1965 Mustang Coupe Build...

[digitalsolo]

looks good! Working on my 64 coupe, trying to get the drivetrain squared away so i can start doing the body work. Im used to doing body work and paint on the side but this car is freaking me out alittle. Good to see someone else being picky.

Thanks! Yeah, I'm super picky. I'll never be 100% happy with my own work, but I'm willing to trade perfection for the pride of doing it all myself.

That said, I have decided I'm going to toss the driver's door and both fenders for some better pieces. As I work on these things, I keep looking at another 5-10 hours here, another there... I'd rather spend 800-900 dollars on better fitting pieces that I can fix 1 or 2 small areas on, instead of having to basically redo every stamp line completely.



Unfortunately, I'm part way through building a new house right now, so progress is basically nil until this fall. No money for goodies until the house is done, and no place to do body work/fab until the house is done. The new place has a big attached shop with a lift though, so that will be pretty cool.

[StreetMachine82]

Great work! What did you use as "mud" to smooth out the transitions from the fender structure into the tubing? With my own build, I'm concerned about heat in the engine bay and stress cracking do to thermal expansion. Did you use anything special?
P.S. your RX-7s are sick!

Little bit more progress on the front end. Built some internal aprons to cover up the fender wells. The bottom area of these may get a little trim/tweak once the arms get in and I can check clearances. I also want to add a brace on the rear of the MII upper arm mount that will have a bolt that can be used to set pressure against the upper arm pivot to prevent "walk" under load. I'll build a mockup of it once the arms are installed so that I can see if it will work like I want it to.

Attachment 106173

And restoration of the hubs. Here is a shot of before/after..

Attachment 106174

And both completed...

Attachment 106172

I'm not sure why the studs look goofy in the pictures, it's just the camera, they are nice and straight. Big fan of my 20 ton press for... persuading... 50 year old parts to play nice. ;)

Not much progress beyond this right now. Finishing up a mil-spec harness for a guy with a 1994 RX7 right now, then I have a conversion harness for an LS1 in a Crown Vic, THEN I should be able to get back to the Mustang. That reminds me, after body work is chassis electrical. :D

[rhurley]

What wheels are those on the car right now?? size maybe?

[Z06killinSBF]

Man this car will be awesome, keep up the hard work.

[digitalsolo]

Great work! What did you use as "mud" to smooth out the transitions from the fender structure into the tubing? With my own build, I'm concerned about heat in the engine bay and stress cracking do to thermal expansion. Did you use anything special?
P.S. your RX-7s are sick!

The mud is thin, but it is bondo glass (kitty hair) with a skim of bondo gold over top. I've used it in a lot of bays, never had any trouble even on turbo cars.

What wheels are those on the car right now?? size maybe?

They are XXR 531 wheels. 17x8 +35 front, 17x9 +35 rear.

Man this car will be awesome, keep up the hard work.

Thanks!

[Crestronwizard]

Coming along nicely. I like seeing more coupes being built

[I_make_oil]

Coming along nicely. I like seeing more coupes being built

I agree 100%. There really are nice coupes being built. The attention to detail on this one is very inspiring. I can't to wait to see it finished.

[digitalsolo]

I've been working on the passenger side of the engine bay, getting the bodywork dialed in closer. Don't let the mess of glazing putty worry you, it's just slathered on then I sand like 99.99% of it back off, but I get sick of finding tiny pinholes in the mud, so I just coat it then sand it back off. Anywho:



I found a small high spot in the apron just forward of the tube on the passenger side that I've worked on since this picture. I'm hoping to get back on it today. I need to get my welder back from my buddy (he borrowed while I was building my house, he races circle track and they tend to wad cars up regularly, so the welder is handy). I ordered up a new (not new, but new to me) door and passenger fender that are actual OE pieces, so I'm hoping I can get them to fit with a bit less work.

Once my welder returns home, I'm going to finish the passenger side bracing and then I think I'm going to do the rear tubs to get another 2" or so of clearance.

[andrewb70]

Looking good Blake! Glad to see you back on this.

Andrew

[digitalsolo]

Thanks Andrew!

