This is most of the story of Susie, my '67 Mustang
Automatic trans, power nothing, 200ci Inline Six cyl engine. As bare bones as you could get back in '67
She was my first car, I bought her when I was 17 for about $1500 from money I had earned from maintaining the yard of my uncle's law firm since I was 14 or so. She was a daily driver from 10th grade until I graduated. It was a little funny that when I first got her no one at school had really had an old car for a good 2-3 years prior (the school I went to was K-12 and very small, the class ahead of me had 52 graduating students, my grade doubled the class size, it's fairly easy for me to be certain no one else had a classic), but by the time I graduated there were a good dozen classic cars in the parking lot.
I did minor maintenance, rebuilt the carb, replaced transmission cooler lines, typical stuff, kept her running and learned my way around a wrench. My very first accident resulted in the bumper having the nice little bend it does. I was driving her for a couple months and was not fully used to manual drum brakes, didn't have as great a following distance that I needed and slid into a chunky young woman in a Saturn. No damage to her car, but I have yet to replace the bumper
She was a reliable, strong little car. No decent acceleration, and brakes that made you think about driving, only one mirror (driver's side) which forced me to have good awareness of who was around me, overall she gave me many many good habits.
Tallahassee didn't have a lot for you to do if you weren't of drinking age, so my friends and I would drive around and around in her all night. If we weren't driving around, we were parked out in the woods around a bonfire drinking beers from a little country store that just didn't give a shit.
I joined the USAF and while I would drive her when I came home for leave, the bearings in the rear-end were starting to go out when I graduated, so I ultimately let her sit for about two years. I drove an '86 El Camino in the intervening time, and ultimately bought a '93 F150 which I still own and drive regularly. The truck allowed me to tow Susie from Tallahassee to Andrews AFB, Md where I was stationed for the entire time I was active duty AF.
These pics were taken the very next day after I had towed her up (you can still see the trailer in the background.) These pics were basically a record of where she was at that time, I went around the body taking fairly close up shots of rust, dings, dents, etc etc.
The blue hood is because when I was still daily driving her, a faulty hood hinge let the hood fly up and contact the roof, it also damaged the hinges and inner fender wells where the hinges bolted on. As a result there was about 8 months where I drove her around without a hood. Dad got me one for Christmas or my birthday and he and I prepped and painted it, the boyfriend of my sister's best friend worked in a body shop and hooked me up after hours with help installing the new fender wells.
Just behind her you can see the Mustang of one of my two best friends at Andrews, Jesse. He had a '95 5-speed with about 25K on the clock (this was in '04 or so?)
While I was doing this, I did not realize that the registration was a good two or three years out of date. This wasn't a big thing, but it snow-balled to the point where a douchebag 1st Lieutenant tried to give me an Article 15 before people that grossly over-ranked him forced him to back down. (I will recount the story if anyone actually cares)
One of the things I had brought up with me was what is known as a Ford 8" rear end (as the ring gear has a diameter of 8 inches.) Before I joined the AF I pulled it, as well as many MANY other parts from a '68 Mustang that had been totaled. My mentor rebuilt it, my dad sandblasted and repainted it, and the very first weekend I had returned from leave and towing her up I installed it.
In installing it, I also butted heads with a retiree who may or may have not been a former 4-star general.
I'm halfway into the swap and this guy wanders up with his wife. From what he says he was a retired 4-star from Alaska and was RVing across the US. He stands there eyeing Swerve and I for a little bit after we've talked and he goes:
"Don't you have a hobby shop on base?"
"Well, yes sir, but I work the night shift so its hours don't work for me, and it's prices are horrible for young Airmen. I just can't afford it."
"Well son, you should still use it. I remember when I was a base commander and we found an Airman rebuilding a Harley in his dorm room. It was such a big problem that we boxed all his stuff up, carried it and him off base, and just dropped it all outside the main gate. Kicked him straight off base."
I believe I just stared at him blankly for a while, might've said something along the lines of "Well, good thing I'm not in my room!" and eventually he wandered off and I was left wondering if he was gonna narc on me or if he was just full of bullshit. I figured the easiest way to solve the problem was to finish the car so no one else could hassle me.
The 8" was nice because it was brand new throughout. The gears had barely any wear on them, the bearings were new, and the previous owner had installed a locking differential. I bought the '68 Mustang for about $150, out of it I ended up with a minimum of a grand in parts.
I installed the brakes on the new axle, dropped the old rear axle, slapped the new one in and immediately went up to my room and passed out as it took me a solid day to do (I recently changed the rear springs out, pics further on, the same amount of work and it took me maybe two hours.)
