Wrecked hopes / Fond Memories

meanroy · Apr 14, 2005

Well Finally some progress!

meanroy said:
Exactly! I plan to make it from Carbon Fiber with an embedded aluminum faceplate. What you see in these pics is the model I will make the actual mold from. (hopefully next week) You can see the complete project at This Site. Page two has the details after I got the glitches worked out. I did it since the Haneline bezel got crunched and I didn't really like it anyway.

Roy.

This minor detail has been kinda moving along but slowly.

I've made some progress though.

I have an actuall goal and stuff.

So I sent the 'Stang off to get the rear clip straightened up. I put it on one of my Wifes vredit cards. She didn't even scream too loaudly.
It came back much better.

Here's Jimmy!

meanroy said:
No, I asked him to make it square and the sub-frames at the same height, along with the rocker panels.

To align the two I will have to have the doors on the clip, and a windshield available.

Here's what it loks like:

Here's Jimmy:

He removed all the damaged metal, pretty much straightened the door jam, removed the bent quarter panel and pulled the inners straight. He took out the big dent over the drivers side door too.
He had to remove the cage completely. He said when he cut it loose, the whole body jumped.

He put a trammel on it today, there is less than 1/16 inch difference corner to corner now and the top of the windshield line is the same on both sides. (actually could not detect ANY difference)

He is going to straighten the floor pan today and I'll bring it home tomorrow.
Looks like $1K will cover it.

Now for the easy stuff. LOL!
Roy.

So OK Dudes here's the easy stuff.

meanroy said:
So here we were ...
Needed to establish a stable platform to align the halves.
Since I didn't have the cash to get Jimmy to do it, I had to get creative.
I got the 2X2 Sq. Tube frame from a truck rack. This **** is tough to!
It's got a REAL heavy wall. It's just short of a quarter inch.
I converted it to an alignment platform to put this sucker together.
Anchors into the driveway slab at each corner.
Go look here if you want.
This is what I did today.

Set up, ready to go.

As some of you know I'm implementing openTrackers front suspension mods.

I started a thread on stiffness. I'll flesh it out as I go. Found a lot of good stuff.

Done a LOT of research and here's where the rubber hits the road.

Roy.

70XR7ConvertCat · Apr 15, 2005

I guess you're going to have to put a cage back in there. It looks a little ragged where he cut it loose. I'm not surprised the body repositioned when he cut the cage. There had to be alot of stress on it.

Steve

paintballtommy · Apr 15, 2005

hey roy,
my name is tom hutson call me tommy. im in concord up north a bit shoot me an email at tommyid1 @ yahoo.com maybe one weekend we can get together and i can help you maybe wrench on the stang a bit. ive done a good amount of work on my car a 68. but if there is ever any need for help jsut shoot me an email and ill see what i can do to get down there.

-Tommy

67efivert · Apr 15, 2005

just out of curosity do u have any local perfernce to a local mustang shop mayby some of us could get together with that shop to get u a gift certeficate even if its only 10$ each it will add up fast and good luck

zookeeper · Apr 15, 2005

That's not a bad idea! How about it, Roy?

meanroy · Apr 17, 2005

More progress

paintballtommy said:
hey roy,
my name is tom hutson call me tommy. im in concord up north a bit... i can help you maybe wrench on the stang a bit. ...

-Tommy

You're On! I'll get in touch and see what we can work out. There are a few other guys here in S.J. who have volunteered, maybe we can work out a time when we can all have a wrenching party.

67efivert said:
67efivert said:

just out of curosity do u have any local perfernce to a local mustang shop mayby some of us could get together with that shop to get u a gift certeficate even if its only 10$ each it will add up fast and good luck

Click to expand...

zookeeper said:

That's not a bad idea! How about it, Roy?

Click to expand...

Thanks, I'll try to figure out how that could work and post when I've got it down. If anyone wants to help set it up, let me know.

milo said:
Hey Roy, check this link to see that laser we were thinking of useing in action on a cycle tank...
http://www.a2zautoforums.com/showpost.php?p=31796&postcount=7

I'll be in San Jose tomorrow (Fri) and will bring it.. Have you got some white spray paint for the area of the cut? The red beam is tough to see on a dark colored surface.. Or did ya cut it already?

OK, this morning (Sunday) I put the reference line on the rear clip with your laser goodie.

Had to do it early or late so it was dark enough to see the line, chose early so it wouldn't interfere with beer time.
Started at 4:45, finished at 5:42. On my second cup of coffee.
Pics:

Roy

DissFigured · Apr 28, 2005

Hey Mtv....

Pimp This Guy's Ride!!!!!!

Fireman255 · Apr 28, 2005

That just goes to show that paramedics are a thorn in the side of nautral selection

67efivert · Apr 29, 2005

im willing to make a few calls if u come up with any local places and good luck on any progress

meanroy · May 8, 2005

Latest news

67efivert said:
im willing to make a few calls if u come up with any local places and good luck on any progress

I'm trying to set up something with Maier Racing for a start. Sent off an e-mail to Mike Maier last week but with one thing and another didn't get in phone contact. I'll try again this week.

Here's the latest on progress. (or lack thereof)

meanroy_at_a2z said:
... and every time I think I'm ready to make the last cut and join the halves, a new pain in the butt shows up!

The blue tape on the rear floor pan is even with where I'm going to cut the rocker panel.
The floor pan is cut already.

Stewart came over Sat. aft and we leveled up the sub-frame rails in the rear.
We set up Milos laser goodie for a last check.
Found the drivers side rocker panel was up about an inch at the front of the cut.
After much head scratching determined that when the roll cage "racked" due to the drivers side hit, it twisted the floor pan and torque box.

