Hey all, guess I'll make my forum introduction as a build post! Probably won't be a very exciting or fast build post as I'm not just broke, but pretty sure I've already spent up to next Aprils paychecks.
I've worked on my cars most of my life, but I've never dived into engine internals or restoration before, so this build is going to be a BIG learning experience for me. I finally have my own garage instead of an apartment! I've been redecorating in Harbor Freight Chic.
I've been waiting for my son to become a teenager to start a father/son car project so I can teach him how to wrench, do the basics, and just in general work with his hands. We can't do too much on the little shoebox I drive daily so I scoured Craigslist and Facebook, eBay, and AutoTrader for months looking for an early 70s Charger or Dart, but started seeing Mustangs and remembered how much I've always wanted one. I then came across what I wanted to be my families "Heirloom Car".
A 1965 C Code, mostly original down to the nuts and bolts, survivor. No rebuilds on the engine or transmission, even comes with the dealer paperwork and original tiny 1965 title and inspection sticker. Typical story that she was a girls first car in high school, who drove the heck out of it for 20 years then put it into storage until now. I'm the second owner and the entire history of the car is known. All 146000 miles of it.
Seller runs a restoration shop and did the basics on it. New gas tank and carb, cap/rotor/wires/plugs, new steering hoses (though they installed the wrong ones, and badly), tires, rebuilt the drums, etc. Enough to get it running and mostly driving. The fresh non matching paint you see on the rear was due to them backing it into something at the shop and I had them replace the extension at the back of the fender.
Advertised as "Only surface rust except 2 spots on the driver side, no rot in the floorboard or trunk! Engine runs great, but valves are probably bad."
I bought it without ever seeing it in person, only pictures, a couple videos, and a phone call.
Day one she arrived and like the brilliant brain scientist/rocket surgeon I strive to be, my inspection amounted to "oooh she's pretty" and I promptly handed over a wad of money.
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Needless to say, once it was just her and I, she immediately started squealing and screeching and refused to run, which took me a whole day to track down to a loose carb bolt causing the worlds biggest vacuum leak. But, in the process of troubleshooting she did get all new belts at least. Then the front brakes fell apart 1 mile into our first journey, then my son discovered the floor was wet, REALLY wet and it turns out they had let it sit in the rain for a couple days before I got it.
First project time! Pull the whole interior and replace the carpet/jute/deadener. What do you think I found under the carpet in my new "rust free" mustang?
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Definitely not rust, on both sides. But, to his credit, when I called the seller he agreed to cover most of the cost to have the floorboards redone at a local to me shop (thats where the car is right now) since it was other than advertised. The rest of the floors are 100% solid, not even surface rust. I went through with a fine toothed comb after finding that surprise. The trunk....is another matter. It too has rust around the wheel wells, but I'll fix it.
So with nothing to do in the meantime, we changed the shocks on it to new KYBs (which ended up being way harder than I thought), changed my gassy fragrant oil (leaky pump), sent her off to a restoration shop literally 1/2 a mile from my house (lucky) and now I'm gathering a giant pile of parts thanks to Kentucky Mustangs 10% off sale. Thus far I have:
New ACC carpet with their backing and jute added to it along with kick panels and the package tray and backing for both.
Everything I need to rebuild the front suspension: U/L Control arms, a million rubber bushings, end links, coil springs and greaseable saddles, new gas lines.
An entire lower steering unit from Chocko (3 days from ordering, including a holiday!).
A plethora of brackets and wire organizers, looms, and every hose in the engine bay.
Enough Wix filters to purify the world.
1 rubber/cork forest worth of gaskets.
A heater rebuilt kit + a heater core with extended tubes
Window and door seals, windlace, etc
Currently negotiating for a brand new Weiand Warrior intake.
I will be keeping everything I take off as I slowly mod her, and for the major parts like the control arms I will be cleaning them up gently and likely selling them for those looking for concours stuff. They're savable.
I spent 3 days restoring the shifter, only new parts are the rubber seals and the plastic bushing but it made a HUGE difference. The transmission is MINT, but the shifter had wiggle like a 4 speed in neutral. Now it's perfect.
![Image]()
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So that's where we sit, just south of Houston waiting for her to come back with new floors so we can get started. She doesn't run too badly but she does make you cough with rich exhaust and kicks up some smoke when she starts. But she runs and sounds pretty darn good with her intact factory muffler.
Plans include mostly stock replacements for things, I want a "drive her as we fix her up" style of restoration/restomod. A head rebuild will be in a few weeks as I have a great local machine shop, then next year sometime I will pull the motor and see where we're at cylinder wise. Likely go as small of a bore as I can, and maybe stroke the engine a little bit. Undecided, but a rebuild is a 100% certainty. I need it to be 100% solid, a little higher compression (darn C code...) and I want quite a bit more pep in her step.
