1969 Sportsroof Build

[mts23]

Not a lot going on this week; went to Carlisle to look for parts. Most people with Mustang parts said the '69 stuff went the first day. I missed out on a $5 hood from a '70 model and passed on what was labeled a Griggs torque arm (It didn't appear to be as robust as I would have expected). I also met with the guys who will most likely be building my back half, once I finish the design.

I'll be preparing for an upcoming work trip for the next couple of weeks and am collecting parts to continue the frame building and suspension install when I get back. I've picked up a couple of 11 inch wheels (cobra R knock-offs) and a set of 315s; I figure having them on hand will come in handy once I start measuring and designing the rear frame and suspension. I've got an 8.8 mocked up and a bunch of different suspension parts and hope to get back on this project in about 6 or 7 weeks when I return.

I've decided to rebuild the original 351W while I have downtime on the frame and suspension. I had a heck of a time getting the intake off. I unbolted it and hit it with a rubber mallet a couple of times with no luck. Tried to pry it off, didn't budge. Tried lifting it off with the engine hoist...no dice. I soaked the edges in WD-40, Marvel Mystery and some gasket solvent, left the engine lifted by the intake and repeated the aforementioned methods the next day and still had an engine with an intake attached. I finally used a chisel in the pneumatic hammer and it came free in a matter of seconds. The oil didn't appear to have any metal in it, the cylinder walls look good; I should have the rest of engine dissembled for inspection this weekend.



Got my Z06 front leaf spring this week, too. I'm too cheap for coil overs at this time.



I'm hoping to get the shocks soon to mock up and maybe finalize the upper control arm / shock mounts before I have to travel. If I can finish the front suspension, I can drop the engine in between the rails and work out the header and steering while I'm traveling. I'm going to need to use a stock C5 rack or start learning about Ackermann geometry...

Thanks for looking,
Michael

[DrFraZZy]

You will have a better luck collecting mustang parts on Ford Carlisle on June 2-4th weekend.

[Bossed]

Love your project, looking forward to seeing your progress.

[Zoomin]

I Coke spewed when I saw "some sort of floating leaf spring relocation modification". It's pretty cool the way your mods would have sent a lot of the stang in the dumpster anyway.

Very cool project.

[mts23]

DrFraZZy, thanks for the tip; unfortunately I'll be out of the area at the time. I was able to make a contact for some fenders and a doorskin at the meet last weekend. I really wanted to go to the Ford event, maybe next year.

Glad you like it Bossed, wont be much progress for the next couple of months while I'm traveling, but I will be back at it full steam ahead when I return and hope to get the frame and body connected before the end of summer.

Zoomin, when I got the car sight unseen I knew it was going to be a disaster. When I was taking stock of all the bad stuff, I realized that I wasn't going to need any of it, since all I wanted was a ratty body that I could build a chassis for, I could just laugh at all the stupid stuff that had happened to this poor car from sitting for years. In the end it's easier to cut out half a trunk pan than the entire pan. This car even had the Maytag special pop riveted in extra light weight passengers floor pan/ refrigerator door skin mod.

If it wasn't for this site and the grassroots motorsports site I would never think about tackling such an undertaking.

Thanks,

Michael

[nelzturingwagin]

Daunting task, but it looks like you are up to it. I am just getting back to a project I let stal for a few years. It's hard to keep the things rolling with a family and everything else going on.

[jaybee]

I love your project. I get the concept of starting with a project as complete as possible...times 10 when you're paying a shop to do the work.

When you're using your own time, however, and the journey is a big part of the fun for you home builders are the last chance to save cars destined for the crusher. I know more than one person whose main interest isn't in having cars, but in building them.

[mts23]

Scored a C5 steering rack and finally unpackaged a swaybar thats been sitting in a corner for a couple of months.
Mocking up the front suspension to determine the best way to mount the upper control arms.




Mounting plates for the upper control arms

[mts23]

Back from deployment and I have a few weeks to get some work done to the car before I go back out again.

Got the inner rockers ground down to bare metal and covered in weld through primer, getting ready to weld on plates for the frame outriggers to attach to. There are a few holes in the driver side inner rocker that will get patched later (if I don't cut a full length panel to cover or replace the entire inner rocker).

I'm using the Eastwood weld-thru primer and have no experience with it, so I'll see how it goes.

The inside of the rockers have been sandblasted to clean metal clean and sprayed with
Eastwood internal frame coating. I'll be inspecting with a scope later on to check/verify full coverage.

I'm hoping to get the car rolling again (It had so much frame/floor/suspension damage) that is wasn't much of a roller when I received it) by October. I got rid of the front suspension/apron and upon inspection discovered the apron rails stamped with a different number from the VIN and the front radiator support stamped with yet a different number.

I still need to plan out the rear suspension; I haven't decided what I'm going to use yet. I was thinking a 8.8 w/torque arm, but I may go 4-link w/ Watts with either 8.8 or 9 inch or pull a Ford IRS from on of the local pick and pulls.

