They are. Everything is in really good shape, really. I just decided to replace the floors since my plan is to keep the car and the idea of revisiting pinholes in the floors at a later date didn't make sense.Quote:
Originally Posted by andrewb70
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They are. Everything is in really good shape, really. I just decided to replace the floors since my plan is to keep the car and the idea of revisiting pinholes in the floors at a later date didn't make sense.Quote:
Originally Posted by andrewb70
Happen to have a status update for Mustang build?
It just so happens that I do!Quote:
Originally Posted by 1968Mustang
So.....10 months have passed it seems. I've not been getting a lot done on the car itself. But recently, this has started to happen:
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FedEx Freight picked it up on the 1st. I figure maybe 4-5 days to get it here. Once it's here, I'll get to work on pulling the old drivetrain and getting the new stuff safely nestled in place.
I still need to decide what I'm going to do with the old 6 cyl and 3 spd. I don't want to sit on in and i certainly don't have a place to keep it stored.
So, I've spent the last two days working on the car. Getting down to my friend's shop takes about an hour, so it's not ideal. But he needs the space again soon, so it's been a thrash to get as much done there as i can before we load it up and bring it home. Not a lot of pics of what's been going on. Just a lot of cleanup, test-fitting, dailing in, etc.
Out of the crate and finally in my hands.
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Getting ready to get started.
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Engine out - so much dust from it being parked outside under a cover....
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The tired 6 is out (and hopefully finding a new life with someone soon)
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Everything out and rolled it out to rinse it off.
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Borgeson steering box installed while everything was out of the way.
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Quicktime Bellhousing on and dailed in
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Engine roughly in place. Tomorrow's plan is to work on the drive angles, get the T56 mated up and the trans crossmember installed and continue working on this as we go.
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Exciting progress. Always a big step when a new engine goes in.
Cool project. It’s not uncommon for someone who loads up on parts like you have to tap out after the years go by without driving it and the CFO has other ideas for your disposable time and income. Glad to see you stuck with it!
I expect you’ll be performing a major lobotomy on the tunnel to get the proper angles with a T56. My 69 with a TKO needed it despite what everyone says about conversion mounts etc... and they’re smaller than the T56. Avoid the temptation to skimp here.
So, the 3-day thrash at my friend's shop is complete. There was a lot of activity and I didn't get a lot of pics of the work during.
Here's where it stands:
Zray crossmember in - removed front half of jack pad to allow room for the low oil pan.
Driver side header was painfully close to the steering box. Shifted engine to the right and dimpled header. (that hurt to do, but I'm ok with it.)
There is clearance now, but it was a tight fit. I was expecting that to be the case anyway.
Everything is as low as i can get it. The T56 required use of the convincing hammer on the floor bracing to give it some room and I still need to work a little more on that.
I ended up having to open the shifter hole a bit. About an inch to passenger and minor trimming to the front.
Next is getting everything settled at the home garage. I threw everything inside the car to bring it home. Once I got home, I threw everything....well, everywhere....to get it unloaded.
I need to roll it outside this weekend and vacuum and hose it down so i can work in a poop-free environment. It seems that furry critters even like to hang out in an empty shell if they're given the chance.
Once all of that is done, I can start making progress on wiring, plumbing and whatever else I can handle from home. Once Mike has his chevelle painted and has some time, I'll likely get the exhaust finished up and work towards buttoning this thing up to start making noise with it. It seems like there's a lot to do still because there is. But I am going to try and stick to small things to keep from being overwhelmed.
Pic of the fit of the T56
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It still needs some bump-love up top.
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On the trailer and headed home.
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Thanks! I keep saying that this is my last hoo-rah. I've spent too much time, money and effort on this pile to give up just yet.Quote:
Originally Posted by gsxrken
As far as angles go. A cursory glance looks like we're close. Close enough that I may opt for a CV ds option like @andrewb70 used to prevent the tunnel work needed to gain 1*.
I'll know more once I get everything cleaned up and sorted. I'm going to spend a few days getting home from work and relaxing before I dive back into it.
