Progress Thread 64.5 Coupe - Xsboost90's Build Thread

xsboost90

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Jun 25, 2013
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My first car was a 79 mustang and i loved it- learned alot about cars on that old hoopty. As much fun as that car was even then i thought- this isnt the mustang i want, i want a classic! Since then ive been through about thirty cars, some old GM iron, some fast imports, a truck with hydraulics, and alot of old porsches that i really got into for awhile there. Recently i sold off my last 944, sold off all of my spares and bought a 64.5 mustang off a friend of mine.

My buddy bought the car about ten years ago and drove it around- black on black, 289 in an original 260, five lug, a/c car with console. Originally the car was dark blue, but at some point was resprayed black. After a couple years he pulled the motor for something more potent and since then it sat until i swapped him $2500 for it and trailered it home. He included a couple 302's that he had collected and some new/old parts and a spare rear seat as well. No motor, no trans as he had sold them off. After my last old car restoration- 76 porsche 914 - http://forums.rennlist.com/rennforums/showthread.php?t=179254&referrerid=11788 - i decided that the next car i build ground up will be fully blasted to bare metal and done "overhaulin" style with modern components and a real motor. Heres my must have build sheet so far....

-Built 351- at machine shop-planning Eagle rods/JE pistons/Edelbrock head/manifold/cam kit/ 750 Holley/ Canton oil pan/ conservative 400 to the trans if not alittle more.
-T5z swap - have rebuild t5z, Lakewood bell housing, McCloud clutch, B&M short shifter...
-Fatman Fab McFierson style front end conversion- so far have everything to install it besides the actual kit from FF - late model spindles, hubs, rotors, PBR two piston calipers, fox body struts, escort rack and pinion
-TCI rear coilover setup -purchased!! 8.8 373 gear sn95 axel-posi/disc brakes
-upgraded interior with recaro seats, shelby rear hoop bar, aftermarket gauges with GPS speedometer, clutch pedals etc... - so far i have a new pedal set-brake/clutch-rebuilt ready to go, new door panels, set of sport BMW recaro leather seats that need alittle love and a parts list.
-wider wheels-17" hopefully 9"/10" - planning on rear wheel well replacement kit with frame rail section to accept wider rear wheels and with coilovers and struts in the front should be able to make the 9" wheels in front work. Not sure on wheels yet....
-paint- originally i wanted all black, everything! But im thinking of going more of a blue or cool mint green metallic or even gold (to throwback to my dads old gold 67) but not sure. I definitely want to smooth some things, drip rails, etc, and do some subtle mods like fitting the bumpers and maybe weld in the rear pan etc...I'll do my own paint and body work.

All of this gets quite expensive so it'll take some time to build and pay for since i have two daughters and we are trying to sell our house and buy a bigger one at some point. Currently i am collecting parts, piling them next to the car and working on my cousin's 67 coupe t5 swap to get my fix. I have pulled the interior and looked around the car and i have to say that this car is very un-rusty. I have one hole in the passenger side floor where your right foot would sit, about the size of a tennis ball, some slight rust in the drivers side lower strut tower about 1" and the ps rear quarter is rusted at the bottom- which i have a section to weld in there sitting next to the car. Now to trade/beg and work my way to get the funds to finish this thing. Stay tuned.
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http://danj944spec.wordpress.com/ - my 944 spec race car blog - starts at the end so you have to go to the beginning- raced for a year with spec944 and loved it but couldnt take not having a car to enjoy when i was not at the track. Hopefully this mustang will be an awesome street car to take the kids out in and will also be fun at the road course tracks i enjoy.
 
so i had a couple hours to kill after work today- busy with a three week old and a three year old- so i headed out to the garage and decided to start fitting my BMW sport seats into the car. I know these wont work with the seat braces installed so the first one to leave was the passenger side. Instead of drilling all of the spot welds, i used a cut off wheel and cut the brace off just next to each side. Then i used a hammer and "chisel" to pop the metal spot welded up and break the welds off. Not as bad as i would have thought, alittle grinding and welding and the floor will be all smooth. I set the passenger seat in and it sits in there pretty nicely. I am planning on bracing the floor where i cut the old panel out. Not sure precisely how but it will prob. involve 1/8" steel strips and some boxing to make the floor secure- i am also doing the frame ties under the car before it hits the road so dont worry about lost integrity of the chassis. I also dont want my seats floating around while im strapped in at the race track. Got my bottle of BMW leather seat dye today in the mail- guess i got the wrong stuff- Black/grey isnt the same as Black i guess. Oh well dont need to worry about that for awhile. Here is also a pic of my trans with the $25 ebay deal - B&M ripper shifter- next to my cousins t5 with his new hurst shifter- i like his better, but not $175 better.
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i did have to shorten the little arm on the side of the seat that you pull to flip the seat forward- just pulled it off, trimmed an inch, cut the bracket an inch- then hammered it back on- still close to the door but not touching.
 
