1966 Ford Mustang Engine Detailing

Our '66 engine compartment is ready for our 289 V-8 transplant that will be ready in a few short months. The Paddock's catalog has everything you need to make your vintage Mustang's engine bay a show winner like this.

Our '66 hardtop has come quite a ways from 1999 when we picked up the rusted body and headed back to the Mustang Monthly shop with nothing more than a basic outline of a project in our heads. Now that our paint and bodywork are completed, the easy (or somewhat easy) road to completion is upon us.

Many restorations require time and patience to find just the right part or to clean and refinish an original part from the project. This project differed, in that many of the original items would not be used because we were going to transform this hardtop into something it never was. Converting to a V-8 drivetrain, Interior Decor option, power brakes, and power steering, among other things, meant many new parts would be needed. While this puts a strain on the purse strings, it saves much time and money in not having to refurbish most of the original parts.

We are assembling and detailing our hardtop's engine compartment this month, and this particular part of the project is a perfect example of what we are discussing. Since most of the six-cylinder wiring, brake lines, motor mounts, pedal linkage, and more, differ from the six to the V-8, these items will all need to be replaced with the correct V-8 versions. We procured all of our reproduction items from The Paddock to convert our engine compartment to V-8-ready specs and detail it at the same time.

1 What better place to start than with the starter solenoid (bad pun; no extra charge). We ordered the correct AMK solenoid and engine compartment fastener kit to attach everything under the hood from the Paddock--an AMK dealer. If your replacement sheetmetal doesn't have the locating holes dimpled or predrilled, you should measure the location on an original car for placement.	2 The little details are what the judges notice. On many early cars, we notice that the positive battery cable rubber shield is missing. This particular item adds originality to the engine bay, not to mention safety. Again, if your new metal doesn't have the holes, measure another car.	3 At this time, The Paddock offers only the unstamped version of the Battery OK decal, so you will have to stamp it and sign it yourself. Check with your club members, because someone might have had a stamp made previously.
4 Using the battery tray hardware that came in our master engine compartment hardware kit, the battery tray was easily secured. The Paddock also has a battery tray kit with the correct hardware if you need to replace just this one item under your hood.	5 The voltage regulator mounts to the driver side of the core support with two self-tapping 3/8-inch bolts. Mount the regulator with the terminals facing outboard (toward the fender).	6 A new reproduction from The Paddock are these voltage regulator screw tip covers. These rubber covers simply screw down over the sharp tips of the regulator screws protruding through the other side of the core support.
7 The Autolite information sticker is usually found in a horizontal position midway down the driver side shock tower face. Though we have seen some stickers mounted vertically and even upside down, we opted for the more common attachment to prevent raising eyebrows with the judges.	8 Since our six-cylinder engine bay will soon wear a V-8, we had to install some items our '66 six-cylinder engine bay didn't have before, such as the V-8 fuel line rubber grommet in the left front inner fender.	9 The accelerator linkage was another item that had to be changed in favor of the correct V-8 part. Luckily, the V-8 linkage mounting holes are there; you just need to utilize them with the correct V-8 hardware.