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I agree the engine compartment needs some attention. But you can do it.

 

Jason: I don't know about California emissions (I live in Canada), but it seems to me to boil down to : cosmetics or mechanicals. I would take the engine out, clean and re-paint the resulting hole and have hardened valve seats inserted (if not already done), clean and paint the engine and if thats all it needs, stick it in. At least it's a start. Good luck and keep us posted. Mark

 

Hi Jason, actually you'd be surprised how much you can do without pulling the engine. Take everything off that unbolts and repaint. If you get a Mustang restoration book it will tell you the correct colors, if there is not enough paint currently on that part to tell. (Make sure you bag and label all bolts, etc. as you take them off.) Once you have everything off you can get off, degrease what's left (engine block, firewall, etc. Use tinfoil around anything you don't want painted (hoses, wires, etc.) The end result will be pretty good, not as good as pulling the engine but a lot better than currently. Sooner or later you're going to have to have/want the engine rebuilt and then you can do a better, more in depth job. Pretty exciting isn't it? Good luck.

 

It may not be as bad as you think. I've seen cars steam cleaned in the enjine compartment come out looking pretty good. A wire brush and a rattle can would make your air cleaner look much better.
Don't know your plans but seeing that rusty jelly jar (master cylinder) would make me want to check the brakelines out pretty thoroughly.

 

heres what i do to spruce up my engine areas, i remove 1 part at a time and use singe edge razor blades to remove the paint off it and then sand and repaint and clean area and reattach.do not change anything until you are done and satified with how it looks and it works like it did before you removed it. down the road after everything is clean and spruced up you may not feel the need to replace it. take the air cleaner, a chrome one requires constant polishing ect and they rust fast, if you sand and repaint your original in the long run you will be happier unless you like to constantly polish under the hood. just my 2 cents. wes

 

Looking at your pictures you have a relatively unmolested car. I live in Ontario and have a smog eqipped Califoria car that I had brought up from San Bernadino. Mine has Calif smog which is not seen that much as it was common to pull this stuff off over the years. I'd keep it like it is. Mine was a bit cleaner, the first year I had it I pulled the whole front end off and detailed everything firewall forward-not that hard to do - 1/2 & 9/16 wrenches and a few screw drivers are about all it takes. These are amazingly simple cars. Take your time and take pictures of weverything before you touch it. I took the whole suspension out, motor etc, which did require a few special tools, but a good job can be done without doing that. As your car looks relatively untouched if you steam clean, lookd for coloured paint daubs on parts and numbers written on sheetmetal etc- these were done at the factory, are a bit like a pedigree and I bet most will still be on your car.

You can use handcleaner to clean hoses, put some acetone on a cloth and gently wipe your wiring harnesses and individual wires and they will look like new. just go lightly this stuff will dissolve plastic & rubber if you are too agressive. Valve covers are an easy bolt on dress up. The emmessions cars use a vented oil filler cap with a hose to the airclear. I think I got the cap at NPD, To use the chrome aircleaner I drilled the base and put on a fitting (plastic fitting and filter that goes on the inside ofmanny airfilters, readily obtainable at most autopoarts stors) and then connected the hose to it. It you don't want to do that, cleaning up and painting the stock filter is pretty easy. I did that too and it hangs on the wall - never ever throw away the original parts off your car.

Have fun - ever have any questions on the underhood -email me- i spent countless hours researching the underhood details and then probably a couple of hundred hours firewall forward and I still haven't opened up the engine.

 

Yeah it does look pretty bad. What all is involved in replacing that?

http://static.flickr.com/20/70396191_fdf08cf746.jpg

 

NPD can get you anything you need.
NPD website
I agree the engine compartment needs some attention. But you can do it.

Whats the big difference between them and Mustang Plus?

 

I second what one of the other posters said: A good steam cleaning, and I think you'd be pleasantly surprised how much better the engine compartment will look. A bottle of simple greene, scrub brush, and pressure wash is a close second. You can take your repaint/replace fun from there. Hint: put a ziplock bag over your distributor and carb before hosing the engine comparment down.

That car is so complete and so clean, I'd probably lean towards keeping all that emissions gear (incl air cleaner and valve covers) intact except for a fresh coat of paint...but that's up to you.

And, as far as where to spend the dough....safety first. Assuming the basics such as lighting and tires are in good repair, then I'd break it down like this: Brakes first. Seatbelts second (if not equiped). Suspension third. A great upgrade to the suspension, or at least what I'd classify as suspension, is some subframe connectors. Probably the #1 mod that "I wish I'd done that sooner".

Pertronix is always a good upgrade, but you might as well wait until you need a tune up. Nothin' wrong with running points on a stocker like that for the time being.

 

Looks like anti vibration bracket isn't on compressor. Double check me on that if you go for the complete restore.

 

Looks like anti vibration bracket isn't on compressor. Double check me on that if you go for the complete restore.

Thanks for the heads up. I didnt know that existed

 

keep it original. leave the smog on and don't put subframe connectors on it. NPD has 99% of anything you will need for this car. Use them and try and buy in larger batches $300 and up and you get free shipping.

 

Nothing really, I use NPD mainly because they're only an hour from me.