight, and I'm confident that there will be no more weeping from those little buggers! Another hurdle behind us!
Daniel's only available afternoon this past week was yesterday, Friday. We met at the shop and finished installation of the freeze plugs. He also started prepping the driver's door for sandblasting this weekend. We poured our coolant back into the radiator and as best we can tell, no drips. Hopefully we're back on track!

It's alive, it's alive, IT"S ALIVE! (Apologies to Mel Brooks and Gene Wilder)

After almost two years of sand in the eyes, skinned knuckles, greasy hands, and dozens of set backs and frustrations, the little Mustang rolled out of the garage today under her own power. Needless to say, the excitement was at an all time high!
We've been close to this moment for the last week. I've spent the last few days making up the final electrical connections, installing our new radiator, ensuring that all hoses and lines were connected, and that nothing was at risk of being damaged when we turned the motor over once in the car.
A couple of days ago, I installed the battery cables. Without hesitation, I made the last connection to the positive post of the battery, when suddenly the motor tried to start. Whoops! Totally perplexed, we spent the next two afternoons double-checking our ignition system connections. I discovered that I had landed a couple of the smaller wires, ones that go to the voltage regulator and the coil, on the wrong side of the solenoid. Confident that that was my problem, we tried again, but still the car wanted to start on it's own. The solenoid was new, so I was skeptical that it was the problem, but more and more testing kept pointing to that. Finally, yesterday I gave in and purchased another one, and of course, that solved the problem! There's still current flowing to the voltage regulator when the key is turned off, which I don't think should happen, but for the most part I'm pretty confident that the ignition system is reliably functional.
With that hurdle out of the way, I suggested to Daniel that this Saturday morning should be the day. I wrote down everything that I could think of that needed to be done to permit the car to move under it's own power, and the list was short--maybe a couple of hours at the most. So, flushed with anticipation, we hit the shop this morning with gusto, checking off items right and left. Blast and paint driveshaft. Check. Fill tranny with gear oil. Check. Install radiator hoses and clamps. Check. Fill with coolant. Check. Install u-joints and driveshaft. Check.
We invited Daniels' mom and sister (who was visiting from Asheville to escape the cold) to view the coming out. They arrived before we could get the driveshaft hooked up, so the last few minutes were rushed as we tried to accommodate our audience. In doing so, I didn't tighten the rear u-joint clamps completely, figuring they would be good enough to get us around the parking lot. Wrong, of course.

Daniel turned the key, the motor fired, and he put the car in gear for probably the first time in twenty years, She slowly moved forward--for thirty feet. That's when the driveshaft came undone from the rear axle! Fortunately, everything dropped right there, so we blocked the wheels, and I took a few extra minutes to reinstall and properly tighten the clamps.

Once again Daniel was in the driver's seat, and with a roar of the open exhaust, he motored out to the front of the property. Our little temporary canister of gas that we had rigged then went dry, but a quick refill and she fired up again . Into reverse, which I was relieved to see worked, and he pointed the old girl back home to her garage bay. A slip of the foot on the clutch produced a nice chirp of the rear tires, which startled Daniel and gave me a great laugh. He was beaming as he drove by me back to the garage.

Mom gave us a nod of approval. High fives were exchanged, and we closed up the shop for the day, satisfied with a good morning's work. A celebratory lunch of Wendy's capped off the day!

Clearing a big hurdle

After some quality time with the hammer

As I've noted in the past, our little Mustang took quite a beating during it's life. Most notably, it appears that the last ride for the car before we got it included running over a curb or some other solid, raised object, because so much of the underside was damaged. The frame rails were pancaked. The
gas tank had a huge gash in it, and was flattened. And the oil pan suffered the same fate, although fortunately survived with the rim still sealed to the motor.

Ready for paint

As we get to the final nuts and bolts before dropping the motor back in the car, the oil pan is the only remaining item on the motor that we
haven't attended to. The other day we hooked up our engine hoist and lifted the six cylinder off the cradle where it's sat for the last (almost) two years. With a little contorting and scraping away of grease and dirt, Daniel and I drained the oil, removed the bolts and dropped the pan. With trepidation I peered into the black murkiness of the pan's interior. We were both pleasantly surprised to see very little sludge and no debris of any kind. It looks like someone in the past wisely used good oil and did regular service on the engine.

One last look before it goes into the car

The damage to the oil pan was enough to bend the oil pick up tube up a bit, but the pan itself is still sound, so we decided to beat out the dents the best we could and reinstall it (budget mentality coming back into play). A little hammer time, a little bead blasting time, and a coat of paint and it was ready to be reinstalled.
Today we hoisted the motor for the last time and aimed it for the engine bay. There were a few stressful moments, but the six cylinder slipped in place quite easily--at least for a couple of greenhorns. We did get some help
from a couple of my employees to guide the transmission tail into the proper position before we dropped the motor on the motor mount pads. With a sigh of relief, and hopefully a rush of encouragement for Daniel, we began tallying up the necessary steps to complete the install.

