67 Mustang heart transplant surgery in progress...

The good news is you can replace the old dangerous wires with new ones. You won't have the car this stripped for a long time again, if ever, so it would be smart to replace as much as you can. If the wires gave out on a trailer being towed, think what could happen once you get everything all connected together and start driving it. Not to mention it's scads better to have new wires than 40 year old ones in there.
 
Here is the offending harness

DSCF0388.jpg


Some reinforcement brackets my friend fabricated for the shock towers

DSCF0385.jpg


DSCF0386.jpg


DSCF0387.jpg


DSCF0383.jpg


DSCF0384.jpg


DSCF0389.jpg
 
I am the road warrior
 
Pictures from yesterday

The car with a naked front end, shock towers both out. Drilling out all the spot welds wasn't too bad.

DSCF0408.jpg


DSCF0404.jpg


DSCF0406.jpg


DSCF0407.jpg


Me taking off the export brace from the looks of it.

DSCF0384-1.jpg


And from today....

I applied some zinc weld through primer to the raw metal where the shock tower will be welded in.

DSC01946.jpg


DSC01947.jpg


DSC01948.jpg


I'm putting the driver's side in first because it seems to align better than the passenger's side. I'll use the driver's side to help align the passenger's side once it's in.

Applied the same zinc primer to the shock tower where it will be welded. When I bought this stiff I thought it was like...paint, but it's more like a spray-able powder that has little "stiction".

DSC01949.jpg


DSC01950.jpg


After aligning the tower...

DSC01951.jpg


DSC01952.jpg


I used 4/6 bolt holes on the apron to align the tower with the help of the export brace. I bought a more precise and stiffer export brace for two reasons. One, it will more accurately align the towers and two it will stiffen the chassis better once the car is complete. I picked it up from Dallas Mustang yesterday morning. The ribs are much deeper than my 'original.'

DSC01955.jpg


The holes in the apron align pretty well. I had to do some "massaging" of the tower in order to get it to fit like that. That is the problem with aftermarket sheet metal parts.

DSC01954.jpg


Yeah that picture sucks, haha.

Tomorrow I'll weld in the driver's side one and get started on the passenger's side.

Oh, and I found that that same wiring harness actually burned inside the car too where it comes in from the engine bay. REALLY lucky the car didn't catch fire. There is a lot of flammable junk under the dash...I'm torn between rewiring the entire car with a painless harness and just replacing that one burned harness...

Stay tuned...
 
Last edited:
Rewire the car, you'll be glad you did when it's all together again.
 
I am going to rewire it eventually but I'm debating what to do immediately. I'm leaning towards sourcing a good used headlight harness just so I can move the car around.
 
Ok so I just spoke to a friend and I can get a ridiculously good deal on an entire chassis harness from Painless. I may just have to go that route now. I think I would have to be insane to pass it up.
 
Looks good- the engine bay looks a lot better. And X2 on the Painless harness.

Yeah I think I'm going to buy it at the end of the month when I get paid.

Meanwhile, I'm still fiddling with the alignment. After a bit of grinding and hammering...

DSC01956.jpg

DSC01957.jpg

DSC01958.jpg

DSC01959.jpg

DSC01961.jpg


I bolted the subframe to the tower to see how it aligned. After alot of muscle and cursing I got the bolt holes to align. But, if you can't tell from the last two pictures, the area where the subframe attaches to the bottom of the frame rail is giving me problems. The crossmember bolt hole is being covered by the subframe partially. I'm trying to figure out if this is inconsequential or not. If it is, I'm just going to "wharlor her out" so to speak.
 
Work continues on the shock towers. On Saturday we finished welding in the driver's side...

DSC01970.jpg


DSC01971.jpg


Like our method of grounding the welder? :D

Welds were kinda messy since we are using flux cored wire. Also trying to avoid burning through the very thin apron material proved difficult which is why some of these welds look nasty.

DSC01969.jpg


DSC01967.jpg


DSC01966.jpg


I have a good bit cosmetic work to do.

DSC01973.jpg


This is where the subframe is welded to the bottom of the front frame rails. I had to do some grinding on that large hole in order to uncover the cross member bolt hole. From the people I've talked to, I've found that on the driver's side this is fairly common.

Sunday I started aligning the passenger's side tower and thought everything was going well. I was trying to align it by the 6 holes in the apron and the export brace. However once I did that I noticed that it was sitting abut 1/4" lower than the other side. I took a look at the new tower and the old tower side by side...

DSC01981.jpg


DSC01982.jpg


To me, it looks like the holes on the old tower are sitting lower than in the reproduction unit. I measured it and it turns out that indeed they are 1/4" lower which accounts for the difference. On the driver's side though that isn't the case oddly enough. The hole position is good.

I mocked up the subframe and it looks better on the passenger side

DSC01977.jpg


I also picked up some 99-04 Mustang dual piston calipers today for $50 :D. We're going to make an adapter so they'll bolt to my spindle.

Stay tuned...
 
Last edited:
You guys want to borrow a gas welder? I've got a Lincoln 120v unit with a full 40cf bottle of C25.
 
I appreciate the offer but it's not too much trouble really. Just a little extra time I'll have to spend cleaning them up. He has a Hobart 110V that can use a bottle he just hasn't felt like going through the trouble to get it just yet.
 
Moar pictures.

