Speedometer update

Destiny's instrument cluster bezel looks like it has seen more miles than those 97298 it has on the odometer.

So, in order to start my project for refreshing the interior, I decided to replace the bezel with a new one that I obtained from NPD a long time ago. First thing to do after disconnecting the battery was to loosen the speedometer cable from the C4. Just unscrew the 7/16" bolt seen in the below pic and pull.

Unscrewed the six screws holding the cluster in the dash and pulled. Unscrewed the speedo cable. At this point it is good to have masking tape handy for marking the wires at the time they are pulled. It is not difficult but helps when you put all the stuff back in. There are 8 bulbs; 4 for the illumination and 4 for ALT, OIL, High Beam and Turn Signal. Then there are 2 connectors for Voltage regulator (6 Volts) and 2 for Temp and Fuel gauges, each.

I spent some time and documented the wiring. Makes it easier to replace the bulbs later. Surely this would be found on shop manual's schemes as well.

Unscrewed the six screws behind the cluster for removal of the 'gauge part' and one more for removing the metal plate. Under the plate you find the transparent plastic "lens" with semi-transparent reddish Oil and Alt markings. Note the cardboard-made bases for the warning lights in the gauge.

At this stage I found out that those dots in the center of the gauges were not included in the new bezel and I would have to paint them instead. So I drilled them out of the lens.

I found some chrome paint in a local shop and here is the end result which does not differ a lot from the "chrome" on the new bezel.

You get a lot of respect from fellow mustangers if you have one of those rare early Mustangs originally shipped to and sold here, with kilometers per hour dial in the speedometer. You could replace the dial overlay with a sticker as well.  I am satisfied with the miles on it and as it is not demanded by authorities to have a kms/h dial (as I think in Sweden may be the case) I'll stick with the miles. So next thing to do is to glue the dots with contact cement and screw the parts together.

And installed it back to dash with new mounting kit (10838-1AK from NPD). A huge difference in looks with little money. Also the gauges are more visible as the shine enforces the scant light of the 4W bulbs. 

Don't forget to re-install speedometer cable to C4 before the test drive.

Load-O-Matic

When chasing the reason for Destiny's thirst for fuel I figured that the there could either be a leak in fuel system, something wrong with the carburetor or something wrong with the ignition system. No leaks in fuel lines were found and in the beginning of summer I had cleaned and checked the carburetor as well. So the only thing wrong would be the ignition. The spark plugs seemed clean and they had the right colour.  When opening the notorious Load-O-Matic distributor I noticed that the bottom of the base was wet from some unrecognizable fluid.





I figured that moisture does not belong there and maybe the shaft or gasket were worn out and it was engine oil climbing up the shaft. As I could not find a repair kit for LOM in the NPD's catalogue I decided to check if my local suppliers would have a new and hopefully a more modern distributor for me. But the bad thing is that LOM is the only counterpart for the Autolite 1100 and Holley1940 1V-carburetors used in these sixes. The reason for this is that LOM is advanced only by vacuum through spark control valve, found only in the above mentioned carbs. So should I change the dizzy, would I be forced to change the carburetor too if I wanted them to work together. And that was something I wouldn't like to do. But luckily USParts surprised me once again. They happened to have one of those remanufactured LOMs in their stock which I was able to purchase for a very reasonable 118.15 euros (including v.a.t. and the FMOC member discount).

Load-O-Matic has only the vacuum for advance

In went the new one after the had come out. When checking the old one on the shop table more fluid streamed out of the vacuum advance unit of the LOM. I am not sure what it was but I took some of it outside, fired it and it burned.

Unrecognized fluid drained

Was it fuel drained from flooding carburetor or had the vacuum from carburetor sucked engine oil all the way through the vacuum unit. I surely do not know. After setting the initial advance to 12 degrees I tookher to test drive which proofed me that the replacement was worth doing. I could not hear the slight sound of malfuntioning advance when pushing the pedal. And now the distributor remained dry too. If the fluid was fuel it must have been there for a long time and for a very mysterious reason. As a matter of fact I am suspicius that the flooding fuel would be able to flow towards the dizzy due to fact that the vacuum should pull it away from it.

Yes. I hate that blue cap too but that was the only left. It belongs to a '66 with Ford Blue engine, not for '65 but it will have to do now. At least I know that the dizzy is ok. May the troubleshooting continue elsewhere.

Convertible Top Replacement Part III

Once the rear plastic window was in place I stapled it to the bow #4.

Then it was time to fit sail pads to rear curves between the bow #4 and the outer tacking strips. The meaning of sail pads is to smooth the area when the top is on and to protect the top material when the top folded in the rear well. Initially my car did not have sail pads. I’ve heard that many shops leave them out, maybe for saving time or for the reason that they actually are not needed. Later I have noticed that they only add to the thickness and make the folding more difficult.

