After waiting patiently for a month, I received a shipment notification from Vintage Air. My A/C kit was on the way from Texas. Even with the Christmas holiday and the shipping delays attributed to Covid the kit arrived in just 4 days. This corresponded to three working days as the package was delivered on 12/26, the day after Christmas. The kit came packaged in three big heavy boxes.

I brought the packages inside and opened up each one of them. I actually remembered to snap a few photos as I opened each one. The first box I opened was the evaporator, compressor bracket, hoses, and associated hardware. Everything was pretty well wrapped, and instructions along with a packing list was included in each individual bag inside the box.

The next box to open contained the compressor. The compressor had a choice of finishes: natural, polished, or chrome. I chose the natural finish version as it was less expensive. Again, there was plenty of packing material to protect the compressor.

The last box contained the condenser, drier, hoses, brackets, and associated hardware. This picture was after I unwrapped some of the parts that were packaged on top of the condenser box.

After opening all the boxes I found some of the enclosed paperwork and started reading. The first thing that caught my eye was a warning that the purchaser must inventory the parts and notify Vintage Air within 15 days of any shortages. Since it is cold outside and my garage isn’t heated I knew it would probably be more than 15 days before I started the install. That meant I had to set aside some time now to inventory everything in the kit.

Once I did find the the time to inventory the kit, I observed that each box contain a packing list. Some of these packing lists showed that other small parts kits were included. Each of those small parts kits also included their own packing lists. I found this very helpful in ensuring that every nut, bolt, grommet, and O-ring was included. While inventorying the entire kit proved to be very time consuming, the very detailed packing lists left me feeling comfortable that all the parts were accounted for.

After the inventory was completed, there were two things I wasn’t expecting. The first was that the compressor bracket comes unpainted. None of the other brackets were bare metal. I can only assume that this was done so that you could apply whatever finish and color you would like to the compressor bracket. The other unexpected item was that the hoses in the kit only had crimped on ends at one end of the hose. The connectors for the other end of the hoses were included, but were not crimped on. I assume that they need to be cut to fit but I don’t know for sure yet. That also means that I will need to purchase or rent a crimping tool, or find a shop that can crimp them on for me. Probably not a big deal, just unexpected.

On the next warm day I plan to work on installing the condenser and painting the compressor bracket. On days where I don’t want to work outside I can still do some preassembly with some of the brackets and control conversion. But right now I’m tired from just unboxing and inventorying all the parts.

My mom always says that purchasing a gift for me is difficult. This year she said she knew what to get for me. I was intrigued because I really hadn’t asked for anything or given her any hints as to what I might like. (Now you know why she says I’m difficult).

This evening I visited with her for a few minutes (Covid concerns limited the duration of the visit). She gave me a package and requested that I open it right then so she could see my reaction. So I opened the package. This is a picture of what she gave me.

As you can see, it is a hand crocheted afghan with the Mustang running horse and tri-bar logo, with Ford and Mustang in the proper script font. It was obvious that she put a lot of effort into getting the details as accurate as possible. I can only imagine how much time and energy must have gone into creating this afghan.

Thanks Mom!

Back in 2013 when I redid the car’s interior I ordered an insulation kit from a company called Quiet Ride. The kit was quite expensive for what it was, and it included sound deadener and pre-cut insulation for almost every part of the car. When I insulated the car’s interior the heater box was installed. This prevented me from installing the firewall insulation at that time. Now that the heater box was removed I took the opportunity to work on the firewall insulation. The factory firewall padding was still partially in place on the firewall. It was simple to remove since after 50 plus years it was pretty much falling apart. That left me with a fairly clean and bare firewall to work with.

I searched through the insulation pieces I had left from the Quiet Ride kit and located what I thought must be the firewall insulation. At first I was unsure how it fit because all the other pieces I had installed had cutouts in them and it was obvious where they fit the car. This piece ended up fitting the passenger side of the firewall and only had a small cutout for what I thought must be the transmission tunnel. I eventually realized that the cutouts must be missing so that the piece could fit either the factory A/C cars or those with only factory heat.

I held the insulation against the firewall and marked where the blower motor and heater hose cutouts should be. Next I made the appropriate cutouts. Of course the new evaporator box will require some additional cutouts for the evaporator mounting points. I decided the best way to accommodate these cutouts is to hold the insulation up to the evaporator box before I install it in the car. That way I can mark the insulation and make the cutouts. Then I can install the insulation and the evaporator after I cut the insulation to fit.

