Literally won this on ebay an hour ago, haven't even arranged collection yet, but here's my new toy! 1969 Mustang coupe, 351ci 
We go again.... 69 mustang 351
- Thread starter pikey motorsports
- Start date
That looks awesome, what a classic. Does it have the Holley Carb on it?
pikey motorsports
Track Warrior
I have absolutely no idea just yet pal! need to get it in the garage and have a prod about!
pikey motorsports
Track Warrior
So looks like I lucked out here.... just been down to see the car and the engine does indeed have some mods -
Holley carb - 600cfm I think
Edelbrock performer intake
Mild cam (unknown as yet)
Msd electronic ignition
Msd distributor
Ally radiator
Exhaust system (unknown as yet)
Project wise (was always a running project car) it's mostly:
trim.
interior.
weatherseals.
Paint is great from a couple feet!
It ran out of fuel yesterday and has sucked some crap into the carb so will need a strip down and clean, new fuel filter etc but nothing major, had videos of it running perfectly day before so not worried.
So few bits to do, give her a once over and she should be good to hit the road!
Plans after the above:
front disk conversion.
Replace Gear linkage bushings.
Lower her.
Electric thermostat controlled fans.
Dress up engine.
Fit valves into exhaust.
Braces.
And anything else that needs done along the way!
Plan is to only have her off the road for a month max at a time,
Some more pics:
Holley carb - 600cfm I think
Edelbrock performer intake
Mild cam (unknown as yet)
Msd electronic ignition
Msd distributor
Ally radiator
Exhaust system (unknown as yet)
Project wise (was always a running project car) it's mostly:
trim.
interior.
weatherseals.
Paint is great from a couple feet!
It ran out of fuel yesterday and has sucked some crap into the carb so will need a strip down and clean, new fuel filter etc but nothing major, had videos of it running perfectly day before so not worried.
So few bits to do, give her a once over and she should be good to hit the road!
Plans after the above:
front disk conversion.
Replace Gear linkage bushings.
Lower her.
Electric thermostat controlled fans.
Dress up engine.
Fit valves into exhaust.
Braces.
And anything else that needs done along the way!
Plan is to only have her off the road for a month max at a time,
Some more pics:
Attachments
It's nice to work on a car like this, no computers or electronics to figure out. Keep us posted this is looking like a really interesting project car.
pikey motorsports
Track Warrior
So, first things first - the car -
Originally born a Grande Coupe with Silver Jade paint and a white vinyl roof
and beige interior.
Someone in the last 4 years decided to strip her down and paint her in BMW Laguna Seca blue. Wouldn't be so bad, except it really isn't a great paint job. She is perfectly presentable as a 5 footer though, and until the (very long) list of jobs required/wanted are done, she can stay in BMW blue!
So the good bits:
351 windsor V8.
4spd Manual with 3,25 rear axle.
Edelbrock performer intake.
holley Carb.
MSD electronic ignition.
larger alloy rad.
American racing Shelby style wheels in 17x8".
So i took it for a spin yesterday, It runs and (i use this term loosely) drives, but it does need some work to be useable, and safe on the road:
Full weather stripping.
Brakes bleeding.
gear shifter linkage rebuilt and re aligned (its fun trying to find gears currently....) - this may result in a Tremec!
Steering and alignment sorted - may look at a larger pulley or pressure relief valve to try and dull it down, it is very, VERY light presently.
smaller, less dished steering wheel - no fun trying to drive with it literally on my crotch!
Carb clean/rebuild and a minor tune up to make sure she is running well.
Investigate and resolve minor oil leak on front of engine.
then comes all the "minor" jobs....
Seats recovering.
new door cards and associated bits.
Dash needs some fettling.
carpet.
Wiring is original 60's so new wiring loom is a good idea!
New parcel shelf.
various bits of internal trim.
Various bits of external trim.
new tailpipe trims.
Sorting out as many of the interior rattles and shakes as possible.
Full flat and polish to try and make the paint as good as it can be.
And only then, can i start on the "because i want to "bits, like:
Lowering / upgrading the suspension.
Audio of some description.
Wheel spacers.
Tarting up the engine bay.
Boot carpet.
Front disc conversion.
