Project S-1970 - 1970 Torino on a 2011 Mustang

[Billf67]

So finally decided to start a build thread after lurking thru these forums for years and finally having enough progress to post. Started with an idea after seeing the Foose Imposter on SEMA Battle of the Builders and thinking how that seemed like an easier way to have everything needed to have an old car with a new drive-train and creature comforts vs cramming all that into an old car like me and my dad are doing on our 67 Fastback. Being a Ford guy, a new mustang was the only option to swap everything on to but the measurements for a new mustang and an old mustang just would end up looking bulbous. Found a few people who had done this later and the proportions were always off. I wanted a car to look mostly stock on the exterior and completely new underneath. Went to a local car show a few weeks later and saw a 70 Torino Gt and loved the body lines and the fact that they are fairly uncommon to see. So did some research and found that width wise it would work however the wheelbase was off about 8-9", but that was close enough to try. So searched and searched for a reasonable price on one that was rough enough to cut up but solid enough to fix since replacement parts for the 70-71 are mostly non-existent. Ended up finding a guy selling 2 1970 GTs about 30 miles away. One was supposedly near paint and the other was a shell he was using for the vin and title. Price was right and car seemed to be in okay shape under his dimly lit shed so I brought them home. After getting them home, I found the gray car was no where near paint. The driver side door and fender had been wiped full of mud about an inch thick in spots from a previous wreck and the passenger side quarter was in about as bad of shape. Door post were seam sealed to hide the swiss cheese underneath and other odds and ends. But somehow the hull of a car that was sitting under a tree was in decent shape considering what my plan was for it.
Next step was to get a donor car. I was fixing a 2014 Gt at the time, that I picked up from the salvage yard a couple months prior and was pricing buying new parts for it. Ended up running across a wrecked 2011 Gt convertible with most of the parts I needed to finish the 14, that went for fairly cheap. Being a convertible, it was perfect for the body swap since less cutting and re-enforced floor. Since the code name for the 2005-2014 mustang platform was the S-197 and this was a 1970 Torino, the S-1970 was born.

Started this project back in the summer of 2016 but it is a slow build due to the fact that I got accepted to Pharmacy School a month after starting this project so now I'm a full time grad student, working 2 jobs, and only getting to work on it when I come home on Saturdays and holidays. Plus the fact it is not the only project car I'm fixing, but felt like it was a good time to post the progress so far.

[Billf67]

The 70 shell. Floorpans were toast and the tunnel looked as if the driveshaft exploded but all that was coming out anyway 164487164488164486

The Donor car before tear down 164489
And after tear down164485

[Billf67]

Turning the Torino shell into more of a hull. Left the fender aprons and cowl attached to get some more measurements. Only fitting that this huge car be sitting on a boat trailer 164491164490

Hung the fenders on temporarily just to get some inspiration that this would work. Originally toyed with the idea of leaving the factory mustang in place in order to not disturb any of the cowl and dash of the Mustang but trashed that idea due to it being a noticeably different pitch from the Torino. 164492164493

[Doodler]

I was at Foose's shop when he was just starting to work on Imposter. He had the vette chassis sitting on the table with the plans on where they were going to shave off inches (side by side, before and afters). Really cool to see the master's thought process.

This is going to be a really cool build!

[JayinMI]

This will be cool to watch. There's another guy on here, who is swapping a Torino body on to a Crown Vic floor/frame. It's been interesting to see how close that was to fitting, and that a Chevelle trunk floor worked very well in his application. For the life of me, I can't remember his name.

Jay

[Jaymzz]

I love these kind of builds! Can't wait to watch the build. :)

[jaybee]

This is going to be a very cool build. Thanks for sharing!

[RMMiller]

Very cool! I have had a few Torino's, a 70 GT, 71 Brougham and the one I wish I still had... a 70 Type N/W. My brother currently has a rusty 71 GT, I'll have to direct him to this build.

[Billf67]

I was at Foose's shop when he was just starting to work on Imposter. He had the vette chassis sitting on the table with the plans on where they were going to shave off inches (side by side, before and afters). Really cool to see the master's thought process.

This is going to be a really cool build!
Thanks! I'm jealous tho, would love to see his shop and see how he is able to get his ideas out and execute them so well. That's my biggest problem is the execution, I've got plenty of ideas but not necessarily the know how or tools to do them lol.


This will be cool to watch. There's another guy on here, who is swapping a Torino body on to a Crown Vic floor/frame. It's been interesting to see how close that was to fitting, and that a Chevelle trunk floor worked very well in his application. For the life of me, I can't remember his name.


