Jeff's 1973 Mustang Convertible


This page is dedicated to my dad Jeff Sr. and my Grandfather, Claude Davis.

Without them I wouldn't be interested in cars. Without their advice I wouldn't have had the courage to do this project.

Thanks Dad & Grandpa
This is what it looked like day one.

The Beginning December 24, 1996


This was my Christmas present. I bought the car for $600 and this is how it looked when I brought it home. The first thing I did was empty most of the engine out of the trunk. Then I stripped out the interior, trunk and under the hood to inspect for rust and stop any major cancer. Luckily there was only surface rust in the trunk (except the rear quarter panels which need all new metal). A few dents and scratches here and there and this car should look pretty good.

"Heck, all this will take is a little time and money."
Famous last words!

Let's Start with the Power Plant

The Engine Before I stated rebuilding it. The Engine After I reinstalled it.
I realized that much of the engine in the car was damaged or missing so I went out in search of an intake manifold and lucked into a 351C 4V engine that some unhappy wife wanted out of the garage. I got the whole thing for $100. I decided at this point that my car was not going to be concourse so I would personalize it a bit. Coast Motor supply burned and blasted the block and broke the glaze on the pistons. They also re-worked the heads. A few dollars later I had collected all the parts necessary and we (me, my wife, and my friend) went to work.

Will it Run?

I did everything by the book. The engine is together, the valves adjusted, it turns with a wrench. Time to drop it into the car. My biggest fear was that when we turned the key the engine wouldn't start. IT DIDN'T All we got was a very large "clank" - metal on metal - I panicked!!! After working on this for a few days praying and trying to figure out what to do, I called Grandpa. "It's your transmission," he said. I started to argue and he reminded me that he has 35 years experience on me. Sooooo we dropped the transmission and re-installed it. This time it started. We christened it (below) with homemade beer and took it on it's maiden/rebirth voyage. 		Kevin and I install the engine.
Christening the car with homemade beer.

Now What Do I Do???? (NWDID?)

I have said this too much during the last year or so!!!

I took the car out for a test drive and I hear crack followed by a rhythmical clank. It broke a push rod cap retaining bolt (#8). So I replaced all the push rod retaining bolts. I drove the car around and spent some time tuning it. I took my Dad for a ride only to repeat the scene it broke push rod cap retaining bolt (#8). NWDID?

I took the car back to the shop that did the heads. The replaced the spring and boiled the gas tank. (Old gas turns to turpentine and that was causing my push rods to bind.) Back to tuning, re-tuning, upgrading and detailing the engine. Yes the car runs but I can't get it tuned for anything. NWDID?

There was a major flat spot whenever I started from a dead stop. So I replaced the carburetor with a Holley 650 smog legal carburetor. (Stupid move! 2 months later the Governor passed a law and now my '73 is exempt) The carburetor didn't help anyway. NWDID?

Front View
The Engine After I reinstalled it.

I replaced the plugs, wires, coil and distributor. Good move but it didn't help. NWDID? I took it to a mechanic and he got it running ok. So I started driving it. Now it keeps stalling when it gets hot. Replaced the 3 row radiator with a 4 row radiator. Car runs cooler but the problem continues. NWDID?

I found that I had gotten bad gas and there was sediment in the fuel. I drained the fuel tank (again) and put 2 fuel filters in the line. Again better but still not running well. NWDID?

This time I gave up for a while almost 5 months I didn't even look at the car.

The Newest Update

(9/10/98)    Well I decided that I may be able to put together an engine but obviously I can't tune one to save my life. So I broke down and hired a mechanic to look at it.

(9/11/98)    IT WAS THE HOLLEY!  I purchased a brand new Holley 650 Smog Legal Carburetor and straight out of the box I had trouble.  I also found out that straight out of the box it was obsolete.  They sold me a part that is no longer made so Holley couldn't even replace it when I complained.

Well... Mike Willard, the mechanic, said that the carb. was running so lean that it was literally running out of gas. He replaced the the stock 8.5 power valve with a 5.5 and increased the jet size up 16 sizes. Then he re-timed the car. It runs great Dianne and I put almost 75 miles on it this weekend with no problems.

Now Back to the What Do I Do Now Stage.  I think my next task will be to replace the upper control arm bushings or the replace the Transmission.

A Special Thanks to Dianne.
She is my friend, my inspiration, and my love.  (And besides that she will even help out working on the Mustang once in a while!)

 Return: Ketts Page