From Dream to Drive: Edgar Zavala's ’67 Mustang Journey

Introduction

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Episode Preview

1:00Coming up today on this episode of Ford Mustang, the early years podcast. Let me see. It was definitely, I did the brakes all the way around. Carburetor, definitely, I don't even know. I think it was like an eBay type of knockoff carburetor that had the throttle. The flap wasn't even opening all the way, and it was leaking gas. I'll change that out. The accelerator pedal, the whole assembly, it's held in by three screws, right, up to the firewall?

1:32Right. It had two. It was missing one, and then it had a sheet metal screw. Okay. And a sub-tapping screw holding it in. Oh, no. So, yeah. Yeah, let's get those fixed. I had to really look over the car. I'm like, okay, what else?

Welcome to the Podcast

1:57Welcome to the Ford Mustang First Generation The Early Years podcast. Every week, we will have conversations with collectors, experts, weekend warriors, and those in the know when it comes to first-generation ponies. Start your engines, and let's go. All right. Welcome back to the podcast, Ford Mustang Community. So, just check this out. I got an email, or maybe it was a Facebook message from our guest today, Edgar Zavala. And he shared with me a little story about his 67 Mustang, and I was so captivated by the story, I thought, well, heck, I don't want to just hear it.

2:32I want to share this with the entire community. So, let me read you what he wrote, and then we'll get into the conversation.

Edgar's Mustang Story

2:38So, this is directly from Edgar. My 67 Mustang has always been my dream car. It's a Mustang Coupe 289 with a C4 transmission, power steering, power brakes, and deluxe interior. I've owned it for about three years already, and I've done extensive work to get it to where I want it to be. The Mustang is mostly up to my standards, but the work never ends on these cars. How true that is. Currently, I'm working up the front floors and going to add factory AC. That's a whole chore on its own. I can explain that as well to add factory-style AC to it.

3:08Edgar, I'm excited to chat with you. Welcome to Ford Mustang, the Early Years podcast. Thank you, Doug. Very excited to be here. Yeah, happy to have you here. And thanks for sharing a little bit of your story with me through Facebook Messenger, and then, of course, the follow-up conversations. And I thought it would be really good for us to just have a conversation just about all this work that you've done after the first three years. And you think somebody that's got a project may get a little tired after a few months of working on it, but three years you're in it. And I know there's many in our community that have had their vehicles for 20-plus years and are still doing work on that.

Finding the Car

3:39So, why don't you share with me a little bit of your Mustang story, how you came to acquire the Mustang, and a little bit. You're a young guy. So, you definitely weren't around in the 60s when these cars came out. No, definitely not. I'm 34. I just got my Mustang about three years ago. But my love for that Mustang probably came in when I was maybe 20. I remember when that happened. And I was watching what was back then, Velocity, the Nordic promo. And I was watching the show Fast and Loud.

4:11I'm like, oh, well, I think it was during the summer. Nothing was on. I'm like, let me just check this. Right. So, the first episode that aired that I saw was they were working on a 67 Mustang, black on black on black. And I just fell in love with the car. I re-watched that episode like three to four times. I loved everything about that year-style Mustang. And after that, I kept watching the show, got more into cars. It just snowballed. And I remember maybe a month later, I'm like, you know what?

4:43Let me go outside and, you know, change my own oil. And that's how it all started. So, let's talk about that. So, I want to go back to the very beginning when I first bought my car. And this is a handful of years ago. Maybe, I don't know, seven or eight years ago at this point. I had never done an oil change on any car ever, ever, ever. And, you know, I always joked around. The biggest decision I had to make was what color bucket I was going to use to wash my car. So, never done any mechanic stuff. Did you do anything like that prior to you working on your own? Um, prior to getting the Mustang?

5:14Yeah, like anything. Were you a guy that would lift open a hood and, like, just get busy? Or were you somebody that, like me, just had no idea? I had no idea. No idea at all of how to do anything. Yeah, no. Like I said, it happened when I was 20, after watching a couple, you know, car shows. I was a little bit into cars, but didn't know much about it. And then I started watching more and more and more. I got it, you know, into, you know, I started with an old change on a 98 Cavalier, which was my first car all the way from high school. And believe it or not, I just got rid of it two years ago.

5:46So, everything I know about cars, I learned on that car. And I always say that car was cursed because everything that could go wrong on that car did. Hey, but, you know, that was a mixed blessing for you. Bad that things went wrong, but good that it got you a little bit of confidence to get something even older than that. Because you said, what year was your Cavalier? 98. So, a 98. So, stepping back from a 98, which may or may not have had, did that have fuel injection in it? Do you know? Oh, yeah. Okay. So, no carburetor in that car. No, no, no. But ever since I, you know, I laid ice on that 67 Mustang on that show, it's like I knew

6:24that I was going to get that car eventually. Right. So, for years, I was just watching videos, like YouTube videos on that car, on how to do, like, different, you know, different things, like how to change the water pump, what is the carburetor, how does that work? And, you know, all these little things about the car, because when I knew when I was going to get it, I already knew what I was going to look at. I already knew what I was looking at. I'm familiar with the things, even though I've never worked on it. Right. But, you know, 10 plus years of working on my own car, and then plus other cars, like my friend's cars and everything, never worked for a shop, but just worked for my garage.

