Getting Your Classic Mustang, Falcon and Cougar Ready For The Summer – Preventative Maintenance – San Diego, Ca

As I’m getting a 1970 Mach 1 ready for the summer with a Vintage Air conditioning system, I started to think of what other things that can be done do to get your Mustang ready summer.  When we think of lube and oil and filter, a lot of us think of the chassis and engine only. There are many other areas that need it too, but are often over looked. Does you convertible top go up and down smoothly?  Is it noisy, or hard to latch? There are a lot of moving parts that can get damaged if you don’t maintain your top. Do you have a hard time opening and closing your hood at the car shows? The springs put a lot of tension on the hood hinges. If you don’t keep them lubed and adjusted, they will become stiff and bind. If you hood pops up in the rear, it means that they’re already worn out. Some of them can be adjusted to compensate for the wear. Also, just because your car is old does not mean that slamming your hood is not normal. That can be corrected with proper adjustments and lubrication as well. Doors are another area to be looked at. Doors are the number one repairs that I do. If your door closes hard, that can cause all kinds of damage to your door. You can cause cracks on the door latch areas, or even break the adjustment arm at the bottom of you vent window frame. It can also cause your door glass to get out of adjustment over time. Speaking of door glass. If it is difficult to roll your window up and down, then adjustment and lubriction can prevent replacing the regulator. Also, if you can move your door up and down by lifting up on the rear, the hinges pins bushings are worn out. That can cause damage to you latches, and even cause visible damage to the door itself.  Another area to keep lubed and adjusted are your seat tracks. If it is hard to adjust your seat, then they need to lubricated too. If you let them go to long, then the plastic guides can wear out, and will need repair or replacement.

Although we live in one of the sunniest areas in the country, we still get surprised by sudden down pour of rain. If you been to a lot of car shows, then you probably had to race back to your car to close everything during a rainstorm at least once. I’ve seen many beautiful Fords with worn out weather stripping. If the rubber has shrunken, hardened, or cracked, water will find its way in. Trunks are the number one area for leaking, and many show cars have really nice trunks with stereo equipment inside. If your weather-stripping needs to be replaced, those areas may have to be readjusted too.

Sometime we get so busy shining our Mustangs for the summer, that we forget about the small stuff. I can help you get you Classic Mustang in winning shape. I have a great eye for detail, and can evaluate your car, and fix those areas in order of importance. You can prevent more expensive repairs by catching all of these issues early. Give me at Classic Resto Garage a call today at (619)929-8506, or email me at david@classicrestogarage.com

See you at the car shows, and happy cruising!

Filling and bleeding a convertible top motor

The hood hinge spring, and lack of lubrication will cause premature failure.

This is why hood latches are hard to open and close. Lack of lubrication and a layer of road grime

This is a inside look at a door latch on a 1958 Ford Truck. Someone has installed with no grease at all.

This latch is a missing one of the screws, and needs to be lubricated.

Notice the crack around the door latch screw area. It is from years of use and abuse.

This door hinge is missig the spring. Without it, the door can swing open to far, and bend the end of the door.

The grease on these door window tracks is starting to dry up. The orange things are the rollers, and break easily.

An old 65-66 Mustang door window regulator next to a new one

1965-1966 seat tracks that need cleaning and lubrication

These are the guides and rollers off of seat tracks. They are dried up and rusted from lack of proper lubrication.

Notice there is no impression on the corner of this trunk seal. This is from it not being aligned properly when it was glued on

1963 Falcon Futura Convertible – Door latches and brake light repair, and LED Tail light installation – San Diego, California

I just finished some restoration repairs on a beautiful 1963 Falcon Futura Convertible. As you can see by the pictures it is fully loaded with all the Futura options including air conditioning and dash mounted tachometer. The engine and transmission were converted to a Ford 5.0 and T5 transmission. I had an opportunity to take it out on a test drive, and it was tight running classic. It only needed a few repairs. The passenger door lock and latch were giving the customer some problems, so I repaired the latch, and lubricated everything to smooth operation. Since the passenger door lock was damaged, I replaced both door locks and ignition key cylinder for a matched set. While I was in the passenger door, I repaired the rear door glass run. I also, replaced rear tail light bezels, and installed LED panels. While testing the operation of the rear tail lights, I noticed the brake lights were not working. It turned out to be a bad brake light switch.

Pony Carburetor’s Autolite 1100 installation on my 1962 Ford Falcon

This past weekend, I installed a rebuilt Autolite 1100 carburetor on my 62 Falcon. It was professionaly rebuilt by Pony Carburetors.  I’ve been waiting for this carb for awhile, but it was worth the wait. It has not ran this good for a long time. I posted some installation pictures, and video of the first run on the carburetor.

Pony Carburetor's Autolite 1100