Home Again

I visited my friend again to finish up the rust repairs and to get the car back home. I acquired temporary plates for a day as the inspections time had already passed. We visited the garage and cleaned the welds and applied some more paint to the bottom of the car. As the interior had no paint at all, we just sprayed some etching primer in there. I would apply some Temadur over the primer back at home.

The following evening I set off and drove the 150 km from Tampere to Järvenpää. Some of the trip was done in the dark and the new headlights were excellent! Adding relays for them made a huge difference! Everything else also worked like a charm so hopefully I would not have problems in the inspection. Before it, I would have to install at least some of the interior back in the car.

A few days later I got around to also paint the driver footwell and after letting it dry, I bolted both seats in the car and threw in the rear seat too. This way the car at least seemed a bit more roadworthy...

I reserved an inspection time and drove the car there. Unfortunately everything was not fine with the Mustang. The main found problem was the rear brakes. There was a 42% difference between the driver and passenger side brake force! This is extremely strange because my friend had tested the brakes back at Tampere a few days earlier. Everything had been fine then and now, a short trip later, driver side brake was much weaker.

There were other smaller problems too: horn did not work, windshield wipers were perished and the front wheel bearing were a bit loose. Hopefully the bearings can just be tightened and the others should not be too difficult to fix either. Disappointed I drove back home and started planning for fixing the problems.

Rust Repair Continues

I drove to Tampere on sunday and had a full day of working with my friend there. The Mustang still needed a few minor holes fixed and the driver floor replaced. The wheel arch had been welded so I decided to try leading it smoother while my friend concentrated on the welding.

After the small holes had been fixed, he ripped the old floor out and sand blasted the frame under it. Luckily it was in much better condition than the passenger side. Some minor pitting was visible but nothing needing immediate attention. After painting the frame he cut the new panel to fit correctly and welded it in.

In the wheel arch side the welds had already been cleaned.

I started by cleaning everything with acetone and applied some flux paste with a brush. Then I heated it with a heat gun until it turned bright. I moved from side to side trying to prevent the panel from getting too hot.

With the flux on, it was time to clean everything again and then start leading. Again I added a small section at the time until the whole weld was done.

With the lead on, I grinded it smooth.

Unfortunately when everything was done, my friend noticed that the sheetmetal had warped a bit above the top of the arch. I had to apply so much heat to the metal that it had formed a small dent. Hopefully it can be forced out from the trunk later.

The weld area is still not completely smooth and will need some filler to completely hide the fix. At least it won't need the half a centimeter it had previously...

And speaking of filler, we dug out some of the cracks from the front fenders. It was not pretty.

Again a huge amount of filler that had been poorly applied. A lot of it was completely detached from the metal below. The old paint had been incorrectly prepared so the filled was peeling loose. The driver side fender also had some poor old repairs and rust holes so it seems pretty certain that I have to replace them both. And the old owned had known this too as a new passenger side fender came with the car and I also managed to find the driver side close by so both are waiting in my garage.

We still need to paint the new floor and do some minor things before I can drive the car back home. Hopefully already after next weekend.

The amount of poor fixes and filler everywhere unfortunately seems to indicate that a simple overspray paint job wont do. Most likely I have to have the whole car media blasted to bare metal and work from there...

Front Seat Upholstery Installation

Before taking the car to Tampere I stripped the interior almost completely. The Mustang pretty much contained only the driver seat. This meant I could try changing the upholstery on the passenger seat. It had clearly been changed at some point, most likely in the 90s during the last restoration, but the color had faded badly. CJ Pony Parts had a nice video of the operation in YouTube so I followed its instructions.

There were no tears or holes in my seats, but they just looked ugly with the discolouring. I considered buying some vinyl dye but after asking around, I found out that it would have cost almost as much as the new covers and most likely getting the right color would have been difficult. So, I ended up ordering new front seat upholstery.

After disassembling the seat, I decided to begin with the back rest. I removed the back cover and cut the dozens of hog rings that held the vinyl on the frame. I was careful not to damage the old upholstery if I happened to need it later. I also found a Distinctive Industries tag in it so as I had suspected, they had been replaced earlier.

I was glad to find that the foam and seat frame were in really good condition. All I had to do was install the new cover.

