Installing AutoMeter guages

I hate the old mustang gauges. I promised I would replace them as soon as possible. Fortunately, the water temp gauge and oil pressure gauge would not work with the 5.0 sending units, so I had replace them. I figured now is a good time as any. Initially, I wanted white face gauges with a silver bezel. This turned out to be way too expensive (about $600). So instead I purchased Autometer Ultra-Lite gauges. These are silver on silver and a good compromise ($300). I also purchased a six gauge cluster for $70 or so.

The stock oil pressure and water temp sending units were replaced with the AutoMeter ones. Pretty easy to do, took about 30 minutes. The tach uses a wire already from the 5.0 wiring harness. I plugged in the stock fuel sending unit wire - we'll see what the gauge says. The voltmeter was just connected to the nearest 12V connection I found. I haven't connected the speedo yet. Overall the job didn't take that long, maybe 4-5 hours.

Updating headlights to the 20th century

The old mustang headlights were not Halogen and did not need much electricity or voltage for power. So Ford only gave it 8 volts. New Halogen lights require a full 12 Volts and you'll often see an old mustang with dim headlights since it had 4 volts less then needed.

There is an easy way to fix this problem. You have to install two relays, one for low beams and one for high. These relays act as switches allowing a clean 12V to the lights. The wires also have to me beafed up, from 18 guage to 12-14 gauge. So I decided to tackle this project since it seemed like an easy one and I had some spare time.

I ripped out the old headlight wires and installed new ones from two relays inside the wheel well - I have enough wires already in the engine bay from my sloppy 5.0 mess. The relay logic is explained in my 5.0 wiring harness explanation earlier.

It made a big difference. My headlights are as bright as any modern car!

Installing Custom Headers

After running the car for a little bit, I realized to my dismay that MustangSteve's clutch cable was too close to my headers. I was warned about this ahead of time, but took a chance anyway. Mistake. So I just purchased brand new custom made headers by FPA. These headers are made for a 65 Mustang with Randall's Rack and a cable clutch. I had a real tough time removing the driver's side header. But it was easy compared to installing the replacement header. Due to my welding of additional metal to enforce the shock tower, there is practically no room for the headers. I had to grind some of that metal off to make the headers fit. In addition, the Global West upper control arms had very long bolts, which I had to shorten by half an inch or so to allow the header installation. All in all, it took me about 90 minutes to remove the old headers, and about four hours to install the new ones!

The headers came unpainted (the cheapest way to go) and I painted them blue. I also had an exhaust shop install 50 series Flowmasters and a BBK X-Pipe I purchased used.

The car sounds pretty good at idle, and when giving gas. But when letting go of the gas, it has too much bass.