Protouring style 1966 Ford Fairlane
 

Hi everyone, I have finally broken down and started a thread about my car. I would like to show some of the mistakes I have made so other people can learn from them. It seems like the more I learn, the more I realize how much I don't know.
I would also like to take a moment to thank some of the people that have helped me along the way. Tom, Rich, Bryce, John and the rest of the San Diego Cam Class, thanks for the constant competition and camaraderie. Also, thank you to Mike Maier and Guy Ankeny. They helped quite a few times to stay on track and make my car faster.
I will post some pictures, in no paticular order of past races and past projects.

http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f3...250878248.jpeg

http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f3...D/rttc%202.jpg

http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f3...D/rttc%203.jpg

http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f3...%20feb%202.jpg

http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f3...%20feb%201.jpg

http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f3...ps2f783e01.jpg

http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f3...130_144451.jpg

http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f3...02626796_n.jpg

http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f3...72598059_n.jpg

http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f3...121_155832.jpg

http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f3...109_104118.jpg

http://lateapexphoto.com/p632155182/h255b08b5#h255b08b5
http://lateapexphoto.com/p765931949/h19f16309#h19f16309
http://lateapexphoto.com/p1027945703...56f8#h1e1456f8
http://lateapexphoto.com/p487895350/h3ba3816f#h3ba3816f
http://lateapexphoto.com/p213474715/h31e76538#h31e76538
http://lateapexphoto.com/p445456656/h2b149509#h2b149509
http://lateapexphoto.com/p445456656/h27ae6368#h27ae6368

These are from Qualcom Stadium in San Diego over the past couple of years. I will go back and edit in some more pictures in the future.
Let's fast forward to now. For about year, I have been doing some major work on my car. I had some work done by a local shop. I had a new motor built and the leaf springs ripped out. I recently move up to Salt Lake City and unfortunately, the car was in no condition to drive up. As I learned, buying a house and starting a new job takes up a lot of time. It took awhile to find a shop that could finish everything up that was also local. One of my recent life lessons is to have a qualified shop / person do what they do best. For example, if you want an off road truck, take it to an off road shop. If you want a lead sled, take it to shop that has built them before. If you want a race car, take it to a shop that builds and races cars.
I went to the local race track and watched and asked around. One of the shops that was constantly mentioned was LYFE motorsports. I did some googling on them. They have raced Pikes Peak. They only won the 6 Hour WERC Endurance Race at Miller Motorsports Park last year. Just last month they took their car to Australia to compete in world time attack. I took my car to them to do a general safety check about a month ago. I just wanted to make sure I wasn't going be in a serous accident because something of dumb.I wanted them to check out the work that had been done by the previous shop and the work that I done. It was recommended that everything in the back be redone.
I am going to post up the progress as we go.

I'm new to this online posting thing, so please forgive me. Here are some pictures from the shop over the past three weeks.

Old suspension cut out and the area cleaned up!


http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f3.../IMG_83281.jpg

http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f3.../IMG_18241.jpg

Center sheet metal cut out and replaced. Tubes added to the existing down bars.

http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f3.../IMG_75211.jpg

http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f3.../IMG_18441.jpg

Cutting the templates for...

http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f3.../IMG_18451.jpg

the diff truss! This is an 8.8 out of an explorer. The center is cast iron and needs some special prep & skill to weld on. This seems like a much simpler solution. I believe it is made out of 16 gauge steel so it wasn't too heavy.

http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f3.../IMG_12261.jpg

http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f3.../IMG_55821.jpg

New shock cross member welded up and in.

http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f3...izeRender3.jpg

http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f3...izeRender8.jpg

http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f3..._00441%201.jpg

http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f3...ender6%201.jpg

Panhard mount to the chassis.
http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f3...izeRender5.jpg

Mount to the axle.

http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f3...izeRender4.jpg
http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f3.../IMG_70481.jpg

http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f3...build/Axle.jpg

Looking forward to your updates. I'm a Tyler D as well. My younger brother has a 67 galaxie he's building. His will be more traditional stop light cruiser though.

Welcome!!!

I'm just up the road from you - in Sun Valley, Idaho.... but I don't know much about cars or any of that kind of stuff. :>P

Welcome, nice car. I love making a cone chaser out of an unusual suspect. Nice work so far. Looks like you get a bit crossed up every now and then... :D

Cool car--there's a guy who runs one of these (white/blue stripes) with the NorCal Shelby club. I'll look forward to progress pics!

keep us posted on the build! When does it go into the speed shop?

