This book, Project Mustang, follows that same light-but-informative format. I don’t claim to know everything there is to know about restoring a vintage Mustang. For that you will need a whole library of books on the Ford Mustang and perhaps the unlisted phone number for Lee Iacocca. But what I will give you is a solid, systematic course to lead you through the perils and busted knuckles of a total ground-up restoration of one of the world’s most popular muscle cars.
If I could offer one useful piece of advice to anyone beginning the restoration of a vehicle, it would have to be organization. Of course, organization begins by determining where you are going with the project and how you’re going to get there. That means doing a little research, seeking out a few good suppliers, and analyzing the vehicle itself. It also means spending a little time making a list or two and taking a lot of photographs as the project progresses.
If it is part of the car, it gets photographed. If it gets photographed, it gets listed. Over the course of a restoration, I take hundreds of photographs and make several lists. If I somehow become lost in the process or can’t recall how or where a particular part should mount, I then have plenty of reference material to put me back on track. This is why lists are made and why photographs are taken.
I do try to keep the lists simple. Computers make this task even easier. Spreadsheets can be built that list every part of the car, the estimated cost for replacing the parts, and the actual amount of time and money spent purchasing and installing the part.
To that end, I start with a master list that documents the condition of every part removed from the vehicle in the order the parts are removed. If nothing else, this list will serve as a reconstruction blueprint to make sure every part is put back on the vehicle in the reverse order the parts were removed. From the master list, I compile two other lists: a new parts list denoting every part that must be replaced, and a repair and overhaul list that contains the parts that I can repair, refinish, overhaul, and return to the vehicle. The final list, which is nothing more than two columns added to the master list, is a ledger of time and money spent. For example, I spent 1,051 hours restoring Project Charger. I know this fact because I made a list.
For photographic purposes, I use a 35mm film camera. Film is cheap, and I take as many shots as possible. Digital is fine, but you just can’t beat having an actual photograph to keep in the toolbox as reference when needed. Besides, laptops don’t like dust, and restoration shops are full of the stuff.
The car I’m about to restore is a 1968 California Special Mustang. This was Ford’s take on the popular Shelby Mustangs of the sixties and as the name implies was manufactured for the California market. As project cars go, this one is in pretty good condition. It has a little rust and a few dents and shows a little wear and tear, but all in all, this car has the makings of a great project.
I’ll offer you a few tips on where to find parts, how to determine what options came with your car, and, most important of all, how to inspect a car to determine its overall condition.
FIND MUSTANG PARTS
Luckily, new replacement parts for Mustangs are plentiful, and prices for these parts are reasonable. Pick up any Mustang parts catalog, and you will see that almost any part ever made for a Mustang can be purchased without breaking the bank. Some of the better Mustang parts suppliers include the Paddock Parts, National Parts Depot, Marti Auto Works, California Mustang, and Aftermarket Automotive Parts Distributing (AAPD). All of these companies offer free catalogs and list parts online; they carry a parts inventory that has to be considered vast, to say the least. Contact information for all of these companies can be found in the appendix at the end of this book. Of course, when the time comes to place an order with any of these great companies, the first question you’ll be asked is, “What do you have?” If you reply, “It’s a coupe, I think, and I’m pretty sure it’s a ’67, or maybe a ’68, and the engine is blue,” you may have enough information to get the oil changed, but it isn’t going to help much when placing a parts order.
DETERMINE WHAT YOU HAVE
The VIN, or Vehicle Identification Number, is the place to start to determine the exact model of your car. The two most important pieces of information identified on the VIN are the year model and engine size. The VIN plate on the ’68 California Special is located on the right side of the dash panel and is best viewed by looking through the wind-shield. The VIN may also be found on the left fender apron, on the left side of the dash, or on the left door, depending upon the year model of Mustang being restored. To find information specific to your year model, try your favorite search engine on the Internet; far more VIN information than I could ever hope to list here is only a click away.
Here is an example of a typical Ford Mustang VIN: 8R01C123456. The letters and numbers of a VIN contain a great deal of information about a car.
• 8: designates this Mustang as a 1968 model
• R: indicates the car was built at the San Jose, California, plant, which helps verify the California Special aspect of this car
• 01: indicates it is a coupe
• C: specifies the engine size to be 289 CID
• 123456: the last six digits indicate the vehicle production number for the particular year
Knowing my car is a 1968 Mustang, as verified by the VIN, is actually a very small part of determining exactly what this Mustang really is. Verifying that this car is a California Special makes the vehicle more valuable than a standard run-of-the-mill Mustang, but how do I know this car wasn’t simply badged as a California Special to improve its resale value?
To compound the problem of correctly identifying this car, the data plate (or patent plate) normally found on the left door is missing. The data plate could have told me a lot more about the car. The car is painted Augusta green and has a black interior, but without that data plate from the door I can’t be certain Augusta green is the correct color for this car.
One phone call to Marti Auto Works set me on the right path. I gave Marti Auto Works the VIN, they did a quick check of their vast Ford reference file, and presto—the car is indeed a California Special, and Augusta green is the correct color.
While I had Marti Auto Works on the phone, I also placed an order for a duplicate data plate to replace the one missing from the left door. On the 1968 Mustang, this metal tag displays the car’s serial number, which can also be found on the right side of the dash, as well as encoded data about the different equipment options that came on the car.
Other tags available from Marti Auto Works include engine tags, axle tags, body buck tags, carburetor tags, and even owner cards for the glove box. Most of these tags are self-explanatory, but what’s a body buck tag? This is a small metal tag found in the engine compartment, usually on the firewall, that contains the manufacturing data for the body as it moves down the assembly line. For example, the buck tag tells the technician if holes need to be punched in the firewall for air conditioning or lets the painter know which paint combination will go on the car. This tag goes on before the car is painted and usually ends up bent and wrinkled as the different technicians handle the tag.
TIME FOR AN IN-DEPTH INSPECTION
Now that I’m armed with enough good information to let me know this car is indeed a rare pony, I can get to the task of determining the overall condition of the car. This is also the ugly part of any car inspection, but it has to be done.
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