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So f'ing boss! Excellent work, brother. Keep it up.
PS. You're right, car looks like it was meant to be. Great job widening it. And I love the hood. Killer. |
Honestly I didn't think it was possible to make a Coupe look this good and then you go an do it !!
This has to be the best "Stanced Mustang Coupe" ever !!! Quote:
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Awesome Preston! :thumbsup:
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Very Nice Preston! It looks angry!!
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What a frickin monster... I have been waiting for even the ****tiest of flip phone sound clips of this thing for awhile. I'll bet its bite matches its bark.
Preston, what is the "tread width" outside of tire to outside of tire on it? |
Wow I appreciate the positive feedback guys. I need it because to be honest with you in the last year my enthusiasm for fancy cars and hot rods has been going through a major recalibration. I'd even go so far as to say if the right person were to make an offer...
That being said there is nothing like that king of the world feeling you get driving it around. >Preston, what is the "tread width" outside of tire to outside of tire on it? 74" rear, 74.5" front. If it still had a pinch weld, it would be 4" off the ground, which is about 7" lower than a stock Mustang body. It has a completely flat bottom front to rear and the street splitter is not prominent so GC is pretty good. |
Looks Awesome all put back together, and sitting by the curb! It looks... Understated, for what you've done. Never thought I would say that about your car.
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Latest?
I've seen you popping up in a couple other places, so we know you're still alive. :)
Any updates or latest goings-ons with this bad mutha? |
Preston, is there any video of this car you can share or point to?
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Funny you should ask I do have some more material. As usual I was waiting until I had "some good photos" but that never happens. Hope you guys want to read all this crap -
Its the first winter I can remember when I didn't have overwhelming giant projects on the car, like "building a widebody" or "building a hood from scratch", and in fact it has been really fun to work on smaller bites that have a nice return on investment and don't put the car on jack stands for months on end. First thing I did was disassemble ever Jonny Joint in the suspension. I bought these several years ago and they didn't have grease zerks and man did they need them, so I added zerks, rebuilt all ten of them and greased them with a poly specific grease. In addition I greased all the swaybar bushings and the poly side of the shocks, and oh man what a difference in ride quality. And for the first time the car doesn't squeak when it comes down off the jacks. I also "just decided" to rebuild my LCA's for more turning clearance. Now, the truning radius wasn't bad, it was okay, not great. I think I calculated I gained about 6-8% per side of turning radius, but it was a HUGE improvement. The car actually turns tighter than my daily now, in fact it turns so tight you can feel the front wheels crabbing. I was driving the car around quite a bit in the early Fall and you know once you get over the novelty of driving your muscle car around and goosing the throttle these little driveability things make a big difference, and this update made me SO happy. Do I have any pictures of my new LCA's ? No, no I don't :) But its the same basic design, I just moved the strut side of the arm closer towards the car and then gusseted the ball joint for support. I thought about making part of it aluminum or this and that, but decided safety and no worries about aluminum fatigue was the better way to go rather than 1-2 lbs of weight on a 100+ lb corner assembly. The next thing I added that I also dont' have any photos of was a Racelogic Traction Control system I have had sitting ont he shelf for 2+ years. If you look back through this thread I think I have some photos of the custom trigger wheels I had built through eMachine Shop again like 2 years ago. So for almost 2 years I've had this worry in the back of my head that the wheels or sensors wouldn't work. It was a very painful wiring job, but I finally got it hooked up and they work perfectly. I haven't had a chance to go nuts with the T/C yet but I did drive it around on rainy streets and it worked really, really well. I can't wait to put the hit on it and not have to worry about things coming around on me at 50+ mph. It also added a cool little control unit in the cabin, again no pics. My biggest project was heat control. Because I lost some side vents in the fenders and opened up the distance between the firewall and the outer fender, the cabin was getting really hot if the air temp was > 75. Its kind of binary in a funny way, if its not too hot out you don't really notice, but once it gets "nice" it would get really hot in the cabin, worse than before. So I built some 18awg SS heat shields that cover the entire firewall on each sideand then extend to the outer fenders where they mate up with a large flange. Then behind the SS is a 5/16 thick blanket of aerogel insulation (supposedly the best). To finish off the inner fender I also sandwiched the aerogel with a .063 sheet of aluminum. In addition, while I didn't make it air tight I really made an effort to just block any heat path so I boxed in any open spaced between the rocker and the heat shield with more SS and aerogel. I also slapped some DEI heat shield on top of the SS for extra credit The aerogel I have is a very thick blanket and