Project Unfinished Business: 95PGTTech's 1998 Cobra build...

Well it's not a Monday or a Tuesday so I didn't get any work done on the car, but got a few other things handled and a big break. The powdercoater just called and said the pieces are done so I will try and swing by there Mon/Tues. I did locate a place (thanks 1bad95!) to get the dry ice. Not that location but another one of Airgas's stores about 10 minutes away from the garage so in case I need to get more for this project or future projects...

Box from LRS came in...more weatherstrips, e-brake clip, driver side door cup (going to have to figure out how to paint to match), headlight knob, stock T45 transmission mount, e-brake center bracket.



And I landed my first sponsor! Wild Rides! The products are self explanatory, the welds are pretty slick.





For reference (someone asked), the lower two s-boxes weigh a combined 25.2 pounds and 13.0 pounds on the upper. I tried test fitting the battle boxes I got from them last week and the more I looked at the lower driver side the more I started thinking I already damaged it. These directly replace both upper and lower control arm torque boxes for those that are severely damaged or severe duty. The three mount holes give you different locations for helping set up the rear suspension (the middle is the stock one for stock-suspension classes). I am not worried about the weight adding a few pounds to the rear and down low in this car is a GREAT thing.

Gene is a really nice guy and is basically a one man band. I got these on a KILLER deal in exchange for the battle boxes back and running some stickers and helping develop a real good set of install instructions to appease the internet warriors. He had a Fox in the shop that he was able to show me basically final installation on and answer a ton of questions I had about their function and install.

If I can get the funds together quick enough, I'll also end up having him do the work to my rear end. He had one half done in the shop that I may trade him for. Maybe I'll work up enough courage to approach him about an internship. Maybe.

I only appear to know what I'm doing. I've been in this field for 12 years and a technician for 7 now, and every single new job I learned was simply by jumping into something I didn't know how to do. Everything from my first brake job to all the diesel work I did to now base engine diag/electrical and the stuff I do on the side. You only learn by breaking stuff and then having to think your way out of the box. I never really retained any of the information I got from my on-the-job instructors until I had to later go and do the job myself. You really learn by putting your own hands on it, getting stuck, and having guys that will let you struggle and not help and make you figure it out yourself (to a point). Everyone is very quick these days to only take on easy projects and when they run into the slightest bump run inside to the computer, do a search, start a thread, and sit there until they are provided the answer.

You want through-floors? Go get the cutter out. Simple as that. What's the worst that could happen?

Errands:

post office
dry ice
powdercoater
harbor freight


Powdercoated stuff turned out f'ing incredible. He sandblasted, masked off, powdercoated. Didn't even need to tell him where not to get coat, that's why I use this guy (Powtek Trenton, NJ). Not only got the obvious stuff like do not get powder in bolt holes and the piston area but got the small stuff like the ABS sensor ring on the caliper plates and the e-brake ring on the calipers.











Replacement pieces for my Delta bench grinder that I bought at a yard sale now 2 years ago...been using just one side of it since. Finally found the website online and got a tech on the line and ordered individual hardware for the other side. Now I can mount the grinding and wire wheel at the same time! Yay!



New toys



Dry ice pellets (10lb). Turned out to be near useless. Definitely got the floorboards cold (there was icicles on the underside) but didn't make pulling off the sound deadener any easier. Pictures and stories online say just lay this stuff on for a few minutes then hammer off the deadener it cracks off easy...yeah...okay...







Put my new welding blanket to good use. I was standing there trying not to spend TOO much and looking at this blanket 5x5 for $14.99 and passed on it initially. I later came back after I asked my wife if it was worth it and she asked how much it would cost to find a mint black dash for our car. Good point, dear.



Finished seam welding the tunnel. Oh the irony. Keep reading. Fought the same wire feed issues I've been having with it since day one. Hobart 125 MIG. Strongly considering replacement spool/feeder or replacement welder. Problem is, only have 110V in this house. That takes away a lot of good tools (big MIG, TIG, plasma, lift, oven for small powdercoat projects...). You can see how hot it gets in the cabin in the last pic, I guess that blanket was worth it.






I used red Rustoleum primer this time. That flat black looks like poop and makes my welds look really bad. Not that they're good, but...




Really put my nose to the grindstone on the whole sound deadener issue. Hammer + scraper gets off top hard paint layer. Scraper for the black stuff. Sharpen often on grinder. Tried to get two scraper width on both sides of the tunnel really clean, then went back with the electric grinder with the coarse wire wheel. If any tar is left it just spreads it around you need to have 99.9% of it off before using that. I took about the first half inch on each side of the tunnel down to bare steel even through the factory off-grey bottom coat. Ready to weld. Seam welded the floor pans up front where I thought I might not have a chance to get into again once the SFCs are all in the way.




