1965 Mustang Fastback
Discussion
Don't worry yourself too much! If they're aftermarket they'll usually be tubular and quite obvious, the standard manifolds are small cast items.
It's surprising how quiet a standard car is, mine's completely original and has brand new silencers in the rear section, so it needs opening up for sure!
It's surprising how quiet a standard car is, mine's completely original and has brand new silencers in the rear section, so it needs opening up for sure!
Today I took the car out to a Classic Car meet near home and have now driven the Mustang about 75 miles in total.
Weather permitting I’ll be at Caffeine and Machine tomorrow evening as it’s close to home
Untitled by Alex L, on Flickr
I also turned 39 today and decided to test whether my lsd worked, it did..
Untitled by Alex L, on Flickr
Weather permitting I’ll be at Caffeine and Machine tomorrow evening as it’s close to home
Untitled by Alex L, on FlickrI also turned 39 today and decided to test whether my lsd worked, it did..
Untitled by Alex L, on FlickrEdited by Alex L on Wednesday 2nd September 15:16
The Mustang is off for a once over next week as it's got a small oil weep from the pressure sender and now the rear axle is leaking too. Thankfully there's a place local to me that fettles Mustangs and Cobras for racing, so they'll be undertaking a compression test and generally making sure it's in good health.
It was ThunderBolt night at Caffeine and Machine yesterday so had to take the Mustang, not a massive turnout of Americana or Hot Rods but a great evening all the same. I was pleased to be ushered into a plinth parking spot on the bank and hopefully some decent photos will appear on social media soon.
The former photo I lazily took from my bench (note matching wheelie bin) and the second photo was courtesy of C&M from their Facebook/Instagram
Untitled by Alex L, on Flickr
Untitled by Alex L, on Flickr
It was ThunderBolt night at Caffeine and Machine yesterday so had to take the Mustang, not a massive turnout of Americana or Hot Rods but a great evening all the same. I was pleased to be ushered into a plinth parking spot on the bank and hopefully some decent photos will appear on social media soon.
The former photo I lazily took from my bench (note matching wheelie bin) and the second photo was courtesy of C&M from their Facebook/Instagram
Untitled by Alex L, on FlickrUntitled by Alex L, on FlickrEdited by Alex L on Thursday 10th September 13:21
The car was with Richard from https://rw-racing.com/ for a few days last week for him to give it the once over. Richard produced a comprehensive list of jobs that needed doing, most of which are now complete. I was expecting a few maintenance items as it's an old car and the list below was Richard's findings
1. Front brakes are the wrong ones for the car and will never work as they should I would suggest that we order some correct brakes and fit once here.
2. Rear Brakes the brake shoes have been fitted wrong easy fix we have to remove one side anyway
3. LH rear axle seal leaking we will replace the seal and possibly bearing as does sound slightly rough
4. exhaust has an internal rattle and also rear silencer on LH is hitting the spring we need to take exhaust off to see what rattling inside and then reposition it to clear spring.
5. there is a slight oil leak on engine we are going to clean it off and then run it to locate it
6. one front wheel bearing is noisy so we will check that out.
7. There is a lot of play in the steering idler arm I hope it will tighten up to cure it
8. various wires that need tiding up that are close to exhaust etc. in engine bay
9. heater fan needs looking at as very noisy
10. new bulb in reversing light
11. suggest bleeding the brakes as very spongy pedal.
Before I bought the car I was told it had a partial engine rebuild with new piston rings but for completeness I asked Richard to undertake a compression test. What I wasn't expecting was an email saying "The cylinder that is down on compression is approx 40psi down from others other 7 cylinders are around 170 psi which is what you would expect but one cylinder is 130psi"
Richard stuck a camera into cylinder one and appears that a ring had broken and scored the cylinder.
I informed Peter at American Classic Cars (who sold me the car) who was straight on the phone to Richard and discussed sending the car back to his engine builder to put it right. Clearly this wasn't something I was keen to do when they obviously didn't do a great job in the first place. Peter agreed and the next email I received was from Peter confirming he'd ordered a brand new crate 302 engine from Rock Auto. I've got to pay for the removal of the old 289 and fitting/setting up and dyno of the new engine which will probably be in the region of £2,500 but I've also got a new engine, so can't say fairer than that (assuming the fitting all goes to plan). The engine was ordered on Friday evening from Wisconsin and arrived with me today by Fedex!
Looks like the Mustang will be out of action for a couple of weeks but should be in fine health for spring when I get it out of the Carcoon.
1. Front brakes are the wrong ones for the car and will never work as they should I would suggest that we order some correct brakes and fit once here.
2. Rear Brakes the brake shoes have been fitted wrong easy fix we have to remove one side anyway
3. LH rear axle seal leaking we will replace the seal and possibly bearing as does sound slightly rough
4. exhaust has an internal rattle and also rear silencer on LH is hitting the spring we need to take exhaust off to see what rattling inside and then reposition it to clear spring.
5. there is a slight oil leak on engine we are going to clean it off and then run it to locate it
6. one front wheel bearing is noisy so we will check that out.
