Rainy Day Mustang

The past two days have been rainy, so I did a bit of work on the Mustang.  I had a couple of objectives; one was to figure out why the driver's side door didn't latch, and the other was to figure out how to remove the windows on the driver's side.  Then I can show Brian how to do the other side and we don't waste as much time figuring it out when he is here.  I also had some wiring to remove in the rear. 

I have been bragging about how good the shop manual is for the car as I have used it in the past to do engine and clutch work and it was very detailed and easy to follow.  However, I discovered that when it comes to body work, the manual is not so hot.  I think the problem is that it covers too many models with different bodies, but the same engine and transmission, so the engine instruction can be detailed, but it would be too much work to included such detail on the body of every model.  So I was pretty much on my own in figuring out how to work on the doors and windows. 

I did eventually get the driver's side door window, vent window and rear quarter window removed.  Then I could get a good look at how the door latch worked.  I discovered the problem was in the button on the door handle that you push to open the door.  The two pictures below show the inside of the door where this button is connected to a rod that goes to the latch:

Notice the difference in the position of the gold-colored triangle shaped piece in the two pictures, and how the end of the rod is higher in the second picture.  When you push on the door button, a short rod comes into the door interior and pushes on the bottom of the triangle.  You can see this rod and the contact point with the triangle hidden just behind the vertical rod to the latch.  The push button thus changes the horizontal motion of pushing  the button to vertical pull on the latch rod.  The problem with the door was that the button was stuck in the position of the second photo, so that the door was always unlatched.  A little WD 40 on the push button mechanism freed it up and the door works perfectly now.  However, we will have to disconnect the door latch rod and remove the door handle before we turn the car over to the paint and body guy. 

I also removed some wiring for the tail lights and fuel gauge, and found it easier to work from inside the car.  Carolyn thought it looked pretty funny and took these pictures:

Here are a couple of pictures of the current state of the interior:

I've never taken a car apart this much before and sometimes it scares the crap out of me when I think about all the work that needs to be done.  I have to remind myself that it's not really my project, but Brian's, and we have lots of time and there are lot of sources of information and parts.  And, it was a good way to stay occupied on a rainy day.