This is my 1966 Ford Mustang Coupe. Formerly an inline 6 200 car, it's undergoing a 302 V8 swap.
Info:
Body: 65A --2 Door Hardtop, Standard Interior
Color: K --Nightmist Blue
Trim: 22 --Light Blue Crinkle Vinyl and Blue Rosette Vinyl, Standard Interior
Date: 25H --August 25, 1965
D.S.O.: 72 -- San Jose
Axle: 2 --2.83:1, Conventional
Trans: 6 --C4 Automatic
Engine: T --200 1V I6
Unit: -- 101150
The car is the 1,150th '66 Mustang and came out of the San Jose plant. I don't know how many previous owners there were, probably 3 or 4 before me. The owner before the guy I bought it from had the car sitting for over 10 years under a tarp. I was able to make out an old Penzoil sticker on the door that says in 1986 the odometer had 73,000 miles on it.
What I started with:
Day bought, June 6th, 2009:
What the previous owners did:
The 6 cylinder is original to the car, had been recently rebuilt, and has less than 2,000 miles on it since. Odometer had about 99,000 on it when I got the car, if it was accurate. Engine was bored .020 over. Brand new complete Painless wiring harnes. New interior carpet, upholstery, sound deadner.
The original Nightmist Blue had been repainted over with a Silver blue sometime 20-30+ years ago. Paint was dull and flaking off. It looked like it had 2 paint jobs on top of the factory paint, a repaint in a Dark Blue Metallic, and the Silver Blue.
Body was pretty straight, with a few dings visable. A lot of the previous bodywork around the car wasn't visable until the car was media blasted to bare metal.
Needed new front sheet metal, front bumper, rear valance.
Nearly rust free, very little found on car. Underside is solid and free from bad rust.
Upcoming plans 2013:
- Finish engine swap, rear suspension.
- New base model black gauge bezel and glovebox door.
- Amp and sub.
- Hidden kill switch.
- LED interior lighting.
- LED brake lights.
- Mild window tinting.
- Black trunk carpet.
- Going to order the steel Rear Seat/Trunk Fire Barrier
- ProCar Scat seats.
Current Progress:
Winter 2012/13:
- 1/13/13 - Pulled the 6cyl and trans. Now sanding, filling smll holes, and repainting semi flat black. Rerouting/wrapping all wiring and relocating starter solenoid next.
- 302 shortblock almost ready for pickup. 69 ford block, .030 over, Summit hyper pistons, Edelbrock Performer RPM top end kit going on when I get the block back.
- Blacked out trim with plastidip. I might peel it off if it doesn't hold up well.
- Modifyed the the automatic shifter by bolting a generic manual transmission shifter arm in place of where the stock C4 shifter arm bolts up. It was also have a leather soft boot for a clean look. I haven't seen this done before on an automatic but I think it will look awesome. The shifter wont have the normal lockouts for park and reverse but that's ok.
- 8" V8 rear end to be bought soon, clean up and repaint, and install. New 3.55 gears will go in it sometime after.
- 5 Lug REV Classic 17" Gunmetal Rims
Summer/Fall 2012 - Been amassing a collection of new and slightly used V8 parts for the 302 conversion. 4V Edelbrock Carb, HEI distributor, 3" tall offset aircleaner, 289 intake, Summit long tube headers (on sale for only $36! haha). Entire new Grab-a-trak front and rear suspension. New chockostang steering components. CSRP Swap 2 11" Granada style front disc brakes. Motor mounts, etc etc. Also bought a V8 C4 auto out of a '65 289 car ($350).
- Thrush glass packs purchased
- Shelby rear valance installed
5/12 - Bought a 302 Engine ($350). Decided that the 6cyl aluminum head conversion ($2k+) was too expensive, and I wanted to go down a different path. Engine is a '69 block. Needs rebuild, found a ton of junk in oil pan and all the piston skirts are cracked.
/\ Everything above is where the 302 V8 swap starts.. /\
3/12 - Blacked out the tail light panel using sticky backed high grade vinyl (from Ebay). Also repainted the tail light bezels black.
2/12 - Spectre cold air intake installed. Didn't make a difference in power, changed it for a Cobra oval air cleaner.
2/12 - Stereo installed. Custom Autosound 630 deck, Pioneer kick panel speakers, Pioneer 6x9 package tray speakers. Also a new vinyl covered package tray with 6x9 speaker cutouts. Stereo system sounds good, not impressed with deck fitment in the dash. Plan to add a amp and sub soon.
2/12 - TransGo shift kit installed. Shifts good and hard. No longer shifts in to 2nd early, but I hope I can make an ajustment to make it shift in to 3rd at a higher RPM.
2/12- 120amp black 1 wire 3G alternator installed. Internally regulated so I was able to remove the old regulator box that was mounted on the fender in the engine bay.
