Classic Mustangs List Archive

This read-only message was archived from a public mail list.
Mail From: james.w.butler ((email redacted))

After trying to get my 68 aligned several times to tighten up the steering decided that I needed to replace the entire drag link, idle arm, and all associated parts. Upon removal I got a closer look at it. The car was Actually a power steering model, They had removed the pump, left everything else intact, and the control valve stud that links to the pitman arm had been broken at one time. The PO had decided that it would be cheaper to weld it back together. Needless to say after 6 months of driving the vehicle it scared me a little.

----- Original Message -----
From: Christian Soderlund <(email redacted)>
Date: Sunday, March 19, 2006 7:28 am
Subject: VS: [CM] What weird stuff did you find when you purchased yourMustang? (was: My new 65 coupe)

>
> On mine somebody added a variable resistor to be able to controll
> the speed
> of the windshield vipers.
> Actually not a bad idea, but he could used a more elegant way.
>
> See ama-prom.fi/hcs/mustang/Dashboard/P0000823B.jpg
>
> Christian Soderlund
> Kivimaentie 100
> FIN-21870 RIIHIKOSKI
>
> Phone +358 50 4921 593
> Fax +358 2 4868 631
>
> -----Alkuperainen viesti-----
> Lahettaja: (email redacted)
> [mailtoemail redacted)]Puolesta Brandon
> Peskin
> Lahetetty: 18. maaliskuuta 2006 18:51
> Vastaanottaja: A list for owners of Classic Mustangs
> Aihe: Re: [CM] What weird stuff did you find when you purchased
> yourMustang? (was: My new 65 coupe)
>
>
>
> On Mar 18, 2006, at 5:50 AM, Dr. Paul R. Sawyer wrote:
>
> > As you know--from seeing your stable below your name--you spend the
> > first year undoing all of the goofy stuff that the previous owners
> > did along the way.
>
> Thanks Dr. Paul, there's a topic for some comedy discussion :-)
>
> Some of us have purchased our Mustangs second-hand from a previous
> owner (and in some cases there were X number of owners before him),
> and unless they're savvy to the hobby (which most of them aren't)
> they do goofy/stupid/annoying things to the car.
>
> I'll break the ice with a list of things that came with my Mustang
> courtesy of its previous owners:
>
> - An aftermarket old kenwood tape deck in a plastic housing mounted
> under the center of the dash, along with a 6x9 speaker nested
> underneath the package tray in the back and 2 holes cut in the
> package tray with old beat up radio shack speakers sitting in them
>
> - A ``remote hood release'' handle (complete with cable) under the
> steering column that looked like it never worked
>
> - A small appliance switch I later determined to be a kill switch
> that had wires traveling into the engine compartment and there they
> hung.
>
> - My shock towers have golf ball sized holes in the fronts of them,
> and said holes look like they were created with a can opener
>
> - I found a newspaper from January 11th, 1973 under the carpet in the
> rear seat floor pan area (on 6-4-2005!) picture:
> photos.peskin.org/displayimage.php?album=25&pos=41
>
> Along the lines of that obscurity I also found an old beat up
> McDonalds happy meal toy in the right rear quarter window well (under
> the metal panel), several hair pins, a hair band, a receipt from a
> small market in San Francisco from April 12th, 1975 and an OLD small
> box of condoms hidden under the drivers seat when I removed it to do
> something.
>
> I found several coins (quarters, dimes, pennies) from the 60s and
> earlier
>
> - The dash had one of those fuzzy dash carpets laid over the top of
> it. Removing this revealed several cracks in the dash, some of which
> were duct taped over and left for years. (picture:
> photos.peskin.org/displayimage.php?album=25&pos=45)
>
> - An engine vacuum gauge and hose were taped to the steering column
> to measure engine vacuum. I don't understand how the measurement of
> engine vacuum helps anyone with performance driving, but maybe I'm
> missing something.
>
> The list goes on and on, don't laugh too hard
>
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Classic-mustangs mailing list
> (email redacted)
> lists.twistedpair.ca/mailman/listinfo.cgi/classic-mustangs
>
> Visit the Classic Mustang Wiki! sauce.donair.org/~cm/
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Classic-mustangs mailing list
> (email redacted)
> lists.twistedpair.ca/mailman/listinfo.cgi/classic-mustangs
>
> Visit the Classic Mustang Wiki! sauce.donair.org/~cm/
>

This read-only message was archived from a public mail list.
Mail From: abesfate (Abraham Miller)

My first 65/66 pony had an identity crisis...

I was real green to the older ponies then and I answered an ad about a 66 Fastback selling for $1500. Went to go check it out at this fellows house on the far sw side of Chicago. Fellow had 4 restored ponies (had a *beautiful* 70 Mach1...) and this one was the rawest of the bunch.

Anyhow, he kept saying, "I know it doesn't run, I'm selling it as-is." almost like a mantra. My wife actually picked up on it and said on the way home, "What was he worried about?" Me, with stars in my eyes said, "Huh? Ehh, old-timer, prolly off his rocker..." [sigh] (Ahh, the ignorance of youth..)

A month and many manuals later I had a list of inconsistencies that should have worried me when I did my first walk-through.

The front grill was honeycombed not lined like a 66, the VIN didn't decode to a fastback (it decoded to a coupe!), the stamped driver-side vin was entirely replaced with new metal, the body tag was screwed into the door, AND when I removed the front quarters - I found the other "hidden" vin stamp under the passenger side quarter panel... IT decoded to a 65 fastback, but NOT my title.

