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Originally Posted by The Greek  Steve, what a really nice car, congrats. May I make a suggestion? While looking at your pictures, I noticed that you don't have a "Monte Carlo bar" or the one piece "export brace". These two items tie and support the shock towers together and keep the towers from flexing. This gives necessary rigidity to the front end of the car. I have installed these on my 67 fastback and I did notice an improvement in the handling.
The "export brace" was originally installed by the factory on cars that were sent out of the country. It was deemed necessary because of the bad road conditions found abroad. It mounts from the center of the upper firewall over to each shock tower and replaces the multi-piece brace that you have.
The "Monte Carlo bar" was a Shelby addition and not a factory part. It mounts across the engine bay from the top of one shock tower to the other. They come in several configurations from straight to curved. The curved bar is for clearance for the oval shaped air cleaner that was installed on some cars. Personally I have tried both the straight and curved types and prefer the curved one to give me extra room around the engine's distributor.
These parts are available in painted black or chrome. Most Mustang part vendors offer them and the cost is minimal.
I hope you enjoy your beautiful car and good luck, ---Chuck |
I'm going to take your advice on the Monte Carlo bar Chuck. Thanks for the suggestion On the export brace I'm going to wait for now. Since the two piece brace I have in there now is welded to the shock towers it's just a little bit more than I want to at this time. I also need to recoup some funds after buying the car.
Well, I took her out for a 30 mile spin this am and all is well. She shifts fine, no noises (except the clutch pedal squeaks), responsive etc.. The temp. gauge barely got off the ground. At first I though it might be that the gauge wasn't functioning but now I think that the combination of the newer radiator, the 6 blade fan and the 160 thermostat that she just runs cool.
The only malfunction I noticed was in the turn indicators. They come on but don't blink.....they just stay lit. Any ideas? Also the high beams don't work. The headlights go from on to out when I kick the high beam button. Not sure what (if any) electrical work has been done on the car in the past but hey, it'll give me something to do in my "spare" time. Could the high beams not coming on have something to do with the switch maybe?
All in all I'm very satisified. There are no leaks, no smoke. JUST FUN !
PS Also after funds are recouped I'm doing the SSBC disc conversion. With 4 wheel drums I might as well cut out the floor pan and use the Fred Flintstone method of braking !
The Wait Is Over ! 
