Interior Mustang Mods

I've discovered the one thing that forecasters fail to do.....look out the window.

 

Yeah, but I hate wearing a snorkel and an anchor at the same time!

These twits don't even live here! They're over 1,200 miles away in Ottawa, reading their radar screens and dart boards! They shut down the local weather stations back in 2000.

 

No glitzy stuff, but I am downright pleased with my wiring magic! I hate bad wiring jobs. When we had the junkyard, our old trucks had wires all over the place, hanging down, constantly replacing lighting wires, a real mess of spaghetti.

Anyway, this one got interesting. The 1981 Capri console has this bulb display for all the exterior light bulbs. Before I dug into it, I figured the system worked on some kind of sophisticated sensor system - something else to breakdown... Not so. The front lights use inline diodes to measure the amperage demand. Very simple and reliable. The back lights use a resistor wire of a certain length, measuring the amperage demand vs. the length of wiring back to the display. Since I can only use one bulb on the rear of the wagon, that meant that I had to cut some of the extra 5 feet of wire to the rear taillights. I wondered how I could figure it out (haul out the formula book or experiment ?). It got really simple. The rear light harness (4 wires to the back, one is taillights, the other three are feedback wires) was too short on the bulb-monitoring system, because the Capri harness is shorter by about 15". It only monitors the taillights, not the backup lights (2) or license plate lights (2). So I added the 15" to those 3 wires (Parking, Turn/Stop - LH/RH) and chopped 30" off the same three on the return side. It basically has 2 lines for each of these lighting circuits. If the resistor wires die, the other one runs as usual. Very interesting.

The other two Station wagon circuits to the back are the Cargo/Dome light, and the rear windshield wiper/washer circuit. I had to split the main harness and take these two out and wrap them separately. All told 4 rolls of black tape to rewrap this spider web. 2 days. Major PITA, but well worth it.

Also rewired my trailer lighting harness. The usual aftermarket wire system (Green/Brown/Yellow/White) has become an industry standard, but it doesn't match the Ford colours, so I made a small harness that I can disconnect, inside the car, soldered to the main car harness, using the trailer colours. If the trailer kit breaks, I can disconnect one side and rewire a new kit (soldered of course) without looking for a place in the main car harness.

Glad I didn't throw away the wiring from the original 1978 Fairmont donor, because I had to leave mine intact until I got this Capri harness installed.

You really need the Ford Electrical diags for this low-level work. I would never have known where to splice the license plate and backup light circuits otherwise, since they go into the tailgate, even though the Capri had them in the Liftgate hatch, but halfway down the car length. Had I done it wrong, the bulb display would have too much load and shown burnt bulbs, where there aren't none.

Another day or two in the wiring and I start reassembling the interior. Testing, adding harness clips, etc.

Anyway, this lighting system makes it almost failsafe. If a wire breaks, the lights still work. Funny it wasn't in Fairmonts until 1980.

Oh yeah, and Ford had an original equipment (special order?) Anti-theft system in the 1979's. I actually read the details in the EVTM! (always too busy with the pretty wire colours until now!)

Amen!

 

Wire sizes matter on that bulb-monitoring system. Go bigger or the same size, not smaller. Smaller adds resistance which will burn out lights faster.

 

I found one subtle screwup that I did in the first wire merge in 2008. I forgot the ground wire in the rear cargo/dome lamp. Don't know how that happened. I must have assumed that it was self-grounding. It's fixed now.

Anyway, I spent the day installing and replacing broken mounting clips on the harnesses. I learned something about the white nylon clips up close to the roof. They get so brittle from the sun-baking they take, that they just crumble. I used some newer nylon clips. Should give me a good 20 years.

The Capri floor shifter uses a nylon collar between the shifter and the control shaft arm to the transmission. Not available. So I found a couple of nylon end caps of the same ID and OD and made my own. Little bit of sanding to clean up the shaft's end and the shifter's pivot hole. A bit of lubriplate and that's that! I'll finally install it properly tomorrow.

The Lincoln visors went into the same holes, but have to be modified to sit flush. The center visor-support bracket, can mount right behind the Map light frame. That's a Tomorrow job too!

Speaker wiring is next then the rear hatchback seatbacks' mounts.

I figured out a more practical and precise method to locate it. Stretch a string between the two outside side, up/down, mounts. Then use one seatback to locate the center for the mid-point bracket. The narrower seat backs, means that only 2 people would be comfy in there, but we rarely have rear passengers. Also means I can make side speakers on top of the interior side panels to face them forward, instead of side to side.

Coming together.

 

The Ford shifter linkage uses special lock-in nylon grommets that are not made to remove. Fortunately, Andy had both the Removal tool and the install tool. I had to get the column linkage OFF at the transmission and the new locknut stud into the same one. No force or prybars required. Couple turns of a socket and it eased right off, leaving the grommet in place and good shape.

I knew I'd have to deal with the transmission end of the control arm on the Fairmont C4 automatic, but I didn't expect it to be so easy. I have to take it to a local garage and have them braze on about 1.5" of the slotted end from mine to the Capri shifter arm. The shape and angle are perfect on the Capri arm, but its just a bit short to shift back to Park. Easy fix. First thing in the morning.

