1973 Torino Tribute Restoration

I vaguely recall that one of the big 3 had a small 'ring-lamp' around the tailgate handle to help the driver wind down his rear gate window. Might have been Mopar. You've got to disconnect the switch wires and run a wire to both contacts on the wires, not the switch, to see if that works. The motor is new? The wiring is solid? Test the switchless connection (just the wires), then you can tweak the switch itself, without damaging it.

Something is shorting to the body. Maybe if you can look inside the tailgate, you'll see some burning or black flash residue on the switch?

 

any updates ?!! :confused: i just read this thread from beginning to end (believe it or not !) this is amazing !!

 

Thank you very much! If it wasn't for this forum and the great bunch of Guys here I probably would have taken even longer to get her the road. The wagon has been great. I've had a couple lil hiccups her and there, but all in all it's been great. I am gonna get the brakes done here pretty soon because the pedal is gettin' very sluggish. I also need some music. It came with a factory AM Philco radio, but the speakers were toast. I'm thinking a Custom Autosound 630 stereo with new door speakers and adding 6 X 9 speakers in the back should be nice. Also still working on the back tailgate window issue and Gauge cluster light issue. All in due time I imagine. Thanks again for enjoying my thread!

 

this thread was truely an inspiration for me to do a restoration someday !!

 

The only thing I am left wanting for are some action shots.

Sonic stall, with burgers and milkshakes on the tray that attaches to the window frame and yes they still do that on request.

Home Depot parking lot, with a load of drywall and a couple buckets of joint compound.

Dropping the kids off at school, with a wave and a smile.

Two words. Grocery Run. Enough said.

 

No! Say it ain't so! I'd keep the factory AM radio....maybe, just maybe, upgrade the speakers. Keep it original man! (Just my opinion)

 

I would say the same thing until I enjoyed some real decent systems in a couple rentals lately. The Fusion was like being in a concert hall compared to the Torino. The Chevy Cruze we had over New Year's was even better. I still plan to keep the AM-FM mono I put in my car, but I'm DEFINITELY upgrading the wiring, the speakers, and I might add a low power (150w to no more than 450w) amp to give it some gumption, assuming I can figure out how to wire it up in a non-stereo configuration. 6x9's on the package shelf for sure, and I might just pull some JBL ones from a 90s Town Car for that. Not sure that to do about the single dash speaker, though. Definitely a bass blocker resistor to remove the lows, and it wouldn't be in line with the amp at all. I can use my fader control to turn the front one off completely anyway if it gets bad sounding. Or bring the sound up front to make it sound like there's no system at all. Most of what I listen to is 128 to 192kb/s MP3 files so it's not like I need crystal clear sound but I want to be able to hear it above 60mph road/wind/tire noise, you know?

 

Wow, what a transformation! Beautiful car. This resto had deep meaning to it, and you can see that in the end product.

It's great to see cars like this being restored.

 

Sound systems are always a quandry. I'm a firm believer in factory stock original, but on the other hand, there's nothing like some quality sound. There's a place somewhere that will upgrade an old factory radio staying with the original box and face, but installing current amps and such where they can't be seen. As far as speakers in the door, maybe Ford did that in an upgraded sound system back then and you could still keep it stock but with the same size, more powerful speakers. Wish I knew the website of the place that does that to radios. I'll see if I can find it and let you know.

 

Thanks Guys for the compliments. I debated about the whole new stereo thing too, but I enjoy good music when I'm out driving around and if I can discretely add my Ipod then I'd like to do that. Custom Autosound has a system called Secret Audio that pretty much leaves the factory radio in it's place, but it's not functional. It's pretty pricey and hides away either in the glove box or under the seat somewhere so thats why I was thinking of getting the USA 630, which is a factory looking stereo that has the options I am looking for.

Alan, your right I really do need to post some "action" shots and hopefully will do pretty soon.

http://customautosound.com/

 

Well as long as you don't have to cut the dash to install the new sound system, you can always keep the old Philco for later.

 

Oh no, I would never cut the dash. I just started looking for the "shaft style" stereos via Ebay. I didn't realize how many old style stereos are for sale on Ebay. It brought back alot memories because my 85 Mustang GT convertible I had way back when had this type of radio and I upgraded a couple times. I had a Kenwood and a Pioneer Supertuner. I just wish I had one of those stereos now.

 

I miss the Sparkomatic SR300 in my first Torino sedan. It was cheap and it was scratchy but it worked. Was the el cheapo $39.99 radio you could get at Target or KMart or wherever. No auto reverse either, if you wanted to listen to the other side of a tape, you had to eject, flip, insert, and hope it didn't decide to eat it. This tape deck is why I only have volumes 1-2-3-5-6 of Shell's Cruisin' Classics. It ate #4! Anyway, it looked like this, taken from the May '88 issue of Popular Science, $31 at KMart during a May Car Care Sale.



Now I'm picky. If I buy that white on blue '77 Ranchero for cheap that my neighbor bought that burns oil and ticks and probably won't last him much longer and he'll get mad at it and want to sell it (more on this later), then I would so buy one of these old high tech car stereos for it. I have a Concord Dolby noise reduction box, a 50-watt amp, and a Concord AM-FM cassette but it's in pretty crappy shape, the buttons are messed up on the face, and it's an HPL-117, not the 118 or the 130 that were the nice ones with graphic EQ's and such. Maybe I can find something else to use or maybe a 118/130 will show up when I'm in need of it.

 

Guess who has Instrument cluster lights? $%!@# Yeah!!!!!!!!!


Well I went ahead and ordered the Gauge cluster from BlueOval and took a gamble. (On the grantorinosport.org forum there were some pretty bad experiences with this vendor)

It wasn't what I thought it would be for sure. I thought it would have been a simple plug n play application, but it was far from that.

I started out cleaning up the cluster, which was surprisingly in ALOT better shape than what I had, which is good. I took it all apart and BE CAREFUL, do not touch the faces on these old gauges because they will smear. The white paint is more like white powder if you wipe them with any cleaner or WATER for that matter so don't do it...blow on it or just use your finger and wipe the dust off the black part ONLY.


Some of my light sockets were completely ovaled out and not making contact any more. Well I say it All by saying that all 4 blue domes that cover the back lights were just lying there because the plastic holders were gone, mere crumbles. The whole back side was just falling apart and crumbling.

I had to basically use the best parts from each one to make one good one. I ended up using my speedometer and gas gauge with the new temp gauge and mixed n matched ALL the bulbs to see what worked and what didn't.


At the end of the day I now have both turn signals, a hi beam indicator, an oil light, an alt light, and full instrumentation back lights including both hazards.


Geez, I did not think it would have been so much of a pain in the a$$. I had to plug it in and check it at least 10 times. I started to get worried that I was damaging the plug in portion on the curcuit board.


Those circuit boards are fragile, let me tell ya. I cleaned the area around the light bulbs with a pencil eraser and it worked like a dream. I had to play a lil bit with it, but everything finally worked.


I did find out what the culprit was as far as why I didn't have back lights. My original curcuit board was broken on one of the corners. Surprisingly, I pieced it back together and added "scotch tape" and it worked again. (My neighbor said WT%$#@!...That will never work) But it did....I went ahead and kept it and now I have a back up just in case.


Guys, clean your contacts and I'm sure your lights will start working. It takes a while and a lil playing with it, but it works.

 

The BEAT goes ON, GPD! You da MAN!