JMD

A few minutes ago I was sitting in my office with a co-worker discussing the 66, in the course of this conversation he brought up the fact that we have basically done a "ground up" rebuild of the 66. For one reason or another, this made me consider the project as a whole, and caused me to realize that we have replaced virtually everything involved with the drive-train, suspension, steering, and brakes, with the exception of the rear leaf springs....in addition we have replaced the entire wiring system. I guess I had not really thought of it in this way beforebecause it all got done as a combination of completion of smaller projects....

Which gets me to the title of the post, "Might as Well". It seems apparent that I have fallen victim to the "might as well" mentality, where we would fix or replace one thing and then come to the conclusion that as long as wehave things takenapart, we "may as well" replace this part too..... or as long as we have a 351, we may as well stroke it out,,, or as long as we need a tranny, we may as well put in a 5 speed,, Well that happened over and over....

Well I guess I am a sucker, but IMO, we have ended up with a whole lot of car for not much money when compared to what a similar car would cost new (if such a thing were available).... To me this is a testament to the simplicity of the car itself and to a very good selection of affordable aftermarket parts available from many fine vendors that specialize in these early Mustang parts. Without these two "resources" this build could have never been done....

And while I am at it, I do want to thank everyone here on M/F for their help and assistance, this has been absolutely invaluable. Extra kudos to Glen for contributing to the Classic section in such a manner that this resource was available when I needed it. The knowledge contained in this forum is a wonderful tool to have at ones disposal,, I don't think I have seen a question that could not be answered here....

I know that there are others here who have fallen into the "might as well" trap, and who like me have changed a simple project into an all out assault... I would like to hear some of these stories here, so I don't feel like the only fool here.....

john721

Here's my "Might as well'....from the beginning, ans it is still ongoing! My divorce cleaned me out years ago, as far as cars go..68GT500, 68 Coupe...Now my son is 16, (when we bought HIS car)...He is now 17...He was always intertested in those "cars in the pictures"...So here we go...we find a 65 fastback...it was like going to look at a puppy...we weren't leaving without it. Deal was, he had to put as much in it as me...Get the car home..."Might as well" install the floor pans the guy gave us with the car...so here we go.. "might as well.. install that nice 1 pc floorpan we saw in the catalog..."Might as well".. go ahead and change the firewall..."Might as well change the whole lower cowl pan instead of the patch panels..."Might as well do the cowl side panels too...Might as well do the wheel house while the 1/4's are off....I can go on..especially when we started our "wish list" of parts..that's a whole new MIGHT AS WELL!...

65StangFB

So easy to fall into this trap. I will keep mine short, but since I had a new motor I thought new gas lines, well then the crap in the tank would corrode it, filler neck, etc. Same with the brakes. Long story short: not a drop of gas nor brake fluid will touch anything used or mot rebuilt. The only thing I did not do this on was my manifold which I had in storage for years (Dual plane high rise). Once we started the engine we noticed that the bottom waterneck bolt was stripped. Once I removed the manifold and started to retap (Found it was repaired previously) I noticed 3 hair line cracks in the other bolt. Well as I should of to begin with...Might as well get a new one (Dual plane Weiand). After this post I think back how mahy times I said that and didnt realize it. Thanks JMD

dcohen

shooooooot, yall got nothing on me

i started out with 1 mustang, the top was rotted off, so i bought a complete parts car for 450 bucks (66coupe 6cyl auto)

well my 1st mustang with the rotted top also had rotted quarters and rotted trunk pan so i figured "Might as well" just clip the car (thought my front end was in good shape) so we cut 2 cars in half and welded them back together

THEN we found out my front frame and shocktowers were cocked to one side and had some rust issues so we figured "might as well replace all that" so we got left an right side fender apron, shock tower, framerail assemblies got a radiator support and frame rail extensions and pretty much rebuilt the ENTIRE front end of my car

so pretty much all that is left of my original car sheetmetal wise is the firewall, dash, and cowl, and some of the rocker panels

kind of sucks dont it? [:'(]

restomod66

Just look at it this way, if you decide to ever sell this beauty the buyer may as well spend a little more on such a nice vehicle!!!! I know you'll never get what you put into it labor wise but you should be able to turn some type of profit on the materials end of the rebuild?? Just a thought to make you feel a little better!!

Soaring

I didn't do any body work on mine because it is a west Texas car with zero rust. My cowl is still as strong as it was in 1965 if that tells you anything. My quest was to replace everything in the interior, so I started with the dash pad, then the seat covers, then the doors then the carpet. All of that took me about a year to do because I was teaching and was whipped on the weekends. Marching band directors exercise more than football coaches.

restomod66

Soaring
That's why band directors make the big bucks!!!!!!

Soaring

Yeah, right. I made a few thousand more than a classroom teacher, but I started marching on August 1st in the heat, and didn't quit until after playoffs most of the years. So, we marched in the heat, and in the ice. I remember one year at the state marching contest in Austin that my kids came off the field with icecicles hanging from their hair. It was raining on them and freezing at the same time. Damnest thing you ever saw, but we won.

restomod66

That's why band directors are dedicated to what they do the best!! Teach/instruct, perform and excell in what they do to make themselves and their students standout in the public!! My hat is off to you and i know that you have done a commendable job with your program and your students' accomplishments from one educator to another!!!!

Soaring

Thanks. I've been retired now going on 2 years. I am absolutely loving retirement. Mustangs and golf is all I have to worry about now. What do you teach and where?