Hi All,

OH, OH, OH..... I forgot to mention the sound.

It is just incredible. I could not be happier. A nice mellow rumble at idle and a throaty roar when reved.

Many thanks to the fellows at Magnaflow for recomending this system for our car. The fit and finish and sound are all we could possibly ask for....

I better stop now, a tear of joy is coming to my eye. Sniff, sniff... :-)

....AAAAHHHH! You're killing me Bob! I can't wait to see the final product painted! Again, being a Mustang freak this car is one of my favorite PT cars!!!

Can't wait!!!

John

Hi All,

This weekend went pretty well.

Wayne has the passenger side fender ready for primer. This fender really gave him fits. Every time he made an adjustment here, something would change there. Every time he fixed something there, something here would change. It was a combination of the fender not being quite right, the flare being totally different from the one on the other side and the curvature of the fender apron being slightly different than the drivers side. Even so, he has everything lining up just perfect. It is amazing the things you can accomplish if you just keep working at it and don't give up. There were many points along the way where I told him that it was good enough and Wayne just would not hear it. He was not going to give up until he was 100% happy with the results.

http://sn65.com/images/SN65%20Images/05-10-10%20004.jpg

I on the other hand, got a second chance with the front valance. I was all prepared to let Wayne do all the work, but he would have none of it. This time he watched my progress and made sure that I did not mess this one up. All in all I am real happy with the results. Now I just have to open up the back side of the duct so that as much cool air as possible is directed into the intercooler heat exchanger.

http://sn65.com/images/SN65%20Images/05-10-10%20001.jpg

With that said, it is time to get to work. Wayne is already hard at it and I am just sitting here at the keyboard typing on and on and on and on....

Catch ya'll l8r

Hi All,

If you go to the SN65 home page, there is a small download of us firing up the beast. It is just a short little Windows Media Player clip, but it is living proof that she really does in fact fire up and that she runs smooth as silk.

Enjoy....

Hi All,

I just updated the SN65 construction video. I have only made a few changes, and it still cannot be completed until the car is done.

Hope you like it.

Hi all,

Here is my new favorite photo.

http://sn65.com/images/SN65%20Images/05-10-10%20014.jpg

Looking kind of "sinister" isn't she?

are you gonna be running a chin spoiler of some kind? if not i think the bottom of the core support really needs some blackout treatment.

my personal mustang project is on hold (again) due to a certain shop truck getting all the attention. but everytime i look at the updated posts of this car i get all warm and fuzzy inside...almost wanna go drag it back out and start workin on it :thumbsup: i hate having too many projects :mad:

Hi RR,

The photo is a bit decieving. It was taken at a very low angle. You really have to bend over quite a bit before you see much of the core suppot at all (if any). Here is a photo looking straight into the grill. This is what you would see if you were squatting down about 20 feet in front of the car.

http://sn65.com/images/SN65%20Images/05-10-10%20009.jpg

Once the valance is painted Yellow, you will not even notice the core support, even if you were low enough to see it. Although, God save you if this is what you see when the car is doing about 160. :-)

Also, we have about 3.5" of clearance below the K-member.

And, hey, don't worry about your project car. It will be ready and waiting for you when you have the time to work on it. Project cars, unlike wives, are very forgiving that way. :-)

Hi All,

Kind of busy this AM. There is a new update at the website.

Catch ya'll l8r.

Hi All,

This weekend went pretty well.

I finished modifying and painting the hood latching hardware.

http://sn65.com/images/SN65%20Images/05-10-15%20022.jpg

I also preliminarily fit up the rear interior panels. What a pain in the butt. I know that these panels were fit by hand on an assembly line, but gezzz, nothing lines up right. After assembling, disassembling, trimming, relocating tabs and re-drilling mounting holes, I finally ended up with a nice consistent fit. Now I just have to construct the structure for the floor and Wayne can paint the panels. We have to wait on painting these panels until after the floor structure is finished. We don't want to be scratching the newly painted surfaces now do we.

http://sn65.com/images/SN65%20Images/05-10-15%20005.jpg

If you look at all the other photos on the site, you can get a real good feel for how the finished interior will look. I think that the blend of 65 and 03 works very well.

