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.
Here are the backing plates just off the car. The left one is after a trip through the parts washer, and the other I decided to just ‘blast. Forgot to get a picture of them all cleaned up.
Driver side rear brakes all rebuilt, waiting on the drums. I decided to pull the axle and rebuild it later. The important part is getting it rolling with the e-brake working for now. Oh yeah, did I mention I shot a bunch of undercoating in the wheelhouses and underside of the trunk floor?
More engine stuff: Edelbrock 1406 Performer carb, Accel Super Coil, Cardone distributor, freshly repainted alternator bracket, and very dusty fan blades. Gonna drop it in the car next weekend.
Tossed on the spiffy new Mach 1 flip-open gas cap – just so the car can have some new ‘jewelery’ to make the ol’ girl feel pretty.
Here’s the underside of the trunk floor, all sealed up and undercoated. My friend Don from Ohio Mustang Supply hooked me up with the front gas tank strap bracket – which cleaned up very nicely!
Got the tank in, once I figured out that the sending unit goes in the hole on the driver side – not the one on the top (duh). Pulled the rollover check valve/vent out of the old tank, cleaned it up, and stuffed it in and hung the tank.
Eric Hansen Sorry, Jim. EVERYBODY – Jim was the one that figured out that the sending unit goes in the hole on the side, and also whatever that goofy thing on the top was. He also extracted it and saved the gasket as well while we were sitting there talking about it. I keep forgetting that most of my bright ideas are usually inspired by his vast knowledge, experience, and expertise. Hope ya feel better now, Bro! (LOL!)
Also from that thread:
Michael Webster At this rate you’ll have to come up with a new name. ‘Rustang’ will no longer fit.
Eric Hansen Trudy already said its new name is: “Frankenstang,” since I’ve resurrected him from the dead, there’s so many parts from other cars on there, as well as you can still see some of the scars. LOL!
Got the driver side quarter panel ON! Startin’ to look like the back end of a ’71 Mustang again!
Lining up the door part was a snap, compared to getting the rear end lined up – Geez.
Getting the back end of this thing lined up pretty much took up most of the weekend. Reproduction pieces don’t always fit well – I had to drill out the spot welds on the new piece to make it fit right.
No more clamps – the quarter panel is ON. Just gotta grind down the welds and primer the bare spots so I can add filler and smooth out the seam later.
Here’s another shot – everything lines up really well. Just gotta adjust the door striker inward a little to get the panels completely lined… after I get new striker pins, that is.
Hung the passenger side quarter panel and lots of tweaking going on. This was before I discovered I needed to boost it up about 3/16″ to line up the style crease in the door. Spent the whole day tweaking some more and will weld it on next weekend.
Here’s the trunk all finished up with Rust Bullet Black Shell. I don’t know if I’ll be shooting some splatter paint or not, it looks so good. Take a good look though as it will all be covered in carpet someday before I start driving it.
I finally made a patch to bridge the gap between the trunk’s weatherstripping channel and the taillight panel. Still gotta grind the welds, but it’s in there and solid.
OK – these came out of the trunk when the pan came out in pieces. They hang underneath, and I believe they’re exhaust hanger brackets, but I have no idea where they go. Guess I’ll figure it out somehow.
Here’s the ‘new’ forward fuel tank strap bracket. WAY better than the one that came with the car (top). Thanks goes out to Don at OMS for the new piece.
Here’s the forward fuel tank strap bracket just before I welded it on. Cleaned up really nice – once again, much appreciation to Don at Ohio Mustang Supply for the hook-up.
Ground down the welds, fabricated a small patch toward the front of the inner wheelhouse, seam sealed, and painted with Rust Bullet Black Shell. Almost ready for quarters now.
After getting this side painted with the Rust Bullet, I moved over to the driver side and finished up the spots I missed when the quarter windows were still in. Next up is quarter panels.
