73 mach 1 build thread

[downwardspiral]

Well, I am saving up my doll hairs and getting ready to finally get my car together. I am going to do a turbo setup with a frankenstein fuel injection system when the time is right.. I'm going to start with the injection system, then do the turbo.. This will be somewhat of a budget build.. but I'll be doing most of the work myself so it should be 90% parts [which I get at a discounted rate ].

rusty cowl panel= wet feet....


..fixing it.. I broke the windshield like a hammerhead trying to scrape out the adhesive (not pictured).. Going back at it with a heat gun and a guitar string tommorow lol.
I needed a new windshield anyway

this stuff is nasty.. its all over the bottoms of my shoes.

 

[downwardspiral]

I left my heat gun at home because I was so excited to work on the car today lol.. Started drilling spot welds instead.. resulting in the removal of the uppermost brackets/panels whatever you want to call them. Then I spent some time welding holes shut for practice.. Hopefully I'll get back there thursday and get the windshield out.

 

[downwardspiral]

Windshield is out in more or less one piece lol.

Ready to drill out 1,000,000 spot welds

Windshield goo.. I'm pretty sure this is not only the wrong stuff, but the installer used way too much of it.. I heated the adhesive to the point that the windshield started to crack and it still wouldn't budge. I used a guitar string in addition to heat, and it worked great around the sides and top, but I couldn't even slide the string through the bottom. It had to go anyway.. hopefully I can get a replacement.

 

[Grand Poobah]

I am really interested in your work, especially since the '70's style looks very "fun" to me. It's not as "beautiful" as the '60's but not as dull as the '80's (again only my opinion) so you get a "performance that is meant to be thrashed vibe (which is kind of ironic considering this is '73 when performance was on the way out).

Anyway, are you planning on rebuilding the engine yourself? That will cost something...

I'm not too informed, but I was reading how some folks rebuild their engines and make their piston heads concave instead of convex, so the compression ratios are lowered, but because the compression ratios are lowered, the builders then raise turbo PSI on the engine, which results in more power with less amounts of stress.
I'm tempted to do that if I ever rebuild my 3.8L V6, but I'd have to be seriously bored/rich to do that.

 

[downwardspiral]

I am really interested in your work, especially since the '70's style looks very "fun" to me. It's not as "beautiful" as the '60's but not as dull as the '80's (again only my opinion) so you get a "performance that is meant to be thrashed vibe (which is kind of ironic considering this is '73 when performance was on the way out).

Anyway, are you planning on rebuilding the engine yourself? That will cost something...

I'm not too informed, but I was reading how some folks rebuild their engines and make their piston heads concave instead of convex, so the compression ratios are lowered, but because the compression ratios are lowered, the builders then raise turbo PSI on the engine, which results in more power with less amounts of stress.
I'm tempted to do that if I ever rebuild my 3.8L V6, but I'd have to be seriously bored/rich to do that.

I love the 71-3 mustangs because they are pretty much the bastard child of the mustang world, and I haven't seen to many interesting ones out there. I'm not really into conventional things, and I love a challenge so this car makes sense to me lol.
The engine work is not going to be cheap, but hopefully I wont need to go too crazy with parts. I'll be doing almost everything myself. I'm going to use the machines that are available to me for as much as I can, but I can't do it all. I don't think I will have a problem assembling the motor, and I'm pretty confident I can do all the math necessary to pull this off. I need to look into it and learn more, but I plan on doing the tuning myself too. I am probably going with low compression forged pistons and most likely the aussie 2v heads I have sitting around. I work at a speed shop, and can get most of the turbo and engine stuff there for pretty cheap. The fuel injection stuff is going to be mostly from the junkyard or someone switching from FI to a carb setup.. The only fabrication I will be paying for will be anything aluminum that needs to be TIG welded, but if it works out to be cheaper, I will just rent a TIG welder to do it myself.

-As far as CR vs boost goes, you do not necessarily want low low compression and high boost. 9:1 seems to be a good number as long as the combustion chamber volume is low. A closed chamber head with a low compression piston is best for reducing detonation.

 

[Grand Poobah]

So what turbo are you thinking of running? A garett? Are you thinking of using a bi-turbo setup, single turbos seem kind of...dangerous in that you might be making a turn and then you get some boost going, old porsches had that problem--but then again they had the whole rear engine/transaxle thing going on.

Idk, it sounds really cool. I like that interior btw. Looks like you have been making some improvements already.

 

[downwardspiral]

So what turbo are you thinking of running? A garett? Are you thinking of using a bi-turbo setup, single turbos seem kind of...dangerous in that you might be making a turn and then you get some boost going, old porsches had that problem--but then again they had the whole rear engine/transaxle thing going on.

Idk, it sounds really cool. I like that interior btw. Looks like you have been making some improvements already.

Thanks.. It's come a long way but was never fast lol. I've only heard of the old (and new) porsches losing it on exit ramps because the driver lets off and the weight transfers. I'll be running a low boost setup probably 8-10 psi, so spooling shouldn't be an issue with a single. It's not going to pop off vtec like a honda with a huge turbo haha. It's going to be a Precision journal bearing, something like a 70mm with a small-ish turbine housing. Alot of the exhaust gas will be going out of the wastegate so it will need to be somewhat big.. I haven't gotten into the specifics yet because I haven't taken a look at what I really have with this engine. If it looks worse than I think it will when I take it out, I may even go turbo modular or LS ... Whatever I am doing is going to need to be very streetable, I want to be able to drive it to the track and drive home.. and the closest track is not close, and I'll have to drive through NYC to get there. I'm also considering building it to daily drive so I can build my current daily . But thats more of a dream at this point lol.