I also reused the old listing wire. I pulled it out of the channel in the old cover and pushed it in the new. Then I followed the install order mentioned in the video. I hog ringed the top of the listing wire to the frame and then pulled the cover over the foam.

Then I added more (many, many more) hog rings to the listing wire and the back of the frame. Finally I removed the metal pins from the old seat back and installed the new on.

Couple of small wrinkles were left to the top right corner of the seat back that I could not get out. Let's see how those settle after some use but I wasn't too disappointed for my first try at upholstery project. It kind of felt that the new covers were a bit larger that the old. Most likely the foam has compressed a bit during use. Perhaps adding a thin layer of new foam would help?

Then I had to do the same thing with the seat bottom.

I unbolted the tracks and cut out the old hog rings. After carefully removing the cover I was rewarded with a really good condition foam again. I followed the same routine as before and installed the new upholstery.

Then all that remained was assembling the seat.

All in all, installing the new upholstery was not that difficult and it made a huge difference with the look of the seat. Now I just have to do the same thing for the driver seat when I get the car back.

New Tires

I got fed up with the non-matching tires on my car and decided to do something about it. I found a good article about early Mustang tire sizes from Mustang Monthly magazine and read through it. I wanted something classical looking but, as I actually wanted to drive my car, they had to be radial tires.

I could not find many options available in Finland so in the end I decided to buy a set of 205/75-14 sized Nankang N-605 TourSport white walls from Dukopart OY in Lahti. They are Taiwanese tires and at least according to some friends that have them and what I read from online forums should be pretty good. They weren't insanely expensive either as most special tires are so I was convinced.

I have not installed them yet as the car is in Tampere but I'll do that when I get the car back.

Rear Wheel Arch Repair 1

While I was rebuilding the brake caliper, my friend started working with the passenger side rear wheel arch. The lip was pretty badly corroded so it had to be replaced.

There was a lot of body filler spread all over the quarter panel. Some smaller patch panel had been welded at the rear corner of the arch and the repair had been hidden with the filler. It'll be interesting to see how much of the stuff is on the car when the time comes to paint it.

After getting all the body filler off from the area of the repair, my friend cut the patch panel and marked its size to the car.

The quarter panel hole was cut a bit smaller than the patch panel. My friend stamped the flange of the patch so it would slide under the original steel. The inner wheel arch also needed a small patch to its lip. Luckily nothing more major problems were found. Annoyingly my patch panel did not reach all the way down at the rear of the arch. There was a little corrosion there too so it might need another patch.

The new panel was quite close to the original and didn't seem to need a lot of tweaking to make if fit with the inner arch and the shape of the car. Hopefully the quarter panel would not warp when welding the patch.

Brake Caliper Rebuild

It was time to continue the rust fixing so I drove the Mustang back to Tampere. I joined my friend in the garage for an evening and while he began working with the rear wheel arch, I decided to rebuild the driver side brake caliper. The passenger side caliper had been dragging so I rebuilt it during winter. After that the driver side started dragging. I should have done both at the same time...

When rebuilding the passenger side, I learned that pulling the pistons out could be pretty difficult. This time I used the brake pedal to push them out before removing the caliper. I pulled the brake pads and applied some pressure while my friend made sure all pistons came out evenly. Next I could remove the caliper and sand blast it clean. Then it was finally time to disassemble it.

Unfortunately the cross over line snapped in half while I was taking it out. It had corroded pretty badly and the end fitting would not even turn any more. At this point I was extremely happy that I had bought new lines a few weeks ago. A disaster avoided!

I removed the old seals and cleaned everything as well as I could and it was time to put the caliper back together.

I had new Raybestos seals and four new pistons. After pushing the seals in their grooves, I lubricated the pistons and pushed them in. The new cross over line needed some bending but otherwise assembly went smoothly. I bolted the caliper back to the car and then applied some silver paint on it.

I had also bought new braided brake hoses but couldn't start using them yet. It seemed that the brake line fitting on the car was also pretty corroded and would most likely also break the line if I tried turning it. I'll have to replace the lines later before installing the new hoses.

Adding Relays For Headlights

I did a final checkup for the engine by removing all plugs and peeking under the valve covers. Everything seemed OK except that plugs for cylinders 3, 4, 5 and 6 were a bit greyer than the rest. Weird because they are exactly at the opposite corners of the engine. I need to get the carb tuned by a professional.