In the background you can see the feet of one of my best friends in the AF, "Swerve." Was a fellow car nut, and while I think I was the better mechanic, he was definitely the more involved in the car scene
Old rear-end was leaking, bearings were shot, everything was just going bad. While the rear-end was technologically decades ahead of the 8" (Ford brought back that style of rear-end in the mid-late 80s), no one makes rebuild parts for them so you can't repair them.
This pic is useless for anyone now, but was a very early example of how I would take a digital picture of something I couldn't see and examine it where I could easily see it. An invaluable trick, especially with modern cars and how tight everything is.
Springs undone, rear end unbolted, just needed to roll it out
Old V New
The tires and wheels are off of a friend's Ranger, he got better ones from a Jeep. It's a wonder what can interchange at times. In the background you can see my truck.
Installed, those that have a good eye will notice lowering blocks of about 1.5"
Thankfully I did not have to modify the length of the driveshaft, also a good shot of Swerve's crotch
Rear end installed, when compared to the pic above it's easy to see how the lowering blocks changed the stance
I didn't have anything really big to do for a couple months, so I found this valve cover in a junk yard and started playing with it
Throughout my AF career I believe I've left the shadow image of a cardboard box created by overspray at every base, and outside every room I've lived in and every squadron I've worked in
It was a fair little while before I had gathered enough parts to swap the front brakes to 5-lug Disc brakes, but once I did it was definitely time to ignore the hobby shop and get shit done in the parking lot
I found parts from a '76 Ford Granada (a common swap for disc brakes for a Mustang), bought a few things new and spent a long weekend installing.
Part of the push for swapping the brakes was the fact that I had front wheels ready for the 5-lug, and the 4-lug wheels had rubber on them that was.... well, old. This bubble formed after a day of very.... "spirited" driving back and forth between a friend's house and this girl I was seeing.
All in all, the swap maybe took 3 hours. I had progressed quite nicely as a mechanic.
I was able to sell the old parts to a friend online for enough to cover everything I had invested in the swap except for the actual new tires (which were the cheapest things I could get at Wal-Mart)
In a couple months I ordered a suspension upgrade kit from National Parts Depot (I seriously love those guys, great GREAT people.)
Installed new Upper and Lower Control Arms, as well as a front Sway Bar
At about this time I had been getting hassled fairly regularly by the people in charge of the dorms. When I wasn't driving my car there was a cover over it, and it was parked properly. Despite this I, and I alone kept getting shit, kept getting told that my car would be towed off base, that it would be impounded, and on and on and on. There were cars there that had not moved in months (the owners were not deployed either), tires were flat, shit was broken on them, they leaked, etc etc etc.
It got to the point where I expected to wake up one day, find my car gone, then see it one day being driven by some jackass that had bought it from an impound lot. I finally ended up visiting base legal to see if they had any leg to stand on. I submitted pics of these other decrepit cars, there was some back and forth, and finally they started to leave me alone.
Wouldn't you know it, midway through the install of these parts I ended up needing to take something to a machine shop as I had borked a set of bolts (cross-threaded them I believe). I knew I couldn't leave the car sitting there on jack stands as they would flip. It was the weekend so I wouldn't have the parts back until sometime during the week. I thought I was SOL for a little bit, then I ended up thinking of a novel solution.
What they wouldn't know, wouldn't hurt them. I put the suspension on this jackstand, with some help from Swerve I lowered it down onto it, then finished everything up and cleaned up for the night. Midweek I got the parts back, finished it all up and was hunky dory.
Shiny happy parts all holding hands
The original seats were FUBAR, so I brought the seats from the '68 up and installed them. That left me with two seats that I had nothing to do with.
I needed a computer chair, though, so with the help of Swerve's welder...
Sometime in there I noticed a hole rotted in the exhaust, so I removed it. I took to wearing ear plugs whenever I drove her around.
Upgraded the ignition to a late model Inline 6's ignition. The DuraSpark II system gives a stronger spark, better starting, more power, less maintenance. Overall it's just a better system.
For some reason, I still do my best wrenching at night. Just easier to concentrate on the car I guess.
While you can just use all factory parts with the DSII swap, I elected not too, there are Chevy parts that work just as well, and are cheaper
Along comes October, I had spent the day helping a friend get his house ready for an awesome Halloween party. I needed to head back to base to pick up the truck so I could haul tables and chairs back, so I putter off. Along the way I start seeing wisps of steam coming from under the hood. The wisps turn to clouds and I pull over
Had I known that a co-worker's sister who was visiting was extremely turned on by old cars, especially old Mustangs, I would've found a way to limp back and call AAA the next day, alas I did not.
