My 67 "fastback " Build

[horse sence]

HAHA! Ford is like a drug ,once you have one you can't stop and you must have more .I am on the hunt for a 56 Ford pick up now ,and i just have to have one . The crown Vic. front suspension unbolts in a complete unit and just about bolts under the early ford trucks .you can pick up a Crown Vic complete for just about nothing .I have been thinking of using the complete running gear from a police cruiser under a 56 for a higher grade up grade .

 

[madspeed]

love the pickup,but oooh that MGA!

 

[Billy B's 67]

Like I said ... I'm reliving my youth I had a 58 MGA ( 1500 cc) when in high school . So just had to have another one when it came up . Funny thing though I'm not going to be able to afford all the others I had ;( . Traded that MGA for one of these - while still in high school - a 1952 model XK120drophead coupe. Sold it for I believe $ 350 . It was running though it used about a quart of oil per 100 miles !

 

[Billy B's 67]

God Bless Craigslist and my neighbor who helps me with his forklift !
Doing a search of Craigslist Texas the other day I found a passenger's side door with all the glass in good shape for $ 100. Problem was that it was 5 1/2 - 6 hours away. But I called anyway and the fellow had a great solution for me. Seems he has a very good friend who travels allot from Wichita Falls to east Texas where I'm located and he'll deliver the door within the month only ten miles away from me for nothing. You can bet I'll take care of him someway though !

And yesterday the persistent city code enforcement officer gave me another call. I still don't understand how he can't see the beauty of a 351 Cleveland and a 5 liter Ford gracing my driveway ? Regardless I asked my buddy next door to lend a hand with his forklift and as it grew dark we promptly moved the two engines into my fenced area. So in the next couple of days I'll finish my two gates and only I will be able to check out their beauty. It just seems a terrible waste ! Sorta reminds me of back in the days that Lady Bird Johnson ( bless her departed soul she did bring back "no mowing" areas to showcase the state's wild flowers ) caused every proud junkyard owner in the country to erect screening fences around the very prizes that most youngsters such as myself loved to gaze upon as we traveled the roads - vintage iron !

 

[Billy B's 67]

Here you have your basic design by rattle can ! . I wanted to see the shape that has been taking place from this graft and since I had some flat black and Hunter green - Volla !
What I'm doing at this point is to play with this thing until I can afford the Dynacorn panels. I might just put it together if it seems to work and then work on my drivetrain and frame until I can afford the pieces from Dynacorn !

 

[LILCBRA]

I like the look of it! It would be an ambitious project, but would be unique. Kinda looks like it'd be a precursor to a 69/70 fastback. I'd love to see a completed product just to see how it would all meld together!

 

[Billy B's 67]

I agree with you about the 69-70 look. I'm thinking it's baca use of the rear side windows and that angle. Never really thought about it being similar to the 69-70s !

 

[Billy B's 67]

Well it's Saturday afternoon and I was ready for some serious moving of parts or possible wrenching ( need to get an engine on a stand to start pulling it apart) . Unfortunately though I got a call about an hour ago and I've got to go in to work for several hours this afternoon ! Add that to working tomorrow which I had already committed to and that leaves working in the dark the only option

Dang it ! I used to do this ten years ago but for about three or four times the money. What's wrong with this picture ? How in the dickens am I going to be able to relive my youth if all these encumbrances keep getting in my way ?

To give you an idea of just how crazy this is getting - here's a pic of one of my Ford projects - riding around in the back of my work truck because I needed to get it out of the driveway the other day to keep from getting another citation by the city's code enforcement officer ! Hey anyone want to go crusin' in my future project ? Grab a lawn chair and get in the back of the truck ! It's the front section of a 1939 Ford two-door sedan soon to be dropped on my better frame of a 1940 Ford two-door with a Dennis Carpenter new rear section of a coupe grafted onto it ! Yep a low-bucks attempt at recreating my first car , a 1939 Ford Deluxe coupe ! One which unfortunately I can't justify purchasing outright at this time ! But never fear. The 67 Stang is on the front burner and will be running sometimes this year I swear .

