Monday, May 25, 2015

Post #53, 5/25/15 Heater Box & Wiper Assembly

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. 



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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!




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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.




With the heater core installed.


Here's the heater core spacer bracket with it's padding installed.


This is just a pic of how the heater core spacer bracket fits against the core,, (this is just for reference only)


In order for things to fit properly,, you need to glue the heater core spacer bracket into place in the other housing.


Tah Dah!  Here it is pretty much all ready to go. Just waiting for the new blower motor to finish it out.
 








This should work Much Better! 









I can hardly wait to see what I do next,,, til then,, cya.







Sunday, May 17, 2015

Post #52, 5/17/15 The Painting Begins


65 Mustang Restoration

 


 Finally,,, the painting process has begun. A couple of days ago, Waldo (painter) ordered our paint,,, 2010 Ford Kona Blue,,, I'm told this was a special color for certain GT500 models. Last year I bought one of those $5 cheep & cheesy 18"x 24" picture frames,, the ones that are basically just a piece of plastic, cardboard backer, & 4 plastic trim side pieces that you hold it all together with. This actually works great for color testing,, you just spray the back side of the plastic with the color you're thinking about, let it dry, then look at it from the front side,,, the plastic acts like the clear coat. Put the frame together & take it out into the sun,, the ultimate paint sample. 

I bought a gallon of paint, reducer, clear, & a bit of the special Semi-Gloss Black for the interior,,, $985.00 was the shop's cost. Far cry from the Earl Shive's $99 special paint job.  Seems that they don't give paint away anymore,,, definitely not single stage enamel.

This morning I got the call from Waldo telling me that the small parts were painted, and to come to the shop & pick them up. I was surprised, happy & a bit tentative,,, "What if it's not what I was hoping for?"  As I walked into the paint booth,, all of my fears instantly vanished,,, WOW,,, Perfect! OMG,,, I'm sooo glad we chose this color,,, it's very hard to convey the real color by these pictures,,, the 3rd picture of the rear fender extension is very close though. The pictures just don't do the color justice.






Needless to say, Very Happy with the color choice!  It seems to have many different looks to it,, deep deep blue, black, and very bright heavy metallic blue in the sunlight. All of the pieces are resting safely on the table in the garage. Waldo was headed back to the shop to prep & paint the inside of the doors black, so in a few days he can jam the doors, fenders & hopefully the door jams & trunk area.




Last Thursday, I also started on the steering column,,, more on that to come,, soon.
 

Till then,,