Winter Is Coming

Temperatures have been dropping really fast in Finland for the past week. Winter is coming, as Ned Stark would say. So it was time to start the project. I needed to paint the floors and it had to be done while it was still warm so that would be the first job.

The interior would have to come out so I unbolted the seats and put them in storage. Next were the seat belts and kick panels. Then I could remove the carpets and see the actual floors. It was not a pretty sight. Both front foot wells were covered in rust. Rear floors were a bit better but the paint was bubbling there too.

It seemed that the driver side front floor had been fixed at some point. Some parts of the floor had been cut and replaced with straight sheet metal. Other flooring might actually be original for the car. Unfortunately the rust proofing had been done pretty poorly. A really thin layer of paint had been sprayed on the floor and it just was not enough to protect it.

I cleaned most of the dirt and rust away with a wire brush and then vacuumed the interior. That's when I found the holes. Passenger side foot well was the worst. The front corner had a bunch of small holes and there were a few others elsewhere. I guess it could be much worse for such an old car but I still need to fix them before putting the new interior in.

Some not-so-professional fixes in the driver floor

Bunch of holes in passenger side floor

Some surface rust in driver side rear floor

And more of the same on passenger side

Borg Warner T5

Well, won't you look what the cat dragged in.

Or rather, I ordered from Trade Parts and fetched from Tuusula when the parts arrived. It seems that I'll have to actually go through the T5 swap during winter.

I searched for a T5 transmission for some time and called many different possible dealers. I found a few used ones but only Trade Parts had a rebuild unit in stock. They also had some used transmissions but the price difference was not that big so I decided to get the rebuild T5. At least that way I would have some warranty.

Buying the transmission from them was convenient because they had all the other necessary parts also in stock: a new clutch, adapter plate and cross member. I thought that the conversion kit also includes the T5 yoke, but it didn't, so I'll have to get one before starting. Then it was time to find out what my tranny was made of.

The ID tag reads: E6ZR-7003-FB REP-ATI, 13-52-169 101845 H2173. The important bit is the 13-52-169 so I checked a decoder page and found out these:

• Make: Ford / World Class
• Year: 1986-1989
• Model: Mustang/Capri
• Engine: 5.0
• Max torque (lb/ft): 265
• Gear ratios: 3.35 / 1.93 / 1.29 / 1.00 / 0.68

Should fit pretty well behind my 289 V8. I'm not absolutely sure about the 3.35 first gear ratio and my 3.00:1 rear end.  Some web pages say that it might create an almost useless first gear. Well, we'll see when the transmission has been installed.

New Parts And Brake Pads

I received a call from another Mustang hobbyist today. He had a new rear valance panel for sale that had holes for reverse lights and GT style exhausts. The price was right so I drove by to buy it. He also had a pair of trim ring moldings for the exhaust and couple of used back up lights. I bought all of them too.

The trip was about 100 km (62 miles) and the Mustang worked great during the drive. The hesitation when accelerating was now gone but another strange problem raised its ugly head. The car started fine when cold but not when hot. I had to give it some gas and turn the key for a while before the engine started running. Perhaps this is because I tuned the choke. It had been screwed completely open and I closed it up to help with cold starts. The new radiator cap also seemed to stop the coolant overflow after long drives.

When I got home I decided to replace the brake pads. And it was about time. One of the old ones had wore down to the rivets and the other three were not much better. I pushed the pistons back in the calipers and installed the new pads. And oh boy, they made a huge difference! Now I could lock up the wheels easily and the Mustang stopped much better. I had been planning on upgrading to power brakes but now I see that they are not really necessary.

More Carb Tuning And Paint Cleaning

I did some research about my Autolite 4100 carb during the day and found out why my choke was not working. Mustang Monthly forum had a few excellent pictures how the hot air choke should work.

There should be a tube from the carburetor going down to the exhaust manifold and back up again to the choke housing. When engine starts and the manifold gets hot, it warms the air going through it. This hot air gradually opens the choke blade by heating the spring inside the housing.

Problem with my car is that the cold air tube from the carburetor was missing completely and the hot air tube had broken off from the manifold. Some rusted remains were still in the manifold so I don't think I can attach the tube without replacing both. Perhaps I should just replace the hot air choke with an electric one...

While investigating the choke, I also checked the accelerator pump again. I opened it up and noticed that the small rubber elastomer valve under it was not correctly in place. I pushed it in, closed the pump cover and started the car. This time the pump worked perfectly. I took a test drive and the whole car handled much better when accelerating. I also tuned the choke settings and this seemed to correct the high idle speed too!

Finally, as the weather was a bit better today, I continued the paint cleaning chore. I snapped a photo of the half cleaned hood. It's pretty clear how big difference the cleaner wax does.

Unfortunately it's pretty hard and annoying job. I still have to roof and sides to go though. I don't want to use a polishing rotary tool as the tar has stuck on so hard. There's a risk of damaging the paint when trying to remove them.

Basic Maintenance

I visited US-Parts today to get some basic maintenance parts for the Mustang. I spent some time earlier crawling under the car checking things and found a few small issues. The brake pads were pretty thin and cracked a bit. They needed to be replaced. Driver side suspension was also squeaking annoyingly while driving. Greasing the joints fixed that problem. I also found some rust from the right side front frame. I'll might have to weld a small fix there.

I also decided to get a new radiator cap as some coolant was coming out of the overflow hose. Could be because the old cap had perished. And while at it, I got a new air filter and some engine gaskets ready for winter.

