Cleaning & Painting Steering Box Area

My steering box and the area around it are covered in grease and grime. This weekend, I'm working to completely clean and paint the steering box. Once the steering box is done, I hope to clean and paint the framerail under the steering box.

I cleaned the top of the box a little a few weeks ago. I was more passing time than working to completely clean it. The area I plan to address is shown in the picture below.



I managed to obtain a few pictures of the back of the steering box before starting. The part number on the box is C6ZR3550A and the date code is 7C7. This indicates this is the correct steering box for my Mustang.

There was a tag on top of the steering box which I recently removed. I cleaned it up with WD-40 and a piece of steel wool. Once the box is painted, I'll reinstall the tag.

Rebuilding Driver Door Hinges (Part 2)

I installed the lower hinge on the door yesterday morning. I opened/closed the door and the door no longer drops slightly when open. I then rolled up the window and was able to shut the door without the window contacting the quarter window.

I removed the upper hinge and rebuilt it in the same manner as the lower hinge. This hinge was easier to rebuild but took a little longer to strip the paint and rust from the hinge.

I installed the upper hinge this afternoon and adjusted the door. Oddly enough, once the top hinge was installed, the door started to sag again. I realigned the door and it now shuts properly. The body lines are not perfect and the door seems a little high. I would drop the whole door a little but I want to wait to see how the front fender lines up first.

Since the window now rolls up, I spent a little time cleaning up the dust which accumulated in the interior of the Mustang. I made a little cover for the cowl vent on the passenger side, installed the glovebox, installed the A/C parts I recently cleaned, and then put in the cluster I rebuilt in November. It was nice to see something go back together as it seems I'm aways taking things apart.

Rebuilding Driver Door Hinges (Part 1)

I've needed to rebuild the driver door hinges for a long time now. The hinges need to be rebuilt as they allow the door to sag slightly. This causes the driver door window to contact the quarter window when fully rolled up. Additionally, the latch which holds the driver door open is completely worn down. Since the fender is off, now is the best time as it is easy to reach all the bolts.

I decided to rebuild the hinges due to the cost of reproduction hinges. The top hinge on a '67 is $72.95 and the lower hinge is $63.50. The rebuild kit for a door (two hinges) was about $15 which is significantly cheaper. While I might think better of it later, my budget currently demands that I rebuild the existing hinges.

My plan was to keep the door closed and remove one hinge at a time. I started with the lower hinge and marked the location of the hinge on both the pilar and door. I then took pictures of the hinges and door gaps. I then removed the lower hinge and started the rebuilding process.

The most difficult part was removing the pins from the hinge. This literally took at least two hours total. I soaked the pins in PBlaster and then used a hammer and old bolt to punch out the pins. The hardest was one pin which was sealed on the bottom. The only way I could remove it was to use a hammer and flat head screw driver to get the pin off.

Once the pins were out, I used a wire wheel to clean up the hinge. I then put about four coats of Krylon primer on each of the pieces. I also took this time to clean the surface rust from where the hinge mounted and coated it with rust converter.

I then attempted to reinstall the pins. I used a hammer and covered the end of the pin with a towel to keep from damaging the end of the pin. The process worked great until the final pin when I hit my thumb with the hammer. I squeezed it tightly and waited for the pain to go away and noticed a large amount of blood coming from between my fingers. Ends up, I split open my thumb by sandwiching it between the hammer and door hinge. I suppose this is the blood part of the blood, sweat, and tears.

I'll need to wait 48 hours for the rust converter to completely seal the rust where the hinge mounts. Once this is done, I'll install the lower hinge and rebuild the top hinge. The top hinge should be easier as it has one pin rather than the three the lower hinge had.

Bending Brake Lines (Part 3)

I finished bending and flaring the brake line from the proportioning valve to the driver brake. This side was very difficult to complete. To be honest, I wasted four 30" brake lines attempting to complete this side. Based on my experience, I hope to avoid bending any additional brake lines in the future. This situation was unavoidable as the brake parts I selected did not allow for me to select a prebent kit.

The driver side required a little additional work to bend the line properly. Adding to the complexity, I was unable to flare the line correctly. I'm not certain if this is because of the type tool I used (it looks to be common style) or my lack of experience. Either way, the job is now done.

I removed all the lines and am storing them in the closet until the engine bay is painted. The only portion of the job remaining is to locate some brackets to hold down the brake lines. The factory style bracket is pictured below. There are bracket kits sold by Mustang part vendors but they are $15 for a couple of brackets. I'm still checking hardware and auto part stores for something which would work and be inexpensive.

New Fan Spacer

I purchased an original style fan spacer for use on my Mustang this week. The spacer is actually from a 1968 Mustang (notice the C8AE-E cast into the base). However, the fan spacer looks almost identical to the size used in '67 and is the same size as the one previously on my car.

The spacer was already media blasted and arrived ready for paint. I primed the part and then painted it with Plasti-Kote 282 Cast Aluminum paint. The piece is now ready for installation.