1968 Mustang

After posting in the 1966 Mustang thread and getting badgered to start my own, this is it.
Will post a few pics and try to get the story from purchase to now, but before you read on, remember it's not a show car with a flash paint job, this is just bargain basement American V8 fun.

Started out by chance spotting an advert on FB marketplace, it was cheap (very cheap) the car was miles away and looked awful in the pics especially under the bonnet (read project) and hence was up for sale for ages. I don't know what drew me in but I think the lowered stance and black Weller rims made this stand out from all the girly chrome shiny wire wheel classic Mustangs - plus being up for sale for a while means possible chance of a bargain.
Had a chat via messenger, none of that "whats your lowest" but agreed to drive 100 miles for a look with the intention of just learning all the bad things about classic Mustangs.
Got there and was promptly thrown the keys and told take my time. It was way better in real life and there was a ton of goodies on it not mentioned in the advert like 9" rear diff, Edelbrock RPM top end kit inc aluminium heads, cam, MSD etc (I had factored in to buy this stuff at a later date so to find it already fitted was a winner)

Advert photos, that engine bay !


Anyway it turns out the poor guy was so busy he had no time to upload new advert photos and used engine bay pics from when he imported it from the states.
He'd spent many months sorting the brakes, interior and engine bay and fitting a custom exhaust. There were a couple of paint bubbles but underneath was solid original metal including the torque boxes and no underseal hiding nasty holes.
We had a good haggle on the price which included getting a spare 351W block thrown in (from the garage he worked at) but I still drove home without shaking on the deal - you know the rules don't buy the first one you go and look at.
That night after playing back a video of it starting & running (sounds amazing) I phoned him back and sent a deposit !

So excited about owning a real American V8, day one of ownership not so good though



Got the wife to drop me over to pick it up, thought it would be a great shakedown road trip home.....that V8 roar through the first few tunnels was awesome. Thing is with old cars you always watch the instruments, I could see the temp climbing into the red on the dual carriageway about 10 miles into the journey home. Pulled into services and the radiator boiled over, let it cool, filled it, got another 10 miles and repeat.
I rang the guy I bought it from, I was not angry but was asking him questions if he knew what it was, the test drive was fine and he had spent months commuting a few miles to work in it, just not enough to get it fully up to temp. I scavenged a big water container from a skip and tried to work out if I could get home, did another couple of 10 mile stints but the thing it it's now Friday afternoon rush hour and 100 miles from Ramsgate in Kent to Woking via the M25 with a boiling engine is not ideal so I called Auto Aid and within 1/2 an hour we are on a flatbed hitting the M25 and I'm saving petrol.

Stateside auto may be able to help with parts, been working with them to get parts for my LS build

http://www.statesideautoparts.co.uk/

Exactly, anyway it's time to step back and look at what I have bought, the drive home showed the speedo over reads, and a bit of maths converting GPS to rpm works out that there must be a 3.73 ratio rear diff (nice), so it needs a different cog in the cable. It also sits at a not so lazy 3000 rpm on the motorway so drinks fuel (and gets hot). Causes of overheating can be timing, water pump, radiator, pipes or worse gaskets so it's out with the timing gun. The ignition is MSD and the vacuum advance is blocked off so it's just mechanical, it looks like it's all in at 2000 rpm so I'm timing it at 36 degrees at 2500rpm (it was miles out).



Still overheating, next is check for a spring in the radiator hose (they can collapse under high rpm) and it's missing so install one, still overheating.
Waterpump is already an upgraded Edelbrock, you can see the water flowing when the thermostat is open, also radiator has a digital electronic fan and that's fine, strange thing is I notice that the radiator itself feels cold in places when when the engine is up to temp so it's going to be easiest to swap that out as new aluminium ones are only ~£100 on eBay.



I'm still looking at the spare boat anchor 351 block that came with this car, the intention was maybe to rebuild it but looking at the current 289 that's installed its becoming apparent that a few quid has been spent on it, it pulls like a train and the decision was made to ebay the spare block, the cash will be useful to cover the increasing shopping list of parts and I really don't fancy changing all the bits when you use the bigger block.



So block sold, and while swapping the old rad the lower outlet was full of stalactites - mineral deposits hanging from the tubes, it looks like they don't use antifreeze in the USA so the minerals eventually have blocked the rad. New one in and wow it's just perfect now sitting at a steady 180F all the time.

Great news mate. It will be worth taking your time to get to know the car and bringing it up to scratch over time. It looks great.

Looks great, engine looks like it's had alloy heads and intake plopped on so should make good power.
A suggestion though is run a high level of anti freeze (40%-50%) as this'll prevent any corrsion issues cropping up especially in the heads.

I'm loving the look but there are loads of fiddly bits that need looking at, the indicator stalk needs to be held in position to work, luckily parts seem easy to source and a new turn cam thing is easy enough to replace.



Also missing a few bits of interior and flywheel cover, lots of little things to get stuck into.



It's running like a dream now and down the pub there is talk of a local charity hill climb and after a few beers I decide to sign up, it's a ballot entry and of course we get in so even though it's still tatty we tape up the headlights and have a blast. We got three runs up the hill and left a huge 11 in rubber for about 75 metres - it's a locking diff - excellent One of the best days ever !



During the day in the paddock loads of Mustang guys come for a chat, one shows me his lovely fastback in the spectator car park where the paint job alone was £8k and I'm thinking my whole car was only a fraction more than that. He was too scared to enter and take his up the hill and as we were having that conversation I'm pulling bits of straw bale out of my bumpers that we clipped on the way up - I'm thinking more and more just to drive it and enjoy it as is rather than an expensive restoration job.

Excellent sleuthing with the street view pic! Looks fab. Where was the hillclimb event?

Great thread, love the Mustang. I owned a 68 coupe as my first Mustang over 20 years ago. Only sold it to get my 67 fastback, otherwise would probably still have it today.

Love the fact your keeping it as it is, looks like it will give you plenty of fun!

Awesome