Another Mustang Purchase.. and no we didn't buy another Mustang

Today we manged to purchase wheels and tires for the '67. Mike was doing his usual KSL browse for Mustang Parts and noticed some Crager wheels and tires listed for $500. Cragers are popular styled wheels which usually sell for much more than $500. Long story short, we ended up not being able to pass up that good of a deal. In fact... we were able to buy them for only $440.

As you all recall, a previous entry showed pictures of the wheels I was planning on putting on my car... well not anymore. It is amazing how quickly things can change in a restoration. Maybe someday I will change the wheels out and go with the ones I was originally planning on... but for now we are going with Cragers.

We actually bought them from a guy in American Fork who knows Mike's parents. We didn't discover that till later in our conversation. He was talking about some people he knows who restored a pace car. W didn't realize at the time that he was talking about Mike's parents pace car. It was funny once we realized who he was talking about. Once he knew we were Eppersons, he could finally understand how we have so many mustangs.

The wheels are in really good shape and the tires are almost new. I think they have like 500 miles on them. The tread is very good. So now for the moment you have been all waiting for... Pictures!!

This next picture is of a '67 with my tires. This will give you somewhat of an idea as to what my car will look like. Except there will be a white stripe down the side... and the chances of me ever getting a picture of it in front of a palm tree is slim. Either way... you get the point.

Front Suspension (Day 15)

We headed out to the garage for a little bit tonight. It wasn't as long as we usually are out in the garage... but we made the best of what little time we had. Mike worked on taking off the front suspension. There is still more front end suspension to come off... but we will have to save that for another night. Here are some pictures from his excursion. The driver's side front stabilizer bar's bushings bolt (That is what Mike said it was called, I was ready just to call it the suspension thingy) was bent. The passenger side was fine. Luckily, the suspension kit I bought has a replacement of this.

Mike had a hard time getting the passenger side strut rod off. It took a torque wrench, a few bad words, and some broken tools to get it off. Actually only one tool broke... a screw driver. He was very relieved when he finally got that part off.

He was also able to get the steering all taken apart tonight. A fair amount got done, but we didn't get out to the garage until 8 pm to start working. Next time we will hopefully get out here sooner and have more time to get things done. I guess we will see.

Inspiration for my car

We went to Steamboat Springs Colorado this weekend for a car show. It was a ton of fun. While at the show I spent a fair amount of time among the 1967 Mustangs looking for ideas for my car. Here are my thoughts...

Steering Wheels....the 1967 steering wheels are not very cute. The picture below is the steering wheel that my car had. I am not a fan of the big center cushion thing. It just looks odd. I was hoping to find an after market steering wheel... preferably a black one. I am not having any luck. I actually really like the '64-'66 steering wheels but I don't think I would chance putting one of those on. The reason being that people will look at my car at shows and comment about how big of an idiot the owner was because they put the wrong year steering wheel on. I honestly don't want to have to explain to everyone that it was something done on purpose. So I am still keeping an eye out for steering wheels but there is a good chance I will end up sticking to the original steering wheel in my car.

The next thing I looked at was the rear valance. My car was originally single exhaust, but we will be putting duel exhaust so the car can breath better. There are a few options for the rear valance and where the exhaust comes out. The top picture is a car with the exhaust pipes hidden. The bottom picture is the pipes pointing down and sticking out ever so slightly. I am thinking of going with the bottom picture. I like being able to see the exhaust pipes, but I don't like them to dominate the rear of the car.

The next thing I paid attention to is the wheels. My car came with hubcaps but we all know how the frustrations of losing the darn things. So Mike convinced me to go with styled steel wheels. This was an upgrade option for this year so I don't feel too bad putting them on. The middle of the style steel wheels for '67 was blue. I am actually going to put red centers so it matches the car better. Below is a picture of the wheels I will be putting on my car.

The other thing I paid attention to were stripes on the sides of cars. My car had stripes down the side which was something the dealer put on before selling it. I took a couple pictures of different cars with different stripes... but I think this picture is the best match for what my stripes will be like. The top picture is the car at the show that I believe matches the stripes on my car (the bottom picture). Its hard to tell... but I call this a match! Another interesting thing to note is that the top car is Candy Apple Red... the same color as my car in the bottom picture. Interesting to compare the color quality of pictures in the late '60's to today's quality. My car looks more orange in the picture but it was the same color.

That was the majority of what I looked at... and what I took pictures of. It was good being able to go out and get some ideas. It helped me make up my mind on a few things. It also got me very excited for my car to get done.

Finally on the Cart (Day 14)

So Mike went out and worked in the garage tonight. I spent most of the night getting some things ready for our Steamboat Springs trip we are taking in a couple days. I eventually headed out to the garage with my laptop and worked on my book while Mike worked on the car. Mike's goal tonight was to get the car onto the cart.
This is the cart. It is like the cart the factory would have had the car on going down the assembly line. With the car on this, Mike was able to take off all the suspension and the axles and all that fun stuff. We didn't have a jack that would lift the car high enough to allow this to roll under (Of course it couldn't be that easy) so we decided to take the wheels off it, which my ingenious plan :-)This is how Mike improvised and was able to get more clearance. I didn't think it looked very safe but no one died or got seriously hurt so I guess it worked out.This is once we got the car onto the cart. The next step was to jack the car back up and put the wheels back onto the cart.Finally we got the wheels back on the cart and the car set down on it. This will make life a lot easier from here on out.And last but not least, this has been our setup the past couple times in the garage. Mike does all the dirty work and I setup my computer out there and work on my restoration book. Mike is glad not to have to keep finding little projects for me, and I am glad not to be getting all greasy. It works out well.

Continuing Tear-Down Day 13

We were out in the garage again. Mike did all the work today. I took my computer out and worked on the book I am making out of this blog. It was nice being out there to keep him company but knowing I was not in the way. I will probably end up out there with the computer more often. It is going to take awhile to get all the blog entries converted into a book.

Mike first removed the quarter panel extensions. We found some huge bee hives in there.

Mike removed the rest of the wiring. He also got the gas tank disconnected and unbolted, the driver side interior air vent removed, as well as the windshield washer pedal out.

Mike removing the Emergency Brake handle

Last but not least, he started getting things ready so he can removed the rear axle

We are taking a couple days break due to Mike running the Utah Valley Marathon tomorrow. Come Sunday we plan to get back out to the garage to get more done.

Day 12 Back to work!

So we finally made it back out to the garage to work on the car again. I am just getting anxious to get it done. Plus I figure we needed to take advantage of it being cooler in the garage and get as much done. Soon it will be very hot and stuffy in there.

Mike started out by taking off the trim around the door. Luckily the trim came off nice and easy and didn't get hurt. Apparently it is very expensive to replace.
Next he took out the back side windows and the side paneling. In the back passenger side we found a little green plastic ruler and also a folded up piece of paper. We are hoping it is the broadcast sheet from the factory. I made Mike leave it in the bathroom while he took a hot shower hoping the steam would help be able to unfold it. Mike is in there working on it right now.

Mike also took the side scoops out. I guess those have to be painted separate from the car.

Then Mike started taking apart the dash. This is when he first got started on it.

This is the after picture. He took out all the wiring and everything in the dash. We were able to save a middle pad in the dash which they don't reproduce. Lucky for me, that piece was still in very good shape. We also discovered the dash pad was maroon... not red. Good to know!
We got a decent bit done tonight. I am happy to be back to working on the car. Hopefully we can stick to it and get it done. I ordered a bunch of mustang parts catalogs and have been comparing prices on parts. I made a spread sheet and listed all the parts we need and the prices from different places. That way when we go to buy the parts... we will be sure we are getting the best deal possible. Plus I have been working on getting financing together to afford the rest of the restoration. So far things are looking pretty good.

Update: Mike just came out and said the paper is not the broadsheet. Not sure what exactly it is because it is too far gone to tell... but there was a flower design on it which you wouldn't find on a broadsheet. Oh well. It would have been neat to find that.