Classic Mustangs List Archive

This read-only message was archived from a public mail list.
Mail From: David J Harr (email redacted)

All right. Now that we have solved the "Mystery of the Expanding
Export Brace and the Shrinking Spring Compressor," we move on to
the next mysteries.


"The Puzzling Caper of the Fractured Fog Lights."

On Saturday, I bought a set of GT fog lamps for my '66 coupe.
When I got home, I attempted to install them. Horse and corral
went in great. The fog lamp brackets attached nicely. The actual
lamp arms, however, were much more problematic. The nut that is
supplied with the hardware, that is supposed to go through the
back of the headlight holder and attach to the bracket behind the
grill seems to be too short. No matter how I twist and massage
it, I can't get it to pass through the bracket and leave enough
thread exposed to allow attachment of the nut. The sneaky
suspicion I have is that it is impossible to attach a fog lamp
to a stock '66 grill, and, just like I had to replace the horse
and corral, I will have to get a new grill, or modify my current
one to get the fog lamps to fit. As always, any insight from
someone who has gone down this road before would be appreciated...



"A wheel of a different color"

When I bought my mustang a month ago, it came with 225/60-14s
on the front and 235/60-14s on the rear. The rear tires were too
big. I know this because of the grooves that were worn in them
from the rear wheel wells slamming into the tire on hard bumps.
This weekend, I had 215/60-14s put on all around. Replacing the
tires has brought forward some questions, though. Currently, I
have wheels on the car of the "American Racing" style. We
called them slotted mags when I was in high school in the late
70s. On the back, they say "Shelby GT" and have some company name
which I forget. They are 14X7. I would like to be able to find
a fifth wheel so as to keep it in my trunk as a spare, allowing
me to rotate the spare into the other tires when I do my normal
tire rotation. The numbers I have seen indicate that this kind
of rotation can double the life of your tires. Anyway, has anyone
heard of these wheels and can you point me to a possible source
for them?

In a related note, what larger wheel sizes are people running?
I know going to a 15" wheel is a popular modification, especially
when combined with a disc brake swap with a granada. Has anyone
moved up to 16" wheels? How about 17" wheels? The larger the
wheel size, the lower the profile of the tire I can run without
danger of rubbing again. Also, as you get into the 16" and 17"
wheel sizes, the variety of modern rubber available increases
enormously. One's selection of tires at 225/60-14 is somewhat
limited... (Try getting a Pirelli P-Zero in that size).


Anyway, those are our mysteries for today. Have fun...


David


David J Harr
Entropy Introduction Engineer
Daikin US Comtec Laboratories, Inc
(email redacted)


"And isn't sanity really just a one trick pony anyway? I mean all
you get is one trick, rational thinking, but when you're good and
crazy, oooh oooh oooh, the sky is the limit!"
- The Tick

This read-only message was archived from a public mail list.
Mail From: Eric F. Riggert (email redacted)

<David Harr>
> "The Puzzling Caper of the Fractured Fog Lights."
> On Saturday, I bought a set of GT fog lamps for my '66 coupe.
> When I got home, I attempted to install them. Horse and corral
> went in great. The fog lamp brackets attached nicely. The actual
> lamp arms, however, were much more problematic. The nut that is
> supplied with the hardware, that is supposed to go through the
> back of the headlight holder and attach to the bracket behind the
> grill seems to be too short. No matter how I twist and massage
> it, I can't get it to pass through the bracket and leave enough
> thread exposed to allow attachment of the nut. The sneaky
> suspicion I have is that it is impossible to attach a fog lamp
> to a stock '66 grill, and, just like I had to replace the horse
> and corral, I will have to get a new grill, or modify my current
> one to get the fog lamps to fit. As always, any insight from
> someone who has gone down this road before would be appreciated...

I think something else is wrong. Not only does the lamp arm have to
bolt on through the grille, but also through a support on the back of
the grille (takes the weight of the lamp and arm) that is about 2 inches
wide and at least a 1/16th of an inch. If you don't have this (and
non-GT grilles do not have this - don't know if it is available as a
reproduction) and the bolt is still too short, the problem is probably
that the bolt is just too darn short!

My '66 GT has some replacement lamp arms (early reproductions - 10 years
old? From Larry's T-Bird and Mustang) but the original everything else
up front. And the bolts fit through everything OK. On the other hand,
the quality of the arms is the pits. I hope they've gotten better since
then.

Regards,
Eric Rigget, '66 Mustang GT, '88 LX 5.0, '94 Cobra, SCOASCC, SMA
(email redacted)

This read-only message was archived from a public mail list.
Mail From: Rick & Peggy Lind (email redacted)

The fog light bars of today are much better than those of ten years ago.
What youy want to double check is that you have 66 bars, and not 65 bars.
You did not say where you bought them. There is a difference.

Good luck, Rick

This read-only message was archived from a public mail list.
Mail From: David J Harr (email redacted)

>The fog light bars of today are much better than those of ten years ago.
>What youy want to double check is that you have 66 bars, and not 65 bars.
>You did not say where you bought them. There is a difference.
>
>Good luck, Rick

Yeah, as it turns out, the guys who sold them to me said there was no
difference they knew of between the '66 and the '65 bars. Since the
'65s were all they had in stock, that's what they sold me. They were,
of course wrong about the difference between the '66 and the '65
They are good guys, though, and are going to swap me straight across
as soon as they get the '66s in stock, in two or three days. So, that
problem seems to be solved.


Next episode:

David turns his Mustang coupe into starship "Enterprise"

Same Bat Time, same Bat Channel....


David


David J Harr
Entropy Introduction Engineer
Daikin US Comtec Laboratories, Inc
(email redacted)


"And isn't sanity really just a one trick pony anyway? I mean all
you get is one trick, rational thinking, but when you're good and
crazy, oooh oooh oooh, the sky is the limit!"
- The Tick