TwinTorino

[rtwind02]

Glad to see some Torinos hitting the pro-tour route!

[Fl Buick]

As a noobie to the fabrication world verse restoration I'm blown AWAY!

[SVTforme]

Finally.. had lots more time lately to get things done. Summer will be here in no time.

Firewall is now welded in for good, as are the front floor pans. Just need to final weld everything and also get the trans tunnel welded in. Plasma cut out some speaker holes and made up some patch panels. We got fed up with lack of access to the upper transmission bolts, so we made access holes through the firewall to get at them. Should make life easier.

Hydraboost fits like a glove. Need to run the lines to the power steering pump, steering rack and cooler next. Also need to get the pedal box to mate up with the Torino dash. We'll be driving the car in no time..

[icebird84]

looking good

[73lt4]

Good Job! Impressed with your skills!

[SVTforme]

While everyone else was watching football, we were hanging out in the garage. Got the trans tunnel tacked in - once the carpet comes this week - we will finalize the hump and weld it in. This was by far the most annoying piece to make fit since it was constrained tightly on all sides. In the end it fit up nicely to the Mustang firewall and stock Torino floorpans. Just need to final weld everything and the floors will be all set.

Also started to get the pedals and the steering under control. We ended up taking an auto pedal assembly and cutting most of it away (except for the part that bolts to the steering column, and bridged the gap between the two. Once we are finished welding this up - it will hopefully look like it came that way. Steering column will have a u-joint under the dash (similar to new cars) and we will make up a bearing assembly to keep it concentric to the outer tube.

[chunger]

It took me a few times scrolling back and forth to even see what you did. Once I spotted it, of course it look factory!

What are you doing for the carpet - I'm guessing that a stock Torino carpet is not going to clear your trans tunnel?

[SVTforme]

You are in luck.. found out this eve when the carpet came in today. The Torino actually had a rather high 4-speed shift hump, so we just need to capture it under this area. So far seems to fit like a glove.

We wanted to get the actual carpet in before finalizing shifter hump position. At least from now on in are uphill. Carpet is made by Trim Parts and seems to fit OK so far.

[chunger]

I thought that Trim Parts only made parts for GM and Mopars?

The carpet looks great and it seems that your shifter hump is fairly comparable to the huge factory 4-speed one. I've got two of the originals here and they still surprise me by how large they are.

No matter, are you going to coat the floor with some sound deadener under the carpet when it's done?

It's gotta feel pretty good about getting this far on the project!

[SVTforme]

I was not aware of that either until I shopped around a bit.

Got lucky with the size of the hump, and even with the shifter location as it lands in the perfect spot.

Definitely putting sound deadener under the carpet, so my ears won't be ringing after a long trip.

There is now an end in sight .

[SVTforme]

Finally.. lots of free time to work away at things. Made up a shifter hump to conform to the carpet and clear the reverse lock-out solenoid on the transmission. Almost ready to cut the floor away and weld in. After that, floor fab is done and only needs to be final welded.

Found someone on Ebay selling oil thermostats cheap on Ebay so I grabbed a pair of them. These models are actually for a Lotus, but work fine with the Torino since it is set up for an oil filter with a 3/4-16 thread. You simply remove the oil filter and stack this on top and put the oil filter back on. Since we are running an external oil cooler, this is a must in order to let the oil in the engine get up to the proper temperature (same as a thermostat in the cooling system).

Moving onto the steering system, we found the necessary parts to make it work. The "trial" steering column was cut down considerably and a bracket was welded onto the end to accept a flange bearing. The inner shaft is then cut down to mate with the intermediate steering shaft. This shaft then connects to the lower shaft, which then connects to the rack. The steering colum has to be cut back so far to clear the brake pedal. This also reduces all of the u-joint angles. Believe it or not, these shafts are from a 2004 Lincoln Navigator ($20 on Ebay). The connection on the steering rack is a custom Ford only one, so this limited the choices to a Ford vehicle. Alternatively companies like Borgeson make the parts needed to put together all the shafts, but they are not cheap. Mustang ones will not work since the suspension is further forward. The firewall bearing is from a Mustang. For the first time in years - the Torino can once again be steered using the steering wheel.

[chunger]

Craig,

2 questions: (1) what is that third port on the back of the oil thermostat fitting - the one that's clearly not for the lines to connect - is it a fitting for a temp probe?

(2) When you cut the column down, did you install a bearing on the end to support the steering shaft? It appears you may have, but how is is attached the column? I think I see a flange plate you fabbed up with some studs to mount the bearing to, but was the inner tube a concern? Also, there's really 2 hollow tubes isn't there? Did you just weld it all together?

[torino420]

Amazing work as usual Craig!

[Dalamar]

nice work Craig!

[TARAfied]

I'm new to the site and have been reading all the project threads. I gotta say this is one of the coolest cars I could imagine! Awesome skills and great vision.

[SVTforme]

Over the weekend managed to wrap up the shifter hump which is now ready to weld in. Surprisingly the shifter lands right where it is supposed to. We put the Sparco seat with all the pedals and steering wheel in position and everything feels great. Should be fun to drive (and comfortable).

With the steering all hooked up, we were able to steer the front wheels for the first time - another big hurdle out of the way. There is absolutely no play in the steering which is a big change from before. Now just need to modify the good steering column and get it ready to go in for good. Only thing left to do on the column is make up an adapter harness to plug into the newer Mustang electronics.

Moved onto getting the trans permanently mounted in the car. We are just going to weld two brackets to the floor (still need to be trimmed down), and use J-clips to retain the trans mount to the brackets (similar to a base Mustang). With the subframe connectors in place and the seat supports, the floor is now very stiff. Keeps things simple and helps keep the weight down.

With the trans now in position, everything clears the trans tunnel, including the Police package Crown Vic driveshaft, which is the perfect length.
Now onto the fuel and brake system.

[asifnyc]

love this build. very very cool. and I like the bullitt pedal pads. I used them on my Javelin

[SVTforme]

Can't go wrong with those pedals!

Made some more headway this eve.. trans mounts - check. Had to make up a 1/2 aluminum spacer to be able to get j-nuts under the mounts. The crossmember is from a 2004 Cobra with T56.

[chunger]

Craig - great, simple solution to what could have been a very complex problem. It's uncanny how easy you got the crossmember to fit. Much more compact that the stock one. Did you just fab up the body mounts to "get it close" and then decide to use the spacer to set the driveshaft angle?

Very nice!

[SVTforme]

To be honest - I am not really fond of any aftermarket crossmembers out there - plus we are also trying to keep this on a budget where possible. Since we cut the original trans mounts off and integrated them into the subframe connectors, that ruled out using anything original. The Cobra T56 mount was $5 on Ebay and the rest of the mounts was made up from a left-over 2x3 from the subframe connectors.

The trans is in a fixed position based on the engine angle. If we didn't put the spacer there, there wouldn't be enough height to get the bracket in there as well as the retainer nuts. Otherwise we would have had to cut through the floors and run the nuts inside the of the car.