First work and authentication


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 full rebuild. I went to pull the distributor and the shaft was stuck into the bottom hex on the distributor end and I could feel the resistance of the clip on the shaft on the other end as I pulled upwards. So, I carefully put it back together and made sure it ran OK because I was scheduled to show the car in our downtown main street show and I didn't want to miss that! After the show I will pull the pan and un-stick the oil pump drive shaft from the bottom of the distributor. 

 I am keeping a list of the date code stampings I have found around the body sheetmetal and components. As far as I can tell there's no replaced panels. It's a California car and the only rust I see is in the battery box and a little bubble in the door, under the rally stripe. I also inspected all the glass and can gladly say that all the glass is original, with 4K and 4J date codes. One interesting thing is that the warranty tag on the door shows a blank body color and a special order DSO 710590 - so it might have been ordered with some kind of special color. I've searched throughout the car for any residual body color but it was pretty thoroughly repainted. The two previous owners I have talked to only recall it being white. It seems like the only color combinations I have seen with the blue interior have been either Wimbledon White or one of the blue body colors.  I think it's possible that the original body color was one of the blues in the Ford color book like Brittany Blue (T-bird) Guardsman Blue (64 1/2 Mustang) or Princess Blue (Viking Blue), but that's just a guess!

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