69 Coupe - She Lives!!

[Jayru]

Hey All,

So after a long tormenting process, that included an all new suspension, new trans, and 3 different motors (among other things), she is finally running!! (just in time for winter! Ha!)

It was a beautiful day today, so i spent it in the garage getting all the final motor details together to get it started. I primed the oil pump put the distributor in and with a few cranks she fired right up and ran great!

I've still got a lot to do (as you can see in the pic I've got a temp oil pressure gauge rigged up), but it's SO nice to be able to start/move the car around now! Hopefully all will be well with the motor this time around, but at least I'm off to a good start!

I'll do a whole write up when i have some more time, but i was psyched so i thought I'd post now.

[rmarks]

Congrats! Hope all continues to go well. So why 3 motors?

[Jayru]

So why 3 motors?

Well, the short story is... The original motor in the car had a cracked block that the PO had masked by dumping radiator sealer in the car. When i flushed the system after purchase, i opened up a can of worms.

I had a local machine shop build me an engine from a core i brought them, about a day after startup, it started pissing Antifreeze out the side of the block. The machine shop owned up to the issues and rebuilt another core i found/bought.

So this is motor #2 from the machine shop and 3 total!

Basically I've determined the guy i bought the car from spent a lot of time/money on the body, it's basically rust free and restored (it's no show car but nice overall), and must have ran out of money! So he slapped together a junkyard drivetrain to unload the car in running condition. And i'm the sucker who bought it! The entire car was basically a nightmare held togerther by bubble gum and duct tape.

It's getting there though (about $15K above my purchace price at this point!)

[Protowrxs]

Nice - that is a milestone that has to feel good to have it running again. I'm way off from that still.

[Mike65]

Congrats, I am so jealous I am so far from running my cars.

[Jayru]

Thanks guys for the kind words!

You know, for the first time in almost 2 years I'm excited about this car! I can't wait to get home this weekend and play around in the garage :)

Lot's to do though... I'll take some pics and write up a progress report this weekend!

[70mstang]

Congrats! I'm looking forward to that feeling in quite a few months.

[Jayru]

Made some progress this weekend.

- Got my battery box securely mounted in the trunk (the box is supposed to "float," being held by the strap which has mounting tabs under the box, but it was crazy lose and really didn't feel secure! So i mounted the box to the body with some bolts).

- Got my Monte Carlo bar back in and secured.

- Ran the line for the oil pressure gauge into the interior.

- Started making sense of the wiring in the interior to put it all back together (it was a patched rat's nest from the PO! So I'm redoing most of it).

The car sat all week and started up with 1 turn of the key! The oil had a little water vapor residue in it after startup, but it quickly evaporated after warm up. I've got to get my catch can and PCV valve hooked back up. The standard valve cover breathers just aren't getting the water vapor out of the crankcase.

I also threw in a pic of my inner fender as well (i hid almost all the wires from the engine compartment to make it look cleaner under the hood!)

[70mstang]

Makes for a GREAT weekend when you can spend more than an hour in the garage

[Jayru]

Had a little time to play around in the garage tonight...

Installed my new Ford Motorsports tall valve covers. I had to remove the baffles on the chrome ones to clear the new roller rockers, but it caused oil to spit out the breathers, so i picked up these (they now clear the rockers and have baffles). No more oil all over the place!

I also got my catch can reconfigured and installed (couldn't run it till i got the baffles back in the valve covers as it was sucking oil into the intake). I even put a clear filter in to monitor the condition of the air going back into the carb. Started the car and it works great. Best part is no more traces of water in the oil from condensation buildup!

Have an appointment to get it aligned Friday afternoon (all new suspension), then I'll finally be able to drive it!!

Also... Got my racing gas cap delivered from CJ Pony Parts. Pictures don't do it justice! It's truly a beautiful peice. Hopefully i'll get it on the car this weekend.

[MAD IN NC]

Sounds like ya got her finally over the edge - Congrats!

[stangme428]

nice!! that catch can setup looks good... what can is it ... i may duplicate your setup visible filter and all...:whistling:

Had a little time to play around in the garage tonight...

Installed my new Ford Motorsports tall valve covers. I had to remove the baffles on the chrome ones to clear the new roller rockers, but it caused oil to spit out the breathers, so i picked up these (they now clear the rockers and have baffles). No more oil all over the place!

I also got my catch can reconfigured and installed (couldn't run it till i got the baffles back in the valve covers as it was sucking oil into the intake). I even put a clear filter in to monitor the condition of the air going back into the carb. Started the car and it works great. Best part is no more traces of water in the oil from condensation buildup!

Have an appointment to get it aligned Friday afternoon (all new suspension), then I'll finally be able to drive it!!

