continued from above
We took some existing parts that Adam had on the car, added a new steering U-joint at the rack, and built a custom 2-piece steering shaft. This connected his steering column to the Fox rack, and clearance to our headers was ample. Hot damn! We had a car that steered on September 15th, 2020. We were almost ready to load up for the body shop...
Of course we had to get a "weight in progress" on this chassis. I was a bit startled at the weight we took, 2375 pounds. This weight is with most of the cage, the 18x11" wheels, 14" Brembo front brakes, Ford 9", complete LS7 engine, and most of the bodywork. The doors weigh an additional
29 pounds for the pair. There is no windshield, seats, and probably 50 pounds of cage are still in the future. There's no hood, either. But still, our goal of sub 2700 pounds is not impossible at this stage.
LOADING UP AND HEADING TO PAINT
It was a beautiful day in late September when Brad and I loaded this car into the trailer. It let us take a few pictures of this car outside, sitting at a proper ride height, with these giant wheels and tires.
I was hoping the rear fenders wouldn't need a lot of massaging at the body shop, Heritage Collision in Sherman, TX. The owner Shiloh has dome plenty of flare jobs for us in the past and knows what needs to be tested, how much clearance we need.
Normally we would do this fab work ourselves, but at this moment I had no fabricator, as we were "between hires" - but I trust Shiloh and he is one of the only people we would let do this level of fab work and have it be right.
HINGE MODS
In early October, while we were waiting for our slot to open up at the body shop, Adam had made his decision on the hinges. Instead of aftermarket versions he wanted to keep the OEMs, so our new fab guy (who came and went in October) got to work.
He removed the springs and trimmed down the flanges to make room for the regulator that had been mounted. We would leave it up to the body shop to align and fit these to the hood.
PANEL FITTING AND BODY WORK
On October 13th I dropped off the Mustang at Heritage Collision and they got right to work. We brought the doors and Maier Racing hood, which we had never even removed from the box. The Maier lower air dam was ordered by Adam and shipped direct to the body shop.
Like I said in the section about the poorly fitting fenders above, they spent a fair amount of time making the fenders and hood fit with the factory shaped composite doors (which themselves fit great). Then they installed the front Shelby style grill surround and new lower air dam. Shiloh and his crew also fitted the front wheel arches side to side for proper steering clearance.
The other wizardry they managed was reworking the stock rear sheet metal to clear the 315mm tires at full bump travel - as shown above right. They know to remove the springs and compress the suspension so the tire can be checked at full bump. These flares look amazing and match the front bodywork perfectly.
Lots of hours spent getting the car blocked, sanded, fitted, and primed. We still have some work to do so they will come back after the first track test and paint the interior, trunk, and underhood before tackling the outside. The bodywork was done to a high standard, which makes sense if the car is to spend any time in the Optima / Holley LS Fest / Ford Fest / Goodguys circuit of competition events.
WHAT'S NEXT?
Since picking the car up on December 24th we have been extremely busy on other customers' cars in the shop, as well as wrapping up some shop construction. Look for another update from us after the remaining oil system work is completed. A number of items have been ordered for that, then we can tackle the rest of the cage work, then clearance the doors like our endurance E46 below (which also has a TKX). Myles and Zach can knock out the cage work, no problems.
The false floor pattern recently started (above right) on the E46 needs to be replicated in aluminum on the '67 Mustang as well, with a dead pedal incorporated. We also have to CNC machine the final production version of this 1st gen Mustang camber plate, shown below left in Solidworks. Why? Because if this car tests well on track, we plan to do this conversion again on another 1st gen Mustang - and soon.
We also liked how much headroom we gained in this car by removing the flimsy 3 inch tall "shelf" that the stock seats sit on, so we will make our seat bracket base a production part for the same type of install as well. The oiling system, coolers, and coolant reservoir need to be wrapped up, and something done about the bumpers. Then we should be ready for a dyno tune and track test. Tune in next time to see these tasks wrapped up, and I will definitely post up before the track test.
Thanks for reading,