Can't join the front and back with this kind of mis-alignment!

We think we've figured out how to pull the twist out but won't know until we try it.

Damn this pisses me off!

By the way, the torque boxes are an add-on, taken from the convertable. Something I was going to add but found it was already there.
Funny, they were only installed in the rear, apparently when previous damage was repaired.

I'll try to set up to pull it into alignment this week.

Roy.

1320stang · May 8, 2005

Maybe you should split the floor away fron the rocker and take the twist out. Once you get the front clip on and everything else aligned, you can hammer the floor back into place and reweld.

On another note, Ron B. of Mustang Plus has posted on here, maybe we could set something up with him as far as starting a gift certificate fund.

meanroy · May 8, 2005

1320stang said:
Maybe you should split the floor away fron the rocker and take the twist out. Once you get the front clip on and everything else aligned, you can hammer the floor back into place and reweld.

It might help to split the floor pan loose but the main problem is actually that the rocker panel and the rear door jam are pushed up.
The sub-frames didn't move at all as far as I can tell. I'm going to try to support the sub-frame and pull down on the rocker panel. I may be able to avoid trying to put a big a$$ hold down in the driveway concrete by levering it all against the "alignment frame" I put together. It's made of 2"square tubing with a .156 wall and I can brace it if necessary.

1320stang said:
On another note, Ron B. of Mustang Plus has posted on here, maybe we could set something up with him as far as starting a gift certificate fund.

I saw that post, I ran into him briefly when I went to their april car show with my friend Jose. I made the acquaintance of George who is a really great guy. He was behind the design of the new gizmo which moves the shifter back We discussed my problem child for a hour or so and I told him I'd send some pics but I haven't got around to it yet.
Anyway, that might be a possibility.

Roy.

-- edit -----
By the way, the drawing above is a little deceptive in that it shows the sub-framw twisted. It's not. Well, only a little. The rocker panel and floor pan are shoved up and in.
R.

jes72mustang · May 25, 2005

Any more news on the progress here? I have found this to be a very inspirational Thread and I love seeing how everyone here has gotten involved in trying to help out.

meanroy · May 25, 2005

Not much progress for a while

jes72mustang said:
Any more news on the progress here? I have found this to be a very inspirational Thread and I love seeing how everyone here has gotten involved in trying to help out.

Thanks for asking.
I have had to spend all my time working on completing some work on my house for the last few weeks.
I expect to get back to working on the Mustang in a week or so.

Milo, the body guy who has given me so much help, dropped off some clamps for use in pulling on the rocker panel.

I am signed up for a metal shaping and dent repair workshop in San Jose/Bay area on sunday the 12th of June with John Kelly.

70XR7ConvertCat · May 25, 2005

Roy, I have a question. After having to move all this metal (sheet and structural) back into place, how strong is this car going to be compared to when it left the showroom? The roll cage helps, I know.

Steve

meanroy · May 25, 2005

Much Stronger, and stiffer.

70XR7ConvertCat said:
Roy, I have a question. After having to move all this metal (sheet and structural) back into place, how strong is this car going to be compared to when it left the showroom? The roll cage helps, I know.

Steve

Many of the factory welds broke loose in the crash. They will all be clamped in position and re-welded.
I've spent quite a bit of time looking into what can be done to stiffen up the fastback. I'll be adding some bracing similar to what Mustangs Plus does with their "chassis stiffening kit".
I'm doing pretty much all the '70 Boss 302 chassis mods, including the front crossmember mods which tie the crossmember to the lower control arm mounting point.
I'm considering cross bracing though I don't like the off-the-shelf stuff I've seen much.
I'll be re-installing a set of Maier sub-frame connectors.

The Cage provides MAJOR tortional stiffness. As the car sits stock, the windshield posts take most of the strain. This is extremely obvious when you have the car cut in half as I do.

meanroy · Jun 18, 2005

Finally! An update.

After much dithering about, I finally decided to remove the door jam to straighten it.

It took a bit of work to cut the welds but it wasn't too bad.
The hardest thing was getting the door latch pin screw out!

I got it pretty straight without a lot of hassle actually.

Love those Clecos!
I was pretty careful while straightening the Jam after it was off. By hitting lightly and carefully, I was able to get it back into shape without adding much in the way of dents. I don't think I'll need any bondo at all!

-----------------------------------------

I also started trying to push the floor pan up but I have to tie the rear down -- put some anchors in the driveway.
When I jacked on the sub-frame I jacked up the ass 1-1/2 feet before I figured out why the floor didn't seem to be moving! Duh!

OK I got the anchors in yesterday. Let the epoxy set overnight.

I hooked up the chains to the body and the anchors this morning and tried to jack things into position.
Drivers side:

Passengers side:

I jacked on the sub-frame with the following results.

Passenger side floor pan angle:

Drivers side floor pan angle:

The passengers side started out level and stayed that way.
The drivers side started down and ended up somewhat too high! I overdid it, dammit!
Not too hard to fix though, Ill pull it back down, in smaller increments this time.
I checked the rear of the sub-frames side to side and it's perfectly level at the back of the sub-frames, and just a little off forward at the torque box. Should be fine after I pull it down a little.

Looks like I can get by without replacing the sub-frame, though it still has some wrinkles.

I might get this thing together yet!

Roy.

1320stang · Jul 5, 2007

Wonder if there's any new news on this?

runawayabc123 · Jul 6, 2007

Well, since this thread predates me by a few years, I read through the whole thing and looked through his website.

Given that he has a picture of a whole front end rebuild and later a picture of an "on the road at last" I think he made it. But I would like to hear that from the horse's mouth just to make sure.

1320stang · Jul 6, 2007

His website???

Wrecked hopes / Fond Memories

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