'69 Mustang Fast-back (Sports-roof)

I Purchased this car for $500 in 1978. It was rusty, and painted (ugly) yellowed-white. It had a 2-bbl 302 and 3-speed manual trans (according to the door tag, it originally had an automatic), and a finicky Accel dual-point distributor. As a poor college student, I fiberglass-ed and bondo'd it back together and had a friend paint it medium jade green with DuPont Imron (epoxy). I swapped the intake for an Edelbrock Torker topped by an old Holley 600 CFM 4-bbl. Some used headers and glass-pack header mufflers made for a VERY loud car. The hood scoop came from a Maverick "Grabber", via a wrecked 65 Mustang parts car. This wreck also donated a B-W T10 4-spd.

During the winter of '79-80, I swapped on some rust-free front fenders, and most the interior from a '69 Mustang Grande purchased from a high-school classmate. I used the heads off the 351W in the Grande on my 302, not realizing that the 351 used the same flywheel as the 302, and would have bolted in. The 302 got a 284 degree, .465 lift cam and some new bearings. I also swapped the T10 for a Ford Top-loader 4-spd from a wrecked '72 Mach-1.

I drove the car occasionally until 1987. At that time, the front sub-frames were becoming too rusted through to trust, and I started on a major overhaul. This was interrupted in 1989 by my marriage to Jo, then a move to a bigger house, then the birth of Mason in 1991. In 1993 I decided it was time to get serious about the car again, so I sold my '87 Mustang GT, and started camping out in the garage. I had replaced the tail-light panel and the fenders in 1989, prior to my move, but had to finish replacing the front sub-frames and the floors, pull the engine, sandblast many areas, etc, etc, etc. Finally in early 1994, it was ready to go to the body shop to fix my mistakes, and be painted. I got an empty shell back from the body shop 7/1/94, and in two weeks, reassembled the car and drove it for the first time in 7 years.

During the winter of '94-95, I found a 9" rear-axle housing a WAR case and replaced the 2.73 geared open 8" with 3.50 gears and a "Detroit locker". During the winter of '95-96, I swapped the Top-loader for a Tremec 5-spd over-drive transmission. This transmission is rated for 400 lb-ft of torque, and shifts far smoother than the Top-loader ever did.

Spring '97 update: Dumped the Holley 650 for an Edelbrock (formerly Carter) 750. Idle & mid-range much improved, 1000-2000 RPM seems rough. I had the export brace, power-steering pump bracket, radiator bracket, dip-stick, crank pulley, water-pump pulley, and many bolts chromed and added a chromed monte-carlo bar (this is an extra brace between the shock towers). I had to have the right-hand header recoated with ceramic. I built and installed an oxygen sensor guage , and added a Shelby guage pod in the console for the coolant temp guage and voltmeter.

Winter '99 projects: '67 Cougar four piston brake calipers are shot, more pistons are frozen than work. I'm installing new rotors (gas-slotted by Stainless Steel brakes ), pads, correct master cylinder, stainless lines,, and braided hoses. I'm also switching from the Torker-II intake to a Performer-RPM to regain some street-ability. Competition Engineering sub-frame connectors are also being installed. I had to notch them to clear the emergency brake cables and cut the R.H. one 1" shorter due to a mis-aligned replacement front subframe.

April 18th 1999 update: The new brakes are installed, with new stainless steel lines from Classic Tube.

April 25th 1999 update: A Total Control Products rack-and-pinion kit is installed. I'm very impressed with this kit. Everything fits well once you figure out where it all goes. The alignment went quite easily. Its pretty stiff w/o the power steering, but there's absolutely no play! I'd highly recommend this kit to anyone interested in making a drastic improvement in the steering response of an early Mustang.

2000 update: Installed a Griffin aluminum radiator, replaced the tailpipes with Flowmaster 2.5" tailpipes and added a crossover pipe from Summit Racing . Removing all the senseless kinks from the exhaust system greatly improved the sound. I have found my local Merlin's muffler shop (795 W. Higgins Rd, Schaumburg IL.) to be quite good. I can't say whether other Merlin's shops are as good as this one. It all depends on the owner and his staff.

June 2001 update: Installed Trick Flow Twisted Wedge aluminum heads, TFS 51402000 roller cam (221/225 @ 0.050", .499/.510 lift), Wilwood front disk brakes. Engine runs much smoother and pulls extremely hard.

