’69 Ford Mustang Mach 1 drives for the first time in 30 years! - Hagerty Media

The Redline Rebuild team is in the midst of some “show and tell” right now, in case you haven’t been watching for a few weeks. Davin learned about a 1969 Mustang Mach 1 that had been in storage for 30 years and determined that rest period was just too long. That’s when he decided to both show you the find and tell you exactly what it takes to bring a car like this back to life. So far, he’s dragged the car out of storage, inspected it, and convinced the engine to run. What more is there? Well, a good bit.

It’s one thing to get a car driving, and another to get it driving safely. Davin is pursuing the latter. That’s why the leak on the passenger rear wheel gets addressed as part of a thorough chassis inspection. When he first discovers it, Davin estimates the leak is due either to an axle seal or to a wheel cylinder. Luckily, the culprit is the axle seal—a far easier fix than the wheel cylinder, since opening up the hydraulic brake system often produces a can-of-worms situation.

Since the axle seal requires him to remove the brake drum, Davin takes the opportunity to replace the brake shoes, even though all signs point to those components being healthy. Why? It’s cheap peace of mind to replace those parts now and also saves time compared to disassembling things twice, if a stopping problem were to emerge once this pony was back on the road.

With fresh brakes installed, it’s time for a test drive, a challenge which the Mustang passes with flying colors. Then, a little surprise: Davin has been working on the car in secret, behind the back of the car’s current owner. Cam was the one who brought Davin to the car and gave us some of the story behind it, but Cam’s grandmother has the most history with the ’69 Mach 1. She was the one who drove it into storage so many years ago, and she gets one heck of a surprise when she sees Davin and Cam rumble into her driveway.

Even when life gets in the way and delays projects for a long time, it is always worth the effort to get back to work and revive those long-stored machines. It only took Davin a couple days of focused effort to bring this Mustang back to life, so make sure to take his advice and get out in the shop and work on your projects. Of course, if you want to see what Davin is working on next, be sure to subscribe to the Hagerty YouTube channel to never miss an oil-soaked minute.

— Kyle Smith

Thanks to our sponsor RockAuto.com, an auto parts retailer founded in 1999 by automotive engineers with two goals: Liberate information hidden behind the auto parts store counter (by listing all available parts, not just what one store stocks or one counter-person knows), and make auto parts affordable so vehicles of all ages can be kept reliable and fun to drive. Visit RockAuto.com to order auto parts online 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and have them conveniently delivered to your door. Need help finding parts or placing an order? Visit the Help pages for further assistance.