Engine bay restoration

[Denbob55]

My engine bay looks like old spaghetti. The previous owner fiddled around a lot so I'm missing spark plug wire looms and connectors, other wiring laying draped over and not held in place etc. Anyone have some good picture of a decent engine bay? Where are you getting your original parts sourced?

thanks

[svo413]

Depending on the year, I can supply some decent to nice pictures.
I have 85, 88 and an 89 LX. My 84 and 86 GT are fair. I do not modify very much stuff.

As for OEM parts, they are getting hard to find. I suggest looking up the part number and searching with that. Plug wire holders are available in repro. Refinishing stuff gets tricky. Any of the gold cad plated stuff is hard to reproduce.

[Denbob55]

Mine is an 86 convertible of course. Any engine bay photos would be appreciated, even the years before or after. I sent a message with my email. As to the after market houses, they all seem to say "original" or 'better than'. Once I see some pictures I'll make my selections. thanks

[svo413]

Sorry, I just saw this post. So, 85 is a lot different in the engine bay with the carb or CFI. 88 and 89 are closer. My 86 is not low miles and I have not done much with it. I can get some photos on sunday. The asc cars will be the same as any stock mustang hatchback. You just need to know how they were built and modified.

Not much of the regular convertible stuff is present except for the door. Anything touching the convertible top will be different. Under the hood, there are no convertible parts. Engine bay was not repainted but the hood pad was replaced. When I say convertible, I mean stock mustang

[Denbob55]

Thanks for the info. Sorry for the late reply. I found some old ASC pics on line. On closer examination of the wiring I see a lot of old factory fabric tape that has eroded away leaving small areas of bare wire and some shrinking insulation near connectors leaving the conductor exposed. So far it doesn't seem to have affected performance, but I can see where there could be some arching if I don't address it.

[svo413]

The cloth tape does not usually cover exposed metal contacts. It is mostly used to terminate the convoluted tubing or splice the convoluted tubing. You can find it a many sources. I used to buy it at Eastwood but last year I bought friction tape at Home Depot. Also try to not use electrical tape with adhesive. Its gets messy with age. Instead, use harness wrap (no adhesive). I have not found a substitute for the black paper masking tape.

For judging purposes, you don't want things that stand out and will catch the eye. That's when it gets questioned.