My 66 Mustang Coupe GT393-C

[CampbellshotrodsAZ]

I figured it was about time for me to post up a build thread. I've had this project since August 2013, but the build progress hasn't been interesting, at least photographically, and took awhile to be interesting at least as much as a build thread is concerned. Quick history is that my dad and I try to build a hot rod every year start to finish. It used to be more casually paced, but we've challenged ourselves more and more, and stepped up our game more with each project. We wanted to find something cool to follow the 71 Chevelle SS we finished last year, and won the Chevy Muscle pick at Goodguy's Del Mar Spring 2013. We build these cars completely by ourselves. The only time the Chevelle left our hands was for alignment. My dad and I do the bodywork, and I do the paintwork and buffing.



We had a blast at this show and wanted to build something out of our normal range to bring to the 2014 Del Mar show. We are primarily GM people, but I've always wanted to try my work on a Mustang coupe. The search began, and mid-August I found and bought this 66 Mustang. It was a solid car and built by a guy about my age (mid-late 20's) who spent near a decade making the car right mechanically, but 1. Got overwhelmed when he realized the extent of the bodywork needed and 2. Was starting a family. So I got this car with a great head start already with a fresh 393 stroker, and T-5 setup with hydraulic clutch. He had all kinds of goodies in boxes already including a fiberglass cowl style hood, Shelby style rear decklid, front 13" Cobra brakes, and enough other parts to push me to leave a deposit on this car. Some parts were used, and some weren't due to change in build direction, or just pure unusable repop parts, but I'll get to that on a step by step basis.




FYI- this blue paint was ROLLED ON, and a huge pain to remove.




The progress is going to go by a lot more rapidly now as Del Mar is 3 months away as I'm typing this. I have the rest of the build set into motion and have it all planned. I'm going to order a set of custom offset American Racing VN427's next week, rears with a deeper offset so I can narrow a 9" I have laying around. Suspension will be simplified for now while I'm focusing on the rest of the car. Stock control arms up front, but I'll add roller lower spring mounts and adjustable strut rods, as well as adding torque boxes and SFC's. I need to research this more and figure out what I can do without breaking the bank since we're not rolling in $$, the most cost effective mods are what I need to figure out. Color has been chosen (for today at least) to be BMW Barbera Red (similar to the Dragon's Blood Red on the Ring Brother's 70 Mustang), with a champagne wide centerstripe in matte, with a red pinstripe. I loved the TMI interior in the 71 Chevelle we did, so I am excited to get a more complete setup for this car. I'm going to talk with them next week, and try and get their complete Sport XR interior they debuted at SEMA last year, as well as their complete modernized door panels and suede 1 piece headliner. All this will be in hopefully a brown bomber jacket type color, with suede inserts, but that will all depend on what colors we can find. The dash will get a Dakota Digital VHX analog setup. I've designed custom one off taillights and am going to learn how to machine them within the next month as well. A Shelby R type valance was planned, but after finding out it will not fit without extensive work, I'm going to modify the stock one to a custom configuration that should look pretty clean and cool I'm hoping.

Well there it is. I have months of photos I'll keep adding over the weekend as I get time, so this will do for the night. Hopefully this build thread is interesting for you guys.