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Hey guys - long time - life has a way of getting in the way of hobbies, and work has a way of doing the same, sorry about that - this is still the best bunch of car folks on the planet - and Lohnes isn't so bad either. 
SO - for a couple of years on and off a friend of mine had been telling me about a friend of his who had a couple "old mustangs" I should check out - as this feller was particularly lazy and unmotivated to do much of anything - let alone work on a car.
After several failed attempts, rain outs, forgot about its - and what not - I finally got a chance to take a look at these mysterious machines that had been stored a derned long time ago.
The first one I saw didn't raise much interest in me at all - 2002 mustang Gt convertible, all black... 100k or so on the clock - reasonable shape, no visible rust - but to me - Meh - too new. Then the cover came off it's stable mate in the attached ranches two car garage...... there she was - slathered in a reasonable, allbeit amateur coat of acapulco blue...... a 70 mustang "sportsroof" known to most of us as a fastback. It was a 80s - 90's time capsule - last registered in '94. Big and little cragars (rusty) sparkomatic cassette in the dash, panasonic deck mount speakers in the package tray, ford motorsport chrome (rusty) valve covers and tall wing nut bolts, vintage edelbrock intake, holley 1850, long tube (rusty) headers, H pipe and duals. 302 / C4 / 8" with power steering, but manual 4 wheel drum brakes. Reasonably complete - partially converted to a Mach1 clone, completely shot floors covered by flat sheet metal, but otherwise - pretty damned complete.
The hitch was - this seller was hell bent on a "double or nothing" deal - take them both or don't take either - that's it.
So - a few weeks went by - the black convertible was just going to have to be an inconvenient flip to get me to that blue fastback.
I made the deal
I had some friends in for the weekend and capitolized on their free labor - we went over with the truck trailer and winch - the 2002 fired up willingly and seemed to run just fine - so one of us would drive that.
Hooked the winch on the trailer to the front driver frame rail of the 70 and hit the button - thankfully only one brake was locked up - so she slid up the trailer ramps pretty easily.
I got both titles - handed the man his money - and off we went - he was only a few miles from home.
The 2002 made the drive without drama - although the exhaust smelled like napalmethylmethyl death, and one front caliper was locked - she was smoking heavy from one wheel after getting her home.
Attention immediately was directed to the 70, off the trailer it went - into the shop and up on the hoist - yup - floors are junk - frame and torque boxes, OK - rockers mostly OK - doors open and close OK - back window and driver window were - GONE. Put a long 1/2" ratchet on the crank bolt and pulled..... I'll be damned - she turned over just fine! Rolled it through a few rotations to make sure everything seemed happy.... yup.
Grabbed a known good battery - hooked it up.
Head lights and running lights - check
brake lights - check
Stereo - fired right up still tuned to the local rock station and sounding great!
so - we got bold and turned the key to start..... she turned over without drama.
Now it's getting fun.
Filed the points a bit.
Pulled the inlet off the fuel pump and put a piece of hose from it into a 5 gallon can of fresh fuel....
Grabbed a can of starting fluid.
With two guys under hood - one guy in the driver seat.... CRANK START RUN!!!!
The stench of the age old god only knows what flowing out of the pipes was down right horrid for the first minute or so..... then the smoke began to subside, and the little 302 seemed to be quite happy about it's new lease on life. The damned thing idled like it was last running a week or two ago - not a decade or two - thanks undoubtedly to the lack of ethanol fuel the last time this thing saw a fill up. Not a single leak from the holley carb!
We warmed it up - changed the oil and filter and started to look at the brakes.... just getting it running was already a huge win!!!
To Be Continued (with pics if I can figure out this damned Iphone)
SO - for a couple of years on and off a friend of mine had been telling me about a friend of his who had a couple "old mustangs" I should check out - as this feller was particularly lazy and unmotivated to do much of anything - let alone work on a car.
After several failed attempts, rain outs, forgot about its - and what not - I finally got a chance to take a look at these mysterious machines that had been stored a derned long time ago.
The first one I saw didn't raise much interest in me at all - 2002 mustang Gt convertible, all black... 100k or so on the clock - reasonable shape, no visible rust - but to me - Meh - too new. Then the cover came off it's stable mate in the attached ranches two car garage...... there she was - slathered in a reasonable, allbeit amateur coat of acapulco blue...... a 70 mustang "sportsroof" known to most of us as a fastback. It was a 80s - 90's time capsule - last registered in '94. Big and little cragars (rusty) sparkomatic cassette in the dash, panasonic deck mount speakers in the package tray, ford motorsport chrome (rusty) valve covers and tall wing nut bolts, vintage edelbrock intake, holley 1850, long tube (rusty) headers, H pipe and duals. 302 / C4 / 8" with power steering, but manual 4 wheel drum brakes. Reasonably complete - partially converted to a Mach1 clone, completely shot floors covered by flat sheet metal, but otherwise - pretty damned complete.
The hitch was - this seller was hell bent on a "double or nothing" deal - take them both or don't take either - that's it.
So - a few weeks went by - the black convertible was just going to have to be an inconvenient flip to get me to that blue fastback.
I made the deal
I had some friends in for the weekend and capitolized on their free labor - we went over with the truck trailer and winch - the 2002 fired up willingly and seemed to run just fine - so one of us would drive that.
Hooked the winch on the trailer to the front driver frame rail of the 70 and hit the button - thankfully only one brake was locked up - so she slid up the trailer ramps pretty easily.
I got both titles - handed the man his money - and off we went - he was only a few miles from home.
The 2002 made the drive without drama - although the exhaust smelled like napalmethylmethyl death, and one front caliper was locked - she was smoking heavy from one wheel after getting her home.
Attention immediately was directed to the 70, off the trailer it went - into the shop and up on the hoist - yup - floors are junk - frame and torque boxes, OK - rockers mostly OK - doors open and close OK - back window and driver window were - GONE. Put a long 1/2" ratchet on the crank bolt and pulled..... I'll be damned - she turned over just fine! Rolled it through a few rotations to make sure everything seemed happy.... yup.
Grabbed a known good battery - hooked it up.
Head lights and running lights - check
brake lights - check
Stereo - fired right up still tuned to the local rock station and sounding great!
so - we got bold and turned the key to start..... she turned over without drama.
Now it's getting fun.
Filed the points a bit.
Pulled the inlet off the fuel pump and put a piece of hose from it into a 5 gallon can of fresh fuel....
Grabbed a can of starting fluid.
With two guys under hood - one guy in the driver seat.... CRANK START RUN!!!!
The stench of the age old god only knows what flowing out of the pipes was down right horrid for the first minute or so..... then the smoke began to subside, and the little 302 seemed to be quite happy about it's new lease on life. The damned thing idled like it was last running a week or two ago - not a decade or two - thanks undoubtedly to the lack of ethanol fuel the last time this thing saw a fill up. Not a single leak from the holley carb!
We warmed it up - changed the oil and filter and started to look at the brakes.... just getting it running was already a huge win!!!
To Be Continued (with pics if I can figure out this damned Iphone)
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