its chalky, thick, and difficult to use. But I said F' it and cut it into strips and used safety wire to wrap both of my down pipes with it, and then used header wrap to encapsulate everything. The down pipes look about 5" in diameter now. I did this a year ago on one of my side pipes and here is my scientific test - after driving during a hot idle, you can just barely slap the wrapped only passenger side with your hand. The dirver side with the aerogel and wrap, you can actually rest your hand on the pipe for a quarter to half second. By the way a little trick I learned was whenever I wrap a pipe, I then put on the rubber gloves and smear the whole assembly with clear silicone (make sure to use low odor Silicone II). It really helps to encapsulate and protect the wrap which otherwise makes fiberglass dust everytime you brush up against it. So finally here is a picture: http://www.carter-engineering.com/pr...HeatShield.jpg http://www.carter-engineering.com/pr...eatShield2.jpg That air hose is fresh air from the cowl, and for some reason there is absolutely no positive pressure at the cowl I get no air flow whatsoever through that. Oh that's right I also built air ducts into the removeable cowl panel for the heater box and fresh air. I also built some louvers for the he sides of the fenders to release heat. I could have welded them in directly but the method I used disturbed the bodywork much less, and I like how it came out and let me use aluminum for the louvers. I copied the design from a thread I saw on Lat-g, some pro in Australia who was posting up some cool things at one point. http://www.carter-engineering.com/pr...ouverConst.jpg http://www.carter-engineering.com/pr...uverConst3.jpg http://www.carter-engineering.com/pr...gverConst2.jpg You can see I also opted to build some hood louvers to cover the big vent. I kind of like the "open vent" look but because I had 2 ducts I had a divider in there anyway, so once I started I just louvered teh whole thing. It actually looks a bit too aggressive for what I'm going for but it came out well and it has been growing on me. As usual I don't have any pictures of fabrication or assembly ! I didn't want to post this photo because it makes the louvers look totally obnoxious. In real life they are much flatter like 50 degrees and not vertical looking at all, something with the light this photo does NOT do them justice at all but since I had it I will post it, they flow much much better in real life. http://www.carter-engineering.com/pr...HoodLouver.jpg Since these photos were taken, I have added running horse emblems on the side of the fenders and FINALLY got windshield and backglass chrome trim on the car which has been a 5-10 year goal for me, and it is absolutely AMAZING how much it improves the look. That was the real reason I was waiting to have a decent photo session. I wanted to put the stock chrome rocker strips on the side of the car but because the rocker is extended and some other reasons they just didn't look right. Check out these photos and I have a styling question at the bottom - http://www.carter-engineering.com/pr...Small/rear.jpg http://www.carter-engineering.com/pr...earquarter.jpg I love this view, but note the rear behind the wheels. I've learned recently about how much car designers try to angle the rear side view upwards and "bob" the back of the car to create a better profile, and I do notice sometimes how the rear has a bit of a full diaper look to it. My goal at the time was to have the sheet metal match the actual angle of the diffuser. I care less about that now but I have also read that while on paper diffuser angles > 7 deg don't work and stall the air, actual race car experimentaion has shown that steeper angles are actually quite effective due to vortices or something, especially on higher ride heigh vehciles. if you look at a stock Mustang, the rear quater actually starts 1-2" higher than mine and then angles much more sharply at the valence. So I am thinking of rebuilding the lower quarter with an OEM style angle and using a stock valence as my starting point (obviouslh has to be widened and massaged). What do you guys think ? leave it alone or what ? Starting back with a stock valence would also allow me to continue pursuing the "looks stock" vintage theme, and it would actually look more badass revealing more of the big tires. Here is a pic of a killer widebody mustang from Aussie I just love the rear end on this car. http://www.carter-engineering.com/pr...all/image.jpeg Here is my crappy photo of my car: http://www.carter-engineering.com/pr...l/sideshot.jpg And some paint shop alterations: http://www.carter-engineering.com/pr...deshotmod1.jpg http://www.carter-engineering.com/pr...deshotmod2.jpg I did take one walk around idle video but it sucked so bad I'm not posting it. Currently I'm building some custom grill trim for the front (1/8 aluminum trim, gonan have it chromed). It will emulate the stock '68 Shelby grille trim and it will look SO killer to outline the incoming snout in chrome. After that I think its time to get back to the interior and finally put a stereo in it. I am big into mobile audio in my other rigs, so I am trying to walk a fine line between my desire to put in a "real" system vs just some good speakers and good power, as its a waste to do any more than that. (seriously I'm like thinking "well the sound stage wont' image very well because of bla bla bla). So anyways, I haven't really been up to too much on the car. |
I love the car and think it looks really, really good. I may not have noticed it....but since you brought it up and used some mad photo editing skills to show the change, I do think it would look better with the changes on the back.
