Pinto Powered Mustang Roadster

[rob289c]

For me, I'd like a compromise...maybe a Carolina?  Still has seasons, but not the extreme hot of Florida and not the Winter (and taxes) of NY.

[1972 Wagon]

It seems like recently that no area of the U.S.A. has been spared from severe weather of some type. Florida's seasons are more subtle than areas further north, but I love that cold weather never really lasts long. We've had a few nights below freezing, but by Monday, the temperature is predicted to be 70? again.

[rob289c]

That is all very sad.  Hard to fathom how it can happen.  I pray for your wife's cousin and others that have lost possessions and lives.  A lot of people complain about our NY weather, but really, we get 4 seasons: Spring, Summer, and Fall are nice, and Winter is really a short annoyance.  We're half way through it at this point.  We don't get hurricanes, tornados (very rare), earthquakes (very rare), tsunamis, wild fires or mudslides.  All in all, our weather isn't horrible, but the hot rods, motorcycles and other toys have to be put away a few months of the year. The NY politics bother me more than the weather.

[Wittsend]

We could sure use some of that "solidified dampness" here is So. Cal.. My wife's cousin lost her home (among hundreds..., maybe thousands) in the Altadena "Eaton" fire. The first picture is her location (small circled area near center). Red is destroyed, green some damage, black no damage. Second picture is the house..., well what is left of it.

[rob289c]

We're at 12 deg today.  About 8" of snow yesterday.  Over the next few days in Upstate NY we could see snowfalls measured in feet south of Buffalo and up near Watertown.  I'm in the Rochester area and may get another 3-4" tonight and tomorrow.  Thursday we start a warm up with temps in the mid-20's.  Pretty standard stuff for us...stay warm and safe in FL! 

[1972 Wagon]

Tuesday night here in northeast Florida, sleet, ice, and possibly snow are predicted!

[rob289c]

I haven't done anything or posted anything in a while.  Just saying hello.  Stay warm to any that are in the Polar Vortex!

[rob289c]

It's been over a month since I made any progress and today may be the last until Spring.  Today I attached the grill into the header panel, then the header panel to the car.  Then I mounted the front bumper, then the headlight buckets.  I think that will be it for 2024.  I'll resume in the Spring.  I hope everyone has a good Winter and a Healthy and Prosperous New Year!

[rob289c]

A little progress today: I previously only installed two of the required four rear bumper mounting bolts.  Today I Installed the other two  including new washers and anti-seize in case they ever need to come back out.  When I installed the outboard left bolt, I attached the negative battery cable to be the main ground point.  I secured the rear wiring harness to the inner body shell and it is now hidden behind the interior panels. I crimped the lugs on the end of the speaker wires, then I installed the speakers to the rear package tray, then the package tray to the rear deck.  That required surgery that I didn't expect.  The package tray I bought is supposed to allow 6x9 speakers in 65-67 Mustangs as the rear decks didn't come with cutouts for that size speakers.  Unfortunately it wasn't a drop-in and I had to cut out additional metal to make them fit.  Pretty much like a lot of this project.  I re-installed the rear seat and interior panels as I shouldn't have to see anything behind or under until Spring.  Tomorrow will be a non-project day.  I'll get back on it next weekend.  I will be meeting my car club buddies at a fire department for breakfast, then head to Syracuse for the 174th FW Alumni Thanksgiving Dinner so those two events will kill the day. 

If I don't post between now and Thursday, I wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving.  We have a lot to be thankful for...

[rob289c]

Dwayne, congrats on Sadie's arrival!  Her name is in the title of one of my favorite Beatles songs.  Our granddaughter wasn't in the correct position either...they were able to turn her and immediately induced labor.  It was almost 3 days before she was born.  They tried avoiding a C-Section and were successful.  I hope your DIL recovers quickly. 

We just went and saw our Shelby after picking up my wife's car at the body shop.  Deer hit damage has been repaired! 

[Wittsend]

" ... Rob, I'm amazed you made any progress at all! ..."
Dwayne

I'll second that, especially when he says, "I didn't get much done ..."


