Random Picture off inter web.
Was thinking they should have gone for the GT Valence and no gas cap, but welded up license plate spot makes for clean look.
Bumper ends are funky.
The only thing to me that looks visually out of place is the tail panel with its outward shape. I really think the tail panel has to be concave or flat to make this look right. I had trouble with this also when visualizing different parts for the bumpers. The valance is a good idea as the stock II's look like a part was left off. And yes, the cap needs to be centered.
I got a whack of boxes of fibreglass today....hood, front and rear bumpers, front valence and spoiler.
Oh and a surprise coming up to make my hood scoop fitting easier...
sniper xflow good for 800 natural aspirated, 4x100 lb injectors lower profile than a carb (slightly) but a much smaller body so I can shift or offset the air cleaner for filter clearance!!!!
sniper xflow good for 800 natural aspirated, 4x100 lb injectors lower profile than a carb (slightly) but a much smaller body so I can shift or offset the air cleaner for filter clearance!!!!
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Yeah, I shopped around and read a lot of posts and asked a lot of people.
For a TBI set up Holley Sniper has everyone else beat.
They (Holley) bought this system off a guy who developed it years ago and sold it himself, I forget what it used to be called, but it had a really good rep then too, so it has years of history and working out the bugs even before Holley got it and threw a bunch of money at cleaning it up and making it professional.
I think the MSD system is what finally bankrupted MSD then Holley bought them...I read mostly bad reports on the MSD system.
FiTech seems to be maybe the next best to Holley, but they aren't really that much cheaper, so not really worth it. Plus Holley is a huge company, and any problems I have had in the past they stand up to it and make it right in my experience anyway.
Now if I could only find a Granada or Monarch to get the column out of..... so far no luck at any wreckers near me....
Put the sniper on, way more room to move air cleaner for clearance now. Never really liked the too small for performance air cleaner on Sudden Death, so I vowed to engineer mine to use a filter of sufficient size for airflow required. I'm assuming they must have removed their filter completely for races, because it wouldn't flow enough for a healthy 4 banger.
had to section and adjust the air cleaner base to offset forward and to the drivers side so I made a offset larger circle cut and spun the middle around to where the offset worked. Bunch of mathing was involved lol because I didn't want to have to add metal.
Mocked up and tacked at the offset. It looks like less in the pic, but have about 1/4" firewall drip lip to air cleaner clearance but it's the best I could get. I may have to massage the lip of the firewall or section the air cleaner step on the lid as there is a little more room than needed for the filter. I can either reduce the diameter all the way around, or just at the back where it's needed. Not sure yet. Engine should not move front to back, but I like as much clearance as I can get to save problems later.
underside. Lots more room without big float bowls. Edelbrock wasn't much better, plus they don't have a big enough carb. I needed 900 cfm based on engine volume at rpm for this engine.
had to section and adjust the air cleaner base to offset forward and to the drivers side so I made a offset larger circle cut and spun the middle around to where the offset worked. Bunch of mathing was involved lol because I didn't want to have to add metal.
Mocked up and tacked at the offset. It looks like less in the pic, but have about 1/4" firewall drip lip to air cleaner clearance but it's the best I could get. I may have to massage the lip of the firewall or section the air cleaner step on the lid as there is a little more room than needed for the filter. I can either reduce the diameter all the way around, or just at the back where it's needed. Not sure yet. Engine should not move front to back, but I like as much clearance as I can get to save problems later.
underside. Lots more room without big float bowls. Edelbrock wasn't much better, plus they don't have a big enough carb. I needed 900 cfm based on engine volume at rpm for this engine.
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Thank you sir! I don't think I am that good, but I'll take a compliment when I get one! lol.....
lol.... re: Dremel ...years of modelling I think helps (building them..not trying on clothes) the dremel on a curve is hard but every other method I have just removes too much material and I wanted the welding to be easier since its thin and I have to set my welder on the lowest setting (I still have to use a brass backer in some spots).
