Slow 68 mustang - Big Girl Pearl or "Yellow Fury"

[jaybee]

Great project, I love your approach. I don't see much talk so far about chassis stiffening beyond subframe connectors. Any of these Falcon-chassis cars get pretty flexi when you start throwing a lot of power and G forces at them. I'm going to say up front I haven't built this car but I'm putting together a plan for a Maverick so I've put a lot of thought into it...so I could be wrong but use what you want and throw the rest away.

IMO the Maier Racing Shock Tower Brace is exactly the right approach. Combining the Monte Carlo Bar and Export Brace into one piece has to make the whole assembly stronger. There are some really trick-looking, heim jointed shock tower braces out there. To me they look like trying to stiffen something by stringing a chain across it. I'm sure they help but not like a solid structure that ties multiple points together.

Mustang engineers put a lot of effort into stiffening the convertibles. Use their work. The seat reinforcement pan and floor reinforcement plate do a lot to stiffen up the car. You can use them with very little modification. Convertible inner rockers help a whole bunch too. They're a lot more work to put into a coupe, but you could probably modify them to put into the car without having to cut up the floor...or have something made with similar dimensions but built to fit a coupe floor pan. Doing it this way you can use convertible carpet, and until someone tells me I'm dead wrong I'm inclined to think you could install this stuff with structural panel adhesive to keep from having to strip out the whole interior for welding.

Put a solid sheet metal firewall between the rear seat and trunk. A Google search shows people who have done load testing on these cars found that stiffens up the back end a lot.



Trans Am Brace...a small plate that braces the OUTSIDE of each frame rail to the shock tower on the Boss 302 cars.

Boss 302-style engine crossmember. It gussets that curvy crossmember and ties it to the LCA pivot, preventing the bottom of the engine compartment and LCA mount from flexing. Here's an example: http://opentrackerracing.com/product...lby-1965-1966/

Maybe this isn't what you're looking for but it's a whole bunch of ways to stiffen the chassis without taking your car off the road for long, cutting out your shock towers, or going to some high dollar add on chassis. Nothing wrong with that, but you said you didn't want to do those things.

[arcane73]

Great project, I love your approach. I don't see much talk so far about chassis stiffening beyond subframe connectors. Any of these Falcon-chassis cars get pretty flexi when you start throwing a lot of power and G forces at them. I'm going to say up front I haven't built this car but I'm putting together a plan for a Maverick so I've put a lot of thought into it...so I could be wrong but use what you want and throw the rest away.

IMO the Maier Racing Shock Tower Brace is exactly the right approach. Combining the Monte Carlo Bar and Export Brace into one piece has to make the whole assembly stronger. There are some really trick-looking, heim jointed shock tower braces out there. To me they look like trying to stiffen something by stringing a chain across it. I'm sure they help but not like a solid structure that ties multiple points together.

Mustang engineers put a lot of effort into stiffening the convertibles. Use their work. The seat reinforcement pan and floor reinforcement plate do a lot to stiffen up the car. You can use them with very little modification. Convertible inner rockers help a whole bunch too. They're a lot more work to put into a coupe, but you could probably modify them to put into the car without having to cut up the floor...or have something made with similar dimensions but built to fit a coupe floor pan. Doing it this way you can use convertible carpet, and until someone tells me I'm dead wrong I'm inclined to think you could install this stuff with structural panel adhesive to keep from having to strip out the whole interior for welding.

Put a solid sheet metal firewall between the rear seat and trunk. A Google search shows people who have done load testing on these cars found that stiffens up the back end a lot.

Trans Am Brace...a small plate that braces the OUTSIDE of each frame rail to the shock tower on the Boss 302 cars.

Boss 302-style engine crossmember. It gussets that curvy crossmember and ties it to the LCA pivot, preventing the bottom of the engine compartment and LCA mount from flexing. Here's an example: http://opentrackerracing.com/product...lby-1965-1966/

Maybe this isn't what you're looking for but it's a whole bunch of ways to stiffen the chassis without taking your car off the road for long, cutting out your shock towers, or going to some high dollar add on chassis. Nothing wrong with that, but you said you didn't want to do those things.

