This weekend I decided I would work on the interior. I have 2000 Mustang seats and had put in new carpet, but the rest of the interior was not up to speed. While I was at it I decided I would install the rear quarter windows and regulators I had bought. Things did not go well. I stripped out the interior as shown in the next figure. There was almost no rust. The dark spots are from the other carpet install, where it pulled the paint off the insulation and body work.
The new regulators were from a 2001 Mustang convertible. Visually, they looked identical, except the 1995 regulators were painted, while the 2001 regulators were galvanized steel. To install, the rear quarter trim had to be removed, which I had already done. The window has to be removed from the track to remove the regulator from the smallish cavity in the body. Two screws are removed with the window almost all the way up, then the final screw in removed with the window lowered. I installed the new regulator, which fit perfectly, but the window was canted in towards the interior; not a little, but a bunch, probably two inches or more. There is an adjustment at the bottom to adjust the window in or out, but it was all the way in, meaning no more adjustment was possible. I measured and looked and could see very little difference between the two, but could not get it to align. I finally gave up and put the new motors on the old regulators, which seem to work fine. Anyone know why they don’t adjust?
After wasting four hours on that project, plus the time it took to strip the interior and transfer the wiring from the old center console to the new one, the day was pretty much done. Day two I decided to install the sound deadener. I had bought 100 square feet of butyl rubber 50 mil sound deadener from GT Sound on eBay. $149 for two 35†wide rolls. It took a little less than 50 square feet to do the floors, see the next figure. This took me all day working by myself. Two people could probably do a better job and knock it out quicker, but it is what it is. I originally wanted to install the front to back insulation in one piece, which is what I did on the driver’s side. Trying to align the sheeting, deal with the plastic backing and keeping it from sticking to itself proved to be a real PIA. If it touches itself, it is stuck, period. I decided to use smaller sections that overlapped after that and, even though it took longer to roll everything out, I think I got better coverage. The rear seat area was difficult to cover, as it has many curves and uneven surfaces. I again used as large a piece as I could, but overlapped pieces to get complete coverage. I took the sound deadener up to the partition between the rear seat and the trunk.
I also decided to install the gear selector I bought for a 2001 Mustang. It has a bigger handle and has the OD button right by the thumb. Visually the two shifter assemblies were identical, except for the handle lever. After removing the old gear selector assembly, I installed the 2001 unit. Everything went well until I tried to snap the cable onto the ball on the shift lever. It would not fit. The ball was smaller than the one on the 1995 assembly. I can’t get to the cable to change it out, due to the way my exhaust is configured. I noticed there was a nut holding the shift lever on to the base. After removing a plastic cover, I unscrewed the nut, wriggled the lever back and forth and took it out of the base. I did the same with the 2001 gear selector. The photos show the 1995 gear shift lever and bezel, and the 2001 selector base. They fit together just fine and it seems to work well. If someone is in the same situation I was, where you can’t get to the cable, this might be an option you want to try.