D'oh. [I was such a dummy.]

Well, to get to the "weird thing I found"....

Somehow, despite all that work someone went through to hide the car's true origin (though you think they could've stolen a decent title...), during that car's tear-down I removed the center speaker plate and LOH! a brown and yellowed registration form resting on the speaker!

Sadly, it matched the original vin and not my title. I looked up the name on the registration and struggled through whether I should call the listed name.
But fear of losing the car and $1500 (we were so stinkin poor then, I shouldn't have owned that car anyhow) got the better of me and I succombed to just selling it.

Funny thing was, a cop came by to check the car out and he mercifully mentioned his place of employment before I mentioned the discrepancy so I showed him every bit of rust I could find...
In the end, some guy from Wisconsin called me, asked about the vin #s and I told him the truth like a mantra, "I know the engine doesn't run, I'm selling it as-is.."

j/k - I told him about the discrepancy and he said he wasn't worried cause he just needed the car for parts and sheetmetal... and she was gone a day later.

I still miss that car, it had real potential.




(email redacted) wrote:
After trying to get my 68 aligned several times to tighten up the steering decided that I needed to replace the entire drag link, idle arm, and all associated parts. Upon removal I got a closer look at it. The car was Actually a power steering model, They had removed the pump, left everything else intact, and the control valve stud that links to the pitman arm had been broken at one time. The PO had decided that it would be cheaper to weld it back together. Needless to say after 6 months of driving the vehicle it scared me a little.

----- Original Message -----
From: Christian Soderlund
Date: Sunday, March 19, 2006 7:28 am
Subject: VS: [CM] What weird stuff did you find when you purchased yourMustang? (was: My new 65 coupe)

>
> On mine somebody added a variable resistor to be able to controll
> the speed
> of the windshield vipers.
> Actually not a bad idea, but he could used a more elegant way.
>
> See ama-prom.fi/hcs/mustang/Dashboard/P0000823B.jpg
>
> Christian Soderlund
> Kivimaentie 100
> FIN-21870 RIIHIKOSKI
>
> Phone +358 50 4921 593
> Fax +358 2 4868 631
>
> -----Alkuperainen viesti-----
> Lahettaja: (email redacted)
> [mailtoemail redacted)]Puolesta Brandon
> Peskin
> Lahetetty: 18. maaliskuuta 2006 18:51
> Vastaanottaja: A list for owners of Classic Mustangs
> Aihe: Re: [CM] What weird stuff did you find when you purchased
> yourMustang? (was: My new 65 coupe)
>
>
>
> On Mar 18, 2006, at 5:50 AM, Dr. Paul R. Sawyer wrote:
>
> > As you know--from seeing your stable below your name--you spend the
> > first year undoing all of the goofy stuff that the previous owners
> > did along the way.
>
> Thanks Dr. Paul, there's a topic for some comedy discussion :-)
>
> Some of us have purchased our Mustangs second-hand from a previous
> owner (and in some cases there were X number of owners before him),
> and unless they're savvy to the hobby (which most of them aren't)
> they do goofy/stupid/annoying things to the car.
>
> I'll break the ice with a list of things that came with my Mustang
> courtesy of its previous owners:
>
> - An aftermarket old kenwood tape deck in a plastic housing mounted
> under the center of the dash, along with a 6x9 speaker nested
> underneath the package tray in the back and 2 holes cut in the
> package tray with old beat up radio shack speakers sitting in them
>
> - A ``remote hood release'' handle (complete with cable) under the
> steering column that looked like it never worked
>
> - A small appliance switch I later determined to be a kill switch
> that had wires traveling into the engine compartment and there they
> hung.
>
> - My shock towers have golf ball sized holes in the fronts of them,
> and said holes look like they were created with a can opener
>
> - I found a newspaper from January 11th, 1973 under the carpet in the
> rear seat floor pan area (on 6-4-2005!) picture:
> photos.peskin.org/displayimage.php?album=25&pos=41
>
> Along the lines of that obscurity I also found an old beat up
> McDonalds happy meal toy in the right rear quarter window well (under
> the metal panel), several hair pins, a hair band, a receipt from a
> small market in San Francisco from April 12th, 1975 and an OLD small
> box of condoms hidden under the drivers seat when I removed it to do
> something.
>
> I found several coins (quarters, dimes, pennies) from the 60s and
> earlier
>
> - The dash had one of those fuzzy dash carpets laid over the top of
> it. Removing this revealed several cracks in the dash, some of which
> were duct taped over and left for years. (picture:
> photos.peskin.org/displayimage.php?album=25&pos=45)
>
> - An engine vacuum gauge and hose were taped to the steering column
> to measure engine vacuum. I don't understand how the measurement of
> engine vacuum helps anyone with performance driving, but maybe I'm
> missing something.
>
> The list goes on and on, don't laugh too hard
>
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Classic-mustangs mailing list
> (email redacted)
> lists.twistedpair.ca/mailman/listinfo.cgi/classic-mustangs
>
> Visit the Classic Mustang Wiki! sauce.donair.org/~cm/
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Classic-mustangs mailing list
> (email redacted)
> lists.twistedpair.ca/mailman/listinfo.cgi/classic-mustangs
>
> Visit the Classic Mustang Wiki! sauce.donair.org/~cm/
>
_______________________________________________
Classic-mustangs mailing list
(email redacted)
lists.twistedpair.ca/mailman/listinfo.cgi/classic-mustangs

Visit the Classic Mustang Wiki! sauce.donair.org/~cm/

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