While I was going through the couple of insulation pieces I had leftover in the kit I installed a couple of small pieces that fit around the edges of the trunk. I still haven’t identified any one piece that fits the driver’s side firewall, although I do have several small pieces. If I can’t find anything that fits or can be pieced together I plan to use some spare insulation I have laying around.

I’m not sure I ever expected to revisit the insulation after all this time, but I’m glad I’m finishing up the few areas that remained. That pretty much completes the insulation except under the hood and trunk lid. I don’t plan to insulate either of those as the insulation would be visible. Everything else is mostly hidden behind carpet and trim pieces.

So several years after insulating the car you might wonder if I feel it was beneficial. I believe it was. When I mention at car shows all the work I did with sound deadening and insulation I have received comments that there is no benefit in doing all that work and that it was wasted time. One way to demonstrate how well it works is to tap on the roof of the car and show there is only a muffled thud rather than an oil can effect compared to a car with no insulation and sound deadening. The interior of the car is much quieter and the temperature is more controlled than it was prior to adding the insulation.

As a part of the A/C installation I needed to remove the heater hoses, radiator hoses, and radiator. A visual inspection showed that everything appeared to be in good shape. The only minor issue I saw was that one of the radiator hose clamps didn’t match the other clamps. It was a more modern worm gear style rather than the Witek tower style. I don’t remember ever replacing it, so my best guess is that when the body shop removed the radiator to patch a rust hole in the frame that they replaced the clamp. I ordered a new clamp along with a couple of extra heater hose clamps since I knew I needed then for the heater control valve that comes with the A/C kit.

In keeping with my habit of overthinking things while I waited for the A/C kit to arrive, I decided to replace the heater and radiator hoses since I had them removed from the car anyway. I went ahead and ordered new hoses online. Then I turned my attention to the radiator. I had it re-cored a number of years ago and it really didn’t have that many miles on it since then, so I hoped it was in good shape. But I wanted to avoid having to drain the cooling system and remove the radiator more times than I needed to. I decided it was time to have the radiator cleaned out and pressure tested while it was out of the car.

In the past (since 1974 or so) I had always used one shop for my radiator work. It was called Looper’s and had the slogan “A great place to take a leak”. A quick search online revealed that they were no longer in business. I did some more Web searching and discovered that there aren’t that many radiator shops near me anymore. I eventually found one called Smitty’s about 35 miles away from me. I gave them a call and they said they could service my radiator. Just drop it off and it would be ready in a couple of days.

I dropped off my radiator on a Wednesday afternoon. I asked them to clean it out, pressure test it, solder a bracket that was loose, and replace the petcock which was pretty bent up. I received a call the following Friday morning that my radiator was finished and ready to be picked up.

One more item handled. I’m still anxiously awaiting the arrival of my A/C kit so I can get to work on the install. It’s getting a bit colder outside so my progress on installing the kit might be delayed. That depends on the weather and how much I mind the cold.

The air conditioning system I selected (Vintage Air) required me to locate and purchase two sheave water pump and crankshaft pulleys. I spent way too much time choosing what pulleys to purchase and install, as overthinking is something I’m very good at.

At first I planned to simply order the pulleys from CVF Racing as they sell matched sets with one, two, or three sheaves. I was all ready to pull the trigger on their two sheave pullies until I thought about what ratio I really needed to keep up the water pump and alternator speeds, as well as what diameter crankshaft pulley the Vintage Air system was designed for. The alternator and water pump would be no problem if I just bought the water pump, crankshaft, and alternator pulleys as a set from CVF Racing. The CVF crankshaft pulley is quite a bit smaller than the factory pulley. This meant that the A/C compressor would turn more slowly. This may or may not be an issue for the compressor that Vintage Air includes with their kit.

I decided to dig a little bit deeper to see what the car would have come with if it had factory air and to see if Vintage Air had any recommendations. Looking over the online instruction manual for the Vintage Air compressor bracket installation I found this note:

This bracket was designed using a 2-groove water pump pulley #C8AE-8509-B and a 3-groove crankshaft pulley D3TE-6312-AB.

