New Project: 1965 Mustang

[mustang351]

A quick recap:
I bought the car way back on April 5th, 2005. I was 15 at the time - working for a landscaping company. This was my first car and the car that would eventually be my daily driver all throughout high school.




I have so many good (and embarrassing) memories in this car - See below.



The car has come quite a ways in the 9 years since I've been tinkering. It was originally built as a 289/2bbl car with a C4 and an open 8inch. That was quickly torn out in favor of a well built (albeit over-cammed) 351W backed by a T5 and a trac-loc 8inch. It was a great little engine, but as stated earlier, I chose a cam that was way too large, but I was in highschool and the cammed "sound" was very important.






I drove the car with that setup until I left for college. While at college the car stayed in my parents garage, virtually untouched and driven only a couple of times a month when I would come home.



I've since graduated college, gotten my first big-boy job and I've now got a few dollars to play with.

The first order of business was the drivetrain. The overcammed 351W was great fun, but the combination of high compression, 6mpg and today's gas prices meant it had to go. Thankfully I got an offer I couldn't refuse and off the engine went. I also sold some 351W unique parts and old take off parts to finance the new engine.



I had another stroke of luck when a friend offered a roller 5.0 long block to me, free of charge. And with that, I was off to the races. Plans were to build a mild roller 5.0, Ported E7's (It's a bucket list item I've wanted to learn to do for years) with a mild alphabet cam and a simple carb setup.

Unfortunately, it wasn't until I had spent 20+ hours on the heads that I took the pan off and realized the main bearings had welded themselves to the crank. Not the end of the world, but I really wanted to leave the rotating assembly in tact. I ended up scraping the build in favor of a clean 289 I had lying around.

Tore it down to a short block, cleaned it up, fresh gaskets, a Comp 262HE cam and some fresh paint and it was ready to go in.





These valve covers will be coming off and painted Dark Ford Blue but they'll stay until I get the valves adjusted.


Everything went together without a hitch - Until we went to fire it. I opted for a pain free Pertronix setup over the old MSD setup that was in the 351W. But I didn't place the plastic spacer between the distributor and the rotor - resulting in no spark. After a frustrating couple of hours we realized the problem and she fired up without an issue.



Took her for a short drive last weekend. Still need to adjust the clutch, re-bleed the brakes, adjust the e-brake and tweak some other small things. But she's running!



That is a very quick recap of the past 9 years and bring. At this point I'm going to drive it for the next few months while doing little things on the weekends. A rolling-resto, if you will.

Then, this winter she's going to go under the knife.


The overall plan for the car is to have a well sorted street machine. A pro-touring/trans-am mix. I want to use this car as a fun weekend car/autocross machine/open track warrior but keep it civil enough (read: carpet, basic radio) to where I can take it to the drive-in on Friday and road trip it on Saturday.


Immediate plans:
Fine tune the new engine, timing, carb, etc.
Install subframe connectors
Install a 4 pt roll bar
Trouble shoot small issues


This winter:
- Remove the entire power steering setup - It's sloppy, worn out and provides very little road feel.
- Install new inner and outer tie rods, manual centerlink, and shelby quick steer idler and pitman with roller bushing
- Arning drop
- Roller perches
- Adjustable strut rods
- Box UCA and LCA
- Stitch weld shock towers
- Install a new Autowire harness
- Shave dash and install new gauges in 5-gauge GT style dash
- Shelby wood wheel
- Extend the fender flares and new wheels

A quick little idea of what I'd like it to look like


At that point it'll probably be warm enough to drive again and then I plan to drive the wheels off the car. Autocrossing/HPDE and road trips whenever possible.


Then next winter I'll probably put some fresh paint on the car, but first I want to drive the car, and hard.


Progress won't be lightning fast. I live in an apartment and the shop I work on the car at is about an hour from my apartment - So most updates will come on the weekends.


Hope to see some of you out and about next spring. I think we need to organize another Peach State Muscle Car Challenge!

[Spork82]

Sweet another Mustang, we need more on here with all the GM's. Looks like you got a clean car to start with. Good luck with the build!

[rwcstang]

Sweet another Mustang, we need more on here with all the GM's. Looks like you got a clean car to start with. Good luck with the build!

agreed. not too many of us out there, we need more coupes. FastBacks are overrated... XD lol

[Bossed]

Really sharp looking ride, love your car and your story, it's nice to finally make some moolah huh? Good to see you still have her, and tons of memories I'm sure
Bossed

[Bryce]

cool mustang

[ochohill]

If you have a power steering box and go manual with the shelby quick steer, it may be a bit difficult to drive in parking lot. I would also recommend installing sheet metal behind the rear seat. Roll some beads in it for strength. This will help strengthen the chassis. A panhard bar will help the rear feel planted. I have a 66 with the mods you have and the rear moves around when pushed. Another easy mod while you have the front apart is the boss 302 tower reinforcement. I went for the piece below the upper arm only.

[mustang351]

Thanks for all the love guys. Haven't had much time to work on the car. Just got back from a trip to Manhattan. I was able to get the clutch adjusted, parking brake adjusted, and I began cleaning up the engine bay wiring. I was going to start the wire tuck but if I'm going to put a harness in it this winter I am just going to hold off.

