Project 78 Cobra

[cobragt]

Pulled the tank last weekend so I can find out why it was leaking, I guess it was just the vent tube that runs between the 2 tanks it was crushed and cracked, but all the lines needed to be replaced any way. Also replaced the filter in the tank. I also need to fix this while everything is apart

Clamped a piece of aluminum behind it so I could weld up the gaps.

[cobragt]

I drew this last week. I'll make copies and try to figure out different stripes

[chunger]

Mustang II's have 2 fuel tanks? I never knew that.

[cobragt]

Rather than making a bigger tank for the V6 and V8 cars they just used the tank that had been in the Pinto since 70 and added a 5 gal. saddle tank. Good idea from a production stand point/

Mustang II's have 2 fuel tanks? I never knew that.

[cobragt]

Very cool! I'm thinking Silver State Classic! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7us_...layer_embedded

[cobragt]

Lets try this again.

[ModedCB2]

^^^ that was bad ass.... I want details on the car... I see bright blue metalic paint, king-cobra type air dam... not much else...

I am so glad to see at least one other II on here. My '78 KC is up next for a complete PT redo. I did it about 7 years ago, then life happened and haven't had the funds or time to work on it. My oldest son is about to turn 8 and is getting the bug to work on something. I've got a lil Mazda 323GT project to finish first.. then we will start a build log on the KC.

A few points you prob already know, but I'll toss them out for anyone else considering a MII or Pinto build....

* the competition handling group, std on all cobra II's and King cobra. were 4cl 7 V-6 got 13/16" front bar and v-8's got1" front bars, 11/16" rear for 4cyl V6 & 3/4" for V-8's. A simple open end wrench of the appropriate size is a fast test in a junk yard for the largest bars. Pinto sway bars DO NOT interchange and are smaller anyway. And yes the Cobra II was available with all 3 engines. King Cobra's were 5.0/302's only.

* Addco and Quickor Engineering made 1 1/8" front bars the largest rear bar I have seen is the stock 3/4". Rumor was Racer Walsh back in the day had a 15/16" rear bar. But I cannot imagine with the light weight of these cars needing anything over the stock 3/4" I use the 13/16" rear bar on all 4 of my II's which are all V-8's

* Comp. Handling group got what Detroit Eaton calls the Mach 1/Cobra II heavy rear leaf springs. Still readily available.

* You will have to do some real searching and measuring but most every suspension bushing is available in Poly urethane. For the rear leafs I highly recommend taking either Prothane, Daystar or energy suspension's 65-73 rear leaf bushing kit & turning down the outside diameter to fit the MII leaf eyes. Worth every effort.

* Heidt's tubular arms are higher durometer rubber and are a great upgrade to the stock stamped arms and squishy rubber bushings as delivered OE.

* There was a guy out of Wisconsin selling all over eBay a few years ago, Rusty's or something like that, selling ready to go, "dog legged" subframe connectors in either bolt in or weld in versions. They can easily be made with some 1"x2" stock and even add seat reinforcement bars like the Fox bodies. It helps tremendously, t-tops or not.

* Summit & Jegs both have the Competition Engineering Main hoop and 6/8 point roll cage kits in stock for under $200 + truck freight. The fit of the main hoop is very good and tight to the B-pillar on Hatch backs and is reasonable on coupes. The coupes are more vertical at the b-pillar.

* if you plan to keep the rear leaf suspension, search for a set of the now out of business South Side Machine (SSM) rear traction bars. They differ from traditional slapper bars, in that instead of having a snubber, they are bolted/clamped with shims to adjust pre-load similar to Cal Tracs. I have been moving away from Leaf-set ups in all but one of my cars. but the SSM bars are the best traction aid for the MII leaf suspension I have found.

* Intakes: To clear the 1 1/2" offset (to the passenger side) and low hood clearance, the Wieand Stealth is a good aftermarket choice for a mild 302. Stock options, hard to beat the factory '83-85 5.0 GT 4bbl intake. It flows really well, its light, dirt cheap at swap meets, and all it needs is a good gasket-match port job. I am all EFI on my cars now and will never look back.

* Exhaust. This a tough one. The original Blackjack Headers were the least expensive, best fitting option. When Dynomax bought them out, the old pattern was tweaked and will ONLY fit the stock 4speed or the MII specific C$ with the 141 tooth flywheel and baby-sized bell housing. No matter, all the converter companies make SFI flexplates and converters for the 141tooth set up. Its popular in bracket classes due to its small size & light weight. The Hooker super comps are the only header I have seen clear a T5 swap and they require some dimpling on the clutch side of the engine. Hedman's headers go under the front subframe. Crappy design. All that said. I have played extensively with the MII cast manifolds. Porting, extrude honing etc. I have (3) sets in my cars, all heavily ported and flow within 10cfm of the typical aftermarket unequal length shorty header from a Fox body. Gasket match the head side of the manifold, then using a flex grinder go as deep into the manifold as you can reach. they are thick. hog them out. then I use a mild burr to a slight "spinning pattern' on the final polished finish. Results: look stock/unassuming, flow great, keep heat in, and never a leak. all wins. Then have them Jet hot or similar coated inside and out. done deal.

