[Klutch]

It's been 2 1/2 years since I started my Mach 1 project. Recently, a few VMF members asked if I could post a build thread. I had started a build thread on another forum, but then stopped updating it. I didn't think anyone was interested.

I have since learned people are interested. And since I have learned so much from the people here on VMF, I'm making the effort to start and maintain a build thread on VMF. And I'll try to post a lot of pictures, since everyone seems to like pics.

Background: I've been working on cars since I was 14. I've learned a lot by doing things myself, but I've never had any formal training. When I got this Mach 1 project, I was pretty good with mechanical things. But I had never done any welding or body work. So, here goes...

Here's the car when I first got it home. I found it in New Mexico. It was a running, driving car. But it was very rough. The previous owner was a really nice family guy who just drove the car a lot. He didn't have the resources or know-how restore it himself.





Here are some shots of the interior.











It's a Mustang. So, here's the proverbial shot of a typical Mustang undercarriage. Completely shot!



And here's what was covering those holes in the floor pans:

 

[Jays66gt]

Stolen street signs huh? And just when I though I'd seen it all....

 

[Klutch]

My Mustang is a very low option car. According to the Marti report, the original owner ordered the car in El Paso. He checked "Mach 1" and "Shaker" on the options list and that was it. But hey, at least it's a shaker car! It was rough, but it was all there.



Yeah, that appears to be a 1969 shaker top. Since it's an original shaker car, I don't know what to make of that. The car was built at the very end of the production year. So, I'm thinking the guys at the Dearborn plant just threw on whatever they had. And they had '69 shaker tops.

Oh, and those are '69 hood pins with '70 twist-lock assemblies. I guess the previous owner just installed the pins when the twist locks fell apart.

Here's where I start tearing down the car. While it would have been fun to actually drive the car while I was fixing it up, it was just too rough for the rolling restoration thing. So, I just stripped it down to start over.



The taillight panel was downright frightening. It appeared it had rusted out, then someone globbed on a few cans of body filler and called it good. Of course, the trunk pan and rear cross member were also shot.

 

[Klutch]

The engine compartment wasn't pretty. But it was surprisingly unmolested. The original 351 Cleveland 2V had been rebuilt once and all the original parts, sans the radiator hose, were all there.



Ejecting the core...






And on the stand...




I found a build sheet under the back seat. It's rough, but some of it was readable.



More teardown...



I had the car professionally media blasted by a local guy. His rates were pretty reasonable, but he was the most reluctant business man I'd ever met. At first, he simply did not want to blast my car. I persisted. Once he got to know me a little, he warmed up. Turns out he had been burned by a lot of street rod guys who expected perfection for low ball prices. I told him I didn't need every bit of filler and sound proofing stripped off. I just wanted all the paint, primer and, most of all, rust removed.





As is always the case, blasting revealed a lot of rusted out panels. I wasn't really surprised by this. My big concern was the frame rails, torque boxes and rockers. When I initially inspected the car, it appeared those components were solid. Luckily, it turned out they were. As for the trunk pan, not so much...



The rear cross member was rusted out as well.

 

[Klutch]

I've seen cowls that were worse. But it's still bad enough to require a complete replacement.



Time to start putting some sheet metal back on!



New pans, man! I wanted to do butt welds, rather than overlapping the new pans. It took a lot of time, but I think it was worth it. If I had to do it again, I would just install a complete, one-piece floor.



New cowl, baby!

 

[Klutch]

As is almost always the case, the battery tray and radiator support were shot and I removed them.



And here's the new battery tray and radiator support.



And here's a new taillight panel.



I later had to remove that new taillight panel. I couldn't get it to line up correctly. It turned out the left rear frame rail was bent. I talked to a local chassis guy who told me I should be able to straighten it myself if I removed the trunk pan. Turns out he was right.

Here's a shot of the new trunk pan and rear cross member.

 

[sidewinder]

cool car! Assuming it's a calypso corral 351C shaker car. My car is a 1970 351C, calypso corral, shaker (now), sportroof.
I feel for you with the rust repair. Your shaker looks correct to me.

 

[Klutch]

Thanks, Sidewinder. Yes, it's a Calypso Coral Car. I plan to repaint it the original color.

As for the shaker, the '70 shaker top on a 351 really isn't supposed to have the "351" badges. But there they are.

I've made more progress. All the rust repair is complete! I'll post more pictures soon.

 

[Klutch]

These are just some of the rusted panels I cut off the car.



My car had suffered some serious damage on the driver's side at some point. The left rear quarter panel was replaced. But they left part of the seat divider crunched. I had to order and entirely new seat/trunk divider only to cut off the one small piece I needed. But I'm glad I did it.