With the engine side handled, I decided to do some electrical work. Some previous owner has replaced the original sealed beam light bulbs with later H4 type headlight. This meant a lot brighter lights but with a much higher current requirement. Unfortunately the original wiring and switches were not made to handle that current and it was only a matter of time before something would burn out.

I went through the same problems with my Corvette and solved the issue by redesigning and building a new harness. I didn't want to do that this time as the original harness was in pretty good condition and I wanted to retain the original look. Or at least be able to return everything to original easily. Then I found this article which covered Reenmachines conversion harness. The idea in it was really simple. The new harness took the relay activation signals from the original headlight connectors and added new, larger wires from the relays to the headlights. Zero modifications for the original harness was needed so I wanted one.

Only problem with the kit was the price: 225 dollars for a few wires! Luckily the harness was so simple that building one would not be a big task. First I drew a diagram of it.

The light red and light green wires control the relays and are pushed in the original passenger side headlight connector. I used 18 gauge wires as not a lot of current go through them. The main wires are 14 gauge and there is a 20 A fuse in the main power feed. I decided to hide the relays under the battery tray and measured the wire lengths accordingly. So after a trip to the car parts store and a few hours of building, this is what I got.

I used some nylon wrap to protect the wires and to make them seem a bit cleaner. The lone black wire that comes out of the harness at the junction is screwed to the original headlight ground bolt on the radiator support. It is missing the connector as I had to cut the wire to correct length in the car.

I decided to use a glass fuse as its box was the simplest and every other fuse in the car are of that type. The yellow wire is still missing the connector in the picture as I needed to measure its correct length.

This picture shows the passenger side harness. Unfortunately I could not find a male H4 connector so I had to use individual terminals. The new headlight ground wire just makes a short loop inside the wrapping and connects directly to the old harness.

I also noticed that the H4 terminals are a bit wider that the normal 6,3mm versions. I could not find those either so I had to solder the already wired terminals from the connector to my own wires. Annoying as this meant that the wire colors change. Why couldn't they just include the separate terminals that I could crimp to my wires?

On the driver side I just had the H4 connector and one terminal to the ground of the original wiring harness.

Installation

I began the installation by removing the headlight housings. Then I turned the lights on and measured the voltage in the original connectors. The car was not running but I saw an 1,5 volt drop compared to the battery. That causes a huge difference in brightness and the difference would probably be even more with the engine running.

Next I had to remove the battery so I could install the harness. The relays were placed out of sight under the battery tray and from there the wires come up to the top of the radiator support and split towards the headlights. After connecting everything up I measured the voltage again. This time the difference was under 0,1 volts. Excellent result!

While at it I also replaced the bulbs with better ones and screwed the housings back. I turned the lights on and the difference was huge! I was really happy as building my own harness had cost only about 30€ in parts.

Original wiring

New harness with relays

Oil Change And Fan Shroud

It's been really hot in Finland for the past weeks and luckily I've been on holiday. Unfortunately the Mustang didn't seem to like it as much as me. I took a few short trips around town and noticed that the engine temperature was higher than normal. It seemed that the fan and radiator could not keep up with the engine in stop and go traffic in 30 degrees celsius (85 F) temperatures.

I ordered a fan shroud and bracket set to help with the cooling problem. When they arrived I noticed a small problem though. I had assumed that my radiator had three rows but later realised it had only two! This meant the brackets were too long and I had to order a second set. Luckily it was only about 15 dollar mistake.

While waiting for the brackets I decided to replace the oil and filter. I drained the old oil into a bowl and could not see anything wrong with it. There were no visible metal shavings or any other particles in it. It seemed that the engine rebuild and break in succeeded! I'll also check the plugs and valve train later.

After getting the correct brackets for the shroud, it was simple bolting it in. I also decided to replace my fan with the one I got with the crappy engine. Its blades were much larger so hopefully it would draw more air through the radiator.

I took another test drive with the new setup and the engine still runs a bit warmer but the shroud did help somewhat. At least I shouldn't have to worry about boiling the engine anymore.

Test Drive

I had some final preparations to do before driving the car. Like installing the export brace and shock retainers. Then I checked that all fluid levels were correct and measured the ignition timing. That proved somewhat difficult.

