70 Light Ivy Yellow Mustang Mach 1 rebuild: 2015

Introduction to the Project

The story of my Mach 1 starts way back in the mid 80s when I was a young teen living in CT. I had gone with my mom on one of her trips to the fabric store. While she shopped, I had gone to K-mart next door browsing magazines. Prior to then I hadn't really been in to cars much but for some reason that day I decided on Car Craft magazine. This particular issue was featuring cars from 68 - 70 from the big three manufacturers. I read it from cover to cover while waiting for Mom to finish up her shopping. While I admired the Chevelles, and Chrysler B-body cars, the Mustangs stood out to me the most. Specifically the 70 Mach 1. Something about that front end with the side scoops by the headlights. And then of course all the Mach 1 trim, louvers and spoilers. After getting home later that evening I excitedly told Dad all about it. Being a car guy himself with his first car being a Plymouth GTX, it didn't take a whole lot of convincing him that we should embark on a father/son project. Before long we had found a fairly nice 1970 Mach 1. I'll never forget the sound and the feeling while sitting in the center of the back seat as I watched the hood-scoop raise up in the air as we took off on a test drive.

Over the next couple years, Dad and I would work extensively on that car and give it fairly nice restoration for the time. We took it to many shows and cruise-nights frequently bringing home awards. It even brought me to my senior prom.

The early 90s was a tough time financially for our family. I had gone to the Army after high school and my parents had decided to move south. Due to some unfortunate circumstances, our financial situation took a hit and some of our "toys" had to go. Regrettably, the Mach 1 was sold for a bargain to a new owner. I vowed that I would either buy that one back or one just like it some day. That was in 1993.

Fast forward 14 years to early 2007. I had not been in the classic car world much since the Mach 1 was sold. Things were going well financially. I had started thinking about the old Mach 1 and how it would be nice to get another one. I had been surfing around on Ebay at the time and came across a 1970 Mach 1 that was almost identical to my original. One think I hadn't mentioned earlier was the color. My original Mach came painted with a very rare color called Light Ivy Yellow. Not a particular flashy color but so unique that it always drew attention. So finding a Mach 1 painted in that hue caught my attention. Without much thought I decided to purchase this "twin" of my original. While it was a nice car, it was terribly misrepresented by the owner. ( I won't go into details as this story is not about the "twin" anyway!) Regardless, it was a joy to have another Mach 1 and thought I had fulfilled my promise of "getting one back". It wouldn't be long before that promise to myself would be doubly realized.

Almost exactly a year later, my wife and I had come home one night and after settling in, I decided to surf Ebay. I hadn't been necessarily looking for another car but I did have a favorite search setup for 69 and 70 Mustangs. I actually hadn't been keeping up with it but for some reason I decided to look at it that night. Low and behold there was a 70 Mach 1 painted in Light Ivy Yellow. Being a rare sight, I took a look at the description and pictures. I stated to get a funny feeling after reading part of the description that stated the car was from CT and they had all the receipts dating back to the mid and late 80s. I started to look closely at the pictures and was noticing specific items that I had put on the car at that time. Then of course there was the VIN which looked eerily familiar. Fortunately, I had kept the original factory invoice for it so I went and retrieved it from my safe and low an behold they matched. This was my original car! I was overwhelmed with excitement. I think I actually called my dad that night and woke him up to tell him. It was just unbelievable. Two days later during a snow storm, both he and I left for Michigan with a trailer in tow. I had told myself, that I wouldn't buy the car if it had drastically changed from when I sold it 15 years prior. Once I stepped into the garage where it was kept, I knew right away that it was my Mach and surprisingly very little had changed. Most importantly was the interior which had seats that I had reupholstered with help and guidance from my (now deceased) Memere. Needless to say it was an exhilarating drive home.

So now there I was with two 1970 Light Ivy Yellow Mach 1s! For about a year Dad and I would take both Machs to shows and had a great time displaying the "twins". After the Original Mach developed a coolant leak I put in storage at my parents house. I then gave the "twin" a full ground up restoration and then about two years ago sold it to a collector in Norway. So hear we are today. The Original has been in storage for about 5 years. I had been getting the "itch" for some time now. I didn't want to do another car restoration in our two car garage that I share with the wife's car. But waiting for a workshop to magically appear in my yard hasn't panned out so I decided the car isn't doing any good in storage so 2015 will be the year I get started.

I decided to start a blog to document the process. I have benefited from many other blogs and forums when working on projects so I wanted to share this experiences with others in hopes that someone will find it useful or encouraging. Its going to be a long road but I am excited to have started on it.

Pictures of car throughout the years.

Here are some pics of the car throughout its history with me.

Sometime in 1987 when we first bought it

Senior Pic 1991

The "Twins" photo op. The Original one is on the right.

In Storage at Dad's house

Restoration Goals

My plan for the Mach (subject to change) is to do a "restomod-hybrid". I want to keep the original look Inside and Out. (Why mess with a good thing?) But I do want to modernize the suspension and drivetrain. I'll be looking to the audience for experiences and recommendations for the following:

Coil over suspension kits
5 speed conversion from automatic
351 Windsor builds in the 450 HP range
A/C install. Car did not have factory A/C but I have factory parts. Looking for recommendations for vendor to complete the setup with modern components.
Power Rack and Pinion kits
Power Brake conversion

The list is subject to change but hopefully this can be a forum to get ideas and suggestions.

Catching the blog up to speed on progress...