cut the drivers side seat box out today. Looks like i over looked some rust in the drivers side floor board. There was a good 20" x 10" patch in the left side of the floor and then just under the gas pedal there was another 6" x 5" spot. Ordered a replacement patch panel for this area today and hopefully i dont find any more crappy patchwork like that in the car- i pulled the truck apart today and it all looks pretty nice. They put a full ps quarter on it at some point.
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So ive been researching rear ends for this car and its between the ole' 9" rear and the newer lighter 8.8 which is more available. Even so ive been having a tough time finding a cheaper choice for a tough rear end, posi and disc brakes. I started looking for fox body rear ends and i figured i would do an axel/gear/brake swap and be done. Last night i happened on a craigslist ad from 2 hours north of me in Columbus, a pawn shop selling a nice 8.8, five lug with disc brakes, complete with 373 gears- $450!! I emailed to see if they still had it and they did- offered $400 and they took it! So i drove two hours up to the place and figured well it'll be a piece of junk but i can use some of the parts. Turns out this thing has a nice posi clutch unit, gear oil looked brand new and the brakes besides alittle surface rust look great!Alittle wider than the stock rear end but with the right wheels it'll be great. More stuff to pile up next to the car....
 
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anyone know what rotors/calipers these are on this rear end? From the other parts they had laying next to it, i take it this rearend was in a mustang. What i didnt think about was that there doesnt appear to be any ebrake style stuff in there and the rotors are not vented- so even though i have a sweet gear, track loc and nice rear end with discs, these discs may suck....what are my options?
 
I'm guessing that rear is from an SN95 94 up Mustang which is a little wider than the fox version. Also a Fox rear end would have 4 lug hubs unless they had been changed previously. I think the center section is offset slightly on an Explorer and the mounts would be different.
 
yeah after looking around last night it looks like a 94-04 sn95 rear end- guess i just need to find the backing plates with the ebrake stuff.

- turns out the ebrakes are integrated into the calipers on these, so the cable goes to the caliper and pulls the piston out when engaged- easy! Just need some sn95 rear cables and couple other things and we'll be in business.
 
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Got my floor panel in the mail yesterday and got to do alittle work on it. I finished cutting out and grinding the rust and welds from the floor and then trimmed the new panel to fill the hole and overlap about half an inch. Then i drilled all around the edges to plug weld the holes, besides the rear edge that will be butt welded. Then i used some self etching weld thru primer on the areas that will overlap. Hopefully this weekend i can get out there and get the panel all welded in. Just need to make a corner piece by the gas pedal since the new panel doesnt quite cover up that far. Eventually the car will be blasted to bare metal and epoxy primered, then seam sealed up so i cant finish up my work yet...
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managed to weld in my ds floor today, and it fits pretty nicely! I have a few spots to touch up and after the car is blasted it will get POR15'd, seam sealed and spray lined inside and underneath. Not planning on doing this job again.
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cut out the passenger side rust hole in the floor and welded in my own little patch panel. Looks pretty mediocre but once its grinded down, sealed and then coated over you'll prob. never notice -especially under the carpet! Ran out of argon in the welder so no more welding holes up til next week. Cant wait to get this car blasted to bare metal.
 
spent some time out in the garage with my cousin helping last night. He worked on pulling the ebrake stuff and getting the rear end ready to pull while i was removing trim and bodywork. Got the front and rear windows out, managed to crack the windshield pulling the trim but i was planning on getting new glass anyway since this stuff is scratched and pitted up pretty good. Pulled the fenders, lower rocker trim which i think i will be leaving off, and got the deck lid and some headliner pieces out. Found some big supports welded into the roof above the headliner for the seat belts that were in there- they have to be aftermarket- but makes me feel better about mounting a third point belt in there.
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got my torque boxes in the mail today and decided i would try to fit one in there. Wow, pain the butt but i managed to get the passenger side to slide up in there- now to get the area all cleaned up and primered before i weld anything in permanent. I may just wait until the car is sandblasted before i even do that. Had to bend a large tab on the frame rail down, trim the top of the box that is supposed to weld into the floor board off, and notch a couple spots, but it fits up in there with a hammer tight. Should help this old girl a bunch. Pics maybe tomorrow....
 