Rained off and on, but when my tools were threatened, I stopped. Still could rain until midnight, then clear and low 80's tomorrow. Did other stuff instead (chores ).

 

Aah don't ya just love it when you got the right tool!

 

Major pain without them in that tight spot. Thanks.

 

I wish doctors' appointments were this easy. I walked over to the local garage to see if they could weld up the shifter linkage extension and tack weld a bolt back onto the column support (broke off when I removed it for this upgrade). Ready by 10 AM! $20 bucks.

 

Shifter installed! Since I had the car up, and 3 lonely cans of Dominion Sureseal undercoat, I descaled and washed up the underbelly, then undercoated the whole floorpan, again! Twice in 3 years.

Undercoated the underside of the potmetal shifter assembly too. That should keep the corrosion off it for as long as I own it.

Then I cleaned up the oil pan, primed it and painted it too.

Reinstalled the firewall insulation pads, before I get too far with the wiring.

The rain, starting during the night, tonite will last until Friday morning and start up late afternoon Friday to run through Saturday. 4 inches predicted.

I've got some plastic parts to prep during these 2 days. And I have to get my license and a new picture on Friday.

Never spray undercoat without a kerchief over your head. The overspray is torture to get out of your hair! Hides the grey pretty good though!

 

haha can i call you buckwheat

 

Yeah. I've got black and white freckles though!

 

I'm one picky mother when it comes to wiring, Factory connectors or solder. The only thing left are the rear speakers. The floor harnesses to the rear are in, but I haven't decided where to put the rear speakers, EXCEPT that they aren't going back into the side panels. I closed off the factory side panel openings.

So to get a better idea, I installed the split rear fold-down seat hardware. The seat backs fold down separately. They came from a 1984 Mustang hatch model.

Already covered some of that in another thread, but I didn't explain how it could be done.
http://www.stationwagonforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=6001

The stock rear pivot points for the wagon fold-down are in the same location as the Mustang/Capri seatbacks, and there's a floor-mounted center pivot that mounts on the top of the rear driveshaft hump, just before it becomes the rear cargo deck front slope upward.

I used a string between the two side pivots (they have a moveable fastener, so locate them at the lowest or highest point in the vertical adjustment slot.) I used the highest position because the backs are a bit shorter than the wagon seatback.

I had all the upholstery off, so it made it easier to see everything. The Mustang upholstery is mostly held onto the backer boards with pop-in plastic door-panel-type fasteners. A few concealed staples. Not a big deal to reassemble.

If you decide to do this handy mod, get the metal shims from the donor car. You have to flatten (hammer) the hump ridges wide enough for the 2" wide base of this pivot, drill the mounting holes (2 - quarter inch holes) and adjust the height so the seat backs are square to each other at the top, and straight inline from one side of the car to the other.

Why is this mod handy? You can load up one side with skis or surfboards or lumber (in my case ) and still have one adult or two kids seated in the back.

I found out that the firewall insulation from the Capri is identical to my Fairmont, EXCEPT that the gas pedal mounting holes on the Capri's metal reinforcement is 1/4" further apart. I just drilled a 5/16" hole and in she went. Hopefully the dash goes in today. All depends on the heat (mid-90's). So I'll get a headstart this morning, and take some pics as I go along.

Still debating about the Dye. The rear seat back from the 1984 baby LTD seems almost large enough that I could split it in 2 and restitch to the Mustang backs. The real problem is the rear cargo carpet. It has custom insert strips that attach to the flip-down gap panel. I guess I could remove them and have a shop stitch them on my cargo carpet.

Could be my poor brain got fried in the heat (it gets really hot under the tarp). I usually don't dally on these kinds of things (speaker location, upholstery mods), but these parts are hard to find in decent shape, and I don't want to screw up.

EDIT!:
The Mustang center pivot holds the inner sides up. If you don't get it in line with the outer pivots, there is some adjustment in the backer board bracket mount slots. The other really useful thing is that the later (1982 and up) Mustang outer brackets already have the 1/2" spacer built in to them. You don't have to fiddle with thick washers. Without the washers the width is 43". The spacers add about 1/2" to each side to reach the outer pivot mounts in the wagon body. If you do this mod, I recommend that you take the Mustang side mount brackets with the seat backs. The stock Fairmont wagon/sedan seat bottom is more comfortable than the thin Mustang unit.

 

I felt a pang of guilt. I really wanted to use a matching cargo storage box like mine has on the Driver's side, over on the passenger side. I got a complete panel and box from a 1981 Fairmont wagon, and finally got around to 'looking' at it. I would have had to butcher it pretty badly. The door and frame are not reversible (wouldn't fit the contour properly), the box would have to be chopped for the gas filler tube, and the actual container would be useless.

I'd be better off with a couple lengths of 4" PVC pipe and some speaker grilles for 'doors'.

I just want to store some roadside repair tools. The other box has gas-line antifreeze, spare belts and battery cables.

I'll list it later.

 

I'll take that panel if you've finally decided to not use it.
My driver side has a crack on the corner.