The 3 day 'thrash' to get it hung so it could be moved wasn't really enjoyable. Sure, I got to hang out with a buddy and do car stuff. But the 2 hour commute added to a self-imposed 3 day deadline kind of sucked the fun out of a lot of it.
I want to get back to the pattern of having an idea at the day job and then coming home to grab coffee and make small steps while saving the weekends for larger jumps.
So not much has happened over the last week. Had some company over from out of town and didn't work on the car. My goal is to figure out how best to continue the work i need to do in the limited space that I have. I did push the car outside and clean out all of the dust and critter poop that had accumulated while the car was stored outside at my friend's shop. I've also made plans to pick up another buddy's Eastwood Mig 175 welder. He needed something more robust and bought an ultra-fancy Miller and is selling me the Eastwood at a 'can't pass up' price. It should be more than enough to finish zipping in my floors and covering the other small jobs that I'll need to do to get this pile back on the road soon.
Here is where it sits and what I have to work with.
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Since getting the car back home and taking some time off to relax a little, I decided to start looking at my engine and trans measurements. I knew using the Ron Morris adjustable mounts would mean that some fine-tuning would be required.
I put the car up on my ramps and picked some points to hang plumb bobs on to get an idea of where everything was. I have the engine shifted to the passenger side just a bit to make room for the header/borgeson steering box spacing. I just need to make sure that I match that spacing on the trans so the whole thing isn't sitting in the car at a weird angle.
After looking at everything, I'll need to make some adjustments. I think I will need to trim a bit of the factory shifter opening (no pic yet) to give me the clearance I like once I get ready to do a final-tighten on everything. I got it all hung and started to do the math when the UPS guy showed up with my huge box of maintenance stuff for my daily. I have over 200k on my mazda beater, so I decided to do a whole lot of much-needed love. That will probably eat up a couple of weekends at least since I have already ran into one broken bolt in the lower control arm/subframe attachment point.
Either way: some quick pics of the mustang and floor doodles and a dirty mazda underpinnings shot.
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not mustang related:
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On a side note - i really need to get rid of the old drivetrain from the mustang. I'm getting tired of having to work around it.
Just a brief update for today. Work on the car is progressing slowly. The workload at the day job has ramped up again since people are coming back to the office. I've been trying to stay motivated and do stuff on the weekends but I've been wiped out lately. I did finally manage to get the engine and transmission aligned like i wanted and spent last weekend getting the floors zipped in. I still need to do some fine tuning and clean up before i move on to something else.
I placed an order that should make my life a little easier. I'll have more on that in a couple of weeks.
I haven't been taking any pics since not much is going on. But here's the latest.
This is what i ended up doing to the crossmember to give myself room for the 6 speed. I'll go in and weld up the edges to clean and finish it up when I am under the car finishing up the subframe connectors.
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Here's where I stopped for the day this weekend. Once I get under the car to finish the subframe connector install, I'll clean everything up and move on to getting the floors prepped for lizardskin.
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So, after much debate and back and forth....well.....I decided to spend a bit of money to help make things a bit easier and prevent the need to drag the car down to my buddy's shop as often.
I pulled the trigger on this:
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I ordered it back in mid-May and knew then that Covid would be slowing down their production. It arrived today!
I also plan on finally getting a small compressor as well. I'll likely handle that before Fall.
Now i just need it to stop being triple-digit temps again so i can spend some time in the garage without sweating to death.
Had some time to move things around and get some test-fitting. I knew things would be tight but I'm satisfied with what room I'll have. I plan to cut away some of the wall on the driver's side to make the lift post on that side flush. It was added by a previous owner and it's not much more than pegboard and framing, so it won't be much to cut away and make room for the lift. I'd prefer to leave the majority of it up. It keeps my mess on my side and off of the dailies, as well as preventing the 'shop' side of the garage being seen from the street when we open the double door.