Car is still level.



Initial measurement of front SFC. Fail. Rear is way too high.



Even how I cut the front it still wants to ride up a little bit. I had to constantly check it was where it needed to be. That hole I cut in the front really helped. Also not pictured is the hole I drilled in the end of the tunnel (front) for welding later, helped me make sure the tube was all the way forward.




If you'll remember I did a lot of banging out of that tunnel because it does get jacked up on often and that bends it out of place. I continued banging down dents I found in the back hoping to lower the back. No dice. Impact chisel + blunt tip didn't do much either. I considered heating the tunnel with my torch and doing the same thing but decided it would be too risky for the person heating while I hit. So at this point, I called it close enough.


Ummm....no.





Closer...



More cowbell makes it SOOOO close.




So...






Now, I am satisfied. And covered in little metal shavings.



It was time to go coach track. Tomorrow I begin my journey on the rear one. We'll start with cutting out the factory lower torque box to give me some room to work.

I have come to the conclusion that at my current pace I am not going to finish the car before it's nice enough to drive out, so I'm going to have to figure out a way to get over there more often. I normally get off around 5PM and my wife not until very early morning so what's the point really of being at home?

Pulled the rear seat back and rear headrest.



Pulled up my battery wires and nitrous lines so as not to end up burning/drilling through them.



Checked still level.



I needed to move my jackstand to access the rear torque box area. This was my best idea. I am not going to win any OSHA awards anytime soon, but I was smart enough at least to weld the areas where the jack stand was sitting on.



I began removing the passenger rear torque box. This is what you start with.



Make a reference for later measuring the rear LCA bolt hole location.



Drilled out the two spot welds on this bracket.



Prybar, vicegrips, cutter and it's out.




The one just forward of it showed no signs of getting an advantage of drilling the spot welds first, so I just cut first, then went back and spot weld drilled second.






I then cut into the rear subframe to begin laying SFC.



Cleaned the seam sealer out of the pinch weld to see where the panels overlapped and where to get an idea to cut. Interestingly, there is no overlap. I don't understand why there is seam sealer in this location.



I chopped out the big flat area of the torque box to gain more room to work.




I took this picture of the front SFC while I was at it. I got some lame pictures yesterday, this more accurately shows what is going on.



I shot this picture trying to show that the rear subframe is actually on an angle. It points very slightly inboard.



Cut a 12" section of 2x3 and cut the floorpan slightly more to clearance.




Another shot showing the angle.



I ended up having to cut my rear hole just a tad bigger.



Since I am installing the lower S-boxes, I don't have to go through the rear subframe all the way to the LCA bolt. But if I did, this indent into the rear subframe would need to be cut out. I'll use it at a stop point.



I measured the distance from that indent to the rear subframe and marked it on the 2x3 to let me know when it was deep enough.



I used a laser pointer and pretty much good guessed where the tunnel was beneath the rear floorpan and drilled a hole big enough to get this extension down. When you put the 2x3 in the rear end is going to want to go upward on you. Put the extension through the hole and you can smack it back downward.



How it wants to ride up versus where it should be.




Time to make some bare metal. Chemical stripper, wire brush, hammer, scraper, electric grinder with coarse wire wheel again.






On the front cut of the torque box, it's problematic. I cut it, but there is still a piece left. The rear bulkhead comes down and is spot welded to the floorpan. The problem is, the front of the torque box is sandwiched between those pieces and also spot welded. I did the unibit method with these spot welds due to the 3 layer issue.





Seam welded the rear bulkhead to the floorpan from top and bottom.





Checked level. In order for the rear of the tube to sit flush in the tunnel, the front is way up.



So I tack welded the rear from the bottom.



Then smashed the **** out of the front end downward until it was level.



I started final welding back where I made the tack.



Then began making the bulkhead base plate. I made sure to cut and weld such that I may still remove the upper rear bulkhead if I chose to do so. Foxes only have the lower piece and I think I will remove the upper to get a better spot to mount the cage.




And finish welded the rear tube. The only area not welded is tube to floor pan, that will come when the entire SFC is done.






Laid out the center tube for next time. Before I begin on that, I'll weld the front of the front tube solid and make a bulkhead plate for it so it's level and not moving around while I'm trying to fit the problematic middle piece. Final measurements - from the floor to the bottom of the front tube and the bottom of the rear tube are within 1/16".