I still (maybe)have to make scoop smaller. I chopped down the length of it about 3 inches, not sure if I can trim down the height yet. Filter is still a tight fit believe it or not. Working on that math today and also whether I am having the filter located in the scoop with a seal on the base ala' L88, or regular filter on the base.
The main problem is still how far back the filter sits. The back upper corner of a 14x3" filter contacts the back of the scoop where it slants from the back up towards the top. So I am thinking of using an 11x3" filter with a k&N filter top in the scoop, and the l88 seal to the underside of the hood.
Or...
slide the scoop back a inch, it will overhang the cowl, but with the way these hinges work the hood lifts up as it opens so it wouldn't hit the cowl when opening, and the one inch overhang doesn't cover the cowl grille or anything so that could actually work too, and the added benefit of the more further back the scoop sits the better balance of the look of it. (big lump forward on hood looks weird compared to further back)
Experiments to follow..
The filter base looks pretty awesome! I do have a question about it though, and it's probably a bit trivial. Are you going to incorporate some sort of locator in order to install it in the intended location or just going to eyeball it every time? And I guess that would include the holding stud. That seems like an easier fix to me though. Cut some all-thread, make a small offset plate, and going that route would probably be easiest.
My vote would be for the K&N style filter lid. I'm not sure on any of the CFM requirements or math, but that may give you the option of using a shorter element and open some options.
And I like the idea of moving the scoop back and agree that it would help with the overall look on the car.
My vote would be for the K&N style filter lid. I'm not sure on any of the CFM requirements or math, but that may give you the option of using a shorter element and open some options.
And I like the idea of moving the scoop back and agree that it would help with the overall look on the car.
Decided to do the move the scoop back 3 " and clearance so it opens option. Fits a full on 14x3 filter, and room for a filter lid if I want as well. Set the rear glass bumper in place to see how it will look.
The sniper EFI looks like it will flow awesome! Now the only way to improve air flow is a salad bowl instead of the air cleaner
The hood scoop looks much more in proportion. I also think that at the moment the black on white contrast makes it worse than if it was the same color...
By the way: what color will the car be? sudden death gray?
The hood scoop looks much more in proportion. I also think that at the moment the black on white contrast makes it worse than if it was the same color...
By the way: what color will the car be? sudden death gray?
An impressive build all around. I vote move the scoop back.
Although. Don't get too mad at me for this. I think I saw a hood for our cars that incorporated the cowl panel into the hood. I am 80% sure it was for sale at a hot rod shop online. I don't have the fab skills so it was not my cup of tea. You on the other hand have mad fab skills....
May have been a one off build but they extended the hood and moved the hinges back. Memory tells me there were able to hide the wipers too.
Although. Don't get too mad at me for this. I think I saw a hood for our cars that incorporated the cowl panel into the hood. I am 80% sure it was for sale at a hot rod shop online. I don't have the fab skills so it was not my cup of tea. You on the other hand have mad fab skills....
May have been a one off build but they extended the hood and moved the hinges back. Memory tells me there were able to hide the wipers too.
Welcome to my long winded reply lol. Better get a coffee this might take a bit......
lol..no... I will never get mad at opinions or suggestions or help. It's all very welcome and I like to see and hear differing ideas. Even if they differ from my own as that's why I post on here after all. I'm not on here to grandstand my car build, but more or less for ideas and opinions and to share mine as well.
It's all an unknown and things change as it progresses. As you may have read, I started out with a shaker scoop and discovered there was no way for it to grab fresh air and flow enough with the filter options I needed and to fit the hood. Yes, I could have made it work without a filter, but I'm not willing to compromise efficiency of the engine. I want every hp available, and also filtered air is important for engine longevity.
I am not building a race car, otherwise I would have put a full chassis under it which is a hell of a lot easier. I have had and built some race cars and all out street cars, and then felt disappointed that I could not use them like I wanted. I gave up on trying to "catch the quickest car" mentality because I realized that was a battle no one wins for ever, and it is a race of cubic dollars.
