The car was repainted in 1988 the original colour, Caspian Blue. Unfortunately, it was not clearcoated at the time and so it has dulled. Looks great when first washed, then it goes dull. I hope to refinish her sometime in the coming year.
When I bought the car in 1985 it had been painted a non-metallic, solid dark blue and had a painted white roof. I knew that wasn't correct.
An ad in National Geographic from May of 1964 featured a two-page spread with a Caspian Blue coupe with white vinyl roof - and as soon as I saw it I knew that's what I wanted. So I had the vinyl roof installed.
Why?
Andrew Croft
'65 Caspian blue 6 cylinder coupe, blue interior [07.85 to present]
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'96 Forest green GT coupe, grey interior [04.96 to 04.00]'88 medium blue 5.0LX hatchback, grey interior [93-04.96]'80 white hatchback, red interior [91-93]My other car is a Ford - '04 Escape, 6 cylinder, silver, grey cloth -LOVE IT - it's my second Escape.
Glad you got it fixed! I couldn't figure out why the damn thing wasn't working. I was getting frustrated and it ain't even my car!!! I've never worked on a unit that had a fuse on that line but it seems like a good idea considering it's constant power. StuK
My '64 Monterey is supposed to be that color (I believe the Merc name is Pacific Blue - F code paint). Right now the blue is covered with orange, and they shot the jambs and trunk, so there's no blue to "inspect" until I yank the carpet out. I was looking for good pics of the corect shade of paint to help me decide if I'd like it on the Monterey.
Caspian Blue is my favourite blue and that's not just because it's on mine - '65 was the only year it was used.
I love seeing it on other Mustangs at shows and when I used to take her to shows I'd be the only one that colour in a sea of reds!!
A few years back some guy brought out his '65 fastback for the first time after he had spent two years restoring and it was painted CB - I recognized him and it turned out we went to the same highschool. Another guy who lives up where my parents' cottage is did his '65 fastback on a rotisserie and it was CB as well.
Caspian Blue just looks great, in bright sunlight it is light and metallic, at sunset it glows and at midnight it might as well be metallic black it is that dark.
Some web sites I have seen with cars painted CB do not look right for some strange reason, a few didn't even look metallic.
The shot on my web site it a little faded and the car had no clearcoat :-( when done so I wouldn't go by that image.
I can send you digital images of non-faded parts of the car if you like.
Andrew Croft
'65 Caspian blue 6 cylinder coupe, blue interior [07.85 to present]
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'96 Forest green GT coupe, grey interior [04.96 to 04.00]'88 medium blue 5.0LX hatchback, grey interior [93-04.96]'80 white hatchback, red interior [91-93]My other car is a Ford - '04 Escape, 6 cylinder, silver, grey cloth -LOVE IT - it's my second Escape.
Go to an electronics parts store and get a fuse tap. Connect this tap to the lighter fuse in the fuse block and connect your wire to the fuse tap with a quick disconnect connector. This way you won't have to add any fuses or run a wire to the battery.
I was going to start a new thread on the problem I will describe below, but after reading this thread about the radio, this might be the right place. Kind of a long story though.
I have '65 and I put in a new radio a couple of years ago, a Kenwood KRC-2007 (radio/cassette) that Custom Autosound repackaged to fit the original dash. It has one line for radio power and another line for the clock/memory (I assume). I used the connections that had been used by the prior radio (not original), that is, the radio power line was connected to the topmost 14A accessory fuse on the fuse panel (the right side of the fuse looking from the front of the fuse panel) and the clock/memory power was a sort of spade connector shoved under the bottommost fuse (14A cigarette) on the right side.
Everything worked fine for 2 years.
Then, about a week ago, the radio just stopped working. I pulled the topmost fuse (14A accessory) and found that it had blown. I also noticed that it was a 7.5A fuse rather than a 14A fuse. I put in a new
14A fuse, turned on the radio, and it worked. However, after a few seconds smoke started coming out of the radio so I quickly turned it off.
My assumption was that there is a short somewhere, possibly in the radio itself or elsewhere in the wiring. The fuse panel itself turned out to be in bad shape; some of the fuse holders/connectors were crumbling. It was really hard to work on it and, in frustration, I unscrewed the fuse panel and cut all the wires going into it. I was thinking in the back of my mind that I could find a new fuse panel, splice new wires to where I cut, and just reattach things or maybe get fancy and get some sort of pigtail connector so that the fuse panel can be disconnected and reconnected easily in the future.
So that's where I am. I have several questions:
1) Is it possible to buy just a new fuse panel without the wiring harness (i.e., I don't want to spend hundreds of dollars)?
2) If I get a new fuse panel, is there any reason why it has to be for a Mustang or use American-style fuses versus the type that are found in Japanese cars? That is, as long as I am using fuses with the right amperage, does anything else matter?
3) All the wires going into the fuse panel are color coded of course. However, two of the wires are identical. I did not notice this until I had removed the fuse panel, otherwise I would have noted which wire went where. The identical ones are the two for either end of the fuse (2.5A) for the instrument lights; they are blue-red. According to the wiring diagram, one goes to the instrument panel lights and the other goes to the light switch. So, I guess I can check for continuity to figure out which is which, true?
4) I need some strategy for tracking down the short in this situation. What do experienced short-searchers suggest?
That's the story and I'd be grateful for any help. No need to beat me up for cutting the fuse panel wires; I've done that already...
There's a short in the radio. By upping the fuse value, you made it draw more current, thereby cooking more components before the new fuse finally went. The word "toast" comes to mind.
Buy Street Rodder magazine or the like and see the ads for Painless Wiring brand universal kits and a few others that are similar.
American cars have using spade fuses for a long time now. And no, it does not matter which type you use.
This may not matter if you use a universal wiring kit.
You can open the cassette door and sniff. The smell of burnt components is long-lasting. A short in the wiring upstream would not have caused smoke to come out of your deck.
You've already beat yourself up? What fun is left for us?
My god, Jet, you have certainly mellowed out since you re-located. No fun to kick a man when he's down on the Usenet? If you haven't already polished and Cosmolined all your rusty camshafts and dressed them up in purple tutus, grab one and give yourself a whack, CJ.
My additional 2 cents for Mr. Catrambone is, whatever you decide to do, do it quickly, because no matter how vivid a memory you think you have of where all those cut wires go, you WILL forget if you let it go very much longer.
I don't see any warrant in this post for a Snake bite. Besides, all my testosterone is going into my daily workouts. I have to catch up to Patrick, and he's, like, 20 years younger and way ahead of me. For now.
I abuse myself enough by allowing yet another birthday to start sneaking up on me. If I had any decency, or respect for the American population at large, I would have dropped an FE intake on my skull years ago.
Thank you for the help and advice (and general lack of abuse)! I am working on the task now. Two questions at the moment:
1) What gauge are the wires coming out of the (original) fuse panel? A couple look like 12 gauge and the rest look like 14 gauge. Does that seem right?
2) What is a good replacement radio? As I mentioned in my original post, the radio I put in two years ago is a Kenwood KRC-2007 repackaged to fit the original dash by Custom Autosound. Assuming that it is the radio that shorted, it seems unreasonable for this to happen after 2 years (the warranty was for one year). I see a bunch of radio options in the various Mustang catalogs and am wondering if there is any consensus about brands/models to try to get or to try to avoid? At a minimum I would get a radio/cassette player although radio/cassette/cd would be fine (a single cd; I'm not looking to put one of those multiple cd changers in the trunk).
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