What else do you think may have caused the rust in the dash only?
I mean there is ZERO rust in the window frame, or any where's else for that matter. I assume these pieces were unpainted from the factory, but I would think that would only cause a light surface rust???

That is a great question.I would have offered an alternate hypothesis if I had one.... To me it almost looks like a chemical attack of some kind

Or maybe it had a leaking or missing windshield, although if that was the case, you would think the floors would be bad. Certainly odd.

I got my Birthday present to myself today:

Tomorrow I need to give some thought to this auto/manual column crap....

This looks to be pretty straight forward from what I can see; just gut up the Mustang column and shorten it a few inches. Then mix and match the two column internals.
We'll see how it goes....
The pedal box is from a Fairlane/Torino so it should be a bolt in.
I also got the Z-bar and pivot for a small block, so just need to make the hole in the firewall

I recently swapped out the 4spd to a 5spd in my 65 Mustang, tried it with the original manual clutch linkage and could barely drive the thing it was so damn stiff, so I did some research and ended up going with a hydraulic set up. I bought a kit from Daze Cars he makes a bracket that mounts to the side of the T5 for the slave cylinder with a rod that attaches to the factory fork for the T5 bellhousing then you mount a Willwood clutch M/S to the firewall with a adjustable rod to the clutch pedal, fired it up took it for a drive and it was like night and day it was like driving a modern car super smooth no slop or binding.

Thanks, good to know.

Daze clutch setup

I used a Malwood under dash master cylinder/TO bearing, pretty slick...

https://www.malwoodusa.com/

I wanted the lever gone so it would look like a manual column/car.
It really wasn't that bad of a job, although I wish I had taken more pics , it was one of those things that once i started, I completely spaced it out.
Either way, it got done, Column & pedal box are in , although I didn't drill the hole or install the Z-bar stuff.

Progress is starting to slow down a little, but I did get a "gift" from UPS Saturday:

Well, got the engine compartment all stripped, now I just need to get it to the body shop to get these dents filled and the bare metal epoxied.

Also, need to get a little tug on the engine crossmember, looks like some one hit something they shouldn't have. Minor damage and an easy fix:













Hopefully he can take it this weekend.

link to Malwood upgrade:

https://www.malwoodusa.com/ford/1968-71-torino-fairlane-hydraulic-master-cylinder-clutch-pedal-kit-billet-reservoir/

I like that late "Christmas gift" from Santa...er ah..UPS! Sweet!

Thanks Gary, much appreciated.

Went over there yesterday afternoon and we got her bolted down to the frame machine to give the engine cradle/crossmember a little pull"



Getting it ready for the pull:



All clamped and ready to go:



One little tug and it was back to normal; it took longer to set it up, lol: