[PeteFL]

Hey everyone.

About myself. I like cars, I work in IT, and rebuilt/tune broken toys is my hobby and a little mind outlet.

I always liked 1968 Fastback design but
a) too expensive for a good one
b) bad ones were expensive and bunch of serious problems
c) i never was too big fan of the coupe (sorry to all the owners, I just liked Fastback more)

It wouldn't be possible to start this project if I would want to keep things original but I always was buying cars for fun, not to keep them in a museum.

A few years ago I started to see around videos coupe to fastback conversions and I decided to try one day myself.

I said, I better to buy car cheap, then invest money into new parts instead of giving away difference in ~25k to some person just to have it. So Coupe to Fastback idea settled down.

Last June, I was looking for a car that I would use as a donor for a conversion. I said, let it be rusted in the right places that I will cut out anyways. I should have a clean proper title. and..
I found one. It was a bit expensive, some rust around but it already had front brake conversion, was running, plus the interior wasn't too bad. Alright I said and bought this.

the doors, fenders, rear fenders had a lot of rust, the rest was okay. IDropped on my 19" wheels. Took off 350GT rims and put them away to sell in the future.

 

[PeteFL]

Obvy 19 inch 10.5 wide +35 offset rims didn't work too well with Shelby Drop and very old rear leaf springs. Car couldn't move. Plus I almost bent my front fenders and cut the tires because the wheels went even lower and I didn't roll the fenders yet.

So I jumped on Amazon and bought some Chinese fender roller, which had many bad reviews but was cheap and for some reason worked for me just fine.

Then I got front no-name coilovers (as a temporary solution before complete front+rear suspension upgrade which I plan to do with the engine upgrade), new leaf springs from cj and eibah 35mm spacers. Dropped car from jacks, viola everything worked just fine and handles great (just too light with the power steering).

 

[PeteFL]

I know it was unnecessary @ this point to get a new steering wheel but I couldn't get out of the bucket seats without wiggling like a worm.
Plus I really didn't like Grant GT half rusted steering wheel.

And even on a picture it looks not too bad, it looks and feels like cheap crap.
I decided to swap it on something else.

 

[PeteFL]

I had 2 problems. I wanted to keep racing type steering wheel ~14 inch, it should be deep dish and I needed to do something about getting out of the car freely.

I always liked MOMO designs and quick release would help me get out of the car no problem. So I ordered NRG 6 bolt quick release, and Mod 08 MOMO racing wheel.
When it came, the center mark was off. What a disaster. I reordered same steering wheel 3 times until MOMO brand contacted me and actually manually controlled that I will get the right steering wheel.

Got it together but realized that I need 3 bolt to 6 bolt adapter. Ordered it from CJ and in a few days I took off the old steering wheel, almost set the car on fire (didn't realize how tight horn cables sit). Had to cut the end of the steering column bolt a bit to avoid contact with 12v cables.

Viola, it was done.

 

[PeteFL]

I still was having an issue with humming sound on the right side without any luck after switching out/inner bearings, and luck of power / hesitation on low RPM (I have a tachometer in the dashboard so it was visible).On higher it was just fine.

It was hard to start moving on drive and rear (car would drop rpm and stall), but after 2k rpm it would be fine. N was fine, on the road was fine just that problem right after the start.
Last sunday car didn't want to start and I will do my exploration of the problem this weekend.

 

[PeteFL]

Sucks when you ordered all the parts for the conversion and just a few parts for it still backordered.
The whole fastback sits in the room except those few parts and waiting for it so I could start the work.

Luckily I still have to to fix no-start issue so it will make me busy for some time.

 

[PeteFL]

For tomorrow fix I have new coils, spark plugs, fuel filter.
I will look into if the pump still alive, if not I was advised to get Carter M4009 which was designed for earlier years but ppl say it's better to get that one even it's not designed for 1968 specifically but due to it's 289 block it should work just fine (lmk if it's wrong).
I will check sparks condition.
Will inspect carburetor (who knows what I should inspect there but I will try my best).
Will check tranny fluid levels.
(the battery is new, starter spins the engine just doesn't turn on)

 

[PeteFL]

Just wanted to see if the magic will happen.

Magic didn't happen so it's time to dig into the car.

 

[Sunlit68]

She wants to…..

 

[garrybrown]

nice ride ! I love the color

snaptube vidmate​

 

[Israel]

Welcome, I’ll be following.

 

[kkupec02]

welcome

 

[PeteFL]

Thank you guys!

 

[PeteFL]

On Saturday I had big plans for the car repair (if you read above, I had no start issue on top the other problems).

but the 3pm storms which is usual thing during the summer in a place where I live in FL messed my plans.

 

[PeteFL]

A lot of rust around the panels made me grind and sand it all over the body.

Self itching primer + wax&grease remover first made Mustang look post apocalyptic.

Then I used 2K sealer to avoid any rust-through situation. I expect it to hold until two last items for my conversion project will be here (quarter/door frame assembly kit driver side and rear roof brace).

I don't know what color it will be, which is a matter for a discussion (let me know your thoughts).

 

[Mustangschrauber]

Wow, nice project. Will follow it

 

[PeteFL]

Sunday morning the weather was good most of the day and I had a chance to dive into a problem with no start issue.

Before to start any repairs I always check if the magic will work and the magic didn't work, again. The car didn't start and I popped the hood.

I removed the air filter and found that inside of the carburetor was pitch black. I picked a can of the carburetor cleaner in AutoZone, sprayed it a few times. Then I turned the key and the car started. Yes! There were some misfires (see the video, a needle on the tachometer jumping a bit) but it worked.

Also I noticed that one of a vacuum hose popped (see the video). I put it back and car was driving on D and R no problem. I don't know if that was the cause for loss of power under 2000rpm, I'll take it for a ride to double check on it but no stalls on cold with D and R so far.

 

[PeteFL]

I still didn't figure out how to open the hood. What a shame. I pull all the pullers and etc in the cabin, then trying to pull latch under the hood and sometimes it works sometimes not. Not sure what to do.
I was wondering if I should dismount the lock and replace it with some smart pins to hold the hood by them instead. Let me know if it makes sense.

 

[DIHLON]

Following!

 

[PeteFL]

There's a little upgrade on the car.
#1. Humming sound from the right side seems like not coming from the front but probably from the rear and may coming from.. gear box?
#2 CJ when you order parts that on backorder do not charge you right away but do not let you know that the part is available. So if you missed, you missed. Therefore I pay manually for all the parts upfront in full. Just maybe useful for some.
#3 If someone needs and want to repeat the challenge I am adding the list of parts you need to make a conversion with part numbers (so you could find it easily over the websites) and prices I found around.
The base of this list I got from Scott Harness (check his YouTube channel and email him if you need other years), but on top of that there were a lot of things that was not in the list so I added positions, prices and places I found them.
#4 Going outside to address the loss of power under 2k rpm after warm up (changing coil cables, sparks for now, then further).