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After doing some measuring and trimming and roughing in of the lift, I'd decided how and where it was going to be mounted. Drilled my anchor holes in the floor on the right-hand side and set the anchors without issue. I will go back in and trim out the openings in the 'wall' to give everything a cleaner look. Started to drill the holes for the anchors on the left-hand side (the side against the outer edge of the slab) and 4 of the 5 punched through the concrete. No big deal as the instructions mentioned that it was ok as long as the concrete was 4.25-.5" deep. The concrete is 3.25" thick.....damn it. A void of nothing but air and dirt below the holes. Sonuva......fine. I started calling around to get quotes on footers. I was going to have to grind the right side down some to make it level so I decided to look at having two footers put down so that everything is thick enough, tied into the existing slab and level so i have less to do.
After calling around and getting lots of "too busy" or "too small of a job" or "3 months lead time" answers, I found a local contractor that is well reviewed, has a good idea of what I'm wanting to do and is willing to work me in to their already booked schedule. The downside is that it's more money that I didn't want to spend, and will cut into the first part of the cooler season here in Phoenix. Either way, I'd rather it be done right and remove the worry of the concrete giving up and allowing the car to flatten me. Progress....i guess....Once the lift is in, I'll hopefully be able to get back into the subframe install and floor completion. Then i can squirt paint and lizardskin on the floors and start the wiring.....and maybe fire this pile up at some point....
Recessed lift post into the divider 'wall'.
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Only part of base sticking out on the double bay side.
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Post on the thin side of the slab.
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Anchors after 'setting'. The top-left one is the only one that set correctly. The others could be pushed back down by hand.....
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This will be suitable for space once I can get everything mounted solidly. The arms on the divider wall will sit flush and out of the way.
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Nice purchase! I should’ve done that 20 years ago.
[QUOTE=arcane73;1363406]After doing some measuring and trimming and roughing in of the lift, I'd decided how and where it was going to be mounted. (Quote)
BOY....I THOUGHT MY INSTALL WAS TIGHT. .....at least i didn't have to go out to the sidewalk.
I have concrete footers 24" deep x 12 x12 with a backbone linking them because brick paving.
Note 1" clearance to house and zero at carport frame.
The right side post has polished aluminum building cladding to disguise it cos this is the entry to my house.
We do what we have to, right? Although, I'm jealous of the height you've got over what I'll have.Quote:
Originally Posted by Falcon64
So, the latest on the lift install:
Concrete guy requested a bit more space for the footer on the inner wall. He wanted to do a 2' x 2' square that was 1' deep and tie it in to the existing slab with rebar. I agreed with that assessment and opened up the divider wall on either side of the post to the next stud. That not only gave him enough room for the footer, it gave me more room to walk around the post when the car is on the lift.
I waited to get a spot in his work schedule and then had to wait for the concrete to cure. Fast-forward to this week and I've punched new holes for anchors in the concrete and started to get this ball rolling again. I was exceptionally pleased with how well he was able to get everything leveled like I asked.
Here's where everything stands as of this morning. I plan to get it all mounted, lines ran and filled, and the car in the air to test everything out this weekend.
Making a bigger hole:
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Posts on their new pads with anchor holes drilled:
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Everything is level and ready to be bolted in place:
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From post to post:
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The following weekend resulted in more work and results!
The lift is mounted and I'm in the process of bleeding the system to get the last of the air out. I ran into a couple of issues that kept it from being a flawless install but nothing that can't be addressed.
I had to re-tighten a couple of fittings and I'll have to bleed the lines a couple of more times, I think. Overall, I'm happy.
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I ended up removing the light above the door. I'll need to turn it 90* or move it back to prevent the car from making contact with it at full lift. No big deal.
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Once I get the bleeding completed and light moving/replacement done, I should be able to sit upright under the car at full lift. As it stands now, I have to sit stooped a little on that stool. I'm sure that I can find a shorter stool to make things more comfortable, but I'm just happy that I won't have to lay on my back to finish the work underneath the car!
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Here's the latest: I decided that I needed to cut open the trans tunnel to make enough room for the T56 to fit comfortably. I had tried to avoid doing that to begin with, but I went ahead and ordered the new tunnel patch kit from Tin Man Fabrication and cut open the tunnel. I also went back to the Ron Morris dropped motor mounts to help with getting my driveline angles right.
