Suspension

The uni-body is done with paint and is back home.  Next step is to make the car a "roller" again so that we can move it around and install then engine. Once the drive train is installed we'll send it back to the shop for final panel fit and hood install.  We've been stuck a little here while the suspension parts were getting restored.  Falling behind on the getting the engine assembled too, just too many other things going on

.  Should be back on schedule again in a couple of weeks.  Front suspension is done with restoration, and looks amazing. Brake backing plates just got finished an are ready for paint.  The really amazing thing is that all of these parts have matching numbers, more on that in a later post.
Finishing up restoring/plating original hardware. I hung the coil springs and dipped.  Was amazing how this accurately recreated the look of the paint on the springs originally
 The pattern of drips and coverage were true to the first time these were dipped back in 1964.  Some pics of the restored front suspension and steering linkage.

Background History

There are just a dozen or so of these 64 1/2 K code convertibles known to exist.  Of those, this is the only documented example that left the factory with an automatic choke and hand-fitted dual exhaust system, measures taken by Ford in order to get the car into dealer showrooms by the all important July 4th sales weekend in 1964.   High performance mustangs were originally to be available by June 1st 1964, but production delays would keep the K codes from entering regular production until the end of June - too late for arrival at dealers by July 4th, which fell on Saturday.  With this realization in mid June, Ford quickly made plans to assemble a few cars using existing parts from other high performance car lines already in production, namely the Fairlane. This car and perhaps a few others were quickly "show car prepared" and fitted with Cobra engine bay dress-up kits in time for them to arrive at select dealerships by July 1st.  There they would be shared with other dealerships in the sales district to entice buyers to order the new High Performance Mustangs.

I was able to recover some of the original factory documents and was able to interview several of the owners.

I'll be elaborating more on how the original owner acquired this car along with information from the dealership that originally sold the car in the coming weeks.

Choke

Now that we're in the paint phase with the engine compartment, the whole automatic choke question has to be dealt with.  Bill and Bobby (1st and 2nd owners, respectively) both have stated vehemently that the car had an automatic choke (and no choke pull inside the car) when they each purchased the car.  In fact, the way that the "L" bracket is welded between the side of the cowl area to the dash, the holes for the choke pull bracket can't be mounted where it is supposed to go - the mounting holes in the bracket are blocked off by the holes in the bottom of the dash, due to misalignment - the tab on the choke bracket and the mounting screw won't fit through the holes.  That said, the car did have a manual choke when I acquired it, and Jay stated that as he and his son recalled, it had the manual choke cable when he painted the car in 1980.  Jay's recollection is that it was also there in 1973 when he first acquired the car.  The choke cable on the car when I bought it was only 46" long and the exterior covering was thinner and lacks the white line I have seen on other originals of the production period for this car (Fairlane was 58" long vs. the normal Mustang HiPo length of 63").  When I acquired the car, the pull was mounted in the "D" hole under the dash and the cable was routed in front of the fresh air vent inlet housing under the dash, rather than behind the fresh air vent as it was supposed to be.

The hole in the firewall is very crudely made, it was apparently drilled through first, then punched through with a rod from the firewall side, which splayed out the metal on the interior side of the firewall.  The metal that remained around the hole was then pounded flat against the firewall.  The area around the hole is dented by about a half inch towards the drivers side by hammering of the punch through the firewall and/or the prying action of the metal rod.

So the question is, "when was this hole made?"  Was this done at the factory or during the time between 1970 (when Bobby bought it with an automatic choke) and 1973 (when Jay bought it with a manual choke).  One wouldn't expect such a crudely made hole to be done as part of normal assembly procedures, but there are several other holes in the area around the dual exhaust that were all hand-cut, some very crudely.  So it's entirely possible, that the existing hole in the firewall was made with the intent of installing a manual choke later in the assembly process.  But, based upon the way that the hole was made and plugged it is very unlikely that this was a factory made hole.

One factor, is that it looks like the hole was made with the firewall pad in place.  The "chad" that originally covered the hole in the firewall pad was still hanging off the hole and will be reused with the original firewall pad in the restoration.