It was ok though, she had seen enough for me to be ahead of all the other leghumpers at the party, we had fun.
Edit: the best part of this was the fact that my co-worker went around to virtually every male at the party and demanded that "YOU WILL NOT SLEEP WITH MY SISTER"
I didn't get that warning, and halfway through the night she drunkenly stuck her head out the window and demanded "DAMNIT, YOU DON'T GET TO SLEEP WITH MY SISTER EITHER!!"
I looked at the young lady, told her that her sister was strange, then we went back to alternately jumping on the bouncy castle that my friends had rented and making out.
Ended up with a blown head gasket and a warped head. So I found new parts online.
BUT THEN I GOT DEPLOYED! OH MERCY ME!!!
wait... I got sent to Kuwait, nevermind, cakewalk.
Eventually I got back from Kuwait. This was one of about three truckloads of toys I had ordered.
Not in that particular pile, but in one of them, was a full setup for a T5 transmission swap (automatic to a manual) that a fellow Inline fan had taken out of his car. At the time I did not realize (and he did not tell me) that the kit was for a '66, this wasn't a big deal, but I did spend a lot of time piecing stuff together down the road. Long while down the road as I wouldn't attempt the install until I was out of the AF for several years.
Shortly after I got back from Kuwait, I ended up moving off base, this netted me a garage.
Where I worked diligently
And very seriously
At swapping out the borked head
One unexpected benefit of swapping the head, my old carburetor had threads that were fairly stripped, as a result it would seep gas constantly. Not enough to be a danger, but enough for me to get 2/3 the gas milage these cars, with these engines, normally get. When I swapped the head I upgraded it, as a result I needed a slightly bigger carb. This took me trolling through a couple junkyards till I eventually found what I needed off an old F100
I always got off on wandering through junkyards
fapfapfapfapfap
Got everything all buttoned up.
And found that the radiator leaked. Patched that with some JB Weld and haven't had an issue.
Random Shiny (no, I have yet to put an exhaust past this on there, I still wear earplugs)
For now, I need to go to bed, so I will finish it later.
Automatic trans, power nothing, 200ci Inline Six cyl engine. As bare bones as you could get back in '67
She was my first car, I bought her when I was 17 for about $1500 from money I had earned from maintaining the yard of my uncle's law firm since I was 14 or so. She was a daily driver from 10th grade until I graduated. It was a little funny that when I first got her no one at school had really had an old car for a good 2-3 years prior (the school I went to was K-12 and very small, the class ahead of me had 52 graduating students, my grade doubled the class size, it's fairly easy for me to be certain no one else had a classic), but by the time I graduated there were a good dozen classic cars in the parking lot.
I did minor maintenance, rebuilt the carb, replaced transmission cooler lines, typical stuff, kept her running and learned my way around a wrench. My very first accident resulted in the bumper having the nice little bend it does. I was driving her for a couple months and was not fully used to manual drum brakes, didn't have as great a following distance that I needed and slid into a chunky young woman in a Saturn. No damage to her car, but I have yet to replace the bumper
She was a reliable, strong little car. No decent acceleration, and brakes that made you think about driving, only one mirror (driver's side) which forced me to have good awareness of who was around me, overall she gave me many many good habits.
Tallahassee didn't have a lot for you to do if you weren't of drinking age, so my friends and I would drive around and around in her all night. If we weren't driving around, we were parked out in the woods around a bonfire drinking beers from a little country store that just didn't give a shit.
I joined the USAF and while I would drive her when I came home for leave, the bearings in the rear-end were starting to go out when I graduated, so I ultimately let her sit for about two years. I drove an '86 El Camino in the intervening time, and ultimately bought a '93 F150 which I still own and drive regularly. The truck allowed me to tow Susie from Tallahassee to Andrews AFB, Md where I was stationed for the entire time I was active duty AF.
These pics were taken the very next day after I had towed her up (you can still see the trailer in the background.) These pics were basically a record of where she was at that time, I went around the body taking fairly close up shots of rust, dings, dents, etc etc.
The blue hood is because when I was still daily driving her, a faulty hood hinge let the hood fly up and contact the roof, it also damaged the hinges and inner fender wells where the hinges bolted on. As a result there was about 8 months where I drove her around without a hood. Dad got me one for Christmas or my birthday and he and I prepped and painted it, the boyfriend of my sister's best friend worked in a body shop and hooked me up after hours with help installing the new fender wells.