Catch ya'll l8r

Hi All,

I have the rear package tray fabed up. I used 1x2 clear pine for the structure. All the joints are half lap joints for strength. The structure is sheeted with Masonite. If you are wondering what we are going to do with the rear shock towers, we are going to have them covered with a leather "boot" similar to what you would see over a shifter. As you can see, we have located the 4x110 + 300 watt amp just above the batteries. If we wanted to, we could make a hole in the package tray and expose the illuminated "Hifonics" name, but as of today, we are thinking no. The package tray is going to be upholstered in the same leather we used for the dash. This should give it a more luxurious appearance (as opposed to the typical carpet).

http://sn65.com/images/SN65%20Images/05-10-19%20029.jpg
http://sn65.com/images/SN65%20Images/05-10-19%20039.jpg

Wayne has finished up the front valance and it is looking killer. If things go as planned, we should have the car in living color ready to start the final assembly by the end of next week.

Well, back to work. Today, I have to fab up the subwoofer enclosure.

Catch ya'll l8r

Hi All,

9:00 AM
This weekend Wayne and I had to run up to the cabin and shut it down for the winter. We looked at the whether forecast and felt that we could not wait any longer. Here are a few views of the lake from the pier.

http://sn65.com/images/SN65%20Images...0-24%20023.jpg
http://sn65.com/images/SN65%20Images...0-24%20019.jpg

We only spent two days up there and wished we could have spent more. The weather was beautiful, albeit a bit on the chilly side.

Even though we were out of town, some work was still completed in our absence. Our nephew Mike wired up the power amp and got the head unit fit up. He is wiring up the rest of the system today (power, ground, illumination, remote amp, etc...).

http://sn65.com/images/SN65%20Images/05-10-24%20009.jpg
http://sn65.com/images/SN65%20Images/05-10-24%20006.jpg

I on the other hand got the subwoofer enclosure well under way. I just need to complete the interior baffling and we can urethane the structure right to the wheel well. Right now, the top of the sub enclosure is flush with the trunk floor. This is nice because now, when we install the carpet, it will lay flat.

http://sn65.com/images/SN65%20Images/05-10-24%20001.jpg

Wayne is catching up on some customer cars right now, but as soon as he is all caught up, he will start checking all the panels making sure that they are ready for paint. If all looks good, he should have everything in color by the end of next week.

4:30 PM
Wo Hoo!!! Mike got the system all wired up and functioning. Even though he just had the speakers sitting on the ground, I can tell that the stereo is going to be a killer. It is going to really crank inside the car, but unfortunately, the guys in the shop tell me I that you will be able to hear this car coming from a block or two away. :-)

Wayne says that the car is ready to paint. We just need to disassemble (again) and prep all the pieces. After we have the chassis stripped, he just has to schedule some booth time and a painter.

Things are looking good.

Catch ya'll l8r

Hi All,

And away we go...

Getting ready for applying the paint. Here Wayne has started the final steps prior to paint. Final priming, sealing, wet sanding, etc... I tell him "It looks good to me, just paint it." and he says "I know that you want to start putting it together, but I am not going to rush at this point in the project." I respond with "Boyd would have had this car painted months ago." His answer is "Well, if I were a slave driver who passed down unrealistic deadlines and had 30 people working on one car, I WOULD have had it done months ago." after which he firmly plants his foot up my ass. :-)

http://sn65.com/images/SN65%20Images/05-10-26%20020.jpg

After apologizing profusely and removing said foot, I went about finished up the stereo installation. After some higher math calculations ( 1 / (pi x r squared x depth) ) I determined the finished size of the sub enclosure. What you see there is 1 cubic foot of air. To get a strong, air tight bond, we used urethane to bond the enclosure to the spare tire well. Now we have to figure out what to do with the cavity we created. Wayne suggests converting it into a martini bar. :-)

At this point, the dash is basically complete. To finish we just have to wire up the parking brake function to the head unit and install the windshield mounted AM FM antenna. We are going to mount the antenna behind the rear view mirror and the "green" band at the top of the windshield. If you are wondering about the green tape on the instrument cluster, it is there to prevent any stray dust from entering the unit. When we originally stored the unit, we did not take this into consideration. So, when we went to install the cluster, we found that the inside was covered with a light layer of dust. I had to disassemble the unit and clean the inside, which is no easy task. Getting into all the corners was a real pain in the butt.

http://sn65.com/images/SN65%20Images/05-10-26%20027.jpg
http://sn65.com/images/SN65%20Images/05-10-26%20003.jpg

Anyway, back to work. Today, I have to figure out how to mount the sill plates and kick panels.

