1970 Mustang Grabber Special

[latoracing]

To get the tips all centered in their tunnels I have been needing to fabricate some hangers. It would have been easier to form some round solid rod or get a stockish style hanger to do the job, but I couldn't resist. Starting with some 1/8" stainless I just started with a 6" over all length. Put some holes in it and dimpled them, then formed a little break on the lower potion to stiffen it up a little. A few more dimpled parts for the end, with a little trimming...



After welding the end part on and a little cleanup, the parts start to take shape, The high temp silicone bushings I bought give the bracket a nice look.



Giving an idea of how they will look, once I get them welded to the muffler...



Now to make the tabs to attach these brackets to the car,,,

[Dalpilot]

Wow, even your muffler hangers are art.

[latoracing]

Did a little bit of trimming on the attachment brackets and got them welded to the mufflers.



Cleaned up the HAZ areas a little, then stuck them back on the car. Getting them in their respective positions, I took some measurements for the attachment tabs.



I had pictured two designs, one was a basic formed angle, and the other was a bit more involved. I of course went with the more involved lol.



I started with some internal doublers that will provide some much needed strength to this thin sheet metal. The "saddle" is a little smaller width wise so all this will get drilled and rosette welded to death. The tube is 1 1/8" x 1/8" wall DOM with a 7/8" spacer on the inside. I used a 3" long 3/8" grade 8 bolt, slightly modified, for the attachment fastener. I need to do a little more fitting, then all this will get fried in place.

[brawls43]

That's a pretty slick mounting system. Looks good. Your build quality is just awesome, makes me think I need to go back and redo some things.

[octane speed shop]

I am impressed, welding skill is amazing!

[Centerforce]

What a neat way to do hangers! Much better looking than simple old round bar.

[latoracing]

The mounts and doubler plates are all welded in place, they are not going anywhere.

Did a little bit of choppin' on this poor thing. The plasma cutter got a slight workout with the several layers of material and careful trimming of the areas. I didn't want to go nuts and chop out something that I'd have to put back, so baby steps and a lot of checking. I got it all to fit and tapped it in place. I rolled the car over several times to get to different areas and to watch the plasma slag fall out.



The upper (I get confused with the car upside down lol) part of the frame rail got a 2" radius area chopped out of it to help clear the V-band clamp flange. I will have to go back and weld a band in this area to reinforce it.



The V-band clamp didn't want to play well with the rocker tunnel, it would get stuck on the straight piece of tubing I had mocked up. So, 3 steps forward, 8 back. I removed a section of the top (there is that orientation issue again) to help in installing / removing all this assembly. I get to patch another hole ( along with my quarter as I sanded too much :( ) but that's half the fun...



As the straight tube wouldn't get me anywhere close to where I wanted, I cut the tacks off and tacked a short piece of pipe with a 45 on the end. The V-band clamp flange will have to get a little notch in it to sit right, but for fitting purposes it was ok.



With some spacers, and a little tape, I was able to center the tip, and get a good measurement for the other portion of the tubing. A little chopping and the other elbow fell right in place.



With everything kinda in place, the tips stick out about a 1/4" too much (measures 1/2" from the rocker) so I'll chop all this apart again and re-tack everything, triple checking before it is all welded in place.



I also have to come up with a clamp / hanger for all this. Lots more to do, and I still have an entire other side to do...

[kingcrunch]

I like that exhaust routing. Put an Elmer Fudd cartoon pointing its rifle right above the outlets ;)

[rustomatic]

The exhaust work is awesome, far beyond my aesthetic/mental budget. I am curious to see what you'll do to add strength back into the rocker/faux-frame rail area. Is there a new rear frame plan in the works?

[latoracing]

Thanks for all the compliments, I appreciate them.

I have been in tedious land for several weeks. These tip mounting brackets were kicking my butt lol. I went through several tab designs, that were thankfully made out of paper, to verify if the tip could be removed with them in place.*



This particular example would not come out without hitting, so I came up with a multi piece design, which started out as rather large tabs.