* rear ends: I use the 67-70 8" housing in all my cars. Gains you 2" overall width, which lets you run wider wheel without mini-tubs or a huge wheel with mini-tubs. 8" vs 9" 9" is heavy and of course bullet proof. But unless you are making 700hp/tq its totally unnecessary waste of $$ in the budget. A good Auburn Pro Dif, Moser or strange axles... good to go. If you think you will hurt the 8" (highly unlikely) then swap in the 8.8 from an explorer and get OE rear discs. Far more efficient than a 9", lighter, and huge after market support. cheaper than a 9" too.

can't wait to watch vicariously as your car comes together. I won't start mine till this winter.

Rob

[cobragt]

Lot's of good info. Thanks'!

^^^ that was bad ass.... I want details on the car... I see bright blue metalic paint, king-cobra type air dam... not much else...

I am so glad to see at least one other II on here. My '78 KC is up next for a complete PT redo. I did it about 7 years ago, then life happened and haven't had the funds or time to work on it. My oldest son is about to turn 8 and is getting the bug to work on something. I've got a lil Mazda 323GT project to finish first.. then we will start a build log on the KC.

A few points you prob already know, but I'll toss them out for anyone else considering a MII or Pinto build....

* the competition handling group, std on all cobra II's and King cobra. were 4cl 7 V-6 got 13/16" front bar and v-8's got1" front bars, 11/16" rear for 4cyl V6 & 3/4" for V-8's. A simple open end wrench of the appropriate size is a fast test in a junk yard for the largest bars. Pinto sway bars DO NOT interchange and are smaller anyway. And yes the Cobra II was available with all 3 engines. King Cobra's were 5.0/302's only.

* Addco and Quickor Engineering made 1 1/8" front bars the largest rear bar I have seen is the stock 3/4". Rumor was Racer Walsh back in the day had a 15/16" rear bar. But I cannot imagine with the light weight of these cars needing anything over the stock 3/4" I use the 13/16" rear bar on all 4 of my II's which are all V-8's

* Comp. Handling group got what Detroit Eaton calls the Mach 1/Cobra II heavy rear leaf springs. Still readily available.

* You will have to do some real searching and measuring but most every suspension bushing is available in Poly urethane. For the rear leafs I highly recommend taking either Prothane, Daystar or energy suspension's 65-73 rear leaf bushing kit & turning down the outside diameter to fit the MII leaf eyes. Worth every effort.

* Heidt's tubular arms are higher durometer rubber and are a great upgrade to the stock stamped arms and squishy rubber bushings as delivered OE.

* There was a guy out of Wisconsin selling all over eBay a few years ago, Rusty's or something like that, selling ready to go, "dog legged" subframe connectors in either bolt in or weld in versions. They can easily be made with some 1"x2" stock and even add seat reinforcement bars like the Fox bodies. It helps tremendously, t-tops or not.

* Summit & Jegs both have the Competition Engineering Main hoop and 6/8 point roll cage kits in stock for under $200 + truck freight. The fit of the main hoop is very good and tight to the B-pillar on Hatch backs and is reasonable on coupes. The coupes are more vertical at the b-pillar.

* if you plan to keep the rear leaf suspension, search for a set of the now out of business South Side Machine (SSM) rear traction bars. They differ from traditional slapper bars, in that instead of having a snubber, they are bolted/clamped with shims to adjust pre-load similar to Cal Tracs. I have been moving away from Leaf-set ups in all but one of my cars. but the SSM bars are the best traction aid for the MII leaf suspension I have found.

* Intakes: To clear the 1 1/2" offset (to the passenger side) and low hood clearance, the Wieand Stealth is a good aftermarket choice for a mild 302. Stock options, hard to beat the factory '83-85 5.0 GT 4bbl intake. It flows really well, its light, dirt cheap at swap meets, and all it needs is a good gasket-match port job. I am all EFI on my cars now and will never look back.

