65 Mustang Restoration: May 2015

65 Mustang Restoration

This weeks fun included finishing the blower motor/fan assembly for the heater box, and rebuilding the steering column.The blower assembly was pretty straight forward, add the seal between the motor & the plate, bolt it down, and install the new squirrel cage.

As I stated before,, the last motor didn't have bolts going through it that were long enough to mount the plate,, this new one that we got from NPD, was their better version (2-3 $$ more), and the bolts were perfect & when I tested it out on our car battery, it sounded & felt very good,, pretty much like you'd expect.

Now it's time to wrap it up & put it aside until it's needed.

-------------------------------------------------------------

Steering Column

On to the steering column. This is how it looked still mounted in the car (way back when).

As you can tell, a bit of cleaning is definitely in order. I cleaned the majority of the parts in the solvent tank & with old faithful, brake clean. After they were pretty clean,,, It was time for Waldo to take over and prep & paint.

And yes,, this part does come apart,, which is pretty important when installing the turn signal switch.

Back when I washed the parts all up,, that also included washing out all of the old nasty grease in the upper steering shaft support bearing,,, so now it's time to fix that. This is a handy little needle grease gun that I have,, and it worked pretty well for this task. I used one hand to hold the part and push up on the bearing from the bottom side(and slightly to one side) making a nice little gap up top in which to insert some new grease.

Then,, just try to work the grease in a bit more with your finger until you see grease starting to ooze out from the bottom side of the bearing,, and then wipe off the access with a rag & work in the grease by spinning the bearing a bit.

Next, it's time to bolt the end back on with those square headed bolts,, it'll only go on one way. Notice the grease in the bearing.

Now it's time for the switch & the cone section. The wires actually go through the tube quite easily,,, HOWEVER,, you want to Carefully slide the cone section onto the tube BEFORE you slide the wires through the lower slot. You can attach the cone section with the 2 screws, but it is recommended that you make sure you are able to slide the harness all of the way through by pushing the switch temporarily into place.

You can screw the cone on in the wrong direction,, look at the turn signal lever notch area to see which way it goes back on,, and carefully screw the 2 sections back together.

Once that's complete, it's time to bolt down the switch,, it'll only go in one direction,,, But it's important to make sure that No wires are being pinched,, especially the yellow wire. Make sure you start all of the screws before you tighten them,, and double-check the wires.

And for fun, I installed the new Scott Drake Turn Signal Lever & checked out the operation of the switch.

And here's the lovely factory under the dash wiring harness,,, you always want to keep items like this if possible,, you just never know when you'll need something. I just so happen to need the 2 plastic wiring connectors.

I was planning on using the old harness so I could match up the wires by color & thickness,,, Wrong! I suppose it would have been possible if the wires hadn't faded so badly,,, luckily there's Google & I found this sweet little item.

Don't forget the install the protective sleeve onto the wires Before you install the ends. I actually slid the sleeve up inside the tube a bit to help keep the wires from chafing.

About the only other parts you'll be needing, are the shaft centering sleeve & pressure spring,, the nut that holds the steering wheel on,,

And the steering wheel. This is a new wheel, with an awesome factory horn ring that I was lucky enough to find. I found a new & rare old-school leather wrap which I hand sewed into place,, definitely gives it a much better feel & a bit more thickness for my large hands to grip onto,, very comfy!

And here it all is, completely restored & ready for install. But instead,,, I wrapped it up & put it away for now,, SOON THOUGH,, I hope!

Next,, the rear end rebuild,,,, did the 3rd member,, now it's time for the rest of it.

Till next time,,,, cya!

65 mustang Restoration

More painted(jammed) parts were delivered today,,, the 2 doors have been painted with both of their colors,,, semi-gloss black for the interior section & Kona Blue in the jam areas,, along with both front fenders, all 4 hinges & the bottom side of the deck lid.

-------------------------------------------------------------

2-Speed Wiper Assembly

Since the painting has been moving right along,, I figured I'd better get cracking on some of the smaller sub-assemblies,,, all of those parts that are among the first items to be installed inside the car,,, so the 1st item to mess with was the 2-speed wiper assembly.