6:57Right. You know, I got to learn a lot about the cars. I'm, you know, I'm not an expert, but I know a lot. So, you know, yeah, when I got that, you know, when I got my Mustang, finally, it was, it was perfect. It was everything that I wanted, it had. It was a 67. It's red. I'm black. Black, black interior, had the deluxe interior, had the center console and the upper console. Nice. 289 V8, power brakes in the front, power steering.

7:27Actually, no power brakes. It had disc brakes. It had manual brakes, but it did have power steering. No AC, but it was all there. You know, it was everything that I wanted in the Mustang that I was. So go back to that day that you found the car that became yours.

Acquiring the Car

7:43How did you find it? Where, where, what resources did you use? And I know there's probably a number of people in our listening community that are interested in getting a car, but they, but they have no idea like, okay, do I buy it from a private owner? Do I buy it from a dealership? Where do I, where do I get? Do I buy it from a used car place? Where do I go? So tell me about your, your acquisition of the, of the 67. I was very blessed and lucky in how it happened. Um, I was looking all over marketplace like Facebook and, you know, nothing. I was really not serious about it.

8:13Um, I just knew that I wanted, I got closer and closer to the data and I ended up going on offer up and you know, I, I saved a bunch of Mustangs that I was into and a bunch of big Mustangs like, Oh, maybe I can do it. Thankfully I didn't buy them. Uh, cause back then I probably wasn't going to be able to do it, but I found this one and it was a, it's a California car. Yeah. Um, I forgot where in California, but, um, yeah, it's, he had, he had a few pictures on it and it wasn't the best quality, but man, that was, it was the best person that I could,

8:46you know, uh, how close, how close were you guys, uh, location wise, how far did you have to go to actually see the car? Oh, I'm in Chicago, Illinois. All right. So you, and, and the car was in California. Yeah. Okay. So, so take us through that. Cause again, so many people are in our community thinking, how do I buy a car sight unseen or what do I need to do in order to see the car? So what did you do?

9:11It's I flew out there. There you go. Thank you for sharing that. I'm glad you, I'm glad you said that not, and I gave the guy deposit and he shipped the car. So you went to see the car. Yep. I went to go see the car and laid eyes on it. I, I looked all over it. Um, the thing is that we already had, um, a price set. Um, and I got there and I saw it was there, it was all there, but it needed a lot of work. A lot more than you had thought that it needed just based upon the description and the, and the, uh, and the, and, and, and, you know, everything that he said about the car.

9:44Yeah. Okay. So, so what, what was that like? So you flew from Chicago to what airport in California did you fly to? Oh man, I, I, I forgot where California, Northern Southern. Do you know, was it like San Francisco? Was it San Jose? Was it, uh, yeah, close to San Francisco. Got it. Okay. So you bought your car in the same area that I bought my car in Northern California. I bought it from, from a seller in the city, in San Francisco, in the city proper. So you flew to California. Uh, how did you, did you, did you take a, a cab to his house?

10:14Did you, did he pick you up? How, how, um, like easy was he to work with? Was he just waiting for you or did, so, or was it any of that a hassle? He was amazing. You know, even an offer up when we were messaging back and forth, um, he had sellers, you know, that we're waiting to see the car and, you know, like two of them fell out and, and he saw that it was really serious. That I was really into the car. I'm like, give me two weeks, you know, I'll fly out there. Um, rented a hotel. Um, he offered to pick me up and everything, but I'm like, you know, I, I can, I'll get

10:44to you. Nice. Got a room. And then, uh, the next day got an Uber over there to his house and he allowed me to see his car. He helped me out with the whole process. He was great. Okay. So you get to his house and did, was it garage kept? Was it kept on a driveway? How was it? How was it kept? Oh, I wish it was garage kept. You had it outside and you know, the heat from California is not nice to the, to the paint. So, um, the paint does have some cracks all over it, but it's not bad, you know, it's

11:15not, I mean, I saw some pictures of it. It looks, and you haven't done any outside, no, no painting of the, of the, uh, car itself because it looks from the pictures. I didn't look super, super close. Uh, but from what I saw, it was, it was in really good shape. I mean, the, the outside now I did see some of the inside photos and I'm like, Oh no, what did he get? What did he get himself into? Okay. So you saw the car, uh, did you go for a test drive? It had it like, tell me about this, the whole process. Once you got to his house, I, I got the car as Zuber was getting there.

11:46I don't even know if he fully stopped the car, but I jumped out the backseat. Before the car was even stopped Edgar's out in the driveway, man, it's a, he had it outside. So I was just looking all over it. He saw me there. He came out, uh, gave me a whole tour of the car. He let me test drive it. And it was, how, how was the test drive? Okay. It was, it was good. It was good. Um, the only thing I had manual brakes, I'm not used to that. So, um, I really had to put two feet to it to really break, but you get the hang of it, but everything it's, it steers great. It still does power steering was awesome.

12:18When I was driving it, brakes were work really well. Um, all the fluids were topped off. So, so when did you start to discover that there was some other issues that you really, or maybe there weren't, or were there other issues that you didn't know about that he didn't really explain, or maybe he didn't think to explain them to you. I'm not saying he tried to pull anything on you. It was more like, Hey, look there, you know, there's rust on the floor pans. I didn't realize it because there's carpet over. He didn't realize it until you started pulling things apart. You started seeing it. Was any of that stuff, uh, happening?

