Ironing out the kinks

I had a feeling, as we got deeper into this project, that once we got it on the road there would be many more hours of tweaking to get the little Mustang right. And....I was right.
Lately, it's electrical issues that continue to haunt us. When I reconnected the heater many months ago and was surprised that it actually came on, I had a brief moment of hope that maybe, just maybe, the electrical system would be fairly intact. As it turns out, we've now replaced almost all of the major electrical components on the car in an attempt to make everything work.
Our latest, and ongoing, battle has been with the brake and turn signal lights. The brake lights work fine (which surprised me because I had read that the Ford brake switch was rather primitive) but when Daniel applied the brakes, the front parking lights came on as well. A minor issue, I felt, since at least people would know when he is stopping, both in the rear and in the front! Not something to address right away for sure. We also had a problem with the turn signals not working, with all four corners flashing rapidly when the lever was applied.
Yesterday, though, I decided to attack the problem head on. I spent quite a bit of time prior to the assault studying the Mustang's exterior wiring diagram, and felt pretty confident in a couple of possible solutions. Once again the steering wheel came off, as well as the gauge console, for better access to the wiring. I started by disconnecting the rear brake light pigtail, thinking there might be a short in the trunk wiring (which we hadn't replaced). The parking lights up front came on nice and bright when we hit the brakes. First dead end!
Then I pulled the main harness from the steering column apart, because all of these light circuits come together in the turn signal switch. We had replaced the turn signal mechanism, so I felt pretty sure that was good. With everything still energized, we applied the brakes and took readings off of various terminals, which ended up not telling us anything out of the ordinary. Another dead end.
Next, I began the final assault of pulling the harnesses out  from behind the dash and looking for any obvious knicked or damaged wires, thinking a back feed could be the only reason. I did find a connector that had three wires going out of it, and all three wires were skinned back and bare. A possible clue!
Scanning my diagram again, I could find nothing that resembled that connector on the exterior lighting schematic. This connector must be for some of the interior electrical.
Still thwarted, I retreated in for lunch and downloaded the interior wiring diagram. There are a number of circuits that power both interior and exterior, which was illustrated clearly. The parking and brake lights were identified on this diagram as well, so I backtracked from the parking lights until I came across...the emergency flashers toggle switch. There were three wires going to this switch: the two front parking lights and the rear brake lights. Eureka!
Eating a little quicker now, I surmised that the toggle switch must be defective and causing a short, effectively connecting the front and back lights. Opening up the glove box (where Ford conveniently located this switch) I found the toggle switch in the "on" position. Could it be as simple as that? Switching it off, I hit the brakes again and Daniel reported no lights in the front. I then hit the turn signal lever and...success again! All of that work to figure out it was simply a switch turned on. Ahh, life with a classic car!
Feeling pretty cocky, I reassembled the dash and steering wheel, checked the turn signals once more, and strutted in the house happy for a good days work.
Last night, Daniel came home from visiting friends to report that the rear tail lights are now not working. The battle continues...

Wax on, wax off

In spite of the lack of posts over the past couple of weeks, a lot has been going on with the project. Unfortunately, much of the work has been ironing out the hundreds of kinks that keep popping up. To name a few:

• Turn signals not working
• Horn not working
• (New) exhaust manifold leaking
• Oil drips on the floor
• Door latches and locks malfunctioning
• Wheels so far out of alignment that they can't be aligned

Of these, the alignment was one that I have worried about for a long time. As I've noted, the frame and whole underside of the car was beat up really bad, combined with our not-so-scientific approach to replacing frame pieces.

The "repaired" mounting bracket

The week after Daniel's prom, we took the car to the alignment shop. I should've made note of the red flag when the manager told me that, even though it was an old school alignment, he was sure they could do it. This is the regular shop where I take all of my trucks to have tires install, so I felt a little loyalty to him and decided to let them have a shot at it. Eight hours later they called to tell me it wasn't possible, because the driver's side lower control arm was so far out of position that they couldn't align it. The mechanic tried talking me into some adjustable control arms, but I declined. Back into our shop went the car, and up on blocks. We disassembled the whole front driver's side, and I cut the mounting brackets off from the frame. With our cut-off wheel, I took a quarter inch of metal off of each piece and welded them back on. It was sloppy, to be sure, but I think it should hold.
Back to the alignment shop, where, after another full day, they told me that while the driver's side was now perfect, the tech couldn't get the upper arm on the passenger side to loosen so he could shim it out. They said the whole
spring and control arm assembly would need to come off to get the shims in.
Politely, I told them thanks, bummed a pack of shims from them, and took the car home. I figured that they were trying to loosen the arm with the weight of the car loading it, and I was right. After jacking it up again and removing the wheel, It was a simple matter to loosen the control arm nuts and shim it out.
Based on their measurements, the driver's side needed to be shifted out from the bottom a quarter inch, and the passenger side needed the same amount shifted on the top. I feel like we're as close as we can be, so we're going to do the toe-in ourselves and take a pass on the tire shop.

