The long winter didn't make it too much fun this year, but I am getting back into the project mode.

1st finished off some mods on the F150 Raptorizing it and then back to the exhaust.

Got some major work done on the tough drivers side. Hoping to get the passenger side done tonight. Needing a few parts though

Very nice car Doug !

I am curious are/did you using mono leafs for road racing, or do I just see a set of caltracs?

Thanks, Joe

Hi Joe, thanks for your question

I have not had the car back on the track, since I redid the suspension (including the caltracs) and right now it has the 5 leaf lowering leaf springs.

I was of the understanding a few guys with the 70 Transam mustang had road raced with caltracs. I think the idea is to back off the preload on the caltracs so the suspension has an ability to move more freely while corning.

Last time I was on the road course I had vintage (mustang) under-rider traction bars, with the rubber bushings and rollerized bearing front coil spring perches with cut coils.

Now I am a full coilover front suspension (combination total control products and 'street or track') and caltracs along with the bilstein shocks.

The caltracs went on, after I snapped the pinion at the drag-strip (wheel hop)

I like the caltracs for the street, although if I were to go back to the road course, the car has significant oversteer. (The front suspension really grips) I think for pure track, I will consider an upgraded rear suspension.

I'm sure when I get close I will be asking the experts how to help reduce my oversteer.

I have the other tailpipe almost done, and will snap a few more pics tonight

Worked today and tonight on the exhaust. Everything is together. Added and O2 bung, and gave everything a bit of a polish.

I have some work on the wiring to do. I think with the 3" pipes, it is louder, I just hope in the closed mode it is quieter ;)

Well sun is here finally a few months late

Even though I did not finish everything, I dropped the car on the ground and took it on the road.

Muffler change is great so far. Really freed up a whole bunch more HP. The car was bordering on being scary at times before. Now that free HP has made it darn right scary.

Now traction is an issue. As my cheap sumitomo tires are almost at life's end, I have to get something sticker and streetable in the 315/35/17 size.

I have an option of Mickey Thompson, Nitto, and Goodyear. I have heard good things about the MT

Car sound; https://youtu.be/scJlPRBTrDo

Next upgrade is R&P steering

Car looks great, I'm not sure M/T makes a sticky road tire.

Have you looked at Bridgestone 71R's or Falken 615+ or bfg rival s?

They are all 200 tread compounds so you can run cam t , or goodguys etc. If you're looking for more but in a street compound the sport cup 2's are amazing when warm.

Or if you're going to just track it slap some Hoosiers on it!

Thanks for the suggestions. I was looking but can't seem to find those tires in the 315/35/17 size range. Darn

I'm going to keep looking though

Hopefully I can find something

Nitto NT05 :thumbsup:

Pretty decent tire for the money, and as you know, so few options in 17" anymore.

http://www.nittotire.com/passenger-t...formance-tire/

Cool, thanks for the information, they seem to fit what I am looking for

I just ran across your build...that's a beautiful car you've built.Hope to see it out and about this year,maybe the Friday Night street legals at Mission?

Thanks for your kind comments, Dave

I don't know if I can get out all the way to Mission on a Friday night... maybe.

I have about another few weeks of work on the car, including a rack and pinion set up from TCP

As you know the weather has been not very good up here, so I am hoping that it improves and I get all the last few items done soon :)

I've been looking at getting a dashcam for my car, Mostly for regular driving. I notice one camera came with a racerender software/app package. Have any of you guys used this for track days etc?

Back to it tonight. I worked on the passenger door courtesy light. Everything was going good until I decided to take the bulb out and check it out. It was tight to get the bulb out. The glass snapped in my fingertips and then the socket pushed out of the housing. SO much for repro parts! Nicely popped a few blood vessels in my finger tips lol.
SO now I have to get a new bulb, and I didn't finish what I started.

Anyway I was able to fix the passenger mirror and put some loctite on the adjuster screw so it does not rattle and lubed up the passenger side window mechanism.

Over the weekend, I picked up more stuff for vacuum forming my front carbon fibre brake ducts. I hope to do that some time this week. Once I get the door done I guess.

Oh and I checked out the local retailer for the Nitto tires. They have a lot of them in stock locally, so should be no problem, when I am ready to fry the last few millimeters off of the remaining rear tire tread ;)

I had to revisit the new LED driving lights and turn signals.

One of the driving lights started intermittently flashing once it warmed up. While just asking some questions Gary (the manufacturer of these slick lights) just arranged to send me a replacement pair.

I installed them tonight and they seem to be working perfectly.

I really like the ultra bright LED reverse lights. WHen I am backing in the garage at night, they really light things up.

Sorry for the problems with the pics. I have closed the photobucket account. Maybe if I get time, I will update old pics and posts

FINALLY, back to work on the 'stang after the endless home reno LOL

It's time for the steering to be upgraded. I opted for the TCP power rack after debating using a manual rack and electric column.

One of the reasons I was considering the electric column was to do away with one belt driven component under the hood. The other was to free up some horsepower.
But after doing the 3" exhaust, I would say that, honestly, I freed up plenty of horsepower. I don't really need anymore ;)

The TCP systems have a reputation for quality. I already have some of their components on the car.

I am looking forward to having the steering tightened up even further.

Messing with steering is always fun and looks like I am going to be playing with removing headers etc, to make room to remove the old system.

More soon

A successful night, after arguing with the tie rod ends for a couple days. I had to heat the bump-steer studs up red hot with the torch to get them to pop off.

And they did.

So next is removing the headers in order to get the old steering box and idler arm off.

That should take a couple days ;)

A little more progress on the steering.

Next step is to tilt the engine and remove the drivers side header,the installation process
after that, it should be all back to assembly

With a break in the festivities of the season, the work continues. Possibly later (next week) I'll be testing.