12:49Yeah, definitely. Um, he, he liked the car, but he didn't know much about it. He would always take into his, to his mechanic. So when I was looking into it, I looked underneath and all the rubber bushings were gone off the suspension. It had oil all over the place. It was leaking from every single place that it could. Oh no. Okay. Okay. And oil, um, it, the floor on front floor pants were, you know, had big holes on it because water was getting it in, um, through the gaskets.

13:19Um, what else? Everything, like I said, everything was there. It just, it needed, everything just needed to be, you know, There was just no TLC over the, now how long, any idea how long he owned it for? I want to say he had it for two to three years. Okay. So he, he wasn't a long time owner, so he wasn't aware probably. I, I'm not saying again, if he's listening, if the previous owner is listening to Edgar's car, listening to this, I don't think that you were trying to pull anything over on Edgar. You probably just weren't aware of some of these things. Let's, let's give him the benefit of the doubt.

13:51Is that okay? Yeah, no. And, and, and it was, it was great because I know, like I was pointing it out to him. Um, and you know, I wasn't really trying to haggle on the price, um, because we had already set that, you know, on, on offer up and, um, you know, I was just pointing it out to him. It was just agreeing, but it wasn't like I was trying to change the price on them, but I, it was great that it was all there. Usually, you know, you're missing parts and then you have to buy them and, you know, it's aftermarket sometimes, but no, it's, it actually has a lot of the original pieces.

14:23It's a lot of the original, you know, FOMOCO, uh, things that came with the car. Right, right.

Restoring the Car

14:29So then you get, so how did you get the car back to your house? Was the intention originally to drive it back or were you always going to trail it back? How were you going to, how were you going to get it back to your house? I don't think it would have made it home. Well, I know that now based upon what you're telling me, but, but, uh, but what was, what was the original plan? What were your, what was your thought process? Hey, I love the car. I'm going to buy the car. Now you get there, you see the condition. You still want to buy the car again, totally, um, you know, commendable to you that you didn't back out of the deal, knowing that this was going to require some, you putting some, some

15:01major effort into getting the car up to, up to, you know, caliber here. So what was the plan? I had already planned that out. I knew I was going to have to tow it back. Um, so I was looking all over for somebody to be able to, you know, a tow truck to get it from California and back to Chicago. And I had that figure it out even before, you know, that's an expense. That's an expensive proposition. I remember just trailing my, uh, just, uh, shipping my Harley Davidson from Baltimore, where I'm from to California, that was a thousand dollars.

15:31Yours was a whole car and going to Chicago, which isn't quite as far as Baltimore, but it's still a great, it's still a considerable distance, thousand plus miles to, to get that. Uh, so you negotiate, did you negotiate the deal ahead of time with a transport company that you knew that you were going to do that? Or did you say, Hey, I'm going to get there, check it out. And then we're going to make arrangements for it. No, I already knew I was going to buy it. Uh, I had a tow truck already, already said, like, I wanted, I wanted to get picked up at this time, you know, so I kind of had to work backwards. This is the time that it was going to get picked up.

16:02So I got to get there at this time so I can look over the car and test drive it. Right. You know, paper figured out. Yeah. I had to plan everything, you know, like hour by hour and how things were going to plan out. And it did. Way to go. And again, uh, for those in our Ford Mustang community that are in the process of buying a car that is a, uh, not in your backyard, these are all the things that you need to think about. And not only just the transport, but you know, Edgar, once he's paid the dollars for the car, wrote him a check or gave him cash or however it worked. He also needed to handle the motor vehicle stuff too, because you can't leave there or

16:37you don't want to leave there necessarily without title in hand. Cause once you give the guy cash or a check, and if he doesn't turn over the title to you, then there's an opportunity. I'm not saying that Edgar's seller would have done this, but for him to basically split. So what ended up happening? How did you guys handle the paperwork? Yeah. He, uh, like I said, he was a great, great person to be able to do, make this deal with. He, he guided me through everything. Um, so we, he took me inside his house. We signed everything, all the paperwork, all like the title and everything.

17:09He told me where, you know, like go to your DMV. This is what you're going to say and everything. So yeah, he helped me out through the whole process. He was actually a cop there. Ah, nice. Okay. So he, he kind of understood and he wasn't, again, he was, it wasn't the intention for the guy to, to screw over Edgar, but those in our community that are buying cars that are basically sight unseen until you get there, you don't know what you're walking into. You could walk into somebody that's not even his house and he's going to show you a car on a lot and you're giving him money for that car.

17:40And you know, it sounds like Edgar and the seller went into the house, signed all the title, maybe even gave him a bill of sale, all of the things so that when Edgar got back to Chicago, he basically takes the California title, a bill of sale and any other paperwork that he has into, uh, into Chicago motor vehicle or DMV and finishes the paperwork. Is that what happened? He gave you all the paperwork and you took it home? Yeah, exactly. Just like that. Even before I got there, I think I, there are some websites that are online that you can plug in the bin and it'll tell you, you know, what the status of the car is.