The hood and fender vents turned out nice and I agree, once you get some chrome for the front surround it'll pull it all together. :thumbsup: |
Sweet! Its looking good! That hood turned out really nice.
Huh. I agree with DBasher, I might not have noticed it as much before, but the last picture with quarters matching back up to the bumper looks much more trim and a little more lean. I like it! The chrome around the grill will look nice and help show that Shelby front end better too. Thanks for sharing! |
how do you like the aerolatches?
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The concept of driveability is such an underrated concept with our hotrods. It's why I ripped my Falcon apart again last summer, and it sounds like why you're analyzing components of this car that most would never even consider, given the monumental quantity of engineering and re-engineering you've put into the Mustang over the years. As ridiculous as it sounds, while great track performance is a real thing, a quick trip to Safeway can be the greatest judge of all the sweat and blood you've poured into the thing . . .
That said, consider this another vote for (the need for) some sound and video of the legendary "Preston's Mustang.":king: |
the aero latches are great. I've left the pins out on old style hood pins more than once and almost had a disaster, these are much more obviousl from the driver's seat when they are unlatched. They can also be locked with a key, and are easy to adjust. YOu seem them used all the time on big time race cars they are the real deal.
Its funny, the more I look at the first photo (ie the current car) the more it has grown on me actually. It gives visual weight to the back of the car and gives it more "rake", like a pointed missile. I will still probably tweak it though because that's what I do. The rear wheelhouses were designed to accept a 20" 335/345/355 size wheel and the chassis can be adjusted to keep the same ride height and I think it would be absolutely boss to have even bigger meats on the back.. I desperately need new tires in the Spring but I just can't see springing for new rear wheels and gears for the sake of vanity. I'd like to say I"m growing up but really I just would rather spend that money on mountain bikes. |
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IMO streetability is harder to engineer than performance. I'm still not there. I have never ridden in any other pro tour cars nor really ridden in any other classics or even modern sports car in 15 years. In fact I haven't driven anything but rentals and our 2004 and 1992 Cadillacs (my daily). My car has never been more streetable and yet its still a total beast. When I see these super high dollar pro tour cars I sometimes wonder how they really feel after 2 hours of driving and a little traffic etc. I've got poly/rubber bushings on at least one end of every link, rubber engine and trans mounts, enough dynamat and pad to choke a horse, quiet mufflers and its still not remotely comparable to a factory car. Not to say I can't sit in traffic or creep around a parking lot or drive down the road for 2 hours (with cruise control no less !) but I sure as hell wouldn't want to drive it daily like when I first bought it. Oh yeah I was 18 years younger then too. |
I've driven or ridden in dozens of these PT cars --- and NONE of them are anywhere near what Stielow builds. His builds are truly streetable while also more than track capable.