* Exhaust. This a tough one. The original Blackjack Headers were the least expensive, best fitting option. When Dynomax bought them out, the old pattern was tweaked and will ONLY fit the stock 4speed or the MII specific C$ with the 141 tooth flywheel and baby-sized bell housing. No matter, all the converter companies make SFI flexplates and converters for the 141tooth set up. Its popular in bracket classes due to its small size & light weight. The Hooker super comps are the only header I have seen clear a T5 swap and they require some dimpling on the clutch side of the engine. Hedman's headers go under the front subframe. Crappy design. All that said. I have played extensively with the MII cast manifolds. Porting, extrude honing etc. I have (3) sets in my cars, all heavily ported and flow within 10cfm of the typical aftermarket unequal length shorty header from a Fox body. Gasket match the head side of the manifold, then using a flex grinder go as deep into the manifold as you can reach. they are thick. hog them out. then I use a mild burr to a slight "spinning pattern' on the final polished finish. Results: look stock/unassuming, flow great, keep heat in, and never a leak. all wins. Then have them Jet hot or similar coated inside and out. done deal.

* rear ends: I use the 67-70 8" housing in all my cars. Gains you 2" overall width, which lets you run wider wheel without mini-tubs or a huge wheel with mini-tubs. 8" vs 9" 9" is heavy and of course bullet proof. But unless you are making 700hp/tq its totally unnecessary waste of $$ in the budget. A good Auburn Pro Dif, Moser or strange axles... good to go. If you think you will hurt the 8" (highly unlikely) then swap in the 8.8 from an explorer and get OE rear discs. Far more efficient than a 9", lighter, and huge after market support. cheaper than a 9" too.

can't wait to watch vicariously as your car comes together. I won't start mine till this winter.

Rob

[cobragt]

Painted the control arms last week with POR. Heidts sent me some new decals to replace the ones that I had to take off.

[cobragt]

[ModedCB2]

Paul , using the stock Struts for the lower arms? energy and Heidt's have poly bushings for the struts to help with deflection. Hands down the single best upgrade/mod I did on my cars was the Heidt's arms.. I went full triangulated. but the tubular arms and the better bushings are worth the swap regardless.

Rob

[cobragt]

Springs are still on back order. :(

[78CobraII]

Great to see a couple of Mustang II (and Vega) fans here! I'm working on both a '78 coupe and a '78 CBII.

I came across this article on a great handling CBII in Popular Hot Rodding a couple of years ago: http://www.popularhotrodding.com/fea..._ii/index.html

He used fiberglass monoleaf springs and CalTracs on the rear.

[Mr.VENGEANCE]

ayyeee!

nice one!

[78CobraII]

Another possibilty on the strut rods would be something similar to this one by AMX-LS3 (https://www.pro-touring.com/showthre...5701-Amx-ls3):





Or some variation of the spherical bearing that TCP uses on their early Mustang strut rod.

[feeble]

A couple of MII suspension and chassis related notes for those that are interested

The house brand Speedway control arms are made by Heidt's and are quite a bit less expensive.

I ordered the heavy duty Eaton rear springs but had the rear eye made to the smaller Pinto size. That allowed me to use the urethane rear eye bushings and much shorter Pinto shackle to bring the rear of the car down.

You can order subframe connectors from Stumpy's Fab Works: http://www.stumpysfabworks.zoomshare.com/0.html

I've got a chart with suspension and other bushings listed here: http://www.mustangiitech.org/files/M...ev20110304.pdf If you know of any other, I'd sure appreciate the help completing the chart.

It is kind of heavy and crude, but I have designed and built an engine compartment brace that ties in with the stock t-top braces:



And installed on my old car:


Tony Hall over at MustangII.net has one that he made from a later model Mustang that is very nice and provides more carb clearance.

Great work, I'll be watching this thread to see how your build progresses.

[cobragt]

Pretty sure I did that when I rebuilt it last time.

Paul , using the stock Struts for the lower arms? energy and Heidt's have poly bushings for the struts to help with deflection. Hands down the single best upgrade/mod I did on my cars was the Heidt's arms.. I went full triangulated. but the tubular arms and the better bushings are worth the swap regardless.

Rob

[ModedCB2]

Feeble, for either small pinto or MII rear eyes and MII front eye's on the leaf springs, I also have Eaton springs, i used an off the shelf Energy poly leaf spring kit on one car and a Daystar poly kit on my other MII. The ID of the hole + the provided metal sleeves are perfect, as is the grade 8 hardware. I simply put the bushing over a bolt that was super tight into the ID hole . had to be pressed on. then chucked the hex head in the stationary side of a lathe and turned down the OD to fit each end. It could also be done, less precisely using a bolt, bench vise and a handheld grinder.

thanks for the link on stumpy's... I've been trying to find his name for over 2 years.

Rob

[cobragt]

Gas filler opening finished.

[cobragt]

Gas tank repair.









I used Ford Mineral Grey on the tank.