Interior Mustang Mods

Oh the pain of it all!

Back in November 2006, 1" of snow on the ground, but melting. I was installing a rebuilt 2 BBL carb on the stock 302 V8. It was idling. My hands were cold, and I dropped a bolt into the carb. Clunk, clunk, clunk, shudder, shudder ... STOP!

A week before, I was over at my favourite Ford dealer, yakking with the dealership owner about restoring mine and did he know of anyone who might have wanted to trade in a Fairmont with a good 6-banger. The dealership had just finished rebuilding the trans and motor on it, a few months before. It now has 4,000 miles on it since the rebuild in 2006 (almost 3 years restoring mine.) The old guy was a retired city councillor. He drove into a strip mall, for some milk. A local bar used the lot for customer parking, in the evening. He came out and some lady backed into his rear at such a speed, drunk out of her tree, and crunched it up to the tank. Written off, too rusty. I paid $350, and got a full set of All season tires, new exhaust, low mileage powertrain still under warranty, spare windshield and, and, and...

By December 2006, I pulled out my powertrain, K-Member (engine crossmember) and swapped in the 6, then stopped until the Spring of 2007. That's when I joined here. May 2007. During the winter, I was on the FordSix.com site, looking at what folks were saying and doing with these tough little sixes, but I knew about the 200-plus HP Turbo I4's so I kept my V8/I4 K-member, in case...

http://s169.photobucket.com/albums/u234/StorminNormanSquire/

Spring rolled around, and I also found a long thread about Roller Painting it on the Moparts site. Painting for under $50! It cost me just over $218, with the bondo, shop tools and sandpaper.
http://www.stationwagonforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=711

Then I found a nice 4-door Zephyr with a beige fabric interior and swapped mine out for it. Nicer than mine, front buckets. Had to modify the fold-down backrest to fit, but still not quite what I was looking for.

Then a Mustang Dash bug got me!
http://www.stationwagonforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2268&highlight=Vacuum+Gauge

Then I modified my dash to add a Voltmeter and a Vacuum Gauge. Haven't quite figured out what to do there this time, but the A-pillar pods are the apparent best option. The 1979 Mustang/Capri pods would fit in mine.
http://www.latemodelrestoration.com/products/Mustang-Gauge-Pods

How's that for a run through memory lane? :banghead3:

 

Thanks Andy. I was thinking of going to a sex-toy shop and getting a rubber finger! Now that's desperate.

 

Just checked the ProPod site, the MFR! He sells for more than LMS!
http://www.prostreetonline.com/a/ford_pro-pod-gauge-pods.asp

 

Hey don't forget the Marquis parts...or are you using anything from that? Seat covers?

 

You mean the one the seats, carpet, and door panels came from?

I guess I could nickname it the Ford P-Arts!

 

Hold the phone! I can't see why I can't make a guage pod from some old kick panels (soft and pliable enough to shape into a decent gauge cover) or the side panels I got from the Capri's cargo panels.

I'm cheap, not frugal! I figure that by the time I pay for them, the shipping and sales taxes, that I'll be into $50 Canuck bucks and I have to paint them anyway!

One hole saw, some plastic glue or silicone, a bit of sanding and I might get something I like. Where's that foam block?

I just have to get the viewing angle right. Since the dash isn't completely screwed down, I can access my vacuum hose and the voltmeter wiring I already setup. If all else fails, I can always buy theirs.

Here's a pic from LMR's site of a 1987-1993 tripod. I'm only using 2:
http://www.latemodelrestoration.com/Product/Images/POD-93002

 

A-Pillar Gauge Frame

Pod this!

I figure I'd be into about $50 buying a commercial pod setup. They go for about $42 here plus freight, unpainted.

So... When I got the dash at the Junkyard, I also got the two cargo panels from the hatchback Capri. I still have to mount the cargo cover, so I wanted the sides to see what I could adapt and if I could use some of the shapes and contours to make Mustang-like speaker enclosures on either side of the Mustang folding rear seat backs. That's on the backburner for a couple weeks.

I cut the sides at useless angles a few weeks ago to start seeing if the shapes might work (visualizing technique from Anthony Robbins - works great! The old subconscious works on it while you keep on ticking away.)

The major angles are the windshield slant and the angle to the driver. Went really scientific - ye olde roofer's scale :


45 degrees back-slant on the windshield, and 75 degrees from A-pillar to driver's eyeballs.

So then I looked at my Capricious parts and found a couple nice pieces that offer:

A) enough gauge face space and
B) enough depth for vacuum Gauge and hose, and voltmeter lighting and harness.

I found these:

Rear passenger molded arm rest/side panel. Lots of depth, one unfinished end, which could go at the bottom near the dashpad. I'd lose the curve to acheive the 45 degree windshield slant, but it would be great for a single gauge. 2 or gauges more is so-so, iffy.