Catch ya'll l8r

and here all this time I thought you were out of black tape to cover that check engine light that wouldn't go away :P

Hi All,

Lots of new photos at the site. Some great ones of the sealed panels.

Go to the month of Oct project journal and check it out. For those who don't know the way, just click the link at the bottom of the SN65 home page.

Hi All,

Wayne just got back from SEMA. This was Wayne’s first trip to SEMA and he was amazed at the shear size of the event.

Before he left for the show, we had a short discussion about what he was expecting to see. He thought that he would be seeing the best of the best. He also thought that the quality of work we were producing would fall somewhere in the middle of the pack. And while he saw some mighty fine rides on display, he now figures that our project would have been somewhere in the top 5%, as far as overall quality goes. This was a real shock to Wayne.

This was very gratifying to hear. As I said, we talked about this very topic before he left. I was a little disappointed that we could not find a sponsor willing to showcase the car. In fact, I had difficulty finding anybody who would give the matter more than passing consideration. This left me with the feeling that maybe this is not as nice a project as we have led ourselves to believe. Now I feel a bit better about showing the car in the future.

I am wet sanding the interior pieces getting them ready for their final paint. Wayne is catching up on paperwork for the shop. I will be posting an update soon.

Catch ya'll l8r.

Hi All,

New update at the site.

Catch ya'll l8r

Hi All,

I have been plodding along on the electrical. We have the windshield wipers wired and functioning. The door locks and interior lights are wired and function with the remote, just like a real car. :-) Today I start on the rear wiring (tail lights, licence plate light, etc...).

Wayne has been making progress on the paint. The door jambs plus the inside of the hood and trunck lid are all in color. After he gets the body and a few other misc parts in sealer, he will be applying the color to the rest of the car.

Updated Photos are at the site.

Catch ya'll l8r.

Hi All,

Yesterday was great. I finished wiring up all the rear light connections. The parking lights and the tail lights and the license plate light and the trunk light and I even ran wires for the third eye break light. I just have to find a 12 volt THIN led strip about 36" long. If anyone knows where to find such an item, I would appreciate a heads up.

It is interesting to note that the color codes are the same today as they were in 1965. All of the wires I spliced together (from the 03 harness to the 65 pigtails) are exactly the same. Also, when I completed the wiring of the tail lights, the weird "buzzing" that was coming from one of the relays stopped. It appears that that circuit needed a load in order for the relay to latch properly. So now I have parking lights, turn signals, break lights and driving lights all functioning.

Woo Hoo!!!!

Wayne is detailing and wet sanding his heart out. He should have all the separate panels painted complete by the end of the weekend. I should have up to date photos posted on Monday.

Catch ya'll l8r

Hi All,

OMG, OMG, OMG!!!

I walked into the shop this morning just like any other day. Still half asleep, a freshly brewed cup of coffee in hand, I worked my way through the dim shop and started turning on the lights. As the shop started to brighten up (it takes a few minutes for the lights to kick in), I noticed that the Hood, doors and trunk lid were missing!!! I walked around the shop looking to see if they were perhaps moved from their normal resting place, but I did not see them anywhere. Where the heck were they? Wayne said that he was going to paint them today, so I looked in the booth to see if he had moved them in there. Maybe he finished all the wet sanding and put them in the booth so that they could get painted first thing.

When I turned on the booth lights and walked inside I almost cried. Before my eyes was one of the most spectacular sites I had ever beheld. Wayne worked late last night and started laying color. If a picture paints a thousand words, these speak volumes. So, instead of me going on, and on, and on, and on, I will let the images speak for themselves.

