Monday, December 28, 2009

The hood alignment

Now the engine is installed as well as Holley 1940 1V-carburetor which to my knowledge is not the one which was installed in the factory back in 1965. Instead it is a replacement type of carburetor that Ford apparently ordered from Holley as the original Autolite 1100 showed up to be more or less unfaithful.

The driver side front fender, door and quarter panel had some lead melted over the seams. Because the fender was there and I needed some more room to my carage as well as somenthing to cover the engine, I decided to install the hood. First thing to do is to bolt the hinges into the fenders. No need to torque them too tight at this point...

...because you have to unscrew them many, many times before the hood lines up nicely. I studied the internet for good advice for aligning these parts but it seems that trial and error is the only available instruction for this job. My hint is: if the rear end of the hood is too high, release the screws and lift the hinges up from the front end. This allows the rear end of hinge to go lower.



Ok. Destiny can be recognized as a Mustang now but what surprises me is the ride height which still is too high. There is not much weight to come to the front anymore. Someone said that sandblasting the springs is about the same as forging them. Might be true. Anyway, after a short mechanical period, I'll have to get back to my grinding equipment and sanding paper before the final primer shooting.

Sunday, December 6, 2009

Engine installation

A short repetition of the history (all Finns may skip to the first pic) :
Finland was a territory of Sweden until 1809 when the Russia conquered the eastern part of Sweden after two years of battles. Finland remained part of Russia until V.I.Lenin signed the declaration of independence on December 6th 1917. A couple of years later Mr.Molotov of Russia and Mr.Ribbentrop of Germany argeed upon a split over the territories of Europe. According to that pact, Finland was to be a part of Soviet Union's premises. On the 30th of November 1939 Soviet attacked Finland without any declaration of war which was followed by a war known as the Winter War of Finland, a 105 day battle after which Finland remained independent but lost 10% of it's geografical area. A year later Finland joined Hitler's troops in order to get Karelia back (with interests) by attending the Continuation War  but that's another story.

And what has all this to do with the restoration of a Mustang ? Nothing. But a small quiz to summarize your knowledge of the WW2. Which three european capital cities of countries participating the WW2 remained un-occupied. The correct answer is in the bottom of this entry.

Now, here is the inline-six with C4 automatic transmission hanging from a hook in the roof of my garage.


The packet is hoisted up and the unibody is rolled under the package. Mr. 67FB is controlling.


Easy as can be. After three quarters of an hour the powermill is back where it belongs. Damn, the shifter linkage points to a faulty direction.


Mr.Camaro68 has checked the engine, cleaned it and painted black and red. Many of the gaskets were replaced. The cylinder head was not opened as there was no reason for that. Here is a shot of the timing chain which had streched to en extent that it had to be replaced along with the new crank and cam gears. Some slack down there. I am waiting to see whether there will be a smoother run and improved fuel economy.



 Here it is sitting back in the engine room. It originally had 120 hp.The fuel filter bowl will be replaced later.



This shot was taken a year ago while the engine was moving upwards.



A couple of pictures to compare the before and after status of the engine. The cylinder head is supposed to be black. Only the valve cover and and air filter cover are to be red-orange.





Yes. The fuel pump bowl will be replaced with a new one which is still under construction.


Destiny looks like a car again , doesn't she ? Below is a another shot of her from a year ago. The change is evident. With the engine installed I have got a plenty of options how to proceed with my project.



And the correct answer for the question above is that the three un-occupied capitals were Moscow, London and Helsinki. A reason to celebrate the independence day.

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Destiny is taking a night out

Some Dinitrol 410 to the seams after hand-sanding and one more liter of  Spies Hecker Permacron® 630 and the floor is done. This took about three nights altogether.


Rear axle and the differential case was coated with the same stuff. I did not open the differential. Some oil leaked out from the ventilation tube while turning it around but it looked clean so Why fix it if it is not broken.


I had some paint left and there is no snow outside so I had the chance to handle my pair of skies as well.



A set of new exhaust pipeline and a muffler would cost about $230 or about 300€. Even after spending a year outside my garage under the gutters it only had some surface rust which was disappeared after two hours of sanding. A rattle-can of heat-resistant paint (cost 6.60 €) sprayed and heated over the tube. The exhaust has been welded into one piece so it has to be installed at this point, before the rear axle.


As soon as that was done, the leaf springs were installed with new front end bushings and eye-bolts. The rear axle was placed on jack stands by lifting it one end at a time until it was in such height that the springs could be attached to rear shackles.


And the axle was dropped on the leaf springs and bolted in place. Destiny is ready to roll again.


Destiny hasn't been outside of the garage since last January. At that time she was carried but this time I did not need much help turning her on my driveway. A short stop on the threshold was needed to blow the dust off.

Exactly a year ago this rust-bitten car flew back from waterblasting. The rear tail light panel and the area behind rear valance is the only remaining rusty area.


The engine room is ready and waiting for the delivery of the straight six due to happen next weekend.