LeLu's 66 Mustang: Hood, E-Brake, Headers, Speedo Cable

Today was a busy day for me when it came to the Mustang. Lauren had work and after the monthly mens breakfast I went over to my parents house to work on the car. My dad put a new motor on the air compressor since the old one burned up, but he was at work today leaving him unable to help me out on the car. When I arrived I noticed that he had been stripping the paint off the hood and my mom informed me that he had been out there every day this week to work on the car. Thanks dad.

It still needs a little more work done on the top before it's ready to paint, but I'm sure it will be ready soon. The passenger's side of the hood was pushed in a little , but nothing a little hammer couldn't straighten out. I'm debating whether or not I should put the F-O-R-D letters on the hood or if I should "shave" them. The rest of the car is going to be without emblems, but I kind of like the idea of having the letters on the hood. I started my morning on the underside of the hood with some scour pads and the air grinder.

It was far from being ready for paint since it had an undercoating sprayed on it sometime in the 80's. After realizing that it would take me a while to get it all off, I decided to recruit my older brother to help me so that I could focus on other things that needed to get done. He did a pretty good job cleaning it up.

I had to weld an area at the front of the hood that was cracked near where the hood rests on the on the bumpers. I'm not sure what would have caused it to crack, but its welded now.There were a couple of areas that had dents on the underside of the hood in the frame so I flushed them with Bondo in preparation for paint. I ordered a handful of parts from CJ Pony last week including new mid-length headers from Patriot, a speedometer driven gear clip and seal, a firewall to steering column seal, a lower radiator hose stainless steel spring, and a new front parking brake cable since the original one was frayed.

Patriot Mid-length Headers

The Patriot headers look awesome and will work much better with the cable clutch setup than the former Hedman headers that were on the car before. They came in raw steel and needed a coat of paint, so I bought 2000* flat black paint to paint them:

Patriot Mid-length Headers Painted

The speedometer gear that I bought for the T5 is a 21 tooth based on the calculations I derived based on tire height, rear gear ratio and the drive gear in the car. I won't know if it is correct until I actually drive the car with the new rims.

21 Tooth Speedo Gear with Clip and O-Ring

I also pulled out the front parking brake cable and handle in order to install the new one. While I had out the handle, I took the time to clean up the body of it and paint it. I was able to spot the original FoMoCo stamp on the part:

Parking Brake

Once the headers were painted and dry, I slipped them in the car and bolted them up. The driver's side had much better clearance near the collector. Before the collector was right on top of the bellhousing and it may have caused some problems having the pipe run. The mid-length header extends out further leaving much more room to run exhaust.

Patriot Header Installed on Driver's Side

This is what the previous header looked like on the driver's side:

Previous Hedman Header

The only problem I have with these headers is that two of the spark plug wires actually rest on the header--that's a problem. I'll need to pull off the boot and find one that will not sit on top of the header. The rest of the plug wires have plenty of clearance so it is only two on the driver's side that I need to worry about.