May 31, 2001
Ok, here's the big update. I actually did this stuff weeks ago, but have been too busy to tell you all about it. After I got Deja back from my mechanic in March, I was so relieved that that part was over with, I just let it sit in the driveway for a couple weeks. Once I'd gotten over the excitement of having it back, I settled in to do some of the important things I felt needed to be done before I could really begin driving it.
When I drove it home in March I had several issues with it. It only had lapbelts, it only had one seat in front, no backseat, there were bits and pieces of assembly debris everywhere (like extra screws and extra parts and stuff) rattling around and making a horrible noise, and there was no carpet. So I cleaned the debris from the floor and started by installing the steel plate behind the backseat.
When I recovered from that I moved on to the carpet. I bought a new black carpet months ago from Sacramento Mustang, when they were on sale. I laid the carpet out in the sun so it could uncurl from being in the box while I worked on the sound deadener.
I used two rolls of Dynamat and two boxes of Dynamat Squares, and still didn't have quite enough. I used almost a roll and a half just covering the steel divider! What I had left I used to cover the floor all over, except the seat risers. I didn't cover the transmission tunnel either, and didn't have quite enough left to cover the part of the passenger floor that lifts up to the firewall. Otherwise the floor is well covered.
Then we layed the carpet down, and it fit very well. I had to trim a couple inches off the sides and the front, but otherwise it was easy to slip in, and the pre-cut hole for the shifter made it easy to align. I Then installed the original bench seat, but didn't like it when I sat behind the wheel, so we pulled it back out (back to the shed you go!) and installed the same late-model bucket seats I had originally installed in Bloo.
I am using the steering column from old Bloo with the Grant steering wheel, just because I had already rebuilt it and know the turn signals worked. However, I am not at all happy with the Grant wheel. Not only is is beginning to separate at the seams, but the horn button won't stay on, and when it is on and I push it to honk the horn, sparks shoot out!!! So, I'm still using it, but it's days are numbered. I may be putting the original column and steering wheel back in soon, or at least looking for another aftermarket one.
Ok, so now there's a carpet and places for people to sit, even though the back seat is original parchment and the fronts are grey cloth. Who cares? Now we need some sort of safety device to keep us in the seats. Like, um, SEAT BELTS! Boy, oh boy, haven't I done all this before? That's why we call her 'Deja Blu'.
| In Old Bloo, when I cut away the headliner I found pre-installed nut inserts in the roofrail. When I cut away the headliner in Deja Blu, I found a hole where the nut insert should have been, but wasn't. Disappointing. When I asked my mechanic to put a mount there for the upper seatbelt, he said he wasn't comfortable with doing that because the metal is only one layer thick there. He builds race cars, so he recommended and installed my rollbar. I had to go to Tony Branda Mustang And Shelby Parts to find a rollbar that didn't have the crossbar that would have made the backseat unusable. My mechanic placed the upper mount for the seatbelt on the rollbar where the tubes meet in a 'V' and put a threaded hole there for the bolt. |  |
| So, I had to install the belt on the outside of the rollbar, because of the way the tubes fit together, it couldn't go on the inside without binding. The belt is made to be mounted to an inside wall, so this made for a twist in the belt, but nothing too annoying. |  |
| When I installed the belts in Old Bloo I had to
drill a hole in the floor, but since the rollbar is held in by three or four bolts already
going through the floorboard, I didn't want to drill any more. No sense in swiss-cheesing
my own floor after looking so hard for one that was solid. So instead I used one of the bolts on the rollbar mount to hold down the retractor. I cut a slit in the carpet and slid the retractor's mounting plate through, and then bolted it in on top of the rollbar's mounting plate. I think this worked pretty good, but it did move the retractor more in to where it might be in the way of rear passenger's feet. I never have rear passengers, so if I do, they'll just have to put up with it. They still have about half the room they originally did. |
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| Here's how it looks all installed. The receivers bolt onto the transmission tunnel where the original receivers would have been. |  |
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Here's how it looks with the seat back. I had to remove the plastic seat belt guides from the late model seat to allow the seat to recline to a comfortable position without hitting the rollbar. I had to do the same thing on my '95 convertible after I installed the rollbar in it. |
So, now I have carpet, seats, seatbelts, sound deadener. That's basically all I needed to start driving it, and so away I went! I only have driven it into town so far, which is only about four miles each way, but that's enough to start breaking it in. We've been running errands to the grocery store and the feed store, carrying bird-seed, that kind of thing. I've been finishing up little things, like hooking up the heater controls, and trying to figure out if the AM radio will still work (it would be cool if it did, not that there's anything to listen to on AM, and I need some TUNES). Either way, it's a driver now, and I'm so happy! And even as ugly as it looks, people come up to me in parking lots and tell me how COOL it is. Ah, life with a mustang...
Other ways...
I email with a fellow up north who's kids have done some cool stuff to their pony to make it safer on the road. Unlike me, when faced without upper seatbelt mounts, they skipped the rollbar and installed seatbelts with the upper mount in the door-jamb. Take a look at their webpage for excellent step-by-step instructions. They also put shoulder belts in the rear, for their backseat passenger's safety. I've heard several people say lately that this kind of seatbelt mounting is very comfortable and easy to do, and of course, anything is better than lap-belts.
Mustang Sally's Mustang Safety Page