1967 Ford Mustang GT Update.............Making a pretty face prettier! 8/22/15

[RancheroSteve]

Bill, I hate to be the one to break this news to you, but you have the spark plug holes in the wrong place on the driver's side of the engine. Keep in mind that the heads are identical (not mirror images), so the plug holes on the left are behind the exhaust ports and angled back.

Otherwise, great work as always!

[blunc]

Steve is correct, shouldn't be too hard to fix as long as the wires aren't glued into the heads but at least one wire will be too short to move to the proper position unless you inserted extra plug wire into the head.

If you decide to start over with another block, you may want to reduce the thickness of the valve cover bolt flanges...they're cast a little on the thick side on your current set of valve covers.

If it's not worth fixing, that's okay too...it still looks good.

[RancheroSteve]

Oil filter! Where is it? In the front on the driver's side? It's conspicuous by its absence on this kit. The engine shots I have aren't quite clear as to where it should be placed on a 289.

Also a pic of the dipstick placement would help as well.

Thanks!

Here it is: on the block, just behind the fuel pump, angled down about 45 degrees. (The orange thing)

[MrObsessive]

Thanks fellas about the wire info! Yeah, I did glue the wires to the head, but they wouldn't be hard to take out and, move them where the should be.

As far as the flanges on the valve covers............weeeell, I may leave those alone as those ARE glued in with liquid cement, and may be a bit tough to take apart without causing damage. I may leave those as is.

As far as the wires-------you learn something new every day!

[MrObsessive]

Here it is: on the block, just behind the fuel pump, angled down about 45 degrees. (The orange thing)

Thanks for the pic Steve..........that certainly comes in handy! Now I have to make an adapter for the oil filter as that's non existent in the kit.

[charlie8575]

Gee, Bill, the choke butterfly wasn't rigged to work? I'm a little disappointed in you!

All kidding aside, nice dressing-up on that engine.

Charlie Larkin

[blunc]

Gee, Bill, the choke butterfly wasn't rigged to work? I'm a little disappointed in you!

All kidding aside, nice dressing-up on that engine.

Charlie Larkin

he didn't put the primary and secondary accelerator pump levers on either but I was gonna let that slide...this time.

although if he forgets to put a fuel filter on, that carb will be flooding in no time.

[freakshow12]

The dipstick comes up in front of the pass side valve cover. You can see it in the pic

[Jaguar man 21]

Great work this project is looking very nice

[sak]

Awesome...just wondering mr.obsessive...before you finish the carb linkage..could you take some progress shots? I really need to know how you build these and what you use to connect them. And also what you use as screws on coil brackets and what not.

[Metalmad]

Been following this build and I must say spectacular detail work !

[bobthehobbyguy]

Any more updates?

[MrObsessive]

Any more updates?

Well, I'm home today from work since it's a holiday, so I'm trying to squeeze in as much build time as possible today. I've been checking in on the board from time to time (with my phone at my work table), but since time's at a premium for me during the week, putting together an update may or may not happen today.

I have about 15-16 pics that I've taken since the last update-------but it takes time to crop, sort and edit the pics so that when I make a post here, it's as good as can be which to me is as important as the build itself. Updates will be few and far between due to my work schedule, and because of the way I do a post.........it can take me an hour or longer to compose something that's coherent and post worthy.

So fellas be patient...........I'll try to get something together soon, but I can't promise anything.

[peekay]

Take your time, Bill. Your posts are always well written and photographed and certainly worth the wait. Quality takes a bit longer.

[DynoMight]

Pete's right. Take your time, don't be like me and rush on a model

[MrObsessive]

OK! I'm tired of building for the day, and since I have something painted in the dehydrator, I figure I can try to get an update in before it's time for me to get to bed! Most of the engine is done now, and except for some details....I can start to look forward to working on the chassis now.

I want to however bring you up to speed as to some of the other details I've done with it so far.

One of the things I like to do to make things steady and sturdy is to pin things to whatever structure any one particular object will fit into. In this case, I wanted to pin the alternator as it will make for a better support for the PE brackets, as well as the later to be added fan belt.

The alternator fan you see is a PE one from my parts bin.

I set the alternator aside to let the epoxy fully dry, and turned my attention to the dipstick. A detail that's lacking in the kit, and I should add, is lacking in most kits on the market.......at least ones in 1/25 scale.

Here, I took .020 brass rod and with a vice that I have, flattened the one end as well as I could. I want to represent the finger loop that you see on most dipsticks in 1:1 cars.

The little cap below it was some plastic rod that was drilled with probably a #78 drill bit and, then sliced thin to represent the cap that would go over the dipstick tube.

OK the end result sitting next to a penny........yes, that's a REAL penny! I didn't bother to flatten the whole thing as I won't be needing to check the oil at all!

The dipstick tube was cut from some stainless steel tubing. I have no idea the size as I have a whole assortment left over from years ago from Machined Aluminum Specialties (M.A.S.). Later on I did paint the finger grip and cap the engine color.

