In 1970, the regular seat belts are not the same size front to back either. The buckle system changed in 1970 and instead of having 2 separate front buckles for the lap belt and the sholder belt, it was incorporated into a single system using one receiver. I don’t know if this is why they changed the size on the fronts but I can’t think of any other reason.
I guess that’s what the hole is for on the front seat belts is for the shoulder belt. I’ve never used the shoulder belt before as you can tell.
Had a horrible evening tonight. My old man decided to come by my work bench earlier today and for God only knows why pick up my squirt bottle of lacquer thinner sitting on top of the work bench and in the process didn’t notice that it sprayed some out. I was painting my needle gauges this past weekend for the temperature, speedo and gas gauges and they were all neatly laid out on my work bench drying. Out of all the places that shot of lacquer thinner could land on was perfectly on all 3 faces of the gauges. I didn’t notice this until hours later after the white letters on the gauge faces were smeared. All three of the gauges are ruined cosmetically for this restoration. I don’t get pissed off very often but tonight I had to hold it in as it was an accident. My original gauges were in great shape so hopefully I can track down some of equivalent shape. One step forward three steps back. That’s how she goes sometimes!
That is a real bummer, Steve. I have some spare gauges and at least one is NOS. If you’re interested, let me know and I’ll dig out what I have and give you a description and price.
Standard or XR7 Steve? I have a couple standard clusters that I could get you parts from or sell you the whole thing.
Edit: Looks like you have a standard. Only question is how difficult/expensive is shipping to BC from NE US?
Thanks for the offer Jeff, PM sent. Yes shipping from the NE to my location would be a bit pricey. I’ll let you know Bob if I can’t track anything down.
I wasn’t very happy with the way the top side of the seat belt buckles turned out. They have a coating on the top sides and little bits of the coating were starting to wear through. So I decided to hit them with some 600 grit and on the bench buffer for a half dozen passes and it turned out like this. This is an in progress picture. You can see the old coating in the process of being sanded off.
Not 100% stock looking in finish, but a great improvement over the +40 year old worn finish. You can see some of the sanding marks but those will go away once I hit them with 800, 1000, 1500 and 2000 before polishing on the bench buffer.
I tried using some black model paint and a fine tip model brush to paint the seat belt buttons but they didn’t turn out so great. I’m thinking about leaving the buttons bare metal unless anyone has a different suggestion to paint on the black background highlights. I doubt no one reproduces these buttons or NOS ones exist.
Steve,
I sent an email with pictures of the gauges to your email address. Let me know what you think.
Thanks again Jeff. I look forward to when you are up here next month. I’m going to keep these in my bedroom up on the very very top shelf of my bookcase in their boxes and out of the reach of everyone LOL. Oh and I was able to track down a NOS fuel gauge from JCC’s website tonight so all the blemished gauges are looked after now.
Well back to restoration. These seat belts are taking a lot more time than anticipated but starting to see some good results. Was able to get a small and large seat belt buckle sanded down and polished tonight. Sanding that worn out plating on these deluxe seat belts takes forever. I’ll get the other two looked buckles tomorrow night.
Original to the right
Original to the left
Small and large polished
Okay, I have a couple questions about the firewall pad. Seems like there are two pieces, a bottom and top pad? I notice the bottom pad is reproduced (link here: http://www2.cougarpartscatalog.com/k4k2.html) but can’t find anywhere where the top piece is reproduced. The top piece in question is shown clouded in red below.
When I took my entire dash out, this was all that was left of the top firewall insulation pad (basically it just all deteriorated over time or the previous owner removed it?). Now my question is, does any reproduce this top firewall pad piece? Is this top firewall pad piece glued into place?
Is the bottom firewall pad piece held in place by just 6 rubber push in attaching plugs (http://www.npdlink.com/store/products/product-100155-0.html?shop_by_year=1970)? When I removed my lower firewall pad piece out of the car I only had two rubber push in attaching plugs. Maybe I’m missing some or the reproduction kit comes with to many rubber push in plugs?
Finished the seat belts up this past weekend and assembled the painted seat belt holder plastic pieces. They all turned out pretty good and I’m happy with them. I even got detailed and bought a beard trimmer scissor from Walmart for $4 to neatly trim back all the loose threads. This little project took a lot more time than anticipated…
Worked on sanding down and polishing the reproduction stainless steel door sill plates tonight (http://www2.cougarpartscatalog.com/69stainsill.html). After unpackaging them I noticed minor scratches in the stainless steel here and there. So I sanded them down with 1000 grit till all the minor scratches were removed, then hit them quickly with 1200, 1500 then 2000 before onto the bench buffer with a stainless compound and finally with a white rouge compound.
The top one is an untouched piece and the bottom piece is a fresh sanded and polished piece. Not much of a difference but the fresh sanded and polished piece looks a bit whiter and brighter. After cleaning the polish residue off, I then applied a coat of a metal sealer to help protect the freshly polished stainless from oxidizing over time (http://www.summitracing.com/search/brand/shineseal/product-line/shineseal-master-kits?autoview=SKU) and then the final step was to install the scuff plate emblem (http://www2.cougarpartscatalog.com/67z-6513208-20.html). For mounting hardware I will be using these guys with the waxed tips to help prevent them from catching the carpeting material (http://www2.cougarpartscatalog.com/sssillscrews.html).