Thanks for the input, John. I appreciate it.
As far as Maier's tower brace goes, I have it sitting in the garage and ready to go on when the engine swap happens. I just managed to forget to add a pic.
I do plan on the solid sheet firewall between the trunk and passenger compartment. That's on my list of things to do when I get it on the road after the engine/trans swap.
I also have the trans am braces as well as some other shock tower bracing on my list. Opentracker has a nice kit already put together. http://opentrackerracing.com/product...kit-1967-1970/
The engine crossmember has been on my list for a while. The one you linked is actually built by a vintage-mustangs forum member (zray) and he sells them through opentracker as well as directly.
https://forums.vintage-mustang.com/1...ml#post8733241

The honest truth about why I'm waiting to do a lot of strengthening is that I'm almost positive the car is bent. It has been kissed in the rear at some point and I'm pretty sure that it's off-kilter. I plan to get the swap done and drop it off at a local place to have it put on their table and see how bad it really is.
That will determine what's getting removed/replaced and what will be salvaged. Once I know what needs to happen with it, MikeH and I can start planning on cutting/replacing the bad parts and trying to get it ready to be straight again.

Of course, all of that progress will go up here as it happens......sometime next year ;)

[jaybee]

Oh sure, welding a bunch of strength into a chassis that's bent only makes it more difficult to straighten. Again, I really like your approach.

[Gmachine1911]

Just read your build from start to finish, and I love the way you're doing it! Don't be afraid to keep spending money on the "unseen things" as this is what separates a properly built car from the other 75% of stuff running the streets.
I can't take credit for the slogan but I once heard someone say, "buy it once and buy it right"...as a balance, I can't agree more with the fact that you're build is bought and paid for. Any car just drives better when it's paid for!
Keep up the good work!

[arcane73]

Nothing really exciting. Just got my MC and it will be added to the pile of boxes on the shelf.

[arcane73]

So, the latest: The car is in storage and I'm still collecting parts for the swap.
Good news: I'm likely going to call Bowler in the next couple of weeks and order my T-56 as well as a CVF front drive system and the new RTX gauges from Dakota digital as well as subframe connectors from Maier. I've recently received a new wiring harness from AAW and a few other odds and ends. I also placed an order for exhaust tubing and all of that should arrive today.

Bad news: my engine builder had a pretty serious health scare and that's held up engine progress. He's on the mend and I've lit a fire under him to get back on it. I've been waiting long enough.
The reason that the car is in storage is because I no longer have a garage to keep it in because I sold the house. I split from my wife and am now flying solo....so plenty of time to worry about car stuff...just having to be ready for a spot in MikeH's shop. Isn't life a strange thing?

[Sbeck09]

Just noticed you are local, yay! This is a pretty sweet ride you're putting together. Sorry to hear that you've joined the growing singles club on here. Happy to talk cars any time if it helps.

On the CVF kit, I LOVE mine and they have some of the best post-sale support of any company I've ever dealt with so nice choice.

If you have any further issues with engine timelines, I can refer you to the guy that built my 408w.

[arcane73]

Just noticed you are local, yay! This is a pretty sweet ride you're putting together. Sorry to hear that you've joined the growing singles club on here. Happy to talk cars any time if it helps.

On the CVF kit, I LOVE mine and they have some of the best post-sale support of any company I've ever dealt with so nice choice.

If you have any further issues with engine timelines, I can refer you to the guy that built my 408w.

Thanks! I got a chance to talk to the CVF guys at goodguys last weekend and that sealed the deal. I've heard lots of good things about them.
Yeah, won't go too much into the details surrounding the solo part. Just that it happened and life goes on.
And I've known my builder for about 30 years so I've no problems when it comes to giving him a hard time about taking too long. But I also don't have an issue flying back to New Orleans and loading up all of my bits and dragging them back here to get this moving again. If that happens, I may just be in need of a trustworthy local builder.

[arcane73]

More Parts!!!!!
I took advantage of the black friday sales to load up on some of the stuff that will be needed to complete the V8 swap.
To Kim @MCB: Thanks! You rock!



I know a bunch of pics of piling up parts isn't as exciting as seeing the actual build.....but it's still progress to me!

In the pics: ridetech swaybar, ididit column, CVF front accessory drive, black widow mufflers, and borgeson steering box.
Side note: Fedex made the swaybar delivery at 20 till 10 PM!! those guys work hard and deserve a kudos!

[andrewb70]

That's a sexy pile of parts!

[arcane73]

Saturday started out simply enough. The plan was to get up and follow my friend Mike down to Tucson for the Roadkill Ziptie Drags. He was taking his Chevelle and I was taking Pearl. The drive was going smoothly until right around Red Rock, AZ (40ish miles north of Tucson) I started to hear some engine noise. I take the exit and a lifter/rocker was singing to me that it wanted to turn in its resignation. Mike and his wife said that they'd run back to their house since it wasn't far, and come back with the trailer for me.