Now i had some part numbers to research. I found this great site with information on many Ford crankshaft and water pump pulleys. Unfortunately that site didn’t have the pulley diameters for those particular part numbers. After further research I was able to find that my car, if ordered with factory air, would have used a C6AE-8509-A water pump pulley (2 sheave 5.86″ diameter) and C4AZ-6A312-B (3 sheave 6.20″ diameter) for the crankshaft pulley.

The Ford shop manual had some information regarding pulley ratios for Mustangs with and without factory air. Without factory air the ratio was 1.06:1. With factory air the ratio was listed as 1.34:1. This didn’t match with the diameters I stated above, but I decided to shoot for something between the two ratios. The CVF high flow pulleys had a ratio of 1:1 so the water pump speed should be acceptable with those pulleys. However the crankshaft pulley had a diameter of 5.4″, so the ratio for turning the air conditioner compressor would be slower than the factory pulleys.

I decided to attempt to match the factory pulleys as best as I could, although the diameters I ended up with were just a bit different. This would result in turning the water pump at a ratio of 1.15:1. I found that the water pump pulley I mentioned above is reproduced so I could just purchase it from one of the Mustang parts suppliers.

The crankshaft pulley is not reproduced. Since I have an aftermarket harmonic balancer (Professional Products 80009) on my car with bolt patterns and spacing that will work with the old or newer (post 1968) pulleys I had more choices. For the crankshaft pulley, I chose to use the C8AE-6312-E pulley, which came on many cars starting in 1968. It has two sheaves with a diameter of 6.75″. This gave me a ratio of 1.15:1 and I could retain the stock alternator pulley. I would probably lose a few horsepower turning the water pump a bit faster but I decided that was better than overheating or not charging at lower speeds since I do some driving in traffic and in parades. That pulley works with my balancer if I use the spacer that was included with the balancer.

I located a pulley on eBay and made an offer which was accepted. Here’s a picture of the pulley I purchased.

I did some preliminary testing for the inner pulley alignment using a laser pointer (cat toy). I can’t test the outer pulleys until the kit actually arrives and I install the compressor. To check the alignment, I placed the laser pointer in each of the pulley grooves, one at a time. For each pulley I spun it around until the pointer light was shining towards each of the other pulleys. The light from the pointer landed directly at the center of each of the other pulleys. That means the pulleys are aligned.

I tested and am able to use the stock fan belt to drive the alternator and water pump. This was unexpected as I changed the pulley diameters. When I receive and install the new compressor and bracket I will be able to test alignment of the outer pulleys and measure for belt length.

Since the pulleys are not included in the A/C kit I ordered I felt that there was some degree of risk in finding pulleys that would work with both my engine and the A/C kit. I feel that this risk has now been mitigated somewhat since I know I have good pulleys and pulley alignment. Time to move on to anything else I can complete while I wait for the A/C kit to arrive.

In a previous post I wrote that I was leaning towards adding air conditioning to my car. I have now decided that I will make the switch from heat only to heat and A/C. The next issue was that there were three main manufacturers of A/C conversion kits and I had to to choose which system to install. I did quite a bit of research, looking at online discussion forums and reviews, reading the instruction manuals, making calls to the individual manufacturers, and comparing prices.

Just in case you haven’t read my prior post, the three systems I am considering are:

• https://www.classicautoair.com/
• https://www.vintageair.com/
• https://www.oldairproducts.com/

From reading reviews and the Mustang forums I learned that all the systems were well liked by the people who had them installed on their cars. There was some mention of certain systems being more suited to a particular model year of Mustang, but nothing really definitive on that. So based on reviews there was no clear winner. The good news was that it seemed there was no loser and that all the systems are well designed and work well.

I did some online searching with the Mustang parts vendors to compare prices. According to the manufacturers web sites all the prices were within a few hundred dollars of each other. The Classic Auto Air system was the most expensive at the time I researched, but not enough more to make me rule it out. The Vintage Air system was the least expensive, and was available from more vendors than the other systems. I also compared what additional parts I might need to purchase as that also affects the price. The Vintage Air system left it up to the purchaser to source the crank and water pump pullies. The Old Air system included a crank pulley but not a water pump pulley. I was never able to get a definitive answer as to which pullies are included for the Classic Auto Air system as I could never get through on the phone to their sales people. I would wait on hold for a period of time and then I would be disconnected. This happened multiple times, which didn’t speak well for their customer service.