I've worked on my cars most of my life, but I've never dived into engine internals or restoration before, so this build is going to be a BIG learning experience for me. I finally have my own garage instead of an apartment! I've been redecorating in Harbor Freight Chic.
I've been waiting for my son to become a teenager to start a father/son car project so I can teach him how to wrench, do the basics, and just in general work with his hands. We can't do too much on the little shoebox I drive daily so I scoured Craigslist and Facebook, eBay, and AutoTrader for months looking for an early 70s Charger or Dart, but started seeing Mustangs and remembered how much I've always wanted one. I then came across what I wanted to be my families "Heirloom Car".
A 1965 C Code, mostly original down to the nuts and bolts, survivor. No rebuilds on the engine or transmission, even comes with the dealer paperwork and original tiny 1965 title and inspection sticker. Typical story that she was a girls first car in high school, who drove the heck out of it for 20 years then put it into storage until now. I'm the second owner and the entire history of the car is known. All 146000 miles of it.
Seller runs a restoration shop and did the basics on it. New gas tank and carb, cap/rotor/wires/plugs, new steering hoses (though they installed the wrong ones, and badly), tires, rebuilt the drums, etc. Enough to get it running and mostly driving. The fresh non matching paint you see on the rear was due to them backing it into something at the shop and I had them replace the extension at the back of the fender.
Advertised as "Only surface rust except 2 spots on the driver side, no rot in the floorboard or trunk! Engine runs great, but valves are probably bad."
I bought it without ever seeing it in person, only pictures, a couple videos, and a phone call.
Day one she arrived and like the brilliant brain scientist/rocket surgeon I strive to be, my inspection amounted to "oooh she's pretty" and I promptly handed over a wad of money.
Needless to say, once it was just her and I, she immediately started squealing and screeching and refused to run, which took me a whole day to track down to a loose carb bolt causing the worlds biggest vacuum leak. But, in the process of troubleshooting she did get all new belts at least. Then the front brakes fell apart 1 mile into our first journey, then my son discovered the floor was wet, REALLY wet and it turns out they had let it sit in the rain for a couple days before I got it.
First project time! Pull the whole interior and replace the carpet/jute/deadener. What do you think I found under the carpet in my new "rust free" mustang?
Definitely not rust, on both sides. But, to his credit, when I called the seller he agreed to cover most of the cost to have the floorboards redone at a local to me shop (thats where the car is right now) since it was other than advertised. The rest of the floors are 100% solid, not even surface rust. I went through with a fine toothed comb after finding that surprise. The trunk....is another matter. It too has rust around the wheel wells, but I'll fix it.
So with nothing to do in the meantime, we changed the shocks on it to new KYBs (which ended up being way harder than I thought), changed my gassy fragrant oil (leaky pump), sent her off to a restoration shop literally 1/2 a mile from my house (lucky) and now I'm gathering a giant pile of parts thanks to Kentucky Mustangs 10% off sale. Thus far I have:
New ACC carpet with their backing and jute added to it along with kick panels and the package tray and backing for both.
Everything I need to rebuild the front suspension: U/L Control arms, a million rubber bushings, end links, coil springs and greaseable saddles, new gas lines.
An entire lower steering unit from Chocko (3 days from ordering, including a holiday!).
A plethora of brackets and wire organizers, looms, and every hose in the engine bay.
Enough Wix filters to purify the world.
1 rubber/cork forest worth of gaskets.
A heater rebuilt kit + a heater core with extended tubes
Window and door seals, windlace, etc
Currently negotiating for a brand new Weiand Warrior intake.
I will be keeping everything I take off as I slowly mod her, and for the major parts like the control arms I will be cleaning them up gently and likely selling them for those looking for concours stuff. They're savable.
I spent 3 days restoring the shifter, only new parts are the rubber seals and the plastic bushing but it made a HUGE difference. The transmission is MINT, but the shifter had wiggle like a 4 speed in neutral. Now it's perfect.
So that's where we sit, just south of Houston waiting for her to come back with new floors so we can get started. She doesn't run too badly but she does make you cough with rich exhaust and kicks up some smoke when she starts. But she runs and sounds pretty darn good with her intact factory muffler.
Plans include mostly stock replacements for things, I want a "drive her as we fix her up" style of restoration/restomod. A head rebuild will be in a few weeks as I have a great local machine shop, then next year sometime I will pull the motor and see where we're at cylinder wise. Likely go as small of a bore as I can, and maybe stroke the engine a little bit. Undecided, but a rebuild is a 100% certainty. I need it to be 100% solid, a little higher compression (darn C code...) and I want quite a bit more pep in her step.