The tube was painted Ford blue to match the engine. You can now see the alternator and its brackets mounted minus the fan and the pulley for the time being. I had to take artistic license with the brackets as they're not quite like the 1:1........but since I was limited for space (and patience), I used what I had in my PE parts box. Those are tiny brass bolts from Scale Hardware that's holding things up.

BTW, I may or may not mention the size of items I use here. Lot of the things I use are not always marked, or at the time I'm editing this, I've simply forgot.

Most of the time I go with what "looks right" and I'm not always dependent on a particular size for a certain part or task.

OK, I want to now move on to the coil. This was especially tricky for me, as I'm running out of room to place things. Once again I'm going to have to play around with where I'm going to mount this, and it won't necessarily be where most of the '67's coils were located.

In this pic you can see that I've also pinned the coil with some .040 brass rod.

I need some kind of strap to go around the coil. I was going to use some cat food can aluminum (nice and workable unlike the hobby brands), but this would end up breaking due to being handled too much, so I settled for brass.

I cut a thin strip, to suit the size of the coil, and wrapped the strip around it to get a sense of where I would need to drill holes.

I didn't want really shiny brass sticking out like a sore thumb on the engine, so I put the brass strip in a tiny bath of "Blacken It". A solution that darkens brass that can be picked up at a well stocked train shop.

I could have painted the brass, but once again all of the handling would have worn off the paint. This way it looks a bit more realistic, and could be gloss coated a touch to spruce it up a bit.

Here's the solution of "Blacken-It"............

Stayed tuned...............

[1 bad55 stan]

Amazing detail work.

[MrObsessive]

Now it's time to move on to the fuel line for the carb. Just simply some bead wire that looks in scale for this use, and some bolts for the ends.

.....................And another tricky area, making a bracket for the return spring for the carb. Once again, I used a tiny piece of cat food can aluminum (the lid) and cut a teeny-tiny strip. Holes were then drilled with a #78 drill bit in which I'll have a bolt go through it to pin it to the manifold.

Once again, that IS a real penny!

One area that I find important to me is return springs for carbs. Years ago, I could never find springs small enough that looked in scale to do this type of detail.

A friend of mine (Vere Reider) suggested back in the mid '90's to use coax cable braid. The wire is very thin, almost hair like and, would be just the right diameter for making carb return springs.

What I did here was to wrap the coax cable wire around a #80 drill bit to where I wanted the length to be.

And here is the end result.........the wire is hooked up to the throttle bracket and, also to the manifold bracket. I did make a throttle rod for the carb, but it wouldn't photo well so I'll be adding that somewhat towards the end of the build as it has to be connected to the bracket on the firewall.

That's one of those details that'll have to wait until the chassis gets mated to the body and whatnot. I couldn't get a good bead on the spring so the photo is a bit blurry-----at least to my eyes............ You can now see the spring bracket, as well as the spring mounted into the carb's throttle. BTW, per RancheroSteve's suggestion, I did move the plug wires on the driver's side.

Before I get too carried away with finishing up the engine, I wanted to make sure everything will fall under the cowl, so the hood will shut.

I had to do some tweaking to the underside of the air cleaner, but I got it to sit low enough that the hood will shut. I still have some details to finish on the engine, but at least I know it will fit in the chassis well without any drama.

...........And here it is with the naked carb.

I didn't forget the oil filter! I had on old R&D Unique white metal oil filter laying around in my parts box, so I'm going to put it to use here as it's my last one. Just some white primer over it, and there's a FRAM decal to put on it once it's mounted.

Well fellas, that's it for now. I have no clue when the next update will be, but I will be working on this still in the meantime. I'm one that doesn't like to make one or two pic updates. This is just me, but I don't want my updates to become "Twitterized" or "Facebookized". I'm not into either one of those things and the too constant updates IMO become stale, and frankly I don't have the time to do so.

Thanks for staying interested just the same, and at least by the next update, you'll see a completed engine as well as some chassis work.

[John Goschke]

Amazing work, Bill!

[Danno]

Incredible!!

[MikeBoyle]

Thanks for the update. Engine is looking great.

[blunc]

great looking engine, are ya gonna put the PCV hose on also?

[MrObsessive]

great looking engine, are ya gonna put the PCV hose on also?

I want to add that, but I need to find pics of where it's located on the engine. I see where it's on the passenger side valve cover, but exactly where on the manifold/carb it goes I'm not sure of. I'll do some digging around this evening for pics when I'm back home.

[Pim]

That engine is a work of art Bill

[blunc]

I want to add that, but I need to find pics of where it's located on the engine. I see where it's on the passenger side valve cover, but exactly where on the manifold/carb it goes I'm not sure of. I'll do some digging around this evening for pics when I'm back home.

it should go from the valve cover (usually inserted into the cap where oil is added) to the carb spacer plate/backside of the carb underneath the rear fuel bowl. it will look just fine if you can wedge it under the back of the carb. the hose is usually the same size as the vacuum line that would go to a brake booster (yes...I KNOW this car doesn't have power brakes, I was illustrating the size of the hose.).