Thank for the kind words every one! Here is todays update!

New tubes on the roll bar being welded in. The new ones are silver. There is alot going on here. I really like / appreciate the rail reinforcement in front of the rear tubes.

http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f3.../IMG_56291.jpg

Are you still planning on adding a seat belt bar across? I'm no cage guy but isn't that a lot of load on one corner?

After spending untold hours reading the roll cage thread on corner-carvers it looks like you have a shop that knows road race :)

The thing I see over and over again on Pro-Touring cars is having the rear down bars on the roll bar go to random places in the trunk, often with bends. Having them go straight to the upper shock mounts and having the diagonal go from passenger lower to driver upper is supposed to help handling and torsional stiffness. On the right track.

The cage is still being mocked up. You can see how the top hasn't been welded in yet. There will be a bar going across for the straps. I just need to go up there to see how everything fits.

Looks great Tyler, cool shift knob! It's always nice having 100% confidence in the shop doing the work, looks to be real nice so far. What have you done or have planned for the front suspension?

:thumbsup:

After a second glance I did see that the main hoop diagonal is currently mocked up separate from the node created by the rear down bar and rear diagonal. CC would tell you to combine them into one node.

That shift knob was a last minute thing...and hasn't left. Its funny how many comments it gets. I actually started with the front.

This is my first set of wheels. 17x7 and 17x8s. I still have these wheels and i wish they made them in 18x11's.

http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f3...904_055640.jpg

This is was first brake upgrade. It is the mustang steve brake kit that uses the mustang 05-09 brakes. It was an awesome intro to brakes.

http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f3...929_132237.jpg

The second brake upgrade is a set of wilwoods and chris alston spindles. It started with me playing around on ebay and finding the used calipers. Digging through parts catalogs revealed that they were the rear calipers to any number of their kits. I ended up rebuilding them and flipping the cross-over tube & bleeders. After the whole brake package and spindles where put together, I saved 12 pounds a side! I thought that was pretty cool.

http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f3...223_182634.jpg

http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f3...223_155443.jpg

http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f3...102_193923.jpg

The very first mod I did was to change the actual front suspension. I went with street or tracks front kit for the 67-70 Mustang. After I started racing, I moved to better shocks from Guy Ankeny. He is a great guy to work with. I have his custom valved coil overs all the way around. The new shocks made the car go from a land yacht that would fall over on itself to something that inspired confidence.

http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f3...825_181213.jpg

Its hard to tell (& not very scientific) from the picuters but the SoT shocks where not suited for the racing I was doing. You can see the before and after in the pictures. You can see how much the car falls over on it self from the lack of rebound.

http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f3...rlady%2025.jpg

http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f3...b-233%201.jpeg

As a detail on my previous mods that have been relatively positive and worthwhile. This is my junkyard explorer 8.8 replacing the worn out 8". I couldn't believe how much more that 8.8 weighted. It has 3.73, disc brakes, 31 spline axels...its pretty beefy. The only downside is that the diff is off center. It made the install as I lowered it later on more difficult.

http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f3...117_211203.jpg

The other really cool mod was the Mike Maier panhard bar and springs. I couldn't believe the difference these things made. It was really interesting to find how much the cars driving attitude would change by just messing with the bar.

http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f3...118_120438.jpg

Thanks for the intrest in my car! I'm having alot of fun posting these up and I hope I can help someone else go in the right direction!

I'm sure they would disapprove of alot of stuff I do. I love to lurk over there but there is alot that goes over my head. Can you elaborate on this? possibly with a picture? I will pass it on and see what the fabricator thinks.

I hear what you're saying on the shocks...The best mod I've done to any car was the JRI CO's on the wife's Mustang, huge improvement! I've got the Mike Maier Inc. pan hard bar as well but haven't driven with it in place yet, good to hear such a positive review.

Looking forward to your progress!

:cheers:

Love the detailed pics and progress you are sharing. Keep it up.

I'm about to redesign my whole rear suspension as well, so this is inspiring to me. Did you have a good weight of the car before you started this latest round of upgrades? Curious how much weight the car gains.

I was wondering that exact same thing. My next car is going to be all about eliminating anything that weighs anything that isn't required. :idea:

Welcome to the site, Tyler. This looks like a great build. Thanks for sharing all the pictures.

