Jims Mustang World

 So much has happened in the past two years that I'm not surprised that I have not updated this blog in all that time. Here's a quick recap. Aug 2023 Participated in the Sequim Prarie Nights show in downtown Sequim. It was a sunny day and was actually hot in the afternoon. After the show Jim and I stopped for a beer at the Pacific Tap Room and the girls joined us there. I met a fellow Mustang owners, Scott Anderson and Chuck Livingston. Scott has a beautiful 65 2+2 that he has meticulously restored. He invited me to join the North Olympic Mustangs club, which I did in September.  Later in Sept I joined Scott, his wife Cheryl and other NOM club members Dwight and Roxy Weathers to drive down Hwy 101 along the Hood Canal and to the Ponies in the Park show at Lacey. I was a little concerned that my Mustang would make the trip OK but we were fine! It was good that we were driving in a group, just in case.   John and Mariah Slack visited later in the day and it rained. I w...

 Happy Thanksgiving to all.  I've had such a wonderful year and I just wanted to look back at some of the moments I am thankful (or in some cases regretful) for this past year. When we first building our new home back in 2020 I held out a hope that our street address would be 2021 - the year we moved in. We ended up with 2023 so Jan 1st was a celebration of our home.  A major project to remove the old river dike and allow the Dungeness Rive back into its natural course was completed.  This included a new trail for Wolfie and I to explore.  The time we had together would draw to an end this year and I am thankful that our last years together were here. The adventure of "Drive your Triumph Day" is a challenge each year to get out on Sir John Black's birthday to celebrate, regardless of the weather! This year was a delightful day enhanced with friends for company! Activity on the Straites of Juan de Fuca usually means cruise ships and the like. A bit more unusual t...

 I'm sitting here watching the first practice of the F1 grand prix in Las Vegas. That sphere thing is amazing!  I thought I would put together a collage of photos of some of the details I have found so far.  I've had the oil pan off the engine and now the transmission and bell housing are off to replace the clutch.  There's some oil pollution coming through the crank bolts and also the transmission snout.  A few more things to update that I'll get to.  L eft - The engine machining date is 4K23.  Right -  The crank is marked with an orange paint stroke and also has the polished rear counterweight and small "K" stamping. All the glass is original and has date codes of 4K and 4J.  The windshield is tinted "Sun Visor." The block casting date 4K22 is the day before the block was machined. The engine was rebuilt at some point and it appears that the block was decked because the engine build date stamping at the front of the LH cylinder bank is miss...

 Happy 59th birthday to my 65 Mustang, build date 16L. Now, I know that the scheduled build date is not the actual date that the car rolled off the assembly line but we really don't have documentation to cut it any finer.  I guess what makes it significant to me is relative to the identical K-codes that were built and delivered from San Jose to Shelby American in Venice, CA.  Based on the info available, particularly from Mark Hovander of  History of the 1965 GT350 and 5S003 , that place my car in between the three prototype GT350's and the next group of pre-production cars that were used for magazine road tests and various publicity duties.  Cheers!

Sequim Prairie Nights 2023 Getting started with my 65 K-code was not hard, some of its shortcomings were pretty obvious. The engine was running poorly and the fuel mileage < 10 MPG was a sure indication of where to start. The carburator is a Holley 1850-1, which is a nice carb, but when I took it apart I found gasoline in the power valve cavity, so it's leaking. So a new 6.5 power valve from my stock and an overall carb tune up yielded some of the missing performance. I also found that the timing was not advancing with engine RPM and the static timing had been set at 20 deg BTDC. I took a look under the rotor in the distributer and it was bone dry and there was no felt pad. The advance was absolutely frozen. I used some penetrating oil over the next few days to loosen the advance and I got it to free up a little but I'm still not getting full advance an any RPM. My friend John has my brother's Sun 506 distributer machine so I'll take the distributor to him for a...

 I never expected this to happen, I was not searching for another project car.  I've always had the dream to have a car like this, to stumble onto the opportunity.  I mean, my garage was full enough with two hobby cars and a wonderful modern Mustang, that was plenty.  But when this happened to me I felt like it was just the right circumstances. I had begun volunteering at the local genealogical society and getting to know the people there.  Now I run the place one Saturday every other week, and help out on other occasions.  Mostly I ride my biocycle to the genealogy society but a few times I brought my 2018 Mustang GT. My one co-worker- Roberta, must have noticed my Mustang and mentioned that her husband had an old Mustang and might be ready to sell it, would I want to come over and have a look at it?  I agreed and a couple of weeks later I arranged to visit.  I met her husband, John, and he showed me towards the garage.  He mentioned that hi...