Tooling around on a Sunday afternoon in a vintage Mustang is one of our hobby’s greatest pleasures. But all too often those quiet afternoon rides to watch the sunset are interrupted by some mechanical devil that lurks under that long hood of your Mustang. Nothing can ruin the solitude of a relaxing ride quicker than the ride coming to an abrupt end in the middle of an intersection.

Any number of problems can creep up on an unsuspecting vintage owner who hasn’t been keeping up his end of vehicle ownership—maintenance. Vintage Mustangs are different from your everyday work-and-errand vehicle. Vintage Mustangs aren’t used often—usually only on sunny days or for show duties—thus they require a bit of a different maintenance routine. Some extra checks must be thrown in as well every time you get behind the wheel. Remember, depending upon the condition of your Mustang, and whether it has been restored—or how long ago it was restored for that matter—determines what areas should be scrutinized.

Some Quick Thoughts To Get You Going

Electrical systems are always a problem at some point in time. Thirty-year-old wiring has a habit of losing its protective vinyl cover, and then shorting out. Most reproduction harnesses are reasonably priced, so it might be easier to simply replace the wiring rather than trying to cut, splice, or solder some sort of patch repair.

Cooling systems are, of course, high on the ruining-your-Sunday-afternoon list. Make sure you have a good radiator cap and a strong radiator. Flush your cooling system, and have the cooling system pressure checked annually to make sure you don’t have a weak hose or a pinhole in your radiator or heater core.

Those V-belts dry-rotting on your engine pulleys won’t hesitate to snap at the most inopportune time and leave you stranded with a dead battery, overheated cooling system, no power steering, or A/C to boot. Check and replace the V-belts yearly, or sooner if the car sits much of the time.

Standard automotive batteries don’t like to be drained completely, and then recharged several times a year. Either invest in a trickle charger or battery tender that can maintain the state of charge on your battery, or replace your battery with a deep-cycle marine battery that can be discharged and recharged repeatedly. Otherwise, your day trip might not even make it out of the garage. Brake fluid should be checked and replaced—yes, I said replaced—once a year.

Brake fluid sucks moisture out of the air and dirt from your brake system—which causes brake fluid to darken with age—so it needs to be flushed with clean fluid until the clean fluid runs from all four bleeder screws. Don’t use silicone-based fluid in a vintage car that sits most of the time, either.

Speaking of brakes, don’t park your vintage Mustang with the parking brake set. Instead, use tire chocks if you need to safely block your Mustang from going anywhere. When the parking brake is set for long periods of inactivity, the brake drums can seize to the extended rear-brake shoes, thereby preventing the release of the rear brakes when you release the parking-brake handle.

Tires are another potential problem with vintage Mustangs that usually sit for extended periods of time. Old-school bias-ply tires might be the ticket for show duties, but they tend to offer up a poor ride and even poorer handling for those sunny afternoon sprints to the beach or the park. Some black sidewall radial tires will do a better job of maintaining shape, tread wear, and air pressure over the long haul. Also, they are much safer for any type of driving and offer better braking and handling to boot.

Furthermore, we want to offer you these easy maintenance tips for you to use during your next visit to the garage. No need to thank us—we simply enjoy seeing all those vintage Mustangs out on the road every weekend. Don’t forget to wave when you see one go by.

Inspect your wheel bearings twice a year to maintain proper wheel-bearing preload, which can affect handling, alignment, braking, and more. The bearings can lose their grease when a bad grease seal or loose bearing dust cap is present. Maintaining the dust cap seal is important to long bearing life, as it keeps bearing-race-killing dirt and grease-dissolving rainwater out of the bearings.