18:12If it's stolen, if it's missing or something, anything like that. It was as, as he described. Nice. Nice. That's perfect. Okay. So now you got the car being transported, any issues with transport, getting it back to Chicago at all, or did it arrive on schedule as, as they said? It was, everything went so smooth. If they arrived, maybe like two days later, um, yeah, he, I, I still remember the day that he was unloading it right in front of my house. I'm like, man, I can't believe I finally have it down to down, even to the wheels as

18:43a style, style steel wheels. Yeah. Yes. Everything. Even, even those are the wheels that I wanted, everything that I wanted to have. All right. So you get, so you get it to your house and then when did you start to, did you immediately start working on it or did it sit there for a while? And, uh, is it on a driveway in a parking lot where, tell us about where it landed in

Working on the Car

19:03Chicago? Oh, right in front of my house. I keep, I, it's garage kept all the, all the time. It's not coming out of the garage. I, um, yeah. So I, I think I, I started like really maybe a week later after, you know, I stopped really like just staring at it, you know, is, uh, time to dig in, time to dig in and get some work done on it. Yeah. I started looking over it and the first year I just wanted to make it safe and safe enough to drive around, uh, here and there. Um, so I was just looking all over, okay, like what does it need in order for me not

19:36to be stuck in the side of the road? Um, and in your case, what, what was that? Brakes, steering, fuel system, carburetor, you know, all that stuff. What, what was the first thing that you actually, uh, approached? Let me see. It was definitely, I did the brakes all the way around carburetor. Definitely. I don't even know. I think it was like an eBay type of knockoff carburetor that had like the throttle, the flap wasn't even opening all the way and it was leaking gas or change that out. Um, the accelerated pedal, the whole assembly, it's held in by three screws, three screws,

20:13right up to the firewall. Right. It had two, it was missing one and then it had a, a sheet metal screw and a tapping screw holding it in. Oh no. So yeah, let's get those fixed. Like I had a, I had a really look over the car. I'm like, okay, what else? So did you say four, four drum brakes all the way around or were the two front discs? Uh, two front disc in the front. Uh, got it. Got it. So you, did you, you replaced the drums or did you just do and, and the, uh, and the

20:46pads on the front or did you do something else? Oh, full brake job all the way around. Uh, I got the shoes, the, the drums, uh, hard work cut in the back, uh, new rotors, uh, pads, um, everything. How was that? How was the master cylinder and, and, uh, and, uh, and pump? Um, it was, it worked really well. It worked really well. I think it was, uh, I don't think the car was originally, um, probably not disc in front, probably four wheel drum all the way around.

21:17Yeah. So it was retrofitted, but it has like the original style of disc brakes. Right. Right. Very cool. All right. So what was the next thing that you did? Um, what else? I actually took it the first year I actually took it to my mechanic. Uh, he said he knew kind of how to work on those cars. He supposedly worked on them back in the day. So he fixed a couple leaks here and there. Just, you know, like I said, try to make it drivable. I changed my, the carburetor over to, um, and it still has it right now. The Edelbrock ABS to 500 CFM, the throttle linkage.

21:50I had a really fixed that. Cause it wasn't even, it wasn't even supposed to, it wasn't part of a car that the one that it had. So homemade, homemade. It sounds like homemade. Um, but after that, you know, I was able to drive it the first year, a couple months, a story for the winter, uh, second year. So I really, you know, went in there and I just redid the whole interior, the paint. Uh, I feel like they repainted it like maybe twice. It was black, but you know, like it had the, the doors are supposed to have like the original grain on there.

22:21You couldn't even see it cause the paint was so thick. Painted over it in a number of times. Yeah. Yeah. So everything I stripped all the paint off with a wire wheel, everything. I, I took all the interior off everything. So I repainted it. It's, uh, satin black. Um, and then all the interior pieces too. It's, uh, everything it was, it's either retouched or, or brand new. Did you reupholster the interior or was the interior in the upholstery in good shape? No, it was actually in good shape. Nice. Okay.

22:52Uh, did you say automatic or manual? It's an automatic 289. Nice. Nice. Okay. And it had the center console. And so you pulled everything out. See, did you pull all the gauges out also? Did you do the entire dash? Everything. Everything. Did you do, you redo the dash pad as well? Dash pads actually were in really good shape as well. I don't think that's the original one, but I think it's a really good shape. Um, but yeah, everything I pulled out. So some of the photos that you sent over, I saw the, uh, the engine was, uh, did you rebuild

23:22the engine or was that a new crate engine that you put in there? That was actually, uh, this year. So yeah, after I finished the interior, um, even the wiring I tackled a little bit because it just, it looked like a bunch of spaghetti down below by the footwell. And it was just really, it was horrible. It was, it had an aftermarket stereo. It was really wired wrong. It had, uh, automatic windows, uh, power windows. And, um, even like the, like to close the door, um, it had that, that was power, power locks, nothing worked.

23:53So, and I wanted to go back to your original style where you have to roll the windows down, right? Yeah. I wonder, I wonder who, I wonder which owner of the, uh, of the chain of command there, chain of ownership. I wonder who changed it to, uh, automatic windows and doors, man. I don't know, but it was a horrible, maybe back then it worked, but when I got it, it just didn't. So I took everything out to fix some of the wires to have the original wires. Um, and then also like the interior lights didn't work. And instead of them fixing it, they just took the fuse out and hit the wires.

24:24And it was just one of the, like, I believe it was green and yellow wire hitting some of the metal on the, on like on the side, uh, grounding out. Yeah. So, you know, I patched some of the wires up. Um, that's where I did the second year, uh, this year started last October finished in July. I did everything in the engine, engine bay. So, yeah, I took the engine out, transmission out, everything out of the transmission. Again, wire wheeled everything. Um, had you do this all on your own or did, did, uh, did, was this done in the shop also?

