Topic: 66 shelby - 1102 Questions

[classicarparts]

I have a couple of 66 shelby questions. i'm redoing the original autolite adj shocks. What is a good color match to the original blue paint. Upper ft shock bushings need to be replaced .Any thoughts? Was thermostat housing left natural or painted blue? What are the correct tri y bolts to attach to the engine? Whats the best thing to use for the undercoating on the firewall some old posts say 3m rattelcan undercoating. Is this the best thing to use? Were the gt350 emblems on tail light panel attached with barrel clips?

[Bob Gaines]

I have a couple of 66 shelby questions. i'm redoing the original autolite adj shocks. What is a good color match to the original blue paint. Upper ft shock bushings need to be replaced .Any thoughts? Was thermostat housing left natural or painted blue? What are the correct tri y bolts to attach to the engine? Whats the best thing to use for the undercoating on the firewall some old posts say 3m rattelcan undercoating. Is this the best thing to use? Were the gt350 emblems on tail light panel attached with barrel clips?

Original 66 FOMOCO adjustable shocks (few if any in 66 had Autolite markings) had a light Ford blue color. It is very close if not identical to the light Ford engine blue (not the dark blue used on the 66 engine block) when I have matched it to originals I keep for reference. That is unless they are very late production in which case they would be semi gloss black. The thermostat housing was reused from the painted cast iron intake it was taken from so it was painted Ford dark engine blue like the block. The thermostat hosing typically had a mask on it keeping paint from the last inch or so of the hose tip but that detail is typically covered when the rubber radiator hose was installed. 3M rattle can  goes on too thin for a similar firewall coverage IMO. 3M body Shultz goes on thicker how ever I use a combination of the body Schulz and spray adhesive . There are other products that work too. Best to have some original examples to copy while developing your spraying method /gun settings on a test panel. Barrel clips were not typically used on the tailpanel emblem.

[classicarparts]

thank you for the info. then were the gt350 emblem held on with thd cutting nuts?

[classicarparts]

were the header bolts plated or black oxide ?

[J_Speegle]

Let me respond item by item to expand on what Bob G provided

I have a couple of 66 shelby questions. i'm redoing the original autolite adj shocks. What is a good color match to the original blue paint.

IMHO color is on the lighter side of Corporate Blue though as Bob mentioned a rattle can of that is what others often use. I had the color matched so that is what I use. Would be nice, when I have time, to test different brands of rattle can to an original to see which is closer but that does not help you right this minute

Cameras, monitor settings and so on affect what we see in the following pictures. In my monitor the top row - right side is closer to the right shade. There are some better views in the thread mentioned below.



Another thread discussing the shocks
http://www.concoursmustang.com/forum/index.php?topic=2259.msg11629#msg11629

Upper ft shock bushings need to be replaced .Any thoughts?

Couple of places out there that can do it. Some of them have had issues (like many providers) with the current rubber being used by their suppliers that does not seem to hold up well over a fairly short period of time. Have not had them done recently so don't know if the issue has been addressed. Since there are more Mustangs being done maybe some of those owners can report recent success and how long ago they were done.

Was thermostat housing left natural or painted blue?

Hose end had a slip over mask installed at the time the base engine was painted to keep any paint off of the connection surface like the (different engine and application) picture below. Since the housing was unbolted and reused the paint on the bypass hose is typically cracked and the attaching hardware has some paint knocked off of the bolt head.

What are the correct tri y bolts to attach to the engine?

There were a few suppliers of the bolts that held the headers to the cylinder heads.  Since you indicate you're doing 6S1102 we'll focus on that period  (BTW we own 6S1203). In doing so found (in my limited number of original unrestored examples from around that period) that the sunken head with the circle and tri bars was more likely what was originally used.

The center can often to be found more "sunken" into the head on 66 (non-carry over) versions than what is show in the example to the left in the picture above of examples taken of 65 header bolts. Maybe a change in production, camera angle and or age and wear



Never tested to see what the plating was. Looks allot like bare steel so maybe cad or nothing. These were supplied by the header company with the headers. Use to be packages of these hanging in every hot hod shop in the country since if you didn't check them over enough they could loosen and even fall out

Whats the best thing to use for the undercoating on the firewall some old posts say 3m rattle can undercoating. Is this the best thing to use?

"Best" thing to use. SO far I've not found anything that replicates the original stuff though I have a couple of untried ideas I'm waiting to test. The original product was unlike what we see in later years (example 68 up) and at other assembly plants. According to Ford it was suppose to be an adhesive base and from original examples it had a cobweb effect visible on the finished product. The applicator also didn't normally spot apply but flowed the gun from focus point to the next one. Below is a close up of a few examples. As you can see its part product and part application/technique to get anything similar to original

A couple of examples






More typical heater motor application where the outer two studs are covered and the tool moved under the heater motor and the spray continued. Some was removed during cleaning of the car



A few from cars much closer to your production period






Additional examples can be seen in all the San Jose examples in the unrestored picture threads in that section

Were the gt350 emblems on tail light panel attached with barrel clips?

Sometimes referred to as speed clips. Sure there is a correct technical term for them but the unrestored car shown below should provide you with what your looking for



Hope this helps

[classicarparts]

thank you for the info and pics jeff. 1102 has been sitting in a garage since 1973. will post some pics when it done.

[GT500KR]

   I think many of us would be just as interested in any unrestored pictures you would care to share during disassembly  as much as the finished product. (Maybe more ) An example like yours that was retired and stored at only 7 years old probably has many details that would be helpful to others.

[J_Speegle]

   I think many of us would be just as interested in any unrestored pictures you would care to share during disassembly  as much as the finished product. (Maybe more ) An example like yours that was retired and stored at only 7 years old probably has many details that would be helpful to others.

Agreed - just sharing what your comfortable with   Consider maybe your own thread in the Member Restorations/Builds section. If it matters its not viewable to non-members.

Like ours their may have been a fair number of changes in just those few short years. All depends on how the car was used and by 73 they were fairly cheap and just used cars.

In any case - what ever your comfortable with