Just behind her you can see the Mustang of one of my two best friends at Andrews, Jesse. He had a '95 5-speed with about 25K on the clock (this was in '04 or so?)
While I was doing this, I did not realize that the registration was a good two or three years out of date. This wasn't a big thing, but it snow-balled to the point where a douchebag 1st Lieutenant tried to give me an Article 15 before people that grossly over-ranked him forced him to back down. (I will recount the story if anyone actually cares)
One of the things I had brought up with me was what is known as a Ford 8" rear end (as the ring gear has a diameter of 8 inches.) Before I joined the AF I pulled it, as well as many MANY other parts from a '68 Mustang that had been totaled. My mentor rebuilt it, my dad sandblasted and repainted it, and the very first weekend I had returned from leave and towing her up I installed it.
In installing it, I also butted heads with a retiree who may or may have not been a former 4-star general.
I'm halfway into the swap and this guy wanders up with his wife. From what he says he was a retired 4-star from Alaska and was RVing across the US. He stands there eyeing Swerve and I for a little bit after we've talked and he goes:
"Don't you have a hobby shop on base?"
"Well, yes sir, but I work the night shift so its hours don't work for me, and it's prices are horrible for young Airmen. I just can't afford it."
"Well son, you should still use it. I remember when I was a base commander and we found an Airman rebuilding a Harley in his dorm room. It was such a big problem that we boxed all his stuff up, carried it and him off base, and just dropped it all outside the main gate. Kicked him straight off base."
I believe I just stared at him blankly for a while, might've said something along the lines of "Well, good thing I'm not in my room!" and eventually he wandered off and I was left wondering if he was gonna narc on me or if he was just full of bullshit. I figured the easiest way to solve the problem was to finish the car so no one else could hassle me.
The 8" was nice because it was brand new throughout. The gears had barely any wear on them, the bearings were new, and the previous owner had installed a locking differential. I bought the '68 Mustang for about $150, out of it I ended up with a minimum of a grand in parts.
I installed the brakes on the new axle, dropped the old rear axle, slapped the new one in and immediately went up to my room and passed out as it took me a solid day to do (I recently changed the rear springs out, pics further on, the same amount of work and it took me maybe two hours.)
In the background you can see the feet of one of my best friends in the AF, "Swerve." Was a fellow car nut, and while I think I was the better mechanic, he was definitely the more involved in the car scene
Old rear-end was leaking, bearings were shot, everything was just going bad. While the rear-end was technologically decades ahead of the 8" (Ford brought back that style of rear-end in the mid-late 80s), no one makes rebuild parts for them so you can't repair them.
This pic is useless for anyone now, but was a very early example of how I would take a digital picture of something I couldn't see and examine it where I could easily see it. An invaluable trick, especially with modern cars and how tight everything is.
Springs undone, rear end unbolted, just needed to roll it out
Old V New
The tires and wheels are off of a friend's Ranger, he got better ones from a Jeep. It's a wonder what can interchange at times. In the background you can see my truck.
Installed, those that have a good eye will notice lowering blocks of about 1.5"
Thankfully I did not have to modify the length of the driveshaft, also a good shot of Swerve's crotch
Rear end installed, when compared to the pic above it's easy to see how the lowering blocks changed the stance
I didn't have anything really big to do for a couple months, so I found this valve cover in a junk yard and started playing with it
Throughout my AF career I believe I've left the shadow image of a cardboard box created by overspray at every base, and outside every room I've lived in and every squadron I've worked in
It was a fair little while before I had gathered enough parts to swap the front brakes to 5-lug Disc brakes, but once I did it was definitely time to ignore the hobby shop and get shit done in the parking lot
I found parts from a '76 Ford Granada (a common swap for disc brakes for a Mustang), bought a few things new and spent a long weekend installing.
Part of the push for swapping the brakes was the fact that I had front wheels ready for the 5-lug, and the 4-lug wheels had rubber on them that was.... well, old. This bubble formed after a day of very.... "spirited" driving back and forth between a friend's house and this girl I was seeing.
All in all, the swap maybe took 3 hours. I had progressed quite nicely as a mechanic.
I was able to sell the old parts to a friend online for enough to cover everything I had invested in the swap except for the actual new tires (which were the cheapest things I could get at Wal-Mart)
In a couple months I ordered a suspension upgrade kit from National Parts Depot (I seriously love those guys, great GREAT people.)