I only wish more people could drive one of his builds because then they'd truly understand what the best of PT can be. |
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But seriously I like the look of the tapered up rear too. Really would bring that part of the car all together. So start cutting. :) |
I added to the bottom of quarters on my Mustang also, I do think it helps the lines on the car. We are just plastic surgeons on the original lines that Ford came up with.
https://57hemicuda.smugmug.com/Cars/...O/DSC02129.jpg https://57hemicuda.smugmug.com/Cars/...DSC_0770-L.jpg |
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I'm actually trying (at this point) to do the opposite of being a plastic surgeon, I want to go back to the original lines as much as possible without compromising anything. There is a good scene in the Birdcage - the two main characters are very out homosexuals that run a gay cabaret, but they have to pass as straight roommates because their daughter is bringing her boyfriend's parents to visit. So they have to totally redecorate their apartment. A group of their fabulous friends are helping remove all the Miami Gay Kitsch (tm). One of them brings in some butch looking item and says "this will be perfect" and Robin Williams says "Subtract....don't add....subtract". So whenever I start thinking hey maybe a fender vent or mesh here or a wing there would look good I tell myself "Don't add....subtract". Because my Mustang is a bit like a gay couple's apartment in Miami, or something. |
Prestons 67
I have to agree with adding a little to the lower rear
Pro touring drivablilty I take my Pantera on 100-300 mile drives all the time Hell I drove it to Vegas and back on Dot hoosiers years back It is very streetable... but the Bird just does not seem to ride the same... maybe 50-80 milers.. in traffic neither of them are an issue Bob |
I am a big believer in less is more, but when I look at these cars, for some reason my eyes only see what the factory did wrong. My brain immediately decides what it would take to fix it, its a curse.
Other then the mid year Vette's their isn't a car built that I don't see flaws in, that is what makes the hobby so fun. Everybody can make each car into what they think is right. Love them or hate them, each car built (ours included) aren't going to be liked by everyone. I know, you and I, could not care less!!! |
On the aesthetic front, one of the design elements that really shouts out modernity on both Preston's and Ron S.'s Mustangs is how the ride height and the wheel opening heights have moved proportionately. While this is something you can't do all that effectively with a stock-framed car, it is definitely a huge benefit of building a new frame and putting the shell where you want it.
To clarify, I'm talking about how the wheel kind of eats the side of the car--I'm sure there's a design/engineering term for this that I'm unaware of, but it has to do with minimizing the slab between the top of the wheel and the top of the fender/quarterpanel (while generally avoiding "tuck", which is really no good for cars without a ton of axle droop or those that have rather large wheels). Both of these cars just kill from the side (and pretty much every other angle). (In the distance, hear the masses clamoring to build tube chassis and cut fender openings in order to achieve the new perfect stance . . .) |
Looking good!!
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Looking good Preston! Flattered you posted a pic of my car too.
James Godbolt http://www.pro-touring.com/threads/1...stang-Fastback |
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Awesome job Preston!
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God I am the worst photographer ever !
If you read above I was thinking about bobbing the rear end, and I did. When I started in on it I was pissed at myself for starting another idiotic time consuming project but it actually came out great and looks much better I think. I really like the simplicity of the rear end now, although I no longer have back up lights. At some point maybe I will hide some LED's somewhere or whatever. And even though I just said I like the simplicity, I have some urge to put the M U S T A N G letters on the trunk like at some point. It also mimics the original Mustang rear valence and appearance much better than before, if you remember I've been striving for something that looks "vintage" but super built. The other thing that really got me excited was getting all the window chrome back on and the running horse emblems. Really makes everything look much better especially in primer black. And the other thing I really liked was emulating the front nose chrome of the Shelby Mustang. I actually hand built the trim out of aluminum and had it chromed. It came out really really nice, even I was surprised. Of course it cost almost $500 to chrome the 4 small strips of aluminum and took 8 weeks but I had it done at Queen City plating which does cars for Pebble Beach and stuff. The quality is superb, especially considering I hand built it out of 1/2" key stock aluminum bar. Attachment 59949 Attachment 59950 Attachment 59951 The other big news is I changed to elecrically assisted steering. I have a high end Woodward rack in the car and its a beautiful piece and the rack