Somethingclever's operation 65 Mustang DD - built and bought

[somethingclever]

Since the site has been slow figured I would start a thread on a car I have owned for about 17 yrs and only moved it from garage to storage to my barn over the course of that time.

This will be a cliffs-notes thread since this process started 2 years ago and is nearing completion at this point.

The idea is to drive this car rain/shine 9 mos/yr.

Car is a nothing special 6cyl auto 7.5" rear axle low-option deal which meant I will do to it as I wish.

It is a true early production 64.5 car, however.

Original light blue (forget Ford name) with 2-tone blue interior.

Car was wearing approx 50% of it's original 50yr old paint and the other 50% was some primer from a PO who thought he was going to paint the car himself but had little to no body work experience. Luckily he didn't actually "fix" anything - just spray bombed some primer over the original paint.

When I bought the car it did not run but was mostly complete and I bought it for the paltry sum of $750! Quite a steal even 17yrs ago considering this is an original California car for most of it's life and the underneath was essentially rust free and you can cut your fingers on the original stamping of the rear wheel wells - original paint no rust no bondo. Hard to find even 17 yrs ago much less find it today. I took 1 look at it at night with a flash light, saw the floors and frame rails were perfect and bought it on the spot. I did end up getting it to run on a gas can shortly after I bought it but never actually drove it...although I don't see why it wouldn't have.

So an engineer friend of mine has been dabbling in body work and has painted a few vehicles over the last 8 yrs or so and has been begging me to paint this car since it was fairly straight and mostly rust free. He did just finish a basket case 67 mustang open track car which needed extensive metal replacement so he is certainly no rookie.

2 yrs ago he came over the house so we could head to Fords at Carlisle and he brought his trailer too...which meant it was time to load it up no more delay.

Here it is on the trailer ready to head to Ohio.

[somethingclever]

A couple weeks later I headed out to his place to help with some of the 2 person dismantling stuff - engine/trans/rear/doors/hood/glass...type stuff.

[somethingclever]

It's really nice to work on non-PA classics. I think on the entire car, only 1 bolt had to be cut to remove.

All other bolts just simply...........unscrewed.

[Dan B.]

It's no fun unless the torches come out!!

That reminds my....my o2 tank ran empty last weekend.....

[2000GT]

What is going to be you powertrain of choice? Coyote?

[somethingclever]

What is going to be you powertrain of choice? Coyote?

No.


This is operation KISS.

I will update with drivetrain pictures but it's nothing exotic.

[somethingclever]

I would enjoy the fuel mileage of the coyote no doubt - but the cost to purchase/install and the work to remove shock towers and install an M2 type front suspension had me stick to keeping it simple.



1964.5 specific seatbelt mounting:

[somethingclever]

He was doing some body work as the remainder of the car was torn down:

[somethingclever]

when the mice take over - probably not much fresh air coming through those "fresh air ducts"

[somethingclever]

minimal rust but dents and dings in some tricky spots:

[somethingclever]

doors were definitely not as solid as I had hoped....ended up reskinning the doors to maintain the original door shells and their fit-up with the car.

[somethingclever]

And then alot of work with the sander to remove the original paint:

[86GT]

Holy cow, cool beans. So maybe a turbo 2jz ? Or did the Tokyo drift car have something else?
what ever you put in it I’m sure it will be sweet judging by these pics.

[GOT SVT]

great post

keep on updating us

[PaxtonShelby]

keep the updates coming John!!

[2000GT]

Can't wait to see its progress!

[somethingclever]

For alot of yrs I had planned on a 2.3T Ferd but that lost it's luster for me.

Maybe if Bob and I were neighbors that would still get the nod.

[somethingclever]

Most of the wiring harness was untouched and in amazing shape for it's age.

These taillight wires looked like new and were flexible like new as well.

I decided to keep the original harness in the name of KISS and even planned to run the original generator (64.5 specific).

Through my learning it turns out there are quite a few differences in the wiring between 64.5 Gen cars and the later Alt cars.

There are also lots of resources providing direction on converting a GEN car to ALT.

The top pic is of the 64.5 specific bullet style connectors from the column to the main harness.

[somethingclever]

Trunk we thought was perfect....just a little scale rust.

Until he removed the weatherstrip and found were water must have been accumulating when the car was driven. (I think it was off the road in the late 90s.)

The peek-a-boo rust was cut out, new metal pieces made up and welded in, and a skim of filler to pretty it up.

All rust on the car was cut out to clean metal, and new pieces welded in to the original ford stampings.

He tried to avoid repop stampings like the plague.

[somethingclever]

I am quite sure that trunklid had never been off the car before.