Also... Got my racing gas cap delivered from CJ Pony Parts. Pictures don't do it justice! It's truly a beautiful peice. Hopefully i'll get it on the car this weekend.

[Jayru]

It's just a plane jane summit catch can (i think it was like $10). It comes with/designed for an air filter for the top. Since i wanted it to recirculate, I went to NAPA and got the fittings to make the 90 return back to the carb. The filter is a fram fuel filter (part # G2 i believe).

I also made the bracket to hold it to the radiator (just some galvanized steel i bent up). The hole setup cost me under $25 bucks and looks great!

[Jayru]

I've got an ear to ear grin tonight :biggrin:

Drove the car to get aligned today! Man this motor pulls hard! 3/4 throttle breaks the tires lose in first on a roll (and I've only got a set of 300's in the rear)! The car pulls hard once it hit's about 2800 all the way to about 6K in every gear!

The car wasn't far out of spec with my eyeballed alignment and had it set up with the Opentracker street specs. I've still got about a 1/2" play in the steering wheel (from the steering box), but the suspension feels tight! I think i need to invest in a rear sway bar though, the car feels so tight in the front that i can feel the back lifting/rolling through a turn.

This is about a year and a half in the making... I'm super stoked!

Thanks to everyone on the forum who lent a helping hand (of advice) the past year or so!

Still odds n ends to do (install my tach/gas filler cap, finish wiring the interior, among other BS things like adjusting the windows etc, I'll post more pics when i get it all buttoned up!

[jkskinsfan]

Congrats, Jayru. Be prepared to enjoy that "Super Stoked" feeling for a long time. After getting my '69 back on the road this summer, I still get that feeling every time I take her out for a ride. Hopefully it will never go away.

[Grabber70Mach]

Congrats on getting it together.

[70mstang]

Great to hear! Congrats on driveability :tongue_smilie:

Now tell me exactly what a catch can is and what is does? :001_huh:

[Jayru]

Small progress this past weekend...

Freezing my ass of in the garage... I started to tackle the interior/dash/horn wiring (PO hacked a bunch of stuff up/in: ignition, radio, horn/steering wheel, etc.), was able to get my Tach mounted/wired, as well as install the OEM E-Brake assembly i got from Racer-X (so much better than the re-pro unit i had in there).

I'm real happy how the Tach worked out. I mounted it to the column with a worm gear clamp that i wrapped with shrinkable wire insulation. The screw of the clamp is hidden behind the mounting bracket. So when you look at the column, all you see is a smooth black strap holding the tach on! The shift light mounts underneath close to the column, it's almost unnoticeable.

With the wheel straight i can see 3/4 of the tach through the spokes and angled it so 5200 was straight up (see the needle in my peripheral vision without ever looking down).

The pic's a crappy one from my cell phone. I'll post a better one once it's all buttoned up.

[Jayru]

Figured I'd post a few pics of some things I've done recently!

1) Converted all my Z-bar linkage to spherical rod ends (and drilled a hole through the clutch fork/used a kneeled ball bearing to provide the pivot while allowing the clutch adjustment to lock in place!) No more spring/worry of the rod popping out under power shifting! My ends were all worn down over time and allowed a lot of slop, now it's all nice and tight!

2)3 Point Belt Conversion - Got the "kit" from CJ Pony Parts. It was supposed to be year specific. It really wasn't much of a "kit" as the directions were super vaigue and came literally with a bucket of parts/bolts.

I had to switch a bunch of stuff (wrong bolt sizes in the roof loop), as well as fab up spacers to allow the floor belt harness to be spinable (the factory belts just bolted to the floor and would have left the outer belts imovable). The brackets provided were also bent in (for reasons i couldnt figure why), so i had to bend them out to mount the rear returns properly. Overall i think it came out well!

3)Locking Hood Pins!

4)Rear Del-A-Lum bushings from Global West. Made a huge difference in how the car rides and handles in the corners! No more body roll and the rear feels solid in the turns now. Unfortunately this threw my pinion angle all out of whack and gave me a nasty vibration under deceleration over 75 MPH... I shimmed the rear to get the pinion down some (from +3 to -1 degrees now), i'm hoping this fixes the issue.

5)Replaced the factory 3rd member (which turned out to be a posi 3:00 from the factory!) with a posi 3:55 unit. The gears work so much better with my 5-speed! Gives the car much better acceleration! (sorry no pics). Also installed an Aluminum Driveshaft.


Enjoy the pics!

Jay

[Jayru]

I also finally hooked up my 220V Service and am now running an Air Compressor! It's so wonderful to be able to use air tools again!

[Burn]

Sweet Z-bar setup. Did you make most the parts or did you get them at the hardware store?