This is the wiper motor for an early version Mustang that has a 2-Speed Wiper. I actually have a couple of assemblies,, this one looked to be in very good condition, but pretty dirty. I just hope it works,,, (Since I'm not sure how one would bench-test this ahead of time,, if I find out, I'll let everyone know). The wiring harness & connector look pretty nice.

Above are some other "before" pics,,, you have to tear it apart before you restore it. The top pic has the arm assembly as it's suppose to be, the top wiper arm is for the right side. Notice on the bottom picture above, the wiring harness clip that helps to keep the wiring from getting tangled in the left arm as it moves.

I cleaned the motor assembly the best I could,,, trying to keep any liquids/cleaners from getting inside places it shouldn't be. It took a bit to clean the old tape off of the motor. I then sanded, cleaned & painted it all back up. (notice the factory date code)

The arms just received a light cleaning, since I didn't want to remove any of the factory coating on them,, the only area to touch the wire wheel was the ends that protrude through the cowl. I wanted to make the threads nice and clean, along with removing the factory paint over-spray.

I blasted the 2 brackets & coated them with Eastwood's Rust Encapsulator,, it gives it a rock hard semi-gloss finish.

And here's the finished product,,, a complete 2-speed wiper assembly that looks pretty good,,, sure hope it works!

----------------------------------------------------------

Heater Box

The 2nd project was to restore the factory 2-speed heater box assembly. As you can see,, it needs a lot of work! You'll notice the cracked & broken housing,, and a bunch of rusty parts inside,,, and it was even worse looking once I got inside.

Luckily, I've been able to acquire a couple of extra heater boxes, so I had my choice of the best of each of the parts,,, or at least that was the theory.

I like this one!

This is a SIDE NOTE and possibly a useful tid-bit. From the outside, all 3 boxes looked the same, with one small exception,, the housing I ended up choosing, was missing the mounting bracket by the outside opening door,,, didn't think much of it at the time, but when I opened it up,, the heater core was much thicker & it's bracket was much different. Not a real big deal, but you need to use the appropriate heater core spacer bracket with the appropriate thickness of heater core,, blow are a couple of pics of those differences.

Below is for the thick heater core.

This one is for the standard Mustang thinner core

Now you can see the difference in core thicknesses

I would suppose that if you're in a colder area & actually drive your Mustang in the winter,, I would assume the thicker core would work much better for you.

Here's the freshly blasted flapper-door housing, mounting bracket, & heater core spacer bracket,, all ready for more of Eastwood's Rust Encapsulator (which is sprayed on All blasted metal areas).

(Below) And here's the pile of parts all waiting to be assembled. The 2 housing sections have already been carefully blasted & encapsulated,,, the only problem area on this table is,, the new electric blower motor.

TIP,, if you buy a new motor,, there are 2 things that you need to do immediately upon arrival,,, 1st, look at the screws that go completely through the motor & hold it together,, (see 3rd pic below) there are 2 sets of nuts,, the pair of nuts touching the motor should not be messed with at all,, however,,, the 2 outer nuts are what holds the rectangular mounting bracket to the motor,, Problem with this motor,, the bolts are just too short,, by the time you try to install the new padding, plate, washer and then the nut,, there's no way for the nuts to grab any threads, let along tighten down. 2nd, if it looks like your bolts are long enough,,, touch the wires to a car battery to see if the motor works,, and more importantly that it doesn't make a bunch of noise when it runs. Needless to say,,, I'm returning this one & have ordered a better one from NPD.

Side Note: I tore 3 heater box assemblies apart,,, and the only padding that I found installed in them,, was the 2 large rectangular pieces that supported the heater core itself,,, there was no other padding that I had to remove from any other area on the box area,,, but the motor had a piece between the plate & motor,, and a thick round seal that sealed it to the firewall.

I figured I'd try to glue the padding onto the parts in the numbered order on the sheet included with the kit. (3 pieces in the area)

The flapper door housing gets a total of 7 pieces of padding glued to it.

I used a couple of small screws stuck through the holes on the strip, to line the strip up with the matching holes on the housing(below).

Once all those parts are glued on,, you have to carefully install the flapper housing back into the case,, this is not so easy since this padding is kind of thick,,, I test fitted mine earlier,,, It fits,, but barely,,,(you may decide to remove the strip with the 2 holes in it & use a bit of silicone instead). Which ever method you choose,, you have to bolt it into place before the next bit of padding can be installed.