7. Assembly continues
 

December 9: Installed the driver's side door.  It's a lot lighter without the window and door latch mechanisms in it. Still had problems putting on the top hinge to the body. The backer plate is way up inside the body where you can't hold it in place with your hands. Used a piece of wire and hooked it into one of the  screw holes in the backer plate to hold in place while screwing in the other screws. Adjusting the door is tricky too.
Took apart the vent window to replace the seals. Polished it up with steel wool and put in new weather-stripping. Lots of rivets makes it a real challenge without the proper tools. Still need two rivets to fasten the divider bar onto the vent window frame, so progress is slowed. Painted the head light buckets with gloss black. Installed the driver's side door latch and lock. This is a bit tricky because of all the rods hanging all over.
December 10: Ordered more parts from Mustangs Unlimited. Web site wouldn't let me order so I had to call them this morning. Ordered antenna, side mirror, door hinge bolts for the other side (didn't have enough for the passenger side), head light frame bolts, glove box insert (the original is shot), the "FORD" letters for the front of the hood, divider (press board between rear seat and trunk - didn't have one to start with), watershield kit (for waterproofing the space between the door panels and the door - plastic coated paper), and miscellaneous screws that I couldn't find.
December 11-12: Installed the right side door. Just as tricky as the left side. Installed the windshield washer tubes. Painted the package tray gloss black, several times. Wood tends to soak up the paint. Painted the hood/cowl seal brackets as well. Installed the rain gutter chrome trim on both sides.
December 14: Assembled the head light buckets into the head light extension. Found out that the new head light trim screws I bought have heads that are too big for the trim ring. They would work if you completely remove the screws, but they are supposed to designed to unscrew just a little bit, then the trim  ring can be rotated a little and the heads of the screws pass through to remove the head light. I put the old ones back in. Installed the backup lights with new body gaskets. Found out that the right side light is missing one of the studs that holds in onto the rear valance. Installed it anyway. Seems to hold o.k. Installed the rear bumper guards (bumperettes). Installed the  rear drain grommet on both sides. These came with the complete rubber plug kit , and at first I didn't know where they belonged, but when I installed the back up lights, I found out where they went. On the bottom of the rear quarter panel just behind the rear wheel. This is where there was a big oval slot with two different sized holes on either side to drain water out of the trunk (if any gets in). The left side was covered with bondo, so I had to drill out the plastic, but that was easy. Pushing the plugs into the holes wasn't so easy. Next came the felt kit for the front doors. Then the door light switches. Installed the hood to cowl seal. Installed the windshield trim pieces and new rear view mirror with old bracket.  Finished polishing up the windshield and rear window trim chrome and installed them. Cleaned the side panels that go into the back seat area. Installed the right side door latch and lock. Closed the door only to find that I couldn't open it from the outside. The door lock didn't work too well either. Took the door latch mechanism out to inspect it and determined it just needed cleaning and lubrication. Took it apart to clean and lube it but broke the plastic pawl the door latch rod plugs into. Put it back together and installed it, and it worked a lot better, except that the door latch rod doesn't stay in. Another part to replace. Looked over the insides of the window crank mechanisms and found out the driver's side had a broken roller. Probably why the window looks crooked in the photo. More parts to order. Installed the chrome roof rail weather-stripping retainers on both sides, but not the rubber. Installed the windshield wipers.
December 15: Put the right fender on. Made a mistake - left the fender to cowl bolt off and tried to put it on with the fender bolted on the top. This only nicked the paint off a small corner of the 'A' pillar where the fender almost touches. Other spots were also nicked in the process. I was a bit frustrated to say the least. Colleen came out to the garage and told me to 'keep it down'. I guess I was more than a bit frustrated. Damn fender. It was on for only a short time. I still had to drill the hole for the antenna. I used a template I found on the Internet. I needed to drill a 5/16" hole (for the locating tab) first. Then I needed a 1 1/8" hole but I don't have a 1 1/8" drill. Basically, I drilled a circular pattern of 1/4" holes and knocked out the plug, then filed down the rough edges. It looks ugly, but it gets covered up, so I wasn't too worried about it. I needed Chris to hold the fender while I feed the antenna cable through the opening (it has a rubber bushing that is quite difficult to seat in the hole). It is almost impossible to do this yourself! After the fender was on, the head light assembly was installed. This went on easily, except it doesn't line up perfectly with the fender. Oh, well.  I eventually took it off again because I had to adjust the fender and put the lower fender to cowl nut into the cowl (which I did't have at the time). Spray painted the rear quarter trim panels for the interior semi-flat black. Apparently, it is different than semi-gloss black. Painted the edge trim used on the edge of the quarter trim panel.
December 16: Worked on the left side today: Installed the watershield on the rear quarter. Used an adhesive recommended by Mustangs Unlimited which is used for sanding discs. It was runny at first, but later when I had to reposition it, it seemed to re-adhere. Good stuff. Then I remembered I needed to run speaker wire from the front to the rear and needed the panel off to get access. So it came off, I ran the wire, and it went back on. Installed the quarter window felt (beltline weatherstrip) on the quarter trim panel. Had to drill the holes into the quarter trim panel because the new felt had pre-drilled holes for the stainless steel staples that didn't line up with the original's. Installed the rear quarter trim panel. Cleaned the window crank and installed it. Installed the edge trim. Installed the door sill plate.
After painting both quarter trim panels, the right side didn't come out as good as the left side. It looked like it had a scratch in it (from before) near the window crank. I thought I could sand it down and feather the edges and paint it again but when I sanded it down, the fresh paint wouldn't feather. I ended up scraping it all off then taking it down to bare metal with a rotary scotch pad and wire wheel just like the door panels. Re-painted the right side trim panel (again).
December 17: Installed the right side quarter window felt onto the trim panel and installed it into the car, just like the left side. Installed the trunk/backseat divider and cut holes into the package tray for the speakers.
December 18: Installed the package tray and rear speakers. Kenwoods. Chris' choice. I didn't want to cut out the sheetmetal in the back to make the 6x9's fit, so I mounted them from the underside and left a gap between the speaker and the speaker grilles. It looks OK but it's not the correct way. Sacrifices.
December 19: Put the rear seat in. Had to adjust the wire frame where the hook hooks onto the seat bottom so it wouldn't squeak so loud when you sit down. It still squeaks, but not as loud.
 