24:59No, I did everything on my own, everything, mostly everything that's been done on the car. Uh, I've done on my own. Um, you know, the biggest, uh, help that I've had on this car, it's actually Chris doc. Oh, really? And Gracia? Yeah. Oh, very cool. So did you, yeah. Cause he's in your part of the world. He's in a, he's in the Chicago at land area, isn't he? Yeah. He's, uh, East Dundee, Illinois. So, so what did, what did Chris, what did the doc help you out with? I'm curious. Man, I'm so thankful for him.

25:29He's helped me out over these years. Uh, he's always answered the phone and answer my questions. Um, yeah, so I've, I've always had like a couple of questions when I was working in the, uh, in the engine, you know, like I opened up the engine. I just wanted to re redo everything. Like all the gaskets, right? Right. So I redid all the gasket, put a new fuel pump, put a new timing chain. And then also, um, I redid the, uh, the valves on there. So when you say, when you say redid it, you, you cleaned everything out and got it all set.

26:01I mean, I'm assuming that you didn't do any machining on your own or did you do that stuff? Oh, definitely not. No, I didn't want to take it that far. Um, I didn't take the hats off or anything, but the thing that he really helped me out was the valve adjustment and he, I think he didn't really think I was going to be able to do it. Um, but I got it done and doesn't knock, it doesn't rattle nothing. And red runs really great. Um, so, so at some point you had to separate the engine from the transmission in order to get that transmission out and do the flywheel and all of that stuff.

26:32And no problem in any of that. Gosh, that's such a, that's such a confidence builder when you're able to do that kind of stuff, but how, how afraid, how fearful were you? To, uh, to make this, this, I mean, that's a major, major, um, improvement or, or at least repair to try to make. Yeah. The best thing about working on this car is that everything is super simple. You just have to take your time and really look what, what each thing is connected to. Right. So, so I took the engine and trance out together. For example, like the, the cross member, you know, like, oh, there's two bolts on there.

27:05You know, where's that connected to? You take those out. You have, you take care of those bolts, right? You don't lose them. Right. Um, and then, yeah, just take your time, go slow and, you know, everything, everything will turn out great. So did you, uh, did you, what, were you working on the car while it was in your garage or did you bring it out to a driveway or, or how did you actually do? And did you, how did you lift it up? Cause there's not a lot of clearance between the bottom of that car and, uh, and the ground. So, so what did you do? Yeah, no, I was, uh, when I was taking the engine out and took it out in the driveway.

27:36So I had all the space in the world, had the cherry picker there. Um, that was actually, it went really, that went really smooth. Really? Surprising. Yeah. Putting it back. Oh my God. Yeah. Now you got all these freshly painted parts and, and you're trying to just, you have to kind of tilt it down as it, as you're bringing it through to the, uh, to the transmission tunnel. Yeah. And you know what, to the motor mounts, there is a piece that is connected to the, um, on the, um, shock towers.

28:07Okay. And one of them has an R, right? One of them has an R. It has, it means like the right side. Right. And my, my idea, my thought was like me looking into the front of the car. Um, the right side is the driver's side. Correct. But it's not how it is. And it's not. And, and oh my God, oh my God, it's, it's, it's the other way it's supposed to go on the passenger side. But I try to put it in that way. I was up to like two, 2 AM probably. I started like at six in the afternoon and it was 2 AM during the weekday.

28:39And, you know, I had one of the neighbors come out and he's like, man, this transmission has to go back more, you know, what's wrong. And then I'm like, well, it had some motor mounts on there. And then I told him what I did. I'm like, no, man, that's supposed to go on the other side. Uh, so, so I'm assuming the, um, the alignment of the motor mounts is such that you can't get enough clearance if they're put the opposite way to get the transmission and the engine in there. Um, so it's, it's a little off. It was a little off, not much, but just a little off, right? It threw everything off. So I set the engine down and trans to where I can just put it on the car.

29:13So like, I'm, I'm tired. I want to go to sleep. I went to bed and I'm like, I kept thinking about it. I'm like, I just want to keep, I want to go back outside and try it again. And, you know, and the next day I actually took the day off from work to get the job done and, you know, it's like the engine back out and trans and, you know, switched over that, those, uh, those mounts and, um, and then it went a lot smoother. I was able to get it done in like an hour. Amazing. And, and did you do any transmission work aside from, uh, replacing, did you replace the

29:43gaskets for the transmission and all of that as well? Yeah. Some, uh, the tail shaft, um, housing seal in the back. Also did the shift shaft seal. I'm like, might, might as well, while it's here, you know, super easy to work on right in front of me. Right. Uh, and then the oil pan gasket got a new oil pan for it. And I think that's it. Yeah. What's, what's amazing Edgar is there's a huge amount of, uh, you know, you, you have this level of confidence when you start to make these repairs, but you have a, a huge

30:15one has a, a huge amount of self doubt when they're not like, Hey, don't forget when you're doing, like you said, the, um, the shifter seal, what, what was it that you replaced on the, uh, the shifter where it meets the transmission? There's a seal in there. Right. So you have to, you have to do that. And at any point, any small error that you make there is going to, now you're going to leak transmission fluid if that's not done properly. And it's like, if you're not putting the valve cover gaskets on, yeah, it's not a big deal,

30:45but there's opportunity to make error in every single place that you're mating metal to metal that has a gasket. How did that, how did, how were you able to say to yourself, I can do this? I'm confident that I can do this and, and then do it successfully. Like, I know you had somebody like the doc was helping you on the phone, but you know, sometimes it's nice to have somebody literally standing there with you as you're making these and that's, you can't always find, you're never going to find those guys. You know, they, they're like, get out of the way. Let me do this.

