Dad's Mach 1

Totalled · Oct 9, 2011

My Dad passed away on August 8th. I had his 73 Mustang Mach 1 shipped from Iowa to here. Dad bought it in 1992. The only thing he really did to it was rebuild the transmission after a bad stall converter ate the front pump and broke the flexplate. It arrived wearing the same tires, belts, hoses that he bought it with. I replaced the shocks and front brakes last November when I visited him. They were factory originals. :wowwow:

It's a factory 351 Cleveland Cobra Jet (Q code) car. The engine was rebuilt by the previous owner. It has a crane fireball cam. I couldn't find the cam card, so I don't know the specs. Edelbrock performer intake, 750 holley. Stock points dist.

Shortly after it got out here, the master cylinder started to fail, so I decided to go through the brake system and suspension to make it safe and reliable to drive. I ended up needing to replace everything. The hard lines are rusted, and one broke on removal. The rear shoes and hardware were factory. the wheel cylinders were seized. I pulled the rear end apart to see what the ratio was. The door tag indicated a 3.25 trac lok, it was 3.25 open. So I swapped in a 3.70 geared third with a locker.

Totalled · Oct 9, 2011

When the trans was rebuilt, they put a 400 truck converter in it, so it had real low stall. A Cleveland needs some stall. They left the factory with a 3,000 stall converter. I took the truck converter out and put in a 2,000 stall converter.

The factory wheels are 14x6. The tires on them were 235/60/14. About as big as you can fit on that wheel. This is a big car, and needs more tire than that. I love the aluminum slot look, so I ordered up 15x8 Ansen Sprints and 245/60/15's for the front and 275/60/15's for the back.

The starter fell and broke a mounting ear during the trans removal, so I upgraded to a late model small starter. I replaced the ancient cables too.

Replaced the leaking original radiator with an aluminum unit. Also put in a trans cooler since it has a stall converter now.

The exhaust sucks. They ran it straight back from the headers, instead of putting it up in the trans tunnel. It has hit lots if stuff, so I'm replacing it with Hooker headers, an X-pipe, and Hooker aero chamber mufflers.

I'm putting MSD 6AL digital in, with a duraspark dist to fire it.

Yesterday I got the rear brakes put together, got the wheels and tires mounted and balanced, and put on for the first time.

Today, I'm replacing hard line, hoses, master cylinder, and calipers. Hopefully I can get the brakes bled out too. :hi:

TreeClimber · Oct 9, 2011

Sorry about loss of dad. Pretty car. Should be fun. Keep with the build thread pics, and enjoy this car. Will bring lots of 'dad' memories for years.

Mark m. · Oct 9, 2011

Very cool!

Bunk1 · Oct 9, 2011

Dad would be proud.

PhantomEB · Oct 9, 2011

Totally agreed, Dad should be proud. My bud has had two of those Mustangs, a 72 302 model and a 460'ed 71. Ahhh such memories!

k2blazen · Oct 9, 2011

Nice car!Take pride in it and have fun:awesomework:

stealthrunner1 · Oct 9, 2011

Nice car!!!:awesomework::beer:

Totalled · Oct 9, 2011

Got all the hard lines replaced except the rt side crossover. New hoses, calipers, hardware. The front to rear brake line sucked to get over the transmission.

R.DesJardin · Oct 9, 2011

Always liked that body style, sweet ride.:awesomework: Looks like it needs a good underbody cleaning, crapping midwest corrosion.

Glenn · Oct 9, 2011

In for another Mustang thread.

Fordzuki · Oct 9, 2011

Great car. Glad to see something like this stay in the family.

mudmaster · Oct 10, 2011

Very nice!

YotaMike · Oct 10, 2011

Awsome car, nice thread.

JOOP · Oct 10, 2011

Nice car. very clean too. :awesomework:

wheelinjp · Oct 10, 2011

:awesomework:sweet build man. I love the tire and wheel choice. cant wait to see this running around the south end. :awesomework:

Mike G · Oct 10, 2011

Theres nothing like bringing back an old classic!! Nice car!!!

Totalled · Oct 12, 2011

Got the cross over and remaining hard line in. Got the new master bench bled and installed. Then gravity bled the system. Got a friend coming over tomorrow to finish bleeding.