I was able to do most of sheet metal repair myself. But the driver side roof pillar was badly damaged and the lower right, rear quarter panel required a patch. I wasn't confident I could do those pieces. A friend of mine recommended me to a local guy who's been building and racing Mustangs since there were Mustangs. He agreed to work on my car. So, I had to put some primer on it lest it get caught in the rain.

I used SPI red oxide epoxy primer. I went to my local paint store to buy a primer gun. They didn't have any. The woman behind the counter suggested I just use a Harbor Freight gun. So I did. And, by golly, it worked just fine.

 

[Klutch]

Here's the quarter panel repair finishing up. It's a patch panel from Spectra Premium.



And there's the roof pillar installed. He was able to do this in just a couple of hours. Luckily, I was able to buy that roof pillar from a guy in North Carolina. He had a fastback that was in really bad shape. But the roof pillars were fine. Although you can buy an entire fastback body, you can't buy just a roof pillar.

 

[Wiz998]

Nice project. Did u have a build thread on 69stang?

 

[Bossed]

Hey Klutch, I've commented on your build on the other site, and I've wondered about how much progress you've made. It's cool to see you're still at it. Keep the pictures coming and keep up the good work !!

Bossed

 

[Klutch]

Thanks for the encouragement, guys. Yes, I have a build thread over at 69Stang. I started it there because I was following Buckeye Demon's build thread there. (Hands down winner for "World's Greatest Mustang Build Thread Ever". )

Although I received a few comments at 69Stang, I stopped updating it because there didn't seem to be much interest. Since my skills aren't anything spectacular, and my car is just an H-Code, I didn't think anyone would be interested in my build. But a few people here on VMF said they were interested. So, I'm giving it a go.

 

[Lawnjockey]

Really enjoying this. I am just about ready to start the rebuild of my 70 MACH 1. Keep the pics coming great info :yoho:

LJ

 

[Klutch]

I came to a point in the build where I was just dog tired of doing sheet metal work. Since most of it was done, I decided to change things up and rebuild the engine.

The engine is the original 351 Cleveland 2V. The car's VIN is stamped into the back of the block. (Apparently, most Clevelands have a VIN stamp.) Here's my "surgical ward" for the engine teardown.



This engine has over 250,000 miles on it. It had one rebuild at some point. But it appears the previous owner rarely changed the oil. Everything was really gunked up. And the carburetor was dumping raw gasoline which gunked up the combustion chambers as well.







As I mentioned earlier, I've been working on cars since I was 14 (this was back in the late 1970s.) I've seen some pretty thrashed cars. But I had never seen a timing chain that was as loose as this example, yet still doing its job. Honestly, I don't see how it was staying in place. I drove it only a few miles before I tore it down and it actually ran pretty well, which is really surprising.

 

[Klutch]

I took the block, crank, pistons and rods to a local machine shop. I wanted to stay with 2V heads because I live at very high altitude (approx. 7,000 feet). Two guys in my Mustang club have 4V Clevelands in their Mach 1s and they tell me they are complete dogs and lower RPMs. Apparently, those gigantic 4V ports just can't generate enough velocity at this altitude.

However, I also wanted to boost the static compression to 10:1. I could have achieved this by decking the block and milling the original 2V heads. But I was cruising Craigslist and happened upon a set of Australian 302 Cleveland heads. In case you aren't aware, the Australian Cleveland heads have 2V ports and closed combustion chambers.

The Craigslist heads were already machined and equipped with screw-in, adjustable rocker studs and Boss 302 pushrod guides. They even came with a set of new aluminum roller rockers. The price was downright reasonable and I pounced. Even after paying to ship them from Boise, it was a good deal.



Although the Aussie heads were supposedly fresh from the machine shop, I had my local shop check them out. They said it was an "Internet Job" and the work was less than stellar. They ended up replacing all the intake valves. I also provided a new set of valve springs from Bullet, which is where I ordered the cam.

I also had the machine shop precision balance the rotating assembly to include the balancer, flywheel and clutch. Here are all the parts ready for assembly.










For pistons, I went with Speed Pro hypereutectic. Forged Cleveland pistons were pretty expensive and also a bit hard to find. My machinist recommended these pistons. A lot of his customers had very good results with them and he said they're more than adequate for my needs. And they sure are pretty!

 

[Klutch]

The machine shop said the block was clean and ready for assembly. A quick check with a shop towel revealed some remaining grime.



So, it was time to give the block a good scrubbing.