July 1st, 2001: Installed Autometer Phantom 3-3/8" Tach and 2-1/16" fuel guage in instrument panel. The fuel guage is where the (non-functional) ampmeter was, and the tach is where the fuel and temp guages where. I have a temp guage and voltmeter in a Shelby-repro guage panel in the console. Here is a template for the sheet-metal bracket. In the end, I used a radio-shack 12V green LED for the left turn signal, but the arrow is drawn in just in case you figure out how to put a green bulb behind it. I had to connect the ground and hot leads to the fuse panel (through a separate fuse) separately from the panel ground and power as the tach would not read correctly if I fed it power through the standard guage panel connector. I did have to hack up the flex-circuit, and guage mounting bracket for the tach but I have a spare so I can always go back to original.

January 13th, 2003: Guess I'm just a little behind on my updates. We moved last summer, which took my attention away from the car. Unfortunately, the engine blew a head gasket last fall, and is now locked up solid. Repairs will have to wait until many other jobs are completed. I had intended to convert it to EFI, and have almost all the parts needed, using a Fuel Air Spark Technology - FAST® ECM. Maybe the engine repair and EFI conversion will happen together?

April 26th, 2003: Finally pulled the engine, right-hand head was warped, allowing cylinder #1 to think it was a water pump. Rod is bent and piston is broken. The block, heads, and crank are in Phil's Machine shop in Danville.

August 10, 2003: The engine is re-assembled and back in the engine compartment, but much work remains to hook up the EFI system, etc. I had the heads machined flat, removing the o-ring grooves in the process.

April 2004: The car is finally back on the road, w/o EFI. Unfortunately I had to sell some of the EFI components due to "budget constraints".

August 2005: Front-end knocked out of alignment, destroying the inner edge of the front tires down to the cords. Re-aligned at Bedford Ford, and replaced the tires in September with BF-Goodrich Traction T/A's.

2008: Installed Mustang Project sequential L.E.D. Tail-lights in the spring, and in September, installed Global West strut rods after the front end was again knocked out of alignment. This time I caught it before the tires were completely destroyed. Replaced the 14 year old Comp T/A back tires with BF-Goodrich G-Force Sport 255/50ZR16 tires. 255/50ZR16's are apparently being phased out by all manufactures, very limited choices now.

April-May 2013: Click for detailed post. I pulled the engine due to a large number of fluid leaks and smoke from burning oil. The worst turned out to be several tears in the intake gasket, causing one cylinder to suck oil out of the lifter galley, causing most of the oil-burning problem. Terry Cummings was able to sleve cylinder #1, solving a long-standing problem due to the pits in the cylinder from the 2002 head-gasket problem. I had to helicoil two bolts in one of the TFS cylinder heads. After it was all assembled and running, it now runs better than ever! No more burned-oil or over-rich smell or oil on the tail-light panel.

Specifications:

Block:    '69 351W (Windsor) bored .030" 

Pistons:  Cast flat-tops, 10:1 compression ratio

Crank:    Stock cast, balanced

Rods:     Stock cast, shot-peened and magnefluxed, 3/8" SPS bolts

Heads:    Trick Flow Twisted Wedge aluminum heads

Rockers:  Competition Cams 1.6:1 roller tip

Cam:      TFS dual-pattern, 221/225 @ 0.050", .499/.510" lift

Intake:   Edelbrock Performer-RPM

Carb:     FiTech Go EFI-4, Tanks, Inc. 22 gallon tank, 255 lph fuel pump

Ignition: MSD-6A, Crane coil, Ford Motorsport wires.

Exhaust:  Ceramic coated Hooker headers

Mufflers: 2-1/2" Dynomax "Ultra-flow".

Clutch:   Centerforce dual-friction, Lakewood steel bell-housing.

Trans:    Tremec 3550 5-spd (1st:  3.27, 5th:  0.68)

Rear:     Ford 9"

Diff.:    WAR case, 3.50 Richmond gears, Detroit Locker

Axles:    original 28 spline

Brakes:   Wilwood 11.75" rotor 4-piston manual disk, rear drum.

Wheels:   16x7" front, 16x8" rear, American Racing Equipment

Tires:    Front: 225/50ZR16 BF-Goodrich G-Force Sport

          Rear:  255/50ZR16 BF-Goodrich G-Force Sport 

Paint:    '94 Ford Mustang Laser Red Metallic.



Engine machine work performed by Lowes Speed Shop(Kokomo, IN, 1995) and 

 Terry Cummings Racing Engines(Bedford, IN, 2013)


Final body-work and paint by Fast-Lane Toys (Kokomo, IN).


Glass by Kustom Kut Glass Shop (Kokomo, IN)


Interior by Galloway's Interiors (Kokomo, IN)


Chrome by GD Chrome in Elwood, IN


All sheet-metal and wrench work by Matt "I don't need
no stinkin' manuals" Sale (now where does this go?).