I put my son Josh to work today helping me get the front end back on the car so we could push the car out and turn it around to finish up the 4-link and get the new rearend under it.

http://i1158.photobucket.com/albums/.../null-2194.jpg

http://i1158.photobucket.com/albums/...o/null-563.jpg

http://i1158.photobucket.com/albums/...o/null-940.jpg

http://i1158.photobucket.com/albums/...o/null-395.jpg

Thanks Jeff. Your car turned out awesome with a well tied together theme and details. I can't wait for the day I fire mine off and make the maiden parking lot voyage just to see it move. I'm jealous of all you guys firing up these new motors with drivable cars ;) I'm almost a year in already and gotta long way to go.

Since the car has no rearend under it it's sitting on a floor jack and 2x4's so I could measure the rearend width.

http://i1158.photobucket.com/albums/...o/null-452.jpg

keep up the good work,that subframe looks really nice,like the wheels too:thumbsup:

I like the wheels. Nice job on the subframe.

Thanks Jeff. I'm lookin forward to seeing more pics of your build.

Thanks Wayne! I think I'm doing good. So far nobody has said I hate the wheels. ;)

Your doing an excellent job on this build:cheers:

My dad layed out the rearend for me based on my measurements. Hopefully I didn't screw up. I made a run down to his house tonight to drop off the Wilwood brake kit to be safe. There's a lot of variables when considering a 1" offset pinion on an offset center section on a rearend with different axle tube lengths and throwing a disc conversion in the mix. :headscratch: :headspin:

Too much for me. I left it to the professional. I can't wait to see this thing in the lathe getting cut down.

Thanks Phillip. You as well! :thumbsup:

I fixed the passenger side door. Removed the old skin, sanded and wire wheeled the inside and painted with SPI black epoxy to protect before reskinning.

http://i1158.photobucket.com/albums/...o/null-766.jpg

Here's the new door skin.

http://i1158.photobucket.com/albums/.../null-1628.jpg

AMD skin? Looking good.

Hi Vince. Yes. It's heavy gauge and fit well. Only complaint is the mid door body line is a little soft. Its not as crisp as the stock/AMD fender and quarter. I'll have to deal with it later.

oh,thats easy,

I'm really happy with how the passenger side quarter and door turned out. All of my body ref points measure out within a 1/16 comparing side to side now. The car was wrecked and covered with an inch of filler in some places when I tore into it. The quarter was crunched in a couple places and the door was crunched and twisted. i repaired the inner door structure and used 3M panel adhesive which allowed me to work the skin a little before it set up and I made my spot welds.

We re-hoop'd the wheels to get better fender clearance with the new front brake kit and to go a little wider with improved scrub radius and front/rear track offset. I added 1/2" width and moved them in 1/2". The front wheels are now 9-1/2" wide with 6-3/4" back spacing. (Was 5-3/4 BS. Now 6-3/4 BS going from a 7" inside rim half to an 8")

http://i1158.photobucket.com/albums/...o/null-301.jpg
http://i1158.photobucket.com/albums/.../null-1948.jpg

Coming along nicely. I'd say you've done a good job of fixing the body considering how bad it was when you started.

Incredible work! Wish my car looked half this good

Looking good!!

Thanks guys. Seeing your builds keeps me motivated. There's so many cool cars on here! At times it seems like I have a long way to go but progress is progress and I'll eventually get there. Even when it's just a little at a time.

hows that rear suspension coming along?

It's all designed but only partially fabricated. The long story behind it is we found the stock Ford 9" housing axle tubes aren't round. Ford built the housing and then machined the bearing and seal surfaces in the ends true to the center section. This is different than the Dana and Chevy housings we've worked on. Now we know why people just cut the ends off without much thought and use a bar with alignment slugs in the carrier and ends. We were thinking people were just a little careless with tolerances but now we know why. We have to do this as well but we still cut the ends off in the lathe and indexed the ends to the housing and true'd up only the ends and the axle tube where the ends press fit before welding. We couldn't true up the entire length because the tubes are somewhat oval and would leave thin spots. If I new this going in I think I would have replaced the axles tubes so the outside OD would be round within a few thousandths instead of 130 thousandths. The tubes being oval shaped by .130 has made things a pain as we don't want to mill the holes in the brackets .130 over to fit. We're still kicking around the thought of machining oval holes in the brackets or machine a round hole compromise and grind as needed to get the brackets indexed properly for the pinion angle. We may even replace the tubes.

Damn, well let me know if you need some input and a bare moser housing. Much easier route if you don't mind forking up 460 for a bare housing

Dang. I wish I knew that before I bought this one. :bang: :) I appreciate the offer.

My dad messed around with it today and figured out a solution. He turned the tubes down a little and made the bracket bores a press on fit so it will work out. Fortunately this rear end has the thicker 3.25 diameter tubes.

