1972 Gran Torino Sport project-Coyote swap

[Sj_mr2]

This is my latest project car. To start off most guys would say the car is too far gone, and not worth the effort.From what I've seen on this site, I don't think I'll have that negativity here!

[Sj_mr2]

First order of business is stripping the car down to a shell:

[Sj_mr2]

Discovering ALOT of rust issues!

[Sj_mr2]

At this point I realized I was going to need the body on a rotisserie, and none that I found were going to let me roll the chassis from under the car easily as they all seemed to have the center post, so I designed and built my own version:


This will allow me to roll the chassis in and out with ease to check fitment as the project goes along.

[Sj_mr2]

I don't know if the pictures convey just how little structure remained in the body of the car, but suffice it to say some reinforcement was in order before I hung it from the rotisserie:

[Sj_mr2]

This was a big day in the project, got it up in the air, and my design worked out just fine!

[Sj_mr2]

Now, at this point it's obvious. not much of this car is worth saving, so out it goes:

[wyattroa]

crazy, Ill come along on this ride with you. Great work with the rotisserie

[Sj_mr2]

Now for the first major piece of the puzzle. I needed a new frame badly. The old frame was destroyed and could literally be crushed with my hands. Doing some research I discovered crown victoria's frames are a close match, and the wheel base is damn near identical. So i picked up a 2005 Crown vic p71 (police interceptor package). Got somewhat lucky on this one, it has the alumimum lower control arms, and 3.55 posi rearend. I'm going to use the entire frame and suspension, and make a major upgrade in handling and stiffness in one step.

[Sj_mr2]

[Sj_mr2]

Now if you've been paying attention, you'll know I was definitely in need of some floor pan structure as well, and well, I know the crown vic floor bolts to the crown vic frame...
sandblasted the rear section and epoxied it.

[Sj_mr2]

This is where I was slightly blown away by how close the cars really were. 30 some years apart and the floor pan from side to side was within 1/16 of an inch. front to back was virtually identical as well. I had a couple of pieces of satincoat metal bent up to serve as my new inner rockers and welded them to the crown vic sections and dropped it in place. as you can see even my donor needs minor rust repair

[Sj_mr2]

The trunk floor wouldn't work from the crown vic becuase the gas tank is underneath it on the torino and behind the axle on the crown. so I took a chance and bought a trunk floor meant for a chevelle, and surprise it fits almost PERFECTLY! At least clost enough that I can make it work. I'll need to add mounts for the frame and for the fuel tank, but it's better than starting from scratch.

[Sj_mr2]

[Angelo]

Damn. Aren't you the mad scientist. Cool car getting a new lease on life. Nice jig! Good call on all the sourcing you did to graft together a serious ride. Your right about posting here. This is the forum to see the skill of HOTRODDING at its best. Lots of mad skills being turned into rolling art.

[Sj_mr2]

Getting more of the floor positioned and repairing some of the torino inner structure. Everything is being mocked up with clecos and the frame will be bolted in place before welding to ensure nothing is out of alignment.

[Sj_mr2]

My rotisserie idea proved to work out just fine and got the chassis rolled into place for the first of many test fits. Mocked the fender up to see if the wheels will be centered in the openings, and everything looks great!

[Sj_mr2]

That's more of less where I stopped with the body for the winter. As you can see I'm working outside and in canada that really limits the amount of time I can work on the car. So to keep the ball going, I picked up this gem:

And much to the dismay of my wife, it promptly ended up in the house on a stand lol


It's a 2011 coyote motor sourced from an F-150. not much difference between it and it's mustang counterpart besides cams which will be easily upgraded and .5 lower compression, which I see as a good thing because I can only get 91 octane in this province.

[Sj_mr2]

The real nice part about using the coyote in this project is it will be almost plug and play. I'll be using the 4r75w from the police interceptor donor which will get rebuilt and converted to a full manual valve body and I'll run a ratchet shifter. That will allow me to keep the alumimum drive shaft and all the stock engine mounts. Since the crown vic was a mod motor as well, the stock motor mounts will bolt right up.

[Sj_mr2]

I just had to give the engine a touch of old school class to make it more at home in the torino:

I'm kind of looking for a boss 429 feel.