[69GT350H]

Back Story:
This would be my 4th Mustang I've purchased, the first a 70 Mach I, then a 69 GT, followed by a 69 Mach I 428CJ. I found this car sitting in a carport in the mid 70's, and bothered the owner every year asking if he wanted to sell it. In December 1980 the owner actually contacted me, he needed money and wanted to sell the car to me. I finally got a good look at it. The engine was apart, it had been repainted poorly, and all the emblems inside and out were missing. It was sitting on 4 flat Goodyear Polyglass tires. I was a young 20 year old working and going to the local community college, I did not have a lot of money. I offered him $2500 and he took it. I borrowed a trailer and brought it home. My 69 GT had just been hit and totaled not long before and i was in the process of parting it out. I still had the engine so I pulled the block out of the Shelby and dropped the complete engine in the car. Changed all the fluids, started it up and drove it for the next two years. Then the restoration started. I had the car apart, had painted the body and was putting it back together when Hurricane Andrew hit. The storm did not really damage the car, but all the salt water it brought it with it did. Jump forward to 2013, I had been marred, had a daughter and then divorced, and I was now able to resume working on the car.

Next post, total tear down, again.

 

[69GT350H]

This car has been rear ended two maybe three times before I got it. It had not been repaired very well. One quarter had been replaced, the other looked like it had been beaten to death with a ball peen hammer and both sides smoothed out with lots of bondo. Now all the dented bare metal was rusting away. The hood was off the car during the storm and water got in the engine. I found a guy that knew Mustangs and would replace the sheet metal from the doors back including the trunk floor. The work took just over a year, and when the car came back, I was not impressed. Though the panels had all been replaced and looked square, it was full of poor welds. So I bought a 220v mig welder and learned how to weld using a bad area on the cowl.

 

[blueovalfan68]

Cant wait to see it when it's finished. I really love the 69 shelbys.

 

[69GT350H]

While the car was away having the sheet metal replaced, I rebuilt the FMX transmission. I had rebuilt a top loader but never an automatic, so I bought the BadShoe video and watched it a couple of times before tearing the transmission down. Over all it was not bad. The clutch packs were warped and needed to be replaced, the front band was badly pitted possibly from water intrusion. The new band has a different pocket so I did some welding so the piston pin would contact it where the original one did. I also added a B&M Trans kit and a TCI 2300 RPM Stall converter. It has yet to be tested.

 

[69GT350H]

The car's body was away, and I had finished the FMX transmission. So on with the engine. I was already .030 over when it was in the 69 GT, and now one of the piston walls had rusted from the water intrusion. Got lucky and they were able to bore the 351w to .060 over. The journals on the crank had rusted now that it was out of the block, so it was now going to need to be sent out to be polished. Looking everything over, I had previously inspected the engine and knew the path, so I went with a stroker kit and got a new crank, rods, pistons and rings to go with the Comp Cams Magnum 280 cam that I had just installed in the engine before the storm. Obviously, this is no longer going to be a stock build. Hence the reason for the stall converter. I purchased an ARP bolt kit and started building the block. I was installing the Pete Jackson gear drive and found they want me to grind on the timing chain cover for clearance and that is where I stopped while I waited for a replacement cover so I would not cut up on the original one.

 

[69GT350H]

During all this, I am thinking about what I have, what has happened to it, and what I want to do with it. Its not going to be a daily driver, but I want it to run, and perform better than stock. But I also want it to look as stock as possible with all mods removable if I ever wanted to do so. So parts shopping I went. Aluminum radiator, saden A/C (not so original looking), Holley HP 750cfm carb (will be hidden under factory air cleaner), Pertronix Ignitor 3 ignition (hidden under distributor cap), JBA shorties, JBA H-Pipe 3", 2 1/4" Shelby GT500 exhaust, Opentrackerracing roller bearing upper and lower control arms, and Prothane bushings everywhere else. I want to keep the engine as stock looking as possible, keep the stroker under wraps, so moving away from the cast heads would be more noticeable than the shorties, so I'm going to have to do a lot of work to those cast monsters.

 

[69GT350H]

I had started working on the heads, port matched the exhaust ports to the JBA shorties and removed the EGR bumps. Still have a lot of work to go and this is only one head and I haven't touched the intake side yet. But then the body came back and the heads got put aside.

 

[69GT350H]

I had to fix quite a few areas where the welding was worse than even mine. Seams in the trunk area did not line up at all.