Jay

Yea I've been following his build as well, crazy how well the 72-73 body fits on the CV. Looked into that as a potential option for the 70 early on but the measurements just didn't line up close enough

[69stang]

Really interesting, love these kinds of builds that require some creative fabrication. :twothumbs

[Billf67]

Since I tend to get so focused when I'm working on this thing, I have a bad habit of not taking time to take pictures of the progress being made, especially the smaller stuff so excuse the lack of detailed progress pictures. Between fighting to get all the interior and dash out, to cutting up the unibody, tear down on the 2011 was a chore. Anyone that believes old cars are built stronger has never tried cutting into the frame/unibody of a new car. Took a lot of cutting wheels and sawzall blades to get the fat trimmed off of the car. In order for the Torino body to sit on the Mustang, the outer structural panels from the door post back to the wheel tubs had to be removed which meant hundreds of spot welds had to get drilled out. Once that was removed, the Torino should slide on to the Mustang's unibody like a glove....Naturally that wasn't the case. Since it seemed neither of these cars were built the same on each side, minor trimming had to take place before the Torino could drop down on the unibody. 164554 Before anyone dogs this car for being automatic, the MT-82 is a relatively crappy transmission especially in the early years and this car went for cheaper than any other car I had watched at the auction, so auto it is. 164553

[Billf67]

Next step was to do the crazy part and cut what used to be a running and driving car in half. Figuring out where to make the cut took a lot of planning and measuring to make sure going back together would be easier. Finally ended up cutting thru the rear seat floor-pan as this was the only section with minimal brackets in the way then coming up at a forward angle on the rocker. Another plus side of cutting here would allow for more leg room in the rear. Before cutting we had to make two separate carts to support the car once it was cut so moving it around wouldn't be near as troublesome. 164569164568
Version 1 of this cart 164567

[Peanut1959]

I'm in! Can't wait to see your progress. Don't hold back on the posts!

[Peanut1959]

I'm in! Can't wait to see your progress. Don't hold back on the posts!

[KiwiStarChief]

I sure am in for this. I love these type of builds. Keep it coming please.

[Billf67]

Once the majority of the fat was trimmed off of the Mustang's unibody, it was time to start trying to put the Torino shell on. Since the back half of the mustang was out of the way, we built another cart to sit the Torino on in order to roll it into place on the front half of the unibody. This made it easy to see what else needed to be trimmed and also see how far forward the car would need to sit to get the wheelbase as close to factory as possible. The windshield was going to be a problem tho since the mustang windshield would not work. Getting a windshield made was out of the question and since this would be a daily driver type of car, I hated to use lexan due to how long it would hold up. So we decided to try and use the factory Torino windshield and adapt it to the Mustang's cowl section. First try, I bent a piece of angle to mimic the curvature of the old Torino's cowl where the windshield sat and was going to tack it near the rear of the mustang's cowl and then build a cover panel to make it all look factory. This would have required trimming the back of the dash a few inches but that didn't seem like to big of a problem until I looked at the dash again. Mounting the windshield this way would have the bottom running right into where the defroster vents are on the dash and due to the way the system is built under the dash, rerouting the vents would've created a lot of other problems and fixes that I was not capable of. I can fix metal to some degree, plastic not so much. So with that idea scrapped, it was on to the next one. After a lot of going back and forth, we finally agreed upon moving the Torino a little farther forward and have it sit slightly higher on the unibody to allow us to slice into the Mustang's cowl and add the new cowl in place. By doing this, the Torino windshield would have to lay back and the A-pillars would have to modified. Hesitant at first of how the end product might look, we made one side to get a general idea and both agreed that it would be barely noticeable once finished. Once everything was in place, we could clean it up to make everything look factory and all the water would run off where it needed to go. This is simply our working idea right now due to making sure the rest of the car is all together before doing anything to the windshield, so this is a future project to tackle. But since we now had a game plan for the windshield, we knew about where the Torino body had to sit on the unibody in order to move on. 164657164656 Had to throw on the wheels and fender to get another good visual of what the end product will look like. The front fender will require some adjusting to get it nice and centered over the wheel since we are adjusting the original wheelbase now164655

[cornfedbill]

This is a cool project. There is a similar vintage Torino near me with Coyote power and Mustang dash. this is one big step beyond that.

[1sikride]

Sickkkkk

[FormTA]

These are the types of builds that I dream about all the time. I am also collecting parts to do something similar with a 1951 Ford F1 truck and a Ford Explorer.

Keep posting pictures please!

[Motoracer838]

Too damn cool, talk about pegging the coolometer...

Joe

[Motown 454]

Sweet! I'm going to enjoy watching this.