Thanks for the input - I figured as much. As you can see in the pictures, I am finding more and more rust. What I can, I am cleaning up. But there is some serious stuff starting in places that are going to be hard to get to in the future (like the inside of the rear frame rails...WTF...). It is really only surface rust now but in some places it has gotten under that off green base primer coat and is chipping the coat off. That will be an issue down the road.

Once it was welded in it did not seem so flimsy, but perhaps that is because my welds were a little more thorough than the stock one. Point taken about the rigidity - yet another reason to go V-mount radiator, as AI and AIX permit modification and removal of the factory radiator support - as far as a crash goes, a front end collision in a race car is a complete loss. So long as the cage protects the driver, nothing else matters.

Normally, I'd say F it and buy another chassis and move everything over. But this is my wife's car, and for those of us with wives, you'll understand when I say that buying another chassis is not an option. If we were seriously going to get into AI/AIX, the real effective way to do it is buy someone else's already done racecar and work on your driving. But she wants no part of that. It's this car. End of discussion hubby. Yes ma'am.

At some point during the next winter or so this car is going to need to get fully stripped, put on a rotisserie, and have some serious, serious surgery behind the rear seat area. I'll probably end up buying a backhalf from a junkyard.

Maybe I should look into buying a CMC1/2 car (the starter league to AI/AIX) to have her play with while I work on this car.

jeremy canter said:

sweet build !!I would def do this build to a gt> but don't know if i could bring my self to do it to a clean title cobra>
I'm building my 98 cobra motor right now > where did you get that intake spacer ? and do they make one for the 96-98 cobra > how much more power do you think you'll be making with the c-heads and 99-02 cobra intake ?
are you going to shave the heads to raise the compestion ratio?
and lastly how do you like the k-member > is it really worth it to you ? was it a hard install > the pic's made it look easy > I'm thinking of doing it to my cobra >
I hear you on the trans work I just did the Hanlon forged shift plate's in my t-45 > and I'm not looking to do it again any time soon. next time I'm just going to order a Hanlon built tranny and be done with it .
I can't wait to see how your car turns out !!!!!>
Where in P.A. do you live ? I'm on the P.A. /N.y. state line in Orange County,NY

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on the PA/jersey line in levittown. near trenton. spacer from MMR. I found out who makes them for them and bought direct. I don't know about a 96-98 one. I think I'll pick up about 20rwhp with the ported heads and the new style intake and degreeing the cams. keep in mind I had a ported shortrunner before. and now just a stock 01. I am trying not to put any more money into the motor than necessary or that will pay dividends in resale.

the K member was easy to install the way I did it. I don't know about motor-in-car. I like that this AJE unit is modular. it will simplify another step of the lsx swap later.

Shiroelex said:

As am I! Subscribing here to keep up on this one! I don't know if I missed it or not, but seeing as how she wants the backseat to remain intact, what's the plan for the carpet? Won't those internal frame ties mess with the way it will lay?

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Backseat can go, but the rear area must remain aesthetically pleasing. meaning I can't just rip the b pillar panels and the rear speaker panels out and leave it like that, it must have a "finished" appearance. I am not a fan of the aftermarket rear seat deletes so maybe I'll just make a metal firewall or something. this is a secondary concern, I'm sure she won't mind if I concentrate on getting the car running again first and worry about that later.

the SFCs go through the rear bulkhead as you can see but do not affect how the seats would bolt up. the clips for the bottom of the rear seat sit on top of the rear bulkhead. a cage, however, would. I'll probably end up removing the top section of the rear bulkhead as fox's don't have it and are perfectly fine. if there is any question of rigidity gained by that top piece, I'd argue that 18 gauge sheetmetal held in by three or four spot welds at best on each side isn't offering much. I could always run a small crosstube in the cage just a few inches up from the bottom mounts, like a low harness bar. it would be no extra attachment points and therefore legal, and I don't think anyone could argue that's not stronger than what is there already.

again, another battle for once the car is running.





16 hours until I get to work on the car again...

Now that I have a "PRO" photobucket account, one of the many treats is being able to upload in high resolution. I still picked 800x600 because that is still what the majority of people displays are set at and most forum rules, but is there any noticeable difference to you guys? I'm still shooting with the Canon Powershot A480 - I'm not bringing the 450D any more for car stuff it gets too dirty and paying to get it cleaned sucks.