I don't have any good pictures to post but have made a little progress. All of the 4 link brackets have been machined and the new axles are here. I wasn't able to use the Wilwood offset bearing retainer with the new updated bearings i got from Strange. The new A1013A bearing is wider so I picked up some flat retainers from AME yesterday. I also picked up the 1" .156 wall DOM tubing for the links themselves.

My buddy mounted up my 245's on the wider wheels. They're a little stretched but work to my advantage for fender clearance. I'll take a look at 275's later.
http://i1158.photobucket.com/albums/...o/null-408.jpg

Those 245s don't look too bad. If clearances are really tight, a 255 might give a good balance. 10mm makes a lot of difference sometimes.

Thanks Trey. That's a good idea. I could also possibly run an 8-1/2 rear wheel half instead of an 8 and give up some turning radius. I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. The 245's fit perfect with the 8 at 6-3/4 BS. I don't need to change it but Sutton's got me thinking about wider front tires ;)

looking good, let see the rear man!

Wheels look killer... I'd also recommend trying at least a 255 tire on there if you can.

Seems like forever since my last post. It's been a busy end of summer. Sent my baby girl off to college, bought a new car, moving, works crazy busy, a few birthday parties, kids sports,.. Stuff you guys know all too well.

I plan to spend more time in the shop in November. I did however finish up the 4-link pockets. The rear ends in the car finally. I'm happy with how it turned out. The axle tubes are within .010 on the dial indicator now. Phew.. That was stressful. I never realized the factory 9" rear ends had such large tolerances. Mine was almost .050 out on one side before we started on it.

I should be hauling the car down to my dads in the next few weeks to throw on the lift and finish up the bottom side and mock up the engine and trans.

Keep updates coming,we like them

Here's some pics of the 4-link pockets. I second guessed myself at least half a dozen times on the design and location. Luckily I had Brendon to keep me straight.
http://i1158.photobucket.com/albums/...ps862eb3a2.jpg
http://i1158.photobucket.com/albums/...psaab4ec3a.jpg
http://i1158.photobucket.com/albums/...ps89110c67.jpg
http://i1158.photobucket.com/albums/...ps2ca6bcb4.jpg
http://i1158.photobucket.com/albums/...ps99edffd6.jpg
http://i1158.photobucket.com/albums/...ps1d7c9b38.jpg
http://i1158.photobucket.com/albums/...ps8de69a4a.jpg

I tweaked the rear end geometry and brackets so many times I lost count. After debating over and over and factoring in excellent advise from successful racers like Ron a Sutton and my dad I ended up settling for two different anti-squat configurations. One for road race and a second setup for drag. I'm not 100% sold on arch slotted brackets so I went with multiple holes. The pan hard bar will be slotted as the load is perpendicular to the slot.

Here's some of the brackets off the CNC mill.
http://i1158.photobucket.com/albums/...ps5476f1c9.jpg

Here's the round stock and bushings my dad turned in the lathe to be able to setup the rear end. We bolted the 3rd member into the housings with shims the same thickness as the thinner gasket to locate the bar which we used for reference with the dial indicator to check the housing ends before I welded them on. We reused the old ends and turned them down to make a step in the tube side to locate them on center. I took most of the pictures with my dad's phone. This is all I have at the moment.
http://i1158.photobucket.com/albums/.../null-1437.jpg
http://i1158.photobucket.com/albums/...ps9cb190c5.jpg

Here's the spacers that go between the brackets and the heim ends. I used 5/8" heim joints with a 3/4" shank and turned and cut left and right hand threads in 1" .156 wall 1022 DOM tubing I picked up from Morrisons shop.
http://i1158.photobucket.com/albums/...psc2793361.jpg

I set the wheel base to 108". 2 deg pinion angle with the holes in the outside brackets at 90 deg (vertical/plum) and the bottoms of the inner brackets at 0 deg (level)

http://i1158.photobucket.com/albums/...ps0aded64b.jpg

Here's the finished width. I was barely able to squeeze the 11.5" wheels with 315's in there. The rear end articulates well with a rolled edge on the inside lip of the fender.
http://i1158.photobucket.com/albums/...ps9d9f9eb4.jpg

Hi Jeff. Good to hear from you. I was just checking out your updates yesterday. Your car helps motivate me. You're getting so close and man is it nice!!

You guys are right. A 255 will be the way to go. Gotta wear these out first though.

I installed the trunk lock and threw the front fenders back on to get an idea of the stance. ;). It's been a long time since I've been able to push this thing around on its own 4 wheels. It was nice to get it outside.

http://i1158.photobucket.com/albums/...ps8b41cb67.jpg

http://i1158.photobucket.com/albums/...ps456011f6.jpg

BTW Dave, what do you feed your cat? He looks to be a little intense.

I like your wheels and the stance is real good,keep up the good work,really nice.:thumbsup:

Thanks Jeff. The guys at Fikse did a great job for us! This new design will be available soon. I'm really happy with it. They've got a lot of good things going. New designs, more hoop choices and bigger wheel sizes.