interior round-up

Most of the work described in this post was done at the old garage in preparation for the move - essentially I had to put the seats back in before I could move, and while I'll have to take them back out at some point to restore them (and install the carpet), I wanted to make sure all the surrounding areas were buttoned up.

Now then, now then: if you're going to drive around in a vintage car, then you have to accept some compromises on safety. I'm fortunate that 68 was the first year that ford replaced the "spear" steering column with a collapsible design and made a number of other modifications to improve safety, such as the rear side marker lights. In addition I've made my own improvements such as the SSBC brakes and 3-point seat belts (see below).

Given what we know about gasoline, it's always surprised me that the gas tank (also known as the trunk floor) is separated from the passenger compartment by nothing more than a flimsy sheet of cardboard and the rear seat back. A common modification among the guys in BAMA is to install a steel or aluminum sheet instead. I followed this path after my buddy Chuck acquired a suitable obsolete steel sign, which I trimmed, covered with faux-dynamat at the trunk side, and installed with sheet metal screws.

Much safer!

Absolutely forever ago (when I had the old garage set up as a paint booth) the rear seat side panels were stripped down, and repainted. I had to remove some light surface rust on the inside, and I scrubbed off all the remnants of the old foam sound insulation.

After painting, thick foam insulation was glued onto the insides of the panels with the 3M yellow weatherstrip adhesive (but not photographed) and the Kraft vapor barriers installed using windshield caulk to provide a seal. To be honest it was really hard to squirt sticky black paste over my beautiful car...but I found a way. After the panels were installed I attached the window winders, and tested the quarter windows....and applied my BAMA decal in the passenger quarter window.

Another improved safety feature of the 68 over the earlier cars was shoulder belts as well as lap belts for the front seats. This means that installing 3-point seat belts in a 68 is a good deal easier than in the preceding cars because the upper mounting point is already there. I actually purchased the seat belt kit more than two years ago, because I wanted to test all the mounting points before I put away the welder.

After I Moved to the present garage I found the seat belts while looking for something else, so I took ten minutes out to installed them. The lap belts in the rear seat are for show. This will be a two-seater car when it's on the road.

while the motor was away...

The engine came back this week. It was at the machine shop for just over seven months. After about four months I remember wondering who had lost the most interest, them or me? Funny thing is, I'd begun dreading the return of the motor....because I'd accomplished so little on the project since it went away.

Clean, shinny and ready for the rebuild!

So, what exactly did get done in seven months? A while was spent on the heater rebuild. I was planning to do some more reassembly (side windows and door internals, wiring harness, new seat belts etc.). But before that I wanted to do some sound proofing in the interior.

Started by emptying out all the stuff I'd been storing inside the car.

Tore out the interior....again...

And then I was back up against a familiar problem: no room to work in because the entire garage was filled with bits of car. Fortunately I created some more space in the tiny attic by laying a bunch of leftover shelves across the joists....which I then stuffed full of seats and whatever else would fit.

I was eager to trial-fit my new three-point seal belts before the project went much further. I'm fortunate that the '68 has appropriate factory-installed mounting points everywhere I need them...but I still wanted to make sure of the fit. Even re-installed the seat to make doubly sure!

Then (after taking out the steering column once again...) I applied extra sealant at all the seams in the body work. I used the approach that far-more-than-necessary should be enough. I also abandoned the dedication to neatness I've adopted elsewhere.

Started work on applying heat/sound insulation to the firewall and behind the dash. This was quite an enjoyable part of the project...so much more fun than covering the same area with my wire wheel! To be cont'd.....

A different kind of motor

With my 351W out of my garage, it was finally time to start thinking about reassembly...or at least getting the rest of the car ready for reassembly, which is obviously something quite different. I'm pretty sure it's a requirement of any worthwhile Mustang restoration that you "do the heater box" while the motor is at the machine shop. If not, it should be! My version started with liberating the heater box from its packing crate. I've moved house garage twice since the heater was put to bed, so it was fortunate that I packed it well.

The last time I saw my heater box was in early 2010, so I was actually a little bit shocked to find out how crusty it was. But then again it will be 45 years old in August. Unfortunately, I forgot to break down the unit....which meant all the metal parts missed out on my batch refurb/painting process. Oh well...

Started by removing everything from the heater case. Ford did not design the heater unit to come apart, so the tear down involved drilling out plenty of pop rivets. The blower housing was a bit rusty: especially in the places where it wasn't originally painted (like the whole car!).

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There were a few cracks in both halves of the case...but nothing a bit of superglue couldn't take care of.

The first major positive of this mini-project was the chance to once again fire up my favorite dewalt angle grinder and its knotted wire wheel. All the metal parts got a good going over before you could say "rust removal". Well not quite that fast, but you get the idea.

The flapper unit was a challenge too far for the wire wheel though, so I legged it over to Mostly Mustangs in Oakland and swapped a six-pack for twenty minutes fun in their blast cabinet. Lovely.

The cleaned up metal parts were wiped down and painted with primer, and then I laid down several coats of the same black paint I used on everything else.

I painted the exterior brackets and some of the other parts with my favorite Eastwood brake gray. This is an old BAMA trick that is designed to make sure everyone knows you took the entire unit apart...and it's use is most definitely not restricted to the heater box.

Initially I wasn't going to paint the heater box, but it didn't look right next to the cleaned up parts....so I hit it with two coats of black fusion-for-plastic paint. I even painted the inside...

All the Mustang supply places sell a kit for replacing the foam and rubber heater parts. There were a couple of extra bits in mine, so it's worth figuring out exactly where you're going to stick each piece before you start gluing up the foam.

Speaking of glue, I used the 3M "Yellow Weatherstrip & Gasket adhesive." (Part #3M8001 if you order from NPD).

You want to apply the adhesive to both surfaces, and it helps if you've got a spreader. I had to improvise with a bit of folded over card board from the packet the glue came in. It wasn't ideal.

Wait five minutes or so, and then slap the two surfaces together. The opportunity for repositioning/lining up is minimal once the two surfaces are in contact.

I used a bunch of different sized pop rivets to get it all back together.

When it came to the heater core I was tempted to put the old one back...but ultimately I decided to replace it. I also bought a pair or reproduction end caps, which were missing from my unit.

All back together....and back into the box. I'm more than three years into the project now and the pile of boxes of parts finally includes more stuff that is finished than still "to-do!"

The driver side ventilation duct was in similar shape to the heater unit (and it was packed in the same box), so I took care of that at the same time.

The seal for the duct does not come with the heater kit, so you need to buy that separately. It goes on the same way though, and I used a few bulldog clips to hold it in place while the adhesive cured.

Onto the heater motor. The part# clearly starts with C5 (65), so it's reasonable to assume that it's original.

It looked in poor enough shape to to be original too....plus I accidentally chopped the terminals off when I removed the motor from the car. Oops.

After the wire wheel did it's work and the case had been re-painted, I soldered on two replacement wires and reattached the original terminals.

I also added the (almost) correct colored plastic sleeves which I got front my new heat-shirk tubing kit. The bolts which hold the two halves of the motor case together were zinc plated long ago.

Finally I sourced a replacement plastic plenum chamber from NPD. There wasn't strictly anything wrong with the original cardboard one.....but I decided a while back that I'm not going to put anything back which smells like "old car," so the original cardboard chamber had to go.

The ducting for the defrost vents went the same way....