Tearing Down the Front End - Part 2

I finished disassembling the front end tonight, and finished dropping the trans. The trans is filthy and I decided to pull it to clean it up, and make room so I could detail up in the trans hump.

Here is a pic of the latest.

Sure is a lot easier to get at stuff now! After getting everything removed, I went ahead and removed the old frame mounts that were welded in place. They are in the wrong spot and really needed to be removed. To make matters worse, he cut a chunk out of the frame so the oil pan would fit. I'll have to trim some stack and weld it back in to give it a bit more strength.

Next step is to start detailing all of the parts that were removed. I've already started on the hardware and am having good results using a product called EvapoRust from O'Reillys (and I'm sure others). I wash the parts and drop them in the solution. Two days later I pull them out, wipe down with a sponge and rinse, then toss back in the solution again for 1-2 more days. Rinse clean, and then hit them with Rust Fix giving them a black oxide finish. They need to be treated after final rinse because the will flash rust as they dry.

Here is a picture of some parts prior to being treated with the Rust Fix. They were complete covered in surface rust with only minimal scale. To eliminate scale rust, you need to crape, blast, or otherwise mechanically treat the metal before if will come completely clean.

Lots of detail work to do, but before anything goes back together, I need to work out the positioning of the new motor mounts. They are from a '69 T-Bird with a 429 and should allow me to get the engine positioned in the vehicle properly. Might get a chance this weekend to fit them, but we will have to see.

Tearing Down the Front End

I got started on pulling the front end off the car a few days ago. Taking my time to take pictures as I go so I can put it back together, and bagging and tagging all of the hardware. I'm finding a lot of dirt and a little bit of rust. Not too bad overall.

I had to pull the rocker moldings to get the fenders off, and when I did I found some rot at the rear corners. A little bit of work to do there, but not bad overall. Otherwise, everything is looking very clean and coming apart nicely. Almost the whole front clip is removed. Just need to finish pulling the inner wheelhouse from the passengers side. I'll get some pictures up probably tomorrow night showing everything apart.

When I pulled the passenger side fender last night I realized that the heater core is located under the fender and the only way to access it pull the fender, or pull the passenger side hinge support, and at that point, the hood too! Looks like I will be chasing down a heater core while I've got everything torn apart.

I may have to do a couple very small reinforcement repairs to the inner wheelhouse on the passengers side under the battery as well. The weld nuts have very minor damage in the surrounding metal that I will give a quick once over with the welder and grinder.

Will have more tomorrow night along with new pics!

How to add third row seats to a wagon...

This is another catch-up post covering the third row seats. I was fortunate enough to find a set of seats still in the car in a '68 Ranch Wagon in Texas. And even more fortunate to find someone willing to sell them, pull them, take pictures, save all of the hardware, and ship everything. It is complete save one bolt that went MIA. It is also the opposing seat configuration (my preference) vs. the rear facing single seat. The hardest part of the entire install was working out where everything went since I didn't pull it apart myself, and I didn't have any measurements.

Prior to installation, this was a 6-passenger model with a rear-facing style folding compartment cover (sorry about the bad picture).

Fortunately, the floor of the rear compartment was only a little rusty, with no holes and very solid. It did have a couple of dents which I drove back in with a sledge hammer and a 2"x2" and 2"x4". Nothing too severe, or that would cause any issues now or in the future.

I removed all of the panels behind the middle row seats to start and then did a quick clean up of the floor in the rear. I then mocked up the rear-most portion of the assembly to see just where things hit. Typical of Ford, the mounting locations were all "marked" by indented recesses in the panel (yea!) I carefully position the panels and fastened them in at the top, marked for the lower fasteners, removed all of the panels, drilled holes, welded in nuts and reassembled the rear section. Fit like a glove!

The lower seat mounts were a little more work since I had to install the seat and work out how they sat to get the position for the fasteners since they want to rock a bit. Still, not too bad.

The upper seat was a pain. One side mounted to the rear panels that are already installed, but because the back of the seat makes up part of the decking, positioning the other side had to be precise, or there would be a mismatch in the decking height.

The forward mount is a pivot insert that welded into place. It had to be best estimated from reference pictures I received and mocking things up best as I could. One side I hit first try. The other I thought I missed by an 1/4" and thought I had a real mess on my hands. After looking at things a little closer I realized that the new panel that spanned the area between the second and third rows was sitting a little high, and a minor adjustment to the seat bracket pivot made up the difference.

Now I have fairly even gaps, and the decking is about as level as possible since there are some dips and dents from 40+ years of use. All interior components that need refinishing will be done at the same time, so nothing has been painted to match yet. Overall, very pleased with the install and the kids are eager to try it out!

Tearing down the front end

Got the car back in the garage as planned, and glad I did. It's been snowing a very wet snow all day, and the dew wipes and weatherstripping are shot. Also, as planned, I started to disassemble the front end of the wagon last night. I'm finding that I need to be a bit of a contortionist to access some of the bolts. Not all parts bolts were fasted with J-bolts, so I'm having to get both a socket and a wrench on them at the same time. Took a little creativity, but the worst (I hope) is done. Thank goodness this car is as clean as it is. Even with a little bit of rust, some of the fasteners were putting up a pretty good fight. Anyhow, here are a couple of pictures of the car prior to disassembling the front end. Not the damaged front right grill and fender extension, and the left fender that will be replaced.

And in the engine compartment ...

And finally the "custom" welded in frame mounts.

I purchased some '69 429 T-Bird mounts that I was told could be modified to work, so I will have to see what I can do to make them work. I may do a bit of a tutorial on them if I can make them work elegantly. My plan is to fit the engine while the front end is off the car. Since I will be pulling the radiator support, it should help to simplify the process of working things out since I'm sure the motor will be in and out a few times at least.

I also plan on trying to clean up the wires and hoses some. What a mess! Right now the fuel line and fuel pump are just laying along that side. I may try to bring the fuel in from the back of the motor rather than the front to help keep things tidy. Will post more pics of progress in a couple of days.

Switching gears ...

Well, the prospect of up to a foot of snow over the next three days has forced me to clear the garage and bring the car back in, so I'm switching gears from the console and moving back into the engine compartment. Before doing so, I got about half of the cracks repaired and redyed 4 pieces of the console. They look great and the console base is feeling much more stable already.

Now I will be working of doing some detailing in the engine compartment. I'll be starting with removal of the old frame mounts for the engine. They were cut up and welded in place. Unfortunately, in the wrong place. They sit about 2" to far back to allow for clearance of the oil pan on the 429. I need to drop the trans as well to clean it up and then move it into the correct position.

After that, I need to clear and clean the engine compartment. LOTS of oil and grease in there from the previous owner's engine swap. They cut and welded up the oil pan to make it fit and did a poor job of it. It leaked like crazy.

I have a quart of Eastwood Products Extreme Chassis Black that I will be brushing on to the frame radiator support and inner fenders, and I have have there sealer/primer/rust converter that comes with a long tube so you can apply it inside of a close space like the frame (very cool product, by the way), but there is a lot of cleaning to be done first. All this is being done in preparation of getting the engine back in the car. With moving the engine forward, I'm afraid I may have to have some work done on the exhaust to get it to hook back up. Photos to follow...