[Billf67]

Had to put the Eastwood Contour SCT from that Christmas to the test and see how good it would tackle this old paint. Was really impressed how good it stripped and the finish it left on the bare metal. Makes me wish this body was completely solid and I would just leave it bare. But anyway started on the back half since the front was pretty much where it needed to sit. Good bit more trimming had to be done on the back tho mainly around the wheel tubs. It seemed like every time something was trimmed, another piece caught something else. Frustrating to say the least, especially lifting and lowering the car with the engine hoist, but finally got it to sit where it needed to go. Once it was down, it was crazy to see how close everything came together. Going to be a lot of filler pieces but it was very relieving to see that this might actually work.165023165022165021165020165019165018

[Billf67]

This is a cool project. There is a similar vintage Torino near me with Coyote power and Mustang dash. this is one big step beyond that.

Would love to see some pictures of it if you have any. Still hadn't really found many people doing anything too crazy with these models yet

[Billf67]

Now that everything was all under the Torino shell, it was time to start putting the pieces back together. Making sure the car was as strong or stronger than before was the main concern. Came up with an extended rocker to bridge the new gap in the pans and also the gap from the Torino's inner rocker and the Mustang's inner rocker since the outer had been trimmed off. Couple of test pieces and designs later, we finally ended up with something we were happy with and had 2 pieces made at the local metal shop. Once they were clamped in, the back half and Torino just slid like a drawer into the front half making it easy to get the wheelbase exact and square. 165358165357165356

[Billf67]

Had a good sunny day after weeks of rain so pulled the Torino shell out and sandblasted and primed the inside. Needless to say it took quite awhile to blow all the sand out of all the crevices. Set it back down on the Mustang chassis to make sure everything was lined up before beginning to tie the unibody back together. After quadruple checking every inch of this build, we agreed it was where it needed to be. And so the welding began....165787165785165786165788

[speedfreakcobra]

This is so awesome. +1 for a Torino.

[Billf67]

Decided to knock out a couple of small things on the car while the body was off. Nothing fancy or groundbreaking but progress at least. Slimmed up the fuse panel and braced it to the inner rockers, added some more strength in the rear torque boxes, cleaned up the transitions to the new inner rocker. Also big shout-out to BMWrangle for the article on Was not expecting anything like that on my car especially at this point in the build. 166043166044166045

[Billf67]

Got the rear floor pans made and tacked in. Took a little longer than expected but I'm happy with how it turned out. Still have to add some more support to the trans tunnel and a new bracket for the brake cable, but atleast the floor is solid again. Also ran across a deal and picked up some 12 gt500 wheels and new nitto invos for cheap. Already digging how they look, just going to have to roll the inner lip some on the rear for some added clearance.
166437166436

[Peanut1959]

Keep it up, man! Glad to see more forward progress.

[KiwiStarChief]

Sure is looking like moving in the right direction now. Great work and please keep the updates coming.

[Martin71RS]

Very cool and a nice job sofar..... can't wait to see more! :-)

[zman1969]

Man O man I just read this thread and being a former 70 Cobra Torino owner I'm loving this, WOW this is over the top (things I hadn't even thought was possible) you got some skills bro! I will be following this one
this was mine 25? years ago in the driveway

166587

[qnitro]

Super awesome project

[jeff351]

cool project!
Nice to see another Torino on here

[Motoracer838]

Love where this is going.

Joe

[Billf67]

Thanks everyone! School started back so progress will be slower now but gonna try and keep making some headway on it. Trying to finish up my 71 Torino restoration by next March as well, so I'm gonna stay busy on the weekends

[CharlesBiller]

This is a great project. Brilliant in so many ways. Good luck and I'm looking forward to new posts.

[Peanut1959]

I was showing your build to my older brother, tonight. Any progress to report?

[Billf67]

Progress has been slow but I'm off for winter break so hope to make some progress on the 71 Torino and the S-1970. Hung the door shell to help get the fender lined up so I could free up some space in the shop and stay motivated. Most of the progress right now is on cleaning up the underside where the floor was extended and making some extra braces to stiffen things up. Slow and small results but results nonetheless. 170475170474

[Peanut1959]

Congratulations on paying attention to those little details like the under floor metalwork. It separates the boys from the men.

[Ricott]

Hope you have some progress to share from your winter break? If you don't mind how much longer in pharmacy school (this may?) in any event keep up the good work !

[Billf67]

Been lacking on updates for awhile now. Between working clinicals for my last year of school (hurry up 2021), this pandemic, and the other builds, the S-1970 got put on the back burner. Getting closer to finishing my 71 Torino 500 and learning how to do a lot and also things I will do different on the S-1970 to get it just how I want it. 3 project cars is not the way to finish one but at least I will never get bored lol.

Also started a thread for the 71 500, not really a pro-touring car but it's definitely a resto-mod.
https://www.pro-touring.com/threads/134765-Looks-like-I-ll-be-walking-500-miles-71-Torino-500-restomod

[JRANGER]

Any updates on this?