Is1BadFord
02-25-2006, 10:29 PM
Hi!
First I'd like to say...I've been cruising the internet for...ohh...8+ years or so, and I've been a member at a few forums during that time (mostly ford forums <eg>). I hit on this site this evening in a search for a clean way to widen the factory wheel wells on a 1966 Mustang, without doing a rolled, square 'mini-tub'. I'm intending to put 315/35/17 tires under it, but I still want to keep a factory look to the underside of the car. Anyhow, as I'm reading along...I'm noticing something....no flames! No 'that looks like junk!' or 'it doesn't look like MY car, what were you thinking?!'. There was so little of that (none) in fact, that I decided to register =).
My project seems to be pretty out of the ordinary (I haven't seen another person build one in the entire 8 years I've been on the net anyhow)...and I think I'm going to need a lot of 'support' rather than 'what the hell are you thinking? You can't do that!'. So far you guys seem like the type that will help me work around a problem, rather than trying to point out all the ones I'm going to have in order to convince me to build a car like everyone elses! And believe me...I think there's going to be many, many problems lol.
Now that I've said how different my car's going to be, let me give you some particulars:
I'm starting with a 1966 Coupe shell. I bought this shell for 500$, thinking I was getting a good deal due to the fact that I didn't look it over as well as I should have (the bodywork and reskinned quarters are pretty wavy, but dust hid the ripples), it was already a shell (I didn't want to have to disassemble something to have a clean base to start from), the frame's straight, and it came with a 9" rear end =). Turns out, 500$ was about 150$ too much. So I'm starting at a small deficit =p.
Because of this, we really weren't sure what direction to go with the car. I was originally going to build it as a coupe, but one evening I hit on a website that sells full, and I mean FULL...fiberglass 65/66 fastback bodies. This got me thinking...I really don't much like the first bodystyle coupes...and the fiberglass bodies weigh...100lbs! No kidding. So...with all the subframe stiffening we were going to do anyhow (it'll be raced at the drag strip on occasion, and I'm sure most of you are aware of the kind of times a 2600lb car with a roughly 550hp 331 on drag radials are capable of...as well as the roll cage requirements for that kind of car), including a 10pt cage, subframe connectors, etc. etc...why not drop the glass body on the factory floor pans and subframe?
At first this sounds simple enough, however...I want to keep the interior looking relatively stock, as a matter of fact, I want to keep the WHOLE car looking relatively stock. Well, like a steel bodied fastback would anyhow, if you dropped it into a pro-touring/g-machine/GT350SR blender. I'd like people at car shows to see the car, hood open, wheels cocked to the side, clean interior, and think...'nice Mustang'. Then, open the build book, see the pictures of the fiberglass shell going on, and the finished car weight, and go...'huh?!' Then spend 20 minutes figuring out where fiberglass begins, and factory ends. This means full factory frame, full back seat assemblies, factory dash, and most likely as much of the factory inner fenders as I can keep.
The motor's going to be a 10.5:1 compression 331, Victor Jr. heads, .615" 288/294 solid roller cam, massfloefi fuel injection on a Victor Jr intake, with 1 5/8"-1 3/4" stepped headers dumping through 3" flowmasters and a dual side exhaust setup (none of that Eleanor style cutout stuff, it'll be flattened, but it's going to dump in front of the wheels where you can see it =). Power's going to go through a close ratio T56, the above mentioned 9", and end up hitting the ground via the above mentioned 315/35/17" tires.
Front suspension will be a custom home built coil over conversion with tubular control arms (the whole system is basically being pirated from a dirt drack 'late model' car. We've been building them for years, and they're about as tough as it gets, and better yet, relatively inexpensive) with manual R&P steering, and 13" 40th anniversary Cobra discs.
Rear suspension is going to be via a home built take off on the new TCP/Unique Performance coilover conversion setup. I absolutely love how that setup looks...and works. Brakes will be the same Cobra rears, modded to work with the 9".
Anyhow, money is sure to become an issue sometime or another, so this will likely be a long term project...but it's cool to know that there's a place where other like minded people come to trade information on projects that include more than JUST et's, how many g's, or how shiny the car is. So if you don't mind I'll be following along with your projects, interjecting something about mine every once in a while, and very likely bombarding everyone with questions all along the way =).
