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.

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.

Engine Assembly: Cylinder Heads

It was time to assemble and install my cylinder heads. I gave them a final clean and got to work. I spread some assembly lube on the valve stems and pushed them in the guides. Then I dug out my spring compressor and installed the retainer and spring. Unfortunately I also found another problem later. The new springs were larger than the old so the original retainers could not be used. I had to take the springs out again and buy larger retainers. After assembling the heads a few times already, it was getting to be a routine...

I also installed new valve seals but used the original rocker arms and nuts. I thought about getting new roller rockers but those are usually so large that the original valve covers can't be used. As I was trying to keep the stock look, I settled for the standard parts.

Before installing the rocker arms, I cleaned them and lightly sanded the tips. Mostly just to get the crud off. Otherwise they seemed to be in good condition.

Then it was time to coat all contact areas with assembly lube and drop the rockers on their studs. Repeat that 16 times and I had two heads ready for installation.

My gasket set included Fel-Pro 1011-2 head gaskets. Their instructions mention that they should be installed as is without painting or doing any other modifications so I just dropped them on my block.

Both gaskets have "FRONT" stamped on one edge so I made sure to position them the correct way.

And then it was time to install the heads. I carefully positioned them on the block until the two dowel pins contacted and steered them down. I gave a light coating of oil for the bolts and screwed them in. To correctly torque them, I followed Monroes book. They must be tightened in correct order and in three steps. Steps are 50 ft-lbs, 60 ft-lbs and finally 70 ft-lbs for the 289 engine. And with that my heads were installed.