itself is smooth as silk. But the servo they provided seems to me to have an enormous amount of stiction. No problem on the race track or when turning in earnest, but trying to keep the car straight on the road and make micro-corrections was incredibly annoying. I talked to Tony Woodward about it and even had some long conversations with their main tech and sent it in for "reduced drag" seals, but it still felt super stiff to me. I mean on the bench you could just barely turn it back and forth with your bare hands. In the car you could definitely feel it "sticky" when driving. I've always hated the way this car steers from stock through my own custom Pontiac X-car rack conversion through the TCP rack through stock car racks to this rack. None of them felt anything like OEM steering to me. So i bought a Saturn Vue EPAS unit and column for $300 and installed itunder the dash and setup the rack as a manual unit. Its still not as perfectly OEM as my daily drivers, but its much much improved and has a nice power assist.And if I didn't have hydraulic brakes I could even get rid of the hydro pump. Do I have a bunch of pictures of the unit installed under my dash or build photos of how I adapted my Ididit column to the unit ? No, no I don't. HOwever it was all pretty basic fabrication and the original Vue unit had a sliding shaft that was very easy to adapt to a Borgeson coupler and I even built it to have 1" of collapse in the upper shaft (although I've never understood how this helps you when you still have the 1.75" diameter steel column around the shaft). Anyway I was very happy with the improvement to the smoothness of the steering after that. ---------------------- I have to admit though, my passion for this hobby has sadly detiorated. I've loved hot rod cars my whole life yet in the last couple of years I can hardly get excited at all. Its a combination of the money drain, the kids draining my hobby time, the fact that I live in a heavy suburban area where I can sometimes hit a fun freeway ramp but for the most part just drive around in heavy traffic, I have no real place to "go" in the car since it can't carry my family and the traffic around here most of the time is abysmal. I really can't afford the time, money, effort, and frankly, the danger, of taking the car to the track. I don't seem to enjoy fabricating on the car anymore either and am just getting too damn old to lay on the concrete etc all night long. IOW, I'm kind of contemplating the exit ramp. Not there yet, but contemplating it. I would like to ask some honest car guy opinions on what you think this thing is worth or what it might sell for ? Please PM me rather than post a number. Here are some highlights of the car just to refresh: (see the next post) |
Chassis:
-GT/TransAm inspired aluminum honeycomb reinforced space frame with integrated roll cage and front and rear crush structures. - Total bare chassis weight 420 lbs (compare to Corvette C5 at 450+ with no floor, suspension crossmembers, or roll cage) -Removable front tray (in less than 30 minutes the complete front end including intercoolers, radiator, plumbing, wiring, and headlights unbolts from the main chassis). -Goal was low Center of Gravity (CG): 15” engine setback from “stock”, 10” driver setback. Turbos are behind front axle centerline. Fuel tanks in front of rear axle centerline. Exhaust is routed through rockers so that the floor and therefore driver and therefore car body could be mounted as low as possible Suspension: -GT/TransAm inspired dual A-arm front suspension using heavy duty but lightweight aluminum stock car hubs and custom uprights. Design goals were low roll center, long control arms for low scrub and stable roll center, low (3/4”) scrub radius, low side scrub, combined with high caster and high caster gain for dynamic camber gain increases during steering to allow for mild camber gain in straight line bounce. -Interchangeable front sway bar, Afco double adjustable coil over shocks. -Custom Woodward steering rack with electric power assist -360 degree articulating polyurethane “Jonny joints” for the best compromise of ride comfort and suspension accuracy. Coil overs have also been poly bushed on one end. All bushings could be converted to heim joints. -Full floating live axle with ½ degree camber. -Adjustable three link suspension with very long (30”) links. -Underslung Watts link for low roll center. -Adjustable rear sway bar. -Bilstein double adjustable coil over shocks (one end poly bushed). -Rear bushings are a combination of rubber stock car race bushings, Jonny joints, and heim joints. -CCW 3 piece aluminum wheels (2 sets) Street 18*11 285/35/18 18*13 335/30/18 Track 18*12 315/30/18 18*13 335/30/18 Brakes: Not your typical big brake package out of a catalog! - PFC Professional Sports Car Endurance racing 4 piston nickel plated calipers, purchased from a Ferrari Challenge team spares package. I have a Hoerr catalog from 2000 where these calipers were being sold for $3k apiece. - 4” brake ducting with spindle ducts. -15”/14” fully floating Coleman rotors with Brembo/McLaren anti-rattle clips. Bolt on aluminum mounting rings (not slip on hats). -Hydraulic booster with custom dual master cylinder balance bar racing setup. -Hydraulic shutoff valve parking brake Engine: Twin Turbo all aluminum dry sumped 