When my wife delivered our son (33+ years ago) I was shocked to see how spiraled the umbilical cord was. It seemed like a few more twists and nothing would have passed through! When he was about 1 years old we put him in one of those "suspended over the doorway Johnny Jump-ups." He was a total spaz and I very readily saw how the cord got so twisted. 

[1972 Wagon]

Congratulations on Sadie's addition to your family! Glad all are doing well.

[dga57]

Good morning, friends!  Sadie was born 2 days ahead of her due date, arriving Friday afternoon.  She was ultimately delivered by C-Section because her head position had changed which somehow or another caused her umbilical cord to get tangled.  At any rate, she, mama, and daddy are all doing fine.  I got my first look at her Saturday morning and held her for a few minutes, then last evening my wife and I visited and spent nearly two hours with them.  My wife held her for a few minutes but then handed her off to me because she started getting fussy.  She calmed down and stayed in my arms for the duration of the visit.  I bottle-fed her while her parents ate and ended the evening with a diaper change.  It's been a LONG time since I last did those things, but we got along pretty well.  Thank you, guys, for your good wishes.  Rob, I'm amazed you made any progress at all!  I've accomplished nothing the last several days!  lol
Dwayne

[rob289c]

Yesterday (Saturday) I spent the first bit of time with our baby Shelby (fitting name for a Mustang family).  No crying...just laid there while I held her. 

Pinto content:  I didn't spend much time with the car.  I swapped the rear window channels side to side. Now both sides go all the way down.  Much better now that I have the parts in the right places!  I ran the speaker wires on both sides.  I need to get different wire clamps for the left side rear harness.  The cushion clamps I have are too big.  I will buy some smaller diameter plastic clamps and get that side secured.  Then I can reinstall the seat and inner panels. 

Other than that, I spent most of my time transforming my shop into a Winter storage facility.  The bikes and Mustang are put away, as are other items.  I hung the Christmas lights that require the 28' extension ladder and 15' step ladder.  It was 50 deg and dry today so it was the right day to do it.  I'm going to run out of project time so I need to make more project next weekewnd!

[Wittsend]

Well, this seems like the place for baby grand daughters. Our first (and only..., so far) will be 11 months tomorrow. All the best to the new moms/dads (and grand parents).

[rob289c]

Dwayne, I will be praying for a healthy baby granddaughter for you and an easy delivery for your DIL!  I haven't had a chance to spen time with our new addition as I have been out of town this week.  I'll see her over the weekend. 

[dga57]

Yes!!!  Progress AND a new granddaughter!! !  I know the feeling (well, excluding the progress ) because the due date for our first grandchild, also a girl, is Sunday, November 17th.  We're all giddy with excitement! Our son and daughter-in-law will be celebrating their 12th wedding anniversary next month and we had pretty much given up on them ever making us grandparents.  Enjoy!

I think you're making great progress on that roadster and the taillights look amazing.  Keep up the good work and you'll have it on the road before you know it!  Thanks for sharing!

Dwayne

[rob289c]

Thank you...she is a beautiful baby girl!

[1972 Wagon]

Congratulations on the new addition to your family!

[rob289c]

I only made a small amount of progress this weekend.  I sprayed the remaining corroded areas of the taillight housings with rust converter, then primer.  Then I spread tiger hair over the repaired area.  I haven't sanded it smooth yet.  Once I do, they will get another treatment of primer, then silver paint.  I ordered and received the taillight assembly gaskets so once the housings are in paint, I can reassemble them.  I bought more cushion clamps and speaker wire so I can get all the rear wiring properly run and secured.  While the interior panels are off I need to swap rear window channels from side to side.  I found a resource that identifies why my rear windows don't go all the way down: the channels are currently on the wrong side.  Hopefully swapping them will correct the full travel issue.  In the near future I need to replace the valve stem seals and install the valve cover, then install the front grill assembly, front bumper, and headlights.  Then I can reinstall the engine compartment wiring harness, and install the dash and dash pad.  That will allow me to connect all the wiring harnesses.  If I can get that done I will feel like I made good progress, although I didn't get to hear it run or drive it. 

