Pete Anderson Racing

So, where to start?

I suppose with the car lol...

Brian and I originally picked this car up as a fun running project for me...for $6500.  WAY overpriced, and I'm ashamed to admit that we were had pretty badly lol.  In our rush to pick up a project we both ignored the advice we give EVERY customer we have, and started counting trees instead of looking at the forest.

Boy, did we have our work cut out for us.  Here's the pictures on the craigslist ad, as well as the original ad text:

"This 67 mustang is unique with a brand new 5.0 liter roller motor out of a 1988 fox body. It is a mechanically sound car with a straight body that runs strong and fast, but needs painted despite the positive compliments it receives. Starting in the rear with Richmond 4.11 gears and posi rear end, full dual exhaust with 3.5” chrome tips, flowmaster mufflers, and hooker headers, strapped on to a 302 rolled out with new ford mototsport lifters, new hardened push rods, pushing new roller rockers on freshly machined 53.5 cc ford heads ported out, oversize valves, screw-in studs, Ford mustang valve covers, new TRW forged pistons with chrome rings, new f-303 ford motorsports camshaft, fresh crank, new high volume oil pump, new high volume water pump, new radiator , new trani cooler, auxiliary electric fan, Mallory ignition system, high voltage super coil, new starter, new solenoid, new ignition, new brakes, brand new weld wheels and tires all around, nice interior with custom original white faced gauges and red back lighting, pistol grip quarter-stick shifter, C-4 trani, with new Daaco 3500 stall converter, holley red electric fuel pump, holley 700 double pumper carburetor, edelbrock performer intake, and probably more than I can’t think of. I have a file full of receipts and would be happy to give any more information that is needed about this car. I would love to be the one to finish this car, but unfortunately I have to part with it despite how much I love it. Please call Jeremy for any questions at (602)xxx-xxxx. Thank you for looking."

Looks great right?  Fired right up, sounded good.  Good oil pressure, great throttle response.  The paint was worse than it looks in the picture...but the thing was going to end up black anyhow so no worries there, interior was ok...the drivers seat was broken, but I never keep the factory seats anyhow, so again no issue.  Gauges worked, and when we went for a ride, it pulled hard until he let out of it, and second gear threatened to put us sideways.  All seemed good.

Until I paid for it and went to drive it home.

Now, admittedly, I'm not an automatic transmission sort of guy.  And also, the ratchet shifter wasn't really adjusted properly.  Couple the two with having to literally babysit the steering to keep the car from jumping into oncoming traffic at the least whim (power steering delete, without correcting the drag link)...and it's no surprise that the fact it wasn't going into third gear properly slipped my notice.  When we'd test driven it...he'd always let out of it before going into third...

Not good.

In fact, it wasn't until the first time out to the track that I fully realized it wasn't engaging third gear under power.  The car managed to muster a DISMAL 14.60@95.1mph.  I immediately loaded it back up on the trailer and headed home.  I called the guy that sold it to me (he had said the tranny was rebuilt in discussing it before purchase), who denied any knowledge or responsibility and hung up the phone saying 'he would get back to me' lol.  $300 in auto trans parts later (including a forward manual valve body), and we took it back to the track for a best pass (out of three) of 14.0@97.3mph.

Back to the shop it went, where we pulled the motor to find this:

Yep, a blown head gasket (and no, that's not the manifold that was on it lol...just a temporary topper!).  So, we tore it down to find that not everything was as originally advertised with this motor.  The crank was turned, and had not been properly chamfered, thus scoring EACH bearing badly (and thus damaging the crank).  The cylinders were relatively clean, but the line hone was off by a fair margin.  The heads were not in fact ported by any stretch.  About the only thing that was worth anything were the early style double ridge connecting rods, and the TRW forged pistons.  Upon rebuilding it, everything else was replaced.  This shortblock did however become the mill for our other shop car, the 83 GT Convertible...and has served us well since.

It turns out however that the kid I purchased it from wasn't really trying to 'take' us.  He was just very excited about his car (and incredibly overconfident).  Our excitement to begin the new project simply blinded us to the truth.  He was badly taken by some local vendors, as well as online companies that took his money and supplied him with crap in return.  I've since become good friends with his brother in law (owner of the grey 67 in the background of the 'ad' picture above)...and finding out some of the back story has helped a bit lol.

So, we had plans for a bigger (347ci) motor in the works which would prove a few things about N/A horsepower and street reliability.  While the 302 was out being gone through to put back into Brian's car, I decided some cleanup in the engine compartment and a relocation of the battery to the trunk was in order.  I picked up an amazingly complete kit from Ebay for around $40 or so, and ordered my Moroso battery posts and disconnect switch for the rear of the car at the same time.  This car will never in fact be run without an alternator, so I'll be honest and tell you the reason for the charging posts is that there was a ding on the rear panel that I just plain didn't want to fix =D.  A couple holes later and voila...a nice straight rear panel with racey looking charging posts lol.  The shutoff switch however, was mandatory.  Here's a few pictures of the wiring work we did, as well as the rear panel and switch mounting efforts:

Not too bad if I do say so myself!!

Anyhow, stay tuned for more updates as I get time.  We bought this car in January of last year, and the road has been anything but smooth since.  We've finally got the 347 almost together, and are simply waiting on some parts to finish the assembly and mock up of the valvetrain so I can order pushrods.  Hopefully within a month it'll be on the street, and within two tops back to the track to see what it'll do =D.

Thanks!

Cris Anderson

www.peteandersonracing.com