I am a couple weeks late starting this blog as I moved the car to my house on New Year's Day, 2015. So there has been some progress on dis-assembly since then. I have removed most of the interior as well as front fenders and considerable amount or engine compartment components. Removal of parts is going really well. Its definitely nostalgic and a bit like time traveling as I am actually removing parts off the car that I had originally installed almost 25 years ago. From the reupholstered Mach 1 interior that my grandmother helped me with, the carpet that held a 45 year old surprise underneath to the nylon wire braiding that I got from my first job in high school and used on my wiring harness long before it became popular to do so. Here are the pics of the first couple weeks of tinkering.

In my Dad's garage where its been for about 5 years ready to get "pushed" out

Loaded up on the trailer for the short drive to my house

Getting pushed into my garage

Having removed and reinstalled the interiors of both my Mach 1s several times, I can pretty much do it in my sleep. Here I am starting by removing the seats.

Yes, thats a bunch of mice turds. Thankfully they didn't chew through anything important like the carpet or headliner. (or seats for that matter!)

So after removing the carpet, I was pleasantly surprised to learn that we had never removed the original sound deadener from the floors when we had put that new carpet in way back. I immediately thought of two things. The bad thing being rust and the good thing being an original factory build sheet hiding somewhere. I already knew I had rust on the drivers side as some was starting to rear its ugly head on the undercarriage.

Final Piece of deadener. Would there be anything hiding underneath??

Yes! There it lay after 45 years. You would think I had found a lost copy of the Constitution! It was quite an exciting find.

It was in remarkably good shape considering how long it had been sitting there. Build sheets were made out of a fairly rugged paper. It did have the typical grease stains from sitting underneath that nasty deadener. My next post will be a how-to on cleaning that right up!

As expected, some nasty rust was found on the driver's side. A little more than I would have liked to see. Especially that gaping hole! That original deadener was good at retaining moisture so wet feet, leaky windshield, would have kept that floor wet and in turn contributed to growth of that nasty tin worm. Guess I'll have to brush up on my welding skills.

The floor pan itself looks worse in this picture than it really is. Still probably thinned out more than my liking.

That friggin hole in the firewall above the torque box was a shocker. Fortunately, the torque boxes look great. Gonna be a fun fix.

Driver side rear not much better. What you cant see is the floor pan is split completely through at the back of the seat pan. Complete driver side floor pan or patch it?

Passenger side floor on the other hand looks like its from a different car! Its gorgeous! I'll probably just clean it out and coat it with clear.

Just very minor surface rust here. No concerns on this side. Amazing the difference.

Dash had definitely been removed during its time with other owners. I definitely would not have applied that nasty duct tape job!

Proof I didn't do that nasty tape job as that's a micro fiber cloth! Something we didn't have back in the late 80s!

Another hack job of taping the original sport lamp switch together. Luckily these are reproduced at a reasonable price!

Mustang Build Sheet Restoration/Clean up

This is a quick how-to on cleaning up that build sheet I found hidden under the carpet for 45 years. I had read this tip years ago in one of my Mustang magazines and didn't believe it to be true until I tried it myself.

Here is the buildsheet up close. Stained and almost illegible. The trick is to use wax and grease remover. The bottom left corner is where I tested it.

Here is the setup. I had some Wax and Grease remover/Pre Cleaner left over from when I painted the last Mach 1. Bought a cheap cookie pan from the dollar store.

As soon as the paper hits the solvent the stains just start lifting off. (Just like in the Tide commercial!) Video Below shows how quickly it happens

After just a few minutes, the paper is just about cleaned up. All ink and even the crayon mark stayed in place!

Finished Product. While not perfect, much more legible. It will join the original invoice and Marti Report in the safe!

Front End and Engine compartment dissassembly

Besides the interior, I have been also working on the front end and engine compartment. Extra care must be taken as I do not plan on doing the body work and paint. Since it still looks pretty nice despite being a 25 year old paint job, I decided to preserve it as is. Besides, I plan on driving the car so I don't want to worry about chips and dings. Heck I already had a minor casualty when a piece of wood dropped on the fender and made a small chip in the paint. (Hence why I wanted a bigger garage to do this in!!)

Original Mach 1 grill in fantastic shape. If you scrape the black paint you can still see the original Argent.

Fenders off!

Original Buck Tag on the right in the location for Metuchen built cars. Small tag on the left is the axle tag that had broken off when we first restored car. Thought that would be a good place for it! Stayed for 25 years!

Engine compartment had the only changes done to it in the 15 years of outside ownership. While I believe it to be the original build, certain things like the MSD ignition, valve covers, holley 750 and long tube headers were added. Oh yeah, and no thanks to the hacker previous owner who cut a hole in the hood for the air cleaner!

Small rust issue in that battery box area will have to be taken care of!

Fenders ready to be put in storage

Miscellaneous Trim Pieces

Box of parts that will soon grow into a very large box of parts. All will be sand blasted and powder coated satin black, natural gray or whatever color I need. If it fits in the oven, it will be powder coated!

Several boxes of hardware bagged and tagged.

1/21/15 Update

Worked on clearing out some engine compartment items in preparation for motor removal. Power Steering Pump, hoses and headers were the major events. Even found a little unexpected surprise.

Parts removed this evening. Headers weren't too bad. Once I removed the spark plugs they came right out.

Speaking of headers, if anyone knows anything about "Jason" headers, please let me know! I couldn't find anything on them. They seem to be pretty decent quality and they fit! Might just get them recoated.