1/12- 3.5in Cherry Bomb tips (with built in resonator) installed. Made a difference in exhaust sound. Less chirp at idle and a lot more drone at cruising speed.
1/12 - New suspension ordered, waiting to install. Grab-a-trak 4 leaf rear springs, 480lb front coil springs, 1" front sway bar, roller spring perches, curved chrome Monte Carlo bar.
1/12 - New wheels. KONIG REWIND 16x7" Gunmetal Gray with polished lip.
7/11 - New aluminum radiator installed, new thermostat, electric fan, new billet water pump pulley.
3/11 - D.U.I. Igntion Kit installed, new plugs, new plug wires, new ministarter, header and mufflers installed, tachometer installed.
11/10 - Ordered D.U.I. Ignition Kit.
11/10 - Ordered cheap Dynomax turbo thrush mufflers (2" in/out)
11/10 - Installed new fuel filler rubber tube piece, old one looked original, was cracked all over, and leaked gas into the trunk when I filled up.
9/10 - Ordered Classic Inlines stainless steel header.
9/10 - Had to buy a new coil since a thread on the old one broke off when I was removing the coil to paint the engine. I got a new Flamethrower 40,000 volt to use until I upgrade to electronic ignition.
9/10 - New black headliner installed! I decided to do it myself, without removing the glass. An upholestry shop wanted $300 to install the headliner, which was crazy! It came out pretty good and I saved a lot of money.
7/10 - Got the new 6000K HID headlights working.
8/10 - Spent about a week grinding the rust and grease off the bottom of the car, cleaned it up and repainted in gloss black. See Page 6 for more details.
7/10 - Had to get new float installed in carb, the old one was filling with gas and sinking, causing the carb to flood and making me quite mad!
-Installed the new billet grill from Premium Pony Parts, eventually decided to paint it dark grey to match the rims.
-6/11/10 - Back from Maaco! The color is Imperial Blue metallic, similar to the original Nightmist Blue. Total cost for paint/bodywork was $2800 and it was definitely worth it. The paint came out great and I didn't have to spend $8000.
5/6/10-5/20/10 - Finally after owning for 11 months, the Mustang exterior has been media blasted to bare metal and primed black -Total Cost: $909.
- Sanded the door sills in an attempt to do some prep work before it goes to the bodyshop.
- Did some poking around in Autoshop..I installed a new fuel filter, tightened the fan belt to spec, tightened the loose carb, tightened vacuum hoses, etc. I also used zip-ties to pull the trans cooler lines off of the exhaust pipe that it had been leaning on for a long time.
- Second oil change done on this car since I've had it. MY first oil change ever, learned in Autoshop. Replaced the cheap FRAM filter with a high quality Mobil 1 with Castrol GTX oil.
- Trunk lid and hood removed. Underside of both sanded to almost all bare metal and primered.
- Insulation/sound deadener installed in trunk side walls. Trunk carpeting coming someday after I get water to stop leaking in!
3/10- Removed old front end sheet metal, repainted radiator support, radiator, and installed new valance, stone guard, etc.
- Rust removal behind the rear valance and rear underside behind the wheel wells. Repainted flat black, installed new rear valance. Gas tank underside cleaned up and repainted stock silver.
2/10- Bought a TON of parts..emblems, trim, sheet metal, etc.
- Removed trim, emblems, and bumpers to get the car ready for stripping soon.
- Repainted the interior (dash, doors, back seat quarter panel metal, etc.) Sanded the doors to mostly bare metal and have glued multiple layers of FrostKing insulation inside the doors. The doors and dash were sanded, primered, and Rustoleum black enamel paint sprayed.
- Removed the old headliner and grinded as much rust from the roof as I could. Added rust blocker and insulation/sound deadener.
- New shifter arm installed with the T-Lock shifter handle to lock the shifter in park for security.
- 5 all new gauges with new blue LED bulbs. New horn and Grant steering wheel adapter kit for horn button, installed and working.
- New front/rear shocks installed, lower ball joints, front/rear drums, front brake lines, outer tie rod ends, drag link, oil change, carburetor adjusted, chrome export brace installed...etc...$2100 in work.
- Went out and got paint/body work estimates. One shop said show quality for $8000, the other said they can do it for around $3500. I don't want to drop a ton of money I don't have in a paint job just yet, so I'll be going a less expensive route. Looking to spend around $2000 for a nice basecoat/clearcoat job.
- Coolant "exchanged" for new coolant, installed new coolant return container kit.
- Some new interior trim pieces installed (window cranks, etc.)
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More first day pics 6/6/09:
Engine when I first bought the car.
Page 1: Intro Page / progress / plans (This Page)
Page 2: Engine (Inline 6)
Page 3: Engine Swap (302)
Page 4: Exterior / Underside Detailing, etc.
Page 5: Exterior Cont. / Paint and Body Work
Page 6: Interior
Page 7: Misc Pics/Trunk Detailing
