In trying to figure out what to do with my aftermarket radio, I had a pretty neat idea. I have taken out the AM radio, but off most of the radio module, so I am left with the front plate and what you see on the front of the radio, you know the knobs and display. I have glued them to the face plate, so to the unsuspecting eye it looks like the original AM radio. What I am planning to do is have it hinge down, where I will mount the aftermarket radio on top. Then when i don’t want to have the aftermarket radio showing, I just push it back up and the AM radio will lock in place.

I have also went ahead and replaced the kick panels that had speakers with the original style kick panels. I can once again hit the high beam switch as well as the windshield washer pump, and even have a place to rest my foot off the clutch pedal!

The more that I drive it, and the more that I see peoples posts with V8’s in their’s, the more I am tempted to buy a V8 if I get a chance, a cheap V8, or what I would love to put in there is a turbo 4 from an SVO, or maybe one of the new 2.3 EcoBoost engines….hmmm….

I had bought kick panels that had cutouts for speakers in the front, as well as some what I thought were nice Kenwood speakers. I ran into a few issues. For one, I had cut a hole in each door panel for the tweeters they came with and ran the wire behind the kick panels. The problem with this is that the speakers suck. The tweeters, before they died (I think from the stupid crossover that was soldered inline) worked quite well, but the speakers themselves in the kick panel didn’t have enough power to really hit the mids that well, and when you would turn up the radio, they would rattle and sound horrid. Another problem was that they stick out too far. On the passenger side it blocks the air vent to re-circulate air from the cabin from opening all the way. On the driver side, it blocks 3 things: The windshield washer actuator (not that it matters since it is not currently hooked up), the high beam switch and the place I can rest my foot off the clutch.

I have a plan however, that instead of using the kick panels with speakers, I will be replacing them with regular kick panels, and create my own console, which I wanted to do anyways, and under the radio on either side under the dash, I will put new speakers. These will be 6×9’s since they seem to work they best and are pretty cheap, and I can recess them enough that they won’t interfere with anything. I will also make it so that I can have my aftermarket radio mount under the OEM am radio, but can be hidden. Or I might put it where the middle A/C vent would be if I had A/C and have the plate flip down. I am also thinking that in this console I can make cup holders since cars back then didn’t really have any.

Took the Mustang to work this morning in cooolllddddd weather. Last night with putting the switch to turn the radiator fans on and off really paid off. I didn’t need to have the fans on at all! Depending on how cold it is tomorrow I might need to block off the radiator some.

Last night I also went ahead and messed with my steering setup. I had put a universal joint in when I went to the new steering box and steering instead of the old rag joint, and on the column side I had used a number 8 bolt to secure the shaft in the universal, however at the time I couldn’t find the number 8 nuts so I just tightened the bolt. The problem with this is that without a nut to act as a lock nut, or without threadlocker, the bolt was prone to loosen out of the universal. I had forgot about this until I decided to check the steering linkage last night and discovered the bolt very loose. I removed it and headed to Lowes to pick up a new standard bolt and nut, instead of the hex head that I had in there before. With this in and tightened, my steering went from over 8 inches of slop, to less than 2 inches of slop!

Fun morning today, bit on the chilly side so I decided to kick on the heater. Or at least try to… at first I couldn’t figure out how I needed to adjust the three levers, but I figured it out and was warm, not hot, but warm! Tomorrow should be much better since now I know how to set it.

I also went ahead and installed a fan switch for the radiator today. This morning it took quite a while to have the engine come up to temp, no thanks to having two fans running…So I decided to hook in a toggle switch that will allow me to turn them off until I get up to running temp. At some point I will look at getting (or making…) a thermostat switch so I won’t have to do anything.