Both sides are now welded in completely

DSC01984.jpg


DSC01985.jpg


The next step for bracing. Should be welded in this weekend:

DSC01986.jpg


That will tie the shock tower in with the frame rail much better than the factory spot welding.

Seam sealed the passengers side. I'll clean up the mess and top coat the whole side.

DSC01987.jpg


Speaking of topcoating, does anyone else have much experience with POR-15? Their directions say to primer over the POR-15 when it is slightly tacky with one of their own primers and then topcoat with basically whatever. Well on my car all the POR-15 has 'cured' and I just wanted to go over it with some Krylon Satin Black. For those who know, can I do this?
 
You should be fine painting over the 'cured' POR15. It might have adhered better to the tacky POR15, but since you're not using POR15 primer I don't think it matters. Once that stuff is set up you can do anything to it; prime it, paint it, throw rocks at it, whatever. Whoever invented it deserves a goddamn Nobel Prize.
 
You should be fine painting over the 'cured' POR15. It might have adhered better to the tacky POR15, but since you're not using POR15 primer I don't think it matters. Once that stuff is set up you can do anything to it; prime it, paint it, throw rocks at it, whatever. Whoever invented it deserves a goddamn Nobel Prize.

Seconded. Once cured you're fine to paint over it, though to be safe I'd take an abrasive pad of some kind and scuff up the area for better adhesion.
 
I've painted both sides now with the Krylon Black Satin. Looks really good. I like it alot better than the POR-15 semi gloss. Didn't have a very productive day yesterday because it was miserable outside. I spent some time grinding down welds but lost enthusiasm when I was hit in the eye with a spark. Towards the end of the day I removed the steering box so I could reach some of the driver's side welds a little easier. Today I hope to get the remainder of the welds grinded down and then throw some primer on. Then I put some filler down and block it until it's smooth and then primer and top coat.

After pulling the steering box I got tempted to do a DIY rack and pinion. I've been reading alot about it today and have found that the best starting place is a "J code" car rack and pinion. Early 80s to mid 90s GM compact cars (Cavalier, Sunbird, Sunfire, etc).

At this point I realized I will be building a Frankenstang...

- 99-04 Mustang Calipers
- 94+ Explorer 8.8 with LSD, disc brakes, and 3.73s
- Explorer aluminum driveshaft
- J Code rack and pinion
- Likely a T5 from a foxbody
- Engine from a foxbody
- Granada sprindles and rotors
 
You forgot 32V from a Cobra. :p
 
I'll have a larger update later with a lot more pictures but for now I'll just let you know the deals I scored over the weekend.

I went to a swap meet over the weekend at the Ballpark in Arlington to see if I could find some good deals on stuff. I didn't really need anything per se but I'm always on the look out for good deals.

Deal #1: I saw a lot of classic license plate "dealers" there. They had boxes of plates from every single state from the 1920s up to now. Being "dealers" they wanted exhorbitant prices for their plates. I saw a set of 1967 Texas plates at one "dealer" that were completely rusted away for $50. Restored plates were going for $150 and rough but structurally sound plates were in the range of $75-$100. What really sucks is that these "dealers" will go around the swap meet and find people who have just a few plates for sale and throw out a low ball price to buy all of them. They then take them back to their stand and jack the price up. Well I only brought $40 and I didn't even want to pay $40 for them.

So at this point I'm thinking I'll just get the state issued plates for classic cars instead. Well, I get to the outskirts of the swap meet and as I'm walking past this camper van I notice a smattering of old plates on the ground, maybe 6 pair. I walk up to them and one pair is from 1967 so I take a closer look. The are pretty dingy but they are structurally sound. There is some surface rust up at the top but everything looked good. From what I had seen all day these plates would be "worth" $75-$100. I went up to the old guy and asked him what he wanted for the plates. He said $20/pair. Awesome. Well I went and grabbed the 67s which looked a bit dingier than the others and offered him $15, he agreed. :mrgreen: What a steal.

Deal #2: As most of you know I'm working on reinforcing my shock towers. Well one of the piece of reinforcement plates is supposed to sit inside the the shock tower and weld to both the inner shock tower and the frame rail. It is a pretty complex-ly shaped piece of metal. Not really difficult, all you do is make a template with some cardboard and them cut out the steel. But it is time consuming, loud, and dirty. Plus you'll have to make alterations in order for it to fit just right.

Well at one stand there was a guy selling precut and bent reinforcement plates for 67-70 cars. Now sellers online will sell their "kits" which include all the reinforcements plates in the range of $250-300. All I wanted were the plates that go inside the shock towers though that I just described. Lucky for me he was selling those plates in pairs separately. He said he wanted $25 for the pair. I thought it was a good price, but by the time I actually found him (I had been by there once earlier and no one was around) I had spend all but $16 of my $40. I told him I had $16 I could give him and he was thinking really hard. I then asked if he'd just sell me one which he didn't want to do. As he was thinking my friend threw out and offer of 2 pair for $30. A few seconds later he agreed and I had my plates :D. Now all I have to do is weld them in today.

Moral of the story is that swap meets are awesome.

And in case anyone is wondering, in Texas at least if car is over 25 years I believe it can be registered as a classic. This means no yearly inspection and a $50 fee to register it for 5 years. Technically mileage is limited but there are no rigorous checks to ensure you are within the limit. To register it you either can buy the classic plates from the state or you can buy old plates from the year your car is made. The latter is what I did.
 
Top