Today has been a tough one. I started sanding the engine bay this morning. Wayne said that I had to do the entire bay inside and out. About 1/2 hour ago, I finished, at least I thought I was finished. Now I have to go over everything I just sanded with a scotch bright pad.
My hands were cramping up about an hour ago. Now I have about another 2 hours of scotch bright buffing in front of me.
Will it ever end??? :-)
Oh... And this is just the engine bay. Tomorrow I get to start on the underside of the chassis. I can hardly wait.
Working our way through this rat's nest is going to take some time, but nothing we can't handle. I should have the harness installed by the end of the day.
Also, we are picking up some of the parts from the powder coater today. I am looking forward to assembling the front and rear end of the beast.
I would have posted these photos earlier, but yesterday, my computer took a dump. :-(
We received the powder coated suspension components and had to send them back. There was some confusion over the color we wanted and the coater color-matched the wrong components. We should have those items back by Monday. :-(
In the mean time, I have been plugging along, assembling the items in the engine bay while Wayne has been working on mounting the rear wheel flares.
We are going to have to modify the wiring harness, in a couple of places, in order to reach some of the components. Relocating the shock towers 7" forward has altered the way the harness fits, but fortunate for us, we only have to change things like the length of the lead going to the WW pump, etc...
As far as the mechanical systems, we are going to have to come up with a way to support the intercooler radiator and re-route the front break lines. Other than that, everything has been bolting right up.
Please speak up if you see something that does not look quite right. There is so much going on right now that I am afraid I might make a mistake in assembly. It is easier to correct these things now than to wait until it is done and have to fix them then. Thanks for your help.
Making a little more progress. Mounted more items in the engine bay and mounted the rear drivers side fender flare. For those who wish to know, we used "Duramix 4040" to bond the FRP fender flare to the steel quarter panel. 4040 is a specialty adhesive used for both structural and cosmetic repairs.
After much debate, we decided to powder coat the front spindles and the rear lower control arms. I was wishing to keep them natural, but I was beaten into submission by the rest of the guys in the shop. Both items had a few cosmetic issues (stains in the castings and inconsistent surface texture) that just did not look right. I dropped these items off at the powder coater, but they will not be ready until Thursday, which is going to slow us down a bit on the assembly.
Also, I found out that it will be a week or two before we can receive a cooling mod kit from LDC Chicago. This means that we are going to have to continue with the Apten kit and make it work as best we can. I am sure we can get it to fit up right, but it would be a lot easier with the LDC Chicago kit. This is also going to slow us down a bit.
Wayne finished off the interior of the flares by grinding all the surfaces smooth and "filling / skim coating" the inner gaps and contours with the same 4040 material used to bond the flare to the quarter panel. Once we apply the undercoating to the inside of the wheel housing, it will look perfect. When he was done with the flares, he started skim coating the roof and the top of the cowl area.
Just for grins I posted a close up of the chassis (of the fuel and brake lines between the rear frame rails). If you look close you will note that we are using 3m strip caulk at all the pop riveted and screwed components (you can see it ooze from behind some of the mounted items). This may be a little excessive, but we feel it is good insurance against any rust weeping from where the fastener scratches the coating during installation.
Today we continue to detail and assemble as many parts as we can. We will concentrate on the suspension and chassis as well as finishing off the engine cooling modification.
You're worried about the newer car of the two? How about the 65 that he's butchering? They're hard enough to come by as it is.
Your comments make me sick. It sounds like this car was pretty much shot, and even if it wasn't, guess what? IT'S HIS CAR, he can do what he wants with it! Here is a guy that is taking on a really cool project, doing it as well as it can be done, and you want to put him down. That is typical of someone like you that does not have the ability, or the resources to do something like this. Someone who is jealous always puts down what they are jealous of. Why can't you just appreciate all that he is doing?
Wow man, that's amazing how you've come to know me so well in the 5 minutes you've been here. Now let me roll through history to tell you that I used to build custom hot rods for a living, so don't give me this crap about being jealous of what I can't do. I am an experienced machinist and welder/fabricator. So don't go stickin your foot too far in your mouth.
__________________
Gasoline is for washing parts.
Alcohol is for drinking.
Nitro is for kickin ass!
1967 Mustang Coupe
R.I.P. Darrell Russell 1968-2004 The racing world has lost a great racer.
Wow man, that's amazing how you've come to know me so well in the 5 minutes you've been here. Now let me roll through history to tell you that I used to build custom hot rods for a living, so don't give me this crap about being jealous of what I can't do. I am an experienced machinist and welder/fabricator. So don't go stickin your foot too far in your mouth.
Hi AcoolJT,
OK... Everybody take a deep breath...
Your comment in regard to the 65 was from long ago and far away. Way back when this thread was first posted. You are a car guy. I am a car guy. We are all Mustang people.
I have to admit, when I go back and look at the early photos of this project, I often ask myself "What the *&#$ was I thinking".
Looking at the project now, it is a bit easier to see where it is going. Way back when, this project could have ended up in the dumpster and I could have totally trashed two cars beyond repair.
When it is done, I will be looking to take you out for a spin and we can then make a final determination as to the overall merits of the project. We can evaluate the quality of fabrication, design and engineering. After all, if the car does not perform as expected, the project will have been a failure.
