Jan. 11, 2004 - The Ghia is up on blocks with transmission, exhaust, driveshaft, and gastank removed. Gastank has been cleaned, re-lined, and painted. Transmission has been cleaned. Driveshaft and exhaust has been cleaned and painted. New clutch and re-surfaced flywheel have been installed. I just need to complete some more underbody cleanup and it can all go back together.
March 8, 2004 - The Ghia is STILL up on blocks getting the underside cleaned and painted prior to reinstalling the gas tank, transmission, etc. I found a fair amount of surface rust that needs cleaned and coated. The only serious rust is in the driver's rear wheel well with a 4 inch square hole. It was hiding under the undercoating. In fact the under coating seems to be pulling the paint off when it comes off.
March 16, 2004 - Yup...still up on blocks. Having a hard time getting enough time away from work to make significant progress. I've officially given up on taking it to the Mustang 40th Anniversary show in Nashville next month, but I had resigned myself to it a couple of months ago. I'm working on small things like cleaning and painting the original underbody brackets and hangers. The original exhaust hangers survived pretty well. Front and rear swaybars from my '78 CBII are cleaned and painted, ready for install. V8 Competition Suspension parts with poly bushings, sport shocks, and some lowering should REALLY handle with a 2.3L coupe!
March 24, 2004 - Still up...well you know. I ordered a couple of different types of Energy Suspension polyurethane bushings in black for the swaybars. Out of the group I found some that work great with the stock endlinks both front and rear. Moog still makes front endlinks...I found some at the local NAPA store. The rear endlinks are no longer available, but some could be fabbed up with a welder.
April 14, 2004 - Lets just assume its still up on blocks unless I tell you different! ;-)
I pulled the rear leaf spring plates from my parts '76 hatchback over the weekend and started cleaning them. After painting, they'll get installed on the '78 Ghia. The 8" rear under my '76 will eventually get the 3.55:1 gearset I have and will get under the Ghia also. That should get me off the line a bit quicker! I picked up a set of KYB GR-2 gas shocks from Mustangs Unlimited this week. Eventually I'll pick up a set of 1" rear lowering blocks from Racer Walsh, and pull the front springs from my '76 to try a bit of shortening. I started grinding on my Offy intake to smooth it for eventual polishing. I also started some porting internally. As cast, the transition from the 4 bbl mount to the runners is a jagged mess.
I'm looking forward to the 40th this weekend. I hope to meet some of the great folks from the MII Yahoo Group there.
April 21, 2004 - The 40th Mustang Anniversary in Nashville was fantastic. Only a dozen or so Mustang II's (out of roughly 3500 Mustangs), but they were great. The show itself was really well run, the vintage racing was great, etc, etc. I'll have pics posted as soon as I can get my home PC back online.
I purchased a set of 1.5" rear spring lowering blocks from Racer Walsh today. I plan to cut down a spare set of front springs to match and install both in the Ghia by the end of the summer. I'll have the best handling 'lil pimp car in the world when done... ;-)
June 30, 2004 - Not many updates lately but I've been getting some small things done. I have had another session of scraping undercoating and degreasing the bottom of the car. I have at least one more to go. More small parts painted...the front swaybar and endlinks are ready to swap. The rear are ready too, but must wait for the bottom to be finished. I found more surface rust (I hope that's all) near the front mount of the driver's rear spring. I can't really get to it without pulling the spring mount, so I might as well drop the entire rear and do everything... ;-)
August 30, 2004 - OK the rear-end and rear spring rehab will have to wait...the rear will get a quick coat of black paint while I'll coating the surface rust on the floorpans. I need to get this car on the road! I finally installed the front swaybar from my V8 CBII this past weekend. All I need now is to get a couple of days off with good weather and nothing else to do so that I can get the floorpans cleaned and painted. Then I can reinstall the gastank, transmission, driveshaft, exhaust, etc. etc.
October 29, 2004 - Ugh! Delays and more delays. I started stripping the aluminum wheels...2 are real Enkei's...2 are not. The paint used to make them match covered up finish differences. They don't look that much alike when stripped. Nothing else done.