Project Hitman, because it's 'for hire'!

[ALLstrokedOUT]

Hello everyone, I figured I'd start a thread as I've passed a point of no return in a new project. I've been wanting to do another project and finally saw my opportunity. My dad is finishing his 77 corvette with a 6.0 LS based engine and built 4l80e; Im nearly where I want to be with my demon and wanted to start a project with a modern drivetrain. I don't have room to start a collection of cars however, so this build is meant to be sold when it's finished (hopefully for a 'profit').


My heart is with GM, I love the LS's, but at the time a 2002 4.6 2v and 5spd manual came up for sale that I couldn't pass. so now I'm looking for a ford to put this in, whatever I get I plan to put an IRS into it and probably will supercharge this engine with a cobra supercharger

...I'm looking at a 60's mustang coupe, a ford pickup, or a mid 60's thunderbird-what do you guys think I should hone in on?? I really need a direction now!

[ALLstrokedOUT]

I may be celebrating a bit too early, but I found a great deal on a thunderbird, I've made arrangements to pick it up Friday...I'm pretty sure nobody's ever put a 5spd, a modular ford motor, IRS, and 335 wide rear tires on one of these before! The biggest struggle will be getting it to lose weight, looks like it weighs 4400lbs with the big block.

[Crestronwizard]

I didnt realize they were that heavy! Looks like fun

[ALLstrokedOUT]

Me either! I was hoping they were closer in weight to a modern mustang, but it's 1000lbs heavier according to the googles. One good note is that I think the 4.6 should be ~200-300lbs lighter than the 390 it comes with. I'm hoping that if I carve the trunk floor out to make room for a fuel cell I can knock a few more lbs off, we shall see

[migg400]

That is pretty heavy, BUT that's gonna make a killer project!! I think some of the weight is just in the structure itself? Still cool though!! Once my Fastback is done, I was gonna rip my 2v out of my 04 coupe and put it in my wife's 62 Falcon, but we ended up selling it.
I'm gonna keep my eye on this build!

[DrFraZZy]

That will be pretty cool. Like you and everyone mention. Thats pretty heavy. If you can shave a thousand pound off then its going to be a killer project especially with the 335 in the rear. I think, that will be badass!

[ALLstrokedOUT]

Thanks guys! Anything with wide tires and a low stance is going to be badass haha! My only hope is to cut a bunch of non critical bracing out to lose he weight. I want to keep the interior as whole as possible because, let's face it, it's going to be more of a cruiser than a track car.

I've been tearing into the engine and doing research on the power the 4.6 can make on a stock long block. The general consensus is that the stock internals are living on borrowed time above ~450hp, so I'll make it live just below that. I was going to drop a cobra supercharger on it, but it looks like the manifold will be difficult/'expensive' to get, so I'm going to fab a set of stainless turbo headers and use a 70mm turbo.
First step is to pull the old out and start shaving things off the engine bay though, starting Saturday!

[migg400]

My buddy is running a Boosted 2v in his 98 vert laying down some good numbers with a stock crank. Check out SVTPerformance.com when you have time. You can learn a lot about boosted stangs!

[ALLstrokedOUT]

It's been a crazy 48hrs, but everything fell into place. I drove 8hrs round trip to pick the thunderbird up, it's about what I thought it would be. Subframe is in a bit worse shape than I thought in the rear, but the front makes up for it. We've had a rats nest in almost every car we started out with, but this is the first one to have a live rat!


Today we pulled the front clip and doors off and pulled the differential. the pass leaf spring was snapped off, so it was hard to roll around, I'd like to put an IRS under it before any other drivetrain work or rust repair so it can at least be rolled around.




I also don't see how the car weighs 4400 lbs, it has a lot of interior comforts like 4 power windows and a power drivers seat, but things just don't add up for me after lifting off the whole front clip and doors.

[ALLstrokedOUT]

One more piece off the list, now I can start playing with some metal. this is an 8.8 IRS out of a Lincoln Mark 8, I think very very similar to the 03/04 cobra. I'm toying with the idea now of putting an air ride for the suspension of the car, anyone think that's a wise investment for resale purposes, or would a low stance be just the same??

[ALLstrokedOUT]

My dad sent me this picture from two weeks ago when we picked the car up, it's never a good sign when the fork lift comes out to move the car, but it was a huge help.


I got the seats and carpet out of the car. The seats were full of rats nests (I caught 6 rats last week, I hope that's all of them). The factory insulation held moisture really well which has made the floors paper thin, there isn't an 8" section that doesn't have a hole in it, except for under the rear seat and the trans tunnel.


Tomorrow I'm going to cut almost 100% of the trunk out, or what's left of it to start installing the IRS and eventually fuel cell. In the meantime I slid the IRS under the car to start envisioning where the mounts need to go, it doesn't look too bad yet

[ryeguy2006a]

Wow, that's an awesome start to a project!

[Ben@SpeedTech]

Cool Project!!

[ALLstrokedOUT]

Thanks guys! One more pic for a bit, I got the floor out to give myself more room working on the IRS. It looks like the front mounts are in the middle of the cars subframe, so I'll have to do a lot of hacking, maybe removing that entire portion of frame rail and relocating it to the interior underneath the rear seat.

[ALLstrokedOUT]

I started cutting the subframe apart to be able to fit the IRS under the car. The best plan I could figure was to stick a piece of 2x6 tubing beneath the rear seat and poke it through the floor. The area under the rear seat is very structural, this part of the subframe/crossmember is where the leaf spring mount was.


Once I have it welded in I'm going to cut the frame rail out below this tubing to accommodate the stock IRS cradle...I'll also gusset everything in before moving to the rear mounts and spring perches/pockets. The rear will also be interesting, the cradle is several inches wider than the frame rails.

[ALLstrokedOUT]

Just one more quick pic, so far things are going to plan.im hoping to have the suspension mounted in the car in a week from now, then move to the front.

[Z06killinSBF]

Very cool build, tuned in!

[ALLstrokedOUT]

Thanks for the complement!

The rear end still looks the same as before, but progress is being made, I welded perches to the car for the rear mounts on the IRS subframe. I still need to weld in a crossmember and drill some holes to bolt the subframe to...

This weekend we took the engine and trans out of the thunderbird in record time, 2hrs including assembling the engine lift. After I have the rear end tacked in I'm going to pull a crown Vic front k member and start cutting the old suspension out, I'm hoping to start hitting some type of a stride in the time I'm putting into this thing.

[ALLstrokedOUT]

I moved to the back end again, I have all of the tubing welded for the IRS, I should be ready to let it sit on its own weight, i still want to gusset some areas and make spring perches before being completely done though.

[Protour_Pinto]

Wow, looks more like a Michigan car than a Florida car. Must have spent some time on the beach driving through the ocean.

Its going to be nice when its running all the newer drivetrain and suspension.