My excuse for not doing more is that our first grandchild was born yesterday.  Our daughter was induced and has been at the hospital since Thursday AM.  I had to take my wife there and back several times and I wasn't able to get too deep into any of my projects. 

I will be travelling for work again this week but should be back at it next weekend. 

Happy Veterans Day to all those that served.  Thank you for serving...

[rob289c]

Battery is mounted in the trunk.  I made the following cables: battery ground to rear bumper mount, frame to engine ground, positive battery to trunk-mounted circuit breaker, Circuit breaker to starter relay location.  I haven't crimped the lug at the relay end yet as I want to secure the cable and mount the relay first so I make it the correct length.  Another day's project.  I also need to make the relay to starter cable. 

I wanted to do more but taking down Halloween decorations, leaf duty, mowing , and other household chores took precedence.   More to come next week...

[rob289c]

Progress today:  Mounted the rear bumper.  One of the mounting bolts is going to be the battery to frame ground point.  I also washed the taillight lenses while doing the breakfast dishes.  Dawn detergent did a nice job of removing 57 years of grime. 

[rob289c]

Some progress made today.  I spent roughly 3 hours repairing the bottoms of my taillight housings.  Both were badly corroded, one much worse than the other.  I cut out the cancer then fabricated patches and welded in place.  The really bad one had very little good metal to weld to but in the end both are pretty sturdy.  I will prime, use some tiger hair to seal and smooth things up, then more primer and paint.  I need to order taillight lens gaskets, and clean  up the rubber that is encrusted with corrosion from the original corroded taillight panel.  Once everything is in place, none of it will be visible and will be functional.  I am saving about $200 by repairing and re-using the old parts.  I have a set of new taillight bezels that I will put in my Fastback and use the ones currently in the Fastback in this project.  They are pitted, but in much better shape than the ones that came with the project Mustang.

Tomorrow I will do more and report.

Other projects today:  attempted repair, then replaced an entry door knob set.  They don't last long.  I also disassembled and PM'd my dehumidifier.  The drain had plugged and wasn't draining.   I cleaned the evap coil and drain pan.  All good now,

[rob289c]

I think my cable path is clear and safe enough that I won't have to sleeve it.  Where it will be visible I will encase in that black corrugated stuff to help it blend in and offer some protection.  I'm in my hotel wishing I was home working on my project.  The week will go by fast and I'll get more done.

[Wittsend]

Kind  of funny how front mounted engines will often get rear mounted batteries, and my rear engine Corvair..., I did a front mount. I too had concerns about wire chaffing and just used far cheaper clear tubing from the hardware store. I already had it and needed only 2' to run down the sharp edged door hinge area. Then it was a trip through the door sill plate trough, under the rear seat and to the starter.


Years ago at a swap meet I bought what I would call an industrial suitcase that seemed to originally house test equipment (I had intended it for video lighting gear). It was all of $3 and there were a number of random things inside that came with it. One of those things was at least 20 feet of #4, yellow silicone wrapped, fine strand wire you see in the picture. That is probably $60 today. It works just fine! There are less costly wires out there but the strand count is lower and the insulating material both combined to make it stiffer.

[rob289c]

Today I got a better idea on my trunk mounted battery cable routing.  I watched a few videos and discovered that I need to install/incorporate a 150 -200 amp, manual reset circuit breaker.  I never gave it a thought.  I will get one on order.  I also decided that I am not going to run the ground cable from the trunk to the engine.  I am going to connect the ground from the battery to one of the rear bumper mount bolts and another ground cable from the front frame to the engine block.  I have the small ground strap that attaches from the back of the engine to the firewall.  I had been worried about how to route the positive cable to the front.  I was concerned that the the cable might be in the way of the inner quarter.  There is plenty of clearance and I have a pretty good path to the starter relay.  A lot of worrying for nothing.  I have the cable temporarily routed but not secured until I after I get the circuit breaker.  The positive cable will route through on the right side of the car and the other factory rear harness routes down the left side.  In both cases I think I have a clear path but there are no rocker panels so both harness and batt cable turn inboard and will run along the frame.  I also removed the mounting bracket from the old rear bumper, wire wheeled the bracket and attaching hardware, primed and painted.  I am going to mount the rear bumper after the paint dries.  I have some "surgery" to perform on the taillight housings.  The lower portion on both sides are badly corroded.  I disassembled one and cut the corroded portion out.  The other has two screws that I am having trouble removing.  I am going to exercise patience so I don't ruin the housing or lens.  I am going to let the penetrating oil work.  Once that one is apart, I will weld new metal in place, then seal it up, prime, and paint silver.  I think that's all I got done today.  I also had "leaf duty".  Most of the leaves have fallen so any future leaf removal will be smaller in scale.  On the road until Thursday evening so nothing more to report until next weekend.

