Mini Tach Install

     This is a project that I have been waiting to do for what seems like forever.  I actually tried to do it back in September, but had trouble getting the speedometer cable disconnected from the instrument cluster, so I had to put everything back together and try it again another time.  After my buddy Evan showed me how to loosen the cable from the firewall, I finally could go back and try it again.  I swear every weekend between then and now has been booked and I am not even sure what happened to October this year.  Anyway, I finally was able to work on the Mustang this weekend.

Today's Project: Before

    

     So what did I do this weekend?  I finally installed the Retroguage mini tach into the clock spot (see the picture above).  Retroguage was a company out of Australia that made these small tachs that fit perfectly in the clock spot of the instrument cluster.  What I really liked about these tachs is they are a clean install that looks like it came stock from the factory.  But there is only one problem with these tach and that is the guy that made these tachs decided to stop making them and sold the last of his inventory to Mustangs Unlimited.  They are now very hard to find.  These mini-tachs came in three varieties: V8-8,000rpm, V8-6,000rpm, and I6-6,000rpm.  By the time I got around to ordering one, they only ones left were the I6 version.  I ended up picking one up, but I needed to find someone to recalibrate the tach to work for a V8.  Redline Gauge Works not only recalibrated the tach, but they also rewired it so it will also work with electronic ignition if I ever switch to that in the future.  I would definitely suggest checking them out if you have a tach or instrument cluster question.

Truck Gets Some New Shoes II

Finally got around to finishing the truck's suspension work.  From my last post, I still needed to finish the add-a-leaf mod to the rear suspension.  With the front leveling kit, the F-150 rides level. The add-a-leaf raises the back up the truck up 2-3" to retain that stock rake (back higher than the front slant).

And here is the finished product:

Truck Gets Some New Shoes

I got to work on my truck this past weekend.  A couple years ago I upgraded to the 18" FX4 wheels and I have always told myself when those tires go bad I am going to level the truck and get bigger tires.  Well it finally happened.  I decided on the following modifications:

• Falken WildPeak A/T Tires - 305/65R/18
• Skyjacker 2" Front Leveling Kit
• Skyjacker Add-a-leaf
• (2) Monroe Quick Struts

The Goods

Memories Car Cruise

It's been awhile since I got an update in.  August was pretty busy with traveling and I haven't done much with the Mustang.  We have been pretty much taking it out for some joy rides here and there, but other than that not much else has happened.  I do have a couple of projects planned for the Mustang so stay tuned...

I finally made it out to the Memories Car Cruise this past Friday.  This is a free monthly cruise held on the first Friday of every month and it is usually pretty big.  They usually get over 500 cars to show up for it.  I'm not sure if because it was 100 degrees out on Friday or that it was a holiday weekend, but I got there a little later after work and I was only car 324.  It was still a pretty good time and hopefully next month it there will be more cars there since it is the last one of the year.

Memories Car Cruise - Sept 2011

And we're off

I love this picture of me and my dad heading out for his first ride in the mustang

Car Craft Summer Nationals 2011

Headed up to Minnesconsin this weekend to visit my buddy Greg and go check out the Car Craft Summer Nationals car show this past weekend.

It was a pretty decent show.  There was definitely some big horsepower there.  As for the cars, there was one of everything there.  A few too many plastic 2002 GTO's for my liking, but there was still a good mix of classic Detroit iron there.  Really enjoyed the dyno challenge, there were some beasts on that putting out over 1,000hp, just insane.  This car in this video was around 450hp:




And finally here is a slideshow of some of the cars that were at the show:

Blue Cruise

Went to the All Ford Blue Cruise yesterday.  There are a couple of Ford and Mustang car clubs around here and I wanted to see what they are about.  Don't think I am going to be joining any, but it was still a cool show with some cool cars there.  There was even a De Tomaso Pantera there!  If you remember that is one of the cars that is on my list.  It was a perfect day outside, I got to meet a couple new people, and learned of some more good car shows to go in the area.

Here is a slideshow of some of the cars at the show:




Sidenote: got the mustang on the highway for an extended period of time and I have to say it ran pretty well.  It was running at 60mph around 3k rpms with the 4 speed.  It wasn't the smoothest ride ever, but it wasn't like the car was shaking to pieces either, I definitely feel more comfortable now driving it on the highway.

Sidenote 2:  Messed around with the width of the page so I can get some bigger pictures in the posts. 

