Thread: 1974 Mustang II Build

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Very nice! That is pretty awesome of you to have stuff set aside for you're grand kids when you're gone. We had to buy our grandpa's stuff at the auction. My Dad loaned me the money and I had to pay him back. I wished now I would have gotten more. My grandma needed the money and the stuff went for pennies on the dollar. Nice to see the Mustang getting closer weekend by weekend.

Today was pretty much eaten up changing the power steering rack back to the original manual steering rack. We got an early start and Cade did pretty good. Mostly I got to sit and point at the parts that had to be taken off. There were a couple bolts he had problems getting to break loose that I had to help him with but overall he pretty much did everything getting the rack out.

Rack 1 by M Patterson, on Flickr


Once he got the rack out we changed out the tie rod ends and installed a new pair of mounting bushings. Then he was back underneath it to get the manual rack back in it.


Rack 2 by M Patterson, on Flickr



Of course once it was buttoned up again he had to do a few more circles around the arena. I seem to notice he making the laps a bit quicker than when he first started......wonder where he gets that from


Anyway, no work on the car next weekend, Cade and I will be out of here early Saturday morning to head to Tucson to go to the Swap Meet.



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Manual trans and manual steering; that's the right way to start a young man on his driving career!

"....Manual trans and manual steering; that's the right way to start a young man on his driving career!....."


That's kind of my thoughts. Back when I was growing up almost everybody going thru Drivers Ed in high school could drive a stick and back then it was as common to see manual steering cars as it was PS cars.

Cade has driven the 74 around a couple of times with the PS working, and then after we pulled the belt on the pump. The manual gear steers a lot easier than it did with a dead PS rack and Cade actually said he likes the way it drives with the manual gear. He also figured out when he was taking stuff off that "Gee there's a lot less stuff to go wrong now"

Yesterday was probably the first really hard, dirty day for him but he pulled thru it. He knows the transmission swap will be worse, but he's still looking forward to having it in (although not necessarily the work to do it. )

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hey mike,a re you talking about the swap meet on palo verde road next to the holiday inn?

It's the Tucson Street Rod Association one. They've changed venues a few times but this year it's going to be at Tucson Speedway on Harrison Road.

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ok, i will see if i can make it out there saturday. dialysis takes a lot out of me, so no guarantees.

if i make it out there, i will be wearing a black band on my left wrist to cover the bandages over my access point.

With luck I'll be driving the burgundy and white 83 El Camino with the Monte Carlo nose on it.......if not I'll be in the faded blue Dodge Ram 50 Pickup.

The big pieces that should be easy to spot will be several intake manifolds and a few bellhousings.


intakes by M Patterson, on Flickr


Unless I sell them all before you get there



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Very cool thread!

Trouble breaking a couple bolts.. Time to introduce him to a 1/2" drive SK breaker bar and a three foot length of pipe.

".....Time to introduce him to a 1/2" drive SK breaker bar and a three foot length of pipe......"

He has mentioned that a time or 2. I explained to him then that that is the reason his dad has a box full of broken ratchets.

He has learned that while there is a RARE time and place for that it's best to get a longer/bigger wrench or handle from Grandpas' box. He has a little problem lifting my 3/4" drive handles though

He's old enough that I do let him use the impact wrenchs though....mostly just to take stuff off at this point.




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So, are you guys for against putting the box end on an open end wrench for extra leverage? I've done this several times but you must be a master at control to not get bitten.

Originally Posted by 40FordDeluxe

So, are you guys for against putting the box end on an open end wrench for extra leverage? I've done this several times but you must be a master at control to not get bitten.

I do that at work once in awhile, cause I'm to lazy to walk back to the box of tools. Then one of the younger guys will try to emulate what I did and there are some that just can't figure out how I did it, even tho they watched me hook the box end onto the open end got the added leverage! 8-)

I've been known to do that on occasion too.

On a side note, there probably won't be any updates on the thread for a while. I just got off the phone with Cades' mom and it seems somebody isn't keeping his grades up and has some missing homework.

Doing the car and being able to drive it when he gets his license has always been tied to how he does in school. I'd kind of figured this would happen at some point so we'll just wait and see how long it takes him to get his school work back where it belongs.



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