So here she sits looking majestic.





So, not to have a boring day, I get a text from Mike's wife: "How much more adventure are you up for today?". Me: "bring it!". They arrive in their Revcon Trailblazer with the trailer behind it. They were on the way home and the Chevelle started acting odd and they didn't want it to act up but didn't want to miss the Roadkill event, so they decided that we'd all head down together with the hurt mustang on the trailer behind their behemoth.





Got the car loaded up and tied down and made our way south! Hung out and wandered around the show. Saw a few oddball cars, watched some racing and had a good time. Around 3 or so, we get a message that I-10 is closed....shut down completely. There had been 2 different wrecks in the same area that resulted in fatalities and there was no ETA on reopening it. Mike and Amanda decide we'd take a route through the nearby reservation to get home and avoid the highway. We stop for gas (that beast is so thirsty!) and head off for home.





So fast-forward to Monday. Since the car was still on the trailer and had undiagnosed engine noise, I decided to finally get it to the frame shop to see just how bad the wrinkles were. The car has been hit in the rear at some point in its life and both rear quarters have minor buckles in them. I knew that when I bought it. I just wanted to see what I was up against before starting to add subframe connectors and frame strengthening, considering cage, etc. Mike heads up and we set off to the frame shop. Al's Unibody in north Phoenix is where i went. We get there and he's got a 53 Chevy truck on the lift, a 56 ford F100 off to the side along with several Jeeps and an asphalt oval track car. I tell him what's going on and he puts my car on the lift and starts pointing out a few minor things like a dent in the floorboard and one of the strut rod braces being beat up from hitting a curb or parking block. He looks at the rear and measures everything. The final verdict is that it was bumped in the rear just enough to put a bow in the quarters. He said that he could pull it straight but it was so minor that it wasn't necessary. He suggested against replacing the quarters as everything was in good shape and said that he'd smooth out the dents and drive it for now if it were his. So that's the plan! I tried to pay him for his time and he just shook my hand and told me to have a nice day.





So, the car is back at Mike's for now and the engine noise has decided to stop. He has 4 things in his shop (his chevelle, a teardrop camper, his wife's 61 F100/crown vic swap, and a 65 F100/crown vic swap for a customer) but says that we can play musical parking places if I want to come down and start working on stuff like the subframe connectors and measuring for bigger front tires. I'm likely going to head down in the next couple of weekends and get started on that. I need to keep the upswing of interest going before it gets stupid hot here.

On a parts note, the corner pickup kit that I ordered from Vaoprworx for my tank setup has arrived. I'll likely work on cutting open the new tank and fabbing all of that up sometime after I do the subframes.




And my DSE subframe connectors and RTX gauges from Dakota Digital also arrived.



PROGRESS AND ADVENTURES!!

[Thatorange67]

Looks great! Can't wait to see more pics of the parts added to the car. I put a subframe on my 67, i ran the rails down the rockers. It sturdy, but I also reinforced the front end with more tubing. My car was also in an accident, it has taken a lot of time to completely fix the issues involved with that, super glad to hear yours was not structurally detrimental. Good work!

[arcane73]

So, things have arrived, parts have been sorted, and deconstruction has begun.


First things first: My T-56 arrived from Bowler Transmissions along with a pile of goodies to get it installed. This includes the trans, all of the hardware to mount it to the bellhousing, MDL hydraulic clutch setup with Tilton hydraulic throwout bearing, Ron Morris crossmember, McCleod clutch, and various other goodies. A big thanks to Tom Farrington and Craig @ Bowlers.







The demo begins! The seats came out (not 100% sold on the Corbeau look in the car. I may go back to stock style and find a way to do headrests on them) along with the carpet and instrument cluster.
The floors are solid for the most part. A pinhole or two, but nothing like the cars you'd find in the southeast where i grew up. Most of the carpet backing stuck to the floor so I'll be cleaning that up this coming weekend before getting started on the subframe connectors.








If you look closely at the driver's seat pan you will see what looks to be "Water Shield" written on it. I'm going to guess that it was put on there on the assembly line. I thought it was cool.





Anyway, onwards and upwards!

[arcane73]

So the last few days have been spent trying to determine the overall health of the floors as well as tearing out the last of the interior parts that needed to move to make everything easier.
The steering column came out so I could get the pedal support out. The column will be getting replaced with a tilt unit from Ididit. The pedal support will be getting the Mustang Steve bearing upgrade.
While I was pulling all of that apart, I came across a parts label on the support. It looks like the support was replaced around 1993 possibly since it seems to have very little wear on it compared to everything else.