One parting comment... Just look at the reflections.

http://sn65.com/images/SN65%20Images/05-12-08%20016.jpg
http://sn65.com/images/SN65%20Images/05-12-08%20004.jpg

As always, more images are available at our site.

Catch ya'll l8r

bob thanks for the potos. :thumbsup:
rick kirkindall :)

Good thing i wear my sunglasses when I surf the net. :hail: that car is bright

Hi All,

I just did a little search and found the first mock up we did of the hood.

http://sn65.com/images/SN65%20Images/05-02-11%20(1).JPG
http://sn65.com/images/SN65%20Images/05-12-08%20016.jpg

After looking at the early photo, it is hard to believe that it looks as good as it does today.

Anyway... Back to work. :-)

Hi All,

It looks like our first show is going to be the Detroit Autorama coming up this March. When I told the guy's in the shop, they said, Ohhhh, maybe we will win the Riddler.....

BRAHHHAHHHHAHHHH!!!!!!

They may have been perfectly serious at the time but it is hard to tell. Maybe I should have taken the laugh as a little clue. :-)

Anyway... It did bring up an interesting topic. The general feeling was that, even if this car came out absolutely perfect, it would not be given a second look for this award.

First off, it is completely different than any car that has ever won the award. They are all polished chrome, SS lines, shaved, frenched, blank firewall, minimalist street rod type cars. Ours is built to mimic factory construction. Wires everywhere, factory connectors, factory labels, etc... We would be more successful in a concourse competition than this type of show car setting.

Second, we are not one of the big name shops or builders. I think that there is a certain mind set at these events. If Foose has a car there, he will make the finals, regardless of the entry.

Third, We have not spent 1/2 mill on this project. This also seams to have an impact on the judges.

While these are all good points, I feel that we may generate some interest if only due to the unique aspect of this project. The fact that it is totally different from the projects normally given the nod might even work in our favor, that is of course if creativity has anything to do with the competition at all.

What do you think??? Will a project of this nature be given any consideration or will the judges keep picking cars that are more of the same???

Bob to be eligiable for the riddler the car cannot be seen with paint on it...not on the web in pictures or anything....This is my understanding anyway and I may be completely wrong?


usually muscle cars do not far well at that show..Roy pigford built IMO a perfect riddler car(i.e.flawless) and got beat out buy a bolt together 41 Willys (prostreeted at that)

So IMO no it wouldn't far that well..not that the car is not nice but usually those type cars don't far well

Third, We have not spent 1/2 mill on this project. This also seams to have an impact on the judges.(quote)


1/2 mill will not cover a riddler winner these days !

I dont ever remember seeing a Riddler winner that was not a street rod...maybe there has been some but not many if ever.

I don't remember one either.....

Hi All,

One more step toward completion.

Wayne got the fenders painted last night, as well as the front upper and lower valance and some miscellaneous parts.

http://sn65.com/images/SN65%20Images/05-11-16%20018.jpg
http://sn65.com/images/SN65%20Images/05-11-16%20013.jpg

I, on the other hand, got little done other than sanding a few small parts getting them ready for paint.

I thought that now would be a good time to look back into the past and see just where we were one year ago. Here are a few photos of the project from last Nov.

http://sn65.com/images/SN65%20Images/04-11-16%20(1).JPG
http://sn65.com/images/SN65%20Images/04-11-29.JPG

We have come quite far over the past 12 months. I look forward to the day that we can drive this car whenever the mood strikes us. Hopefully, it will be sooner than next Nov. :-)

Catch ya'll l8r

Hi All,

Haven't had much to post lately. The detail work is just eating up so much time. I spent ALL day Friday detailing the interior "C" pillar vent grills. I sanded all the corrosion from the surfaces. You know what I mean right? All that pitting that develops over the years. Sanding in between all those vents is a royal pain in the butt. All that work, just to get them ready for paint.

http://sn65.com/images/SN65%20Images/05-11-21%20019.jpg

What we are going to do is paint them the dark charcoal color and then wet sand the fronts to expose the chrome after which we will clear coat the pieces. They should look pretty good at that point. The chrome front surfaces of the grills are now an interesting blend of chrome and brass which will look great with the current color combinations.