At first I could not get the engine to idle at all. It started and would stay running at high RPM but if I let the speed drop, the engine died. I tried turning the distributor but soon ran out of room to go further. I had to pull it out and rotate the rotor a few teeth. Finally after many tries I got the engine to idle at about 1300 RPM and could jump out to try and find the correct timing.

I had removed the vacuum signal from the carburetor and checked the timing with my adjustable timing light. It showed about 25 degrees! I needed to turn the distributor a lot more and jumped a few more teeth to get the initial timing to about 10 degrees. Then I could start dropping the idle speed and finally got the timing to 8 degrees at 600 RPM.

I connected all the hoses back to the engine and dropped the air cleaner on the carb. The Mustang was a complete car again.

My first drive was only about 10 km to home and back. It did not reveal any problems. Engine temperature and oil pressure were normal and there were no weird noises. Except the driver side exhaust manifold which was blowing. The exhaust pipe lower bolt is so close to the block and the clutch equalizer bar that it is really difficult to turn. I'll have to find a way to torque it later.

I've been gradually lengthening my drives with the Mustang and last weekend I drove about 350 km with it. In total I've racked about 500 km with the new engine and it has been working flawlessly. As this is still part of the break in I've kept the engine speed below 3000 RPM. After driving another 500 km I'll replace the oil and see what the engine can really do.

My test drives so far have been concentrated on larger roads and I've been avoiding stop and go traffic. After a long drive, I've noticed the temperature rising slightly when stopping. I think I'll add a fan shroud to help cure that.

The T-5 transmission has also been an excellent addition. The shifter works well and the overdrive drops engine speeds really low. At 80 km/h (50 mph) the engine turns 1300 RPM and at 120 km/h (75 mph) only 2000 RPM. The new clutch and machined flywheel also work nicely. No more jumping and slipping when moving from standstill.

All in all, my plan to build an engine with good low-end torque and attach it with an overdrive transmission seems to be a success. The Mustang is fun and easy to drive in all situations and has been trouble free thus far. It is pretty noisy though as most of the interior is missing. I'll have to replace the floors and then address that issue...

Shortening The Driveshaft

The engine was now ready for a test drive but the rest of the car not quite. As I swapped in a T-5 transmission, I was not sure if the driveshaft would fit. I had bought a new yoke for the T-5 so I pushed it in. The original yoke could not be used as it was too long.

To measure the correct length for the driveshaft, I pushed the yoke all the way in and then back out about an inch. This gave it enough room to move without bottoming in the transmission. Then it was time to drop the car on the ground and dig out the tape measure. I crawled under the car and got a measurement of 127 cm (50 inches). Originally the driveshaft was 129 cm (50.8 inches) long so I would have to take 2 cm (0.8 inches) out of it. Not much but I was expecting that from what I had read from net discussions.

The machine shops I had used previously did not have the equipment to balance a driveshaft so I searched for a new one. I managed to find Komet OY in Helsinki and after a call their prices seemed reasonable and they promised the parts back in a week so I delivered everything to them. Another problem with the transmission swap was finding out the correct U-joints. Original joint could be used in the rear but the front one was a mystery.

I bought one joint based on net discussions but after comparing it to the driveshaft, I noticed that it was not even close. To get a correct one I took the shaft and yoke to the store to be measured. We defined that I needed Precision model 505 joint that they luckily had in store. With that, the driveshaft could be assembled. It spent a week in Komet and after getting it back I cleaned it and sprayed some paint on it.

Installing the driveshaft was simple. I pushed the yoke in the transmission and then attached the two u-bolts in the rear. This was a good time to finish some loose ends around the transmission too. First I swapped the gear at the end of the speedo cable and pushed it in the transmission. The cable hole was on the driver side of the T-5 but had been on the passenger side in the old T-10. Luckily the cable was long enough to reach around the transmission.

Then I used a pump to fill the transmission with Dextron 3 fluid and it was almost ready to drive. Final detail was the shifter. I wanted to retain the original look in the cabin so I bought an original appearing shift handle and knob with a 5 speed pattern. With them bolted in, the car was finally ready for a test drive!

Engine Break In

After a long project it was finally time for the most exiting part: first start and break in. I asked a friend to join me so I could work with the throttle and he could check the timing and make sure everything seemed OK in the engine bay.

