TwinTorino

[WILWAXU]

Outstanding work! Car looks great.

[modular93fox]

wow, cars like this give others like myself inspiration... nice job so far..(little understatement..) are you gona stick an eaton ontop of the 32v motor?

[PhillipM]

Hey guys these builds are looking super sweet!! Nice work and keep it coming!

[SVTforme]

Time for a couple more updates..

We started to lay out all of the wiring in the car as that stage is quickly appreaching. There is a lot more room to put everything in here compared to the original Mustang that it came off of. The big challenge here is going to be making room for everything once the HVAC is installed and in position. The computer processor, fuse panels, and lots of other items that wer never on the original Torino need to find home too. The Mach 1 cluster and all the wiring connectors will stay until the car is started for the first time.. and then everything will go on a diet. Al the wiring and connectors that are not needed will be cut out. The parts that remain as original Torino parts (very few pieces like the steering column and various lights) will be spliced in also.




Got started on some of the smaller details of the project. In this case, the door locks. Every once and a while you are really surprised that something works for a change. In this case it was with the door locks. Believe it or not, a lock cylinder from a 2003 Mustang actually fits exactly into the stamped hole in the body of a 1968 Torino. It fits exactly with no mofifications - retainer clip and all. A custom rod is needed to connect it to the door latch - but that is to be expected. I ended up making a quick one with a welding rod, and the key now locks and unlocks the door.. kinda neat. Note that the lock is actually black - for some reason 2004 Mustangs are polished as we found out. Black will eventually be removed. Only one issue here - Mustangs do not have a lock cylinder on the pass side, and Torinos do. As luck would have it - a local Ford dealer was selling off excess stock this week on Ebay, and one of the parts they had was replacement Mustang lock sets. These come with 5 bags of key tumblers, and you simply select the tumblers to match the key you have, and then you assemble and install. This adds a cylinder to the pass side with ease.

[SVTforme]

Finally got the last of the firewall out.. had to remove the upper lip that ties into the cowl (gets rid of the 1" or so overhang too which is good). Kinda doing the opposite to what most people do when they remove the cowl panel . Actually got a chance to put the stretcher shrinker to work since the upper lip of the firewall is curved. Have the drivers side almost ready to weld to the firewall.. just have to work on the pass side.



There is and end in sight with the firewall mods. Almost getting ready to weld everything together and then weld it into the car. Once it is done it will be great as everything will bolt right in. Not sure what it would have looked like if we kept the original on there. Once everything is painted black should blend much better. Just need to extend the pass side floorpan and the fab work will be done for here. Rather than double up the material near the torque box like the stock setup, we figured we would just use them as is. Save a bit of material and make the process easier.

[SVTforme]

In the meantime - it was time to get going on the steering since this was somewhat of an unknown. The steering will be a cross between a 1968 column and 2004 Mustang. The column needs to be shortened to clear the pedels like on a Mustang, and also to line up with the rest of the system correctly and clear the headers. Beleive it or the column shaft on both are exactly the same. They use a 3/4 double d spec. This way it will require very little mods to get the universal joint to work with it. We will also use the steady bearing at the end like a Mustang. Just need to fab up a collar. I sacraficed the stock column shoft for now.. as I will eventually be using a floor shift column.




Found a home for the cruise control module behind the front wheel and inside the fender.



Getting ready to get the shock towers in too. Have all the suspension and tools needed now, so this will start shortly. Too bad 315's won't fit on the front of the car . Need to find the exact position of the upper mount. To do this we will be building a jig off the front clip we have.

[SVTforme]

Next onto the driveshaft. Believe it or not, a Crown Vic aluminum driveshaft is the perfect length for our setup. Just had to swap out the slip yoke as the T56 uses the only 27 spline shaft in Ford's trans lineup (since it is a GM based trans). Has just enough clearance to the tunnel as well. Now that it is in.. time to get the tunnel made up. We have the rough shape made up.. just need to get it made out of sheetmetal. Note the difference in length from the Mustang one.

[SVTforme]

Slight change in powertrain plans here.. have had one of these engines for a while now, and recently found a second one (both used of course). Could not pass up the deal on them. They are 4.6L 2V engines that use an Eaton M90 supercharger and were designed for use in a 2001-2004 Roush Stage 3 Mustang. Both setups are missing some parts and will require some custom fab to make fit.. but nothing too major. Should be good for over 400hp/400ftlb of torque and will still get great gas mileage (when not under boost at least). The rest of the powertrain is good for 500ish hp so we should be OK there. Two main concerns with this were hood clearance and alternator clearance to framerail. After mocking things up both seem within reason, so I think we are going ahead with it. They will add a bit of weight to the car which is not overly desirable.. but what can you do. The Mach motors will go on the shelf until the next project or sold to offset the cost of these engines. I'll let the pictures tell the rest of the story...

