Progress Thread HeHateMe gets bent

He Hates Peanut Butter Falcons.

I think I'd hit my head.. Er beak on the roll cage getting in wearing thst much awesome.

It's a few days early, but celebrated 51 last night. WHY DO I DO THIS TO MYSELF??



At 45 I would just sleep and wake up with a headache. At 51 I sleep until about 1:30 and can't really go back to sleep.
But now I am up and waiting on my brother to drag his ass out of bed and get over here.

I want to get his help designing my altered shock towers. He wants to make a tipover jig for the car. Maybe if he gets here early enough we can do both.
I'm 'off' from work for 2 weeks. Which means, I'll have to go in at least of couple of time for a couple of hours. So I should have some time to work on the PBF. One hang up is my wife works for UHC from home and her desk is right next to the garage. So, I probably can be cutting and grinding when she is going to be on the phone.

Now, where's the bottle of ibuprofen.

I'll tell you how we got here later.

7991LXnSHO said:

They are well ventilated. Is that for spark plug and header bolt access?

Click to expand...

The shock towers are cut out to make way for the Fox/SN 95 strut suspension. Those will be filled in with 12 gauge sheet metal. No today's progress was making new strut tower top mounts that are 2" higher to get the ride height and strut stroke to jive.

No worries. So today, my brother Jimmy came over. We did a bunch of mockup with the strut with and without the spring on it. The SN95 strut has about 6.5" of strut travel. We measure and at a good ride height, the strut only had about 2.75" of compression travel. We decided that if we could get the strut to the neighborhood of 3.5" to 4" of compression travel, that would be good.

The decision was made to cut out the strut tower top, make a new one and space it up about 2". We made the top pieces exact duplicates of each other by cutting them out, drilling the holes, then clamping them together, with holes lined up and the used a flap wheel to grind them exactly identical.

Then we proceed to mock up the strut tower top. This was some tacking in place and cutting apart to get it right. Then gently persuading the original metal to conform to the new metal with a 3 lb mechanic's hammer. The metal quickly saw the light and jumped into place. My brother was handicapped by having to use my 110v FC-90 Century flux core welder. It took him a few minutes, but he found the sweet spot on the settings.

Tomorrow, we have to make a filler piece for that gap between the top and the fender apron. I think we are going to make a tip over jig. If that doesn't take too terribly long, and I can weld in some temp braces in the car, we may roll it on it's side and add some more weld beads from underneath. Jimmy wants to add some more weld at the seams to just even them out more. We're also looking at ways to add back an export brace and a Monte Carlo bar.

Big props to my brother for spending a weekend welding my up! I'll probably go in and add a little more weld on the towers and smooth them out. I'm going to probably cut the shock towers back a little more. Final plan will have filler piece going down to the frame rail and be stitch welded to it and welded to the small flange as well. It will come up and wrap onto the new part of the shock mount to add strength.

Speaking of strength, I said I wanted to keep these outer bolt in panels for strength. I have to remove the bump stop and carefully choose the front wheel back spacing to make it happen.



Good thing. With them out, the fender aprons bend very noticeably. With them out, you can't detect any bending. I am sure that there is, so there will be some kind of export brace made to triangulate the firewall to the towers. Also, probably on the outside of the fenders, we will bend up a 1 1/2" or 1 3/4" tube to be welded to the firewall, the go along the fender apron, to the front side of the shock tower and tie down to the frame to brace it all up.

I believe the added height will work fine. With the coil overs still all the way down, the car was very very low. The control arms pointed up by over an inch at the ball joints. Since we raised the mount approximately 2 inches, we raised the spring perch 2 inches. 2 simulate over 500lbs of engine/transmission, two fatass brothers stood on the front. Sitting static, there was about 4.5 inches of compression travel. With both of us standing on it, there was still almost 3 inches of compression. So I think we're good. If need be, I can gain a little more than an inch by going to a Fox strut...and I may eventually do that. I think with a front tire between 25 and 26 inches tall, it will be ok.

I replaced the bolts on the MM caster camber mounting plate with longer grade 8 bolts. This was to accommodate the future export brace creation and make sure the bolts are up to the take of holding this shiznit in. I picked up some 1/4" square stock and we used that to fill the gaps at the fender apron. It was much easier than trying to either fill in with weld or weld a tiny strip in.

We then got the k member drilled in. I probably eventually will put a bead of weld at the front and back of it, just to make sure it doesn't move since there are only 2 bolts on each side holding. The K member is centered and square, but somehow my brother missed the layout on the driver's side and the bolts are about 1/8' farther out. I'll have to grind the washers flat on one edge.

I guess my next move this week, which can be accomplished pretty quietly, will be to strip the firewall, much to @CarMichael Angelo pleasure. Then strip the entire engine bay and paint it black.

Well, of course he didn't get presents. But I did. To work on him. I got a 36mm socket for the hub bearings. I got a new dead blow hammer since my 20 year old one just started disintegrating. I got a cheap body hammer and dolly set. I started mechanicing on lawn mowers and go karts when I was 7. I just turned 51. I have never done body work...so this is as good a place as any to start.

I took the fenders off Monday and I can see thru the passenger side the cowl around the air top hat is completely rusted out. My brother suggests wait until I get the doors and trunk off, build a tip over jig and repair from the bottom. I think the dash structure is still a lot in the way. I hate to think about it, but according to some YT videos for 65 Mustang repairs, there are 150-175 spot welds holding the cowl on. I bought 5 of the HF spot weld cutters...so 10 cutting heads. Could I get 15-20 cuts out of each one...I doubt it.

But I think the best way to repair is to take the entire cowl off....after I get the windshield out. I think the rest of the family has gone into hibernation after opening presents and the Christmas feast this morning. I need to set up the new PC I bought for my wife. Buuuut, after that, I can get back into the garage. Cut the windshield out and decide if the top is coming off of the cowl. It probably is. I need to get some 18 or 20 gauge to make the patches. I guess I have to find out which it is.

I need to cut more of the shock towers out then make a pattern for the fill in piece. And order more 12 gauge...I think I am going to be just short of having enough.

I need to get another cheap HF HVLP gun and some epoxy primer to coat it all. I got a couple of spray bombs of self etching to protect everything for now. I have most of next week to work on it. So we will see how much gets done....or how much I have to do around the house.