1969 Ford Torino GT Fastback

[fantasygoat]

Installed the fan too.



I spent most of one day grinding off the paint and minor surface rust on the hood.



The original gas pedal was hinged on the engine compartment side of the firewall and also for some odd reason had an automatic kickdown attachment. Plus it was a mechanical linkage that had a lot of slop in it, and took up a lot of space. It had to go. The only way to get it out was to cut it out!
Here's what was left.



For a replacement, I found a pedal assembly from a Jeep Cherokee on ebay for $1 plus $3 shipping. The internet is great. In order to swap the original pedal to this one, I had to grind down the sides, drill out the hole and tap it to the screw size. Came out pretty good and it mounts up like the original.



I painted it black and while it was drying, we cut the Lokar throttle cable to length and modified an $8 throttle cable bracket to fit the cable. The gas pedal action is so smooth now, and there's way less clutter in the engine bay.



After that, I put the driver's side headlight assembly back together. Here's the cleaned and painted one next to the passenger's side so you can see the difference. After I took the photo I got the other one apart, cleaned and painted.



The replacement hood I bought was rust free, but was involved in an accident at some point in the past. I'd prefer a perfect one but beggars can't be choosers. The Torino hoods are also notoriously weak at the hinges, so to combat both problems, we installed some extra bracing on both sides that should prevent any further buckling. Maybe one day in a few years I'll find a perfect hood to replace it.



The springs in the car were torched at some point in the past, so they needed to be replaced. Also, the car sits way too high in the front, so I bought some 2" drop springs.



Blech! Rusty crap! But at least it was well greased.



I plan on replacing all of this stuff next year, so I didn't bother cleaning it up much, and just blasted it with black to prevent further rusting.



The rear emblem fell off ages ago, so I cleaned off the remaining goo. Surprisingly shiny!