Back to Stock Part Deux

The past couple of weeks have been busy and I haven't been able to do much stuff with the Mustang. One piece of good news is my historical vehicle plates finally came. I sent in the paperwork back in the middle of May, and then in the middle of June I got the paperwork back because I forgot to sign the application (DOH!), so I signed it, sent it back in and I finally got the plates last week a couple weeks after that.  A two month turnaround time for the government isn't that bad is it???

One thing I did end up ordering is a new air cleaner assembly this week. The previous owner had an open-top air cleaner where all it takes is some wrong timing, a little back fire out the carb, and you car is on fire. That's something I am not looking into getting myself into. So I found a reproduction of a 289 HiPo Air Cleaner and now it has more of that stock look under the hood and safer.

Open-top Air Cleaner = Fire Hazard = Bad

Dad helping out

I was glad that even with the semi hi-rise intake there was still plenty of clearance

The Hill's Annual Car, Truck, and Motorcycle Show

Went to the 13th Annual Car, Truck, and Motorcycle Show in The Hill Neighborhood today.  It turned out to be a pretty nice day.  The sun came out, but the temps stayed in the 80's.  There was over 50 cars there for the show.  I ended up talking with the AMC guys that were parked next to me most of the time.  Turned out to be a nice Sunday afternoon.

Here are some of the cars that were at the show:

2nd in the Stock Ford Class

Back to stock

I worked more on the interior today.  I have already replaced the furry dash, but today I was going to try and tackle the console.  The previous owner put in an aftermarket cassette player and equalizer sometime back in the 80's.  Which is fine, but the equalizer was placed in the console compartment and the door was missing.  So my plan today was to get that equalizer out of there and replace the door.

Before

I pretty much had to take the whole console out to get into where the equalizer was.  Once I was able to get back there I saw the spaghetti mess that was the wiring.  Let's just say, it is no wonder there was interference with the radio.  Basically to add rear speakers,they ran the stereo to the equalizer, and then to the 4 different speakers.  I wanted to run all the speakers just from the stereo, but after looking at it, I decided it wasn't worth the hassle since I want to replace the stereo at some point anyway.  So I gutted everything out and put in the original factory AM radio that came with the car (and a big thank you to the previous owner for keeping it).  I didn't hook it up though because the original wiring harness was hacked up to fit in the tape deck, and to be quite honest, I don't plan to really listen to the radio in this car anyway and it is there for aesthetics 

Shiny

After, back to stock and looking good

I also tackled one more thing, but it was small.  The rear view mirror had some sort of old sticker residue on it (I sure do love fig newtons), so I picked up another mirror from National Parts Depot and put it on as well.  The only thing left to do now to the interior is fix a small tear in the passenger seat, after that everything will be fixed and back to original.

The old one is on the left, new one is on the right

Fluid Flush

Decided to do some maintenance work on the car this weekend.  I really don't like not knowing when the last time something was done, so I thought I would change the oil and flush the radiator this weekend.

First up was the radiator.  The previous owner said it was flushed "maybe 10 years ago" and well that was enough for me want to change it.  Wasn't too bad.  Drained out the old, flushed the system, ran some water through the system to make sure everything was out of it, and then put in some new fluid.

Feeling good about this after seeing what it puked out

New diet of Tropical Punch and Mountain Dew

At the Drive-in

We took the mustang out to it's first show.  There was a "drive-in" night for 1972 and older cars.  I put quotes around drive-in because all it really was was a screen in a baseball field and a couple of old cars out there.  Apparently this was the first time they ever did this so it will be interesting to see when we go back in the fall if it grew.  Still it was a perfect night and we got to watch American Graffiti, which is a great movie to see at a drive-in setting regardless.

There wasn't much of a turnout, but it was still fun 

Furry Dashes

Well it didn't take long for me to work on my first fix of the mustang.  It was really small problem, but it really bothered me.  The previous owner had patched a row of fur to cover the holes of the lower dash pad when it fell out sometime ago (see pic below). 



Shagadelic

 Man it looked terrible, so I ordered a new lower dash pad from CJ's Pony Parts (free shipping).  With the use of Cathy's hair dryer, I was able to get the fur off the dash.  After a little Goo-Gone to clean off the fur glue, I bolted the new lower dash pad into place and it looks as good as new. 



Dash after it's haircut



New pad in place, not too bad looking if you ask me

 Total project took about 20 minutes.  I did have to remove the glove box to get access to the bolt holes for the new pad, but overall it was a very easy project.  My next project will be to fix the stereo system.  That equalizer in the picture has to go and replace the door that goes over the storage area under the stereo.  The stereo also gives some bad feedback when the motor is running so there is some electrical work that I need to do in there as well.  But for now I am going to bask in my lower dash pad glory.

