Dan's 65 Mustang Fastback

[1967marti]

I see a few big red flags in the last set of pictures.... In the image attached i circled them in red.... There looks to be severe pitting on the rocker as well as very poor welds along the floor pan and most worryingly, the rear torque box.
I would do a very thorough inspection of the 'rust repairs' done before you start bolting stuff on the car, it looks like you need to do some repairs to their repairs...

[funbnme]

Thanks for the pointer. I'm going to get some welding done to reinforce the front shock towers and will have a bit to do for the 4 link in the rear, so I'll be checking out other areas and will be filling where needed.

I'm practicing my plug welding, so I will tackle the easy stuff, but going to get a guy over here to do the harder stuff so I don't wind up with a bunch of unsafe booger welds holding my front suspension together.

[1967marti]

Unfortunately it looks like those "plug welds" were sprayed over and you will not be able to just fill them in. I would stitch weld around those areas (after wire wheeling to clean bare metal), with importance placed on the rear torque box(s).

Another thing to keep in mind is that when you put ion a 4-link you are moving the location where the rear weight of the car is being placed. It is very important that the rear frame rails be in great shape and the mounts for the shocks be properly welded and braced against the frame, whenever possible you should have plates welded to the frame and then the new equipment welded to that. A good example of this is how you must install a roll cage.

Shoot me a PM if you want my cell # and we can chat offline about some of your cars issues, if you want a second opinion from what your shop is telling you.

- matt

[Craig510]

Have you picked out your seats yet? Head / helmet clearance can be an issue with the stock seat pans. I would wait to weld those in until you have your seats to make sure the car fits you.

[funbnme]

Good idea. I want something like the Procar Elites or maybe something out of a modern mustang (have plenty of time to decide). I have the stock seats, so I'll throw those in to see how much room I have. From what I remember reading, there isn't a big head-room difference compared to the stock seats…am I right?

I don't really plan to use this car for track duty, but I'll throw the helmet on just in case.

[Craig510]

Stock mustang seats have very thin bases, modern seats are generally much thicker.

[rickpaw]

In addition to torque boxes, you may want to install convertible rockers and one piece seat pan too. Those rockers install inside and will add substantial stiffness to the car.

[funbnme]

Stock mustang seats have very thin bases, modern seats are generally much thicker.

I'm going to use a one-piece headliner, so that will give me a bit more room up top. I'm 5'10, but more legs than torso. I think I read that the difference between the stock seats & late model mustang seats was only an inch or so (digging to find that post), so I think I'll be OK. I'll post up the headroom measurement with the stock seats and see if you guys think I'll clear.

Found the thread I was talking about. http://forums.vintage-mustang.com/vi...ml#post3949634

In addition to torque boxes, you may want to install convertible rockers and one piece seat pan too. Those rockers install inside and will add substantial stiffness to the car.

I did some reading on these earlier, but with what I have planned for the car, the rollbar and sub-frame connectors should help enough. I might look into connecting the rollbar to the firewall in front (if that can be done without making it too hard to get in & out of the car.

[funbnme]

Torque boxes are installed.

I started with the passenger side (mainly because I had more room to work on that side of the garage). It probably took me around 12-15 hours to get it in. Most of that was spent beating it into submission until it would fit. Even with the 2 piece units, they still needed adjustments to get them to sit right.




Then I moved to the driver's side and it went a lot faster...maybe around 8 hours or so. This side seemed to fit better, but maybe that's just because I knew what to do so I didn't have to take it on & off as many times to get it right.



My welding skills are improving as I go. Still not good enough to want to weld in area of the car that would be seen...but better than when I started this project a short time ago. They aren't pretty, but penetration was good so they will hold.


I found a motor for the car. Bought it a bit early, but it was a good deal, so I pulled the trigger.

It's a 302 with Dart Iron Eagle Heads and a Holly carb. It has a bit over 3,000 miles on it and is complete from carb to pan. It's only rated at 305hp...but it came out of a running Backdraft Cobra that's getting a major performance upgrade, so it should be a problem free starting point for me. For now, this is what my budget would support. I figured as a future winter project (after the car is done), I could always pull it out and make a stroker out of it if I wanted more power.

I'll still need a T5 trans & bellhousing, but I can watch the ads for a good deal while I work on other stuff.

[Crestronwizard]

Coming along!

[xsboost90]

looking good- been there done all that- if you need any advise.

[funbnme]

I'm installing a Shelby style roll bar. It doesn't do much for chassis stiffening or rollover protection, but it will give me a place to mount a 5 point harness and it has the vintage look I'm going for.



The bar came with brackets and was supposed to be a close fit, but since my car had the floors replaced, it didn't fit that well. So I cut off the lower mount and am making mounts from scratch. Found the idea on the Mustangs to Fear website.

This shows the gap at the bottom.


Here's the mount on the driver side tacked to the floor.



First time notching tube…fit came out pretty good. Found a couple of videos on youtube and practiced on a piece of scrap tube I bought at the recycling yard first…then dove in with the real thing.

Here's the passenger side with the lower mount welded in and the rear leg cut and ready to weld.


My welds still won't win any beauty contests, but I'm getting better at it.

After I get seats, I'll mount them so I can put the cross-bar for the belts in the right spot. I'll make the cross bar removable too in case I need to get into the back of the car for anything.

[Crestronwizard]

I like those tools!

[funbnme]

Been keeping busy doing things until the suspension pieces arrive.

Roll bar is mostly done. After I make a decision on seats, I'll get them in and then mark the height for a removable harness bar.



My night vision isn't very good (laser treatments to treat retinopathy from being diabetic ruins the night vision), so getting the weld torch in the right spot when I have the helmet down hasn't been easy. I made up a small flashlight holder that attaches to the handle and it helps a whole bunch (and it's not in the way).



I know there's a tool made for this, but I couldn't find it online and this one was free - even the flashlight was a freebie at Harbor Freight last week.


I welded up some parts of the shock towers for extra strength. Here's the passenger side.

[Crestronwizard]

Ingenuity at its finest

[JRHorne]

Dan I am in Raleigh and have a 65 Fastback V6, but it is in storage and I am not currently working on it. I'd love to lend a hand, but between my job, 15 month old, and own projects (home and cars) I am not sure I could find the time! I'll follow along here but let me know if you need an extra set of hands. I don't fab, weld, or do body work, but when you get to assembly and bolting stuff together I can be useful.

[funbnme]

Welded the front frame rails to help keep things together a bit better.

The passenger side section where the upper & lower control arms will straddle the frame (where the shock tower is) needed more work than the driver side. But I was able to get in there nicely with my welding torch and get a series of good tacks & short beads in there.

I seam sealed the driver side too...waiting for more to come via Amazon so I can do the passenger side and finish up some spots on the driver side frame.

Passenger Side


Driver Side

[Z06killinSBF]

Be a good time to add in shock tower plates since its right there and already clean.

[funbnme]

I've been thinking about that....but for a street driven car, is it something that's a 'must have' or 'you probably won't notice the difference because you aren't pushing the car to the limits'?

Who makes the shock tower plates for a 65?

[Z06killinSBF]

Well you stich welded the frame, is that necessary for a street car? I bet you could easily whittle some out of plate in about 5 minutes.