… and they made it rain on the scheduled day. That’s just mean.
Congratulations.
Beautiful car!
Success!! Congratulations on a well earned reward!
Thanks all!
After she was legal, I then did the ceremonial mounting of the repro Marti door plate.
I know the rivets are not kosher, but on my car I don’t believe they would be too offensive!
Kids bought me an interim cheap mahogany steering wheel for Father’s Day. I wanted to clock the wheel one spline anyway….
So I clocked my wheel, got it perfect … then I saw the new wheel had the opposite bolt pattern (bolt at twelve rather than gap at 12 o’clock) . Dang it!
Long story → short (I have just backspaced two long paragraphs about nothing much in exquisite detail) I wasted a couple of hours pulling off a boss for a wheel that did not fit, then having to re-clock the wheel 3 times to get it just right…
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So if you want to do things right…. There are plenty of threads by competent people…
If you finally get your car on the road, with no funds to do it right (budget spent!) … then do it temporarily…
After driving it around bunch… I had South Australia All Ford day looming… and the bonnet (hood) fender line was bothering me… a couple of days out I thought… I can’t handle this! So I went and decided to pack it out with some window packers….
I feel dirty posting that… I am sorry
I had also flogged out the old Ford bonnet bumpers… I went to my local lolly shop (Outlaw Speed Shop) and they had some bumpers of the correct SAE thread (5/16?) and height but looked completely wrong … They wanted $100 bucks (OZ) for something that looked wrong… if it is going to look wrong I don’t want to pay that much, so a visit to Bunnings on the way home, and I knocked this up for $2.50…
Don’t do this at home…. Still a little way to go, but a lot better!
Temporary!!!……
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So, about three months ago I was picking up a smaller flat Telly, the box’s dimensions fit between the rear panels…drove all the way into town, dropped the roof, slid TV … chuffed!
On my way out easing over speed hump I suddenly had the most awful graunching sound… I was sure I had chewed up my motor… rolled into a Bunnings car park and waited for tow…
Long story short, the starter had engaged without a key turn, locked on and had spun with the motor at 2500 rpm.
Got towed home, got it in garage and parked it up…
I had figured the starter solenoid ( the Ford can) was put behind a chrome cover to a) protect it from water (my scoop draws a tone of water if left open during rain) and b) neaten the engine bay. In three years I have never looked under it.
I removed it looking for a can and found this
What the? Anyhow . I replaced the control solenoid 40a and it didn’t fix anything.
Left it for a couple of months. This weekend we started tracing wires related to the starter circuit.
I am guessing I won’t be bothering my “drive thread” for a while… 
What the fluffy hell were they thinking about?
That wire is a mess.
Back in the day I used a block of foam rubber painted black to block off the opening in the scoop I added to a Fox body Mustang. It could still get air from under the hood. It stopped the flooding conditions under the hood
Everything I see electrically looks bad. The battery cables are a fire waiting to happen. Those bolt on cable ends are a disaster.
Cheers Gents.
I don’t drive this car in the rain…although I have to admit I have been caught out twice, I carry three perfectly sized sponges to stuff in the hood and draw air from the engine bay if it rains.
All the newer terminals and wiring look ok for 20year old gear (in real life). In light of your comment I will look into upgrading, last thing needed is terminals loosening and arcing…
It’s where 53 year old wiring is carrying higher duty loads that is shot…. It has been “protected” and hidden under corrugated flex, the starter wiring pos, neg, park interlock switch wiring etc will now all be replaced .
The car has been sent out to have it addressed as I don’t have the bandwidth to sort it out with my job, the farm, other projects….
Whoever made those battery cables is not an electrician of any sort and those are not very old. Battery cables are preferably crimped or soldered. Those are going to be the cause of a fire.
This is a pretty normal mod when the clapper starter is replaced with the local Falcon unit. Normally done with 40amp relays from EA to EL Falcon
One relay is for the ignition start circuit and the other relay triggers the starter solenoid. Circuit breaker for top is on the end.
