Finally - the Bullitt begins! :-)

[mungus]

I used the same MDL setup with the quick time bell housing and hydraulic clutch. When I bought mine they did not mention anything about checking the offset of the bell housing. Mine runs ok, but I have often wondered about it, but taking it all back out to check seems like a lot of work now.
Wish they would have had the proper directions then.

My kits directions stated the TKO was vulnerable to input shaft runout, but even then the initial "hows it look as is" fitting wasn't massively out. But yeah it takes a few hours. Gotta make sure all the paint is off the mating surfaces and buy a set of offset dowels then you're all go. However its a strong unit and most of our cars don't do big miles so I doubt many would wear out very quickly if on the edge of MDL's spec. If I can find the instructions I'll post em up, but Bruce might even have them on his support page?

Hows it go anyway?

[Shaunp]

Problem is the clutch drags with they are not correct

[mungus]

Ah OK, guess that’s a thing too.

[Shaunp]

Ah OK, guess that’s a thing too.

And the clucth plate breaks

[mungus]

Bugger! Glad I took the time then...

[mungus]

Have been getting into the upholstery for a change...

Recovered the factory headrests and finally got the hardware together.
Unfortunately two of the threaded plastic sleeves were split or broken.
Hence the expoxied steel sleeves over theaded steel inserts in the photos.
If I was being fussy (for an invisible part) I’d spin a set up from stainless and polish them up. But this will do the trick and looks fine to the end user.

[unilec5544]

I'm looking at recovering my original 69 seats, so where is the best place to buy foam and upholstery?

[mungus]

I bought my TMI upholstery kit as part of a big order I did from Mustang Depot NV years ago. Definitely cheaper than buying local if you can amortise the postage over several things. But all the parts including foams are available in OZ.

Nothing is too expensive. In hindsight I think Distinctive upholstery in the USA make the most authentic stuff. But I am happy enough with my TMI kit.

Just did the front seat bases today.

The headrests shown above are a different story. They are the factory 68’ two post ones, and so rare that very few places sell covers for them. But my local upholstery guy (Tyldens, New Gisborne, VIC), do a lot of old Mustangs so they covered them for me. Good blokes, but busy as (a good sign I would say, that plus sight of a queue of classics awaiting work...).

They aren’t too difficult to do yourself, lots of YouTube and books that shows how. Sorry I can’t advise on who is best suppliers in OZ are, but all you need to buy is the seat buns and a recover kit like the TMI ones, the rest is just off the shelf standard upholstery materials (burlap & hog rings etc).

[mungus]

Anyway here's what the restored factory headrests looked like fitted to my newly restored pax seat.
The Tags revealed they were both date correct and the right PN. So that's nice. The rear is the same.
I did this one myself as my local upholsterer is backed up for 4 months (mostly old Mustangs).
I was a little concerned when I started out as I've never done a complete recover etc before but I think they are OK.
Drivers seat this weekend. Back seat next week sometime.

Seat needs a post assembly clean but you get the idea.

I added some 12mm foam to the bun outer faces to give more bolster and slightly more of a bucket feel.
The TMI kits have been good, the only criticism I would make is that the fibreboard they use for the clip on front seat panels is too weak. Easily damaged by normal fitting processes. IMHO some kind of plastic or GRP would be far better and once upholstered would look the same.

[mungus]

And the driver's seat...

[mungus]

Had a message asking if the headrests are the right way around...
Well yes they are. Looks a bit odd I know but that's the way the factory ones were in 1968. Have a few period photos etc showing them that way. You can turn them around to look more "normal", and they look OK that way from the front. But you do wind up with more of a gap at the back, so less conformal if you like.
I feel lucky that my car was one of the few 68's that got them, not common...

[rkmiller73]

Looks good!
Did you have shoulder seat belts too? I think you had said you did.

[mungus]

Not sure where you got that idea. I can’t remember mentioning them.
It will have new 3 point inertia reel belts fitted for safety, already bought them in fact, but there’s no mention of shoulder belts in the MARTI report.

[mungus]

So its been 6 months since I posted an update, and in truth I have been sidelined by motorbike and farm stuff when I've been free from work and the kids.

But I did get into it again over the last month as I can see I am on the home stretch in terms of being ready to 2K red oxide (that intergard stuff) the underside, and 2K stain black the engine bay and aprons etc. Which would be great as I could finally start reinstalling a few shiny new and restored systems. Necessary if I intend to paint the topside whilst its on its wheels. I may still opt to paint as much of the "non showing" Highland Green as I can whilst on the rotisserie anyway (cabin, trunk etc). And in truth I'm still tossing up whether to make up a couple of dollies and finish all the painting before fit out. We'll see.

Anyway first thing was fixing a couple of big dents in the RHS outer rocker / sill. Left courtesy of my shipping agent. I cut out the worst one to see if the profile on my repop was close. It wasn't...



This was a shame as aside from a small rust repair near the rear wheelhouse it was almost rust free and OEM.
Still onwards and upwards... Advice I got from a respected mustang bodyman down here was an empty fastback shell is stiff enough to replace the outer rocker on without lots of extra bracing and I measured distances and deflections to make sure the body wouldn't move during the replacement. It didn't move one mm.
So off came the old one. It had 3 big dents and a large scrape running 2/3rds of the length. It would have been a lot of work to pretty up.

[mungus]

So a through clean up and prime and voila! Ready for the new one.



So this is where the repop shows it true colours.
The repop one from Custom Mustangs (VIC) was out by miles, and as nice as they are the standard response was "never heard that before, they always fit OK...". Yeah right, I got the same response when I bought a repop trunk lid that had bodylines miles out and incapable of fitting without major surgery. Luckily a mate fixed my OEM trunk lid good as new, so I on-sold the repop one. Buyer beware I guess, although I understand the complete Dynacorn rockers in weld through primer can fit OK. As we know Dynacorn only buy them, not make them, but whoever made my rocker panel didnt do very well. It looks like they didnt press it hard enough, or the press ran out of pressure? The edges werent sharp and there were signs of die skidding everywhere on the wiring channel.