We began with the fluids. We filled the cooling system with water and poured some oil in the engine. I'll replace the water with real coolant after seeing that the engine works. Using just water is not an option in Finland and it would corrode all the parts in the engine in a couple of years anyway. We also used some Comp Cams break in oil additive to add some ZZDP. I don't trust todays oils with flat tappet camshafts so I'll be using it after every oil change.

To see that the oiling system worked we decided to pre-oil the engine before starting it. We had a power drill and made a long extension by attaching a few shorter ones together. We taped them together so none of them would drop in the engine. Then we needed a long 1/4 inch socket that would fit over the oil pump shaft.

With the contraption ready, we dropped it in the distributor hole and used the drill to turn the oil pump. But it didn't work. We tried turning it both ways but got nothing. Some nervous moments later my friend realised that I had not filled the oil filter with oil! Without it, the pump was running dry and could not start pulling oil from the pan. After quickly filling the filter, the pump started working normally. I rotated the engine by hand while my friend ran the drill so oil would get everywhere. After only a few seconds oil was flowing out of every pushrod. Phew.

It was time to fire up the engine for the first time. I stepped in the car and turned on the ignition. After some basic checks like turning on the lights so see that we had at least some electricity I turned the engine over. There was no gas in the carb so we didn't expect an immediate startup but after only a few seconds my battery started acting up. I had charged it for six hours before installing it to the car but it ran out of juice almost immediately. Damn.

Luckily I had another battery that we could use. It worked fine even thought it had been unused for the whole winter. The engine did not fire immediately but soon started banging through the exhaust. My friend fiddled with the distributor and then the engine started!

I immediately took the engine to 2000 RPM and kept it there. I made sure oil pressure rose to normal while my friend checked the timing advance. It was about 20 degrees which worked for break in purposes but I would have to measure it at idle later.

What I read from break in instructions, you should keep the engine RPM between 2000 and 2500 for 25 to 30 minutes. Unfortunately after about 7 minutes the engine temperature started to rise too high and I had to turn it off. It was getting late so I decided to let the car cool until next evening.

Before continuing the break in I did some investigation. I pulled the valve covers to make sure all rockers got oil and removed the plugs. They were a bit grey which could mean the engine was running lean. I opened the idle screws a bit and decided to continue as nothing was obviously wrong.

The engine started fine and I took the RPM to 2000. But again after 6 or 7 minutes the temperature rose too high and I had to kill the engine. I assumed that the fan and radiator just was not powerful enough to keep the engine cool without wind. I decided to continue the next day again but this time I added an electrical fan to push air through the radiator.

The fan helped a bit but still the engine ran hot. I started to get a bit worried but did the break in routine in four steps anyway. After them the engine had ran a bit under 30 minutes so it was time to investigate it. I checked the plugs again and they were the same as before. Under the valve covers everything seemed fine too. One of the valves had started ticking during the last break in run so I would have to adjust the valves again. Then it was time to drain the oil and see how it looked.

I let the oil out while still hot and luckily didn't see abnormal amounts of metal in it. I also removed the filter and drained the oil from it. It had a bit more metal flakes but I hoped everything was still OK.

It seemed that the break in succeeded but I would not know for sure before driving 500 to 1000 km. And before that I would need to get my driveshaft shortened. While I was putting the engine back together I had an epiphany. I had forgot to install the PCV valve hose previously! This meant that there was a huge vacuum leak below the carb. That could be the explanation why the engine was running lean and hot. I'd see that on my test drive.

Transmission Support

With the engine and transmission dropped in the car it was time to support them properly. As usual, any time there are changes, you usually get some annoying surprises. To install the transmission support, I started jacking the T-5 up. Unfortunately the shifter did not clear the hole in the tunnel. The shifter was about an inch or two too forward.

I did not want to cut the floor so I tried moving the engine backward. I loosened the motor mounts, jacked the engine up a bit and pushed. I did manage to move the engine about half an inch so I went back to the tranny. The shifter still would not clear so in the end I had no choice but to cut a small notch to the floor but then I got it to fit.

Now I could finally install the transmission support. But naturally it wasn't just a bolt in job. The T-5 support was shaped a bit differently compared to the original and ended up contacting the driver side exhaust pipe. It would probably cause problems when installing the exhaust manifolds but for now at least the engine and transmission were connected to the car.

