after a 29 year garage nap, FINALLY getting STARTED on the 69...

Friday we pulled a bunch of stuff off, finished fabbing the mounts, got her in the air. Gotta start somewhere

I pulled the motor in 84 after some punk kids out throwing beer bottles at oncoming cars screwed it all up, was planning on just dropping in the 429 and repairing/repainting the damage (windshield, pillar, lots of chipped up paint) and starting to show some rot- drivers quarter, door bottoms are shot, one front frame rail and torque box for sure, and surely lots more lurking under the heavy heavy heavy undercoating... all in all, the near 3 decades sitting in a dry garage havent degraded it too much, a few scuffs from a long ago busted garage door spring, and a little dent I added when my cherry picker swung into the door when I was assembling my bridgeport- DOH! doors were shot anyways...

plan is RRS-ish coilover front struts, lose the towers, adapt 2005+ controls to the 429- cam advance and all...will require new front cover with dual water pumps, but think it would give needed room and look cool...time will tell if it gets that far...first theres like 3/8" of undercoating to strip, and lots of rot most likely...needed rotisserie as I did our galaxie on just stands about 10 yrs ago, and still feel it in my back/knees...crawling around under a car is a rough way to spend a summer, hopefully this will be a heck of a lot easier...

 

since you`re gunna drop in a 429 anyway why not step on up to some BOSS heads and intake ...if i ever redo my 69 and have a few bucks to spare it will be with a BOSSified regular 429 ....bout a 10 grand upgrade ....

 

believe me, a set of Kaase's heads is at top of my wishlist... if I hit the lotto maybe, otherwise, probably unlikely...

Jon Kaase is a hero to many BBF fans, he singlehandedly resurrected what I believe to be the coolest powerplant ever... well the 427 SOHC and the 3V 427 'Calliope' might be debatable in that regard, I'd still take the Boss

the Calliope had the dual water pumps, kinda what got me thinking about the extra room for a hydraulic cam phaser if that approach were taken...looks cool and shortens the motor a couple inches... was reading recently that when either H-M or Arias went under, the original core boxes for casting the calliope heads were included- unlikely, but someday that engine might reappear too, long as the old core boxes didnt wind up in the trash... heres a pic of a Calliope 427- one of only 2 or 3 built, the dual pumps really shorten up the front of the motor...

 

Just got this Mach 1 about a month ago. Going to strip her down to the metal, repaint her and a little work on the interior and she'll be looking good. Only a little rust in the bottom of the doors.

 

Im in love with your car, someday i will own a classic mustang, that will be my dream... 1970 boss is my number 1 list...

 

 

Subscribed

 

got the front suspension off, poked holes thru the top of the frame rails on both sides...I'd thought the passenger side was fine, but dummy me never realized the bathtub like area under the upper control arm was so deep...had a inch of mud in there on both sides, dug it out and started poking, screwdriver went thru like toiletpaper...luckily there was a thin layer of metal still there, so the whole rail wasnt full of road grime and rust... had it been Id be afraid of it breaking on the rotisserie.

pulled the rearend the night before last, surprisingly, think the floor is gonna be ok...only area with any rust was surface, poking around it looks real solid. funny thing, the old parking brake cables are still smooth as silk...dont see that often on a car this old

 

Thanks mustang freak & ion_arch. We have more old mustangs in the family. My fathers 69 Mach 1 race car that does 4.80s in the 1/8 mile and my father-in-law had a 65 Shelby GT 350 and now has a 66 Shelby GT 350 Hertz signed by by Carol Shelby and his wife. Both Shelby's are real not clones.

 

go501green- looks like a nice find you got there be sure to check that area I pictured a couple posts up, the area uner the upper A-arms is kinda hard to see, likely harder to clean...i was surprised to find rot there on both sides of mine under a ton of still wet cosmoline undercoating put on when the car was new...sat inside the last 29 years/ 61,000 miles. guessing thats a kinda common place for dirt to collect...

we' ve also got a few in the the family, aside from the 69 theres a trio of newer ones- 06gt,07 pony,09gt, my sister-in-law has a 66 289 coupe, brother-in-law a 89 5.0 auto gt, cousin has a 25th anniv.gt...they can be addictive.

Ive had my poor 69 since 82, got it from the original owner- she had gotten it as a graduation present in 1969! heres a pic of our engineless 69 before it got rolled into the garage for teardown finally, and the others...

 

rolling it sideways shouldnt have been any big deal, but MAN was I getting nervous... once past about 45 degrees, the car looks freaking huge... kinda like when we pulled the galaxie body, was nearly hitting the roof in the old garage, a bit unnerving seeing a car sitting like this...

 

 

 

I remember when I rolled my '70 Chevelle SS like that. I was like.. "Dang! I knew this car is a boat but lookin' at it like this all I can say is &#^%#!"

It always amazed me when I was building a car and we put it on the rotisserie. But it looks like you got things going good so I will subscribe to see this. '69 is my favorite year.

 

more pictures here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/8323217...7634916492409/

having 'fun' stripping undercoating...luckily the cosmoline is still soft(near liquid) so scraping is going easy, but the wirewheel/grinder is making a bigger mess than the old asphalt stuff...at least with the car rolled, its easy going- heaven compared to laying on your back grinding it off...
the cosmoline did a really good job of protecting the car, only bad floor is above drivers torque box, both torque boxes shot, rear end of both rear rails need replaced, still undecided on the frontend rails- to replace or just patch...

 

What you're doing is what I'd love to do with my own '69! Good driver but needs a restoration.

 

Nice car! I'd love to do a resto like this some day.

 

the 'easy' 1/3 of the floorpan is all cleaned up...slow progress is still progress floor is in amazingly good shape still, really had expected to replace it all, but the cosmoline and years of sitting were kind to it luckily.

On the drivers quarter I ground out a old repair, its ugly, quarter is going to need replaced...looked fine until the paint came off, swiss cheese underneath... floor/undercarriage first, once its a roller again, will get after the topside sheetmetal.

 

Any updates?

 

nothing... september, 15 yr old son bought a ford ranger (a year earlier than anticipated) and we've been working on patching it up (ranger frame rot) and my 17 yr old was trying to finish his 90 mark VII and 99 expedition- between 'playing checkers' moving the cars around, watching them fight over the lift, probably put a mile on the rotisserie wheels rolling it in and out... one of my best friends is 89 yrs old, went and had a heart attack 3 months ago, been trying to help get him back on his feet, lots of trips to hospital/rehab/etc... he's finally getting a bit better, but is gonna be needing some help for quite a while- might recruit him to help on the mustang, he likes working on stuff, and needs to get a little exercise...figure he could sit and drill spotwelds and stuff like that- sounds mean, but really- it would make his day, he's been wanting to pitch in on the kids/my cars all summer...

Anyways, hoping to have the brakelines/fuel tank/bed back on sons ranger by next week, older son is pretty much done for winter now- so in another week, should be back on it- plus we *might* be shutting down 2 weeks for the holidays at work, if so, should be busy out there again...

hoping to have it on suspension/rolling again by spring, but if it dont work out, it dont work out...bigger things to take care of first sometimes...but it wont sit for any more decades, its taking too much room- i procrastinate a lot, but once a project gets underway I'll mess around 16 hours a day on it till its done- at home or at work...

my 15 yr old's driving skills have me a bit concerned- f he tears up this truck he will be riding the bus...I gotta get after this goofy car.