Elec rad mounted fans,
So, while i don't have a totally rotten strip her down and weld her up kinda project, pretty much everything in the above list is A) Expensive and
time consuming! It has also been a long time since i turned a spanner, and none of my kit is imperial, so plenty of new tools required too
The good thing is, i am in no real rush. I can pick a job, take my time, complete it and then move onto the next bit..... maybe the one month max thing was a bit too optimistic!!
Originally born a Grande Coupe with Silver Jade paint and a white vinyl roof
Someone in the last 4 years decided to strip her down and paint her in BMW Laguna Seca blue. Wouldn't be so bad, except it really isn't a great paint job. She is perfectly presentable as a 5 footer though, and until the (very long) list of jobs required/wanted are done, she can stay in BMW blue!
So the good bits:
351 windsor V8.
4spd Manual with 3,25 rear axle.
Edelbrock performer intake.
holley Carb.
MSD electronic ignition.
larger alloy rad.
American racing Shelby style wheels in 17x8".
So i took it for a spin yesterday, It runs and (i use this term loosely) drives, but it does need some work to be useable, and safe on the road:
Full weather stripping.
Brakes bleeding.
gear shifter linkage rebuilt and re aligned (its fun trying to find gears currently....) - this may result in a Tremec!
Steering and alignment sorted - may look at a larger pulley or pressure relief valve to try and dull it down, it is very, VERY light presently.
smaller, less dished steering wheel - no fun trying to drive with it literally on my crotch!
Carb clean/rebuild and a minor tune up to make sure she is running well.
Investigate and resolve minor oil leak on front of engine.
then comes all the "minor" jobs....
Seats recovering.
new door cards and associated bits.
Dash needs some fettling.
carpet.
Wiring is original 60's so new wiring loom is a good idea!
New parcel shelf.
various bits of internal trim.
Various bits of external trim.
new tailpipe trims.
Sorting out as many of the interior rattles and shakes as possible.
Full flat and polish to try and make the paint as good as it can be.
And only then, can i start on the "because i want to "bits, like:
Lowering / upgrading the suspension.
Audio of some description.
Wheel spacers.
Tarting up the engine bay.
Boot carpet.
Front disc conversion.
Elec rad mounted fans,
So, while i don't have a totally rotten strip her down and weld her up kinda project, pretty much everything in the above list is A) Expensive and
time consuming! It has also been a long time since i turned a spanner, and none of my kit is imperial, so plenty of new tools required too
The good thing is, i am in no real rush. I can pick a job, take my time, complete it and then move onto the next bit..... maybe the one month max thing was a bit too optimistic!!
Attachments
You are going to be busy. It all sounds doable to me. I saw one of these at a recent show in Green. It looked superb and the engines sound truly amazing.
pikey motorsports
Track Warrior
No major update to be had here - Not really had any time to do much, so mainly just been spending money ( mostly on things i don't really need right now...) 
Found that the Bonnet scoop was barely held on and was missing most of its a fastenings, so did a quick repair with some Marine Epoxy (good with GRP) and some stainless studs, then repurposed some PC fan isolating rubbers to give the mounting a bit of cushioning. Decided the silver Scoop Grille wasn't doing it for me, so i gave that a blast of black Plastidip - now securely back on and looking a lot better! Just need to trim down the studs to ensure maximum clearance as i would quite like to add a 1" carb spacer which will move everything up a bit.
Also quickly blasted the air filter lid with black plastidip to get an idea of how it'll look when i get round to repainting most of the bay in black.
Fitted a new 13" Grant steering wheel, the previous 15" wheel made getting in and out just a bit too difficult given that i'm a 6ft fatty, so the extra 2" makes all the difference ( just ask the ladies! ).
Replaced the wiper switch and fitted a new interior light lens.
And ordered:
New plugs and Leads (blue)
Engine oil, Filter and sump plug
New Mach 1 style seat foams and fitting tools for the covers (already have those)
New carpet set
Full Suspension setup - 1" lowering
Shelby Drop template to reposition the upper control arms 1" lower
Shiny new Holley Street Warrior 600cfm carb - not strictly needed, but for the money i would rather replace it with new than rebuild the old one.
