Engine - Initial Work

I started work on the car in November 2019. I was expecting this to go quick so the initial activity has very few pictures. My plan was to tackle a couple things at a time and not go all in with tearing down the interior, brakes, etc. that I had planned. I did that on my '73 Mach I and 17 years later it's still in pieces.

First thing - I was worried about burning oil. For an engine with 12K miles on it - that just shouldn't happen. There was also the exhaust leak in the #7 and #8 cylinder area. I wondered if they were related. That could be a burned valve and things get expensive there. Additionally on the receipt for the long block was written "Better Business Bureau - <Phone Number>". yikes!

Lets take a look at the engine compartment that I've marked up with things that bothered me. Click on the picture to enlarge.

The biggest thing is that somebody used red wires for everything they did. This should be fun to figure out. (Spoiler - it wasn't). Would some of this wiring be why the brakes and turn signals don't work?

Burning Oil Hunt

The #7 plug was black and the rest were white when I took them out. I did a compression test on all cylinders and they were great. Used a bore camera and looked at the cylinders and everything looks great. Based on the #7 plug color I figured something is up there. Eli from Luxury Automotive suggested run some Seafoam (tm) through the engine and put some miles on it. Maybe there's something gumming up the gap between the piston rings. He was right.

I put some copper crush header gaskets on when I buttoned up the engine and exhaust leak is fixed!

Brake Lights and Turn Signals

Note red wires going to the gauge three pack

On these Mustangs the brake lights run through the turn signal switch. If that's messed up nothing works. Tested it and it seems ok. Tested the Headlight switch and it seems ok. Found out that when the brakes are applied the whole circuit grounds out. Was going to put LED brake lights in so went ahead and did that cleaning up the wiring in the trunk. Didn't help

Must be the brake light switch...and there is a splice of a wire upstream of the switch. Great place to splice a wire. So where did that wire go? Nowhere. It was grounding out on the steering column. Brakes fixed! Turn signals - turn on but don't flash. Decided to blow that off until later. The red wires on the gauge 3 pack were intertwined with the flasher controllers.

Drive Time!

I drove the car a bunch the rest of the year (while I worked on the '69 Mach I). It has no play in the steering, runs and drives great, and is just plain fun. I've always owned the muscle car Mustangs. I'm understanding the attraction of these!

1966 Mustang 

This is NOT a restoration! 

I bought this '66 coupe from a friend of mine for my son's first car. I have some improvements in mind for safety, comfort, and drive-ability that can bring the car up to a daily driver status. My intention is to do the things needed and not turn this into a restoration! (spoiler alert - yeah, right) I wanted to share all this since we are all stuck at home due to COVID-19 when I made this page and worked on the car.

Interior. Note my sneaky Challenger photo bombing...

The Car

Car seems to be a base model V-8. 

• 289 CI engine
• 3 speed manual transmission
• Manual steering
• 4 wheel, manual brakes
• Single bowl master cylinder
• No AC
• Bench front seat

Based on receipts that came with the car it was restored in 2012. It has less than 13,000 miles on it since. New long block, interior work, routine maintenance for this type of overhaul. It was kept very original. Other than the problem with the seat upholstery and floor pans (lost more on that later) the interior is great.

Engine has an aluminum radiator, electric fan, headers, and a very new alternator. There's something draining the battery if the car sits for a few days. 

Initial Improvement & Repair List

Missing paint on front and sneaky Challenger again...

I'm a resto mod kind of guy. Before my son is going to drive this car there's some things that need to be done.

• Front Disc brakes
• Dual bowl master cylinder with a proportioning valve
• Power Steering
• AC
• High back seats (add headrests? or ditch the bench seat?)
• New seat belts. The current lap belt only isn't good enough.
• The front floor pans are rusted through and need replacement.
• Paint - car sat under a tree or something and has little spots of rust here and there. Nothing serious, but getting painted.
• Wheels - 15" Magnum 500's with rust spots. I will get those refinished and put them on my '69 Mach I. I have something else to use on this car that I will share later.

Additional things we learned after driving the car

• Exhaust leak on the left side of the engine.
• Burning a little bit of oil.
• Brake lights and turn signals don't work.