Engine Assembly: Installation

Finally both the car and the engine were ready to be joined together again. Luckily a friend agreed to help me with it so I would not have to install the engine to the car alone. He brought along an engine hoist so we set it up, bolted some chains to the heads and attached them to the hook. I could not access the rear of the engine while it was attached to the stand so we first lowered it to the ground to install some parts.

I placed the separator plate on the dovel pins, dug out my flywheel and cleaned it of protective oil I had sprayed on it. Next I placed it on the crankshaft flange and we rotated it until all bolt holes lined up. You can only install it in one way so the balance weight is in the correct place. The holes in the crankshaft go straight through to the oil pan area so thread sealant must be used. I applied some on them and threaded the bolts in. To tighten them to the needed 80 ft-lbs. my friend had a long socket wrench that he used to prevent the crank from rotating while I used the torque wrench.

Next I had to swap in a new pilot bearing. I didn't have a suitable puller so I decided to use the "wet paper and a bolt" method shown in this video.

I just teared some paper in pieces, placed them in a bucket of water and started hammering the mush in the bushing. I used a bolt that filled the bore as tightly as possible and after a few minutes the old bushing dropped out. I've also seen grease and even bread used instead of paper but I think this method leaves the least mess. After getting the bushing out you just remove the paper and wipe the water off.

My new ACDelco 381009 clutch kit contained a new bushing and bearing. T-5 installation guide mentions that you should use a bearing so that is what I planned to install. Unfortunately when I tested it, it was so loose it slid right in the crank. There was no interference at all so it slid out just as easily. Clearly it could not be used. The new bushing on the other hand was correct so I had no choice but to use it as there was no time to get a new bearing. What I could find from net discussions it should work just as well.

After tapping in the bushing, it was time to install the clutch. I placed the centering tool and disk on the flywheel and then covered them with the pressure plate. I had bough new ARP bolts so I used them to pull it in. I tightened each bolt only about one turn in time to prevent bending the disk. Finally I torqued the bolts to 35 ft-lbs and pulled the installation tool out.

Then came the bellhousing, clutch lever and bearing. Bellhousing was simple to bolt in but the clutch lever and bearing were pretty tight. It took a few tries to get the bearing to stay in place while hooking the lever to its pivot but finally it went in.

I was ready to lift the engine to the car now but my friend suggested that we should bolt the transmission to the bellhousing and install the whole package at the same time. This would make my project much easier so I agreed. First I installed the T-5 adapter plate to the bellhousing. You need to drill two holes to it for the bolts but I had already done that earlier. Two of the bolts are threaded in from the inside but luckily we were able to tighten them without removing the bellhousing.

Next we lifted the T-5 transmission in place and fiddled it until the bolts started threading in. It took some twisting and showing but pretty soon all bolts were in and the engine was ready to be installed.

We would need to change the angle of the engine while lifting it. Unfortunately we did not have a tilting fixture so we had to improvise. After digging out a ratchet tie-down strap we attached it under the damper. It worked well enough for our needs so it was time to pump the engine up and manhandle it over the car.

Lowering the engine in the car was the most difficult part. Little by little we inched it down, forward and backward until the transmission passed the firewall. We had to be really careful not to scratch the paint or hit anything on the way down but we did get the engine in.

When the end of the transmission started touching the floor, we had to lift it somehow. First we released the strap and inched a jack under the transmission. With it we got the back end up while lowering the front. Some positioning and showing later we got the first engine mounting bolt in. After that getting the last three in was pretty simple. Then we could release the chains and the engine was installed!

Getting to this point took the whole night so I left a jack stand under the transmission and went home to rest.

Preparing The Engine Bay

Everything started to be about ready for installing the engine but I still had a few small details to finish. I removed a bunch of bolted parts from the engine bay to be cleaned. Out came the engine mounts, export brace, shock mounts and hood lock. They looked a bit scruffy so I delivered them to be bead blasted and powder coated. After getting them back, they looked like new.

When I started to put the pieces back to the car, I realised a small mistake. I had left the bolts on the parts and they had been powder coated too. So now all the threads were full of paint that had to be cleaned. It took some time to wire brush the bolts clean again but after that I had some nice looking addition in the engine bay.