Been making a bit more progress. Firewall is smoothed out (not going for super-smooth here, just cleaning it up):



And the passenger side cowl bracing is in and finished.



I'm working on the body work for the shaved drip rails and the shaved (welded up) cowl/quarter seams now.

I also just picked up a Ford pattern TR-6060 and a spec billet twin, so I guess I'm pretty well dedicated to a Coyote or other mod motor. I'll probably do a truck 5.0L Coyote and add the turbos a little later. Well see.

[Jetfixr320]

I really like the way you tied the aprons into the firewall. Great idea!

[Chad-1stGen]

Awesome build! Man you have an eye towards detail! The hours into doing this thing right will pay off in the long run but I envy your patience! Can't wait to see more progress!

[digitalsolo]

Some progress on the drip rail shave and rear cowl seam shave (welded and filled):





New toys! TR-6060 out of a GT500 + Spec Billet Twin w/ aluminum flywheel:



And control arm progress! I wanted to do some customization on these, so I started with a basic tubular and modified it. It's not quite as pretty as I'd like, but it's plenty strong and doesn't look too bad. The next one will probably look a bit more pretty. Need to redesign the upper mounts now.

Original on left:

[Crestronwizard]

Looks great. What color are you going with?

[rhurley]

How bad were the drop rails to shave? Did you use a tig?

[digitalsolo]

Thanks! Current leader is British Racing Green for something a bit different than the norm. Might even do some Lotus/Aston inspiration and put yellow calipers on it. We'll see, I change my mind a lot and I'm at least 10-12 months from any paint going on it.

Drip rails were tedious but not too bad. It was done with .030 wire on a Millermatic 135 MIG. Basically just fused the layers together then built up a touch of extra on the edge to allow it to be worked back to true. A TIG would probably have been easier, but I do not have one (yet).

Did some test fitting of one of the rear wheels up front and it looks like I can fit a 275 on a 17x9 in there no problem, so my current plan will be 275s all around for a square setup. Working on the upper coilover mounts next, what I had is too low and wouldn't have allowed enough travel in the suspension for my liking. I'm setting it up for a QA1 DS502 right now, so I'll raise the upper mount about 2" from it's current location, which will require tweaking the inner fender aprons inside of my U braces in the engine bay. I'm just going to clearance them a bunch to let the upper control arms get clear for removal, then add a bolt on aluminum cover panel to dress it up and seal out the fenders from the engine bay as much as possible.

275s mocked up front:

[I_make_oil]

You might want to turn the front wheels and see how the wider tires affect your turning radius. I went with 255's on the front and cannot get full lock as the tires hit on the inside.

[digitalsolo]

Yeah, I need to find the stock angle; I don't have any stops in this so it does eventually hit the frame rails. I just don't know what stock radius was, so I'm not sure how it compares. I may just measure my Focus ST as a reference point. That is my one concern with these, I lose some angle vs my 17x8" wheels I test fit.

[digitalsolo]

Picked up a "new" fender. Original 65-66 piece in pretty good shape. ASSuming Greyhound didn't lose my door, I will have an OE door the driver side also.



Progress on the upper coilover mounts. They're probably overbuilt, but I figure there's a pretty good bit of load in this area; the edge pieces that look like angle iron are basically there to get more surface area attached to the crossmember; there isn't a lot of room to work with on the Mustang II stuff, everything is pretty tight in there. The inner fender panel will get an aluminum panel to cover it all up once it's done.

[1bad68cat]

Picked up a "new" fender. Original 65-66 piece in pretty good shape. ASSuming Greyhound didn't lose my door, I will have an OE door the driver side also.



Progress on the upper coilover mounts. They're probably overbuilt, but I figure there's a pretty good bit of load in this area; the edge pieces that look like angle iron are basically there to get more surface area attached to the crossmember; there isn't a lot of room to work with on the Mustang II stuff, everything is pretty tight in there. The inner fender panel will get an aluminum panel to cover it all up once it's done.

One small suggestion. I'd put the spring on and verify it doesn't contact the upper control arm when the suspension is at full droop.