New toys. The day my tools arrived from Summit someone put nearly the same exact stuff up on Corral used, and also the clutch. He cut me such a great deal overall that it makes sense for me to return the Summit stuff. I only eat the shipping within the first 60 days no restocking fee.




My cordless sawzall also arrived but I did not take a picture of it. According to the slip on my door, my cordless impact gun is also here. I stopped by Harbor Freight as I found the receipt for the second drill and attempted to return it, this time I just wanted store credit. Apparently, the 30 day warranty only extends to the first item, not to any replacement items. Humph. I'll stick to buying consumables from them and nothing else.


I got the driveshaft done at work this week in some spare time.



And the brake caliper brackets.



Upon arriving at the garage, I verified that the chassis, and then the front tube is level both vertically and horizontally for the 128,228,573rd time.



Slid under and welded the front of the front tube. Welded the underside of the tube to what remains of the channel.






Then cut and welded in the firewall footer plate. 4x6. Pretty thick sheetmetal along the bottom and sides but thin up top, watch it.




16.5" center section.



Cut the floorpan, angled both ends.



Tacked it in checking level in both directions.



Finish welded it, as well as the floorpan to it.





Of note, the weld where the center section meets the front section. A triple pass to ensure I got good penetration. This weld lands directly in the middle of where the seat would mount and in an effort to get the seat as low as possible and have as much clearance as possible this weld will be ground down. Therefore the overkill.



Front section welded to floorpan.



At this point, the sacrificial bracket can be removed and the rest of the front section bottom welded to the tunnel.





The replacement 4x4 seat mount/rocker footer plates installed. Much grinding/hammer/vicegrip was needed on my mangled pinch welds.







I wanted to start cutting the seat mount rails but I was running low on time and on argon. I wanted to finish off the tank so I could take it with me and pick up more on my way to the garage tomorrow since it's 5 minutes from my house and an hour from the garage. So I just finished 90% of the rest of the welding of the SFC to the floorpan, being careful not to weld the areas where the seat rails still needed to go and causing myself more work.

There were some serious gaps in areas and it's hard to figure out how to go from wanting good penetration (hot, high settings) of the .125" thick tube and not blowing through the thin 18 gauge floorpans (typically slow, low settings). I found it best to start welding only on the tube and use multi-pass welds to create a shelf to extend almost touching the floorpans on the highest settings (think creating a bridge one plank at a time). Then turn it way down and use a series of tacks to bridge the last small plank to the sheetmetal so it did not burn through. I welded both top and bottom from the same points. Once the bridge was created on one side, it was pretty easy on the other side to just leave it turned up since the welds are very thick and would not blow through.

I fixed the welder earlier in the day. I have been questioning myself lately if I need more classes I could not figure out where all this spatter and rough welds that stand way up are coming from. It turns out I had the feeder set way wrong, causing intermittent flow of wire, therefore spattering, therefore BBs and jams, and therefore poor heat/poor penetration/poor laydown/standup. Another interesting thing I noted was that in my rush, and emboldened by my now insanely hotter welds I blew right through the paint that remained on some of the rear floorpans and it made little difference. I simply used a little bit hotter setting than I normally would with very slow handspeed...the intense heat and slow movement seemed to melt the paint off an inch or so ahead of where I was working. Also, on areas where there was still sound deadener, I welded from the bottom first and intentionally made very hot, long passes. The intense heat allowed me to go topside quickly and using the scraper peel back the deadener. It was extremely easy one light pass got down to bare metal when it was hot. It practically boiled itself off.













Tomorrow I hope to get both seat mount rails into the passenger side and make some headway, if not finish the passenger side rear torque box. If I am really moving, I'll be able to get the jacking rail and matrix completely mocked up.

Overall, I am extremely happy with how it turned out so far. I don't know how I want to close off that opening at the top of the rear tube, this is the first time I have used the combination of 2x3 and 2x2 (I have previously only ever used one or the other). I have a simple idea, which would look ehhhhh, and a difficult idea, which would look much more aesthetic. The attention to the measurements and keeping everything level in both dimensions really payed dividends...when I layed the center piece in and lined up the bottom of it to both the front and rear tube it was perfectly level in both directions, I didn't need to install it on an angle at all. In the end, that looks better, and provides better strength. Is all this worth the PITA? That's your call, I'm already too far down the road to even entertain that debate now.

[quote author=Dalamar link=topic=37575.msg810707#msg810707 date=1267571065]
Suggestion: when welding - like on your sub frames, you should take a wire wheel on your grinder, and take off the paint.
you'll get a much nicer looking weld and it will be stronger because you're not burning paint into it.

