1978 Mustang II

[Mark Yacavone]

Originally Posted by Robert Swartz

Work (for the time being) is ongoing on my Mustang II. Hopefully get the front brakes done and long studs on the front wheels. Got the intake finished, cleaned up and painted. Also got my two barrel carburetor (it's a 1.08, even marked on the side, pretty easy to police) finished.

Also my Bluestreak converter was delivered Saturday morning. Had opened the garage earlier in the morning. Went back into the house for a cup of coffee. Came back out and stumbled over the box. Didn't expect a UPS delivery on Sat morning.

May not be yet ready for prime time. Want to get it to a state that I can haul it to a track.

Glad you got it okay, Rob.

Not glad you posted a picture, because now I have to tell this story LOL

Robert's car is one of the few 302/ C4 combos that come with a smaller bellhousing and flex plate. The converter itself actually is made with the "third" Ford pattern, which is the same as the 4 cylinder converters, except for the larger V8 pilot.
I suggested getting the larger bell and a new flex plate, and doing whatever it takes to make it fit the tunnel...obviously using a Ford tool to do so!
This team had planned on bolting in components one at a time to see if they could build themselves a budget index runner.
They elected to send me a stock 10" V8 converter to use for the cover and mounting studs. I bushed the cover down and extended it to fit, but that does add some weight to the converter.
Normally, I would use an 8" stamping and minimal hardware for this small engine combo.
Now you know the rest of the story..

[Robert Swartz]

Originally Posted by Mark Yacavone

Glad you got it okay, Rob.

Not glad you posted a picture, because now I have to tell this story LOL

Robert's car is one of the few 302/ C4 combos that come with a smaller bellhousing and flex plate. The converter itself actually is made with the "third" Ford pattern, which is the same as the 4 cylinder converters, except for the larger V8 pilot.
I suggested getting the larger bell and a new flex plate, and doing whatever it takes to make it fit the tunnel...obviously using a Ford tool to do so!
This team had planned on bolting in components one at a time to see if they could build themselves a budget index runner.
They elected to send me a stock 10" V8 converter to use for the cover and mounting studs. I bushed the cover down and extended it to fit, but that does add some weight to the converter.
Normally, I would use an 8" stamping and minimal hardware for this small engine combo.
Now you know the rest of the story..

LOL, sorry Mark. Hey I'm proud of this new piece. All joking aside, still think going with the Mustang II converter will be the better plan. Now I just need to get my lazy butt out to the garage and get that part in. I'm to the point, I just want to get it done enough to haul it somewhere. See if the old bucket will make it down a track. Treat it like an old street car, see where it's at, make the improvements from there.

[Tod Lane]

Originally Posted by Robert Swartz

LOL, sorry Mark. Hey I'm proud of this new piece. All joking aside, still think going with the Mustang II converter will be the better plan. Now I just need to get my lazy butt out to the garage and get that part in. I'm to the point, I just want to get it done enough to haul it somewhere. See if the old bucket will make it down a track. Treat it like an old street car, see where it's at, make the improvements from there.

Bob ole buddy, I don't recall you having any reluctance to hit that car with a hammer when we were getting that header in lol

[Robert Swartz]

Just a little update.

Life has severely gotten in the way since my last posts on this thread. My old friend, Tod Lane and I have both been bitten by life. My mother whom was living with my wife and I had become more and more ill in the past few months. As cold as this sounds, mercifully she has finally left us. She passed away two weeks ago.

Roughly at same time, Tod's wife of 36+ years has been stricken with cancer. Which for both of us has made working on these old cars just a little less important in the grand scheme of things.

No real work of any consequence has gotten done in the past few months. Honestly, I haven't been in my garage much except to get tools for routine maintenance. So, I'm trying to get re-motivated to get a direction back in life.

In that regard, went to visit a co-worker yesterday and help him remove an unneeded item from his garage. Brought back a "Mexican" re-manned long block. At least that is what the tags say it is? Which just happened to be numbers matching 78 FFFord 302. He said it came out of a 78 T-Bird that he and a buddy had stripped. It did measure out at 4 inches on the bore (std). It has the correct number 78 heads. Which gives me a few more pieces to work with once I get my head screwed back on straight.

[tommy d]

Bob Williams says hi.

[Tod Lane]

Originally Posted by Robert Swartz

Just a little update.

Life has severely gotten in the way since my last posts on this thread. My old friend, Tod Lane and I have both been bitten by life. My mother whom was living with my wife and I had become more and more ill in the past few months. As cold as this sounds, mercifully she has finally left us. She passed away two weeks ago.

Roughly at same time, Tod's wife of 36+ years has been stricken with cancer. Which for both of us has made working on these old cars just a little less important in the grand scheme of things.

No real work of any consequence has gotten done in the past few months. Honestly, I haven't been in my garage much except to get tools for routine maintenance. So, I'm trying to get re-motivated to get a direction back in life.

In that regard, went to visit a co-worker yesterday and help him remove an unneeded item from his garage. Brought back a "Mexican" re-manned long block. At least that is what the tags say it is? Which just happened to be numbers matching 78 FFFord 302. He said it came out of a 78 T-Bird that he and a buddy had stripped. It did measure out at 4 inches on the bore (std). It has the correct number 78 heads. Which gives me a few more pieces to work with once I get my head screwed back on straight.

Well life has thrown us some curves since Bob's last update, my wife passed away Dec 11.

But we have in fact restarted the project, there is a LONG way to go yet but progress has been made.

[HandOverFist]

Pulling for you regardless of the time table.

[tommy d]

Originally Posted by Tod Lane

Well life has thrown us some curves since Bob's last update, my wife passed away Dec 11.

But we have in fact restarted the project, there is a LONG way to go yet but progress has been made.

Todd, very sorry for your loss. Can't begin to imagine the pain. Hope to see you guys sometime this summer.

[Robert Swartz]

It's been a good while since I've posted anything. Just hasn't been a lot of time to devote to working on the cars. Makes me wonder if we'll ever get this thing done.

Finally this weekend we got to do something constructive. We got the manual master cylinder in and plumbed. Along with the line lock. Still may need to fiddle with the brake peddle. Next step is straighten out and bleed the brakes. From the pictures it is a mess. We have most of the wiring roughed in. We have the gauges placed. They too are at present, roughed in.

I have to order a few more pieces. Then we will plug in the stocker camshaft and put the intake and carb back on it. Fire it and break in the cam. Get it mobile again. Then I will swap out the valve springs. Those beehive springs have a tad of pressure. Just working on a spare set of heads on the bench. Till we perfected a method and made a washer for the spring compressor. We launched a retainer and a set of 10 degree locks somewhere in the garage, LOL! Need to get a hold of Bullet and get some replacements.

Still need to get the transmission done. Put in the fuel cell, fuel pump and lines.

I have slim hopes of maybe having the car ready for the Indy Fall event. Maybe go to Ohio Valley for the Doorslammers and the Halloween combo. Lot of work to get there.