 

[69GT350H]

I took a lot of pictures to document the car, where things were, what color they were before I totally tore it apart. Then I went to town and took off anything that had bolts or other types of fasteners.

 

[69GT350H]

After a lot of cleaning, damage and repair, some painting was done along with the outer shock tower braces. The engine bay was painted with a Red Oxide colored enamel paint followed by the black to match the color scheme done at the factory.

 

[rcodenewf]

Looking good. Keep the progress pics coming.

...John

 

[Caper50]

Kudo's to you for taking it on yourself and making sure it gets done right. Looking forward to seeing this one progress.

 

[69GT350H]

Thanks, trying to get caught up with out distorting the time line too much. Its a lot to keep track of sometimes. When ordering parts, for things that will show or if I need to make sure they are truly the right parts I will usually use National Parts Depot. For the stuff that will not show and if its available I go with RockAuto. Again, this is not a concourse build, so if the heater core does not have the Ford script and part #'s on it, it does not matter to me. No one is ever going to see stuff like that.

 

[69GT350H]

This is out of order, but here is the 9". Its a 3.0 Traction lock. I left the carrier in as there never was a problem with the gears. Fluid is getting changed to a synthetic.

 

[69GT350H]

Did the 1" Shelby upper control arm drop. Got a template and proper sized drill bit off Ebay. Blasted the rusty springs and re-finished them. Its at this point that one of my neighbors decides that they do not like me working on my car and calls the county on me. I am informed that I am not allowed to do work on a car that lasts more then 72 hours and also that I am not allowed to keep a non drive-able car on my property, not even inside my garage. I get a proper notification of violation and have 2 weeks to remove the car. So, very quickly I assemble the front and rear suspension so I can load the car on the trailer and take it away. I am lucky that my brother owns warehouses and I am able to store the car for now, but this is going to make it very difficult to work on the car its self. I still have a lot of parts and components at the house, but I am sure most of you know how that goes.

 

[cobra94svt]

Where at in Florida are you. I'm on the gulf side birth of Tampa in spring hill. I hate to hear that you can't even work on a car in your own garage!!!!!

 

[69GT350H]

Where at in Florida are you. I'm on the gulf side birth of Tampa in spring hill. I hate to hear that you can't even work on a car in your own garage!!!!!

I'm in Miami, Dade County. People have told me to put up tall fences and hide my work from the county, but its one of my neighbors that is calling and reporting me, not the county code enforcement driving by. I'm going to find out what the minimum requirements are to keep the car in the garage. I was told that it had to start and run, so will adding the drive train to it solve the problem? There is still that 72 hour repair issue, so I need to find if there is another way to classify this as it NOT being a repair job, but a hobby. At any rate, I still have heads to port...

 

[IMCOBRA]

Did the 1" Shelby upper control arm drop. Got a template and proper sized drill bit off Ebay. Blasted the rusty springs and re-finished them. Its at this point that one of my neighbors decides that they do not like me working on my car and calls the county on me. I am informed that I am not allowed to do work on a car that lasts more then 72 hours and also that I am not allowed to keep a non drive-able car on my property, not even inside my garage. I get a proper notification of violation and have 2 weeks to remove the car. So, very quickly I assemble the front and rear suspension so I can load the car on the trailer and take it away. I am lucky that my brother owns warehouses and I am able to store the car for now, but this is going to make it very difficult to work on the car its self. I still have a lot of parts and components at the house, but I am sure most of you know how that goes.

How is it possible that the county can tell you what you can and can not do in your own garage. I would be very upset. I build all of my cars in my three car garage that is attached to my house in a gated community with a strict home owners association. As long as I keep my cars in the garage they can not dictate what I do with them.

 

[69GT350H]

How is it possible that the county can tell you what you can and can not do in your own garage. I would be very upset. I build all of my cars in my three car garage that is attached to my house in a gated community with a strict home owners association. As long as I keep my cars in the garage they can not dictate what I do with them.

I and many others agree, but have looked up the codes myself and the county does say I can not do this type of work at my house and I am not allowed to have a "Junk" (no engine, transmission, tires) car on the premises. But remember, its not so much the county as it is a neighbor who was constantly calling them when ever I rolled the body out of the garage. I was changing light bulbs and had to push the body out to do so when someone called again, and the code enforcement officer showed up to cite me. Unfortunately my 2 car garage is too small to keep the car and all the tools inside and have me work on it.

 

[IMCOBRA]

That just sucks, I would be looking for a new place to live. Sorry to here about your idiot neighbors. Don't ever give up.