[Jayru]

Sweet Z-bar setup. Did you make most the parts or did you get them at the hardware store?

I sourced the rod ends from NAPA, I had a local machine shop cut and tap the top Z rod to accept the ends. The trick is to use a 3/8th rod on the clutch pedal side (as the hole usualy isn't worn), but a 1/2" on the top and bottom of the Z bar as those holes get stretched over time. With a little reeming, the 1/2" slides right in.

The bottom clutch rod/ball bearing is a custom piece I had the machine shop make up. It wasn't cheap and most likely overkill, but I like the way it came out.

[Jayru]

Test fit of the new gas cap. Have to enlarge the hole in the tail panel a bit so it will fit flush.

I had my machinist machine off the outer mounting ring (with screw holes) to make it match up perfectly with the tail panel bump out (for the old screw on gas cap). He machined countersunk screw holes on the inside (how i will mount it to the tail panel),

Looks good right?!?

[Angel]

looks good dude

[Jayru]

Thanks Angel!

Finally got around to buying/installing my new fuel pump this weekend. It's an Edelbrock 110 GPH mechanical pump.

I've suspected for quite some time now i was getting some fuel starvation in the higher rpm's (stock pump couldn't keep up). The gauge would quickly drop from 6 psi (under WOT) to 3 psi and slowly fall below 2 psi in the 5000+ rpm range.

I've got a 302 with Aluminum GT-40 turbo swirl heads, an e303 cam, and a Performer RPM Air Gap intake with a 600 cfm carb. The plugs looked good... But the car just felt like it was wheezing once you got above 5K (but still felt somewhat fast for the most part).

Boy was i surprised when i took the car for a ride after the new pump install! It pulls HARD now all the way up to about 5800 rpm (where the cam & my heads max out). I mean really hard! It feels like a completely different motor now above 5K!!

:biggrin:

[Jayru]

Here's some pics of the new wheels! :biggrin:

PS Engineering TA-II's 17x8 front (245 45's) - 17x9.5 rear (275 40's)

It's sitting a little high in the front. I'm going to cut about a half coil off each front spring. Hoping that get's the car level or a tad lower in the front.

[Angel]

They look good dude. You car reminds me of my coupe and makes me miss it even more than I already do :( Are you going to install center caps? Just my opinion, but I would lower it an inch all around. By the way, does the car sit lower on the rear driver side than on the rear passenger side?

[stangme428]

love the wheels! nice ride! :tongue_smilie:

[Jayru]

They look good dude. You car reminds me of my coupe and makes me miss it even more than I already do :( Are you going to install center caps? Just my opinion, but I would lower it an inch all around. By the way, does the car sit lower on the rear driver side than on the rear passenger side?

Yes! It sits lower on both the front and back drivers side by a 1/2"

I'm not sure what is causing this. It sat level when I first got it, I rebuilt the front suspension and shortly after I noticed the lean. My rear springs failed, so I just replaced the rear leafs and thought that would fix the rear lean, but it has the same lean as before.

I'm hoping I haven't been twisting the car with the new engine?!?

I've read online that the 1/2" DS lean is a common problem on all year mustangs.

I think I'm going to cut a 1/2 coil on the pass side, but maybe just a 1/4 coil from the DS, maybe that will level the car out. I can't do anything about the rear as I just bought the new leafs and don't want to use lowering blocks.

[rangerdoc]

A couple things:

1st-Thank you so much for the pictures with the wheels. Since I'm doing a coupe as well it is nice to see what they might look like vs the Vintage 48s. Do you know if the wheels come in another finish besides the black? I'm thinking a more natural finish. Do they have center caps?

2nd-My car also has the same lean. My entire suspension is rebuilt as well with 620 springs, 5 leaf mid-eye springs and all new other components and bushings. Though I have to admit I rebuilt it all about 15 years ago and I have rubber bushings in the rear that are a little worn. Maybe if I replace the bushings that would help. Are all your bushings new?

[Jayru]

A couple things:

1st-Thank you so much for the pictures with the wheels. Since I'm doing a coupe as well it is nice to see what they might look like vs the Vintage 48s. Do you know if the wheels come in another finish besides the black? I'm thinking a more natural finish. Do they have center caps?

2nd-My car also has the same lean. My entire suspension is rebuilt as well with 620 springs, 5 leaf mid-eye springs and all new other components and bushings. Though I have to admit I rebuilt it all about 15 years ago and I have rubber bushings in the rear that are a little worn. Maybe if I replace the bushings that would help. Are all your bushings new?

No problem! The centers are a cast aluminum, i had Peter over at PS Eng. powder coat them charcoal. So they could be the raw cast "silverish" aluminum if you wanted. The wheels are modeled off the original Trans Am wheels, they never had center caps, so he doesn't offer any (not machined for them). I like the racy look sans center caps. I plan to get new dust caps and paint the rotor centers/axles to match the wheels.

