Progress Thread The next "big" project for my Cobra - T-top conversion coming soon!

[IICrew]

I have been contemplating swapping roofs on the rotted orange t top car and the Mach I. I was considering how to do it. I was not looking forward to cutting both roofs off and trying to get it lined back up right.

Just taking the t top bracket out never entered my mind.

And here you are documenting it.

Thank you for another tutorial.

 

[LILCBRA]

I have been contemplating swapping roofs on the rotted orange t top car and the Mach I. I was considering how to do it. I was not looking forward to cutting both roofs off and trying to get it lined back up right.

Just taking the t top bracket out never entered my mind.

And here you are documenting it.

Thank you for another tutorial.

Documenting slowly but surely.

The idea came from a YouTube video I ran into a while back of someone converting their Foxbody into a T top car. I didn't really think too much about it other than it seemed easy enough. I mean I knew these were converted somewhere before Ford took them in-house, but didn't put a lot of thought into it until I found this wreck on Craigslist. The thought then re-entered my mind but wasn't a serious thought until I saw everything else that this car could provide for mine, so I decided to give it a go - and here we are! I don't really think it'll be all that bad once I get into that part of it all. But I think someone would want a good, solid base to start with before cutting the roof apart, which led me down the rabbit hole I'm currently diving down. I have roughly $500 worth of parts in a couple different online carts to more solidify my car before I get into the swap, so it'll be a relatively long term project. First things first though, I think I've gotta get the T top car stripped down so I can get rid of the shell. That would give me more space to get it all done.

Reinforcing the car led me down the next rabbit hole of creating the web brace that I have a rough plan of building. The idea came from my convertible - I'm using Stiffler's subframe connectors and will be buying their web brace to strengthen that car. I thought that that would be an excellent idea for the T top car since it's the same basic principle. I've kind of been thinking of whether or not it would be something that might interest other II owners and if it might make me some extra $ since I don't know of anyone making anything like it for our cars. Then I think "f-it - just share it" because it's not always about money. I'd almost have to team up with Stumpy's fab shop since I'm using their subframe connector. It seems that he/they could actually build it when they make the connectors and sell them through whatever network they have and just share a royalty or something since it'd be my design. I really think that it'll make a difference with our cars, especially T top cars....

 

[LILCBRA]

Orders have been placed.

I went ahead and added the front bumper cover to match the new rear I've been working on getting mounted. I added it to combine shipping which will end up saving me in the long run. I'll have to order new weatherstripping from them before this is all said and done.

 

[IICrew]

My t top car has a lot of cowl shudder on clutch engagement as well as when hitting large bumps or expansion joints. It has a new mdl clutch and flywheel. The factory bracing, stumpys frame ties and traction bars. I think I am going to copy your rocker reinforcement at some point in time. So thank you for taking us along on yet another adventure.

 

[LILCBRA]

Not a lot to report tonight. Just did a little shop cleanup before taking the Cobra down from the wheel cribs I had it sitting on, then took it out for a quick spin. It's been a while, other than the quick drives I took it out on when we were starting to work on the tune, but it drives pretty awesome now. I picked a turn around point on a T intersection a few miles out of town and once I got it straightened out I floored it. The Nittos spun for a second or so then grabbed - that's a different feeling! Shifted into second and they spun just briefly again. I'd probably better watch myself when I do that before I grenade the T5....


Once I got home I worked on the 2 mounting bracket locations for the pieces I made for the rear bumper cover. I still have 2 clearance holes left to finish drill but the drill wasn't liking the material nor the speed I was spinning it with my hand drill, so it needs sharpened now. I'll try to remember to take it to work with me to get it done as my drill gauge is there.


No real work on the cars is planned until next week at this point, going to be leaving town again Friday morning after work and probably won't be back until Sunday sometime.

 

[Blackhawkxx]

So now that you got the F.I. worked out, is there any power differences between that and the carb that you can tell? That is of course if your carb was running right. Every time I start to think about maybe wanting to convert I read of someone either having issues with it or had a hard time getting their aftermarket throttle body injection right.

 

[LILCBRA]

So now that you got the F.I. worked out, is there any power differences between that and the carb that you can tell? That is of course if your carb was running right. Every time I start to think about maybe wanting to convert I read of someone either having issues with it or had a hard time getting their aftermarket throttle body injection right.

I don't know if I could say with 100% certainty that it runs better or more powerfully than it did before. But I can say that it runs well so far. I don't think we were completely done tuning since the ECT sensor was bad and that has an effect on how it fuels the engine, but it's also a self learning system. So as long as Bryant put some decent parameters in it should make microadjustments to maintain them.

One thing I will say about it for sure now is that all I need to do is turn the key and it'll start and run with no real hiccups. No pumping the pedal once or twice, no messing with a choke, etc - just turn the key and let it do it's thing. One thing I've not really done yet is try to restart it after it's been warmed up so that may present some issues, but I don't think I'd anticipate anything.

Now, since it's near the end of the season, I'll try to get it cleaned up a little better, fix my brake lights (since one side seemingly has a short somewhere now....), and drive it a little more often before I start to tear it apart again.

 

[LILCBRA]

I have parts!

And here's the ongoing battle with the rockers now - they're doing nothing but get worse.

I was seriously planning on starting the process of tearing the engine and transmission out of the T top car tonight, unfortunately my lower back screamed "f-off!" so there will be no crawling around on the garage floor tonight.

 

[LILCBRA]

My back has been feeling a lot better but I ended up running a few errands instead of working on the car today. I did, however, pick up a load leveler for my engine hoist and dropped that in the garage. Here's something that I'm sure more than one of us has experienced:

I believe the web brace I'm planning will help eliminate this issue as well.

 

[Blackhawkxx]

The body twisting?

 

[LILCBRA]

The body twisting?

I suspect it is/does, especially since my engine produces a bit more torque than the stock 302. I had home made connectors in it before I went with Stumpy's a few years ago, I suspect they weren't quite as good at preventing the twist.

 

[LILCBRA]

Progress overnight tonight - got the engine and transmission pulled. Made a slight mess, forgot to plug the transmission tail shaft. Good thing I have a few restaurant sized trays laying around to catch this kind of stuff or it probably would've been worse. Since the lower radiator support was gone I decided to just cut the top to make the process a lot easier. I also ended up cutting the transmission cross member since one of the mount's nuts wouldn't loosen and the nuts on the through bolts were seized. It's the less desirable single hump so I don't feel bad.

I'll be using this oil pan on my car, The bottom's not all dented up like mine. It even still has a factory-looking sticker on the front of it. It'll need blasted and new paint, and maybe the drain threads might need looked at since there's some kind of different looking bolt on it, but I figure that's easy enough.

While I was in the car removing the shifter I pulled the driver side carpet to get a better shot of how far gone this one is. It was super easy to tear apart. The transmission tunnel around the shifter has cancer as well.

 

[DadLife0724]

Holy Moses look at those holes. How much are you going to have to do the roof before the swap?