 
 
 

December 20-28 Went on a Christmas break. Don't remember too much about what I did on the weekend. Mostly sitting around and waiting for parts. I think I put the left fender on just to see what it looks like. Chipped off some more paint where the door meets the fender and on the bottom of the cowl. Still need some nuts to do a complete job.
December 29: Got a care package from Mustangs Unlimited AND American Pony. Window rollers, door latch pawls, grille and stone guard mounting kits, 120 Watt kick-panel speakers, and radiator to hood seal. American Pony backordered the vent window lock part I need. I guess I have to wait. I thought I ordered the fender to cowl nuts that hold the fenders on at the bottom, near the door, but I was mistaken.  Installed the window rollers and door latch pawls on both doors. This fixes the driver's side window and the right side door latch problems described earlier.
December 30: Ordered rivets for the vent window. Had to buy 100 even though I only need 4. Also ordered the fender/cowl nuts I thought I ordered before. Also ordered more mounting screws/nuts for the grille mount and stone guard to make it seem worth while to spend 8.95 for shipping.
Started on the new stereo deck installation. The original thought was to mount the stereo into the glove box because the air conditioning vents were hogging the center console under the dash and I didn't want to rip up the dash (I wanted to keep the original AM radio configuration), so the cardboard insert (literally a cardboard box) was removed. After seeing how much room was there, I decided to remove the air conditioning vent box because there wasn't any air conditioning compressor and hoses anyway. The under dash mounting scheme was reinstated. Wires from the rear speakers were already routed to the front kick-panel, but still needed routing to the center of the dash. Found out that the plastic 'tray' the DIN mounted stereo goes into doesn't have anything to support the back end. Went to Best Buy, Radio Shack, Circuit City but none of these had anything I could use. Lowe's home improvement store had metal strapping for hanging ducts that I could use.
Spent most the night wiring up the wiring harness to various connections under the dash. Battery (continuous 12V for memory), accessory, illumination, ground, and 4 speaker connections kept me busy. Didn't get around to installing  the actual 'tray'.
December 31: Finished installing the stereo. Mounted the 'tray' under the dash and plugged in the unit. Temporarily hooked up the front speaker kick-panels to give it a listen. Sounds really nice (sweet). I'll have to wait until the fenders can be bolted on permanently to install the front speaker kick-panels. Fixed the driver's side courtesy lamp.
January 3: Found out that the stereo turns off when you close the doors.  I discovered this when I was checking on the car late at night and saw that the courtesy lamps were on even though the doors were shut. It turns out that the light switch was turned so the courtesy lamps were continuously on. After turning the switch 'off', and shuting the doors, the stereo went dead. Apparently I mis-wired the power leads to the courtesy lamp circuit, so I re-wired it to the cigarette lighter circuit (I couldn't find any other readily available outlet.)

 

January 5: Finally got the parts I needed to finish installing the fenders completely (the fender to cowl nuts). Installed the fender to cowl nuts and fastened both fenders down. Now that that was done, I could put the finishing touches on the interior by installing the speaker-kick panels and rocker trim panels. Installed the hood hinges and the hood. It's finally starting to come together.
 

January 7: Installed the "FORD" letters onto the front of the hood. The "O" gave me a little trouble because one of its pegs was hitting the underside of the hood where there should have been an open space. Fixed that problem with the Dremel Tool. Installed the front bumper brackets, headlight buckets, valence, stone guard, grille support and the grille. There is some mis-alignment between the parts, but it went together fairly easily. Of course, some paint chipped off where parts were hitting each other or rubbing.