Trying to prioritize the spends right now. I need to pick up a new front tire thats worn due to a previous alignment problem, but if I'm replacing a tire its a good time to also re-think wheel choice. Debating on if now is the time to do a mini-tub and try to fit some 17X9's in the back.

Or if I just want to get a single tire and go ahead and convert to manual steering.

Plus I've got a roll bar and subframe connectors waiting for an install. Hopefully I'll be able to make some progress during this long weekend.

[mustang351]

Definitely some good advice. Thanks bud!

I'm going to keep all my power steering goodies until I test the manual steering. I'm hoping the roller bearing idler arm will decrease the steering effort to where it's bearable.

[GTOtzel]

Where are you getting your parts? Check out CJ Pony Parts.
Ford Mustang Parts | Mustang Parts & Accessories | CJ Pony Parts

[Josh@Ridetech]

Where are you getting your parts? Check out CJ Pony Parts.
Ford Mustang Parts | Mustang Parts & Accessories | CJ Pony Parts

Yeah, listen to him. They sell alot of pieces that would be great for your car!


They also sell ridetech parts as well ;)

[mustang351]

Haha thanks guys. I'm lucky enough to live 30 minutes from Summit Racing and 45 minutes from Mustangs Unlimited - So most of the parts will come from those two. But rest assured Josh, if ridetech parts are meant to be on this car, I'll find a way.

[Dave B]

Nice car! Good to see another Ford with a Ford here!

[mustang351]

No big updates. I haven't been able to spend much time wrenching on the car. I just moved to a new apartment a few weeks ago and the car is still at my parents house. Looking into Hagerty insurance before I bring it up to the new place. But in the mean time I've been working out a few small kinks and breaking in the new engine.

I spent some time last weekend getting the carb and timing tuned and the car feels completely different. Still way underpowered, but fun nonetheless. I'm hoping on Sunday I will be able to spend some time with the steering. After driving a few manual steering Mustangs I've decided I will stick with the power but install a Heidts power steering control valve to control flow. If installed correctly I should be able to adjust the line pressure on the fly.

As a result I am going to re-weld the power steering ram to the frame rail and re-pack the steering box with grease. This winter I will install new inner and outer tie-rods, ball joints, and bushing to tighten everything up.

I've never been overly happy with the wheel selection on the car so I've been mocking up a few options. Let me know what you think!

[mustang351]

Was able to get out to the car this weekend and play around with a few things.

The bracket for the power steering ram attaches to the frame rail via a couple of nuts on the interior of the rail. Unfortunately they have since broken the welds inside the rail and the option for re-welding them is to great a window in the frame rail. I really didn't feel like doing that from a structural integrity stand point so i simply cleaned up the bracket and frame with a wire brush on an angle grinder and put a few spot welds all around. Not a permanent fix but it surely beats having the car dart all over the road.

I also spend a little time and packed the steering box with new grease and adjusted it. I was able to adjust out quite a bit of the excess play. Still not perfect, but it's definitely getting better. Next up is Heidt's Power Steering Control Valve.

I've also been throwing a couple of ideas around and I've been wanting to try out some "Plasti-Dip" paint. I figured it would be a great way to concept a few ideas in a temporary fashion since, if I don't like it, I can simply peel it right off. The first idea was simply a blacked out tail light panel.

It took about 15 total. 10 for masking and 5 for spraying. Not to bad.

[rwcstang]

lookin' good so far!

[chetly]

Good looking Mustang. Id talk to Mike at Maier Racing for all your suspension needs for your Mustang. His reputation in top notch and he currently has a 66 coupe that doesn't get beat very often.

[stangreen]

good looking car I like where you're going with it it looks nice it's nice to have a car if you had for a long time it's good to keep it in the family I've been working on mine since I was 10 years old and now I'm 41 I'm new to the site just posted some pictures but I like the car

[mustang351]

Logged about 200 miles on the '65 this weekend. Finally settled in the new apartment so I brought the car up from my parent's garage about an hour away before heading up to Ellijay to visit some apple orchards and drive through the mountains. The car performed flawlessly throughout the trip. I'm going to have to pick up some new exhaust hangars as the exhaust is sitting a little lower with the new engine.

I averaged about 14mpg throughout the trip. Not great, but it's running pretty rich so I think I can squeeze a few more MPG's out of it with a little carb tuning.

Overall very pleased with the car. Much better road manners than the last engine.

6AM ride up to my new apartment - I actually had to turn the heat on!


And my apple picking co-driver was a champ despite the lack of A/C.

[mustang351]

I'm still procrastinating tearing the car apart. The weather has been too beautiful lately to tear it down and start working on it. Instead, I've just been enjoying it as much as possible. I had to install a new fuel pump and tune the carb as it was idling so low it would die at every stoplight or stop sign. Presumably due to the lower ambient air temps. A little adjustment and she is back to her normal self. Still painfully slow. But that's an easy fix.

[CruizinKev]

WOW awesome pics!!!