Daniel's trying to stay cool but it was nerve-wracking!

If all goes well, we should be able to turn the ignition key within the next few days and see if we can bring the little car to life!

Safely back in place

Progress is slow...but it's progress!

In spite of the lack of posts over the past month, we continue to chip away at our Mustang restoration. It seems like almost everything we touch as we reinstall components has some sort of problem, which serves to slow us down at best and demoralize us at worst.
In an effort to fend of those demoralizing demons, we have a lot going on all around the car. Among other things, we've been doing some bodywork, we've completed the installation of the stereo system, and most of all, we've been getting our motor back in shape.
About eight moths ago, I came across an ad on Craigslist for a complete, running 200 c.i. motor, 3-speed tranny, radiator, and all the fittings, brackets, air cleaner, and what not, for the astronomical sum of $300! At the time, I only gave the ad a passing consideration, because we had not yet begun the work of refreshing our own little motor. Now, here we are about $500-600 lighter, with lots of frustrations and skinned knuckles, and still a ways away from the motor being truly ready to go. In hindsight, that was one really wasted opportunity!

Opening up our can of worms!

Once we started turning wrenches on the motor, we discovered we needed a new exhaust manifold (the old one was cracked). We discovered we needed a new clutch and pressure plate (probably a wish repair anyway). We needed a new alternator. We needed a new water pump. We needed a new fuel pump. We had no air cleaner (eBay to the rescue). Our carb needed to be rebuilt, but we found out after getting it back that it was missing the bracket to attach the air cleaner (I'll have to fabricate something). New spark plugs. New plug wires. New vacuum advance. New water temp and oil pressure

$60 off eBay

sending units. The bill just kept getting larger. If I had previous experience with Ford motors, I might've recognized some of these deficiencies. I can tell you that I'm an expert now!
Since we had to replace all of these parts, we took the opportunity to pop all of the freeze plugs out and give the old girl a good flush. 40 years of rust scale and crap can flowing out from all openings, so that was a good decision. We also had to drill out and re-tap a couple of broken bolts. We replaced gaskets on the valve cover and oil pan as well.
The one thing I think we did do right was to turn the motor over before all of this work to make sure it was even a viable patient. There's no telling how long this thing had sat before we began our restoration, but I can imagine at least 20 years. When we pulled it out, I touched a battery to the started and the motor spun over, so I knew it wasn't frozen. Now, we needed to know that it wouldn't blow a bunch of bolts and nuts out if

Suited up for more sandblasting

we tried to start it, so we rigged up some cables, dumped a healthy dose of gas down the rebuilt carb, and applied the juice to the starter. What a surprise when she started right up on the first crank, old plugs, wires and all! That gave us the impetus to buy and replace all of the aforementioned parts, which we've been doing for the last month.

Things are looking better!

This past Saturday, I could tell Daniel was getting a little tired of detailing, painting and reinstalling parts. When he asked what it would take to finally get the motor back in the car, I told him I wanted to make sure it was at least running roughly before reinstalling it, so we wouldn't have to spend a lot of time bent over the fenders trying to get it to run right. Realizing that I was getting too involved (and enjoying) with the detailing, I admitted that we could start it up again with
about an hours worth of preparation. We agreed to return the next day and see if our efforts would pay off.
On Sunday morning, we returned to the shop full of anticipation of seeing another part of the car come to life. We rigged up a fuel line from a gas can, hooked up our battery and touched the positive cable to the battery post. Again the little motor barked to life, and our hearts leapt with excitement--for about three seconds. The motor shut off--no big deal--but would not, no matter how we tried, to start again. After a good 30 minutes of cranking and adjusting, I threw in the towel in disgust, and told Daniel I had a good mind to just pack the whole thing up and take it to my mechanic. Defeated, we went home with our tails tucked.

All dressed up and ready to go

I ruminated on this all afternoon (instead of watching endless hours of pre-game Super Bowl hype like any normal American) and came to the conclusion that it had to be an electrical problem. The motor just sounded like it wasn't getting any spark. So, last night I educated myself on testing ignition coils, and reconfirmed that all the other wiring was good.
Armed with new confidence and my multi-meter, I launched a new attack on the motor this afternoon, while Daniel was still in school. An attack turned out not to be necessary, though, because the first thing I saw when I put my probes on the coil was that the ground wire from the distributor to the negative terminal on the coil, which had been temporarily spliced together, had broken apart. Within five minutes I had the motor rigged up again, put the juice to the starter, and she fired right up. This time I was able to keep it chugging along until it warmed up a bit, until I was even able to let go of the throttle and watch it idle along all by it's lonesome. Victory!
I sent a text to Daniel, who rushed right over after school. It was so rewarding to see the excitement on his face, and he immediately began computing how many days until we might get the car to move under it's own power. Hopefully, that will be within the next week or so, even though he'll have to sit on a bucket to operate the clutch.