427” Ford Small Block, built Spring 2011 by C&D Machine Kirkland WA Dart aluminum block, 4.125” bore and 4” stroke Eagle forged crank and H-beam rods with ARP bolts AFR 225 heads with upgraded valvetrain and stud girdle (New Spring 2011) Mild Cam Motion hydraulic roller cam, idles at 19” vacuum at 900 rpms. (230/224 .59 lift with 1.7 rockers) 3 stage dry sump with trunk mounted tank (pump rebuilt Fall 2010) Custom Wilson intake manifold with front mounted 90mm throttle body Twin Precision Turbo GT35 with 0.68 A/R with twin intercoolers fully ducted (never seen IAT’s over 110). Dual Tial 44mm wastegates. Insulation blankets Tubular turbo manifolds, Swain ceramic coated MegaSquirt 3 Electronic Fuel Injection – includes on board data logging,boost control, self tuning wide band O2, PWM and digital outputs, CAN bus, and all other features of modern EFI. USB port in cockpit. Fully sequential Injector Dynamics 1000cc injectors Coil on plug ignition with 36-1 crank trigger (LS Truck coils) Vapor recovery system 620 rwhp @ 7 psi on pump gas on a load bearing “Mustang” brand dyno. A couple of keystrokes to the boost control would net 850rwhp very easily. The hydraulic roller cam is very mild, with a larger cam or going to a solid roller the sky’s the limit. There is also plenty of room for bigger turbos. Frankly, I still find 600whp to be plenty. Fuel System Twin saddle tanks in front of rear axle for weight distribution and safety. Uses Corvette siphon pump to transfer fuel to pump side reservoir (passenger). Pump tank has trap door sump, both tanks stuffed with fuel cell foam. Dual Bosch 044 pumps, 2nd pump triggered from ECU. Should support 1000+ flyhweel hp. Aeromotive regulator and filters. Exhaust: Full v-banded 304 stainless steel 3” exhaust system all the way to the rear bumper. Down pipes and headers Swain ceramic coated. Drivetrain: Centerforce DYAD dual disc clutch rated to 1200 hp (new), hydraulic throw out bearing Quicktime reduction gear starter Quicktime scattershield/bellhousing Rockland Standard Gear “Son of Tranzilla” T56 Magnum transmission. Aluminum driveshaft (new 1350 u-joints Summer 2011) 3.5 ring and pinion, Detroit Tru-Trac differential, 31 spline (fresh rebuild Winter 2016) Transmission and differential coolers and electric pumps Moser Aluminum pumpkin Racelogic adjustable traction control system using custom 40 tooth trigger wheels. This system works really really well, very happy with it. Aero: Flat bottom floor with removable undertrays from front splitter to rear diffuser Rear diffuser at a mild 7 degree angle so its actually functional, not cosmetic Front splitter mounting system such that race splitter of large size can be accomodated. 90% of the air going through the grille will be routed right back through the hood duct including all radiator outlet air to reduce drag and increase downforce. Interior (looked nice at one time but needs a refresh) Fully dynamatted Lightweight German short weave cut loop carpet Cup holder, storage trays, glovebox Heater/defrost with fresh air supply Variable wipers Cruise Control (works excellent) Excellent heel/toe throttle/brake setup Kirkey deluxe road racing seats Removable steering wheel Standard 3 point retracting seatbelts as well as 5 point harnesses Nu-relics Power Windows Full suite of gauges including wideband O2 display and trans/diff temperature Warning lights – Oil pressure, temp, water temp, overboost, A/F ratio, 2nd fuel pump SFI padding on roll cage Excellent helmet clearance Miscellaneous: 10 lb fire system Custom alum radiator and Lincoln Mark VIII fan with PWM fan speed control (car has never overheated (210 degrees) street or track). Setrab water/oil cooler 200 amp alternator Cockpit switch for high boost (pre-mapped) 3 gallon water/meth injection tank in trunk ready to be plumbed. Body: Widened 2” each side thruogh the character line, 74” tread width Custom flares, all steel 1968 Shelby inspired styling Front noise piece, rocker panels front and rear valence handbuilt from aluminum Rear tail caps hand built from steel Hood scratch build from aluminum Fiberglass front bumper Despite the Shelby theme I chose to stay with the classic triple tail lights as I’ve never liked the Shelby style. Maier FG trunklid and rear bumper (widened) All factory glass with factory seals. Basic bodywork complete 4.5” ride height with nothing hanging below the ground plane 3300 lbs If I sold it I would have the bodywork on the rear end touched up where I kissed a fence post and finish off the roof. The gaps are all great, all the main bodywork is done, it might not be SEMA quality but is very presentable. The car actually drives very nice, easy powerful brakes, good clutch feel, good turning radius, a bit loud inside but eh its a hot rod. ON the negative side, I am 5'11" with longer legs and torso and it fits me perfect, however there is no room to move the seat back or put in a cushy padded style OEM seat. There is a lot of head room though, the seat could move up but not back. Also this is a 15" Kirkey seat, a 16" would fit but probably not a lot wider, although other seats without big side bolsters would fit. |
I love it, Preston! I think you've done a great job over the years building something exactly the way you wanted, think of everything you've learned doing all of this. Nice job!
