[Airek]

Hello everyone! When I was about 8 years old, the first Mustang I ever rode in was a 1966 Sprint 200. Semi-jokingly I said to the owner that if they ever looked to sell to think of me. Lucky for me, they somehow remembered this and fast forward to April 2022 and I purchased a true dream. She's my 'Old Lady.' I've also got a 'Young Lady,' a 2019 GT. I don't ever plan to sell her. She's so much of my history with cars & Mustangs. Not the flashiest or most powerful or anything, but she's my 'Old Lady.'

She has 36,000 original miles, original engine, transmission, paint, glass, etc. etc. Outside of muffler, a few suspension parts, and a reupholster of the seats, she's got what she came with.

When I got her, there were a few issues. She's pretty much sat for 3 years and had some fuel issues. These were resolved pre-purchase with a new fuel pump. Since then, I discovered a fuel leak in the carburetor, cracked exhaust manifold, and she's got a slightly rough idle. Also, she's got 56 years of grime nearly everywhere.

The other glaring issue is a few years ago a battery exploded and doused the passenger side of the engine bay and underside of the hood, causing some damage and rust. The underside of the hood is going to be repainted in March/April by a local shop that loves her after they saw her.

My long term goals are to try to continue to keep her as original as possible. Besides possibly a dual-bowl upgrade, I don't want to change anything. I'm shooting to have her in as good of shape as possible for the MCA Grand National in 2023 in Melbourne as it will be my birthday and next to my hometown. I can't wait.

I'll start off with some pics from purchase and first car show.

I'm hoping I can get encouragement, help, and advice from the folks here. My local MCA chapter (Mid-Florida Mustang Club) has been a great help throughout.

Day of purchase (wheel covers off for the journey)

First show about a month after purchase:

 

[Airek]

Some further details on the 'Old Lady':

200cc 3.3L I6
3-speed manual (non-syncro 1st)
Sprint 200 trim
Exterior: Wimbledon White
Build date: June 6
Plant: San Jose

She was initially won in a supermarket contest so I don't have the original bill of sale, but I have the original owner's manual and it has their name and info on it. I do have the other 3 bills of sale (I'm owner #4) and all repair records since 1988.

 

[Airek]

First order of business was the usual oil change, coolant flush, once-over. Easy... mostly. The drain plug in the block started to strip. We survived.

Next I dove into the shifter. It had a horrible shake. Car ran fine so I figured it was in the shifter bushings. In taking it apart I found whoever put the shift knob on last decided they never wanted it removed again as I couldn't get it to budge. Ended up having to file down the marks I put in the bottom of it. Left it on. Ended up just twisting the center console to the side or resting it on my shoulder.

The shifter boot screws were rusted on the underbody side and had one shear off. Had to tap that hole.

Got to the shifter and what do I find? There are no bushings at all! No wonder it shook like a chiwawa off it's anxiety meds. Got all the shifter parts replaced with actual bushings, greased up where needed, and back together.

While I was down there, I replaced the burnt out courtesy lights.

I have 0 pictures from all this somehow... I've got videos but those don't seem to be allowed so you'll just have to take my word for it.

 

[Airek]

Next up I decided to see if the radio was dead. I saw lights, it was drawing current, but no sound. Pop off the top grille and what do I find but a destroyed speaker. Replaced that and now I can listen to football heading home from car shows on the AM radio. Go Gators! 😁

 

[Airek]

Next up was some more lighting, this time the instrument lights. One out, but the kit I got came with courtesy and instrument so decided to replace them all. Fun little endeavour, and honestly not much brighter than before (if any), but I'm ok with it. Got a pic of the odometer while doing it.

 

[Airek]

Well I'd had it for 3 months and it was time to really dive in. I'd been doing mostly cosmetic and cleaning (my god SO MUCH CLEANING), but now it was time to look at the engine bay. It started like this:

Here you can see much better the damage on the sidewall from the battery explosion:

Battery tray:

Time to dive in. Removed the tray and took it and the sidewall to bare clean metal. Here's about halfway through:

In the end, after the first coat of POR-15, now it's all looking much better!

I have since coated the area with the engine bay paint from NPD and it looks exceptional. Honestly better than I'd hoped.

 

[Airek]

On to the next adventure! She was running a bit hot according to the temp gauge and I didn't like that. Being a wonderful classic, only a few things that could be so I started with the easy one: replace the thermostat. Got a replacement and when putting it in I noticed it was rated for 190° while when I was perusing the shop manual, it said it should have a 160°. I look at the one that was in the car and sure enough, it was a 190. Swap that out and now she's right down the middle. I'm much happier, especially in the Florida heat.

The chrome air cleaner and oil cap was next. Both in rough shape as you can see in the first picture of the above post. Well, a lot of elbow grease and polishing and now we're here. I also got the correct radiator cap while I was at it.