Same panel from another view. Just enough gauge face width. Since it was below the window level, it's not sun-baked and brittle either. Could work for 1 to 4 gauges.


The Hatch back has a rear side window framed in with a nicely curved section also not sun-baked and brittle. I like this one the best.:

As mounted in Capri:


Same panel to show angle and gauge width potential:


Here it is with the A-pillar trim piece matched to an existing reinforced mounting hole - oooh.


I think I can make it look stock, instead of giving some car-jacker a stiffy looking at Mustang Gauge pods. Let him go to the JY and find them.:banghead3: If I can fit it properly I'll think of how to use the upper un-engauged part.

 

There's another piece that would do a nice job from the Capri. Its the trunk/hatch cover lock cover, But I'd have to add a faceplate, if it wasn't cracked. Oh well. It's a bit too boxy for where it would sit.

I'll give the piece just enough bottom space at the dashpad, so that I can remove the dashpad without taking off the gauge frame. Wires are already in and long enough, as is the hose. Let's see how it goes.

 

Rain clouds coming in. And this one will spin over us until Sunday, maybe.
Biting my lip for Fire Victims in the west.

 

I looked and pondered and looked some more. Came up with 2 other options. Rewire the Amp gauge to a voltmeter AND mount the vacuum gauge on the kick panel, where the Ebrake used to be. The plastic curves would almost work, but it really cuts down on visibility. In our snowbound weather, that's just not practical for PODs up top.

AND THEN, I went cruising the Four-Eyed Fox site for Voltmeter. the 1987 Mustang Amp gauge was replaced with a VOLTMETER - BINGO. So I'm looking at the Capri idiot lights in the instrument panel and there's a green TURBO light lense, which reminded me that there is a Turbo boost Vacuum gauge that mounts in the dash too. No cosmetic mods for the pods (poetic eh?). Andy, we have to go shopping at the JY's before winter.

In the meanwhile, I'll mount these two where the Ebrake foot pedal was on a regular metal bracket. There's some extra holes under there now.

 

2 INCHES of rain in 30 minutes this morning, then on/off drizzles since then. Hope those 400 BC fires settle down.

Not one siren this morning. That's a breakthrough.

 

While I wait to get a Voltmeter and Turbo Boost/Vacuum stock gauge pair from a junkyard Turbo Mustang 1987 and up, I came up with this bandaid solution. Andy has a decent pair of these on the back of his front bench seat, so I know he won't want them. My original benchseat had this protective band at the floor level on the rear face of the front seat. I used the Driver's side:


The gauges are 2-1/16" around the body, but the vacuum gauge is deeper, so I made the panel 5.75" wide and left the height:


I'll mount it here, where the old foot ebrake and release handle were:


The rain started again, so I'll finish in the basement this evening. I might shape another section of that to enclose the wiring from view and bond it, then silicone the edges from the inside. Anyway this stuff is more rigid than those cheap metal gauge mounts from Asia.

 

Darn weather just isn't predictable. Checked 3 weather sites and none of them agree. Why don't they get windows?

Since I have to work under a plastic tarp, which the wind likes to whip around, and unload all the tools and parts for 20 minutes every time I want to do something, I have to do a rain dance, between the rain drops.

Anyway, enough grinding. I did the gauge frame last evening, but no chance to mount it. I made side panels too, to hide the plumbing and wiring. I'm gonna take out the LED lights from the vacuum gauge (white face). It has 7 different light colours that come up random and are more of a distraction than useful. I'll just drill a hole for a normal Ford bulb holder.


This chunk of ABS plastic came from a piece that rarely saw the light of day or the Mexican sun. It's just under 1/8" thick, nice and strong, and flexible. Handy when you're wearing big winter boots, getting in and out of the car with snow scraper and brush in hand. The old oil gauge that was mounted under there got 'nudged' a few times. I looked at the old tin one last night and figure mine will take it better.

 

Done!

The only thing left is a bit of edge cleaning and a shot of SEMS to match the rest of the dash trim (this was the original colour, but the Camel from SEMS is close.)

First I did the electrical stuff. Took out the LED circuit and made some mods to both to accept Ford dash light holders and made a new harness to connect them to the dash light (dimmer) circuit:



Then I used Gorilla glue to bond the two sides. The LH side gap at the door, and the inside RH side to hide and protect the wiring:


The connector will have the other part installed once this rain stops tomorrow. Mounting holes line up with the old Ebrake handle release and one for the LH door side. The other LH (blue case) is for a harness clip.

 

The Gorilla glue failed on one side. Didn't clamp properly on that LH side. Had to drop the tarp for high winds and do some wiring details. Epoxy seems to be the ticket for this job.