 

[electricgreen]

Nice project you've got!

 

[Grand Poobah]

Well if you're worried about the engine not looking good, you might just install fuel injection and leave the turbo out of the equation for now

 

[rafaelpadro24]

73 Mach 1 rebuild

Glad to see some one else restoring one of the most negglected mustangs models. I always loved this car since my first exposure to them at 9 yrs old. Keep up with the good work. Check the work I am doing to my 73 Mach 1 hope we can share some stories or info,
http://www.cardomain.com/id/ralphpadro24

 

[downwardspiral]

Glad to see some one else restoring one of the most negglected mustangs models. I always loved this car since my first exposure to them at 9 yrs old. Keep up with the good work. Check the work I am doing to my 73 Mach 1 hope we can share some stories or info,
http://www.cardomain.com/id/ralphpadro24

Nice build! I'm also learning to weld by doing the cowl panel. My harbor freight spotweld cutter just cut holes through the metal, there's all kinds of seam sealer and epoxy adhesive holding my panels together, so the spot welds didn't pop like they are supposed to. whatever, I'll be good at plug welding by the time this is done.

 

[electricgreen]

Someone on cardomain was putting a dual turbo setup into a big body at one point a few years ago. I haven't checked in on it in a while.

Yup, the big bodies are by far the most neglected years after the MII. When we bought Eleanor and started looking for parts I thought we were really in for it (and here we sold a 69 Falcon wagon for a Mustang to have something easier to get parts for)! Luckily we found a guy in Ohio that parted them out, or we'd never have her in almost one piece. It took several day long drives to get the parts, but when you need something like an entire quarter for a big body stang, well, it's worth the drive!

 

[downwardspiral]

I finally got the cowl panel before, the spot weld drill method didn't work for me, so I used a chisel bit. I have alot of holes to fill and some grinding to do, but its out. It doesn't look as bad as I thought it would.. I'm going to start wire brushing and por-15ing the panel next time I get a chance to work on it.

 

[downwardspiral]

Well, I've been overwhelmed between school and work and haven't worked on the car. My semester offically ends on thursday, so it should be coming together at a quicker pace from this week on. I decided on megasquirt for fuel / ignition management and ordered the ecu, relay board, harnesses and sensors. I will be picking up a bottle for my mig machine wednesday, and will start getting the dash back together immediately. I am going to be able to do alot of machining at school, my professors said I can use the machines (small CNC, vertical + horizontal mill, lathe) during the summer so this shouldn't be a problem. From this point on, there will (hopefully) be more tech than talk .. so I'm going to move the thread on the next update .

 

[72mustang]

man you got more balls than me right now I have a cowl problem also but fixed it with with goop and some really sticky fingers {I know the lazy version but I got the car last year and I want to drive it this summer} The car will be going in for paint either this year or next and I plan on doing a rotisserie job so I will leave the cowl full of goop until then.right now my engine is in the shop for a little freshening up and upgrades.{yeah I'm welder not a mechanic so some of the work I can't do myself}Should get it back in 2 or 3 weeks.So i guess u have a 351c 2v by what I read. You could also look at afd heads but they don't give them away.I'm using my 70/71 4v closed chamber heads for now with stock intake {a little machining was done on it check my profile album}My car came with a 302 but had the 351c when I bought it.I'm putting a comp cams extreme energy cam with roller rockers in there and got some headers .Also had my c6 rebuilt with a shift kit.

good luck with your build can't wait to see the end results

 

[downwardspiral]

man you got more balls than me right now I have a cowl problem also but fixed it with with goop and some really sticky fingers {I know the lazy version but I got the car last year and I want to drive it this summer} The car will be going in for paint either this year or next and I plan on doing a rotisserie job so I will leave the cowl full of goop until then.right now my engine is in the shop for a little freshening up and upgrades.{yeah I'm welder not a mechanic so some of the work I can't do myself}Should get it back in 2 or 3 weeks.So i guess u have a 351c 2v by what I read. You could also look at afd heads but they don't give them away.I'm using my 70/71 4v closed chamber heads for now with stock intake {a little machining was done on it check my profile album}My car came with a 302 but had the 351c when I bought it.I'm putting a comp cams extreme energy cam with roller rockers in there and got some headers .Also had my c6 rebuilt with a shift kit.

good luck with your build can't wait to see the end results

I was looking at a couple different aluminum heads and I don't have the money to get them (yet).. It should make more power than I'll want anyway lol. It sounds like your car should run pretty nice, and hopefully will look nice too! Good luck to you too!

 

[Realmongo]

Although they are huge when compared to the other Mustangs, the '71-'73 cars were very good looking, especially when they had the body-colored front bumpers!

 

[72mustang]

Although they are huge when compared to the other Mustangs, the '71-'73 cars were very good looking, especially when they had the body-colored front bumpers!

I actually like the chrome better but that's just me.That is one of the things I don't like about cars today no chrome

 

[Realmongo]

I miss my old 1972 Grande. Green with white vinyl top and green interior. 351C with 4-Speed and a chrome bumper!

 

[Jax Rhapsody]

Damn, I want a 73 Fastback. You guys are lucky, I would love to get my hands on one for a restomod.