Last week before I packed to go to camp I went over to my parents house to finally install a radio to fill the hole in the dash. If you remember from an older post, the holes that the knobs go through had been worn down from vibrating over years and years. I ultimately had to weld in a washer on each side and then grind down the front to ensure there was a smooth surface to work with. Since I had to use the washers behind the radio, it messed with the spacing a little bit. In assembling the radio, the order or parts from back to front is the radio, a nut, the dash, a washer, a nut, the tuning bezel, then the radio knob. Since I now had a washer on the backside of the dash, it caused the radio to sit back in the dash further which prevented the radio threads from coming out through the dash as much as they needed to. In order to remedy that situation, I left off the nut the would have sat on the backside of the dash. With that left off everything else went on just fine.
Since the power steering belt has been squealing as long as the car has been running I finally decided to buy the correct bracket for it (I was previously using a modified 1970 Mustang bracket). Unfortunately the belt still squeals which drives me insane so I need to explore other options for fixing this problem. I'm going to try a different belt (solid vs. ribbed), and if that doesn't work, I'll try different pulleys on the water pump and crank; right now I have cheap chrome ones from Ebay.
I was fortunate enough to be able to take my sister-in-law's dog along for a ride in the Mustang after I installed the radio (which isn't hooked up because I have no speakers in the car). She loves getting out especially when it involves hanging her head out the window of a car. She also likes to use arms as literal armrests.
