73 Grande Restoration

[taby448]

I just got a 73 Grand the other day. I inherited it from my grandmother, who passed away sadly.
My end goal is to make the car look stock again, Key word LOOK. The fun can be under the hood. but I have a-lot of body work and headaches trying to figure out whats wrong with the car and why it wont start.

First off, the car has been sitting for upwards to 4-5 years, so I'm not going to be the idiot who blows up the engine (351c) trying to start it just to "Test" it.
I'm not really good with cars, and when I look under the hood a lot of it looks foreign to me still, so this sounds like a fun project.
                   

[JTS71 Mach1]

Welcome Taby 448 

   Not a bad looking Mustang, looks to be in very great shape for a 45 year old car. After sitting for 4 or 5 years. I would suggest cleaning the fuel tank and rebuilding the carburetor would be the first order of business. I'm assuming that the engine does at least turn over? Fresh oil and a general check over of the Ignition system. Then it shouldn't be to eventful from there. Good Luck, any problems give us a shot. Lots of Good people, and lots of knowledge. Collectively we can move mountains. Jump in anytime. Welcome

JTS 71 Mach1

[Mustangmike]

Welcome to the site and my condolences on the loss of your grandmother.  The car looks to be in pretty decent shape and all things being equal it shouldn't be to much effort to get her running again.  4-5 years off the road is not that long of time so it should be minimal work to fire up especially if the car was put way running and stored inside a garage.  Like JTS indicated change the fluids and drain the gas.  The shelf life of gas is maximum 1 year with gas stabilizer added but shorter without. 

Also, inspect the entire brake system.  You want to checks for leaks and at a minimum replace the fluid and bleed the system.   

I see the car has hood pins and dual exhaust.  Is the motor purely stock or does it look like performance upgrades like headers and aluminum intake manifold were installed? 


Post some more pics of the engine and interior.

[taby448]

Welcome to the site and my condolences on the loss of your grandmother.  The car looks to be in pretty decent shape and all things being equal it shouldn't be to much effort to get her running again.  4-5 years off the road is not that long of time so it should be minimal work to fire up especially if the car was put way running and stored inside a garage.  Like JTS indicated change the fluids and drain the gas.  The shelf life of gas is maximum 1 year with gas stabilizer added but shorter without. 

Also, inspect the entire brake system.  You want to checks for leaks and at a minimum replace the fluid and bleed the system.   

I see the car has hood pins and dual exhaust.  Is the motor purely stock or does it look like performance upgrades like headers and aluminum intake manifold were installed? 


Post some more pics of the engine and interior.

The carb was previously rebuilt, the filter is brand new and it looks great. the brake discs are crusty, but the lines are OK. the gas needs to be dumped (all 10 gallons of it...) and the fuel filter needs to be replaced. The oil isnt dry, and it turns over, and 90% of the electrics still work.
Also, ill get pictures up!

[Mustangmike]

Welcome to the site and my condolences on the loss of your grandmother.  The car looks to be in pretty decent shape and all things being equal it shouldn't be to much effort to get her running again.  4-5 years off the road is not that long of time so it should be minimal work to fire up especially if the car was put way running and stored inside a garage.  Like JTS indicated change the fluids and drain the gas.  The shelf life of gas is maximum 1 year with gas stabilizer added but shorter without. 

Also, inspect the entire brake system.  You want to checks for leaks and at a minimum replace the fluid and bleed the system.   

I see the car has hood pins and dual exhaust.  Is the motor purely stock or does it look like performance upgrades like headers and aluminum intake manifold were installed? 


Post some more pics of the engine and interior.

The carb was previously rebuilt, the filter is brand new and it looks great. the brake discs are crusty, but the lines are OK. the gas needs to be dumped (all 10 gallons of it...) and the fuel filter needs to be replaced. The oil isnt dry, and it turns over, and 90% of the electrics still work.
Also, ill get pictures up!

Well the old cars are kind of simple to troubleshoot and JTS eluded to the ignition system.  The car needs fuel and spark to run. Have you checked to see if you have both?  Definitely replace the fuel filter and do an oil change. Oil breaks down as over time as well. A few simple things to do is to pull a few spark plugs and inspect them.  Depending on their condition you may consider cleaning and re-gapping or simply just replacing them.  Also, check your points.  They may need to be cleaned up from sitting over the years.  Both the points and spark plugs could be a reason the car is not starting. In regards to getting clean gas to the carb you can bypass the fuel in the gas tank by running a fuel line hose from the fuel pump into a small gas can. Just be careful.

[taby448]

                            Heres some more photos!

[JTS71 Mach1]

All in all looks pretty normal underneath. I don't see any major rust or damage. You are going to end up with a very nice Grande when finished. The sweet part is virtually every piece for this car is reproduced. So there is an abundance of parts out there for the 71-73 mustangs. Just look on Ebay you'll see thousands of parts. Just be careful as some parts can be had cheaper, from Auto Zone, Oriellys, or Advance, etc. Unless it's interior parts or something particular, so be sure to check them out as well. Need help just ask, we'll do all we can.  Good Luck.

JTS

[taby448]

All in all looks pretty normal underneath. I don't see any major rust or damage. You are going to end up with a very nice Grande when finished. The sweet part is virtually every piece for this car is reproduced. So there is an abundance of parts out there for the 71-73 mustangs. Just look on Ebay you'll see thousands of parts. Just be careful as some parts can be had cheaper, from Auto Zone, Oriellys, or Advance, etc. Unless it's interior parts or something particular, so be sure to check them out as well. Need help just ask, we'll do all we can.  Good Luck.

JTS

the trunk is completely rusted out. i got a fuel pump and filter today, along with the gasket sealer. im gonna dump the gas out then replace the filter. after that ill flush the coolant, and it should be good to try to start.

[Mustangmike]

Thanks for sharing the additional pictures. It looks light you have good bright lights! Other than some oil leaks I don't see many surprises for a car 4 1/2 decades old.  You mentioned the trunk is completely rusted. How bad is it and what areas?  Not to keep peeling the onion back but another area prone to rust on these Mustangs is the cowl.  You might want to check underneath the dash with a good flashlight.  Sometimes difficult to see with all the under dash wiring and vents but take a look up on both the driver side far left and passenger side far right corners near the vents.  Hopefully the lower cowl panel is solid and not leaking.

[JTS71 Mach1]

The trunk lid is the same for 71-73 Hardtop Mustang's so there should be several available. if you can find a salvage yard with some old Mustangs. I know of several here in Arkansas. and they don't rust here as we didn't us salt back then. By the way where are you?

JTS