Rustoration of 1991 FOXBODY Mustang GT as a Cobra Clone

Interesting thing. I think the last owners swapped the high beams for the regular headlights in the wiring. Then after they realized it, they removed the cluster bulb or burned it out. The car came with HIDs uninstalled and after market headlight pigtails. Finding a picture of an original pigtail to reference since the aftermarket wires are all black was not easy. (Actually after testing the functions it seems this is backwards) There is only 1 on ebay with the original colored wires. Fortunately I think I can repin the connection. I went to the wiring diagram to check the color codes and there is actually a mistake in diagram.  I tried it both ways and only red/black on the left works. If you think about it, the bulbs are wired the same left and right.

Just with vibration and location the plastic tabs are no good at holding the alternator fuse cover in place so I slid a bungee in behind the base and drilled 2 tiny holes on the top. i added a bit of paint to the grill, just a spray bomb for now but it's nice and shiny. A bit of trash in the clear but nothing I am concerned about to wet sand out. I touched up the grill opening just to coat the raw yellow plastic with black where it was trimmed for the cobra grill. i remade one of the smaller ground effects brackets out of scrap galvanized gas tank metal. I'll paint it and then wax it heavily with wax ring.  About a year ago, for an experiment I ground down the paint and coated a ball hitch riser in wax ring, which inadvertently turned into a door stop. It's been sitting on a damp concrete floor getting kicked around for a year and hasn't rusted at all. It hasn't even picked up that coating of dirt I expected. I think that should b...

I can finally say I am getting somewhere. I burped the cooling system 3 times and thinned the mix with distilled water to 60/30. I had used concentrate without realizing it. The fan controller was set to the max somehow and now it hangs out right about half just idling.  I did the window motors and run channels but they are still pretty weak. The driver's side seems like it will break in after some use but the passenger side has the tilt that makes it bind. I'll work on it. Might need to take the guides out and polish them or even change the helper springs. Next I'll wrap up the wiring and I need to figure out why my turn signals stopped working.

After my alignment I noticed some slip in the steering. A loose bolt from the column to the shaft was to blame but not all of the slop was removed. Still had a half inch in the wheel before anything happened. I loosened the rack mount bolts to the end of the thread. Unbolted the shaft pin from the steering column. It's a tough spot to get a wrench on top to hold the bolt because it's under the brake booster. There's a ton of things in the way. I laid an open end wrench with a bit of tape over the bolt and with a 12 inch extension and wobble socket from underneath, I was able to break the blue lock tight. Then fought the bolt out of the hole with some hose clamp pliers. here is a video of the play in the joint. I drilled a second detent in the shaft pin and lock-tighted both set screws and lock nuts. I am going to go back over all of the connections, clean and lock tight them all.

So reading up on changing the heatercore you come across the information about a restrictor used in later models recommend for the job. The reasons are clear enough that I agree it is a requirement. They are $10 or $12 bucks for a piece of plastic. There is also talk about using a stainless 3/8 1/4 inch socket. I have a ton of junk sockets but they are all plated and probably going to rust. So it's plastic or brass as an option. I poked around and was looking at my air tool attachments when I saw an old helium tank fitting. a quick cut with a hacksaw and a little filing and sanding and it's perfect.  Dropped it in and pushed it to the bend with the back of a rachet. Next is the steering shaft may need some welds. There's some slip I want to take out. I want to remove it by only removing the shaft bolt and loosening the rack from the studs. Like the oe one. This way I know I don't need to collapse the 2 inner joints and the...

Put in another 2 hours, opened the top of the heater box. Actually this was the original heater core. As is plainly evident, it was leaking pretty bad. interesting enough, even after the coolant was out it still weighed 3x more then the new one. Removed the original sealant with a scraper and cleaned up a bit with a vaccum and some brake clean. It all went back together pretty easily. I added some black rtv around the same places ford had the flexible sealant and used the additional foam that came with the new core. The heater box was heavy, I ended up resting it on the brake clean can after I got the first stud in. Then I threaded on a nut in the engine bay and was able to walk it back into position and start all the bolts.

Put another 2 hours and got pretty far on the heatercore replacement. Removed the headlight and hazard switches. Removed the cluster shroud and disconnected the cluster and the speedo cable.  Removed the dimmer switch which I knew needs a good cleaning. Check out the yummy green corrosion. Removed the hood release and dropped the steering column. Loosened the nut hidding under the steering column. Removed the 2 bolts under the corner of the dash and the 5 in the speaker grills and the defroster vent. The dash came right down exposing the heater box. I disconnected the heater hoses after I made a coolant catch tray out of and aluminum takeout tray and a water jug section. I bungied the hoses to the intake and put rubber glove fingers over the heater core inlets with rubber bands. And then we are outta time.  Neighbor asked me to swap out the speed sensor on his f150 rear-end. Found a wire that was corroded,...