The lower edge of sail pad has been stapled to outer left tacking strip

Excess material has been trimmed off

After stapling the sail pads I trimmed the excess material and taped some Gorilla Tape along the bow #4 to cover and smooth the staples and edges so that they would not be seen through when the top material is on. Sorry, no picture.

I had taken the top out of box a few days earlier hoping that it would straighten but when placed on the frame it still had folds, dents and looked too narrow for a Mustang. When aligned on the driver side it it seemed like two inches were missing from the passenger side. I measured and marked the center line to the masking tape in the inner side as well as marked the centers to the bows. The next step would be the defining one. Where to start attaching as from now on there would be no return.

As far as I know there are two ways to proceed:

1. Staple to the rear tacking strips according to the reference marking in the top and then move  to the header bow. This article on Mustang Monthly describes this method for a fox body Mustang.
2. Staple to the #4 bow and the move to two directions after that This is how dalorzof did it so I decided to try this one.

So, I placed the top on, centered it and hit a couple of staples to the outer ends of bow #4 and the Mistake#1 was done. I hadn't paid enough attention to that my bow height was not exactly 21". I had to pull the top, gorilla tape,the upper staples from sail pads and rear curtain and from the stay pads on bow #4 and move the bow #4 to correct position and then do all the previous mentioned stapling and taping again.

Round two with the top staples and the Mistake#2 was done. This time I had not given enough attention to where the flaps on the side rails in c-pillar area would reside. Now realizing that I would not be able to make them fit against the side rail over the quarter window where the flaps are supposed to be glued. The top was placed too much forward. I had to pull the staples and that would later be seen like this.



Two lines of holes from stapling without checking first



OK. I had my top still loose and tried to figure out how to make those flaps fit against the quarter window side rails. I decided not to hit more staples until the fit of these flaps was verified. I would not worry about the centering for if the flaps are in correct position the top will automatically be in center position.

Next thing to do was to define the correct position for the flap on one side, punch holes for the old weatherstrip which would be used as a clamp during the glueing. Then I mixed some 2-component epoxy glue , spread it to the flap and to the side rail surface, placed the weatherstrip-clamp and tightened. This was easy on one side. On the other I had to ask help from my daughter for attaching the clamp while I was stretching the top. Once clamped I left it for a day to let the glue dry.

Next day I started with hitting a couple of staples to the rear end and placing the top loosely, only to be able to attach the tacking strips to the well knowing that I would have to do it over and over later.  Then pulled the top forwards bent it over the header bow and marked the folding line with chalk. Then a couple of staples were hit, the top clamped in to on-position. This was repeated about three times until the correct stapling line was found.

Front folded over the header and chalk line drawn

A couple of staples is enough when fitting

When the correct line for headerstapling was found some glue was spread and the top was stapled starting from the center and proceeding towards the outer edges. I stopped at 10 cm before the outer curve for glueing and placing the front side flaps (seen on the above pic) and securing the side tension cables to the frame. I left them dry over night and finished the outer edges the following day.

The center has been stapled.

Finished with stapling the header bow.

When the header bow was ready I focused on the rear tacking strip. A lot of patience (which I do not have) is needed to do this. The more times you are ready to repeat the steps the better result you will get. Staple, attach the tacking strip, detach, do it again until you are happy with it. EZOn Top has reference line in the rear edge. It may work for '67-'68s which to my knowledge have a straight rear tacking strip. My '65 has curved outer tacking strips. The problem can be seen in the picture below. There simply is not enough top material in the lower end of the top to be able to staple it in the outer tacking strip. Note the red sheet metal paint visible between the strip and the top.

Now this is the Mistake#3 but this one is not on me to blame. There should be more top vinyl to be able to pull it down and forwards to remove the folds on the c-pillar. I could not come up with anything to solve this so I had to accept it and proceed to the finishing steps which will be shown on the final Part IV of this series.

Convertible Top Replacement Part II

NPD provided me with EZOnAutoTops vinyl top, rear plastic window, top pads, sail pads, side tension cables, tacking strip material,  and a new weatherstrip kit. In the package there was only a simple note that bow height 21” should be used. No other instructions.

The hardware of the top frame was sandblasted and as soon as they arrived I painted them with black rattle-can lacquer. The header bow needed new tacking strip. Here a is shot of the strip being fit with the header bow to be marked for holes. I applied Dinitrol seam sealer as glue between the strip and the header bow. Then riveted the strip to the bow. 

There is a lot of discussion on the VMF about what material is the correct for repairing the bow #2 and #3 tacking strips. I think that any material which will hold the staples is good. And if this works for header bow, why not try it on other bows as well. So I did.