I obtained the installation manuals for each of the products so that I could attempt to compare how difficult the installations were. They were all fairly similar. There were some differences in regards to modifications that were needed to install the hardware, but no really big differences. There were two things that stood out for me. The first is that the Vintage Air manual instructs you to remove a brace from the dash by the glove box. My concerns is that this might weaken the structure enough to cause some rattles, although I don’t know that it would cause any issues. The second item is that I felt that the Classic Auto Air instructions were the clearest and easiest to follow, at least for me. This pleasantly surprised me because from reading the forums there were a number of complaints that the instructions were lacking or unclear. Apparently Classic Auto Air has updated their instructions to address this complaint.

At this point I still didn’t have a clear winner. It was now time to compare features. As far as the controls go, each system adapts the existing heater controls to an electronic control system. Both the Vintage Air and Old Air systems had infinitely adjustable fan speeds while the Classic Auto Air system had fixed fan speeds. Not a big deal but I’m at the point of picking nits now. The Vintage Air evaporator case is sealed and the parts inside are not serviceable by the end user. The Classic Auto Air and Old Air systems were serviceable. The one big standout for me was that the Old Air system didn’t appear to provide floor heating vents. For people in areas where it doesn’t get that cold it probably wouldn’t be an issue but it was enough for me to rule out the Old Air system.

That still left me with the Classic Auto Air and Vintage Air systems, with no clear winner. At this point i let price be the deciding factor. With the current Black Friday sales going on, I was able to get the Vintage Air system for around $200 less than the Classic Auto Air system, and with free shipping as well.

I placed my order and was told I can expect the system in about 4 weeks. That should give me plenty of time to plan, study the installation manual, and find the pullies I need. I plan to discuss the pulley selection process in my next post.

When I bought this car in 1974 it was still pretty much original. That included the radio antenna. That was until some neighborhood vandals decided to break off the antenna mast. I went to the local Ford dealer and purchased a replacement. I immediately noticed that the original antenna had a round base and the Ford replacement kit had a rectangular base. The round bezel didn’t fit the replacement antenna, so I swapped out the original antenna with the round base for the new antenna with the rectangular base. That was around 1974 or 1975. That antenna remained in place until I repainted the car in 2013.

Here are what the two different bases look like.

After the car was repainted I purchased a reproduction antenna with a round base as the rectangular bezel was corroded and I really wanted to put the car back closer to original. I installed the replacement antenna and thought I was done with it. However after a few years the antenna developed a loud rattle and would no longer remain extended.

I did some research and found that the rattle was a well known problem with no good solution. I was unable to find a new Ford round base antenna, and the only reproduction I could find that mentioned rattle cost 5 times as much as the other reproductions.

Since my replacement rectangular base antenna still functioned and did not rattle, I decided to purchase a reproduction rectangular base antenna and use the new bezel with the old antenna. The replacement antenna should be arriving tomorrow. I hope the bezel fits the old antenna as I’m not 100% certain that it is the same size as the original.

It is pretty much the end of the 2020 show season. Due to the Coronavirus pandemic I didn’t attend any in person shows. I did enter a virtual show, but it just isn’t quite the same as looking at the cars and meeting the people in person. I hope that 2021 offers more opportunities for the car show community to get together in person.

Of course not attending car shows doesn’t translate to not driving the car. My driving time was very limited, but I did get the opportunity to stretch the car’s legs a few times. It also gave me plenty of time to plan what car projects I would like to complete this winter. I thought I had a plan, but on my last drive of the season the car gave me a clear indication as to what my highest priority winter project will be this year.

I got the car all cleaned up in preparation for what I thought would be my last drive of the season. I only got a short way from my house before I remembered I needed to bring a mask with me. I didn’t really expect to be in close proximity to any people, but just wanted to bring a mask just in case. I made a quick U-turn and headed back home. I was now driving in a direction where the sun was shining straight through the front windshield. I noticed what appeared to be some smoke or fog rising up in front of the dash. It quickly cleared so I kept on going. I arrived back home and went inside to get my mask. When I returned to the car I noticed a small puddle on the passenger side floor mat and some dripping coming from the heater box. This was something I’d seen before, just not for a number of decades. It looked like I was going to need to replace the heater core. Looks like my joy ride for the day was over.

A couple of days later I made it back out to the garage and pulled the heater box out. One look at the heater core and it was obvious it was leaking. The heater hoses and heater box were in good shape as I had replaced/rebuilt them in the past. So just replacing the heater core was a viable option that I could pursue without a lot of additional work or expense.