 

[Airek]

Next I discovered the fuel leak coming from the carburetor. A little from the bowl seal and drips from the accelerator pump. Time for a carburetor rebuild! Get a nice kit from NPD and off we go. I hadn't really worked on a carb since my teens, and that was just lawn mower one summer. Many videos watched, club members talked to, guides read and I dove in.

Here's the before pictures and I realized I didn't take any after so I'm going to add some in a post below if I remember.

Discovered the accelerator pump was borked, and overall the carb needed a solid cleaning.

Also the vent valve broke (plastic part yay) but luckily was able to find a replacement from Mike's carb (where I'd found some great youtube videos).

After clean and rebuild pics (before I replaced vent valve):

Got that done, got it back on, started to tune things and that is where I had the latest issue...

 

[Airek]

Now we come to present day (as of this posting)... As I'm working to tune the carb, I nearly get my hand burned off by exhaust fumes. Also nice for the breathing... The crack in the exhaust manifold is bad and needs to be addressed. Crack on the firewall side wing and big crack from head to manifold.

So to prep I started soaking the bolts as best I could in PB Blaster. 4 times a day at least for 3 days. The day comes, heat up the bolts and we start working. It was hell... 2 sheared, right at the cylinder head. One on the firewall side wing, one right in the middle. We really tried our best. Depressing... but, the manifold was definitely in bad shape.

So... now next step is to pull the head and take it to a machine shop. There's no way I'm going to try tapping that.

And that's where I'm sitting at now. I'm waiting until after the first week of February as that is our local Mustang club's big show and I don't want to push unnecessarily. Hoping to get a bit of help after that show is completed. Sad I won't be in the show, but there's a bigger picture to look at. There's a few tiny things I may do in the meantime, but mechanically, we wait.

Sorry for the blast of posts. Thought this would be fun and had to get you caught up. Thanks for joining me on this and I hope to provide some great updates in the future!

 

[SteveMartin]

I see you got the optional 2 piece exhaust manifold.
I have a similar vintage car (1965 200 ci manual coupe) and am in Winter Garden (Horizon West area). Mine is not running yet, but it's getting there. Currently working on rebuilding the 3 speed 2.77 transmission.

What size wheels does yours have? (mine are 13" steelies)

What distinguishes a "Sprint" from a generic 6 cylinder 65?

 

[Israel]

Welcome, I’ll be following.

 

[Caper50]

Looks like it's in very solid condition. Welcome.

 

[Wayne clark]

Welcome to VMF from a fellow 6 cyl owner . Looks like you got a good solid car to start on .

 

[BigKoppa]

I see you got the optional 2 piece exhaust manifold.
I have a similar vintage car (1965 200 ci manual coupe) and am in Winter Garden (Horizon West area). Mine is not running yet, but it's getting there. Currently working on rebuilding the 3 speed 2.77 transmission.

What size wheels does yours have? (mine are 13" steelies)

What distinguishes a "Sprint" from a generic 6 cylinder 65?

The Sprint option was offered in '66. It consisted of deleted quarterpanel ornaments, a stripe down the cove, wire wheels, a full length console and a chrome air cleaner. Some say a chrome oil filler cap was also included, but I'm not in that camp.

 

[BigKoppa]

Welcome. Love me some Sprints.

 

[AZ_Ryan]

Welcome. Great car.

 

[C6ZZGT]

The Sprint option

SPRINT A or SPRINT B , slightly different items in each package.

 

[C6ZZGT]

Welcome !

Besides a dual-bowl upgrade, I don't want to change anything.

If all the lines and cylinders are in good shape I don`t see a need to do that. Especially if you are only going to use it part time. If you are going to use it daily and long distances OR the lines and cylinders need work then I would do it. It is plenty safe the way it is.

 

[Airek]

I see you got the optional 2 piece exhaust manifold.
I have a similar vintage car (1965 200 ci manual coupe) and am in Winter Garden (Horizon West area). Mine is not running yet, but it's getting there. Currently working on rebuilding the 3 speed 2.77 transmission.

What size wheels does yours have? (mine are 13" steelies)

What distinguishes a "Sprint" from a generic 6 cylinder 65?

I've got 14" on mine. The 4-lug. I also have the original spare tire.. literally the tire. Would never use it, but got it back there.

BigKoppa hit it: pinstripe, wire wheels, console, air cleaner, no quarter panel bits. You'll also see a Sprint sticker on the air cleaner. Package was only offered in 1966.

The Sprint option was offered in '66. It consisted of deleted quarterpanel ornaments, a stripe down the cove, wire wheels, a full length console and a chrome air cleaner. Some say a chrome oil filler cap was also included, but I'm not in that camp.

I have never seen the chrome oil filter being part of the Sprint-200 package, just sometimes part of the car. I think with the air cleaner it really pops as chrome so I decided to stick to that.

 

[BigKoppa]

SPRINT A or SPRINT B , slightly different items in each package.

I could be wrong, but I think the difference between A & B is one is a manual transmission and the other is an auto.