Been Awhile... '71 Rustang
OK - no pictures, unfortunately.  But, yesterday I went to the Auto Hobby Shop and got a lift. (Yay!  They're working again!).  

Nice day for a drive, cool outside, and only a couple folks at the AHS, so no worries getting a lift.  Of course, the usual “everybody wants to talk about the Mustang in the parking lot” happened both at Stripes (a local convenience store) and O’Reilly Auto Parts.  That went to a whole new level, though – there was a guy about my age (Anthony) with his Dad, Edgar.  Edgar was a Vietnam Vet and we were all talking about the Mustang and how Edgar was planning on buying one when he returned from Vietnam, but unfortunately life got in the way and he never did.  During the course of talking with them, Anthony asked if I wouldn’t mind doing a favor – take Edgar for a quick spin.  I found out they were heading back to Sonora so Edgar and I hopped in and took off down South Bryant – stopping at the Stripes on the way out of town.  Along the way, we saw a somewhat ragged-out ’05 ‘Vette making all sorts of ‘race me’ noises… I just waved at him.  I did punch it off the line at South Jackson, which put a big ol’ grin on Edgar’s face.  After pulling into the parking lot and exchanging a few more pleasantries, I took off and headed for the base.  That was pretty fun – Edgar was a cool old guy.

I’ve been having some rattles and squeaks that had me concerned – Since I welded the new front clip on, I’ve been afraid of the possibility of the car folding up like a Swiss Army knife hitting a major bump, and the rattles and squeaks have not exactly been confidence-building.  Granted, I added the sub-frame connectors, so I know it’s solid… it’s just one of those things, ya know?
 
So, that’s Task #1 – fix the squeaks and rattles.  First thing, I swapped out the front upper shock bushings (the bottoms of the two ‘upper bushing sandwiches’ were pretty well squished and not the best – passenger side nut was only finger tight).  Then did a walk-around above and underneath, and found a few things that had worked loose – the most significant was the export brace mount at the firewall (those triangular bits that go from the shock towers back)… it was loose.  As in, ‘almost lost the nuts on the bottom side of the bolts,’ loose.  Tightened them up, along with a few other things.
 
Then moved on to Task #2 – change all the lug nuts.  Yeah… apparently, I didn’t pay attention to the ones I ordered.  I’m on set #4 now.  The first set was some actual Cragar nuts, but 7/16”-20 pitch… which my studs are ½”-20 pitch.  Well – crap.  Gave those to Gonzo, since they fit his Camaro just fine, and ordered another set of Cragar ½”-20 pitch.  Those showed up… and I lost them in the garage somewhere (I thought I’d put them in the trunk so I’d have ‘em when I made a trip to the AHS sometime, but nope… apparently, not).  I know… smack me the next time you see me.  I finally gave up on trying to find them about a month ago and ordered some more from Summit Racing, ½”-20 pitch.  Discovered yesterday that they require a 15/16” socket, which the sidewall is too thick to clear the ‘barely enough room for even the lug nuts to fit’ space – besides, the current lug nuts use a 7/8” thin wall socket (same size as the locking nuts, too).  POO-DOO!!  I ordered the correct ½”-20 longer lug nuts requiring 7/8” socket when I got home.  Still shakin’ my damn head over that one.
 
Task #3 was to replace the stud that got stripped out [I’m guessing] by Discount Tire when they did a warranty repair on the left rear.  Unfortunately, that is one of the originals, and no matter what I did with the 6-lb sledge, there was zero effect on it wanting to come out.  I did manage to mushroom the sh!t out of it, though.  Yay!  So, Task #3 was a wash.  I’ll use my MAP Gas torch in the driveway once of these weekends after I get the new lug nuts and feel like working on those.  If that doesn’t work, then I’ll look into pulling the axle and putting it in a press.  Although, if I start pulling axles apart to that degree, I’m have to look into what I need to get the rear disc conversion installed (Jim gave me a set-up a few years ago, since he had a ‘small bearing’ set, which his Galaxie was a ‘large bearing’ set – I think I just need a new MC, proportioning valve, and the rotors & pads themselves).
 
Task #4 was to get the white letters cleaned.  My last ditch effort before reversing to black walls was to sand the letters.  I fired up my trusty hand-held orbital pad sander with 120-grit and had white raised white letters again in about 10 minutes.  Didn’t take much effort at all.  Should’ve done that 3 years ago.  Oh well – now I know… if it gets like that again, just lightly sand ‘em down.  No biggie.
 
