Leap Day - Hertz G

[manyc]

For the G-cars A O Smith spliced into the parking light harness for the fog lights. They used these 3M Scotchloks, which you can still get today.

The original ones were deteriorated enough that I had to replace them. I ended up replacing the main headlight harness as well.

A O Smith also used the Scotchloks to add in the wire for the 3-rd horn.

Also shown in this picture is the lower valance mounting bolt which screws into the lower radiator support. It goes through the fog light bucket and into the radiator support in the same hole that the AC condenser uses.

On all the AC cars, Ford put these plastic wire shields to protect the wire harness from being cut by the sharp edges of the AC condenser bracket. They were sandwiched between the fog light buckets and the AC condenser like this:

Another ebay steal was a NOS pair of Lucas fog lights. There are lots of variations of writing in the glass. The pair I got are almost completely identical to the originals. A thing to note is fog lights in a G are installed upside down from normal (like the Shelbys) so you have to take them apart and rotated the glass to get them to appear right on a G.

[manyc]

I purchased a set of the Scott Drake Mustang parking lights to replace the corroded originals, but of course wiring is different than Cougar. To correct that, I bought some pigtails from WCCC and soldered them in place inside the socket so the splice couldn’t be seen.

I also soldered the ground in place and covered it with the shrink tubing.

Apparently getting parking light retainers with the correct finish is something you have to pay attention to. I ordered a pair and got one that was in gray paint and the other was in the correct yellow chromate. Grrr.

He she is ready for the bumper.

[mopauly1965]

Simply BEAUTIFUL!!!

[manyc]

Next up, the dreaded headliner.

No one makes the correct headliner for the sunroof cars. Especially in the dark blue like my car. The repo Cougar headliners (made by Scott Drake?) are made with one large piece of fabric at the front. However, it needs to be made with 3 pieces sewn together along the front corners so there is no wrinkles like ASC made them. I ended up locating a dark blue Mustang headliner as a source of extra material and paid an upholsterer to duplicate the original using a repo cougar sunroof headliner. Here it is folded in half.

If you have ever installed a headliner you know that the fabric loops for the listing rods are never correct. What I did for this car was to first mark a centerline on the headliner, then marked the center of the listing rods. I then cut a notch into the fabric loops at the center line so that I could center the listing rods in the loops and then clamped the rods in place. The fabric was pulled tight so that I could cut the loop fabric open (about 1/2”) inboard of the listing rod ends. You need to do this so that that lateral wrinkles can be pulled out of the headliner during installation without the loop binding up on the ends.

The inside of the car was prep’d before installation. All roof and sill panel insulation was glued in and screws for the sun visors and seatbelts where installed. Note: The sunroof drain tubing was replaced at an earlier date.

These wire hooks are used to position the rear listing rod correctly relative to the rear window opening and keep the rear listing rod from flopping forward when you pull the headliner tight form the front. One of the originals was no usable, so I made a bunch of them from piano wire and picked the one that best matched the original for length.

[manyc]

There are plenty of videos out there that show you how to install headliners. this is not one of those….

Basically I started down the middle like a normal headliner install, but instead of pulling it tight all the way to the windshield, I pulled it tight to the rear of the sunroof opening.

With the front to back tight and wrinkle free in the middle, I pulled the fabric tight along the listing rods to get the wrinkles out of them. Glue and the steel teeth on the inner panels helped hold the fabric in place. For the roof rails I used pieces of welting to hold things in place as I fought with the wrinkles.

probably the most important thing I did was to follow what Royce did and made these aluminum retainers to replace the flimsy factory cardboard ones. They hold the bottom of the sail panel portion of the headliner down to the package tray, where hooks/teeth in the sheet metal go through the slots and get bend down. They not only hold the fabric tight, but they help tuck the fabric underneath the sail panel insulation which helps make for a wrinkle free headliner.

Here it is all installed. You might spot some wrinkles near the edges, but they disappeared with the installation of the glass, opera lights and roof rail trim. I am very happy that it turned out this well. It took me about 5 hours spread out of 3 days to do the entire job.

[manyc]

Glass time:

It was very hard to install the repo windshield moulding clips. I had to use a hammer and a piece of wood to get them to install over the pins.

I went with a repo windshield that I had date coded with the proper logo by ECS. Here is what they etched for me:

here is the original.

One thing about repo windshields is they don’t seem to make them in the original thickness. Here is the original which is about 1/4”

and the repo which is about 3/16”. It is very important to seal along the inside channel of the windshield weather seal because of this.

Where the rearview mirror button is glued to the windshield is a shown in the service manual as 4-1/16” (centered) from the edge of the weather seal (not the edge of the glass). When I measured my original glass I found that it was 4-1/16” from the edge of the glass to the top of the button not the center. Without the weather seal it measured 4-1/2” from the edge of the glass to the top of the button. So that is where I put it on the new glass.

[manyc]

For the rear window I was able to use the original though it has a few scratches in it. I like to use the same trick as Don Rush does when installing old glass by using weedwhacker string.

I took the advice form Don’s glass install video and used original clips around the rear window.

Once dropped in the hole, it probably took me 5 minutes to get the rear window installed (less sealant).

[manyc]

Rather than wait 6+months for my original bumper to be rechromed, I bought a rechromed one from WCCC. Even with shipping it was half the cost and it looked great.

I need to restore the LH fender extension molding and install the bumper guards to finish up the front.

[propayne]

Such great info. I know it takes a lot of extra time to post this - and I love the ASC plate!

• Phillip

[manyc]

UPDATE 10/12/2026: The engine is now installed.

I did the Royce install method of transmission first with the transmission suspended in the front with aluminum straps. The tail was just resting on the transmission mount so that it had free front to back movement.

lots of blankets and cardboard were used to prevent damage to nearby surfaces.

The RH exhaust manifold and both motor mounts were left off. The LH exhaust manifold was installed as well as the LH factory lift hook. The engine was hung from the intake using an engine pull plate.

Getting the engine into the engine bay was a little dance. Move forward a little, look for hood clearance, lower the engine a little, move forward a little, look for hood clearance, lower the engine ensuring that the oil pan clears the radiator support, lower a little, look so that the harmonic balancer is a little above the radiator support, look for hood clearance, move forward a little, etc

There was about a 1-inch clearance with the hood at the closest approach.

The rest of my description will just point out some things that I didn’t see pictures of on Royce’s project posts, but I thought would be a useful addition:

The engine and transmission are brought into alignment. The bolts at the top are aligned with the block, but are held back at a good spacing because of the nuts on the straps.

at the bottom I used long head bolts as a guide (again Royce’s method). Now the transmission and engine are in alignment. The center two bolts (one on either side of the transmission) can be started.

with the engine/trans brought into alignment the torque converter can be rotated so that the studs align with the holes in the flywheel.

then you can remove the nuts at the top and start drawing the engine and transmission together.

The torque converter studs should just get brought through the flywheel as the transmission is bolted in.

The engine and transmission can be raised as a unit so that the RH exhaust manifold can motor mounts can be installed. There is one exhaust manifold bolt that is a bear to get to, if you can get the engine raised high enough it’s not impossible.

With the motor mounts and rear trans mount bolted in, the torque converter nuts can be install as well as the dust cover.

Easy right? Well though I didn’t damage anything, one of the studs on the new transmission mount broke free and started spinning when I was tightening it. So have I to look forward to replacing it.

Next up. All the goodies that attach to the engine.