To organize all my various grits of sandpapers, I bought this file folder from Staples for around $8 and with my label maker made a bunch of labels to help organize all the various grits. So far it has worked out extremely well and is a total recommendation if you do a lot of sanding/polishing.
Working on the brake and throttle pedal assembles right now as well as the centre console. Weather is going to be getting a lot hotter in the next couple days so these parts will be seeing paint. I’ll keep ya guys posted soon.
Steve,
Just saw this post or I would have responded sooner. No one makes the top cowl pad that I am aware of. That is except for Tom at KTL restorations who makes a piece out of inexpensive carpet foam - the kind made from different color bits of foam and held together with a mesh. He paints this piece he makes black to approximate the original insulation and thin plastic covering. I have one on my car. They are particular to Cougar (Mustang’s don’t have them - which is why there is not a repro!).
About the firewall blanket, the kit comes with more plugs than our cars use, the blanket is WAY too thick, by about 2X, I ripped half of it off to make it the right thickness, and finally as I recall I had to cut the hole for the AC vacuum hoses as it was not pre-punched like everything else. Had to do this in the car which was not fun! Could have been a different missing hole, can’t recall for sure. Oh, and there are two screws/washers that hold the blanket in the area of the fuse block.
Hope this helps you.
Regards,
Bob
Seat belts look great! I see that your front inner receiving buckles have a plastic housing around the belt. I’ve not seen that before but the 70’s I’ve owned have all been early production. Anybody else with a 70 have that type of inner belt?
Bob, thanks for all the info and contact. I don’t recall any bolts/washers near the fuse block area holding the firewall pad up or even holes in the firewall near this location for bolts but I will research further.
Jeff, thanks, they took a lot of time. I wonder if the original owner added those or maybe the deluxe seat belts option came with them since the front inner seat belt buckle is quite small and could easily fally down between the seat and centre console therefore Ford designed that plastic piece to keep the small buckle upright? I searched ebay for mustang deluxe seat belts but none of them show that piece. IIRC when I was cleaning them up, they had part numbers on them. I’ll take a photo and post it up.
Steve, they are sheet metal screws and are vertical, one under the other separated by some inches. They are between the fuse black and the E-brake (to be more specific). I think maybe I see two holes for these on the left side of the blanket picture you posted or are those for something else?
Here, this ought to help!:
See on the left side? You can see the KTL pad too. Also, looks like there were only two spots for the retainer plugs.
Thanks Bob. Your picture helps out a lot. I will have a lookski around the ebrake area for those two bolt hole locations. I see your 2 rubber plug locations which is consistent with my car. I was surprised when I took my lower dash apart that only two rubber plugs was holding the firewall pad in place which seems quite low.
I may try and make the top pad piece myself based on your photo. Looks like it is in two pieces and cut out with scissors. I know I got some carpet underlayment material kicking around here and of course black paint as well.
So many details to restoring a car…
Hey Jeff, I tried taking a photo but the part number is tucked up inside it and doesn’t photo well but the part number at the bottom is
471905
02-227
and at the top it is 3760028.
These don’t appear to be ford part numbers? I’m thinking now the original owner might have added these…
I don’t recognize those numbers as Ford part numbers but maybe Don or Scott from WCCC or John Benoit can chime in here.
I had a quick look at the driver side fire wall a little closer and as you pointed out Bob there is a screw and washer but I found just the one. I totally missed that little guy during disassembly and I just got myself new glasses last month. I’ll climb inside this weekend and have a real close look for the second screw/washer.
Sandblasted the throttle pedal and brake pedal assembly before painting them tonight. Got a new throttle pedal spring and new bushings for the brake pedal assembly.
Even went ahead and spent 5 minutes on the buffer and polished the brake pedal trim and “DISC BRAKE” emblem.
Hoping to wrap these little projects up and assemble all the freshly painted center console pieces this weekend.
Certainly possible that they only installed one on the line Steve, the presence or absence of another screw hole in the place my picture shows will tell you the story.
Everything looks great, as I always say, it’s in the details. Add up a million little details that all are focused on intently and you’ll get a spectacular result. 
Got my console all put together today outside in the lovely sunny weather in Vancouver, BC. She turned out really nice.
After completely tearing everything down I started with the console compartment box. It is lined with a velvet like lining but after 40+ years she was more than used up. On the ECI build thread Bob had posted the flocking kit to simply reapply this velvet like material (thanks for the idea Bob) very similar to the linings inside jewelry boxes, etc. First I had to remove the old stuff so I used a wire tooth brush to remove all the large bits and then hit it with sandpaper to sand it down smooth.
Here is what the flocking kit looks like. I got this one off amazon or ebay (can’t remember) for under $20.
I tried using the supplied resin and brush but it turned out like crap and I had to wash it off quickly and start over. The kit comes with enough material to do at least a half dozen of these boxes so I wasn’t worried. Here are some instructions that came in the kit. Also YouTube “flocking jewelry boxes”, etc. and a bunch of how to videos pop up. It was very simple to use.
Instead of the supplied resin in the kit I applied black spray paint instead my box and got it really nice and wet then hit it with the flocking material immediately before the paint would dry on me. This method turned out way better. There is a bunch of material sitting at the bottom which I hadn’t shook out yet as it was in the curing process when I took this photo but you get the idea.