The second section of tabs have to be bolted in place, with not a whole lot of room to put many fasteners. The forward tab landed between what use to be the leaf spring mount, which is about 3/8" with all the layers. The rear area needed some beefing up as it was nothing but the floor pan so some 3/16" plate was formed and welded in place. The tabs incorporated more of the blue silicone isolators. I was using miscellaneous hardware to attach all this, hence the extremely long bolts. I pilot drilled the brackets so I could mark the parts welded to the exhaust pipe.*



Removing all this, the brackets were drilled out to size and the attachment brackets received a little trimming. I used stainless nuts / bolts for the "actual" fasteners but I am definitely going with a socket headed fastener, as these hex head bolts are a pain to tighten. With all the pieces all in place, the tip is rather close to center, and can be adjusted with the V-Band clamp and the preload on the bushings. There is very little movement, it shouldn't go anywhere.



I need to tidy up all the chopped up areas and grind a bunch of welds along with fixing the hole I made in the quarter a while back. I did make duplicates of all the parts so hopefully the passenger side will not take six weeks to get to this point. I have some ideas on the "upper" side to reinforce the frame and cap off the area, more to come on that.

[latoracing]

While I was getting all the welds and plasma cut areas all smoothed out on the modified areas, I went ahead and finish welded the muffler to the pipe assembly. I attempted to keep the tube in the same relative position while I went around the joint. Everything turned out nicely.



I dusted a little primer on the rocker area that was bare metal and removed the tape off of the tip. Getting all of it reinstalled on the car, without any extra bracing it still lines up, thankfully.



I had to get a right side up pic of the tips without their yellow tape, the picture does not do them justice...



With a little rearranging, I'm onto the passenger side. The tip on the driver's side will have to come off again to make some cut templates, and for general reference. Hopefully the second side will be quicker.

[slimjim]

That looks great! I've never been a fan of side pipes until now, these look so at home there.

[brawls43]

I love side pipes. You are my hero with this project. Looks so awesome.

[devojrx7]

This is an amazing build. I'm about to start on my 70 Grabber blue project and you have given me all kinds of motivation. Thanks.

[454bug]

FANTASTIC fabrication skills!!!! This has been enjoyable to review.

Keep up the GREAT work!

[latoracing]

You all are too kind, thanks for the compliments. I really appreciate them.

Got to chopping up the passenger side. I made some templates from the other side and laid out all the cut areas. I removed the majority of the areas and left some material to fit the parts too. Getting the tunnel filler to fit was a little easier as I had a somewhat clue of how to go about it.



With a little time, the hole in the rocker was just right, the inner rocker was laid out and trimmed. Lots of grinding and more material removal, the filler was tack welded in place. I went ahead and mimicked the notch from the driver's side and welded it in place, while I was at it. Getting the majority of the parts all welded up, it is ready for some metal finishing. It would be fun to leave it all messy without grinding the welds... maybe next time lol

[68Mike]

Have you figured out much more of your rack and pinion steering? I keep rereading that section to help me wrap my head around how I want to build one for my 68. Curious how you're going to to do the tie rods

[latoracing]

Have you figured out much more of your rack and pinion steering? I keep rereading that section to help me wrap my head around how I want to build one for my 68. Curious how you're going to to do the tie rods

The rack came with tie rods as it is a Unisteer kit. Since I dropped the rack 1" I will end up running a bump steer kit as the geometry will be awful if I bolt it up with the supplied ends. I have plans to put this on the table to get the front sheet metal all figured out along with the valance fabrication. The suspension will have to be installed to mount the wheels so I'll mock all that up at that time and check for issues.

[Motown 454]

It looks nice, great job!

[68Mike]

The rack came with tie rods as it is a Unisteer kit. Since I dropped the rack 1" I will end up running a bump steer kit as the geometry will be awful if I bolt it up with the supplied ends. I have plans to put this on the table to get the front sheet metal all figured out along with the valance fabrication. The suspension will have to be installed to mount the wheels so I'll mock all that up at that time and check for issues.

Awesome, thanks for the reply. Incredible build and skills you have