My Father and I harnessed “Old Blue” behind the John Deer and pulled it from a barn two weeks ago. This will be my Mom’s weekend cruiser. We dusted off eleven years of accumulative dust from the blue epoxy primer. Beneath the patina is a fairly solid 1965 Fastback. The VIN, 5R09C2XXXXX reveals that this one was born in San Jose California, and was originally equipped with a two barrel 289.
Unfortunately the high performance air filter is a just for show. The intake manifold stamping indicates that the engine originated from a 66, so this isn’t the original C code engine. I’m told the engine ran with a knock, which went away after warm-up. As depicted in the photographs, it’s a leaker. A previous owner added long tube headers and dual exhaust. The front floor supports were crushed, so someone was improperly jacking up the car. There is some floor rust. The car is already equipped with 620 coils and a monte carlo bar.
The C code Fastback has the 5-gauge cluster dash and the pony door lights, indicating that it was a factory pony interior car. It originally came with red and white interior. From what I can tell from the overspray, the exterior was silver blue. The interior was partially restored to black. The seats were reupholstered, but a lot of the red interior components like the kick and door panels were simply painted over. The interior will need some tlc, but it’s a solid foundation.
The car currently has an automatic C4, but judging by the clutch pedal return spring hanging on the pedal box and a wad of tape lodged into the clutch firewall hole, I’d guess this was originally a manual transmission car.
I’m sure more history about the car will be revealed through disassembly. This won’t be a fancy or full rotisserie restoration. The car will be a decent cruiser for my Mom; so it must be reliable with some modern mechanical upgrades for safety. We are thinking 260-290 carbureted horsepower 289, power steering, electric fan, tandem master cylinder, front disc brakes, air conditioning, GT sway bar, mid eye leafs, and my Mom prefers a manual, so T5 it is! Paint and rims to be determined.
A solid fastback with a V8 and (originally) manual transmission! As said above, many would be envious of such as starting point. And your mother is wayyyyy cool for planning to use that as a daily driver. We want to see the progress on this. Good luck with the restoration:thumbsup::thumbsup:
I first saw the car about twenty years ago driving around town a few times. I didn’t know the owner. I moved away for College while a distant family member purchased the Fastback and used it as a daily driver for about five years. They parked it around 2006 where it remained untouched until December of 2017. It’s now going to be Mom’s cool Mustang. ☺
My Father and I pulled the drivetrain. I didn’t plug the speedometer port on the C4 housing, hence the tranny fluid puddle on the floor. My Bad. Learning.
Pressure washed with hot water. Moving onto pulling the driver side fresh air vent assembly, pedal box, and fruit jar master cylinder.
It looks like someone did a custom modification to the pedal box. The bearing had some play in it. We will swap for another pedal box that I pulled from a rusted out T code coupe.
Consider at least some sort of fuel injection, it is so nice to get in the car and no matter the temp it starts and runs smoothly.
On my wife's 66fb I did the chock o stang front disc kit. My wife's car is like yours, a San Jose built c code 3 speed that at some point had a c4 put in. The car currently has a gt40p injected and 4r70w.
Keep posting, looking forward to the updates.
Consider at least some sort of fuel injection, it is so nice to get in the car and no matter the temp it starts and runs smoothly.
On my wife's 66fb I did the chock o stang front disc kit. My wife's car is like yours, a San Jose built c code 3 speed that at some point had a c4 put in. The car currently has a gt40p injected and 4r70w.
Keep posting, looking forward to the updates.
Thanks for the feedback. We may do EFI in the future, but the plan for now is to transplant new and unused parts off my Fastback and use some parts that my father already has. Once on the road, I'm sure my Mom will customize further.
I spent the weekend pulling the fresh air vent and heater box. I media blasted and painted the pedal box.
I installed the Scott Drake roller bearing. I was worried about reinstalling the pedal box with the steering column in the way, but the process was relatively easy after a couple of trials. I bolted the pedal box with the clutch spring attached. I greased the roller bearings with white lithium grease; followed by installing the brake pedal, clutch pedal, washer, and cotter pin. Without the clutch stop attached, I was able to lift the clutch pedal towards the dash allowing me to attach the clutch return spring to the clutch pedal with ease. Last, I installed the clutch pedal stop bracket.
I wire brushed the cowl vents and applied Por-15. Fresh air vent was so rusty and gummed up that it was frozen shut. I disassembled; media blasted, primed, and painted. A little grease and its almost as good as new.
May Dad and I pulled the wiring harness, dried, and sanded the engine bay.
My Dad welded up the small tear in the RH side frame rail. Looks like the RH front apron was replaced in the past. We primed and painted with Eastwood satin chassis black paint. Nothing fancy, but should be a decent daily driver.
The plan is to restore and install one of these full-length consoles. Researching the required and missing parts. Meanwhile, I started on installing a new Classic Auto Air “Perfect Fit Series” in-dash unit. My Dad purchased the AC back around 2004 for another vehicle, but it was never installed so its going in this Fastback. This system uses cables rather than electric monitors. Moving forward.
Is the car's original Warranty Plate still attached to the driver door? Just wondering what the build date may be because I see that you have early '65 engine mounts and your 1" wide rear interior trim does not have the separate end caps that the earliest fastbacks had. How about a photo of the trunk lid torsion rod, especially the right end, because there was an early and a late version of it.
Is the car's original Warranty Plate still attached to the driver door? Just wondering what the build date may be because I see that you have early '65 engine mounts and your 1" wide rear interior trim does not have the separate end caps that the earliest fastbacks had. How about a photo of the trunk lid torsion rod, especially the right end, because there was an early and a late version of it.
Unfortunately the door tag is missing. I haven't looked into the interior or trunk in great detail, but those are some great pointers. The back seat is original upholstery, so it had to come from another car since the majority of the interior is Pony red/white. The trim could have been possibly changed. More to look into once the drivetrain is in.
We transplanted the rebuilt drivetrain from my fastback. I don’t know all of the details, but the 289 was bored .030 over, has been upgraded with a mild Comp cam, anti-pump up hydraulic lifters, roller rockers, dual point distributor, and an Edelbrock Performer 4 barrel intake. The engine is backed by a 13-52-126 T5 transmission, which indicates that it originally came from an 85 GT Mustang, so it is a World Class spec. We are using a top loader bell housing, adapter plate, and the stock Z bar linkage.
Simultaneously, I made progress under the dash installing the Custom Auto Air controls, evaporator unit, and electrical wiring.
Unfortunately the door tag is missing. I haven't looked into the interior or trunk in great detail, but those are some great pointers. The back seat is original upholstery, so it had to come from another car since the majority of the interior is Pony red/white. The trim could have been possibly changed. More to look into once the drivetrain is in.
Since they didn't have build threads here at VMF when I started the project, quite a few years ago. I thought I'd start one as I revisit a lot of major components and systems on the car.
So the car has been driven a lot, except in the past year or so, while I've been tied up in a major home...
Since I lost the pics for the first 12 pages of my project, I have decided to start another thread, maybe some will learn from my mistakes. Each of us has our own vision and ideas of what we want and how we want to get to the end result. I'm the first to admit I would do a few things differently...
Hey guys I think it's time I document my build. My wife keeps on me about documenting it. I have owned the car since 1994/5 drove it very shortly as it needed floor boards and all new brakes. I had a wide open throttle incident which hurt the 302 that was in it. I pulled the 302 and being a...
So it begins....
Up until last Saturday I've been without a project car for 15 years and without a classic mustang for 20. My wife (after many home improvement projects) agreed that it was time to fill the barren third bay.
I was patient and knew what I wanted and finally landed a 1968 Coupe...
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