Happy New Year!

Happy 2014! This Hot Rod Gazette blog got its maiden posting exactly a year ago today. Since then, it's had over 5500 hits. I reckon that's pretty good going, especially as around 20% of those hits have come from abroad - mostly from America and Canada, but a lot from Germany and eastern Europe. So that's either a lot of people remembering the Hot Rod Gazette as was and a few people just surfing the net, or a lot of people have tried to search for a website called Hot Red Gusset and predictive text has taken over... *

So, over Christmas I've had a bit of holiday time to use up, so I've spent a lot of it wisely, down at the workshop with the latest Fox Mustang project. Over in the States, where the old Fox is a formidable tool on the drag strip, especially in the drag radial and restricted tyre-width classes, many racers are snapping up clean four-pot Foxes and bunging them full of V8. As ever, because I often end up doing things arse about face, I have bought a 1992 Ford Mustang 5.0 convertible that's been relieved of its running gear, and I'm converting it to a four-pot...

Allow me to explain. Mark bought this Fox for its engine, auto 'box and back axle which will end up in a pick-up project he's doing. As it turns out, he bought the Fox from about eight miles down the road from me, but I didn't know about this until later. Anyway, he drove it home and said it was the nicest-driving Fox he'd ever been in, and far too good to break, but as he'd paid less for the whole car than he could but the component bits for, it was getting broken. I said I'd have the rest. Why? Because, a week or two previously, I'd bought and broken a completely rotten early Fox that had yielded a 2.3 Pinto and C3 auto. This is it:

As you can see, the thing was the basest of base models, though it did have the hugest air-con compressor I've ever seen - it was almost as big as the 2.3, and looked as if you could switch on the A/C and stall the engine.

It was also victim to the "de-smogging" pixie, who thinks that the way to "de-smog" a car is to just remove all the vacuum pipes. Except that one, to the huge air filter element, which, it seems, is the one they could have safely thrown away. Anyway, with the engine out and on the deck, I've had a quick go-through, and everything seems to be in order. I've changed the plugs, leads, cap and rotor, fitted a new timing belt, rebuilt the carb (which is a Weber built under licence by Holley!) and other bits and bats. The timing belt turned out to be a really easy job, requiring no special tools or techniques ... though I suppose I should get the engine running again before I declare how easy it was. I've also dashed a rattle-can over some of the rustier bits like the rocker box and timing belt cover.

I think it looks a bit more business-like now. The car is still sat on its 8.8" axle, which Mark wants back, sadly, so I also salvaged the 7.5" axle from the four-pot. I wazzed a pint of chassis black over that, too, prior to rebuilding the drum brakes with new shoes, cylinders and springs etc.

All I have to do now (notice how saying "all I have to do now" makes the job sound tiny and insignificant with no chance of error) is to drop the engine and 'box in, change the axle, fit the prop and exhaust, hook up the brakes, change the shifter, and try to marry up the wiring ... What could go wrong?

Answers on a postcard, please...

Eugene

* - I just looked, incidentally, and found no website called Hot Red Gusset (thankfully), but you probably don't want to type it into Google Images...