Springs

I was able to install the rear springs and noted something interesting that I have not seen on other cars.  There was a white paint daub on the rear spring that I recreated exactly from pictures of the springs right after they came out of the rust remover.  Now that the springs are installed I can see that, in-fact, these white paint marks ARE visible when the spring is installed.  This was probably an inspection mark that was actually applied after the springs were installed.  There is a daub on both the left and right springs in about the same place.

I already posted pictures of the unrestored front springs.  Now it's time to add the brown and white stripes that were on them originally.  The brown is more of a lighter brown or "coffee with creamer" color.  I color matched by mixing brown, white, and some yellow until I got the color.  I also marked the original locations on the springs.  The brown on right hand spring was much easier to see than the left, the white was easily visible on both as you can see in the pics.  The left hand spring had the brown on the opposite side of the thinner white stripe.  When installed both white stripes are clearly visible, and located at the left outside prong of the spring perches when installed.  The brown stripes were in different locations: on the left spring it is located to the left of the white stripe (which only extends over 4 coils on both sides), and located to the right of the white stripe on the right spring. 

Here's a shot of the completed coil springs - paint is still wet!  Took extra effort to make the white paint strokes look like the originals, on close examination it was clear that the strokes went from top to bottom.  The brown was very thick in places and indicative of paint that was "gobbed" on the brush.  I am very happy with the recreation of the original look, especially the shape, color, and thickness.

Here is a pic of a K code Mustang taken around June 1964 showing similar paint markings on the right front coil spring.  Cool!  Note the coil spring is painted black and also is the sway/stabilizer bar.  If you look closely, you can see the a slightly lighter area just to the left of the white stripe, this is the colored strip in this Hipo Mustang - don't be confused by the reflection in the same area.  On this spring the colored stripe is just a bit narrower than on those I just restored. 

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. 

Brakes

I finally finished the last brake drum.  Cool thing is that all of the brake drums are original to the car.  Fortunately there was enough material left that these could be turned and still be "in-spec".

Here are some of the original markings on the inside of the drums to be recreated soon.

Now, inside of drums after restoration

Also installed brake and fuel lines under the car...

Here are some shot of the original brake master cylinder after bead blasting but before sending it out for rebuild.  Casting date is June 15, 1964, machining was June 22, 1964.

Assembly Begins

So I finally got around to reinstalling hte gas tank after cleaning the tank itself.  The tank originally had undercoating on the sides, and was very thick.  I recreated the application to match the original coating that we I preserved on the upper lip that supports the flange of the tank.  I am very pleased with the way that the new coating matches the original in texture and thickness.  On every 64 1/2 tank I've seen, there is a line at the bottom where the original spray nozzle applied a thicker rib near the bottom of the tank, and this came out really true to the original.

Above is most the refinished hardware that attaches the brake and fuel lines to the under-body of the car.  The straps that are common to both brake and fuel lines were finished differently from the later ones depicted in the line assembly manual, these use a pan head hex screws to attach them and are zinc plated.  In addition, the kit from AMK, which is true to what the line assembly manual shows, has different fasteners and different attaching claps.  The clamp at the gas tank, is black painted as it was originially and attaches with a small hex screw.  All the plating is true to the original finishes as found.

Rear bumperette bracket and original hardware, note that he bolt that goes through the top of the gas tank is longer than the one through the rear frame -1 3/16" to be exact.

The screws that hold down the gas tank.  The sealer was applied per the assembly instructions and allowed to squeeze out from under the flange as it did originally.  Black sealer looks just like it did from the factory.  Cool!

Started some cleaning and detailing of the transmission...lots more work to do here.

Original fuel sending unit still works perfectly, and will simply be cleaned and replated.  Note the "F4" date stamp on the upper right flange. Not visible when installed, but I know it's there.  Very cool!

Rear Axle Assembly

Finished assembly of the differential to the axle housing.  Been a really long time coming but finally finished detailing all of the sub-components and fasteners.  I posted a while back the details of the fastener restoration, the whole thing looks amazing.  Haven't had a chance yet to add the factory markings yet.

Here's another picture of the components laid out so that you can see all that goes into this thing.  Whole differential was completely rebuilt, gears look like new but are actually vintage.

I am really happy with the way that the different parts came out, the the right amount of tumbling, etc. to get these parts looking like they did when the car was first assembled.  None of the metal is painted, it's the natural metal finish that was there originally.

Nest step is to finish recreating factory markings on the leaf springs, and getting them installed.  The axle housing assembly will then get installed followed by insertion of the axles and bolting on the brake backing plates.