Installed new Upper and Lower Control Arms, as well as a front Sway Bar
At about this time I had been getting hassled fairly regularly by the people in charge of the dorms. When I wasn't driving my car there was a cover over it, and it was parked properly. Despite this I, and I alone kept getting shit, kept getting told that my car would be towed off base, that it would be impounded, and on and on and on. There were cars there that had not moved in months (the owners were not deployed either), tires were flat, shit was broken on them, they leaked, etc etc etc.
It got to the point where I expected to wake up one day, find my car gone, then see it one day being driven by some jackass that had bought it from an impound lot. I finally ended up visiting base legal to see if they had any leg to stand on. I submitted pics of these other decrepit cars, there was some back and forth, and finally they started to leave me alone.
Wouldn't you know it, midway through the install of these parts I ended up needing to take something to a machine shop as I had borked a set of bolts (cross-threaded them I believe). I knew I couldn't leave the car sitting there on jack stands as they would flip. It was the weekend so I wouldn't have the parts back until sometime during the week. I thought I was SOL for a little bit, then I ended up thinking of a novel solution.
What they wouldn't know, wouldn't hurt them. I put the suspension on this jackstand, with some help from Swerve I lowered it down onto it, then finished everything up and cleaned up for the night. Midweek I got the parts back, finished it all up and was hunky dory.
Shiny happy parts all holding hands
The original seats were FUBAR, so I brought the seats from the '68 up and installed them. That left me with two seats that I had nothing to do with.
I needed a computer chair, though, so with the help of Swerve's welder...
Sometime in there I noticed a hole rotted in the exhaust, so I removed it. I took to wearing ear plugs whenever I drove her around.
Upgraded the ignition to a late model Inline 6's ignition. The DuraSpark II system gives a stronger spark, better starting, more power, less maintenance. Overall it's just a better system.
For some reason, I still do my best wrenching at night. Just easier to concentrate on the car I guess.
While you can just use all factory parts with the DSII swap, I elected not too, there are Chevy parts that work just as well, and are cheaper
Along comes October, I had spent the day helping a friend get his house ready for an awesome Halloween party. I needed to head back to base to pick up the truck so I could haul tables and chairs back, so I putter off. Along the way I start seeing wisps of steam coming from under the hood. The wisps turn to clouds and I pull over
Had I known that a co-worker's sister who was visiting was extremely turned on by old cars, especially old Mustangs, I would've found a way to limp back and call AAA the next day, alas I did not.
It was ok though, she had seen enough for me to be ahead of all the other leghumpers at the party, we had fun.
Edit: the best part of this was the fact that my co-worker went around to virtually every male at the party and demanded that "YOU WILL NOT SLEEP WITH MY SISTER"
I didn't get that warning, and halfway through the night she drunkenly stuck her head out the window and demanded "DAMNIT, YOU DON'T GET TO SLEEP WITH MY SISTER EITHER!!"
I looked at the young lady, told her that her sister was strange, then we went back to alternately jumping on the bouncy castle that my friends had rented and making out.
Ended up with a blown head gasket and a warped head. So I found new parts online.
BUT THEN I GOT DEPLOYED! OH MERCY ME!!!
wait... I got sent to Kuwait, nevermind, cakewalk.
Eventually I got back from Kuwait. This was one of about three truckloads of toys I had ordered.
Not in that particular pile, but in one of them, was a full setup for a T5 transmission swap (automatic to a manual) that a fellow Inline fan had taken out of his car. At the time I did not realize (and he did not tell me) that the kit was for a '66, this wasn't a big deal, but I did spend a lot of time piecing stuff together down the road. Long while down the road as I wouldn't attempt the install until I was out of the AF for several years.
Shortly after I got back from Kuwait, I ended up moving off base, this netted me a garage.
Where I worked diligently
And very seriously
At swapping out the borked head
One unexpected benefit of swapping the head, my old carburetor had threads that were fairly stripped, as a result it would seep gas constantly. Not enough to be a danger, but enough for me to get 2/3 the gas milage these cars, with these engines, normally get. When I swapped the head I upgraded it, as a result I needed a slightly bigger carb. This took me trolling through a couple junkyards till I eventually found what I needed off an old F100
I always got off on wandering through junkyards
fapfapfapfapfap
Got everything all buttoned up.
And found that the radiator leaked. Patched that with some JB Weld and haven't had an issue.
Random Shiny (no, I have yet to put an exhaust past this on there, I still wear earplugs)
For now, I need to go to bed, so I will finish it later.
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