7. There is a lot of play in the steering idler arm I hope it will tighten up to cure it
8. various wires that need tiding up that are close to exhaust etc. in engine bay
9. heater fan needs looking at as very noisy
10. new bulb in reversing light
11. suggest bleeding the brakes as very spongy pedal.
Before I bought the car I was told it had a partial engine rebuild with new piston rings but for completeness I asked Richard to undertake a compression test. What I wasn't expecting was an email saying "The cylinder that is down on compression is approx 40psi down from others other 7 cylinders are around 170 psi which is what you would expect but one cylinder is 130psi"
Richard stuck a camera into cylinder one and appears that a ring had broken and scored the cylinder.
I informed Peter at American Classic Cars (who sold me the car) who was straight on the phone to Richard and discussed sending the car back to his engine builder to put it right. Clearly this wasn't something I was keen to do when they obviously didn't do a great job in the first place. Peter agreed and the next email I received was from Peter confirming he'd ordered a brand new crate 302 engine from Rock Auto. I've got to pay for the removal of the old 289 and fitting/setting up and dyno of the new engine which will probably be in the region of £2,500 but I've also got a new engine, so can't say fairer than that (assuming the fitting all goes to plan). The engine was ordered on Friday evening from Wisconsin and arrived with me today by Fedex!
Looks like the Mustang will be out of action for a couple of weeks but should be in fine health for spring when I get it out of the Carcoon.
Edited by Alex L on Tuesday 22 September 12:12
8bit said:
Well done sir, this is beautiful! I love the colour, too. Looking forward to the updates.
Thanks 8bit.I forgot to mention that it appears to not get out of 2nd gear, which probably explains why it's been rather thirsty. I'm told it's an easy fix.....
The joys of classic car ownership and I look forward to getting my 2 speed V7 Mustang back to a 3 speed V8.
Alex L said:
Today I took the car out to a Classic Car meet near home and have now driven the Mustang about 75 miles in total.
Weather permitting I’ll be at Caffeine and Machine tomorrow evening as it’s close to home
Untitled by Alex L, on Flickr
I also turned 39 today and decided to test whether my lsd worked, it did..
Untitled by Alex L, on Flickr
Was that Bicester Heritage? I think I saw you Weather permitting I’ll be at Caffeine and Machine tomorrow evening as it’s close to home
Untitled by Alex L, on FlickrI also turned 39 today and decided to test whether my lsd worked, it did..
Untitled by Alex L, on FlickrEdited by Alex L on Wednesday 2nd September 15:16
Alex L said:
Before I bought the car I was told it had a partial engine rebuild with new piston rings but for completeness I asked Richard to undertake a compression test. What I wasn't expecting was an email saying "The cylinder that is down on compression is approx 40psi down from others other 7 cylinders are around 170 psi which is what you would expect but one cylinder is 130psi"
Richard stuck a camera into cylinder one and appears that a ring had broken and scored the cylinder.
I informed Peter at American Classic Cars (who sold me the car) who was straight on the phone to Richard and discussed sending the car back to his engine builder to put it right. Clearly this wasn't something I was keen to do when they obviously didn't do a great job in the first place. Peter agreed and the next email I received was from Peter confirming he'd ordered a brand new crate 302 engine from Rock Auto. I've got to pay for the removal of the old 289 and fitting/setting up and dyno of the new engine which will probably be in the region of £2,500 but I've also got a new engine, so can't say fairer than that (assuming the fitting all goes to plan). The engine was ordered on Friday evening from Wisconsin and arrived with me today by Fedex!
Looks like the Mustang will be out of action for a couple of weeks but should be in fine health for spring when I get it out of the Carcoon.
Painful, but sounds like a decent result by the sounds, I'm sure a crate 302 won't be cheap to get into the UK in the first place...Richard stuck a camera into cylinder one and appears that a ring had broken and scored the cylinder.
I informed Peter at American Classic Cars (who sold me the car) who was straight on the phone to Richard and discussed sending the car back to his engine builder to put it right. Clearly this wasn't something I was keen to do when they obviously didn't do a great job in the first place. Peter agreed and the next email I received was from Peter confirming he'd ordered a brand new crate 302 engine from Rock Auto. I've got to pay for the removal of the old 289 and fitting/setting up and dyno of the new engine which will probably be in the region of £2,500 but I've also got a new engine, so can't say fairer than that (assuming the fitting all goes to plan). The engine was ordered on Friday evening from Wisconsin and arrived with me today by Fedex!
Looks like the Mustang will be out of action for a couple of weeks but should be in fine health for spring when I get it out of the Carcoon.
What a lovely car though, I bet it's great for woofling about the A-roads.
Perfection.
One of these has been on the Must Own One Day list since I was a kid and I regularly find myself perving over them in the classifieds. They seem to be one of the few accessible classic cars these days. Do you mind letting me know roughly how much it cost to buy one in this condition?
One of these has been on the Must Own One Day list since I was a kid and I regularly find myself perving over them in the classifieds. They seem to be one of the few accessible classic cars these days. Do you mind letting me know roughly how much it cost to buy one in this condition?
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