Thanks for looking,

Michael

[Sebambam]

Real cool

[chafin]

If you need anything for your build, from brackets cut or parts, let me know. I own BC Chassis & Fabrication in Fredericksburg, Va. We also offer military and uniformed service discounts. Great build btw! We're finishing up a 67 Mustang right now and have a few more protouring builds going on

[tterbo]

I like how your project is going and enjoyed reading what you have written so far. I am getting ready to do a C5 front suspension on my build as well and was going to just fab the frame rails from 2" x 4" tube sectioned and welded. After seeing your rails from Art Morrison I might just go that route too. Good luck on your build, I will be following...

[JayinMI]

Soooo...what was the deal with the title that you said you'd tell us about later?

[mts23]

Being a resident of Virginia, getting a car with a clean title is an absolute necessity; a car can't be titled in VA without a title. I bought the car mainly because it was advertised as having a clean title and was the absolute cheapest 1969 Sportsroof Mustang I could find advertised with a clean title. The delivery happened in a Target parking lot because the delivery company would not attempt to deliver on my street. I had to get a tow dolly to get it to my house from the parking lot; it was dark by the time I got it home, so I didn't get to do much inspection.

The next morning, I received the title in the mail; it matched the VIN in the advertisement. I set about cleaning the car and low and behold the VIN on the dash (this was the first thing I went to check on after having title in hand) did not match.

It turned out the guy I got the car from had got it in a trade from some salvage yard guys who had a bunch of Mustangs and they gave the seller the wrong title. These guys didn't want to look for a title, and basically told the seller he was out of luck. Using an old registration I found in the car, I traced the car to it's last place of registration and found the person who had sold the car to salvage yard. The title was registered to his deceased father and there was nothing in his state that would allow the transfer of the title without it being in a will. This guy refused to look for a title, but claimed to have several white 1969 and '70 Sportsroof cars with titles if I wanted to buy one. After about 5 or 6 months the guy I bought the car from finally applied for a title in the state he was in; it took a couple of months to get the title after the application process. He did come through in the end and I was very relieved.

This entire time, I refused to work on the car, seeing as how I didn't have a title and it could have been reported by anyone of the people in the chain as stolen. I was not going to put any time or effort into the car without it legitimately/legally being my car. So unfortunately the car sat idle in my garage for 7 or 8 months without any work being performed. I don't have a lot of spare time to devote to the car at the time and was hoping to have the car setup as a full frame roller by now, but am at least half a year off my original schedule.

[JayinMI]

I've had that happen to me. I won a '67 VW Bug on eBay. Listed as "original paint, never wrecked, uncle who owned the car was a mechanic, clean title, etc." Won the auction. Rented a truck and borrowed a trailer (that I had to rewire the lights on before we could use it.) and drove from Michigan to Southwest Kentucky. The lady who was selling the car lived in VA. It was her aunt's car and she was handling the estate. She told me the lawyer would meet me with the keys and title. Arrive to find the car did in fact have original paint (under a very bad paint job that I could chip off with my thumbnail.), it had been asspacked hard in the rear (on '67 bugs, the rear bumper overriders and deck lid are one year only, as are several of the engine components) and someone had used a stick welder to put a '62 rear clip on it as well as engine. When I asked the lawyer for the title he looked perplexed. He didn't have it. Turned out it was her uncle's car, and it had never officially been transferred to her aunt when he died 10 years before. It was a small town and everyone just knew who the car belonged to and never worried about it. I should have left it there, but she already had my deposit, I'd paid for the truck and drove several hundred miles so I figure WTH. Took 3 months to get the title. smh...funny story after that, I ended up shortening the pan for a dune buggy body I was given. I sold it when I moved out of my old house and the guy I told it to got a copy of the title with it. He sold it later and had never transferred the title to his name and the people he sold it to finished their buggy and wanted to register it. I was a nice guy and got a quick title (Available in MI for $22 same day) and sent it to him. I told him $30 to cover my time.

Jay

[mts23]

No sooner did I get the inner rockers ground to bare metal and primed, I had to go away for work again. I'm back and at it once again.
I'll be tack welding the mounting plates, outriggers, and frame rails together making sure everything is square and level. I'm hoping to have the front frame section all tacked in before my next trip in a couple of weeks, so I'll be ready to start on installing the back half when I return.

This is an old picture, but I intend on attaching the frame to the body this way


...I don't really have any clue what I am doing, but I figure mounting like this in three places along each of the rockers should be sufficient to install the front frame rails and then install the back half cross member at the area where the floor pan bent upward at the rear seat.

If anyone has any suggestions, I am open to them.

[chiva]

You're an inspiration!! Keep it up.

[813Demon340]

Very cool build, I look forward to seeing this one come along. Congrats on defunkafying that interior! Keep up the great work.

[lilian]

any updates on this one ? thanks