Today's work on the Mustang. I didn't get much done since the owner and another good customer came by and chatted me up. It's hard to hear them when you're running the rack up and down, and I was pretty tired by the end of the day.. so I didn't get much a second shift in today. But here's some photographic eveidence..
Apparently the evidence doesn't show the hood. I got the hood mounted today when a friend came over this afternoon to help me mount it. I really didn't think the intake was going to fit, but after moving the strut tower brace out of the way I got it mounted. The hood does shut. I haven't clay barred it, but I think I'm in the safe zone. I don't think the motor mounts are going to flex enough to make the intake hit the hood.
This is the intake before I removed the strut brace. I figure I'm going to have to make a strut brace in order to get the car assembled in time.
I also got the tank dropped in. I didn't snap a photo of the fuel pump, fuel sending unit and filler neck installed. I had to call Summit, since I couldn't find the tank side of the filler neck stub, the gasket for the stub, or the gasket for the fuel pump module. It's a little frustrating, but I won't have a bunch of parts until Tuesday anyway, since I didn't make the 7:00pm Thursday cut-off.
This here is a hole in the floor.
and here she be, test fit. Does anyone know what they used to seal the tank to the lip it sits on?
After being frustrated with the back of the car, I moved back to the front to put a few more parts on. I got the radiator mounted and realized I still have a few more parts to paint. I missed reinstalling the little air block-off plates that are to the left and right of the radiator when I painted the engine bay. That's okay. I still need to paint the master cylinder, distributor hold down, timing pointer, and the strut mount that has yet to be made.
Radiator in, I decided I couldn't live with the timing cover gasket sticking out all over the place, so I lowered the pan a little bit and pulled the cover. Replaced the gasket with another I had here and cut a tiny bit of the excess gasket off with a razor. I mounted the water pump and measured some bolts so I can get bolts to mount the pump and the alternator brackets. I also got the stainless steel headers mounted.
You can see the timing cover removed here.
I knew I was going to have to weld bungs onto the headers because I need to run oxygen sensors in order for the computer to have fuel control, but after installing the headers, it appears I have a little more welding to do than initially intended.
I'm guessing the headers fit a T5 car just fine. They do not fit a car running an AODE. I guess I'll make a little cut and redirect a little bit. Hopefully I don't have to course correct too much, since I do have the rest of the exhaust system that is stainless and is meant for these headers and for this car. That's okay. Work is work. It must be done.
Then I tried fitting the alternator bracket and realized it's not designed for my timing cover/water pump. And the bracket kit is missing the necessary spacers for correct alignment/mounting. And there's no place for a dipstick tube in this timing cover either.
At this point, I had had enough frustration for one night. I already had a huge scare this morning thinking the intake wouldn't fit. I would have had to change the computer I'm using, get a different tuning device, and strip/blast/reassemble the donor intake. And the tuner wasn't necessarily readily available. So I turned in. I'll deal with the headers and the fuel tank later.
Here's where I left off for tonight. The purchase and to-do list got a little longer than shorter I think, but I still feel like I'm making progress.
