Kinda tough to see (the camera flash washed it out), but the little patch of ‘yellow’ in the passenger side foot well is from the courtesy lights – They Work!!

I left the flash turned off to see the dome light lit up. First time this poor car has probably had electricity running through it since 1980-ish.

A better shot of the passenger side courtesy light illuminating the foot well and under the glove box.

The tilt mechanism on top is from the ‘new’ column, which was having problems tilting – probably because of the ‘extra’ piece I found floating around inside (in the middle). The bottom is from the original column that wouldn’t tilt either.

Apparently, that ‘extra’ piece was one of the pivot points and broke off. Fortunately, it looks like the original one is still intact. Maybe I can make one good tilt column out of two bad ones.

The other pics I took came out really blurry, so here we are with the column all back together. Everything works great – except for the key cylinder… which pretty much fell apart. See next picture.

I was almost done when the key cylinder just basically fell apart… then the tumblers dropped out, then it was pretty much all over at that point. I just ordered a new one, so hopefully it’ll be here by next weekend.

After lots of head-scratching, trimming, cleaning, and pop-riveting, here’s the ‘new and improved’ AOD shifter. Much less ‘dung beetle’ look, so it should fit into the console now.

Here’s the console being test-fitted with the modified AOD shifter. Looks like it’s going to work after all. Just need to adjust the console a little and come up with some kind of filler for the area around the shifter. So far, so good!

Swiped one of the wheels from Jim Eimer‘s Galaxie while he had it off (just to see what it would look like). Now I need to figure out how to get the other 3. LOL

After helping get the Auto Hobby Shop cleaned up for a safety inspection tomorrow, all I could do was get a picture of the AOD shifter to share with my friends at 7173 Mustangs forums. I guess there’s more slope to the Fox body floors than they thought. 

More stuff on the engine done: battery, starter solenoid, voltage regulator, spark plugs, spark plug wires, export braces in-place, and the power steering fan belt you can’t see.

Another shot – I wish Summit hadn’t sent me the ‘Universal Ford V8’ spark plug wires, but rather the ‘cut to fit’ wires I remember ordering. Oh well… maybe next time. Driver side plugs are gonna be a b!tch to change. LOL

Here’s the cool Holley Black fuel pump Jim gave me all mounted and plumbed (finally). Just gotta run power to it now.

In order to make it go, you also have to make it stop!

The power steering pressure line fitting was too big, so I decided to re-use the original. Still gotta clean it up though.

HVAC is all plumbed in, and now I need to pull the wiring harness back out – apparently, it’s from a ’73, and not a ’71 as I was told. No worries… someone will buy it, I’m sure.

This is where I left off with the brakes after getting the new suspension installed. New wheel bearings, but nasty ol’ rotors with no calipers. Not like I was needing brakes to move on and off the lift anyway.

Decided to check out the old brake booster since I can’t seem to find one through the local parts stores. Also dug out the dust shields and starting cleaning & hammering them back into shape.

After cleaning, hammering, ‘blasting, and painting, here’s the passenger side shields. Not perfect, but not bad, either.

Took me almost two hours of fighting with the caliper on the passenger side to get to this point. Still need to tighten the wheel nut and connect the brake line (missing banjo bolts), but almost done. Driver side took 15 minutes.

After working with the firewall insulation and punching some holes through the firewall, I was able to get the evaporator/heater core installed with the help of my pals Jim and Gonzo. So far, so good.

Here’s the front of the engine with the A/C compressor (top right), power steering pump (lower right) and alternator (left, hiding behind the fan). Still gotta plumb up the rest of the A/C, and run the electrical and those parts will be good to go.

Got the A/C condenser installed along with the dryer after chasing down some bolt (the kit said to re-use the existing condenser bolts – but this car never had A/C… hmmm).

Here’s how Day One of RAAMat installation went. So far, so good – but I hope I never have to do this again. It’s pretty straight-forward and not particularly tough to do – just time-consuming and the metal edges are pretty hard on the knees, elbows, and shoulders.

Just finished applying Rust Bullet Black Shell onto the firewall, floor, and rear seat area. From the passenger side.

Here’s the rear seat area and front seat platforms. I’ll tackle the doors and jambs later.

One from the driver side after finishing up with the Rust Bullet. Took almost a whole quart and 4 hours.

All lugnuts present and accounted for! This one only had 3 ‘nuts and one of the studs was snapped off (the shiny one is the new one).

Here’s the ‘new & improved’ underside picture – now the whole car looks brand new from underneath!

View from the rear end – nice, clean, rebuilt rear axle. Still gotta put the driver side rear shock back on after I get the brake lines all buttoned up with a new distribution block.

The drive shaft has more room in there than I thought it would – at least an inch or so on both sides. Good thing the rear axle only moves up and down with the suspension, and not side-to-side.