The Car

1967 Mustang Fastback

Built 5-31-1967

Sold 6-10-1967 in West Allis, WI

Given as a graduation gift in late 70's

Restored in 1982

BABOOM!!!!



Home Sweet Home

I still can't believe it!  Saturday was such a long but awesome day.  My wife Cathy wanted to come along for the journey, so I loaded up the truck and my dog Montana, and we started our trip to Indiana at 7:30am.  For some reason, the drive through Illinois and Indiana wasn't that boring this time, weird.

The Find

So the plan was to find a Mustang this spring.  The truck had been paid off for about a year, finances were in order, and it was time to find the Mustang I have always dreamed of owning. 

One day in early April, I was looking through different Craigslist ads and other classifieds.  I wasn't having much luck finding anything that interested me, so I decided to see what was on EBay Motors.  I will be the first to admit I don't trust EBay Motors.  I am sure there are good cars sold on there all the time, but unless I can physically go and check out the car, I would not be comfortable plunking down any kind of money on a car based on pictures alone.  Plus with the auction time frame, it just feels like a rush decision and hard to do proper research.  Historically, I have used EBay Motors as a barometer for current pricing trends and that is about it.

So here I was, checking EBay Motors and all the sudden this one car catches my attention.  I click on the details and there is just something different about this car.  There were a ton of pictures showing everything about the car.  Exterior and interior shots from all sides, engine bay pictures, under body pictures, truck pictures, there was little left to wonder about this car.  It also had one of the most detailed descriptions I have ever seen for a listing.  The owner has had the car since high school graduation in the 70's, the car had a restoration back in the 80's, he listed all of the details of the restoration, he listed what needed work after 30 years.  You could just tell this guy cared for his mustang over the years.

The Hunt for Red October

I have been searching for years for the right Mustang.  One of my favorite past times is jumping on the computer to scourer Craigslist ads and EBay Motors to see what is out there.  If there is one thing I have found, most 67 fastbacks fall into two categories: 

1. Needing Restoration - there is no shortage of rusted out old cars out there that are perfect for a complete restoration or donor cars for a restoration.  You can usually find these cars in the $5k - $15k range depending on their condition



This fine stang can be yours for the cool price of $9,000 OBO

2. Completed Restorations - these are cars that people just finished a restoration and are in perfect condition.  These cars can fetch $30k or more depending on the level of work that was done.

Only has 1,200 miles since being restored and can be yours for $33,500

The problem is, I am not in the market for either of these.  My perfect Mustang is an older restoration, a driver.  Something that I can get in and drive to a car show or take a cruise in.  Something that is in really good shape, but still has some projects to do.  Something I can upgrade over time as my budget allows me.  This is what I am looking for.

Learning from Past Mistakes

This isn't my first venture into classic cars. Back in 2005 I decided that it was time to get a "project" car. And that project came in the form of a 1979 Camaro.

There she is in all her primer gray glory the day I brought her home

Man I had some big dreams for this car. Unfortunately I didn't have the finances to support those dreams. I did learn a lot from it though. I disassembled the whole front end by myself, and with the help of a buddy we were able to pull the whole drivetrain out from the car. It was during this that we discovered how bad the rust really was and decided that the stout 383 motor and 4 speed were probably the only things of value in the car. At the time the plan was to ditch the car and try to find a car needing a drivetrain that wasn't a complete rust bucket.

1967 Mustangs

Why the 67 Mustang Fastback?

Quite frankly, I fell in love with the 67 Shelby years ago. It is the quintessential muscle car if you ask me. It is perfect, from the front grille all the way to the rear decklid and tail lights. I love this car.

The Mustang Blog

I am about to embark this weekend on a road trip that I have been looking forward to for years. The day I get to buy a 1967 Mustang Fastback. And I can hardly wait! But my interest in Mustangs didn't just start this week....

It all started back in 2002. My Geo Storm died and I was in desperate need for a new car. My dad had found a brand new Mustang at the local dealership, worked out a deal, and I traveled home to get it. One problem though, when we showed up on Saturday morning, someone had sold it the night before! I still needed a car, the Storm was dead and I had to get to work on Monday. So we went searching around the other dealers in the area, and found a good deal on a nice 2001 Mustang.

8/2002 - where have these past 10 years gone???