And the finished product 

Afterwards I decided to use bolt and nut for attaching the bow brackets so there is some extra grip there. Then it was time to repeat the treatment for the bow #4. Note the remainder of the factory staple pins. I don't know what kind of stapler they used but they sit tight in the metal. So I left them there and just hit the new strip in.

And after two laminated coats of tack strip material.

If you have well documented the disassembly it shouldn't take long to put the frame back together. The nylon bushings of my frame were in excellent shape and they only needed to be cleaned, greased and put back to the pivots.

There are eccentric bolts (on the right) that are to tune the frame so that side rails are parallel to the windows frames. Basicly they used the same frame from '64½ to '68. To my knowledge there are differences how much there are adjustable joints, depending on the plant and year of the car. My frame had this and an other one at the #2 bow. I've heard that some cars have adjustable side main joint and eccentric at bow #3. This one didn't.

So the frame was there. Next I would throw in the plywood gauges that I had pre-fabricated according to the measures given. But the gaudes wouldn’t fit at all ! Not until I deciced that the hole  for bolting the gauge to the coat hanger thread should be moved forward and down. I drilled another hole which is 3/4” forward and 1/4“ -1/2” lower that the original and now it felt fine. (I later had email conversation with Australian guy Richard, The Convertible Top Guy at VMF, nickname dalorzof , and as he had come to the same result, I felt this project might have a chance to succeed).

It also needed some modification to hold the #4 bow at the requires 21” bow height. Some have abandoned the gauges when they find them "not useful" but as I mostly work by myself I wanted to have the bows steady while fitting the top pads. So I found the gauges helpful for keeping the bows where I wanted them  instead of them showing me the correct position. I adjusted the bow #2 to the lowest position pointing upwards, modified the rear notch so that bow height was at 21". At this point I compared the distances between the bows to the distances between the listings on the top, found them to be close to each other and felt I was still on the right track.

 I measured and punched the holes for the screws and bolted the top pads to the header bow. Note the seam sealer that has been used as filler in the rivet holes.

And stapled the pad to the other bows

'65 has rear tacking strips with notches in the center part and curved outer strips. I replaced the tacking materials and painted them. The material is easy to replace by twisting the folded edges open a little bit. Sorry no pics of this phase. Then the center of the rear plastic was measured and the plastic was stapled to the rear tacking strip. I lined the lower edge of the plastic with the lower edge of tacking strip and stapled . The tacking material is about 4-5 mm in thickness and the plastic about 2mm. At this point I used 6 mm staples, but later found that it will accept the 10 mm staples. If you can find 8 mm staples suitable for your gun, I think they would be the best.

First fitting. It seems like EZOnAutoTop stuff is sharp cut and there is not much extra material.

Convertible Top Replacement Part I

Destiny's top had seen better days. Well, actually the convertible tops do not see the good days, they only see the windy, cold and rainy. Anyways, it had holes, the rear window had torn off the bow and was hung to top cloth with bolts, the rear plastic window was foggy and the top cloth was so fragile that you could almost push your finger through it. Someone did a nice job with the top years ago, but time is cruel for us all.

The old top ready to absorb all the rain.

Rear window torn between the zipper and bow

Note the broken top pad

So I made a shopping list and ordered the goods from NPD Export Service and within a week they arrived to my doorstep. Meanwhile I produced the plywood gauges according to the measures in the workshop manual.

Read the Part II before making your copies

I browsed the internet but was unable to find a well documented site about top replacement other than those on the Mustang Monthly web site, the older article and the newer. But the first thing to was to pull the old weatherstripping and top. At this point it is wise to document all the steps with pictures and by measuring the original spacing between the bows and the 'bow height',  that being the distance between the center of bow #4 and the front edge of the boot well molding. Each top manufacturer has their own specs for bow height, so the distances may vary. The top frame consists of a variety of links, pivots, bows, rails, brackets, eccentric bolts, nuts and spacers. And if you don't document their order during disassembly, you'll spend twice the time when it is time to put them back. Here are a couple of pictures of the disassembling.

Removed the weatherstrip, but saved the c-pillar w'strips to be used as a tool later.

Header bow has been oxidized badly and the tack strip is shot. The tools point the original rivets which attach the strip to the header bow.

The top is pulled and the worn-out top pads are shown. The bow #2 and #3 have listings but they had been torn off years ago.

These top pad screws in the header bow cost me many drill bits. 

Finally I had to drill new holes and make new threads. 

Once all this had been revealed, it was time bury my thought of not needing to disassemble the top frame. It had also became inevitable that no top decor shop would have taken this project without a pile of euros. 

So I pulled the frame out of the car and put the metal pieces in a box and delivered them to be sandblasted.