Still gotta get that horn working

Electrically, I knew our luck wouldn't hold out and it didn't. All of the major things seem to work, such as starting, headlights, brakes and wipers, but we have some niggling minor things that are going to take time to troubleshoot.
Most notably are the turn signals. When we powered up the car, we noticed that the front parking lights come on when the brake pedal is applied. The turn signals also failed to operate, flashing rapidly together whenever the lever is pushed. Suspecting a bad turn signal mechanism, I replaced it with a new one that also included the wiring harness. The old harness was pretty chewed up under the dash, so I though this simple fix would eliminate any shorts. Wrong!
I then turned my attention to the turn signal relay, deciding that for a couple of buck we should at

Puttin on a little shine

least rule it out. Again, no luck, and that's where we've stopped. I need to be in the right frame of mind to start tracing indivdual wires looking for shorts. Definitely a job for next weekend!
The door latches have also snookered us. I've now had both doors completely trimmed out, and then completely disassembled at least twice on each side. Things keep getting jammed or fail, which necessitates yet another disassembly. This latest is the crappy clip that holds the driver's lock in place has come loose, so gain, next weekend I'll be taking that door panel off again.
In the meantime, Daniel and I try to do at least one or two things on the car each day. I'm adamant that he will not get it to a "functional" state and stop working. That's my own bad habit, so we're going to power forward. Today we finally got some time to start wet sanding our paint job. We tackled the trunk lid, and after about 45 minutes it wasn't looking half bad. The down side is that when it's nice and shiny, I can see all of the little divots and blems that I thought I had resolved after weeks of bondo and sanding. Frustrating! However, I continue to remind myself that it's a daily driver, and all done on a budget. Besides, it looks pretty damned good scooting down the road!

On the road again!

Home in our driveway

Well, the little Mustang is safely in her new home, which is our garage at home.
The morning after we painted her, we rolled her out on a cool early Sunday morning, took a deep breath, and pointed her to the house. It was only a mile and a half, but it was a long journey for Daniel and I. I had planned to bring it to the house for the day and just tinker and tune, but once we had it in the driveway Daniel asked me what reason did we have for taking it back to the shop. After all, it was registered, insured and, well, I could think of no reason. So....

Underlayment and carpet going in

This was one week before Daniel's prom, to which Daniel had set a goal of driving the Mustang. I asked him to commit to a week of hard work after school each day to get the interior installed and the car safe for driving his girlfriend, to which he agreed. And I have to say he came through. Every afternoon he came home ready to work.
The Wise One graciously allowed us all the time we needed in the evenings, so that by Thursday night things were looking pretty good.

Wrassling with the "molded" carpet

Then Daniel added a twist: could he drive it to school Friday morning? This was a moment that I had been looking forward to, but also dreading. All of our work, our mistakes, our learning curves, our sweat and pains came down to the moment when it was time to put it on the road. Thinking hard to come up with some reason not to, I could find no argument against, and said yes. I can tell you this was one nervous Dad all day Friday until he was safe at home again!
Of course, he was beaming after being the talk of campus that day, but that was what he had been looking forward to himself for a long time.
Saturday was spent with little details, tightening, shining and generally getting ready for prom. Just
like a doting mom with her daughter! It was all worth it, though, to see Daniel, all dressed up, slip behind the wheel and drive off into the setting sun to pick up his date.
The night brought one more check for Daniel's bucket list, as the prom was held inside the Daytona Speedway in the clubhouse. Each time we go to a swap meet at the track, Daniel has vowed to someday drive his own car through the famous tunnel into the infield. That night, dressed in a snappy black tux, his girlfriend seated next to him, he proudly cruised into the infield in the little Mustang.

Things are coming together

He had a chance to have fun with the sheriff's deputy who was keeping tabs on the kids. The deputy approached him as he parked and demanded to know who's car he was driving. At first he refused to believe it was Daniel's, but eventually he was convinced and gave him some nice compliments. I'm happy to see Daniel enjoy these accolades, because he really has
earned the right to them. From day one, I have said that if he wanted a car like this, he would have to earn it. And he has. As well as the compliments.

Time to enjoy the rewards!

We're far from done, but Daniel is driving it daily as we continue to tweak. There's the front end that is in bad need of alignment. There's still a good portion of the interior to install. We need to do some tuning on the motor. We have yet to wet sand and polish our paint job. And yesterday the passenger door suddenly decided it didn't want to open. Plenty of more posts to come, for sure!
Oh, and by the way, that's our car in the header now!