31:16And you did this all yourself. How did that make you feel? Oh, it was, it was great. It was amazing. Uh, really what was helping me out a lot was all the YouTube videos that I was watching. And, you know, before I even started all this work, I, I had already watched them. So, and I kept rewatching similar type of videos. So I already knew what I was kind of going in for and looking for it. Right. Um, even for the shit chats, you know, you know, it was a lot of videos on that. So, you know, I kind of knew what, how to, how to do it before I even did it. You know, what's, what's funny is that I remember when I replaced or added, didn't replace, there

31:46was not one in there. When I added, uh, a vintage AC unit onto my F two 50 camper special, I remember it was probably 30 or 40 hours of labor that I had to put into making that, um, you know, that improvement, but man, what a great feeling once I was, I'm like, okay, there's now air conditioning in my truck that never had air conditioning before. Now you're about to do that at some point with your, with your Mustang as well. You're going to put AC in it. It's going to give you the same feeling of, as of confidence.

32:19I know as the, a major amount of time and effort and energy you put into putting that transmission and the engine back in your, in your Mustang. Oh, definitely. Uh, for the AC, I actually been taking a couple of like a year, uh, to really just find all the brackets because I want to, I want to make it original like the factory AC. Um, according to the market report, it's an AC car and it came with, uh, all the interior pieces for, for the AC and the heater. Oh, nice. It has the original box in there. Uh, the fiberglass box. I rebuilt the box actually, uh, all the seals and everything, um, flushed out the, um, the,

32:53uh, the heater core. Uh, yeah, the heater, well, the heater core is new, uh, the evaporator. Got it. Got it. Oh, so it actually had an evaporator is, so it was, it was a compressor still in there also, or, or was that not in there? No, sadly, no. And that's what it was, uh, that's been giving me a lot of, uh, you know, hard time to find all the original pieces. So I have them all now. I have, um, all the original brackets, uh, with the part numbers on there, the Fomaco, uh, Ford. Wow. That's cool.

33:23Yeah. So just the hoses are going to be, you know, aftermarket. I found a York compressor that I actually opened up and replaced some of those seals in there. Uh, so hopefully that works. If not, then yeah, I have to buy one off. Good for you, man. I, I, I respect the guy that's going, I mean, you're like a going concourse here. I mean, you're, you're really getting it back to original, original condition. And I love the fact that you pulled out some of the electric stuff that wasn't original in the, uh, you know, for the, the windows and locks and stuff. And you're, I don't, you know, I, I don't recall ever seeing maybe this is somebody in

33:57the community. Reach out to me. Let me know if I'm, I'm wrong here, but was there any electric door locks or windows available in the Mustang at any point along the way? I mean, in that first gen, I don't know that there was. Um, I'm not sure. Maybe after 68, um, I don't think 67, 68 had any, definitely not 65, 66. Um, but I don't know about 69, 70 after that. So that's cool. So, so you got the engine back in and did you replace things? Like, did you redo the, uh, buy a new alternator, new power steering pump or wait, did you have

34:32power steering in it to begin with? Yeah, I did. Uh, had power steering, um, original style power steering. So I had to redo all the hoses too, cause they were leaking. I did that the first year. And then, uh, the second year I redid the, uh, the power valve, I believe. Um, I opened it up. All the seals are new. Uh, so it's, it's not leaking surprisingly. It's been over a year. It's not leaking. Awesome, man. That's great. That's a, that's a good feeling. I have a, a small, very slow drop of transmission coming out of my Mustang, my 65.

35:04And I've, I've had that since the day I got it. And I'm like, you know, eventually I'm gonna, it's not going to be a little bit. It's not coming from around the pan. So I think it's coming where the linkage hits the, uh, transmission somewhere in there. That seal is probably not, not, uh, doing its thing the way that it should. So, uh, I don't know that I'm, I'm comfortable get, you know, taking the pan. I don't, I don't think I'm comfortable with transmission work. I'm a little afraid to get that done. But again, I, I listened to guys like you that have done it without a huge amount of experience prior to you getting the car.

35:35And I'm like, I can do this on my own. I, but the idea of doing it on my own scares the crap out of me. No, just think of it. If anything goes wrong, you just take it to a shop. They'll get it fixed. I know one of my mechanics, like everything is fixable. You know, I just, you know, I probably have to pay the penny on how much. Yeah, yeah, I totally hear that. And from a guy that's, uh, that's had a lot of, uh, a lot of engine and transmission work on several other vehicles that I have in, in my inventory, they're all Ford pickup trucks, uh, at this point, but, uh, other than the Mustang, it's, uh, it does get expensive, but

36:07I do know that there's a huge amount of confidence that you get from doing the repairs yourself. Um, I have found that any repair that I've done once it, if I've done it once, I've done it three times because, because every time I'm like, oh no, I didn't put that in right. Or I didn't seal that right. So I'm taking the power steering pump. I had to replace the power steering pump three times in one of my trucks, the trucks. And I'm like, oh man. And not because they were defective. It was because I screwed up. So I, I feel like, uh, doing something over and over and over again, definitely gets you,

36:38you better at it. Like by the time you got to that fourth wheel that you were repairing, you know, replacing the brakes on, you were probably an expert with brakes, right? Oh, that, all of that. I went through that with the Cavalier. Right. That's why I thought it was nervous because I'm like, I had to redo everything. And then, you know, like it's, it's so bad. Like I, I lost the wheel on the highway one time on it. Oh my gosh. Because of the hub assembly, you know, and that was back then when I was starting to like learn about cars. And I was just hearing a humming noise. Like if you were going in a tunnel and you know, they were saying like, well, yeah,

37:09it's a hub assembly. I'm like, okay, I'll do that later. Like I would never do that again. Do it now. Do it now. So what, uh, what things are you still going to be doing to, uh, I heard you said you're going to put AC in it. What else do you have to do to the, to the Mustang? Yeah. So, I mean, everything on there, the engine bay, like I said, it's everything is either brand new retouched or repainted or like cleaned up. But everything under there is, you know, including the wiring, um, in the engine and inside as well. The other, so it has all new wiring. I just have to do the trunk, uh, wiring now and that's it.

