63 falcon
 

Craig,
Now I remember you and your car at
The Ggod Guys. You were trying to decide whether
to paint or not. My vote is to leave the Patina but
it's your car. Cool job on the springs

I had the winged Pantera next to you guys
Look forward to seeing you again at Thunderhill

Bob

Wow impressive! Great job.

Awesome
 

Those anniversary Cobra wheels look great on there, and the RX-7 Turbo Calipers are a killer bang for your buck setup:weld:

Big old stack of new Falkens mounted and balanced. They look a little small compared to the 315's.
http://i885.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps79b2b89d.jpg

http://i885.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps565479a8.jpg

Little bit of restoration and crash repair.
http://i885.photobucket.com/albums/a...psf773b9a5.jpg

http://i885.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps3fd7748b.jpg

http://i885.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps90c71eb3.jpg

And some new upper control arm cross shafts.
http://i885.photobucket.com/albums/a...pse2805146.jpg

Falken sweet!
:thumbsup:

Where'd you get the Falcon's at?

I got em at Big'O Dublin, had to wait a week, 315's and 275's, (18's), but nobody seems to have these protouring sizes...."Im over by the airport, part of town u in?

63 falcon
 

Looks like someone is getting ready for paint?
Before Optima??

Bob

I picked them up from discount tires direct took 4 days for processing and shipping. I'm off of El Caminito so not too far from you.

How could I forget Pantera Bob? Good to put a face with a car. No paint before Optima. Hoping to get it back to the body shop next month to finish having the rear tail light panel pulled Then paint in April.

63 falcon
 

I still love the Patina maybe they
can mix you up a batch:)
Look forward to seeing you again at
Thunderhill

Bob

Finally got it back on the scales. Got pretty lucky, don't need to add any ballast, just a tick over 3200 with 5 gallons of fuel. 20 gallon tank so no worries.

http://i885.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps402eaba8.jpg

http://i885.photobucket.com/albums/a...psbbcf1d82.jpg
50.4% cross weight was as close as I was willing to get with me in it.

I am a thermostate housing gasket away from being ready to race. See you guys next weekend.

Oh, and Bangshift did an article on my build: http://bangshift.com/bangshiftapex/p...ty-perfection/
It was a total shock, never contacted me, but hey any press is good press.

-Craig

All good stuff Craig!!


Great article by Chad! Now maybe you'll get the respect you deserve in the pits as people begin to realize what you've accomplished.

63 Falcon
 

Craig,
Looks good... see you next week
your scales?? need to get a set

Bob

I'm not nearly cool enough to own scales. They were on loan from Mike Maier.

Hey, there's more guys that work at BangShift than just Chad, you know... :poke:


Craig, love the build, which is why I did a quick write-up for the "Pro-Touring Tuesdays" blog item that I started a few weeks back. We spend a ton of time trolling the internet for cool stuff and as the resident Pro Touring guy I like to showcase cool builds that I find along the way.


If I wasn't on the wrong coast and buried in 3+ feet of snow at the moment I'd be all over doing a real feature, photos and all. Keep up the good work!


Dave Nutting

Sorry Dave -- I made an ASSumption.... because I know Chad has seen the car run a couple times. Never bothered to check for an author. Just shoot me! LOL

They are still warm. First set of Mike Maier Inc Falcon control arms. Not sure if they will be a stocked item.

http://i885.photobucket.com/albums/a...psqdnbroxj.jpg

http://i885.photobucket.com/albums/a...pskjitoaym.jpg

:thumbsup:

They look great! Are you running GG this weekend.

Very cool, throw up some pics once you get them installed.

This build is way too cool! My hat is off to you for building your own springs. Do you start with a purchased main leaf, or are you also forming the eyes yourself?

Nice work.

Awesome Craig!! Should be much faster now!! LOL


Those are some good looking parts....

Nice arms, Craig--they should avoid possible buckling issues. How far did the lower coilover mount wind up being below the actual arm? When I was mounting my RideTechs, it wound up being kind of a ridiculous challenge trying to figure out how to get optimum travel (on a relatively short-stroke shock), a 30% or so sag quantity, and a mount for the t-bar lower that wouldn't break. I think the lower mount wound up being about 1.5 inches or so below the arm. They took the beating at Thunderhill pretty well, I think...

One of us definitely needs some good paint--it's good that you'll be the one to take responsibility for cosmetics...

I got the rest of the parts last night, so I should be in good shape to have it together for autoX action this weekend.

63 Falcon
 

Craig,
good to hear you are going to be ready
Save me a spot by the Trees

Bob

I bring my own shade..... LOL






http://i919.photobucket.com/albums/a...e/file-113.jpg

Awning
 

Does yours get tied down as well, Greg? We had a trailer with similar setup, only it had verticals into buckets of concrete...the winds at Road Atlanta ripped it off, with myself and another guy holding onto it, and it landed on an M5...ouch

Nothing holding it -- it's purely hanging out there. It is self retracting in a wind. Has a mercury type "windy O'gauge" set up on it end of it. When it moves too much she rolls herself back up.