[wellis77]

Curious where you found an 18x10.5 FR500? I've only seen them in 10" widths, except for the 17x10.5. Thanks.

You cars are looking great by the way. I'm looking forward to seeing the finished products.

[SVTforme]

Curious where you found an 18x10.5 FR500? I've only seen them in 10" widths, except for the 17x10.5. Thanks.

You can get the 18x10.5's, but you can only get them for a 2005+ Mustang. Beleive it or not, the Torino has a narrower track width than a 1999-2004 Mustang, so we needed a larger offset to make the wheels fit correctly on the car and to lower it to where wanted it to sit.

[wellis77]

The narrower track width makes sense why the difference in the 04-08 & 05+. Where did you pick yours up? I've looked some today and have been looking extensively over the last few months and haven't seen them.

[jackfrost]

this is such a great project. reminds me a lot of the SN65 project. nice work so far.

[SVTforme]

The narrower track width makes sense why the difference in the 04-08 & 05+. Where did you pick yours up? I've looked some today and have been looking extensively over the last few months and haven't seen them.

Check with Stage 3 Motorsports - they should have them.

2005+ Mustangs have brakes/hubs/spindles that sit further outboard than the 2004 and before. The track is very similar which makes the backspacing/offset different between the two generations of Mustangs.

this is such a great project. reminds me a lot of the SN65 project. nice work so far.

Thanks! SN65 definitely set the stage for those to come.

[SVTforme]

Couple more updates. Almost have the firewall ready to go in. Worked on getting the wiring pass throughs sorted out and the drivers side piece is now ready to weld to the center portion. Made up some simple carbboard templates to cut out the holes for the Mustang wiring harnesses. Worked great and was very fast. Note sure what I would have done otherwise. Rolled a couple of beads on the part and also step flanged the ends so everything will look flush from underhood after it is welded.

[mc84_zz4]

Wow, what an awesome project!

[Trukcrazy]

All I can say guys is this is an unbelievable effort and the results are much more than impressive. This is what I was talking about in my introduction thread. I have always wanted another 68 Torino GT coupe and your work on these cars is just incredible and the information is almost priceless. I just read through this whole thread and am now looking at your website. Incredible.

[ProMav71]

Love the build guys. I'm doing basically the same thing except with my Maverick. I decided to get all the wiring minus the body harness for my 98 Cobra engine setup. I also got the pedals, gauge cluster, etc. I also plan on using the a/c. So as far as the wiring goes most of the stuff will be plug and play. The harnesses will need to go on a diet though. Keep up the work I'm following the build closely!

[WS6]

Can't wait for more updates. I love this build.

[HectorM52]

Subscribed. Awesome build.

[SVTforme]

A couple more updates..

A month or two ago we kinda ran into an interesting once in a lifetime situation and had to act fast. Been talking to a Torino guy on and off for several years now trying to find some parts. Just looking for a couple of odds and ends, nothing major though. The other day I got a call and the same guy asked if I was still interested in parts. I said sure and listed off the parts I was looking to get to finish up our projects.

Long story made short, he was moving out of the country with very little notice (moving within the week) and had to get rid of everything he had fast. I thought OK.. here is a good way to get some good parts to finish the car with and go from there. He said he had a lot of parts and could not list everything. I thought sure.. you have some parts.. but everyone says they have a lot of parts. I struck a deal on everything sight unseen. Little did we know what was to come...

Couple of conditions - we only had a couple days to pick up everything (required several long road trips), we had to take everything (and I mean everything), and we had to take a spare car with the deal (which just happens to be in the form of a 1969 Torino GT FB 351 4-speed car). We have more parts now than we know what to do with. Came with enough parts to almost complete the '69 and likely finish several other cars. Not sure what to do with the '69 yet, but it may become the next car to follow the TwinTorino project as I have plans for future cars. I'll let the pictures tell the rest.. and they only show a portion of what was there. Tons of sheetmetal, tons of NOS parts, etc, etc, etc. I am still sitting here pinching myself on this one.