37:42I really have to do the, uh, front floors. So I've never done any welding. I think about a month ago, I went over to, uh, Eastwood and they offer one-on-one, uh, welding classes and I took a class and now I bought a welder and I'm going to weld my

Future Plans

37:58floors. All right. Curious. Cause I'm, I'm there with you as well. I just got a new, a new truck and I, it's got some, uh, floor pan work that needs to be done. And I'm like, I know I really want to do the welding, but I, I am like at odds with what kind of welder to get. So what did you get? I got the Eastwood, um, uh, MIG 140. Okay. Um, you could just plug it into the wall and it would work. Uh, the gas, uh, it's 75% argon, 25%. Is it CO2?

38:29I believe that's what I'm going for. Um, and yeah, it should, it should work great. All right. Give it to me again. Cause I'm going to, I'm going to include a link to that in the show notes. So it's the Eastwood. The Eastwood make one 40, but I mean, if you want, I would do with a one 80, um, that way if you have, if you can upgrade your, your electrical system in your garage to be able to handle the extra volts, I would do the one 80. What's it like a 50 amp as opposed to a 30 amp, something like that. Yeah. With the fuse box as well.

38:59And then, uh, the volts, uh, I want to say it's the one 10 volt and then it goes up to two something to the one. Got it. Got it. Very cool. And it does, it does, uh, you said MIG or TIG? MIG. And, and it also does gas? Yeah. It's, uh, the gas one. Very cool. All right. Well, I gotta, I gotta check it out. I, uh, I'm just like starting to investigate what are good options for handling the, the, the workload, which is minimal compared to, you know, I'm not working on a quarter inch

39:29or half inch metal or anything like that, but enough to be able to get through a floor pan and, and, uh, and then spot weld and do the things I need to do along the way. Honestly, the, the tedious part is the prep work, you know, taking, cutting off the old, uh, floor pan off where you want it and preparing the new floor pan, um, and, you know, getting everything exact. That's, that's the tedious part. That's what, that's what I hear over and over again, just get, and then just getting the, the right fit for the, the new piece that's going to go in there.

40:00So it's a, uh, it's an exact fit. Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, a lot, there's different ways to, that people go about it. I mean, some people overlap the new metal with the old metal. Um, some people like to do the butt weld where, you know, like it's right, like edge on edge. Um, so it just depends how you want to do it. I think one of the, uh, one of the coolest things that I was able to accomplish with one of the, uh, vehicles that I was working on was, um, I did some wire wheel and then I put in some, um, uh, crap, I'm, I'm blanking on, on what it was, but it filled in all of

40:35the, the little pinhole, um, spots on it. And, uh, and then I put, uh, uh, poor 15 over it. So I, after all, everything was done and then I sealed it nicely. And then I put the, um, the, uh, the kill mat on top of it and kill mat really does a good job of sound deadening. So kill mat and then carpet on top of that. And I took a truck that was in this particular case, a truck that was really loud, uh, to very, very quiet inside. And that was the truck that I put the vintage AC unit into and it holds the temperature quite

41:09nicely as well. So, um, do, do as much as you can. Once you're, once you're doing it, you know, put, put some layers in there to really kill all of the noise and, and, um, and, you know, just the sounds and, and temperature differences, especially in Chicago, uh, it can get pretty hot during the summer and really cold during the, to the winter time. So just to, just to do that was a big benefit for me here just in Southern California alone. Yeah. I'm looking into that too. I know Ford, um, it actually still had those, uh, I don't know, I guess it was like a sound

41:42deadening piece. It was like made out of maybe like rubber. It was put, uh, like a specific spots inside the car, like under your, the, on the floor pants and the right floor pants under the seat, uh, on the trans tunnel, but it wasn't the entire car. It was just like sections. I was thinking about buying that over, over like Kilmet or something similar. Well, anything just to get an additional layer between you and the, and the road, because, uh, that metal, if it's left bare, uh, it picks up a lot of the, the vibration of the, of the, of the road that's going on underneath you and for the tires.

42:15So, and it also helps with temperature, but for the most part, I used it really just for noise deadening and it, it's done a great job of, uh, of helping with that. That's good to know. Yeah. I'm probably gonna, I'll look into that. So let's move beyond the car and talk about, uh, the community. Are you involved in any of the Mustang clubs that are by you? Are you just a solo independent guy on your own? How do you handle that? Yeah, no, it's a kind of independent guy. And then the car shows, it's like, um, it's throughout the summer when they're actually

42:47happening. I'm, I'm kind of, that's where I'm kind of working on the car. That's where I have the most time. So like how I mentioned to you before, I, I work as a school counselor and, you know, my time is, you know, it's, I'm super busy with work all the time. I come home late. I don't really have enough time to work, you know, during the week on, on the car, I have to wait on the weekend. And then when, when I go on vacation, like right now I'm on winter break. So I get to go in the garage and get some hours on the, on the Mustang. And, um, but yeah, I would have to wait until like June when I come out of on vacation.