3M metal polish to sort the wheels out (brand new but sat for 3 years and picked up plenty of tarnishing)
Believe it or not, that little lot above was a shade under £2000 quid
Also had a bit of an issue with the power steering system leaking quite badly, so am contemplating ripping it all out and going back to manual steering. Would drop about 25kG out the front end, and make it nicer to drive at anything above crawling pace, but would make it a bitch to park and manoeuvre in car parks etc - but its not a daily, so i'm sure i can live with that! Will give it a clean up and see where we go from there.
Apologies for the horrendous picture quality, lighting is very poor in the garage - something else on the list to address!
Found that the Bonnet scoop was barely held on and was missing most of its a fastenings, so did a quick repair with some Marine Epoxy (good with GRP) and some stainless studs, then repurposed some PC fan isolating rubbers to give the mounting a bit of cushioning. Decided the silver Scoop Grille wasn't doing it for me, so i gave that a blast of black Plastidip - now securely back on and looking a lot better! Just need to trim down the studs to ensure maximum clearance as i would quite like to add a 1" carb spacer which will move everything up a bit.
Also quickly blasted the air filter lid with black plastidip to get an idea of how it'll look when i get round to repainting most of the bay in black.
Fitted a new 13" Grant steering wheel, the previous 15" wheel made getting in and out just a bit too difficult given that i'm a 6ft fatty, so the extra 2" makes all the difference ( just ask the ladies! ).
Replaced the wiper switch and fitted a new interior light lens.
And ordered:
New plugs and Leads (blue)
Engine oil, Filter and sump plug
New Mach 1 style seat foams and fitting tools for the covers (already have those)
New carpet set
Full Suspension setup - 1" lowering
Shelby Drop template to reposition the upper control arms 1" lower
Shiny new Holley Street Warrior 600cfm carb - not strictly needed, but for the money i would rather replace it with new than rebuild the old one.
3M metal polish to sort the wheels out (brand new but sat for 3 years and picked up plenty of tarnishing)
Believe it or not, that little lot above was a shade under £2000 quid
Also had a bit of an issue with the power steering system leaking quite badly, so am contemplating ripping it all out and going back to manual steering. Would drop about 25kG out the front end, and make it nicer to drive at anything above crawling pace, but would make it a bitch to park and manoeuvre in car parks etc - but its not a daily, so i'm sure i can live with that! Will give it a clean up and see where we go from there.
Apologies for the horrendous picture quality, lighting is very poor in the garage - something else on the list to address!
Attachments
Eddie208
Torque Junkie
What an absolute beauty, looks like a bit of a pain to maintain but gorgeous
pikey motorsports
Track Warrior
You aren't wrong, as the next update will attest........What an absolute beauty, looks like a bit of a pain to maintain but gorgeous
pikey motorsports
Track Warrior
ok so a couple of updates in one to come here....
I really liked the black on the valve covers and air cleaner, so much so that I stumped up for these :
Promptly fitted them, chucked in new plugs, new leads, and threw on the new Holley and all was good!
Except when I fired it back up it had picked up a ticking...... whipped the covers back off and had a good look around, no obvious issues. fired her back up and had a good listen, and it didnt seem to be coming from the valve cover area.
Now at this point, what i should have done is thrown some engine flush in, ran her up for a couple hours, dumped the oil and chucked in some new stuff to see if it persisted. But, what i did was listen to people on facebook who spotted that a manifold/header bolt was missing and deduced that it must be the header gaskets....
So new gaskets arrived, started taking the header bolts out only to find that some didn't really need much taking out
. Yup, it would appear whoever fitted the headers last had cross threaded a number of bolt holes, and just wound whatever they could get in real tight an hoped for the best. FML.
So, a couple phone calls were made and the car was booked to be taken into a super cool local garage that work on all sorts from 1920s-2020s, including show cars, track cars, american, rat rods, you name it, they build it!
The owner came out to see the car an talk to me about what i wanted doing etc before transportation was arranged, which i thought was a nice touch. I asked them to pull the heads and inspect/adjust the valve train while they were in there, drill and helicoil the header bolts, and we also discussed some additional bits i may get them to do if the money stretches far enough this month! I also asked them to give me a call when the inlet was off so i could get it painted up.