Oh, by the way, my name's Cris...nice to meet you!
http://www.mustang1.vze.com/
First I'd like to say...I've been cruising the internet for...ohh...8+ years or so, and I've been a member at a few forums during that time (mostly ford forums <eg>). I hit on this site this evening in a search for a clean way to widen the factory wheel wells on a 1966 Mustang, without doing a rolled, square 'mini-tub'. I'm intending to put 315/35/17 tires under it, but I still want to keep a factory look to the underside of the car. Anyhow, as I'm reading along...I'm noticing something....no flames! No 'that looks like junk!' or 'it doesn't look like MY car, what were you thinking?!'. There was so little of that (none) in fact, that I decided to register =).
My project seems to be pretty out of the ordinary (I haven't seen another person build one in the entire 8 years I've been on the net anyhow)...and I think I'm going to need a lot of 'support' rather than 'what the hell are you thinking? You can't do that!'. So far you guys seem like the type that will help me work around a problem, rather than trying to point out all the ones I'm going to have in order to convince me to build a car like everyone elses! And believe me...I think there's going to be many, many problems lol.
Now that I've said how different my car's going to be, let me give you some particulars:
I'm starting with a 1966 Coupe shell. I bought this shell for 500$, thinking I was getting a good deal due to the fact that I didn't look it over as well as I should have (the bodywork and reskinned quarters are pretty wavy, but dust hid the ripples), it was already a shell (I didn't want to have to disassemble something to have a clean base to start from), the frame's straight, and it came with a 9" rear end =). Turns out, 500$ was about 150$ too much. So I'm starting at a small deficit =p.
Because of this, we really weren't sure what direction to go with the car. I was originally going to build it as a coupe, but one evening I hit on a website that sells full, and I mean FULL...fiberglass 65/66 fastback bodies. This got me thinking...I really don't much like the first bodystyle coupes...and the fiberglass bodies weigh...100lbs! No kidding. So...with all the subframe stiffening we were going to do anyhow (it'll be raced at the drag strip on occasion, and I'm sure most of you are aware of the kind of times a 2600lb car with a roughly 550hp 331 on drag radials are capable of...as well as the roll cage requirements for that kind of car), including a 10pt cage, subframe connectors, etc. etc...why not drop the glass body on the factory floor pans and subframe?
At first this sounds simple enough, however...I want to keep the interior looking relatively stock, as a matter of fact, I want to keep the WHOLE car looking relatively stock. Well, like a steel bodied fastback would anyhow, if you dropped it into a pro-touring/g-machine/GT350SR blender. I'd like people at car shows to see the car, hood open, wheels cocked to the side, clean interior, and think...'nice Mustang'. Then, open the build book, see the pictures of the fiberglass shell going on, and the finished car weight, and go...'huh?!' Then spend 20 minutes figuring out where fiberglass begins, and factory ends. This means full factory frame, full back seat assemblies, factory dash, and most likely as much of the factory inner fenders as I can keep.
The motor's going to be a 10.5:1 compression 331, Victor Jr. heads, .615" 288/294 solid roller cam, massfloefi fuel injection on a Victor Jr intake, with 1 5/8"-1 3/4" stepped headers dumping through 3" flowmasters and a dual side exhaust setup (none of that Eleanor style cutout stuff, it'll be flattened, but it's going to dump in front of the wheels where you can see it =). Power's going to go through a close ratio T56, the above mentioned 9", and end up hitting the ground via the above mentioned 315/35/17" tires.
Front suspension will be a custom home built coil over conversion with tubular control arms (the whole system is basically being pirated from a dirt drack 'late model' car. We've been building them for years, and they're about as tough as it gets, and better yet, relatively inexpensive) with manual R&P steering, and 13" 40th anniversary Cobra discs.
Rear suspension is going to be via a home built take off on the new TCP/Unique Performance coilover conversion setup. I absolutely love how that setup looks...and works. Brakes will be the same Cobra rears, modded to work with the 9".
Anyhow, money is sure to become an issue sometime or another, so this will likely be a long term project...but it's cool to know that there's a place where other like minded people come to trade information on projects that include more than JUST et's, how many g's, or how shiny the car is. So if you don't mind I'll be following along with your projects, interjecting something about mine every once in a while, and very likely bombarding everyone with questions all along the way =).
Oh, by the way, my name's Cris...nice to meet you!
http://www.mustang1.vze.com/