Step 52 - Hosed

Installed new radiator, heater, AC and power steering hoses.

Radiator Hoses:  Upper and lower radiator hoses and clamps from Marti AutoWorks, lower radiator hose spring from NPD and radiator overflow hose from Dead Nuts On Restorations.  Everything fit perfectly - no issues.

Heater Hoses:  Water tube, hoses and clamps all from NPD - the position of  Classic Auto Air's AC/Heater assembly made it necessary to use two hoses with a 90 degree bend at the firewall vs. just one that comes with the kit - yep had to buy two kits - anyone need some heater hose?

Power Steering Hoses:  Borgenson did not test their hoses in a '70 - they do not fit on the pump side.  So I engaged a local hydraulic shop to make a custom set of hoses.  They run along the top of the engine vs. underneath.  Borgenson gave me the okay to return the pair that comes with their steering box.

AC Hoses:  Classic Auto Air's hoses fit pretty good.  We had to shorten the lower condenser hose by about an inch, other than that, no issues.

Step 51 - Hood

Installed the hood on those freshly refinished hinges.  Required tweaking hinges, fenders, doors, etc...  Cowl positioned for reference only.  Now on to figuring out how to plant the shaker on that Air Gap Intake.
Parts:  original hood, NOS latch, bolts from AMK

Step 50 - Unhinged

Normally I don't blog about about what goes into or onto the parts and systems that are going back into the Mach during its reconstruction - but this step had some pretty cool stuff behind it.

Freshly refinished hinge

The original hinges were in good condition with some light rust and a couple of coats of black paint.  I did not want to repaint them, so when I read Jerry Heasley's article in March's Mustang Monthly I decided to try to put the original phosphate and oil finish back on.

I started with some paint remover followed with some time in the media-blaster to remove all rust, paint, primer and grime.  I safety wired the hinges closed (using stainless steel wire) to expose the inside of the spring's coils.

Manganese Phosphating in action

This is the stuff.  I used a turkey fryer with a 30 quart stainless pot.  I had to use 4 gallons of water to fully submerge one hinge.  14 ounces per gallon heated to 200F - the propane burner had it to temperature in about 30 minutes.  Drop the part in for 10 minutes then hose it down with WD-40.  Just follow the included instructions and it works awesome.  Note that you do not have to remix to treat additional parts - after I cooked one hinge - I just dropped in the other one.



Following the three prescribed WD-40 wash downs, the hinges looked great.  In my opinion, there is no way to emulate this finish with paint on a part that is as dimensionally complicated as this.  After everything cooled off, I filtered and stored the leftover solution in plastic containers - who knows what other Steps will require some more backyard chemistry.

Step 49 - Radiator and AC Condenser

Before

Installed the Radiator, Fan Shroud, AC Condenser and Hood Latch Support Brace.  All parts are new reproductions - and they all actually fit!  The Mach was not graced with factory AC, so all cooling components had to be updated from the old 20 inch radiator, 5 blade flex fan and missing shroud.  The original support brace was mangled on the bottom, too far gone to restore.


Parts: new radiator, new upper and lower radiator brackets with inserts, new shroud, new support brace, new condenser from Classic Auto Air, nuts and bolts from AMK body kit.