So yesterday she went off on the trailer to see the guys, and within an hour they messaged me to say inlet was ready for collection
Popped down this morning and had a chat with them about the car - pleasantly surprised when the Mech told me mine is actually one of the most solid and up together mustangs he has ever worked on - most are turds rolled in glitter apparently
The working theory is that the noise was in fact a sticking lifter as the pushrods and lifters did have some light surface rust and pitting, so these have all been removed, cleaned, re oiled and reassembled - Thankfully everything is straight and in good useable condition! They reckon the cause was poor lubrication due to too thick an oil being used previously - yup, the same grade i bought to fill her back up
Sump will be dropped and cleaned, oil pickup cleaned and then everything reassembled with new gaskets along the way, and filled with fresh (thinner) oil.
Inlet came home with me, and went from rank blue (excuse the leads/mess!) -
Stripped + Primed:
And finally to Silver:
ill put the carb etc back on tomorrow, then wait for the new Coolant flange and gasket, and drop it back to the garage with the Gasket set next week when it arrives.
Interior is also out.....
(excuse the mess!)
being dropped to the trimmers on Tuesday so hopefully have some nice mach1 style seats to go back in shortly!
Then i need to get the carpet fitted and new (old as hell, battered, but only set i can find in uk for sale) doorcards retrimmed and they can go in too
Still a million jobs to do, but once it runs right, sounds right, and has a decent interior it will start to feel like less of an impassable list!
I really liked the black on the valve covers and air cleaner, so much so that I stumped up for these :
Promptly fitted them, chucked in new plugs, new leads, and threw on the new Holley and all was good!
Except when I fired it back up it had picked up a ticking...... whipped the covers back off and had a good look around, no obvious issues. fired her back up and had a good listen, and it didnt seem to be coming from the valve cover area.
Now at this point, what i should have done is thrown some engine flush in, ran her up for a couple hours, dumped the oil and chucked in some new stuff to see if it persisted. But, what i did was listen to people on facebook who spotted that a manifold/header bolt was missing and deduced that it must be the header gaskets....
So new gaskets arrived, started taking the header bolts out only to find that some didn't really need much taking out
. Yup, it would appear whoever fitted the headers last had cross threaded a number of bolt holes, and just wound whatever they could get in real tight an hoped for the best. FML.So, a couple phone calls were made and the car was booked to be taken into a super cool local garage that work on all sorts from 1920s-2020s, including show cars, track cars, american, rat rods, you name it, they build it!
The owner came out to see the car an talk to me about what i wanted doing etc before transportation was arranged, which i thought was a nice touch. I asked them to pull the heads and inspect/adjust the valve train while they were in there, drill and helicoil the header bolts, and we also discussed some additional bits i may get them to do if the money stretches far enough this month! I also asked them to give me a call when the inlet was off so i could get it painted up.
So yesterday she went off on the trailer to see the guys, and within an hour they messaged me to say inlet was ready for collection
Popped down this morning and had a chat with them about the car - pleasantly surprised when the Mech told me mine is actually one of the most solid and up together mustangs he has ever worked on - most are turds rolled in glitter apparently
The working theory is that the noise was in fact a sticking lifter as the pushrods and lifters did have some light surface rust and pitting, so these have all been removed, cleaned, re oiled and reassembled - Thankfully everything is straight and in good useable condition! They reckon the cause was poor lubrication due to too thick an oil being used previously - yup, the same grade i bought to fill her back up
Sump will be dropped and cleaned, oil pickup cleaned and then everything reassembled with new gaskets along the way, and filled with fresh (thinner) oil.Inlet came home with me, and went from rank blue (excuse the leads/mess!) -
Stripped + Primed:
And finally to Silver:
ill put the carb etc back on tomorrow, then wait for the new Coolant flange and gasket, and drop it back to the garage with the Gasket set next week when it arrives.
Interior is also out.....
(excuse the mess!)
being dropped to the trimmers on Tuesday so hopefully have some nice mach1 style seats to go back in shortly!
Then i need to get the carpet fitted and new (old as hell, battered, but only set i can find in uk for sale) doorcards retrimmed and they can go in too
Still a million jobs to do, but once it runs right, sounds right, and has a decent interior it will start to feel like less of an impassable list!
pikey motorsports
Track Warrior
pikey motorsports
Track Warrior
Minor updates....
Seats ready to go back in
And door card surgery has begun... these were obviously the wrong colour, and are also damaged. First task is to change the colour - carpet off and masked trim:
Coat 1:
5 coats later:
Leaving them to cure, hopefully all is good and I end up with usable doorcards, if so they'll get recarpeted and some panels made up to reinforce and hide the damaged area.