I want to build something that looks as if it could be factory offered, so in that mindset trying to make mods look as unobtrusive as possible given the equipment I am trying to fit in. I want to get in it and drive a few hundred or more miles and not trailer it. I want to hit the freeway and row through the gears, take some corners and drive it like a car should be driven. If you walk up to it in a parking lot you might say, wow that thing has too big of a scoop for a 302, but otherwise you will think it is standard Mustang II. It's also why I wrestle with body mods.
There are things as mentioned in other posts that are inherently ugly on a MII..most cars do have styling deficiencies due to concessions with safety and manufacturing capabilities. We all are aware of the tweaks required to correct these deficiencies but it is either out of our skill range, too expensive, or not worth it to do. I would, if doing this build to correct styling shortfalls, change the location of the front crossmember, I would change out the tail pan and tail lights, I would change the headlights and grille and hood, markers etc. etc., BUT as I fought with doing those things I realized that I still want it to look factory stock as much as possible, or within stealthy limits anyway. After all, my build was to emulate to some extent Sudden Death. (As it turns out, by the time I finish this I might as well have bought Sudden Death, because I will be in deep on this build lol)
In the case of SD, it has the rear tires to give away it's underlying abilities. Mine will have a scoop. Although, I maintain my way to be more stealthy as people will just say, "what a stupid scoop for 140 hp" as opposed to wow that thing is back halved, must have some rear oats under there...
So to get to your comment...(whew finally you say) ..yes, I thought about that hood from Hairy Glass, and considered it because once painted it would be fairly stealthy, but by the time I realized I might need that space I had already put in a ton of hours on the firewall and cowl, and I didn't want to redo that work, and I didn't want a purely pin on hood, and hinges would be another engineering project. To answer your question or idea though, yes that would have made the scoop easier for sure, and it was a viable idea I considered.
On the scoop topic, having moved it back 3 inches over the cowl (just very roughly at this point) It will serve the purpose, and allow me to fit a 14x3 filter and I can still section the height a bit if I want, as there is about 1/2" clearance from the air cleaner lid to the scoop, but I haven't decided since I like a little clearance around things also. If it ends up a little large for the car, then so be it. It will be painted body color and lets face it , I need the room as I picked a pretty tall intake, and I want a big air filter. On a side note.. if I re engineer the carb base plate I may be able to gain another bit of drop as there is room left...but it may be at the expense of cowl modification, which is a "6 of 1, half dozen of another" proposition at this point, because I don't hate the look of the scoop as much as i thought I would, and cutting into the cowl would open up more work to finish to a sort of stock look.
Here is a pic looking into the scoop.I may add a grille of some sort into it, like a black egg crate mesh or something, not sure yet. Notice the air cleaner is offset, as is the engine. To gain the firewall clearance I could not also get enough sideways adjustment to centre it, so another reason for a large scoop.
Imagine all the air that thing will catch! I better make sure it is attached well...ulp..
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On topic of color I am still deciding. I can't do silver...SD already did it.., Black I like but I've done, and the upkeep is a lot of work and I have cats( another story involving a brand new black ZL-1 Camaro). So at this point in time I have basically come down to three choices. (my interior is black).
1) Stock 78 Mustang Polar White
2) 1969 Mustang Candy Apple Red
3) 1969 Mustang Gulf Stream Aqua
I don't know how to turn on the vote thingy in the post or maybe i could see what other peoples thoughts are...
If I had a red interior I would 100% go white paint, but I have deluxe vinyl black interior, and it is impossible to find a red interior in good shape. Red door panels and dash pad are the stumbling blocks..rest I can buy new..If I had nice white door panels I would do white door panels and seat upholstery with the Aqua as that is a nice combo as well, again the door panels are the stumbling block, but black works with aqua too as does the white with black guts.
I plan to maybe have made a decal of the same size and lettering style as the ones on Boss 429's, but instead it will say BAD BOSS. I liked the movie horrible bosses so fits that way too lol...I also was thinking of custom gauges with bad boss in them as well.. but these are all undecided right now.
Sorry for the article length post!!