June 13

It's been so long since I've posted or done anything more importantly. It was a big day yesterday since I made a big purchase. I bought a full of set of wheels and tires from Gerry. When I saw them I was very happy to see that they were in good shape and they are the kind of wheels that I have wanted. They look just like the kind used by Steve McQueen in the movie, Bullit.

Gerry told me how to properly clean the wheels so they have a nice shine. He also told me that it's going to take elbow grease to get them really clean. When I returned back to my house I started working on one right away.

It took a lot of elbow grease! Can you spot the wheel that I spent 2.5 hours cleaning?

I really hope that everybody can tell because if the difference isn't noticeable I'd be kinda sad.

On June 14, I'll try to finish the other three.

June 1

I got sick the next day so I'm wondering if my body made me take a day off. Now that I was feeling a bit better I had some researching to do.
The pictures don't show it but the tires are corroding and need to be replaced soon. I called my friend Gerry, since he had a full set of wheels and tires ready to go. I wanted to get a price on them for future planning, he tells $500. Score!

Next I went to Mustang and Fast Fords OC (mustang parts store). I asked the owner to give me a price on the front end (which is totally shot). He explained to me the entire process that the car would go through: labor and parts. The quote comes up to $1600. I kinda cringed at a number that big but it needs to be done. He also told me that the car would be so much better after it was done.

I also inquired about wiring harnesses since the electrical is so messed up. Rear harness would be $130 and turn signal switch another $120. I probably need to get these things too.

I need to start saving again! Major investments will be halted for now. I'll continue working on the small stuff.

May 30

After working on the car so much I wanted to take the day but John wanted to keep working. How can I turn him away?
He wanted to start work at 9:00am so that means I have to be there earlier to pull the car out of the garage and setup the tools and parts we'll need. He doesn't show up til 9:40 but luckily he was bearing gifts, so all was forgiven.

After two days of tearing apart my dash area: heater control, radio, and instrumental removed; I thought we should work on something else. I asked him to remove something else that bothered me since I saw the vehicle: the mudflaps. But they were only installed on the driver's side. I said to John "get them off, I don't care how you do it." John used a tool that I never would have thought of using: a vice grip.
I couldn't believe it but he got both of the flaps off in no time at all!

That looks so much better!

My work underneath the car continued and I did pretty good job cleaning.

The area from the rear axle to the front of the transmission looks mostly like this. Though there appears to be some factory over spray near the actual body and some grease is so caked on, I may have to put another day into getting the remainder grease off.

Next I decided to tackle the area under the engine block. This would be the most challenging since it's the source and lots of smaller parts that I'd have to work around. There's still a lot of dirt left in that area, I didn't finish that project today.

One project that John and I really needed to tackle was installing a new fuel pump. There was one little problem: we were missing a small fuel connector (connects the hose to the actual pump). No problem, we'd just head over to pep boys and get it and be done in five minutes. WRONG!
We spent a half-hour there looking for the part and the staff was extremely unhelpful. So we decided to go to O'reilly's instead and they didn't have it either but the staff was much more helpful. The guy called one of the other stores.
Luckily the other store had it. We finally reached the other store and got the part and left. This was an hour long adventure. When we got back to the shop, I was so disgruntled by this I couldn't see straight. With some help form my Dad, the three of us got the new pump in there.
It worked successfully! No more dripping gas!

This is the old pump. I'm very confident that it was time for it to be replaced.

After a long day, it was time for a little cruise. We got in the car and drove down Airway Avenue (which is one of my favorite roads since it is very secluded and perfect to let the car stretch it's legs). I drove first. When it was time to head back, I let John drive. Unfortunately the seat doesn't move much so he was a bit cramped. I hope he had fun driving it.

May 29

John really had a lot of fun working on the car and wanted come back the next day to keep working on the electrical. He didn't it working yesterday but dammit he's going to fix it! Allow me to show his determination.

It is really funny to watch someone who is over 6 feet working underneath the dash. What's even funnier is watching him try to crawl out!

As anyone can imagine, I continued my work underneath the car but I have made some real progress!

The black is the problem and the red is what is supposed to be there. Seeing the red is a very good sign: it shows me that the body does not have significant rust and this is the original factory under spray which is very cool.

When I first saw the car, there was one thing that bothered me the moment I saw it: a bell. The bell was installed there as some kind of alarm system. It obviously did not work and it wanted it out of there!

 This was a team operation.

 The screws were so cheap that they were falling apart while John trying to remove them. I was called in to help.

Good riddance! And proof that we got the job done!

May 28

I decided to get a head start in the morning and get the car ready for the work that'll be done by putting cardboard all underneath the car since I would be using degreaser on the undercarriage. The transmission has been leaking fluid and I wanted to make sure that it had enough fluid.

Today was a special day since I was able to get my friend John to help me out with the auto. When he first arrived I asked to clean the inner fender on the driver's side. I must admit that he did a very good job. But before he could start, he had to take everything on the inner fender off.

Luckily he has long arms, so he literally can reach around both sides of the fender.

Meanwhile I was cleaning the underside of the car. I decided to start from the back and make my way forward. I want to show this picture of the kind of dirt and grease, I had to deal with.

This dirt and grease was very thick, also imagine this all underneath the entire car! I was forced to buy heavy duty degreaser to try to get this off. I was going through the degreaser like candy. I also went through rags and shop towels like it was my job.


After John was finished with the inner fender, I asked him to work on the electrical. As previously mentioned, the rear tail lights don't work properly. Since John is an engineer, I figured he would have an idea about what to do.