Task #1 was apparently a big success, since I didn’t hear a single squeak or rattle on the way home.  Apparently, those sheet metal export braces are a bit more important to the structural integrity than I would’ve thought.  Keeping ‘em crossed that ‘that, is the end of that.’  At least if the squeaks or rattles come back, I’ll have a good place to start (those export braces).  I might look into a meatier unit to replace ‘em – kinda like the older model ‘K-member’ export braces.  I’ll try to hang onto them, since they are unique to the ’71-‘73s, but I’m not opposed to something that’s more function that form – could make all the difference for structural integrity, after all.
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Yesterday I took the Mach 1 to a benefit show for one of the guys from the local Corvette club – his daughter has some pretty serious medical appointments in DFW, and money was raised to help offset the costs for transportation and lodging. It was an awesome turn out with 91 cars and raised over $2500 for the Vasquez family.

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Finally got the white letters cleaned up - 10 minutes with an orbital pad sander an 120-grit.

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Stephen Horton took a bunch of awesome pics. Here’s a link to his Photo Album.  https://www.flickr.com/photos/stephenhor...TSevVrZXTI
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Wow - it's a been a few minutes, thanks to the 'Rona.

About a month ago, went to a Cars & Coffee (first one back since lock down), and had a blast with the guys.  Here's one showing off Frank's 'Baby Book' to my good friend & optometrist, Ed Grimes and his wife.

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Then went over to a buddy's house and stuffed goodie bags for the car show that happened a few weeks ago benefiting the local American Legion post (raised over $1900).  Got a 'Top 30' award there as well.  I forgot my camera, but a buddy snapped a bunch with his phone - we were kind of in the back corner of the parking area of about 60 cars.  I spent the day hanging out with Ken Barros and his wife, who brought their awesome '69 GT-500.

[Image: 104959660_735432200594637_6663367882331299644_n.jpg]

Actually convinced the wife to go for a ride last night.

We went to Sonic for some root beer floats & corn dogs, then took some of the same over to my Mom's place.  Pulled up to her place right about sunset, then remembered that I still need to aim the headlights and discovered one of the LEDs in the speedometer needs a reseat as well.  Driving along with all the lights on and noticing the voltmeter's reading just about 12.5V says everything seems to be working OK, but when the RPMs drop back to idle, it seems to struggle for juice.  Might be time for a newer, high-output 1-wire alternator, along with the H4 headlights and headlight relay circuit installation.  It sucks kind of having to 'feel my way home in the dark.'  Fortunately, there was hardly any traffic.

Still - had a great time... she seemed to enjoy it as well.
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Wow that's great here in Arkansas we're going and doing for the most part but we haven't went back to social events like car shows. just yet. My local pony league baseball team has been playing a few games, but they shut down the school districts, summer ball completely. So it's been kinda quiet around here. Glad you all are getting out. 

JTS
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Well, 'getting out' is a little subjective.  I blew off the C&C and another 'kind of' local car show because of triple-digits this weekend.  Even though they've relaxed the grip a little for gatherings, I'm OK with staying home the A/C.  LOL!

Stay safe!
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Yeah I'm not sure how I lived without A/C all the years when I was a kid. I remember when I was 11, my sister was 6, and my brother was 4. We had to sleep in our underwear, in front of the open window, with a old box fan in it. And that was normal. My Parents never had a house with working A/C, until I grew up and moved out. I myself didn't get a house with real Central A/C, until I bought the house I live in now. That was just over 30 years ago. I sure wouldn't want to go back, and try to live without it again!!! LOL!

JTS
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We had a roof-mounted swamp cooler where I grew up in Sandy, Utah - never had issues with it, always stayed cool, and never knew any better about central air.  But that was 15% relative humidity of Utah.  In the "West Texas 'Desert,'" the humidity is pretty high, all things considered (45%-65% average - some days less, some WAY thicker).  A Swamp Cooler wouldn't cut it here, that's for sure.
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Not Mach 1 related, but here goes.

Finally got a chance to finish up my wife's new computer.  Back in June, she mentioned that Blizzard would be releasing a new expansion pack for World of Warcraft, and that her machine might not be able to run it very well without struggling, so I pretty much blew her stimulus check on a new machine (some assembly required, of course).
 
I decided to make it WoW-themed and hopefully, a little over the top. Fractal Design makes awesome computer cases, and I’m hoping they’ll like it enough for their case mod gallery when I’m done.