Awesome
 

That would save a lot of apologies. Luckily the guy with the M5 was someone we were doing track prep for, and saw us get lifted off the ground before the awning tore...a pdr and a buff and he was good

Helped that we works for Firefly Vodka, and we all "forgot about it' later on

The car worked excellent at Goodguys this weekend. It took me 4 runs to figure out it was better to leave it in first and bounce off the rev limiter than bog in second, and I never found the limit of grip. It was nice having a car that I felt like I could have won with. I finally started feeling the tire again on Sunday. If I can get more seat time this season I will be right there, cranked out a 62.377 on my last run which is 3 seconds faster than I was at the last show. I couldn't believe how much better the car was. Mike's quote for the day was "its amazing what good shocks and a little geometry can do"

I can't share the exact numbers, but the shock mounts a little over 1" below the center line of the UCA (just enough room for a craftsman deep socket) and as far out as possible. We are using custom JRi shocks with 4.75" of stroke. The motion ratio is 74%. The old Maier racing arms were closer to 65%, and a stock 65 mustang is about 54%. We did a lot of work with JRi on the shocks to optimize packaging and performance.

http://i885.photobucket.com/albums/a...psh0it8viz.jpg
Engine bay view. Double adjustable require a remote canister to keep the nitrogen volume happy at full compression.

http://i885.photobucket.com/albums/a...pslxw21zhh.jpg

http://i885.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps4mbsvpae.jpg

http://i885.photobucket.com/albums/a...pso9tpehgk.jpg
I did a couple of special things to the reinforcement plates because I know I will be playing with the shocks a lot. I welded the nuts to the bottom side so I don't need 2 wrenches, and I added two 10-32 tapped holes so I could screw the plates to the body.

http://i885.photobucket.com/albums/a...pszdnlfo9z.jpg
I countersunk some existing holes so the hardware is hidden by the mounts when installed.

http://i885.photobucket.com/albums/a...psw6mzla0m.jpg
All done and ready for autocross action. I will remove the lower bump stops when I install the new lower arms. Right now, the strut rod would bottom out on the frame before the shock shaft bump stop hits.

this is awesome!

Busts me up Craig! It's SHOCKING to know what good geometry and some JRi's do for handling. We're all learning a fairly steep curve now that Pro Touring is evolving into pro racing. Just buying brand name parts and bolting them together isn't nearly the same as getting people involved that actually know suspension.

Good for you!!! Love this build... and love the way you're continuing to go about your business.

Slick setup! Do you think Ford could imagine when they built the economy minded Falcon that in the future someone would be mounting a shock canister in that strut tower brace for road and auto cross racing? Nice job.

63falcon
 

Good to see you are getting it sorted out
I guess the 18 hour thrashing really paid off
I really felt bad for you at thunderhill but another
event and you heading to the top

Still love the patina look

Bob

1320 addiction posted up a video of my fast run. I didn't want to mess with my GoPro last weekend, so it was cool to get a video. I just can't believe how much better the car gripped on turn 2 with the new rubber and suspension.

Thanks Bob, just part of racing I guess. I'm just glad I didn't wrap my car up and was still able to drive it home.

Well, the patina will be going away soon. I just can't take the ugly car anymore. I think I will run one more event this month at Crow's Landing and then strip the car. Probably miss the June GG's and have it back out in November.

It looked pretty tough in this Falken promo:
http://i885.photobucket.com/albums/a...psusik8x4i.jpg

But not so great in this one:
http://i885.photobucket.com/albums/a...pspf5ikfg2.jpg

I'm not much of a patina person, but i think yours looks good as is imo. In that lower pic, i'd like to see the front bout 3/8 lower and the rear up just a smidge (less than a 1/4). The 64/65 chevelle's do this to me as well, the rear fender covering part of the wheel just throw's the lines of just a touch. Same thing with my 2nd gen, i've got to adjust for aesthetics, but i think i should learn how to drive first.....

Where you spraying it at? "bootho caminito"? lol....

your doing the prep, someone else spraying? curious as i look forward to your progress as i dig your car....

Wow -- great video Craig! Solid smooth driving!

So - now that you've teased -- what's the paint going to be!?!?!

I'm planning on using Dupont Nason line products. Sand it down to metal and start over fresh. Hopefully I don't find any surprises. There can't be anything too bad or it would have shown up over the last 19 years that I have had the car.

I will be keeping the car the original "D" code "Ming Green" basically a turquoise color with a small metal flake. It is a very 60s vintage color so the car will still look right, but won't look like a barn find anymore. I'm going to start stripping on April 19 or 20th. My goal is to have it back together for the August Good Guys show.

Completely agree on the stance comments. I had my jack, tool kit and spare tire in the trunk. ..should have emptied it for the shoot. And I lowered the front 3/4" with my new arms. Going to prep and shoot in the garage.

I dunno man, I think the 2nd pic looks good too.

There's something about that Wolves in sheep's clothing I really love.

x2 2nd pic looks good.

Glad you're keeping it the stock color. That's going to look good. Hope the repaint goes smoothly.