It was raining the whole evening so I could not wax the car today. It was a good time to check the carburetor and fix the accelerator pump. I found a good blog earlier that has a lot of information on old Mustangs: The Care And Feeding Of Ponies. It also had a nice post about Autolite carbs. I followed the instructions and replaced the pump diaphragm. This still did not completely fix the stumble. Sometimes the pump seemed to work and some times it did not squirt any gas. I'll investigate it further later...

Paint Cleaning

The paint on my Mustang is not that great and there were some strange black spots all over the car. It seemed as if some tar like goo had been sprinkled over the body. I decided that it was time to give the car a proper wash.

Unfortunately normal car washing soap did nothing to the spots. I was a bit worried that they had already corroded the paint. I had some old Turtle Wax Extreme Nano-Tech Cleaner that I had used on the Corvette some years ago so I decided to test it again. And after many hours, bloody fingers and loads of rubbing later the spots were gone. They were really hard to get rid off but luckily the paint was intact under them.

Just cleaning the car took so long that I'll need to give it a proper coat of wax on some later date.

Downloadable Owners Manual

I was asked if I could scan and share the original Owners manual of my car. So here it is. You can download the Finnish PDF by clicking here.

History Report

The complete history report that I ordered from Finnish transport agency arrived today. It included the same report from 1988 until today that you can download from their website and three photocopies of older documents.

The Mustang was sold as new from Lappeenrannan Autokeskus OY and first registered to Finland at 21. September 1967. After the car dealer the owner list looks like this:

• 19. September 1967 - 12.October 1968: Kaarlo from Savitaipale. This photocopy was really poor quality so I'm not absolutely sure of the dates.
• 12. October 1968 - 11. November 1987: Jukka from Valkeala.
• 11. November 1987 - 12. November 1988: Information missing. Jukka sold the car but the next owner is marked from 12. November 1988 onwards. Perhaps the next owner did not register the car for a year?
• 12. November 1988 - 22. March 1995: Aki from Kuusankoski
• 22. March 1995 - 4. September 1995: Hans from Kuusankoski
• 4. September 1995 - 8. November 2005: Ari from Kuusankoski
• 8. November 2005 - 26. August 2013: Ari from Jaala
• 26. August 2013 onwards: me

Project Plans

Driving season for hobby cars in Finland is going to end in about a month or two so it is time to make some plans for the winter. As I've said, there are a lot of things to fix on my Mustang so let's make a list.

Engine

Carburetor

The carb in my car has a tag with text "C6ZF A" and "A 5HD" on it. So it is the original Ford Autolite 4100 480 CFM unit. It works pretty well but there is something wrong with the choke. When the engine is cold, it starts immediately but usually stalls a couple of times before warming up a bit. I'll clean it and install a rebuild kit that hopefully will fix the problem.

I would really like to replace the carb with an EFI unit, like the Fast EZ EFI but they are pretty expensive. The base kit seems to be about $1650 and EFI conversion kit for the fuel tank another $500. I'll stick with the carb for now...

Gaskets

I need to replace some gaskets on the engine. At least the timing chain cover is leaking. While doing that, I'll also replace the water pump and intake manifold gaskets. And why not also give some paint to those parts to make the engine bay look a bit better.

Drivetrain

Clutch

The clutch is in pretty bad shape. The whole car shakes badly when starting moving and when changing gears. I have learned to use it during the last week so it is not unbearable but the clutch has to be changed during winter.

Transmission

There's nothing wrong with my current 4-speed transmission except that there is no overdrive. As I have to take it out anyway, I might as well swap in a 5-speed Borg Warner T-5. I've been reading about these swaps and it seems like a pretty straight forward job. If I can find a suitable tranny and the other needed parts without breaking the bank, I'll do this while fixing the clutch.

Interior

Seats

There are no tears or holes in the seats, but they are dirty and the color has faded badly. The rear seat is still fine but both front seats need new covers. I tried cleaning them but they are just too far gone.

Carpets

The floor carpet is the worst part of the interior. It has gotten wet and smells, has been torn to shreds and looks really dirty.

Door Cards

Door cards are also a bit dirty and seem a bit bent. The vinyl cover is warped and the chrome inserts have peeled off. I'll buy new ones.

Steering wheel

The steering wheel is probably an original part and has some cracks in it. Should be pretty simple to replace.

Radio

My car still has the original radio in it. It does not work but I'm not sure if it is broken or just not connected. There are some wires hanging in the passenger footwell from another radio installation that I'll investigate later. If the radio does not work, I might consider having a modern radio installed inside it or just replace it with a retro look head unit. We'll see...

Body

Roof corner

There's a nasty looking rust area where the right side quarter panel attaches to the roof. I hope it's surface rust so I can just clean it away and repaint. Only way to know is to remove the paint though.

Right wheel arch

The wheel arch is also pretty badly rusted. Most likely I'll have to order a replacing piece of sheetmetal and weld it on.

Rear valance panel

Left side of the rear valance panel has a dent in it and the back up light is broken. It has hit something while reversing. I might consider replacing the whole panel with a GT model.

Smaller rust areas

There are other smaller areas that need some work too. I need to check how far they have gone.

The Plan

As the worst obstacle in enjoying driving the car is the clutch, I'll probably start my project from there. Then the interior will probably be next. I'll remove the seats and carpets, clean the interior and rust proof the floors and add some Stinger Roadkill sound damping mat. The road noise level is not that bad but a little more insulation has never hurt anyone.

But all of these tasks are still a bit open until I get the parts for them. At least I have a partial list of things I need so next I'll check if I can find them from Finland or order them from the US.