I'm also curious, and maybe I missed it in the reading - why do you do all the hole-saw cuts - why not just cut it out with a cut-off wheel in a grinder?[/quote]

I've been doing that in places and skipping it others. It really seems to make no difference. Some joints I've gone so far as to wire wheel, then chemical strip, then wire wheel, then clean off with a rag and parts cleaner and the weld still seems to be contaminated with the tiniest bit of foreign material in the joint. These last few welds do not appear as great as the first few because I haven't taken the wire wheel to them pre-picture.

I use the hole-saw method to visually help me sort everything out. It also leaves a lot more material in the floorboards in case you miss a bit, meaning smaller gaps to fix. Different strokes for different folks, I guess. After I have the piece cut to fit in said hole, I go back with the cutoff wheel and cut them straight, then the grinder and take away little bits until I get the tightest fit I can (given my timeframe and available patience...).



Well, you know I got a lot done when I'm not even uploading my photos until 10:30PM. Wow - I normally have 20-30 pictures on a normal day. I have 73 today. Corral is going to take forever to upload when I do on there.


Toys! Turns out I'm an idiot, again. That's an impact driver, not an impact gun stupid, read the auction better next time. Oh well, the driver goes back up on eBay, and I keep the two new batteries and charger, worth the price anyhow. Saw works pretty good. The LEDs are neat. Picked up some .030" wire for the welder and tips. First time I've used it with MIG. The .023" allows me to go down to 22AUG sheet but the .030" cuts wire speeds down from the high 80s into the 20s. So I should consume it a lot slower. Also the weld pool is considerably wider and stays hotter.



Finished that welding I was supposed to get to on the underside of the center section.




Before I really get into it, a comment about the welder and what I meant. Because the wire was feeding intermittently, it gave a pulse type effect. Think of holding the trigger for two seconds and then blipping your finger off, then two, off, two, off. Some guys do this on purpose to create TIG-appearing welds with MIG. First picture is effect.



When you're intending to do it in the car world, if you're selling welded products it can help you sell your product as the general public assumes TIG is superior to MIG and assumes all welds should appear stack-of-dimes like that one does. Typically TIG gives this effect. In reality, MIG is just as strong of a process (both, if done correctly) and the final appearance of a weld is really irrelevant so long as they have no contamination and good penetration. But, consumers are stupid and think TIG = better and stack of dimes will definitely help sell your product as the general internet audience is going to look and say OMFG look at those welds want want want. Unfortunately, when you can't control the pulsing, you get these type results...high build, poor penetration, no heat buildup. So essentially fixing my junk makes my welds look worse in most cases, but actually be a lot more sound.



Outlining and cutting the front outside seat brace cut. I think this was 9 1/2" or something like that.




Getting this bastard to go where I wanted it to, level in both directions. Also note, check level (in relation to car left-right) both at the center of the brace, and at the overlap of the brace to the SFC to ensure the brace is flush with the SFC.




After tack, weld. Top, then bottom. Or vice versa. I'd suggest weld the hardest welds first, the ones deep in the corners, and work your way out.





In the above picture, note the high bump in the floorpan. I determined (same reason I ground down those welds...) that since this bump was higher than the highest point of the seat braces or SFC it could become an intrusion into seat mounting or movement and had to be pursuaded. Recess cut, hammer, weld. Real light settings, something like 2/15 I was using.





You can still get nice results welding correctly. This was a 15 push C motion. What I'm using on most of my welds, but this one turned out especially good. It just comes down to practice practice practice. Fabricate well, get good tight gaps, then be consistent with your hand motion and once you have it going don't stop.





Onto the rear outside seat brace, this one intersects the centersection which is on a slight angle so it's a bit trickier. I think something like 9 5/8 on the short side and 9 7/8 on the long side.



Same deal. Draw. Cut. Fit. Grind. Fit. Grind. Fit. Grind. Fit. Grind. Magnet. Level. Level. Level. Grind. Level. Hammer. Level. Hammer. Level. Tack. Clamp. Hammer. Level. Level. Level. Tack. Weld.







Now, if we put the big level across both outside seat braces...Baddah bing!




Time for the inside ones. 11.5" piece cut in half. Measure 6.25" flip it over and measure 6.25" from the other side. Cut and you end up with just about a 45 degree angle. Weld endplates on, cut to size, grind the edges down. On one of them, account for the 1/4" taper that the center section has.





Same process for the rear one (the tapered one).



