My Next Project, The Wife's Car

[Gwood]

She has a 65 mustang, we've been married for almost 24 years and she has always wanted the car fixed up, it always been stored. Well this is the year and i hope to have it done by summer, at least to drive it. I've gutted the interior and found all the metal intact. What rust it does have is surface rust. I'll send some photos when i figure out how to do that. 4 main things i need to do. (1) New gas tank or have it professionally cleaned and rebuild carb. (2) rebuild/replace brakes. (3) New seat covers and carpet. (4) Repaint the car or just do touch-ups. She wants to keep it as original as possible. The question i have is, should i rebuild the motor and transmission?, it's been sitting for at least 10 years. Any thoughts.

Thanks, Glenn

[RansomEli]

If you are going to paint the car & put in new upholstery, why not take out the engine & trans and check that out, too? Take the heads off, inspect and rebuild as necessary. If nothing else, you'll repair one or more dried out seals that would have caused trouble. Even better, you'll have a car with new paint, interior AND engine. Believe me, there's nothing worse than fixing up a car and then finding out the engine needs more work.

[Guest AlCapone]

To each his own but my opinion is always " if it ain't broke, don't fix it " ! If it is running fine give it a minor tune-up and let it go ! The tuneup parts are not a waste as they can be used if you do have to tear it down ! Get it on the road and enjoy it ! Wayne

[capngrog]

G Wood

You indicated that you wanted to have the car ready to drive "by summer". If you're talking about this coming summer (next month) you should probably initially limit your work to whatever is necessary to get the car SAFELY back on the road. Where do you live? If it's in an area where winter months are not much fun for classic car driving, your getting the car ready to drive THIS summer becomes a bit more important (you don't want to lose an entire year). I would prioritize the work as follows: 1) brakes; 2) fuel system; 3) do what you can with the engine, I.e., radiator flush, plugs/points, oil/filter, belts (I've probably overlooked something here, but you get the drift); 4) the tires will probably need replacing; 5) If the transmission is an automatic, you'll probably want to service the fluids in that. I'm sure I've missed something important in my list, but others viewing this thread will add stuff I've missed. When the fun driving months are behind you, I'd certainly go through the engine as suggested by RansomEli. I completely agree with Al Capone's philosophy: "If it ain't broke, don't fix it".

You'd be surprised at how much fun you can have driving a less-than-perfect classic/collector car and at how many folks enjoy seeing such a car on the road!

Cheers,

Grog

[Enos]

Ditto to what Wayne (Al Capone) said. ENJOY IT!!

[capngrog]

G Wood,

I knew I'd fergit sumthin'! When you have the cooling system opened up for the radiator flush, it would be a good time to replace all of the hoses. A busted radiator or heater hose will put you on the side of the road as fast as anything.

Ever forgetful,

Grog

[Gwood]

That's also my motto " you can't fix what ain't broke" The tranny was worked on and didn't see much mileage after that. It's still clean but the engine shows signs of an oil leak. Coming from the top of the motor, I may have fix that when I replaced the valve gaskets but I can't tell if it was that.

I said may drive this summer but in reality i'm thinking next summer maybe take a trip on part of route 66. We live in indiana so the car will only be driven in the summer.

The car come from california and has no rust that has eaten through the metal just surface rust.

I will be having the radiator and gas tank repaired. Brakes don't look to bad just need new lines and that single master cylinder is scarey looking.

Thanks for everyone input, I'll try to post photos.

[Dennis]

You mentioned a oil leak many years ago I had a 1962 Ford Fairlane which had an oil leak on top also. It took me a while to find out where the oil was coming from but I finally figured out it was coming from the Distributor, the "O" ring on the base was bad and that is where the oil was coming from. Every time oil appeared up on top I just changed the "O" ring and the oil leak would be stopped. By the way that was on the 221 CI engine and later the 1964 Ford Fairlane 289 CI engine that put in it for a while up until I got married, the 289 used too much fuel on GI pay.

[Gwood]

Thanks for the info, I would have not ever thought about the distributor.

[Dennis]

You are very welcome. What I remember is that there were puddles of oil around the Distributor. After looking at the shop manual for the Fairlane, it showed a "O" ring on the base.