Can't we all play nice???
Your comments make me sick. It sounds like this car was pretty much shot, and even if it wasn't, guess what? IT'S HIS CAR, he can do what he wants with it! Here is a guy that is taking on a really cool project, doing it as well as it can be done, and you want to put him down. That is typical of someone like you that does not have the ability, or the resources to do something like this. Someone who is jealous always puts down what they are jealous of. Why can't you just appreciate all that he is doing?
Hi S,
While Acooljt may not agree with the overall concept, he is entitled to his opinion. I thank you for standing up for me, but I have put the whole "butchering" comment behind me.
When I started this project, I thought that I would recieve far more complaints from the early Mustang purists out there, but I have found that there are far more people in support of the concept than there are against.
I really like what you have done, and commend you for it, and your ability to take the critic's comments in stride. I won't let it bother me either. You are right, we are all mustang guys.
Anyway, you and I have a mutual friend, and glass installer who told me about your project. I am from Gary Auto in Carol Stream. I would love to see your project sometime. I think Mike was going to ask you if we could come and look at it. Maybe we could stop by soon?
I have no doubt the project will turn out great, I've been monitoring the progress. It looks good, I have no doubt it will perform great. But I am a diehard classic Mustang purist as you put it, and I really don't care for any of the other Mustangs besides those produced in 65-73. The Mustang II's were ahead of their time with the front-end setup, but otherwise an ugly car and just not a good era for cars as all the pollution laws and stuff were attacking the car industry. Everything from 79 to present day I just find to be like an a$$hole, everyone's got one. Every little teenage kid goes out and buys one and thinks he's got balls. I gotta say that I like the 94-04 bodystyle and the 05 bodystyle(though I feel it's far inferior to what is was to be copied from, the 67-8 Shelby's) but when they started putting mod motors in them, I was further disgusted with Ford. The only years I'd consider owning besides 65-73 is a 94 or 95 because those were the new bodystyle with the 5.0 motor, but even then I'd keep it stock for a daily driver, because I don't want to be like every other jerk on the road thinking that because I have a modded 5.0 that I'm the sh*t. And that's the story...
__________________
Gasoline is for washing parts.
Alcohol is for drinking.
Nitro is for kickin ass!
1967 Mustang Coupe
R.I.P. Darrell Russell 1968-2004 The racing world has lost a great racer.
I really like what you have done, and commend you for it, and your ability to take the critic's comments in stride. I won't let it bother me either. You are right, we are all mustang guys.
Anyway, you and I have a mutual friend, and glass installer who told me about your project. I am from Gary Auto in Carol Stream. I would love to see your project sometime. I think Mike was going to ask you if we could come and look at it. Maybe we could stop by soon?
Don
Hi D,
Nice to meet you. Say hi to Mike. I look forward to the day he installs the glass in this beast.
As far as stopping by, you are always more than welcome. Just have Mike give Wayne a call before hand.
I have no doubt the project will turn out great, I've been monitoring the progress. It looks good, I have no doubt it will perform great.
SNIP...
I gotta say that I like the 94-04 bodystyle and the 05 bodystyle (though I feel it's far inferior to what is was to be copied from, the 67-8 Shelby's)
SNIP...
Hi AC,
Thanks for the kind words. Comments like this meen a lot comming from a diehard purist like yourself.
On another note, I do not understand why everybody tends to believe that the 05 Mustang is a takeoff on the 67/68 mustangs and shelbys. When viewed in profile, the 05 looks much more like a 65/66 fastback than a 67/68. I believe they used a lot of styling cues from all the early mustangs (65-70) but the 05 most resembles the 65 through my eyes.
Well... I almost have the rear end assembled. I should have it finished today. I just have to shim and mount the upper control arms and we are done.
What a project.
You have to be very anal when replacing the IRS control arm and center section bushings. The factory bushings bent the mounting tabs to conform to the steel bushing housings. The replacement bushings need to have these tabs flat and parallel. Achieving this is no easy task and requires a lot of fiddling about.
Our tabs were so out of alignment that we could not just bend them back into alignment. We had to take a 1/2" bolt with nut and use it as you would a small screw jack. We positioned the bolt in the bracket and unthreaded the nut until it came into contact with the area we needed to expand and then applied as much elbow grease as physically possible. Lucky for us, this expanded the bracket enough to give us the flat and parallel condition required. I do not know what we would have done if this did not work.
Anyway... Here is a photo of the IRS as it sits this morning.
Sorry I have not posted any updates lately, but I had to fly to Houston and solve a wastewater treatment problem at a Texas Instruments chip manufacturing facility....
Anyway, I am back in Chicago and itching to get back to work.
Wayne has been continuing with the bodywork. The fender flares are looking real good at this point. We have contacted LDC Chicago ad should be receiving their cooling mod early next week. We have contacted CenterForce and we should be receiving the clutch kit early next week. We have received the Magna Flow Cobra exhaust system. We have picked up some misc hardware to install the revised steering linkage and the revised oil filter casting modification. Etc...
It is good to be back.
Also, since Wayne is now posting every now and then, I guess I should start using my real name.
Well, with that said, it is time to get back to work.