Seats ready to go back in
And door card surgery has begun... these were obviously the wrong colour, and are also damaged. First task is to change the colour - carpet off and masked trim:
Coat 1:
5 coats later:
Leaving them to cure, hopefully all is good and I end up with usable doorcards, if so they'll get recarpeted and some panels made up to reinforce and hide the damaged area.
Eddie208
Torque Junkie
Gonna feel like a whole new car, awesome work!
pikey motorsports
Track Warrior
End of the month i thought it would be back huh....!
I guess a little update is in order.
The reassembly didn't quite go to plan, car ran great for 10mins, then the noise was back.
Stripped again and rechecked, back together, still there. and so on and so forth for a while.
Eventually it was realised that a couple of the nuts holding the rocker arms were backing off ever so slightly once running, so a new set was ordered and that has *mostly* cured the issue. At this point we think what it really needs is a good run to really get the oil moving around and quieten everything down. Fingers are crossed!
So, in order to be able to give it a good run, I needed it to go in something resembling a straight line. After some mucking about and checking of various parts, the Power steering control valve was deemed well past its sell by date, so a new one was ordered from states. Once fitted, a test drive was in order to make sure all was well... This was the exact moment the MSD 6AL ignition box decided it no longer wanted any part of this.
So a newer Digital 6AL box was ordered and fitted, and she lived once more!
Test drive completed, car allegedly drives in a straight line, but the brake pedal travel was noticed to be getting pretty excessive. After a check of the braking system, the culprit was deemed to be the brake pedal bushing being practically non existent. At this point, with the car having been with the guys for so long, I figure I may as well get them to strip down the pedal box and rebuild with all new bushings etc for the clutch and brake pedals.
Unfortunately in the time the car has been in the garage, I got a promotion at work - I say unfortunately as the new role I am in I am no longer allowed to claim overtime, so although I got roughly a 9k pay rise on my base salary, I'm actually about £4k a year worse off! This means certain things had to be dropped in order to make sure I had the money to do the important bits and pay for stuff at home etc too. Exhaust work has been pushed back to next summer and ill have to fit the carpet myself, but that's no bother really! At least I am now going to have the car back in the garage ready for me to tinker with over the winter months
Pictures soon!!!!
I guess a little update is in order.
The reassembly didn't quite go to plan, car ran great for 10mins, then the noise was back.
Stripped again and rechecked, back together, still there. and so on and so forth for a while.
Eventually it was realised that a couple of the nuts holding the rocker arms were backing off ever so slightly once running, so a new set was ordered and that has *mostly* cured the issue. At this point we think what it really needs is a good run to really get the oil moving around and quieten everything down. Fingers are crossed!
So, in order to be able to give it a good run, I needed it to go in something resembling a straight line. After some mucking about and checking of various parts, the Power steering control valve was deemed well past its sell by date, so a new one was ordered from states. Once fitted, a test drive was in order to make sure all was well... This was the exact moment the MSD 6AL ignition box decided it no longer wanted any part of this.
So a newer Digital 6AL box was ordered and fitted, and she lived once more!
Test drive completed, car allegedly drives in a straight line, but the brake pedal travel was noticed to be getting pretty excessive. After a check of the braking system, the culprit was deemed to be the brake pedal bushing being practically non existent. At this point, with the car having been with the guys for so long, I figure I may as well get them to strip down the pedal box and rebuild with all new bushings etc for the clutch and brake pedals.
Unfortunately in the time the car has been in the garage, I got a promotion at work - I say unfortunately as the new role I am in I am no longer allowed to claim overtime, so although I got roughly a 9k pay rise on my base salary, I'm actually about £4k a year worse off! This means certain things had to be dropped in order to make sure I had the money to do the important bits and pay for stuff at home etc too. Exhaust work has been pushed back to next summer and ill have to fit the carpet myself, but that's no bother really! At least I am now going to have the car back in the garage ready for me to tinker with over the winter months
Pictures soon!!!!
Do things ever go to plan? I know they don't for me. Thanks for the update and congrats (sort of) on the promotion.
Work life balance is important. Use the time you gain wisely and you'll be happy!