43:19And then I really, you know, I go in on the car and, you know, by the time I'm done, like all the car shows have passed and, you know, I can't really get out there. Like this year, I got it out in August and I put it away maybe like, you know, like a month or two later. So I really didn't enjoy all the car shows with my car, but no, I'm not really involved with like the car. No, all good, man. And different strokes for different folks. You enjoy working on your car. Not necessarily the community itself, although the community is, as you can see through talking to, uh, Chris, the doc and Gracia, it's a, it's very helpful to have somebody that's

43:51on your side and helping you and is, uh, is there to help you boost confidence. I have a number of guys that are, are here in California and some that are long distance for me. Uh, uh, John Campania is one of them who lives in, uh, Atlanta, Georgia. And I'm always, you know, when I've bought a number of my vehicles, I've FaceTimed him. I'm like, what do you think about this part? Is this okay? Is this okay? You know, cause all of those common spots, not only on Mustangs, but all sorts of cars, um, they have the common spots that their problems like the, you know, on the Mustangs, it's the, it's the cowl, you know, you can, you can easily see if it's gotten clogged

44:24up and completely rusted through that the car is, uh, you know, challenging or the wheel wells or any of that stuff or, or the floor pans for that matter, uh, too. So that's pretty good that you've been able to maintain, get this car up to, up to your standards. And now you're driving it and really getting a chance to, uh, to enjoy it as well. Yeah, definitely. Um, you know, like I, I try to keep it as original as possible, original style parts. I do have some mismatch, uh, like it has 68 valve covers, uh, as an HEI distributor, but

44:56like it still has the original color. It was originally dark moss green and it still has some of the green, um, around the car, like the floor pans or in the trunk, you can still see some of the green. So the trunk, it's going to be a time capsule. I'm not going to touch it. Um, everything else, like the floors I'm rethinking of, like maybe just painting it, uh, the floors, uh, uh, red oxide and then just doing like, uh, the rubber pieces on the floor and then maybe a new carpet, right?

45:27Cause it's super old. I want to say it's, I don't think it's the original carpet, but it's super old. Um, so I'll just replace the carpet. So yeah, I try to do as original as possible. So you've been working on the car for, uh, three plus years now or around three years, uh, any ever a plan to, to get another one in the inventory or you, I'm assuming you're planning on never selling your car. I'll never sell it. No, I'll never sell it. If anything, I originally wanted, it's a coupe. I originally wanted a fastback, but I don't have fastback money.

45:59Yeah. Not many people do. I don't have fastback money either. I've always wanted one as well, man, especially in 67 or 68. How cool would that be to have that in your driveway? It would be great. And now the thing is that I say, it's like one day, maybe I'll do a Mustang, a fastback conversion and I'll repaint it myself. Um, you know, the pain jobs, you know, the prices for pain jobs now, it's crazy. So, you know, so like the only way that I can afford it is by doing it on my own. And, you know, I actually do have confidence of being able to do that too. But, uh, you know, that's going to take some time and more than a year, but for now I want

46:34to enjoy it, I want to really just finish it. Um, now you never really finish, but you know, finish it to where I can enjoy most of the summer this time. And, uh, yeah, yeah, man. Well, great. I, I, I was so excited to be able to chat with you and the conversation did not disappoint. I, I love, I love that you've done a lot of this work or most of the work on your own. I love the fact that you're willing to take on more responsibility as it relates to just even something like a paint job, which is, wow, that's, that's incredible. If there's anybody that I think could do it, I think you could do it here.

47:05Cause you've, uh, you've impressed me as a guy that is, uh, that is not going to take, uh, I can't do it as a, as a response to anything that's going on with your Mustang. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. You know what, to be honest, working on classic Mustang is my dream job. You know, I know as I work as a counselor and it's a really fulfilling, uh, job and, you know, I do enjoy parts of it, but really what I really want to do is being able to work on, on these types of Mustangs. I would love to work for my garage and work on other people's Mustangs. Um, that would be my ultimate, ultimate goal.

47:36You know, I think you got the right connection in, uh, in the doc. You probably could have a couple of talks with him and listen to other podcasts that we've done. Uh, we've got plenty of guys that have been in the, uh, in the world that are actually in your part of the, your part of the re of the, of the country in Chicago. So, uh, maybe just, just look through my guest list and see who else is on there that I could reach out to. Cause some of these guys are super like Jim Chattis, super nice guy, probably not too far from you, uh, where he is. And I know the doc isn't too far from you as well. Mustang brothers.

48:07I know we're always looking for, uh, always looking for, for, uh, for, uh, some ideas. So maybe they'd be into, to getting some of your help as well. Oh, for sure. That would be awesome. That would be great to be able to work with them too. And doc, you know, that would be great. Um, but yeah, like, uh, I'm a huge fan of the podcast. Um, every weekend I, I pretty much take like a 45 minute drive and it's Saturday and Sunday where I'm like on the way home, I'm listening to the podcast. I think I've gone through everybody on the list that had since like 2019.

48:38Wow. And I just keep going, uh, over until like, you know, over the, the same. That's cool. And I know I got to get more episodes out.