All my bushings are new in the car, my rear are even Del-A-Lum (aluminum), so the lean isn't coming from that.

I think it has to do with the unibody fatiguing/twisting over the years. Most people say to cut the front coil less on the leaning side to balance it out (they say evening the front usually brings the rear close). That's my plan. We'll see if it works. Once i get it leveled, I'm putting subframe connectors in the car.

[Jayru]

Finally had my Tin Man subframe connectors & driveshaft loop installed today! Been chasing down a buddy of mine with a fabrication shop to get the time to do'em for over 6 months now.

I couldn't be happier with the fitment of the connectors, they lined up perfectly and hug tight to the floor! The driveshaft loop is a little weird though. Since it's made of straight stock with a upside down U loop, it has to hang low and is very close to my exhaust. We made it work, but if i ever upgrade the exhaust to 2.5" i think i would have clearance issues (the loop bar would be in the path of the exhaust). The upside is that since it's straight rectangular stock it serves almost as a center brace between the connectors for some extra rigidity.

On initial drive the car feels much stiffer now, and turn in feels more solid too (the car actually turns as one unit in the direction you're steering, instead of that weird twisting feeling you feel front to rear as the chassis flexed without the connectors). Went over some railroad tracks on the way home and the car felt firmer/solid with minimal rattle. Before the connectors the car was a rattle box as the car/suspension was twisting every which way.

Also... Now that i had the connectors/loop, i was finally comfortable launching the car hard with the new 275 width tires, Maier Racing rear leafs, and aluminum driveshaft (as some may remember, i had the driveshaft break twice on me because of bad welds).

The car had little to no wheel hop! (before the Maier springs wheel hop was horrible). It was a split second of initial hop and then the car just squatted and felt solid as she slid sideways, gained traction, & took off!

Now all i need is a new helmet and it's finally back to the track! :biggrin:

I'll post some pics of the install once i clean and paint up the connectors all pretty! For now here's a teaser from when they were getting installed.

[Angel]

Wow it's been half a year since an update! Haha well glad to hear progress is being made. What did you do about the car leaning on one side?

[unfrozen1969]

I would love to see some more photos...

[Jayru]

Wow it's been half a year since an update! Haha well glad to hear progress is being made. What did you do about the car leaning on one side?

I know! I've been working like crazy with no time, before you know it 6 months goes by. I've got some time off now, so I'm getting around to installing the pile of parts I've had for a year or two! LOL

I haven't addressed the lean yet. The DS frame connector did need to be pushed up about 3/4" as apposed to the PS that fit perfect. I suspect 42 years of use (motor torque stress no doubt) has lead to the frame being slightly tweaked creating the lean.

I plan to cut the coils in the front with a little more of the PS to compensate (and I need to lower the front about an inch or 2 anyway) but I haven't done it yet because I'm afraid my headers are going to bang off everything! They hang kinda low now, a 1-2" drop will definitely make them scrape.

It's always something!

[Daddisgrl]

What color is the paint? Looks awesome!

[Jayru]

Finally got a chance to take a few photo's of the installed subframe connectors and driveshaft loop. Sorry for the loooong delay, i decided to re-do/insulate my garage this summer and it ended up being a much longer project than expected!

Luckily my fiancé's parents were nice enough to let me keep the stang in their garage while i completed the work.

One pic i couldn't get to come out right was where you cut the rail open. The Tin Man directions said to just open up the rail to the top, which would have left a gap on the top and sides where trash could get in. We decided to measure exactly and make the opening flush to the connectors, so it's nice/tight, cleaner looking, and also allows you to weld up the connectors 3 sides around the rail instead of just the 2 holes on the sides.

You can also see how the driveshaft loop becomes a structural part of the connectors (although I'm worried it will interfere with my exhaust once i change my headers since it has to hang so low).

My floors are in excellent shape with just a little surface rust, so i decided to rough them up and use Eastwood's Rust Encapsulator paint on the whole floor since i had to paint the connectors anyway (and it can be painted over rust/non rust alike). Came out great i think!

Need to coat the internal bits with an internal frame coating, but temps dropped to cold to paint, so looks like i'll wait for spring to do that.

Not sure why the pics are coming up upside down, they're correct on my computer. Hopefully you get the idea!

[BuckeyeDemon]

i also had a plan for something similar to yours. when i built the subframe connectors i welded large nuts on the inside (set near the front and a set near the back) where i could bolt on a set of fabricated driveshaft loops.

it's almost time to start working on those.

http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh270/buckeyedemon/69%20Mustang%20Mach%201/subframe%20connectors/IMG_3913.jpg