I also ordered a thing of interior lights on Amazon and they came in today [ http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000I04Z7Q/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 ] I am quite anxious to put them in, they look like they are packaged well, I unfortunately didn’t have the time tonight to jumper them off the battery to see how they look. They also won’t be going in until I start to rewire most of my auxiliary wiring stuff. Most of what I have hooked up that isn’t OEM isn’t wired the best, in fact I had my Wideband sensor not working until I was home and jiggled the wire. I went to Lowes after dinner and picked up a nice 6x6x4 Power box meant for wet locations (For home electrical use) that I should be able to mount under the hood and make my power distribution box. It will contain all my fuses (at least the ones under the hood for now) as well as the relays. This way they will be out of the elements, easier to wire, non-hazardous, and an easy place to look in for power problems. This also tidies up under the hood, and I should be able to have things wired better, such as the fans.

Got the front end aligned at Firestone today, took all of 30 minutes! I might add as well, if you have a classic and plan on doing a lot of front end work, go with the lifetime alignment deal. When you first pay, at least when I did when I got the Mustang, it was basically the price of two alignments, and I must say, I’ve gotten my moneys worth! I’ve taken it in over 6 times now.

I also got the Bad Boy air horn installed today, no more sparking horn button, and low sounding horn. Sounds real nice, and nice and loud but not too loud.

I forgot to take pictures of the new wheels on it before I drove it out to the other house, so I might take some time and take a couple at work, but I really like the new 17’s! I am also thinking about getting new leaf springs for the back to try to even out the look some. With the new front springs, the front end rides a little high, which is actually how it left the factory (not sure why…) but I think having the front and back up about equal even if it is a little high should look a lot better than back end squatting and front end riding high.

Got the other front spring and spring isolator installed today. Thanks to my new tool, a nice 18 volt impact driver [ http://www.harborfreight.com/18-volt-14-in-cordless-variable-speed-hex-impact-driver-68853.html ] I was able to install the new spring in less than half the time as the other side using just hand tools. With the new springs installed, and the front end sitting up a little higher than before, I decided that instead of just buying new tires for the 16″ rims, I would look for a nice set of 17 inch rims. I got lucky and found a guy who posted a nice set from a 2013 Mustang with about 80% or so tread. He wanted a cool $300, and for that price, it was too good to pass up! I think that the 17″ should fill in nicely. My plan is to put them on tomorrow and run down to Firestone and have them align it, and from here I will finally be able to drive it all the time again! New rims are: 

Finally got back to working on the Mustang today. Took a bit of a break after life took a bit of break from me.

While shopping at Harbor Freight today, I saw in the open-box section a Wolo Bad-Boy air horn [http://www.amazon.com/Wolo-419-Bad-Boy-Horn/dp/B000F5DQWY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1423363337&sr=8-1&keywords=wolo+bad+boy+horn]
I had bought the same one at Harbor Freight shortly after I bought my CTX700 after having too many idiots not pay any attention to the little pip-horn that was one there. With the Bad-Boy they got the message! Seeing it in the Open-Box section I figured why not? I brought it home (Well to home #2, in-between houses at the moment) and tested it out, and thankfully it worked! After installing the wooden steering wheel and reading a lot of reviews saying how you will want to run your horns off a relay or the horn button will spark a lot, I decided this would be perfect. It’s a nice loud horn and has a relay! The other nice part is that when I ran the feed for the cold air intake I had to take off one of the two OEM horns and with only one, you could barely hear it. This should fix that right up!

Before heading off to Harbor Freight however, I got down and dirty with the front suspension. I had bought a set of front springs on Amazon for $18 (I think it was a mistake as shortly after I bought them the price shot up to $81). I also decided while I was at it I would buy new insulators as my old ones were non-existent. Today I was only able to do the driver side, and what a pain it was. I don’t remember it being so difficult when I removed them last time, but at least the one is in, and I think should work great! It lifts the nose up at least 2 or 3 inches so you can actually see the space between the wheel and wheel well, unlike before when the wheel well slightly covered the wheel. Hopefully tomorrow or next weekend I will be able to do the other side as well as take it to get some new tires. I mean at the moment I have one good tire, the other three are bald and the one has a small section where the belt shows, like the previous owners of the tires had locked up the wheel or something.