Keeping the Chrome

With money going out faster than it's coming in, I'm reduced to doing what I can with the Mustang that doesn't require additional money. I stopped by my parents house on my way to the spring co-ed opening softball game at the Grove. I grabbed a few parts to bring home and polish in hopes that they would turn out good enough to use so that I could save some money having to buy new parts.

Polished reproduction Gas Cap

I thought that the above gas cap was the original, but after looking on the back and seeing a stamp that says "this is a reproduction part by Pro Products USA" I realized that I was simply polishing a replacement part. I wanted to buy the 1965 gas cap, but this one turned out so nice that I'm going to have to just keep it and save the $50 that a new one would have cost.

passenger and driver window cranks

Before I'm done I'm going to need a total of four window cranks although I was only able to find two the other day. One of the above cranks is actually a reproduction and the other is an original although they look pretty similar in wear. If I can find the two missing ones and they are able to polish up to look close to the ones above, I will be saving $40.

driver and  passenger interior door handles

Both of the interior door handles that I found are both originals and actually cleaned up quite nicely. Interior door handles run about $20 a pair plus tax.

polished deluxe steering wheel

The steering wheel above appears to be a genuine Shelby GT350 steering wheel. I believe that it belonged to Calvin and has been sitting on the garage shelf for years now. When I found it, it was covered in rust and gunk. I brought it home and took it apart in order to give it a good polish and even found some genuine ford part numbers on the middle horn ring where it says "GT.350." I believe one of the part numbers is "C60A-3655-A". On the steering wheel itself the part number is "C5ZA-13A800-D". I'll need to buy an epoxy putty kit in order to fix the gap on the left side, but once I do that the steering wheel will be ready to put into the car. The steering wheel that I was going to buy was $175 and you know what they say...$175 saved is $175 earned.

cleaned original blinker lenses

I know that the blinker lenses are probably around $5 for both, but since I had two good ones that were able to polish up nicely, I went ahead and spent ten minutes cleaning them so that I can reuse them. Something to note on these originals have the "FOMOCO" stamp on the bottom whereas the re-manufactured ones wouldn't.

cleaned/polished brake lenses/bezels

I also cleaned the brake light bezels using the chrome polish and then cleaned the brake light lenses using Plastic-X polish. I must say that the lenses turned out pretty darn nice. I'll probably re-paint the middle of the bezels with some black semi-glass paint to get them back to original. Notice the "FOMOCO" stamp on the bottom middle of the lenses.

polished heater control plate

This is the heater switch place with levers. I pulled most of it apart in order to clean each lever and then used some white lithium grease to make sure that the movement of the levers are smooth. I also found a brand new set of heater cables in the garage for a 64-66 Mustang which must have originally been purchased for Gary's Mustang back in 2000. I switched my old, tired cables for a fresh new set which moved effortlessly.

Polished exterior driver and passenger door handle

After looking through a few different exterior handles, I found these two which cleaned up quite nicely and will work perfectly for my restoration project.

polished dash lighter

I cleaned the wiper switch bezel as well as the headlight switch bezel, but have only included a picture of the lighter which I just recently cleaned after finding it in a box of old Mustang parts. The one that came with my car was an aftermarket plastic one...quite ugly. This one looks much better!