What Chad is referring to on your roll cage is the point where the three bars on the driver's side come together at the main hoop. All three bars need to come together at one point also called a node. Currently, the main hoop diagonal is in the bend of the main hoop a few inches away from where the rear bars attach to the main hoop. I don't have a picture but I hope that helps explain the situation. Good luck on the build!

As WSSix mentioned a "node" is where two or more bars in a cage intersect. Best practice in cage building is to never have a "dead load path" where a bar dead ends on another bar. Currently your main hoop diagonal dead ends a few inches away from the node created by the rear down bar and diagonal. Honestly, it's close enough that it isn't a huge deal (IMO). main hoop diagonals that dead end 5-10" away (which is surprising common) are what really drive the experts crazy.

Here is a pic of what I was referring to.
http://i1380.photobucket.com/albums/...psyupzex5z.jpg

You could fix it by using the red line to have the main hoop diagonal terminate a little higher/sooner (what I drew) but ideal would be to move the rear downbar and diagonal over to meet the current placement of the rear hoop diagonal.

Another example of common dead load path mistakes are door bars. The harness bar should create a node with the door bar. I see that your harness bar isn't in yet but hopefully it will connect to the roll hoop in the same location as the door bars.

Please note that I've never built my own cage or roll bar. However, I've been looking to install one in my own car and have about 40 hours of research into it and while it took me two weeks reading the 45 page roll cage tech thread on corner carvers from beginning to end was a real eye opener.

yeah I think its a bit of overkill to worry about that main diagonal landing point being right on the node. But not that much effort to put it in there. Of course when I say "not much effort" that still means an extra hour of fitting and time is your money at a shop.

I'm kind of blown away by the bracing on that rear end. that's not all .120 wall plate is it ?

speaking of nodes I always enjoy posting this picture:

So I weighed the car a couple of years ago before quite a few mods. It was around 31xx pounds. Since then, I have taken out most of the interior, went from 17x7/8 wheels -> 18x10, went to wilwood brakes in the front, 8" to 8.8 rear, 289 -> 351 with alum heads, ditched the stock steering for abs power steering and finally replaced the bumpers, hood, front fenders, and trunk with fiber glass. I'll try to see how much the car weighs when I get it out of the shop.

I got some updates yesterday. They bent up some sheet metal to cover the gaping hole in the back.

http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f3.../IMG_21071.jpg

http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f3.../IMG_21061.jpg

http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f3.../IMG_65791.jpg

http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f3.../IMG_21051.jpg

Looks great!


Amazing what some simple sheet metal, a bead roller, and a brake can do in the right hands.

Very nicely done!!

Very nice!

Nice Fairlane! Great work.

By the way, what fuel tank is that? Looks like a tanks inc but they don't make one for a Fairlane that I'm aware of?

It's from tanks inc for the mustang. It's quite bit smaller but a little deeper. I picked up a efi tank with the baffling in it. It seemed like a really easy way to hook up the fuel fittings and keep a lot of stuff from underneath the car.

Thanks everyone for the comments! I am really excited about the way things are progressing and I can't wait to get my car back.

Nice car, keep up the good work!
What color is that, please post some more pics :)

The paint color is fire mist red. The pictures dont really capture it too well.
So I finally got my car back. I have actually had it back for a couple of weeks now. I took it over to a local shop that does more motor related business. The owner Paul, walked me around while I was there. It was the first time I have seen 6 second dragsters in person. He had one of his motors apart and I was floored. The block looked like it was CNC'ed! It was crazy.
Anyways, here is the car when I am picking it up from Paul's 4x4.

http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f3...s%204x4%20.jpg

And here it is in hover mode.

http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f3...21060126_1.jpg

I have a couple of more things to do before I can actually take it out. I have been having trouble sealing the thrermostat housing. I'm not sure if it was the intake or the housing itself but one of the bypass tube didn't line up. It could be a bad copy or not all ford sbf thermostat housings are the same. I ended up putting some jb weld in the housing to make the bypass hole smaller. I forgot to take pictures but hopefully it will work.

Also, coming up in March, the local NASA is going to start racing up at Miller Motorsports. I am going to try to get the car out there for some track time. Hopefully everything goes well.

That's a good looking color, Tyler. Good luck making Miller.