Here's what comes next: I need to remove the trans crossmember and move it back a bit to give myself a bit more room for adjustment. I also want to move the engine back some to give the steering box a bit more clearance from the headers. This clears up a couple of issues, but creates another. I have a ZRay engine crossmember (from the Vintage Mustang Forums). The combination of the Aviaid oil pan I'm running and the dropped motor mounts cause clearance issues with the crossmember and oil pan as well as it gets in the way of the pan drain plug. I don't blame the crossmember, it's a quality piece. I'll just need to modify it once i get the engine where i want it.
Anyway, here's some pics of what all is going on at the moment.
Here is the tunnel kit from Tin Man. It is well put together and even has a 1/4 inch plate reinforcement for the tunnel to replace the factory brace.
Attachment 193825
Here are a few pics of the T56 in it's place being mocked up for clearance.
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Here's the ZRay crossmember. I started by thinking that I could notch the tube to clear the drain plug (in the lower right as seen) but I soon confirmed that i had zero room between the pan and the crossmember. I -think- that I will go ahead and move everything and possibly cut and remove the tubing section and mock everything up and then get another piece of tubing and 'turn' it back a bit. That should give me the pan clearance i need and still clear the steering....all while still providing reinforcement that it's meant to.
Attachment 193829
I've also asked my buddy Mike H that has a Chevelle (it's a full-build autocross/road race car) to come over when he has some time to help out. I keep getting frustrated with the way things are trying to snowball and I'll gladly pay for a few beers to have him talk me off of the edge when I get overwhelmed. Like I mentioned, his Chevelle is a fully built car that he did completely at home, so I trust him to offer insight and ideas and keep me on track.
The latest: been chipping away at getting the welding work done. My friend came over a few weekends ago to help get me back into moving on the floors. I've since got the subframe connectors installed and have started working on getting the tunnel work completed. 3 weeks ago I had to write a check for a new AC system at the house. That stung a bit. 2 weekends ago I filled and redrilled the holes for the trans crossmember to dial in the drive angles. After that, I started to work on the floors again but had to stop because my bottle was almost empty. This past weekend I got the bottle swapped out, got it home and hooked up......and my regulator died after about 30 minutes of work.
I have a new regulator ordered but the hose is on backorder, so I'm not sure how long that will hold me up. Since I couldn't do any more welding, I fiddled with the passenger side motor mount to give myself a bit more clearance between it and the frame horn where it attaches and then I swept the floor and cleaned up my toolboxes. Now I'm waiting to see how long before I can get back to welding. I just need to finish the tunnel and I should be ready to put the seat pans back in and then squirt primer, seam seal, and lizard skin everything. I know my welding leaves a lot to be desired, and I'm trying to get better.
This is the rear mount for the Detroit Speed subframe connectors after I had to cut it all back off to redo a lot of the fitment. You can see here how much space I need to make up to make it fit the lines of the floorpan. Originally, I had it flush to the floor but the fit on the rear of the mount was bad. This was after getting the rear to fit better with plans to 'bring the floor to the mount'.
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I went to my local metal shop and picked up some plate to weld over the mount plate to reinforce it since the gap was so significant. Here are pics of the plate before welding and the thickness of the metal.
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Here is the reinforced mount held in place before being welded in. Note: this is the only time the welds look decent. It was because this was done on my bench and not over my head under the car. (that's my story and I'm sticking to it!)
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This is the passenger side mount mostly assembled.
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This is the inboard plate on the driver's side. Notice the gap between the front of the mount and the floorpan. I decided on this side to weld everything to match the inner plate/framerail and bring the floor to the mount.
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After all of that work was done, I had to go back and address the issue of the floor now being 1/2 off from the tunnel. I had recut the passenger side welds to see if I could make the connectors fit better.
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Here's where it sits currently. I closed the gap and I'm working my way forward to get everything zipped up. I'm hoping to tackle the rest of the tunnel and getting the tunnel top welded on this weekend, or at least fitted and tacked in.
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On a side note: I added a bottle bracket to my cart to prevent the bottle from falling over and turning into a torpedo.
Also, disapproving shop cat photo.
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All in all, I don't know that I'd do this style of connectors again. Maybe they'd have not been so bad if i were more experienced in my welding.
But onward and upward!