Here’s the gear:
Fractal Design Focus mid-tower case
ASUS TUF B450-Plus AM4
AMD RYZEN 7 2700 8-core CPU
G.Skill Ripjaws V 16GBx2
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1050 Ti
Crucial MX500 1B SATA III SSD
Thermaltake Toughpower GX1 500W power supply
Lite-On Super AllWrite 24X SATA DVD+/-RW
Rosewill RDCR-11004 Data Hub
Started off with this: Fractal Design Focus G mid-tower case, $55 from Newegg.com

[Image: 11-352-069-V16-1024x768.jpg][img=986x0]https://7173mustangs.com/forums/uploads/monthly_2020_11/11-352-069-V16.thumb.jpg.4561e19d20ec0596adc83d527437deb2.jpg[/img]

I wanted it to look like a piece of hammered metal distressed over time (like most Horde things are - never anything 'new' looking).  Went with some Rustoleum Hammered Metal Pewter as the base coat:

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There was a high-end WoW-themed case I found with a cool map mural wrap, and decided to incorporate that into the look:  Here's my version of that to start with... it gets crazy from here:

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Here's the box stuffed with the gear (before the paint), up and running. I loaded up Win10 and World of Warcraft, then punched up all of the game resolution settings to max... and none of the fans even spun up from idle for increased cooling... unlike her current machine that sounds like a wind-tunnel when she's playing.

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I went a little nuts with the distressing and rust effect - almost like I had a flashback to my Mach 1 after I first got it - LOL!  Here's the mural panel with a cool Horde shield a buddy of mine 3D-printed.

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This is the window side.  It was a little bland, so I hit it with the Dremel for some cool etching.  With all the red lights inside, it takes on a cool red glow.

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I stuck a nice 3D Printed Horde symbol on the front, which is backlit by 2 red LED fans.

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[img=750x0]https://7173mustangs.com/forums/uploads/monthly_2020_11/IMG_0744.thumb.jpg.f4ce07977231103b47b5d71fea52631a.jpg[/img]
Can't really see all the lighting effects since my el cheapo Harbor Freight LED lights are so bright (best $50 I ever spent there, BTW).

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So, I put my thumb over the flash on my camera, and this is what we get (looks like I need a better camera):

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[img=986x0]https://7173mustangs.com/forums/uploads/monthly_2020_11/IMG_0749.thumb.jpg.37ca4d33cdb6dd2e49b6c12b5e2f8c94.jpg[/img]
A nice top-down shot, which has more distressed metal than rust... which is really what I was going for, but she likes it because of all the red (rust red, but red).

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Last shot, 3 quarter of the front and map mural panel.  I like it, had fun building it, and the thing's an absolute beast running the game.

[Image: IMG_0751.jpg][img=986x0]https://7173mustangs.com/forums/uploads/monthly_2020_11/IMG_0751.thumb.jpg.24d8ddfec398b7f56ad7df13ea13b7c8.jpg[/img]

Now, I gotta get back to vacating my Mom's apartment, since she'd now stuck in a nursing home.
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Wow Mom in a nursing home, that sucks. As far as the wild take on the computer, I'd say it's a Oxi Moron to your Mach 1. Which started out all rusty and crappy. You made it all sleek and beautiful. Now you took a nice computer, and did just the opposite.  Huh  An Oxi Moron, if I ever saw one. LOL! Laughing

Just sayin. 

JTS
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Today, I took Frank out to get his annual inspection for registration, and decided that since it was such a nice day, I’d stretch the ride home out a bit and swung by the Vietnam Memorial at the airport. Since I have a cool new phone, it was such a nice day, and I’d always wanted some pics like this, I figured why not?

I've always wanted a pic like this.  Perfect day for it.
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My favorite of the bunch - I love 3/4 views of these cars!
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This one makes the hood look really big, and those are indeed bug splats on the windshield.  Time for a bath!
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One of these days, I really need to get the trunk lid aligned... along with the doors, too.  Good job, body shop.
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All that glass in the rear, and still can't see sh!t out the back.  Oh well, unless I'm backing up, I really don't care what's back there - LOL!
[Image: IMG_20210327_141025932_HDR.jpg]

Sorry it's been so long, but we've been a bit busy.  Mom passed on 14 Jan - her medical issues finally caught up with her... at least it was peaceful and quick.  The day after, my pal Dave showed up and we swapped the engine, transmission, transfer case, drive shafts, exhaust, steering column & brake pedal assembly from my Jeep to his new project (after I pulled all of the same out it), and a week later he took it home to Phoenix to start in on his own Jeep project.  Now I need to finish tearing down the engine for the machine shop, rehab the transmission and transfer case, rebuild the steering column, clean up the brake pedal assembly, and put it all back together, along with paint the new YJ top and 'paddle handle' doors Dave brought me, install a new carpet kit, update the stereo, (re)install the A/C, and rebuild the TJ seat brackets for my CJ-7 to be road-worthy and ready for the future.  I'm planning on retiring in another 7 years, so I'm hoping to have all my major projects out of the way by then so I can just enjoy my toys going forward.

Here's the link to my Jeep blog with all the gory details of the engine swap so far:  http://mister4x4.net/mister4x4/category/jeep/
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