[rob289c]

I like your idea about reinforcing the bottom of the battery box.  I'm just going to strap it through my custom made brackets and cinch it down.  It won't go anywhere. 

Today I bought all the 3/4" and 1" cushion clamps the hardware store had so tomorrow I will likely secure the battery cables a I route from the trunk, through the cabin, and into the engine compartment.  I wanted to buy 4' if 3/4" heater hose to run the pos cable through for extra protection, but NAPA closed at 2:00, the hardware store had it for almost $4 per foot, and Advance Auto didn't have any.  I figured Advance would be cheaper, but it was more expensive.  Advance has been disappointing of late.  Unless it is a product that I could also get at Walmart, they just don't seem to have what I need when I go there, not to mention, the counter guys are not car guys and don't understand what I am looking for. 

Tomorrow (Sunday) I should make some progress.  I will be on the road next week so after tomorrow, i won't be back on it until next weekend.

[Wittsend]

I agree about the battery box flimsiness. In my Corvair I transferred it to front trunk ("Frunk") and (bad back in consideration) mounted it high since the current price of $150+ batteries causes me to 'share' it with my other old cars. I welded 4 nuts to the body metal and then put a steel plate over top of the bottom of the box and screwed it down. This way the hold down strap goes under the plastic box and the metal plate and make things secure.


Regarding backs: I'm thin and relatively tall thus I have a small muscle structure. I also have an elongated torso so it is asking a lot of little muscle to keep me in balance. I had sciatica for 1.5 years. I was a teacher and used a wheeled elevated stool. The stool back pivoted and I would literally sit backwards on the stool and lean over the tilted back to rest and stretch my back as I used the white board and scurried about the college TV Studio which was split among four rooms when in Production. You do what you have to do to get the job done.

[rob289c]

I'm sorry to hear of your back troubles.  There's nothing worse than not being able to do normal activities due to pain and/or injury.  Hopefully it will get better soon.  I find that walking on my treadmill helps keep my back loose. 

When I was in my 20's I always wondered why the "old guys" (30's and 40's) were always complaining of back pain.  Now in my 60's I get it!  Actually in 2004 I had a bulged disc and related sciatica.  It did get better but I always have some degree of back discomfort.  Probably arthritis now.  Mine is worst after a day of climbing ladders or under a car all day.

Today I started mounting my trunk mounted battery box.  It came with two flimsy plastic securing clamps and tiny screws.  I decided to make my own out of 1" angle iron and welded them to the trunk floor.  I cleaned up and primed the new brackets.  Tomorrow I'll paint black and finish mounting the box.  I started routing the 1-0 pos and neg battery cables.  I'm concerned that the seat frame may impinge on the cables.  I'll continue with that tomorrow.  I may run the pos cable through a section of 3/4 heater hose to give it additional protection.  Will report more tomorrow.

[Wittsend]

Yea, "Stuff Happens." This year I really started to make progress on my "24 years on jackstands" Sunbeam Tiger. Then I got Covid and a lingering cough. Right after we had a heatwave that made the garage unbearable and as that dissipated I have now hurt my back and can barely hobble around. I've barely gotten anything done in three months and I'm not sure with the back issue when I'll be able to resume.

And what is it with backs? It was mildly sore but I still functioned at 90%. Then one day I was simply sanding, leaning on the car for support and elevated ever so slightly and WHAM! It has been 10 day and not getting better. Chronic problem since my early 20's and always the Very, VERY lower muscles right above the hip. It goes out a few times a year typically erasing 6 weeks of any year to getting work done. :-(