More parts ready to install

Well I went to install the rear leaf springs and and ran into a snag, so this will push to another day.  But here are some pics of some of the restored parts that I have been meaning to post. Front suspension strut rod bushings above.  In my last post I talked about how this car and others from this time frame (June 1964) had paint marks on them to identify the fronts from the rears. Honestly, I don't understand the use of pink on parts, sometimes it seems to mean "face towards front" other time "face towards rear".  Even on driveshafts, some I see the end with the pink paint installed to the rear, on others to the front.   At this point I'm just recreating what was there that I can still identify, and putting off the reason why the colors are there until later.

Here's a pic of the driveshaft and some of the rear axle and brake components

Maybe tomorrow, if I can get past the current obstacle, I'll get some of these parts installed.

The pink stripe shows up on all of the K-code mustangs of this time period that I looked at (that I  could get a read on driveshaft stripes anyways - many were painted black.).  That said, there were many different stripes on cars I saw that had been restored.  One had 2 purple stripes adjacent to the pink, some had a single white, sometimes the white and the pink placement was reversed.  I have no idea what the placement or color of the stripes indicates, only that he pink seems to be common to the K-codes of this period regardless of the rear axle ratio, tire size (15" or 14"), or whether they had inside or outside snap rings on the U-joints.    The original K cars if this period, all had the pink stripe roughly 10" from the u-joint weld.  The stripe 6" further towards center from the pink was orange on this car and one other had a stripe in this location.  This car has a 3.89 rear axle, inside snap rings, the other had a 4.11, outside snap rings, so this has apparently nothing to do with axle ratio or snap ring type unless my interpretation of the color on the 4.11 car was wrong - stripe could have been white or yellow but too hard to tell for sure because the driveshaft was painted black. White or orange may designate the snap ring type, but more data is needed to determine for sure.  I will note, that all of the driveshafts with a white stripe had outside snap rings, but again, more data is needed to be conclusive.  One other thing, the trans yoke on K-codes is beefier on the ends than the D codes of this period, and has sloppily applied green paint on it.

More Brake and Suspension Parts

I pulled out the original axle vent hose and found the original white paint daub that marks where the rubberized clamp that holds the hose to the underbody is to be placed by the assembly worker.

After cleaning an reconditioning the rubber hose I decided to reuse it rather than replace it with a NOS hose that I had.  I always reuse original parts if I can assure that they will perform.

Also reusing the original vent fitting and clamp.  The hose to body clamp looked like new after cleaning as well so all of these parts will be original assembly line on the car...cool!

I also went back and looked at the shackles and the rear shock mount plates and felt like they just didn't look as good as they should.  Shock plates look like new now...

Original hackles were pretty pitted,

and I was going to replace them, but the original factory parts were just a little different so I decided to go back and see if I could rework them.  They came out great but I have a ton of hours into them to get them looking like this.

Original nuts were replated to replicate the original clear cadmium finish that was on them from the factory. the original nuts are taller than the replacements that are currently available. Company that made the original insulators for Ford is still in business and these are available.  I chose to use the original rubber type rather that urethane replacements.

Also, was looking at the original strut rod bushings. I noticed that rather than having the "FRONT" letters embossed on the outer edge of the front bushing, like later cars have, these simply have a yellow/orange stripe with pink around the leading edge.

Here's a pic of another early K code taken around June of 1964 showing similar markings on the front bushings

Also, finished restoring the  front emergency brake cable,  cable to body brackets, and rubber parts

Axle Details

Added some details to the rear center section and axle housing over the Thanksgiving holiday.

Dug up these pictures of brake backing plates before cleaning which show the two parallel, vertical white lines near the brake adjusting hole

all of the backing plates have a unique identifying number, rears are Kelsey Hayes, front are Bendix.  It seems that all of the brake components have identifying number that are fairly close in sequence to each other.  More on this later.