Things are going pretty smoothly so far after the hard work was done

Glad to see you making progress. The engraving on the LeMans bar mount is a nice touch.

Thank you. I thought it might be nice to have something there instead of a hole.
I had a third one made, that I think I will incorporate into my next console.

I am trying to complete all my wife's to-do lists now, so I can concentrate on the car lol

I think everyone is busy like me (at work) as I have not received any replies on my request for a dual sheeve pulley from TCP for the power steering pump.

I am guessing that or they don't make one.

I dreamed up an idler arm pulley bracket, that will be integrated with the pump and not have the fan belt for the a/c compressor hit the convex portion of the p/s pump pulley

Lucky I had some 1/2" aluminum kicking around. It should polish up nice as well.

Something new in the garage today

Well that is nice garage art !!!

Ha ha true it is. I don't know which my wife hates worse, the new transmission (art) or the scantily clad women in the photos in the garage ;)

Bumpsteer time

This weekend is supposed to be ugly rainy weather. I guess the ideal weekend for setting up the bumpsteer.

Last time I did this with the old steering system, it took about a day and a half a side. I was hoping that it would be faster this time, since I know more, but it looks like that is not so. So far I've worked about 3 hours on it. I think it will be all weekend.

The good thing is, the initial set up looks really good. The toe change has been very small. After playing for a bit, I decided to set up my laser targets a little better. Hope it goes faster.

I don't know if any one here has experience using an aluminum center section on the street, but I was considering going this route, since I have the six speed in the plans, and am going to be changing ratios.

I just have the standard strength pumpkin right now, nothing special

If it's strong enough it might be a nice way of putting the car on a diet, since the 6-speed is a little heavier than the TKO

https://s3.racingjunk.com/ui/5/50/33...-Center-Se.jpg

Once I got set up, everything went okay. Faster than I thought. I am better at seeing where the bumpsteer is going and estimating the shims that I need.

The numbers look very good. It should translate into a very driveable car.
After this I will do the toe in and verify the camber and castor (this should not have changed)

My laser targets have a 2" offset, in case someone is wondering where the 2 inches comes from

I've been using an aluminum center section for 10 years now. But about every two years I get gear whine and have to replace my gears. There are many things that might be causing this (besides 700+ horsepower and track racing) but I've often wondered if the flex of an aluminum case might have something to do with it. It only saves about 10-12 lbs. Yes I know we sometimes think that is significant, but if I burn another set of gears I'm going back to a nodular case.

So no real evidence but something to think about.

Thanks Preston, that is very helpful information, and something to consider. Cheers

I ran an aluminum Strange in my Nomad for years - LOTS of miles.... never replaced a ring gear or had any issues with it.

Running one in my Old Yellar track only car -- zero issues....

Hi Greg, I am wondering if there is a difference between the brand name 3rd members, and some of the others?
Definitely reliability is one of my primary considerations
Thanks

Both mine are Strange.... and the only issue I ever had was the pinion seal pushing out of the OY car.... a "positive" pinion seal piece was bolted on and that fixed that issue.


I will say -- unless you're building a "max effort" lightweight car -- there really is zero need to save the 10 #s' unless you're like me and just like this kind of stuff.

Mine is Moser. Greg is right the 10# is pointless unless you're chasing the last 0.1 second of laptime. If you could tell the difference in "ride quality" from the lighter axle I'd start checking for peas under the mattress.

Although just for the record - I don't think Greg's Nomad was pushing 700+ hp through 335 tires or saw any significant track time !

I do like fancy stuff, and the rear of the car does tend to cut loose in the corners, so I am thinking about putting the back end on a little bit of a diet

I guess that is true enough, although if you are laying under the car on your back, wrestling the 3rd member into the hole, plus getting older like me, then the 10# lighter might just me the cat's ass ;)

A little more progress on the steering, as I approach completion.
There was a little bit of looseness in the steering, so I took a bit of time to track it down.
I thought initially that it might have been the tilt column, but ended up being a rack adjustment. After reading the TCP adjustment process, I took to adjusting the pinion nut.
It was pretty easy. I just did not want to overdo it, so took it slow.
I think I am within a fraction of where I need to be, and have to say the steering feels absolutely amazing.
I wish that I would have added the TCP rack earlier. Honestly I just did not have it in the budget at the time, doing home renovation instead (LOL)


It's going to be quite a different feeling car when driving this year.

I ordered a kit for the air conditioning hoses, so I can make my own custom length hoses. That should come next week.

Next will be planning for the 6 speed swap. I'll have to redo the console and gauge display, which will be fun.

In a way it's good that the weather is crappy. I don't have to feel rushed. I think the 6 speed swap, other than the redesign of the console should be about the same amount of time to do, as the steering system

I think I might need a little advise on a couple things.

So with the change to the T56, I am going to need to remodel the trans tunnel, and my floor console.
So the custom floor console that I have has a ton of wiring in it along with gauges. Right now I have multiple connector and plugs to accommodate. I'd like to change that to a larger harness type connector/plug that will cover all the wires. I probably have 30-40 wires going to the console at least.

The second thing, is that I was thinking of changing the head unit. Right now I have an alpine DVD with a pop out screen, and a plug for the Ipod. So maybe time to change that to a bluetooth unit that will link to our phones and it'd also be nice to have a built in backup camera.

Any ideas? (thanks ;) )

Sounds like you need a Cannon Connector and Wire Care is a good source for everything you need wiring. (( www.wirecare.com ))

Cannon Connector Links

www.ittcannon.com

https://www.ittcannon.com/product-families/circular/

As for Radio I really don't use one. I have the Kicker Interface that I can use an iPad or iPhone with it. You could also get the app with the back up camera module that sinks with your phone.

Awesome, thanks a lot!

anytime and I am glad I could help