Front one, same thing. Can be a bit tricky you'll have to cut the floorpan and spend extra time grinding this one due to the way the floorpan comes up the center tunnel.




Very low on gas (did I get a full tank, that went fast?) so I did not finish weld the last three. At this point it was a good time to run out and get my haircut (first in months) since the hardware store is right next to it as is Dunkin Donuts (I should get a sponsorship, I've spent $3-$6 every day, sometimes two and three times a day, since I've had a driver's license and a car). Came back with some goodies. Always need more trash bags, hardware for playing around with side skirt mounting, and my personal fetish another magnetic tray. I think that brings my total including the ones I have at work to six. So useful.



So back to that passenger side lower torque box. This is where my night got really, really bad. Started on the piece that was still attached to the pinch weld with the new recip saw, prybar, and vicegrip.




As Gene said, there is no correct way to remove all this metal. Just start cutting. Recip saw + vicegrip cut out a random triangle. I was trying to be organized about this at first but you really just need to cut it into small, bite size random shapes. As you go more and more you get more room for your tools to fit in.




The decent sized center fin lost to the cutoff disk, vicegrip, plier, and recip saw. I was trying to be relatively quiet in respect to Princeton noise laws (after dark STFU). So I tried to use the cutoff disk as little as possible although it would have made some steps faster.




Random little strips left where the LCA actually bolts to. Here I finally had enough material removed I could get in there with the cordless drill and my new step bit (the real skinny one I love).










This last MOFO, the thickest piece that forms a U shape that the LCA actually goes into, that is spot welded to the floorpan and the frame rail, single handedly took longer than all the other pieces combined. Not only does it have an insane amount of spot welds to get out that are in impossible to reach spots and angles, it holds on for dear life after you get them out and it's stupid thick, it takes SO long to drill through them pushing upward with everything you got. I think my guns grew a full size doing this project. Anyway, it's all cleared out now.






I need to finish grinding down some of what is left of those spot welds and then chemical strip the area to deal with that rust. I'd like to chem strip it all then use the wire wheel to see how deep it goes. For crying out loud, it's on the inside of the main frame rails (not as bad) so it's nothing I'm going to cure now but it will give me an idea if I'm ever here again whether I'm going to need new floorpans or just to completely strip and sandblast this chassis. The passenger side inside lower rear seat belt bracket now falls under the "unnecessary interior bracket" rule. Luckily you can see the spot welds from the interior of the car so I started the drilling in there and finished it underneath.






Unfortunately my favorite unibit was killed in the line of duty. He will be missed, he was the most useful of the bunch and an insane timesaver.



Tossed up the Wild Rides lower S-box for a quick look. Tell me that does not look completely ****ing bad ass.



This is a picture of the ten million metal shards I was laying in doing this job, which turned this job from hellaciously difficult to absolute, pure hell. Everything from the tiniest little BB you get when grinding to razor sharp pieces as big as pencil shavings. Down your back, on your neck, in your hair. Not to mention you are laying in it, looking up, having new pieces RED HOT rain down on your arms, face, neck, hair. For once I was in full safety gear - wet hat, full face shield, welding gloves, long sleeves...and I still have some pretty nasty burns on hands, arms, and face, one a half inch or so from my eye. Totally worth it though, those S-boxes are INSANE. Just more motivation to get a lift. Or a house, with my own garage, with a lift.



Yanked the passenger side interior C pillar trim, speaker panel, sound deadening, and rear seat belt. Took a few reference pics for this week when I'm deciding on stuff that needs deciding on.










That is all. Stupid UPS is trying to deliver something that requires signature so I have to come home tomorrow after work no choice. I need to start getting over there more on days where there is little work and I leave early and getting projects done at work and at home (such as trans) on days where I leave at normal time (no sense in going over there if I get out at 5-5:30 since I'd be there at 6-6:30 and it's already dark.

Corral has a 20 pic/post limit. This is going to take a minute...

Current goal is to have everything fired at or before June 1. That would give us roughly a month and a half to shake the car down for Mustang Week in late July. We celebrate our anniversary down there every year and missed it last year due to car and work and really regretted it. Being that it's brand new motor/trans/rear, half a new suspension, chassis, and electrical system, we figure 5 weeks is enough time to daily drive it a bit and find the bugs before we make a 1500+ mile round trip in it.

The serious decisions about where to go with the motor need to be made soon and parts bought, and the serious decisions about keeping this a street car or putting into TT's and then AI made over winter. As it sits now, all the car passes for is HPDEs and TT(B) without a full cage with NASCAR door bars.

American Iron