On Saturday, I worked up the seat brackets. These were much more involved than I had originally thought they were going to be. The seat tracks were much wider than the ford mounting locations. Also, the factory mounting locations are recessed into the floor about 2". To resolve these issues, I searched through the cash of stock Hydro-Flo material and decided to use two pieces of 2" x 2" unistrut. I had to taper and box the ends to clear the contours of the floor. I also had to remove about an inch of material fron the top of the rear mount to clear the seat when it is in the full down position.

http://sn65.com/images/SN65%20Images/05-11-21%20001.jpg
http://sn65.com/images/SN65%20Images/05-11-21%20004.jpg

Even though I was spending my spare time working on inane details, Wayne actually got the raw end of the deal. In between working on customer cars, he would continue sanding on the body getting it just right before rolling it into the paint booth. He will be wiping all the surfaces down reviewing the work today. He is being even more critical of this aspect of the build than he was with the bolt on items. He says "I only want to paint this once". This is such a large phase of the project, reworking any mistakes would really suck. Here is a shot of all the painted pieces currently in storage. If Wayne gets his wish, we will be able to start assembly at the beginning of December.

http://sn65.com/images/SN65%20Images/05-11-21%20009.jpg
http://sn65.com/images/SN65%20Images/05-11-21%20015.jpg

Catch ya'll l8r

Troy's Sniper did win one year

That is probably the newest car that won the Riddler. Sniper was a 57?? If i remember right.

The newest car to win the ridler was a 49 Chevy "M-80" build by HotRod and Custom Stuff. Here is the link.

http://www.hotrodscustomstuff.com/M80-02.html

The Sniper never competed for the Ridler.

Hi All,

Here was the winner in 95

http://www.autorama.com/casi/images/...e/scan0032.jpg

It is a 92 Mercedies

Here is the winner in 86

http://www.autorama.com/casi/images/...e/scan0023.jpg

It is an 86 Grand Am

All other winners (fron the 80's to date) have been 40's or older.

OBTW... No Sniper....

okay can i go back and remove my post so i don't look like an idiot

Hi All,

I hope you have all had a good thanksgiving. Mine was great, except for the fact that I started a flame war over at 3.8. :-)

I stumbled across a stupid comment that someone made about a year ago and just had to respond. It must have been the booze talking (I had just finished a couple of glasses of a nice zinfandel followed by a couple shots of grappa), because I normally would have just ignored it. Anyway, I should have let sleeping dogs lie. I would have been better off hitting a hornets nest with a stick.

Anyway....

The car is now in the booth awaiting sealer, color and clear. While we were starting to apply the sealer, we started to get a few random fisheyes. It appears we did not wipe it down as good as we thought we had. So now we have to sand out the fisheyes and wipe down the car again. This time doing it right. Oh well. Wayne just got into the office so it is time to get to work.

http://sn65.com/images/SN65%20Images/05-11-26%20003.jpg
http://sn65.com/images/SN65%20Images/05-11-26%20002.jpg

Catch ya'll l8r

Hi All,

Color is going down this very second. Looking good so far. :-)

Hi All,

The clear is going down as I am typing this. Lots of new photos at the website.

looking good - can't wait to see it in person

Hi All,

The paint is down. I need to help Wayne prep some small pieces that are yet to be finished. After that, all we (Wayne) have to do now is wet sand everything with 600 one last time, give it two more coats of clear and the painting is done.

Right now, I need to go wash off the liquid mask (we coated the engine bay and chassis with a spray on liquid mask to keep any stray overspray off the completed areas of the car).

That is all I got for now.

http://sn65.com/images/SN65%20Images/05-11-28%20027.jpg
http://sn65.com/images/SN65%20Images/05-11-28%20025.jpg
http://sn65.com/images/SN65%20Images/05-11-28%20029.jpg
http://sn65.com/images/SN65%20Images/05-11-28%20028.jpg

Catch ya'll l8r