I left the house early Saturday to make the 62 mile trip to CJ Pony Service. After 10 years of legendary commutes to work, 62 miles of back roads was a breeze and it gave me time to get my thoughts together before I met with Bill and the others.
I had never been to a Mustang event and really had no expectations. I assumed that it would be attended by folks wanting to just hang out and meet other Mustang owners and swap stories about their Mustangs. Truly I was in the dark. As I approached, there did not appear to be any mass gathering of Mustangs nor were there any inflatable gorillas or banners flying, signaling an open house or similar event . Rather there was just a respectable gathering of various model year Mustangs parked orderly in front of the service building.
Once inside, I was again surprised to find the friendly folks of CJ Pony Service engaged in conversation with Mustang owners regarding specific aspects of repair, upgrade and tuning. I overheard things like "Sub-frame connectors", "Rims for my car", and "Wow, they even have the Go Daddy Go button!" as curious attendees looked in the Eleanor on display in the lobby. Everyone seemed normal; a vast departure from some of the IT Shows I have attended.
I located Bill who greeted me and thanked me for coming. Since he was with another attendee, he said that Sam would go over some things about my car; including some issues with the wiring harness. Uh-oh, what had I done wrong? I went in search of Sam.
I saw Sam speaking near the Eleanor with a gentleman who reminded me of the Undertaker from WWE, shades and everything. He seemed pretty intense, so I gave them some space and headed back to my car in the shop to stow another part I had brought along to be installed (rear seat firewall). On the way back, Bill met me and introduced Ben, who had also been through the car and would be working on it in the coming weeks.
Bill calmly went over some of the minor issues in the wiring harness with Ben and I so that we'd all be on the same page. Turns out that it was just a few plates on the firewall that I had omitted, nothing major. Whew, what a relief. After that Bill left Ben and I to go over "The List", and to acquaint ourselves. After about 20 minutes, Ben and I had a game plan, shook hands and off I went to walk around the shop and take mental notes.
Before I left for the day, I caught up with Bill and talked about the motor. He had mentioned that the 1986 T-Bird 302 was a bad motor for upgrading as it had something to do with flat heads or pistons in that particular year. It had me thinking ahead about what would be a better path to following in attaining the GT 350 look and feel. I asked about an alternative and he mentioned that he had a 1967 Jasper 302 short block on hand just sitting in a back corner. Ok, now what? Here's where this blog begins to help me and others with the formation of a thought process to determine the best approach to striking a balance in drive train design.
The question is: Should I look into the 1967 Jasper 302 or attempt to build on the 1986 T-Bird 302 roller I already have? Please help me and others understand the nuances of each. Thanks!
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