Over the last too many years to remember I have been gathering parts for a nine inch upgrade in my 67 coupe. Bill Thomas put together a Traction-lok carrier 20 years ago. The carrier housing came from a 64.5 Mustang K code coupe. It had 3.89 gears and was free. Was left at my BILs place in a storage shed 25 years ago. Bill recommended 3.50 gears and traded for the 3.89. The carrier has been sitting on my workbench since. I found an axle housing out of a '70 Cougar at a salvage yard soon after the carrier was completed. Cleaned it up and it has been sitting in the garage since. About 5 years ago I started looking for 2.5 inch rear brake backing plates. 1966 to 1977 Bronco used them, along with even harder to find old Fords. 1967 GT 350 and 500s used the 2.5 inch rear drum brakes. After a year or so of looking on ebay I found a set.
Cleaning out my garage last year due to the construction and electrical work that needed to be done I found an old business card of Bill Thomas. I did a google search and found that he was still in business at the same old warehouse in San Bernardino. I gave him a call to see if he could assemble my rear end. The man does like to talk, simple explanation of the parts that I have and could he assemble them for me. It was at least an 1/2 hour call. When I dropped the parts off he had more stories to tell. They are good stories and it was very entertaining listening to him.
I dropped off the parts last year before the holidays. I told him no rush on getting it assembled. Set a tentative date the second week in January. I called a couple of times to see if it was ready. "I gotta clean and paint the backing plates". This Monday the 6th of February he called me to say it was ready to be picked up.
Next is putting the brake lines back on it and assembling the drum brakes. Bottom line is that I have learned to pick my battles. At one time with a lot of help I could have put it together myself. Now I will install the completed rearend myself.
fd
Cleaning out my garage last year due to the construction and electrical work that needed to be done I found an old business card of Bill Thomas. I did a google search and found that he was still in business at the same old warehouse in San Bernardino. I gave him a call to see if he could assemble my rear end. The man does like to talk, simple explanation of the parts that I have and could he assemble them for me. It was at least an 1/2 hour call. When I dropped the parts off he had more stories to tell. They are good stories and it was very entertaining listening to him.
I dropped off the parts last year before the holidays. I told him no rush on getting it assembled. Set a tentative date the second week in January. I called a couple of times to see if it was ready. "I gotta clean and paint the backing plates". This Monday the 6th of February he called me to say it was ready to be picked up.
Next is putting the brake lines back on it and assembling the drum brakes. Bottom line is that I have learned to pick my battles. At one time with a lot of help I could have put it together myself. Now I will install the completed rearend myself.
fd
and removing the shock towers. The one thing that I am not going to do is the rotisserie. That would make it too pretty to drive, and I want to drive it on the streets of SoCal. 
