Pedal Restoration

I started work on restoring the pedals from the Mustang this morning. It appears the bottom portion of the brake and clutch pedal were dipped in paint at the factory. The top part were left unfinished which caused them to be covered in a surface rust.

I started by replacing the pedal shaft on the brake pedal. It had work from years of use as shown in the picture below. I purchased a replacement shaft from CJ Pony parts a few days ago. The original had a tab which was press fitted into the brake pedal assembly and then hammered so it would flare out and not come lose. I welded the new one in place.



I used a wire wheel to remove all the old paint and surface rust from the pedals. Once they were ready for paint, I covered them in Rusoleum Rusty Metal Primer and then Krylon Satin Black paint. They turned out looking pretty good.



You will notice the actual pedal portion of the assembly in the picture above is different. I used rubber pads in the past which slide over the metal pads. The clutch one always falls off. I've used a few different things to glue it on but nothing works very well. I had some adhesive black grit paper which is normally used on stairs. It is really thin so I cut some to fit perfectly on the pad faces. I'll likely use them like this at first and if it does not work out, I can always reinstall the rubber pedal covers.

Underdash Wiring Restoration (Part 3)

I finished up the underdash wiring this evening. The last part of the task was not very difficult. I primarily needed to clean up a few wires, connect the door trigger for the alarm, and connect the parking light feed for the alarm.

In a few months, we are going to test my knowledge of the wiring system. It is not really difficult to connect up an alarm but it is much better to do so when you can test the wires in the vehicle before soldering everything together.

I used solder and heat shrink on any connection made in this wiring harness. This includes the new fuse block. I used mostly the electric friction tape which Ford originally used. However, I used some standard 3M electrical tape in other locations so the friction tape would not come unravelled.

I've already purchased a new ignition switch, headlight switch, door pins, and anything else I would need to complete the electrical system.

The completed wiring harness is shown in the picture below.

Wiper Motor & Bracket Restoration

I pulled out the wiper motor and mounting bracket back in September. A few weeks ago, I cleaned up the wiper motor and repainted the case with Krylon Satin Black. I did not do much more to the motor except clean it as I don't plan on needing it very much (I don't drive in the rain).

I finished stripping the motor mounting bracket yesterday morning. I primed it with Krylon Rusty Metal primer and then coated it with three coats of the Krylon Satin Black. I put back on the fasteners which I put a phosphate coating on a few weeks ago. Everything went back together with no trouble at all.

Underdash Wiring Restoraton (Part 2)

I started work on the underdash wiring today.

I started with cutting off the old fuse box. There are two constant circuits and two ignition circuits in the fuse box. Additionally, the dash illumination is passed through the fuse box for a total of five fuses.

The previous owner could not find the small tube fuse used for the dash illumination (notice it is the one in the middle which is smaller). To work around the problem, he just cut the wires from the back of the fuse box and put in his own in line fuse holder.



The first picture of the new fuse box I posted had a relay on the side. The relay took power from the constant side of the box and put it to the ignition side when small guage ignition wire received power. I took this off and used the stock contant and ignition feed from the ignition switch.



The work of splicing in the new fuse box was very straight forward. I went ahead and started refinishing the rest of the underdash wiring. I'm running new wiring for the radio, installing the alarm wiring, and running wires for the choke, tach, and fan. All the wiring is going to look as stock as possible as it will be in once loom.

I did not finish all the work today. I still have a little work to do at each end of the overall harness. However, the current state is shown in the following picture.

Removal of Steering Box for Rebuild

I've wanted to have the steering box rebuilt by Stanger (http://www.stangersite.com/) for a while now. Unfortunately, I've it takes a couple of months to have the job done. Since I don't expect to finish this project until at least the end of March, I decided to go ahead and have the steering box rebuilt.

In order to remove the steering box, I first needed to take out the driver side exhaust manifold and z bar. The exhaust manifold on my car are very unique. It appears someone took a shorty style headerm, cut it where the primary tubes meet, and then just welded the exhaust solid from that point to the tailpipe. As a result, I needed to cut the exhaust near the bellhousing so I could remove the manifold.

It took a little while to find a way to remove the exhaust. It was obviously not made for the car so it was a very tight fit. However, I did get the exhaust removed. It has 1 5/8" primary tubes which are of unequal length. The exhaust on the car is 2 1/4" outer diameter. The only identifying mark on the exhaust is the number 603 09 02 on the exhaust flange.



Once the exhaust was out of the way, I removed the steering box. I was able to pull it out through the area right beside the head. I did not need to remove the export brace or anything. The job was no doubt made easier by the fact there was no floorboard in the way so the long shaft could move around inside the car without any interferance.

I sent Stanger an email and then packed the steering box up for shipment. I'll wait until I hear back from him before shipping it off. I'd like to make sure he has time to do the rebuild before spending the money to ship it to him in San Antonio.



01/03/11 - I received an email back from Randy (Stanger) this morning stating he is still rebuilding steering boxes. He said he would be able to get to mine in early February. I shipped it to him for $21 at UPS.