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.

Painted on the white grease (too much, TBH) to check the pattern after zapping down the yoke and setting the pinion pre-load.

Here’s the diff while checking the pattern on the gears. Looks good… just gotta chase the threads to get the last of the funk out of the threads. It’s almost all back together.

Yesterday, got the axle ends ‘blasted and painted. Just gotta press on the bearing and stuff ’em back in now (and installing a new wheel stud in the on on the right that the previous owner snapped off).

Here’s the axle housing and diff after chasing all the threads for funk and new paint. Just gotta get it back together now and back under the car.

Rear axle housing back from the sand blaster – turned out awesome! The yoke and the pinion housing just to the left are exactly how the axle looked before ‘blasting – time to clean them up too.

Rear axle housing after a coat of black engine enamel.

Random shot of the hood latch support (pre-cleaning)… for some reason it didn’t make it into the FB album.

Out of the car and after a couple hours of pickin’ grunge out of the nooks & crannies, then some degreaser and power rinsing. Time to take it all apart.

Here’s what’s left of the 41-year-old 90-weight that came out of the rear diff (in glops). It’s almost solid enough to tar the roof!

Here’s the inside of the case after some time in the parts washer. Came out pretty clean, all things considered.

The diff looks GREAT after spending some time in the parts washer. All the bearings are still smooth, and the ring gear’s teeth are in awesome shape. New bearings and seals all around for this one though.

Well, after bending the lead pipes to accommodate the 14-degree angles the headers come off at, the exhaust is in for ‘test fitting.’ It’s all in there, and I just need to mount the hangers and zap down the clamps

Here’s the new shot from the rear. Not a lot of space for the drive shaft to live, but I guess it doesn’t move around as much as the ones on my 4x4s, so that’s good.

Here’s a shot straight up underneath the engine and transmission. You can see the angle the headers come off are roughly 14 degrees toward the center. Had to put a small bend in the lead pipes to match up to the X-pipe.

The X-pipe running back to the mufflers under the rear seat pans. Those will most likely be hot seats – not that anybody will likely ever ride back there.

And then we have this – everything lookin’ good right up to the nasty ol’ rear axle. Gotta do something about it fast.

Got the headers in, and although they fit really well, I’m not completely happy with the way the collectors angle in toward the transmission pan. Most headers point straight back, and most exhaust systems build to that. Gonna hafta get creative.

Here’s the headers all mounted up – they look awesome! Fit really well, too. The pic is washed out because of my cell phone… left the ‘good’ camera at home.

Here’s the ‘creative’ answer to the transmission cross member. I pulled the nasty ol’ unit from the original transmission and cleaned it up, chopped out the ‘notch’ section to clear the AOD’s pan, and sprayed on some engine enamel. Looks good so far…

All In! The ‘new’ cross-member fits like a champ (it should, since it’s the original piece). It also offers up a ton of room for the collectors as well.

Here’s the e-brake idler bracket I lost when I pulled out what was left of the floor. Got a new one with the ‘C’ clip and welded it in this morning.

This is the other side, where the e-brake cable passes through the frame rail and goes into the car through the floor. I lost that bracket as well, and had to fabricate one this morning to make the cable work right.

The engine is ready to go in – FINALLY! Got it off the stand and onto the hoist. Lookin’ good so far.

It’s IN!! From the time it took to get it off the stand to where it is now took roughly 10 minutes. Easiest transplant ever! Much thanks to Jim, Tony, and Jason for doing pretty much everything – I just fetched a hammer and basically watched while they put it in.

A nice shot through the open hole of the radiator core support. Shouldn’t be too long before it’s time to fire it up. Still gotta put in the transmission, exhaust system and the rest of the engine goodies before that can happen though.

Here’s the AOD out of a friend’s ’89 5.0 Mustang after a ton of cleaning. Looks almost brand new! Can’t wait to stuff it into the Rustang – oops, Frankenstang!

Got it in! Here’s the new view from under the car. The new bracket is ginked just a little, but everything fits just like it’s supposed to. Can’t wait to get the shifter, linkage, cooling lines, and everything on there.

With the tranny going in, the engine rotated a little further forward to fit in the Monte Carlo bar… but it’s REAL close to the top of the distributor cap. I might have to go with a different one with a ‘dizzy’ bend, or maybe modify this one a little.