Fixing The Brakes

The right front brake had been dragging after I swapped in new pads. This would have to be fixed before driving the car again so I got to work. I unbolted the caliper and took the hose off. With the parts on the table I disassembled the caliper to see what was wrong. This became apparent when pulling out the pistons. Two of them came out quite easily but two were badly stuck. I could not get them out myself but my friend welded a pipe to them and used it to twist them out.

Someone had used force to get them out before and there were large dents in the pistons. I decided to replace all four and naturally install new seals too. When the parts arrived, I also cleaned and painted the caliper.

I placed the new lip seals in the caliper bores and pushed the pistons in. I lubricated them a bit but still one of them was pretty tight. I could not find anything wrong so I pushed a bit harder. I really hope it will not be stuck again when using the brakes later... With the caliper assembled, I installed it back to the car.

I hope I'll be driving my Mustang quite a lot during summers so I also decided to upgrade the master cylinder to dual bowl model. With the original single bowl, if one of the hoses fails or one seal starts to leak, I could lose all brakes from the car. The dual bowl cylinder has separate fluid reservoirs for the front and rear so at least one should always work.

This is a really common upgrade so I could just order a new ready made pipe kit and cylinder for my car. Auto Resto Mod has also made a good video of the swap so I followed their instructions.

Installing the cylinder was simple but the pipes weren't even close. I guess they might have installed the parts in different places at the factory so I just bent the pipes until the ends were correct. Then I screwed everything in and hopefully I will have good brakes in the future. I still have to bleed them later though...

Painting The Engine Bay

With the engine pretty much ready to be installed in the car, it was time to prepare the engine bay. In the beginning it was a pretty sorry looking thing. Dirty:

The lip below the windscreen had some small rust holes and was ugly:

And there were some welds in the corners that I wanted to remove:

After cleaning the surface rust away with wire brush I grinded the welds a bit.

Couldn't really get them perfect but at least they weren't so eye catching as before. The small pinholes in the center were a bit more problematic. As welding wasn't really an option, I decided to fill the holes with lead. I bought a bar of it, paste and a wooden paddle and got to work. This was my first time working with lead but it proved surprisingly easy.

I cleaned the metal as good as I could and spread the paste on it. Next I used a torch to heat the area until the paste turned bright. I cleaned everything again and dug out the lead. It melted easily with the torch and I dropped a few pieces on the holes. While keeping it soft with heat, I spread it around with the paddle. After repeating a couple of times, the holes were filled.

I filed the lead smooth until it was good enough for me. Then it was time to prevent the rust from spreading any more. I applied some rust stopped to the lip.

Hopefully it was enough so the paint wont start bubbling later. Finally I applied some filler to the worst places to smooth them out more. Then it was time to attack the dirt. The engine bay had had almost 50 years to gather grime, oil, grease and other nasty stuff and I had to get all of it out before paint. Power washer wasn't an option in my garage or yard so manual cleaning was the only way to go.

I ended up spending many nights scraping, brushing and wiping every nook and cranny in the engine bay but finally it was spotless. That of course was not enough preparation for paint and I dug out my sanding paper and went through all surfaces with a few different grids. Some aching fingers later it was finally time to start spraying so I masked all surfaces I didn't want to paint.

I also cleaned the surroundings in the garage to minimize the amount of dust in the air. Naturally my area was not suitable for any kind of serious painting but was enough for the engine bay. The air would be filled with paint so I wore a protective suit.

The paint I chose as primer was grey Color Matic 1K Epoxy.

First layer that I sprayed was really light just to bring out any uneven surfaces and to see how the paint reacted with the old layers. The light gray color was perfect for seeing the places I needed to sand further.

Most of the paint spread out evenly but there were some places where the new primer reacted with the old pain.

Getting rid of all the wrinkles proved pretty difficult. I tried sanding the areas back to bare metal, let the paint dry for a week between layers, cleaned everything many times, put up light and heavy layers but always some wrinkles would pop up. Finally I had had enough and decided to try Motox paint from Motonet that had worked really well before. I used matte black this time as they grey color had already done its job.

The new, cheap paint went on perfectly without any reactions with the old layers. I guess I should have used the old and tested materials immediately instead of fighting with the new, more expensive paint for weeks. After a few layers of primer, I was finally ready for the actual top coat. For that I used VHT satin black. It went on perfectly and after three layers I had a really nice looking engine bay.