Family Participation

One of the Christmas presents we got for Brian was new front shocks for the Mustang.  Installing them, though, presented a problem.  The shocks act as a travel limiter on the front springs, and without the shocks in, the suspension was extended further than it normally would be.  This meant that to attach the shocks at the top and bottom, the springs would have to be compressed to match the length of the shocks.  This would normally not be a problem.......just put a jack under the lower control arm and lift it up.  However, without a motor in the car it is so light that jacking on the LCA just raised the car up without compressing the spring.  We solved the problem by having all hands muster in the engine compartment and pretend to be an engine:

That provided just enough weight that we could get the shocks attached at both ends. 

This brought the wheel, or brake disk, up into a more normal position:

Brian also brought some parts down that he got as presents from other people, and we also made a run to the local parts shop and bought some more.  One of the more tricky jobs we did was to install the trunk seal weather strip and then re-align the trunk lid.  The seal is installed using weather strip adhesive and it has to bend around the four corners of the trunk lid:

Brian installed the license plate light, the right headlight, right turn signal light, and the fog lights and wires.  For some reason we can't figure out, we had two right side turn signal buckets and no left one.  These are parts we took off the car and I have pictures that show the left one was correct, so how we ended up with two rights is a mystery. 



While Brian was installing the lights, I was trying to put some springs in the doors.  These springs fit in the hinges and prevent the door from opening too far and bending the sheet metal.  They also provide for a detente at partial door opening.  The problem is that the spring is about twice as long as the space it needs to go into and I couldn't figure out a way to compress it and fit it in.  After a couple of hours of working on it I gave up and after Brian left I got online and did some research on the Vintage Mustang forum where I got the following idea:

Closing the vice and tightening the zip ties got me a compressed spring:

Then I fit it into the door:

It wasn't quite as simple as I make it sound, as it took me most of  the afternoon, but I got it done right. 

Slowly, but surely, progress is being made.