Work life balance is important. Use the time you gain wisely and you'll be happy!
pikey motorsports
Track Warrior
I love this car.....
and its a bloody good job, because it would seem this really is the gift that keeps on giving!
I got her back, tucked her into the garage and started fitting the carpet. to do this you need to remove various trims etc, including the kick panels. When i removed said panels, i found these nice rusty holes waiting for me:
So, upon realising that before i can progress with anything else these bits are going to need some further investigation and welding ( I can't weld yet, nor do I currently own a welder!) I decided to take a little look at the drip tray as my suspicion was that these areas had rotted out due to water tracking back from there. After removing a couple parts of the dash it turns out i was right and i really wish i hadn't been. Would seem that at some point in its life when this issue first presented itself, the previous owner decided to "repair" this using fibreglass:
So I guess thats every panel coming off in the not too distant future so that i can really dig into what's rotten and where and then set about repairing it properly. So much for this being a Solid, cosmetic only build huh!
The drivers window mech also failed, so i'll now be using the opportunity to source and fit an electric window conversion instead.
After removing bits of the dash etc and getting a proper look at the wiring, i can't put it back together with the loom in the state that it is in either, so ill need to do a full frontal (at least) rewire. Luckily the car doesn't really have that much going on electrically, so a universal 21 circuit fusebox and loom should do the job. Just more time and faff i was hoping to put off!
Then i thought i would cheer myself up just a touch, and give myself a glimpse of what the additional gauges will look like when finished. I'm thinking to put the triple in the radio slot as i will be running a Bluetooth receiver hidden behind the dash which will feed directly to an amp in the boot for front component speakers and a sub. (and please ignore the wheel, ill be swapping that out for something sexier
The big question now is, given the bits that have clearly been ignored or bodged over the years, do i remove the sound deadening that covers the entire floorpan and see what delights await me there?! Or do i ignore it, and be happy with what i can see from under the car.....
and its a bloody good job, because it would seem this really is the gift that keeps on giving!
I got her back, tucked her into the garage and started fitting the carpet. to do this you need to remove various trims etc, including the kick panels. When i removed said panels, i found these nice rusty holes waiting for me:
So, upon realising that before i can progress with anything else these bits are going to need some further investigation and welding ( I can't weld yet, nor do I currently own a welder!) I decided to take a little look at the drip tray as my suspicion was that these areas had rotted out due to water tracking back from there. After removing a couple parts of the dash it turns out i was right and i really wish i hadn't been. Would seem that at some point in its life when this issue first presented itself, the previous owner decided to "repair" this using fibreglass:
So I guess thats every panel coming off in the not too distant future so that i can really dig into what's rotten and where and then set about repairing it properly. So much for this being a Solid, cosmetic only build huh!
The drivers window mech also failed, so i'll now be using the opportunity to source and fit an electric window conversion instead.
After removing bits of the dash etc and getting a proper look at the wiring, i can't put it back together with the loom in the state that it is in either, so ill need to do a full frontal (at least) rewire. Luckily the car doesn't really have that much going on electrically, so a universal 21 circuit fusebox and loom should do the job. Just more time and faff i was hoping to put off!
Then i thought i would cheer myself up just a touch, and give myself a glimpse of what the additional gauges will look like when finished. I'm thinking to put the triple in the radio slot as i will be running a Bluetooth receiver hidden behind the dash which will feed directly to an amp in the boot for front component speakers and a sub. (and please ignore the wheel, ill be swapping that out for something sexier
The big question now is, given the bits that have clearly been ignored or bodged over the years, do i remove the sound deadening that covers the entire floorpan and see what delights await me there?! Or do i ignore it, and be happy with what i can see from under the car.....
beser
Full member
Do you use seat covers in your Mustang?
Though leather seats look more luxurious, I never liked them. I don't feel comfortable sitting on leather. Moreover, it requires frequent cleaning and moisturizing. I've been using neoprene seat covers for the last four years and I'm happy. They look good. And I can wash them which is especially great when you have kids.
Though leather seats look more luxurious, I never liked them. I don't feel comfortable sitting on leather. Moreover, it requires frequent cleaning and moisturizing. I've been using neoprene seat covers for the last four years and I'm happy. They look good. And I can wash them which is especially great when you have kids.