Another option would be to install an aftermarket air conditioning unit. This option involves a lot more work but would make driving on long trips more comfortable. Since my car has a factory console there is no room for an A/C unit that hangs under the dash. However there are several companies that sell kits that install in the dash, replacing the factory heater box with a unit that has blended air/heat, and dehumidified defrost functions. I’m not completely certain at this point and I keep oscillating back and forth between A/C and no A/C, but I’m starting to lean towards adding the A/C system. At this point I’m researching and waiting to see if I can get any Black Friday or holiday deals.

Whichever route I choose, I’ll do my best to document the install process, hopefully with lots of photos.

The three aftermarket A/C kits I’m considering are:

• https://www.classicautoair.com/
• https://www.vintageair.com/
• https://www.oldairproducts.com/

Since this car show season was pretty much cancelled due to COVID-19, I’ve been inspecting the car and planning my projects for this upcoming winter. One plan that’s been on the back burner is to replace the car’s upper control arms. I purchased the replacement parts over a year ago but wasn’t able to install them when I replaced the spring perches due to health issues. I also planned to perform the Arning drop while the control arms were removed. I already have the template and drill bits on hand. I will talk some more about the Arning drop in just a bit.

I have already purchased new upper control arms from OpenTracker. He sells arms that he has blueprinted to ensure that the shaft is centered and the bushings are lubed and adjusted to move smoothly. It might cost a little extra but I felt it was worth it.

The Arning drop I referred to above is a modification to the upper control arm mounting point developed by then Ford engineer Klaus Arning that was adopted by Carrol Shelby for use in the early Shelby Mustangs. It has the benefit of lowering the center of gravity of the car and changing the camber curve to have more negative rather than positive camber as the suspension move up and down. Applying the drop requires drilling two new control arm mounting holes in the shock tower located one inch lower than the factory holes. If the upper control arm is already removed from the car it is a free modification. There are numerous write-ups on the Internet on how to perform the drop and its’ benefits. Dazecars has a good write up, but there are many others explanations out there as this is a very popular modification.

I have previously replaced my upper ball joints so I already have some tools on hand. In the past I used a pickle fork to separate the ball joints from the spindle. While eventually successful, using the fork took quite a lot of banging with a hand sledge hammer, repositioning, and prying to get it to work. It also damaged the ball joint and boot, and could mar up the spindle if you aren’t careful. I felt there had to be a better way to do this job.

From searching the web I learned about a simple, easy to make tool that will press the ball joints out from the spindle. I found the plans at the Dazecars web site. (Scroll down the page past the spring compressor plans to find the ball joint removal tool plans.) It looked simple enough that even I could build it. All the parts were even available at my local hardware store. I don’t feel that I need to go into a lot of detail on the tool’s construction since Daze has published the plans on his site.

Here is what mine looked like just prior to assembling it and the finished product.

To use the tool you remove the ball joint cotter pins (or bend them out of the way) loosen the castle nut on the ball joint(s) to be removed (just loosen it, don’t remove it all the way yet), and insert the tool between the upper and lower ball joint studs. Then expand the tool until it is applying enough pressure to pop the ball joint stud out of the spindle. You can always give the spindle a good whack with a hammer at right angles to the stud to get it to pop out. Once the stud has popped out from the spindle you can remove the tool and then the castle nut.

I’ll post again as to how well it worked for me after I do the Arning drop and replace the control arms.

For the past five years I have entered my car in a show put on to raise money for Operation Second Chance. OSC is an organization that helps wounded, injured and ill veterans. Due to Covid-19 they chose to hold their show online rather than in person. I wasn’t sure how this would work but was happy to enter my car and hopefully help out their organization.

When I entered my car, they requested I send them three photos. They wanted a side view, an interior view, and a front view with the hood open. I made a trip to the park and snapped a few photos. I ended up using a front view I took at a prior car show. Here are the pictures I submitted.

Silly me, I don’t know why I didn’t open the door for the interior picture.

The show ran for three days. During that time period people could visit the web site and place their votes for the cars. I was very fortunate to be able to earn one of the runner up spots that included a $25 prize. I chose to donate the prize money back to their organization.

The show wasn’t as much fun as an in-person show would have been. But concessions had to be made to the Covid-19 pandemic. Hopefully next year we can return to holding in-person automotive events. In the mean time I will make do with whatever online events take place.