 

[horse sence]

I have been fighting with code enforcement My self ,but i won .You would be surprised what these idiots don't know and think they do .Nasty old neighbor turned me in for a travel trailer on my property ,licensed and not in use . the neighbor has a freezer unit on the front lawn ,not in use with the door still attached ..that turns out to be a misdemeanor ,and has a good fine .He also has 5 foot tall weeds growing right to the back of my shop .He should have kept his mouth shut ,now he has a fine to pay and he is out there plowing weeds

 

[Billy B's 67]

Congratulations on your victory Horse ! So far I've been in the winning corner but Lord, I just don't have time to mess with these guys !
You'll appreciate this. Around eight years ago I worked building some high dollar condos north of Lake Tahoe near Truckee in your state. The crew stayed in a leased condo in a restricted area and since I was making money but the area was so expensive to go out in I preferred to stay at the house and work on my projects. I was rebuilding a 1970 Triumph Bonneville motorcycle at the time and the tenants' Association group kept sending security guards over to get me to stop working on my bike in the pretty much empty parking lot. Heck it was just me and the Bears hanging out there ! ( Dumpster nearby ) Finally a guard who'd owned several old British bikes clued me in on how to beat the system . Just put the bike in the back of my truck and I could work on it there to my heart's content. So this is what I did and my apologies to you Horse if I shortened your life expectancy any but please forgive me - I did shoot lacquer on my tinware with my compressor and spray gun in that parking lot and I have no idea how close you were to it ! So hopefully you or no one else on the list is a DEA agent. And if there are any here, I really do make this stuff up for fun !

 

[Billy B's 67]

Hey Horse Sense,
Seems I may have seen where you mentioned the distributor you order your Dynacorn panels and kits out of. I'm just having trouble finding that post . I've contacted my "local" distributor out of Dallas and the guy I spoke with wasn't even aware that Dynacorn made a 67/68 Coupe to Fastback Conversion kit. Worries me. So I'd like to tak with your guy to see if it's easy for him to get stuff shipped to me in Texas. Hey,It might even get you someBrownie points and discounts ! Well you could always bring it up .... Which brings me to ... Do any of our advertisers/sponsors give our members a discount ? Thanks !

 

[horse sence]

Well it isn't actually a conversion kit ,i order the fast back pieces that i need from Stang-Aholics here in California .I do a lot of sheet metal replacement for them and they know what parts are needed . The parts you will need are ...Both full quarters ,roof ,door frame assembly and i like the unwelded pieces for both sides ,The rear roof brace ,rain gutters ,the lower back window panel ,Tail light panel if your old one is bad ,and the trunk divider inside the car .There will be pieces in the door frame kits that you probably will not need but they come in the kit any way ,just hang on to them and sell what is not needed .This just does the body and you will also need a trunk lid and hinges . I don't have the part numbers anymore because Ryan knows them at Stang-Aholics so i don't have to worry about that part .

 

[Billy B's 67]

Well the cutting and fitting continues !
And yes I have talked to Ryan @ Stang-Aholics and plan to order the Dynacorn conversion pieces as soon as I can. The more I work in this coupe I'm thinking this might be the practice vehicle and I'll probably be able to find a better coupe to use the Dynacorn stuff on ! Hey , I'm having fun, learning stuff and besides it's all about the journey anyway !
How'd that old Grateful Dead song go ? "What a long strange trip it's been !"

 

[Billy B's 67]

I continue to learn as I move these parts around ! After a lot of visual research through my photographs of a somewhat local Shelby 500, the info I can glean from various mustang books I've gotten and my trusty tape measure I realized that I needed to reconform the way I was thinking the fastback section laid into the trunk area. So I keep getting a bit closer all the time. I continually find that some of the best if not "the best" tools I have are my eyes !
Here's the way I left it yesterday evening.

 

[Billy B's 67]

One more

 

[Billy B's 67]

I've been covered with work for awhile and really miss being able to work on my project. I've also been too busy to even liquidate some other projects to shake up enough money to get the Dynacorn fastback parts. But I've made a few small steps. Did order a fastback Dynacorn deck lid , filler piece and trunk hinges from Stangaholics ( thanks for the suggestion Horse Sense !) and played for awhile cutting, shaping and visualizing the back area of my donor coupe. And in doing so I'm realizing that I'm going through a valuable learning process for me.
I now have a much better idea as to just how far you can go with an air chisel, a grinder with a cutoff blade and a vivid imagination
By the time I'm able to order the rest of the conversion parts I should be ready to do this right. Lord knows I've been learning how to do things incorrectly ! LOL
BTW I'm headed over this morning to a reunion for my local Native American tribe. Gonna pick up a few bumper stickers that say " Mount Tabor War Pony". I'll probably mount one right on my rear bumper to the right of the tree stump !
If anyone needs a bumper sticker let me know. They're probably around $3