The other factor is that the assembly instructions called for any penetration of the firewall to be sprayed with sealer after the items penetrating the firewall were installed as one of the last steps before leaving the factory.  the sealer is often sprayed haphazardly, this is no exception.  There is sealer over-spray in the area where the cable goes through the firewall.  The plug of caulk that was used to seal this hole was applied over the spray on sealer, indicating that the hole was most likely made and caulked after leaving the factory.

With all of the evidence some restorers would go ahead and weld the hole closed.  In this case, however,  I am not going to do that.  I learned over the years that the best approach is one that leaves the most original evidence, so that if more info comes to light in the future,  we still have the ability to again review the original evidence against the new information.

This proved especially true of the lowest VIN coupe, 5F07U100002, that i sought out and bought in the 1990s, and subsequently sold to Bob Fria.  Had I chosen to restore that car using the prevailing knowledge at that time, much of what we learned about pre-production Mustangs would have been lost.

So I'm staying true to the statement in my introductory post, that this is a "minimalist restoration".  Therefore, the existing hole will be covered with body sealer that could be removed in the future without destroying historical evidence.  This is consistent with what the factory would have done if such a hole had been made at the factory and not used.

Just one more comment on what i mean by "minimalist restoration".  We are still doing a complete, down to bare metal, rotisserie restoration.  However, we have preserved every existing original marking and part that we could, and we documented in photos and accurately recreated those that could not be preserved without compromising the structural integrity of the car, its appearance, or durability of the restoration.

Paint

Paint

The car is in the paint shop now.   I took samples from various areas over the car to determine what was on it and the order of application so that we could recreate the original colors and sequence of application accurately.  The colors of the new primers and paint were painstakingly matched to these colors.  The entire underside of the unibody, firewall, and aprons were originally painted with a very hard and glossy coat of black paint/primer, but not on the exterior of the core support (the factory markings are being preserved in their original state).  There was no red oxide under the body or on the exterior of the car, only in the trunk and interior of the car.  The exterior body panels, and the exterior of the core support and aprons were all shot with gray primer as it was originally. Put lots of effort into doing the procedures in the same order as the factory.  Also in recreating the original factory skid mounting points and overspray even in places that most folks will never see once the car is put back together.

Introduction

Introduction
I started this blog to record and share information about this very rare 64 1/2 K code convertible.  The car is going through a minimal restoration, after more than 5 years of research.  The goal is to preserve the originality of the car to end up with as close to what the original owner saw and experienced when he first drove the car and fell in love with it as possible.

The car is in remarkably good condition and retains all of its original sheet metal except for the lower front valence (replaced by the owner who acquired the car in 1973, Jay).  All of the stamped production date codes from the original panels have been photographed and recorded.  I have been able to recover the original vessel identification number (VIN) assignment document and the original bill of sale for the car.  Putting the items together, the VIN was assigned by Ford Accounting in Dearborn on May 29th, 1964, car was built on or shortly after June 20th, 1964, and delivered to Charlotte, NC before July 8th, 1964 when the original owner (Bill) purchased the car.

The planned build date shown on the original data plate is June 9th, 1964.  I did extensive research on this car and a number of other 64 1/2 K codes with planned build dates of June 9th or sooner in an effort to understand why this car was built so much later than the planned date.  Interestingly, every other car I researched had body panels with stamped manufacturing dates after June 23rd, again well after their planned build dates.

I was also able to document the ownership history of the car, with interviews and signed affidavits from several of the owners that I was able to locate.  Some of the most intriguing information came from the first two owners.  The first owner, Bill, was thrilled to hear from me when I first spoke to him back in 2012 and he volunteered a wealth of information about how he acquired the the car and how it was equipped.

The most surprising information was that this car had an automatic choke when new (a fact that was later confirmed by the second owner, Bobby, when I first spoke to him in 2014).  My first contact was with Bobby's brother who remembered the car and told me that Bobby had replaced the carburetor with  Holley, and this was later confirmed by Bobby in a subsequent phone call.  I have puzzled over this for 5 years now, and through some research I think that I have figured out why this car and several others had automatic chokes. 

I'll be presenting more about the cars history along with photos of the restoration in later posts.