best deal ever

[Free6]

I, at a lack of any eloquent way of saying it, must be the luckiest man in the world.

I have just aquired a 1965 Ford Mustang Coupe for the grand price of $0.

Ragged, rusty, and ugly do not begin to describe her, but there she is, in all of her half-painted glory.

That being said, I need the expert advice of people on this forum, as I have limited experience on exactly where to start. . .

How do you get a 200ci inline to start after over 20 years of hibernation?

 

[grocery getter]

be careful, some of the most expensive things are free

change oil, put marvel mystery or any light oil in the sparkplug holes. rebuild the carb and fuel pump. they'll likely leak. change the fuel lines they'll be cracked and also leak. also, the gas tank might be gunked up.
radiator and heater hoses. etc. etc.

when you do get it running, don't think about driving it until you go through the brakes.
auto or stick?

 

[Free6]

Auto.

I know:

The tank is clogged/damaged.
The transmission still shifts/stays in park/theoretically works?
Crank turns by hand (tested that myself, it does, but offers resistance)
Electrical works great (tested myself, worked for 5 seconds then battery exploded)
Carb rusty and stuck
radiator empty, holds fluid static, unsure if it will hold under pressure
Tires (polyglas) still hold air, dryrot minimal
no power options

On top of that, the body is a total mess, the hood is rusted nearly in half, the rear quarters are rusted badly, and the forward floorboards are rusted through.

Nothing free is free, right?

 

[fordconvert]

Do you have a good safe way to get a good look underneath? Sounds like the thing could be rusted enough to be unsafe. Remember these are not full frame cars or even sub frames like many others of the era. Some places there is only sheet metal that ties the frame bits (also made of sheet metal) to each other. Do a search for mustang parts (i have been using mustangs unlimited) and look at the body parts so you get an idea what they should look like. There are a lot of areas on these cars that tend to get mushey that can be a big project to repair/ replace. Almost all the parts are available but you have to know what you are in for before you start. One thing to look at is the door gaps, have some friends rock the body and watch the gaps to see how much they move or look at the gap before you get in and then after (hanging out the window) and see how much it changes. All my previous experience before the 66 stang were higher end full frame cars so I was in for quite a shock working on a almost bottom of the line car. These cars are full of little dumb things that would only have taken 2 cents to do right and last but thats not what they were designed for. Sites like this and google can be your friend because there are 100's of sites full of info on these cars so you can easily do research and decide how to proceed with your project.

 

[Free6]

I did take a good look underneath, and the frame , aside from a small (<4 inch) rust pocket forward of the front suspension on the passenger side, it and the subframe seem intact, if not "good". I did rock the car on the suggestion of a friend, and aside from the passenger door which does not close, we observed no movement in the door gap. In fact, there were no misaligned panels (save for the hood, which is a funny story), implying the car has never had collision repair. There is alot of bondo, covering up rust holes that are now rearing their ugly heads.

long story short: Structurally sound, cosmetic disaster.

Something of interest: opened up the brake assemblies, and the brakes (drums all round) look brand new. . . wonder why that is?

 

[Free6]

I know im excited, which is why im posting so often, but there is some update.

I changed the oil, took the battery out of my truck, and put a lil marvel mystery oil like suggested. I put about a half a cup of gas driectly down the carb, and tried to get her to turn.

she turns over, but after the second revolution, backfired quite spectacularly, removing my good friends eyebrows. . .

good sign or bad? note that the carb has not yet been rebuilt, i was more interested to see if it would even turn, or if i was getting spark, etc.

 

[grocery getter]

we can say you're getting spark too much gas dumped in the carb.
do a compression check to see where your at and go from there.

 

[CoupeBoy]

You are probably going to have to double check things, like timing. Are the plug wires on in the right order? During it's hibernation did anybody happen to rotate the distributor 180° from normal? What condition are the plugs in.

It was a sign though..A sign that you have a good helper. Next have him hold the coil wire while you crank it over, so you can test for spark.

-ron

 

[Bort62]

Keep trying. You can't really hurt it

 

[65stanger]

Actually, I just went through this....or actually am still going through it (although with a V8 car). The car had been inside for about 10 years, then outside for about 2. This was in Colorado where it is quite dry.

Here's what I did, and it worked quite well!

Drained the tranny (auto) for a couple of days, replaced the lines and pan gasket, an re-fillexd with new fluid. ~ $30

New gas tank, sending unit, hoses, filter, pump. (This was cheaper than having the old one cleaned up) I probably didn't even need to replace the fuel pump, but they gave me a Mustang fuel sending unit which isn't quite like the Falcon unit and I thought I had a fuel pump problem, not a sending unit problem, so I replaced it. ~$150

Rebuilt the carb (2BBL) ~$30

Cleaned the metal fuel line from the rear of the car to the front. ~$5

Replaced the spark plugs (probably didn't even really need to do this) ~$15

New battery ~$60

Oil and filter change ~$20

The cap an rotor looked good, so I left them alone.

I considered the Marvel Oil route, but here's what I ended up doing instead.

Removed the spark plugs and turned the engine over by hand using the harmonic balancer. I did this many times over a couple of days.
Then I turned it over for short bursts using the starter a couple of times with the plugs out.
Then I replaced the plugs and disconnected the distributor and turned it over using the starter. This was cool, because the oil light went out after about 5-10 seconds, so I knew I had some oil pressure.

Once I double checked everything and reconnected the distributor, I gave it a try and it kicked right away. It wouldn't start though, so I put a little gas in the carb and it would run for about 5 seconds, but wouldn't keep running. This is where I found the sending unit was incorrect, but not until after buying a new fuel pump. I got the car to run, but could not get the carb adjusted correctly. It turned out the carb had an internal air leak and so I ended up getting another one off eBay, rebuilding it, and the car now runs like a kitten! I hope to get it emissioned next week.

I hope this helps and good luck with your project!

 

[Free6]

I hate to resurrect my fairly dead thread, but I thought it might be better than spamming new ones.

After much messing around, a new solenoid, and all sorts of bits, it occured to me to check the carb again.

Frozen. Solidly stuck. The linkage and all sorts of moving bits are rusted together.

Do I rebuild or replace?

 

[wallaka]

Might as well take it off and disassemble it to see if it CAN be rebuilt. Most likely it can. IIRC a rebuild kit is like $15.

Loosen up the nuts on the linkage and that should get it working a little. The end pieces on mine are frozen up, but it works just fine with the nuts a little loose.

 

[Bort62]

Might as well take it off and disassemble it to see if it CAN be rebuilt. Most likely it can. IIRC a rebuild kit is like $15.

Loosen up the nuts on the linkage and that should get it working a little. The end pieces on mine are frozen up, but it works just fine with the nuts a little loose.

Take it off and put it in a bucket of Diesel for a few days.

Then take it apart and rebuild it.

Or you could just try it

 

[yodabiri]

This reminds me of the saying, "There is only free cheese in a mouse trap". Sounds like you are off to a good start! Good Luck!

 

[Abandoned67]

If you are afraid of taking apart the carb, as I was when I fisrt gave mine a cleaning. It is actually very simple just start small take apart some things then put them back to gether just to make sure you know how it works. Enless your planning on buying a new one then I guess you could go buck wild