Found lots of oddities like this tear in the hole where the clutch rod passes through (and was rubbing) and the odd damage to the pulley for the handbrake.








Everything out and time to start poking around more.





Didn't take long to find some ugly spots....
The passenger floor was the first to show daylight through it.





As well as finding what looked like -another- bullet hole in the passenger inner fenderwell that went through to the quarter....





I decided to go ahead and cut the seat pans to prepare for my subframe connectors and then blast the floors to see just what i was working with.
Wrapped up everything and prepared to make a mess....





The rest of the floor after blasting:











I decided that there were too many pinholes for my liking and have ordered floors. They should show up in a few days. In the meantime, I'll work on getting the seatpans out and doing the upgrades to the pedal support.

[chunger]

Hmmm, they all seem like pinholes, nothing structural.

I recall another build on here years ago that had floor in similar condition to yours. He fixed them by using silver Por 15. Claimed the silver color was the only color that had some kinda fibers in it. Seemed to work for him and was alot simpler than cutting out the old and welding in new floors.

The hole in the firewall where the clutch rod goes used to be fairly common. As the plastic bushings failed in the linkage to the Z-bar, the metal-on-metal joints would wear pretty fast and get sloppy, often resulting in people substituting straight rods for the upper link. Many of which resulted in the kind of wear you see on your firewall.

Keep up the good work!

[arcane73]

Hmmm, they all seem like pinholes, nothing structural.

I recall another build on here years ago that had floor in similar condition to yours. He fixed them by using silver Por 15. Claimed the silver color was the only color that had some kinda fibers in it. Seemed to work for him and was alot simpler than cutting out the old and welding in new floors.

The hole in the firewall where the clutch rod goes used to be fairly common. As the plastic bushings failed in the linkage to the Z-bar, the metal-on-metal joints would wear pretty fast and get sloppy, often resulting in people substituting straight rods for the upper link. Many of which resulted in the kind of wear you see on your firewall.

Keep up the good work!

Yeah, I briefly considered just putting down some rust preventative/converter and calling it a day but the plan is to keep this ride. So, I opted for pans. And my other early mustangs had various levels of the failing z-bar linkages like you mentioned. But this is the first time I've seen a tear on the firewall to make room for the clutch rod....so many 'impressive' details about this car.

[arcane73]

The most recent happenings: I worked on finishing up the pedal support. I didn't get many in-progress pics because my lovely assistant was poking holes in the floor while i was working on the support.
I'm happy with the finished product. I will need to work on straightening the clutch pedal, though. I'm really curious as to what the hell happened to this thing. There were a few 'fixes' that would have been acceptable had they just spent a little more time making it 'right'.


Completed side shot.



Another view that -kinda- shows the off-kilter clutch pedal alignment.



I also worked on geting the old tank drained and out since I have the larger stainless to go in when I finish adding the new-style fuel pump. The trunk floor looked good. No real issues aside from carpet tape holding down the trunk mat and no sealer between the tank and flange....



And then Mike suggests that I wheel the car over to the lift so we can get it in the air and remove the exhaust, brake and fuel lines and get ready to remove the floors.



And then........Sawzall happens!



I cut out the larger sections and will finish up the smaller areas with a cutoff wheel while it is on the ground. I hope to get back to it this weekend to do that and maybe even get the subframe install started.

[arcane73]

So with everything that is going on in the world, I opted to hang out in the shop for a little bit and get my floors mocked up, trimmed, and then welded in.
I welded in everything with the exception of the sides along the transmission tunnel because I have a feeling that I'll need to move some metal there when it's time to put the T-56 in.
I will likely get started on my subframe connectors next because there's nothing like cutting up fresh floors!

[arcane73]

Today was spent working on the subframe connector install. Not a lot else going on lately. Been staying at home since the drive down to the shop is around 30-40 mins. I may work on getting the tired 6 cylinder and 3 speed pulled out next weekend and finish the connector install. I haven't decided what to do with the old drivetrain yet. Mike has offered to load it up on the trailer for the next scrap run, but I feel someone locally would likely be interested in it. I may even post it on craigslist. I'm not even sure what it would sell for, to be honest.


Either way, here is a pic of me making sparks.

[andrewb70]

Good progress. Were the torque boxes in decent shape?

Andrew