1972 Mach 1 arrives - let the games begin.

[Mach1Cliff72]

My '72 Mach 1 arrives today on the back of a truck. The car is a non starter at the moment and has to be winched off the back of the truck.



She's now outside my garage, the first job is to purchase a new battery, change the fluids & give her a major service and fire her up so we can move her under cover.



Mach 1, meet your new friend - ZR-1



On closer inspection I've seen a few more niggles, although up on the truck I could see the underneath was weather sealed. But even that could be concealing a few demons. The interior looks good and in this pic you can see the blistered roof and hood.

[mustangsforever]

Very cool, be sure to keep a picture diary, we wanna see everything you do to the car!! Congratulations! Nice Vette too!

[Mach1Cliff72]

Thanks, I sure will. I've been on an quick look around the car today and come up with the following.

Engine bay looks tired and is mainly surface rust, I'm told the car has been stored undercover for a long time. Notice the bar across the back that helps convert one of the pedals to RHD

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All the ram air hood hardware seems present, the hood is suprisingly only suffering from surface rust.



Rear quarters and wheel tubs seem to be ok, although is that a patch panel on the bottom of the rear quarter? There is some peppering of holes in the boot floor and rear light facia on one side. Most of the rubbers are in need of replacement.



By far the worst part I've found so far is on the corner of the RH door, probably due to blocked drain holes. The LH door seems ok.



Tomorrow I'll buy a battery and try to start the old girl and take a look underneath.

[Mach1Guy]

Great pictures. Congrats on the new Mach. Hopefully its what you exepected it would be. Should post up some pictures of that good looking Vette :)

[vamach1]

The first pictures looked okay but then yowza - that's some nasty rust. I'm so lucky to have my garaged for the last 13 years.
   

[Rare Pony]

Congrats on your purchase. In the picture of your lower door corner there is a yellow plug that looks like a Ziebart Rustproofing plug. If so, there should be more of these around the body. Ziebart is an aftermarket rustproofing company that drilled holes around the body and used special spray wands to inject rustproofing in hidden areas of the car. I had my 73 Mustang Covertible treated back in 1974 and it has really preserved the car!

This Ziebart decal is on my quarter window:

[Mach1Cliff72]

Hi rare Pony, I saw that in the pic when I was down loading it and thought it was a dime ha. This fits in with what the seller was saying to me when I went to look at the car. In my search I looked at a few other Mach 1s including a black and argent unregistered Boss 351 and they were all worse for wear, body wise.

I've had experience of total restos on two other mustangs in the past and they take a lot to do time wise. One was so bad, a '69 390 Mach 1 that the back end fell off as I was dismantling it. That body is now pristine, so I wanted a solid rolling resto project this time.

Cheers.

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Great pictures. Congrats on the new Mach. Hopefully its what you exepected it would be. Should post up some pictures of that good looking Vette :)

Hi, yes I'm thrilled with the car thanks and even though it's not running at the moment I keep going out to look at it to admire its lines :) I will post some vette pics in an off topic part of the forum later

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The first pictures looked okay but then yowza - that's some nasty rust. I'm so lucky to have my garaged for the last 13 years.

Thanks for the pic, nice one, that gives me something to aim for ;)

[Mach1Cliff72]

2nd in depth inspection has shown up the main shell to be solid - for nearly four decades the underseal and ziebart has done its job and kept the underside in good order

Floors look good and straight.


Rear quarters and wheel tubs, street side, have been well protected too.



More of the floor and trans tunnel, who ever did the underseal job, did it well.



After peeling off any loose seal and wire brushing areas the Bulkhead and Cowls seem to be solid too.



Engine bay looks good and except for a top end dress up of alloy rocker covers, Offy manifold and big four barrel double pumper (all for sale eventually) the engine is stock, even has the stock exhaust manifolds in place.



Thats the good news, the bad news is.................

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The bad news - after fitting a new battery and trying out all the interior swiches, hardly anything works I also tried to fire her up, the engine turns over ok and she ran briefly a few times when feeding fuel directly into the carb, although coming to a quick spluttery end or back firing through the carb. At the rear of the car was loads of dusty rust that was blown out of the exhaust which indicates it's been sat for a long time. I might need to take the petrol tank and pipes off the car and clean them through incase there's any foriegn bodies in there.

Rear slatts by "Craggar" were these made specifically for the wedge or are these meant for a '69 - '70 ? Might take these off and sell them on, are they worth much?

[Mach 1 Club]

The louvers look to be in good shape. Not sure what years they fit, everything has some value just depends whos looking for something.

Good luck on the rust repair that's a lot of work!!!

[Mach1Cliff72]

If you don't hear from me for a while you know where I'll be

Prices on some old parts are ludicrous, I remember when eurathane bumpers were ten a penny and everyone used to throw stock engine parts away thinking there weren't worth anything.