:thumbsup: |
Yeah I've always figured when the economy collapses I'll be in a much better position knowing how to weld and fabricate and fix things than relying on my ability to manipulate abstract symbols on a computer screen.
So I've got that going for me....I've always thought maybe I could do some part time fab work for a car shop as a semi-retirement plan too. |
Preston, your skills are in the right place man.... building and designing and rebuilding your car pretty much everything touched by you best I can tell.... that's better than just being able to post crap on the interwebs. :sieg:
Your car -- to me -- is like a winning USCA car in 2020 -- but was built a decade before. A man (and car) ahead of its time. That thing has to be a hoot everytime you get it in. Hope you keep it. :thumbsup: |
Looks great Preston. Don't be afraid to take some time off from the car. I wouldn't sell it though. It sounds almost like you'd be doing it out of spite or confusion/indecision. Just tuck it away for a bit and focus on something else.
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Thanks guys.
So yeah after some heavy thought I'm gonna keep it through another season, more than anything just to have some projects to work on during the cold, dark winter. If someone walked into my driveway with an open checkbook I'd have no qualms about moving on with my life, but the actual act of cleaning it up, taking a bunch of pro photos and listing it for sale is just too much, I don't think I can do it. I'd sure like to know some kind of ballpark value though, it would be interesting to list it on BAT or ebay with a high reserve. I mean if you had a shop build something even remotely like this it would start at 1/4 million dollars and yet some days I think christ you can buy a super nice C6 for $30k or less how could I expect to even get that much out of it ? Plans for the winter include some Ron Sutton spec'ed springs and shocks and possibly a new upright to provide some tweaks to the front end geometry, a new round of soundproofing on the interior, and possibly, maybe, adding A/C. Because when do you want to drive it ? In the summer, when its hot d'uh. That would be a major major job though and there is literally no place to put the evaporator without major surgery and probably re-wiring the whole car to move the ECU And fuse boxes to the trunk. Oh, and finally adding a radio. My daily drivers have very high end mobile audio installations, so I'm like the plumber who has leaky pipes at home, I could never decide whether to do something bare bones or something quality. I guess that depends on my sound proofing efforts. LIttle hint for people, dynamat is not a sound reducing element, it only reduces metal panel resonance. |
Like an alcoholic or drug addict I thought I could go out and just have a few beers with the guys, but as usual I ended up waking up in the alleyway with a massive hangover and no idea how I got there. We've had our ups and downs but I always end up in the same place - "I can't quit you"
It started with just getting some decent shocks on the car. I've been extremely impressed with what Ron Sutton is doing for our types of vehicles so I thought I would hire him to spec them out. Now the original reason I started on this project in 1997 was because the stock based vintage Mustang front end was so crappy, and I've always been interested in suspension theory and design. So the more I looked through Ron's offerings the more excited I got. Bottom line is instead of putting in a new set of shocks/bars/springs, I ended up cutting off most of the back and front of my chassis and building an all new setup using Ron's expertise and many of his parts. I want to be clear that although I engaged Ron's services and gave him a fair amount of design freedom, I still had budget and legacy constraints and of course I am building most of it myself which means this is NOT a "Ron Sutton suspension" product. Originally I wasn't even going to touch the rear end, but I ended up doing the following - cutting out and rebuilding 90% of the subframe removing my non-bladder aluminum saddle fuel tanks and going with a standard trunk mounted fuel cell moving the dry sump tank and battery and drivetrain coolers from the trunk to under the car adding a new x-bar to from the shock mounts to the upper cage (refitting a roll cage in a completed