The hood comes down and touches the right headlight bucket. Installed the chrome trim that goes inside the opening for the grille. It had a silver-gray paint on the inside track, but I steel woolled it to shiny aluminum.  Installed the front edge trim of the hood after polishing it with steel wool and chrome polish.
 
 
 

January 8: Installed the front bumper and turn signal lights. Put the license plates on. Took out for a test drive. It was late at night and the headlights needed adjusting. I drove to the local Meijer store and parked in one of their darker streets where traffic is almost non-existant and adjusted the headlights.  Drove back home and asked Chris if he wanted to go for a ride. I drove the both of us down some country roads and pointed out the quirks of this old beast. It hesitates a little when you 'get on it' and it pulled slightly to the right when you braked. Then I let him drive it. After driving into town it started to make a weird wobbling noise and it shook just a little. Then after a little while more it got worse. I took the reins and thought it was really bad. I drove it a little and thought the wheel bearings were shot, but when the brakes were applied, it stopped vibrating, but only when the brakes were applied. I pulled over and checked the front wheel. It was very, very loose. I immediately called Colleen and asked her to look for the lugwrench and a screwdriver and flashlight because I didn't bring anything with me except a philips screwdriver (for adjusting the headlights) Or so I thought. I looked in the trunk and there was a lug wrench (that came with the car when we bought it) and I had a flashlight in the back seat. I took the wheelcover off with the philips screwdriver and all of the lugnuts were loose. I could tighten three or four by hand a few turns each - that's how loose. I called Colleen and 'cancelled the order'. I tightened the lug nuts again and drove back home. Disaster averted!
January 9: Installed the headlight covers after adjusting the headlights. Took the rest of the night off.
January 10: Saturday. Started working on the right window and vent window. First thing to do was to replace the vent window seals. I had already started by replacing the division bar weatherstriping, so the next thing was the vent window weatherstriping, and putting the window back together and installed into the door. The rivets that hold the division bar onto the frame were a real bear, especially when I don't have any riveting tools other than the normal assortment of punches and hammers. I custom ground a punch to work with the rivets I bought from Mc-Master Carr. I had to order 100 rivets, so if anyone knows anybody that needs these kind of rivets, let me know. I have 96 to spare. Installing the vent window frame into the door chipped even more paint off. Dang!@#%$  Then comes the window. Except the part that stops the window from cranking up to much, it went pretty well. The adjusting stop wouldn't let the window up far enough, so I took it out a few times for some tweaking. Then I tested the fit by closing the door. The window slammed into the quarter window with a loud bang. I thought it was going to break! Well, adjusting the 'big' window didn't give me any good results, so I had to think about adjusting the 'small' window. Hmmm. Take the rear quarter panel out to get to it. Take the back seat out to get to the screws in the quarter panel. Take the package tray out to get the top screw out. Take the speakers out to take the package tray out. Stand on my head in the trunk to get the speakers out. Oh, what fun. Needless to say, I was not a happy camper. My back was killing me.
Finally, with the speakers out, I could take the package tray out, then the last screw for the quarter panel. After loosening every bolt that holds the window in, and fiddling with the window to where it seemed to 'fit' the best, I tighten up the bolts, re-attached the quarter panel. Leaving everything else apart so I can adjust the other side when the time comes, I tested the window fit once again. It still doesn't fit very well. In fact, it was exactly the same as when I started. Boy, what a waste of time. I am not going to do that again.That's just going to have to be one of those quirks about an old car that you live with. Well, on with the rest of it. I tightened up all the nuts and bolts for the window and vent frame, and put the end seal on as shown to the right. I installed the rainshield (like the rear quarter) and put the door panel back on. It was really dusty, so I 'Son-of-a-Gun"ed it. (Armour-All for those who are name brand illiterate). Next came the window crank and door handle, along with the arm rest (if you can call it that - It's more like a door pull). Seems like the right side is done.
Next, I installed the new glovebox. The old one was a wreck and falling apart. It had a metal clip for an instruction booklet or registration papers or such on the top surface of the inside. The new one doesn't. The old one had a hole for the emergency flasher switch, the new one doesn't. It doesn't install from the front like you'd hope. Too big to fit in the opening.  Even with the door and hinge removed. Have to install it from behind. How do you get it back there? Of course, remove the stereo you so proudly installed just a few days ago. Luckly, all I had to do was remove the front mounting screws and swing it away. Still, it wasn't easy to get it in from the rear. The heater core and wires were in the way. I had to take drastic measures and kind of warped the box out of shape to make it thinner. Now it's not as pristine as it was before, but still nicer than the old one! Of course, the screws didn't line up with the screw holes in the new box, so even more frustration, muscle, and tweaking finally forced it in. Still not bad. Now, back goes the door. Finally installed!
Time for a break.............
Still waiting for the vent window bracket to fix the left side vent window:

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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