so ive been collecting parts to build my own rotisserie, and the other day i got together all of the steel i needed from a local scrap/steel place. Ive ordered one heavy duty engine stand- two outward legs instead of the one in the center 1250lb- and i have one already rated 1000lb - which i have cut the head off of and made 10" taller and took the rake out of it to make the pivot almost level. I boxed in the stand with some equal gauge steel that was just a tiny bit wider and slid right over the exhisting 1.5"x3" box tubes, welded it and then slid another piece over the other side of the box and welded that as well. My mount is made of a piece of heavy I beam that was the perfect width and i used some heavy 1.5-2" L channel to mount to the bumper bolt holes in the frame, then they are bent 90 degrees and welded, then welded to the I beam which is pressed tightly up against the front of the frame rails. Then a very heavy piece of large box steel prob. 3" x 6" or so, is welded onto the top center of the I beam, drilled so that my engine mount head will bolt to it using the original bolts for the engine mount, and then i welded some box tube angle braces to that just in case- you never know. Tonite i lifted the whole car up on the jack stands, slid the engine stand onto the front brace and let it down- seems to hold it no problems. When the rear engine stand shows up Tuesday, i should have the rear mount done and just have to modify that stand to finish. I will prob. make some bracing to widen the bottom of the stands to make then alittle more stable, but i'll do that after i see how much room i have and materials left over. Im hoping i can flip the car on its side to clean the bottom, finish weld and install the torque boxes as well as fixing the rest of the patches and body work. Building this in my garage however which is very low ceiling, the car will be only about an inch from the legs on the engine stands and maybe two inches from the ceiling when its turned sideways- if my calculations are correct...fingers crossed.
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well as impatient as i am, i decided today after making the rear support for the rotisserie, to just go ahead and make my own stand instead of waiting for the new engine stand to arrive. I had a real heavy duty cart that ive actually had cars on before sitting here, so i welded a big piece of box tube to it, then welded an extra brace to the bottom and then welded a big U channel upright to that. Then using a 351 balancer i bolted to the U channel, i put a heavy piece of tube through the middle of the balancer and welded it to another channel. This was welded to the brace on the car and triangulated to keep it from bending. Since the rear support is not straight up and down, i left some play in the pivot and it allows it to move alittle as i rotate the car around so it doesnt bind. If it was super heavy i would worry more but this car stripped out is pretty light. I did some last minute bracing of my rear stand to keep it from rocking side to side- just in case- with some tubing i had, but it should be pretty sturdy. I do think i need to add some wider braces to the bottom of each end to keep it from tipping, although i have flipped the car up on its side and back down a couple times and it didnt budge. I have it on its side now, and used some stands to hold it from spinning down- if i pin the stand it twists on the top of the stand and i didnt want that. Its not perfectly balanced but i can tilt it myself pretty easily-not bad for a homemade deal. I did have to pull the rear end out to get it to tilt up, which involved some saws all action and some grinders to get the springs loose. The pics of the rear stand make it look pretty hoaky- but i assure you it is over done, very heavy duty and welded very well....just not pretty.

Anyone need a rear end-8" - and an entire front suspension- all drums- five lug- this stuff all needs to go.
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had a couple people over last night to help. Got a bunch of undercoating off, removed the fuel lines and tank- which look like toast inside- and welded the bottoms of some of the floor patches. Makes things much easier on its side.
 
another night out in the garage, made some more good progress. I got the torch out and heated up some more undercoating in the wheel wells- toast this stuff for a minute and it comes off with little to no effort! Then i flipped the car back right side up and my cousin started removing interior pieces, rear glass, trim, and basically the only thing left in the dash now - or the whole car for that matter- is the brake pedal, column and wiper motor. I spent alot of time scraping seam sealer out, getting the car ready for the sand blast guy and found the vin numbers stamped on the front end panels under the sealer crap. Then I got a wild hare and cut the drivers side drip rail off and welded the seam up. Tons of work but i think once its all ground smooth it will look awesome. Now to do the other side....weld up the rest of my holes in my floor, fix some small rust issues in the rear, etc. etc....
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