car sucks btw). moving to weight jacker screw mounts for the rear shocks (and changed pickup location) Moving the front LCA mounts from a fixed non-ideal position to slider adjustments offset the upper 3 link (completely new adjustable front slider mount) Put a 2-way torque absorber in the top link. moving from an underslung axle mounted non-adjustable watts link to a Ron Sutton frame mounted adjustable watts link larger tubular rear roll bar with new mounts, arms, and pillow blocks new Ridetech single adjustable Ron Sutton valved coil over shocks Replaced the aluminum honeycomb rear package tray with steel panelling for safety, and took the time to cut out new dynamat and MLV to improve the sound deadening. Everything measured, x-measured, aligned, levelled, etc. in situ under my carport. Well technically on my frame table, which consists of 3 large MDF boards...sitting in my carport. whew I got tired just writing that. Here are my usual crappy pictures that do any justice to what I've accomplished this Winter: I started out cutting a notch in the rear subframe rail to splice in a mount for the watts link, and by the time I turned off the sawzall I ended up here. I later took another 6" off of those rails. http://www.carter-engineering.com/pr...cutoutrear.jpg Initial install of the watts mount: http://www.carter-engineering.com/pr...attsmount2.jpg Working on the axle, building the new upper mount. I went with the Sutton strategy of re-using one of the shock pickup points for the Watts link. I braced mine for extra insurance as its a bolt on mount. I'm afraid of welding on the housing so I use bolt on mounts, no time or budget to have a new housing made up. http://www.carter-engineering.com/pr...Small/axle.jpg Here is a picture of the right side watts pickup point, it uses the two of the bolts for the clamp on trailing link/shock bracket and is triangulated to the backside half of the clamp that mounts the brakes. http://www.carter-engineering.com/pr...wattsmount.jpg Under the rear of the car, note the shocks aren't mounted but you can see the jacker mount coming through the upper rail. There will be a trans fluid pump mounted there by the battery, the diff pump is on the other side. Not looking forward to having the oil tank and battery grimy, at some point I'll have to put in some shielding. At least the undertray helps a lot. When I built the car I originally put in the x-bars from the main hoop down to the shock mounts and rear landing pads but took them out so I could fit my bicycle wheels in the back ha ha. Well it turned out my bike wheels don't fit anyway, so I painstakingly put the x-bars back in. Anyway, my point is that I"m really happy with the way the low mounted sway bar pickups are triangulated right up to the main rail where the new x-bars and main cage down bars connect. http://www.carter-engineering.com/pr...suspension.jpg I'm currently working on the front end - again a total rebuild using a Ron Sutton inspired/designed super long arm front suspension. I'll be running 315's on a 12" rim under my current sheet metal and will have almost 4" of suspension travel. I'll cover that in a future post |
After spending most of my fake work day (if I start later in the day, I can begin with beer) staring at the cage forum on C-C, and seeing many pictures of this car's chassis, it's funny that I show up here and see its latest iteration being introduced. I think I can speak for many in saying that it's awesome, even if it is against your best intentions. Inspiration, like hope, can be so much worse than crack . . .
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Your story sounds far too familiar. Quite a slippery slope but should be killer once its complete
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Cool progress on the chassis Preston and I feel your pain.
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Quite funny you mention drugs. I have often wondered if this hobby is cheaper or more expensive than a drug habit. I'm beginning to think drugs would have been cheaper! |
Glad you're sticking with it Preston.
The new Suttonization I am guessing will work out quite well. What made you pick the single Ridetechs I wonder? They do seem like a great value before stepping into the high priced world of double and triple adj. "SLA"... super. :D |
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