If you go back to the original style Ford starter solenoid you will still need a relay to trigger the starter solenoid, otherwise the starter won’t turn off when you release the key
In theory its not a bad setup to eliminate what could potentially be a hard to get part over there. Ie starter and solenoid. This is a more modern setup and with a little clean up can still be functionable, Its hard to tell from the pictures but most those cables appear to be crimped and have heat shrink so it might not be as bad as you think. I agree that negative terminal needs a proper connector and those corroded wiring replaced.
Thanks Leon, Diesel .
Ron, my local Mustang whisperer got to the bottom of it … excessive period (but incorrect model too long) wiring back from the safety switch at the gearbox selector draped onto my exhaust. It eventually melted, shorted and burned the wire bundle , locking on my starter.
Whilst at it Ron will get the Falcon power steering box out for an overhaul, which means headers out, brake booster out and check other wiring.
I am putting a PCV in, new coil, and might mess around with the power valve in the carb… I’ll pull the old carb apart when I get back from the mine and see what is in there.
The old seat runners were welded up and out…. I’m getting some Mustang runners so my seat will move again (and give the kids some leg room).
Never ends….
While you’re at it. Get him to run the p/s return line toward the front and under the radiator. Add an XG Falcon power steering cooler into the return circuit mounted into the front valence opening (assuming it is an XD/XG p/s box)
I know someone has a “faint electrical burning smell” thread…. I too caught the occasional whiff, never strong though…
The scorch marks on my headers…. Main power wire had detached… and brushed on two of the tubes as the engine loped at idle…
I am hoping this is why my idle went bad!
The wire. Engine stopped it did not touch the headers. Burned but the evidence was underneath never saw it (super cramped on RHD driver’s side as booster and steer box are not usually there with the starter) … I am guessing the wire moved enough one way as the motor rocked the other way…eventually they met…. Sparks 
The power steer line will be re-routed around the front of the motor to get the tubes far away from the left side headers . This will help getting PSfluid temps down… in the photo below, you can see the lines hugging the pipes then looping under the sump.
When you re-route the p/s lines, add a p/s cooler from an XG/XH Falcon. Position below the radiator in the front pan opening.
Thanks Leon
I really wanted to make a run (Friday), we ran out of time… and routed some long PS hoses around the front of the engine, away from the headers.
Refurbished PS box.
Refurbed pump. First fit, it got aligned…
The pitman arm was replaced as it had some slop. As was the Rag joint. The opportunity was taken whilst everything was out. Now there is zero slop. The steering wheel is now exactly half a spline out dead straight. It clocks a touch left or a touch right… driving me spare…first world problems….
Booster was refurbed. Brake height re-set. Got the car on the road Thursday night, quick run for Pizzas to shake things out… had to slam on the brakes to avoid hitting a Koala driving down from the Hills… thankfully brakes and steering all worked!
The car also had to be re wired. So far so good!
Might pay to find a shroud for that radiator fan before the weather starts to heat up again
Thanks Leon…
Been “off the air” as we have had a bit on….
The car has a front mounted thermofan that does the heavy lifting… the fan you see there is designed to bite me when running ….
I do want to get a shroud … but it is non-standard everywhere….radiator is a big alloy effort…
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So I have been driving the old girl around occasionally this summer, and the roof stopped opening…
It would close no problem (the motor would drive against end of travel), just would not open. In the blazing Aussie sun, all four down and rear window zipped out is how I drive anyway.
I wanted to do an end of season twilight cruise… enough is enough
No obvious fuses… must be the switch… as I had read that is a typical culprit .
Without power it felt and sounded like poles were thrown. I opened up enough access to test continuity and it seemed fine.
My RHD conversion has a blade fuse box, they were all good…I then started trying to trace wires looking for in line fuses. Found none.
So I ripped out the seats to investigate the back… only two wires here with one connector … figured polarity drove motor one way or other… so electrons should flow either way?
Disconnected and reconnected the connector and it just worked…. Huh?
Kids come out congratulating me, I fixed it…. Wish I knew what I did to make it work.
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