While I scrubbing down the block, I noticed something lodged in cooling passage. I grabbed some pliers and yanked on it. Out came an old core plug! I made sure to remove all the core plugs when I tore down the engine. That means that core plug had been in there since the last rebuild.





I did some serious inspecting to make sure nothing else was hiding inside the block. I didn't find anything. Now it's ready for assembly.



Whenever possible, I like to install camshafts vertically. I had the machine shop install the new cam bearings. I lubed everything up and stabbed it in.

http://s1262.photobucket.com/user/ColoradoKlutch/media/Engine Build/017_zpsa70cb518.jpg.html

Now it's ready for the engine stand.



And with some help from my next door neighbors, it's on the stand.

 

[Klutch]

A check of the ring gap revealed it was well within the tolerance recommended by the manufacturer.



I used an assembly lube on the bearings. Although, I'm thinking it will be flushed away when I prime the oiling system.



The factory rod cap nuts on the 351 Cleveland were faulty. Many a Cleveland was trashed when a rod cap came off which gave the engine a bad reputation back in the 70s. My machinist said the cost would be only slightly more for new bolts as well. He prepped the rods and installed ARP fasteners.



Four pistons in, four to go.



My machinist told me to just wipe the cylinders and pistons with oil for assembly. I'm using Valvoline VR-1 just to make sure there's plenty of zinc around for initial startup.



To degree the cam, I ordered a Lunati degree wheel, dial indicator and a crank socket. This was a lot of expense only to confirm the cam was spot-on. But I suppose it's best to be sure.



I used a Lunati billet dual roller timing set. It's really spiffy.



I had to order a new oil pump drive anyway and went with a high performance example. I'm sure the factory shafts are fine. But this thing appears to be unbreakable.



When assembling an engine, I've had good results with packing oil pump with petroleum jelly. It stays put until I'm ready to prime the engine. And it dissolves in the oil when it gets hot.



Note to self: The washer on the oil drive shaft goes toward the top of the block to keep it from coming out when the distributor is removed. (Or, wait, is the other way around?)



Yeah, I think I got it right.

I used an adjustable pushrod to determine the proper valve geometry. I've read horror stories about trashed engines from bad valve geometry and wanted to get this right. Once I had the right length, I ordered hardened pushrods from Crane.



My camshaft came with some assembly grease.





The roller rockers I got with my Aussie heads were actually Big Block Chevrolet rockers. While those will work on a Cleveland, the ratio isn't quite right. I ordered a set of aluminum rockers from Lunati. They're really spiffy!



Since my Mach 1 is a shaker car, my intake manifold options were limited. I didn't want to mess with lowering the engine. I went with the regular Edelbrock Performer. This is a 4-barrel intake that matches up to the Cleveland 2V ports. I went back and forth as to whether I wanted to leave it bare aluminum or paint it. I ended painting it look more like a factory intake. I'm still not sure if I did the right thing here.



Before I got the Boss valve covers, I had the factory steel valve covers powder coated. I provided a paint sample, but the powder coat still didn't match the paint. And the steel valve covers wouldn't fit over the roller rockers anyway. Live and learn.



With over 250,000 miles on it, the factory distributor was in bad shape. It was really stiff. I could barely turn it by hand. I sent it to Glazier/Nolan with a copy of my cam card. When I talked to Dan at G/N about it, he said, "That thing was knarly!" Fortunately, he was able to get it rebuilt and dialed in on a Sun machine.

http://s1262.photobucket.com/user/ColoradoKlutch/media/Engine Build/012_zpsef596578.jpg.html

It's coming together. I have yet to order a carburetor. There's no hurry as it's going to be awhile before I install the engine. But I talked to Quick Fuel. They can build me a carb ready to go for my car at my altitude. I'll probably go with a Quick Fuel.

 

[69SlowResto]

Awesome thread Klutch...keep at it. I followed along on the other site so its good to see you still making progress.

Cheers

Lee

 

[Wiz998]

Thanks for the encouragement, guys. Yes, I have a build thread over at 69Stang. I started it there because I was following Buckeye Demopeld thread there. (Hands down winner for "World's Greatest Mustang Build Thread Ever". )

Although I received a few comments at 69Stang, I stopped updating it because there didn't seem to be much interest. Since my skills aren't anything spectacular, and my car is just an H-Code, I didn't think anyone would be interested in my build. But a few people here on VMF said they were interested. So, I'm giving it a go.

I was wondering what to your build thread over there. That is true buckeye does have the best build thread. My build over here is dying but on 69stang i got more people interest and my car is just a plain f code. Good to see your back at.