svt 65 stang

[SN65]

Hi All,

I have the rear package tray fabed up. I used 1x2 clear pine for the structure. All the joints are half lap joints for strength. The structure is sheeted with Masonite. If you are wondering what we are going to do with the rear shock towers, we are going to have them covered with a leather "boot" similar to what you would see over a shifter. As you can see, we have located the 4x110 + 300 watt amp just above the batteries. If we wanted to, we could make a hole in the package tray and expose the illuminated "Hifonics" name, but as of today, we are thinking no. The package tray is going to be upholstered in the same leather we used for the dash. This should give it a more luxurious appearance (as opposed to the typical carpet).




Wayne has finished up the front valance and it is looking killer. If things go as planned, we should have the car in living color ready to start the final assembly by the end of next week.

Well, back to work. Today, I have to fab up the subwoofer enclosure.

Catch ya'll l8r

[SN65]

Hi All,

9:00 AM
This weekend Wayne and I had to run up to the cabin and shut it down for the winter. We looked at the whether forecast and felt that we could not wait any longer. Here are a few views of the lake from the pier.




We only spent two days up there and wished we could have spent more. The weather was beautiful, albeit a bit on the chilly side.

Even though we were out of town, some work was still completed in our absence. Our nephew Mike wired up the power amp and got the head unit fit up. He is wiring up the rest of the system today (power, ground, illumination, remote amp, etc...).




I on the other hand got the subwoofer enclosure well under way. I just need to complete the interior baffling and we can urethane the structure right to the wheel well. Right now, the top of the sub enclosure is flush with the trunk floor. This is nice because now, when we install the carpet, it will lay flat.



Wayne is catching up on some customer cars right now, but as soon as he is all caught up, he will start checking all the panels making sure that they are ready for paint. If all looks good, he should have everything in color by the end of next week.

4:30 PM
Wo Hoo!!! Mike got the system all wired up and functioning. Even though he just had the speakers sitting on the ground, I can tell that the stereo is going to be a killer. It is going to really crank inside the car, but unfortunately, the guys in the shop tell me I that you will be able to hear this car coming from a block or two away. :-)

Wayne says that the car is ready to paint. We just need to disassemble (again) and prep all the pieces. After we have the chassis stripped, he just has to schedule some booth time and a painter.

Things are looking good.

Catch ya'll l8r

[SN65]

Hi All,

And away we go...

Getting ready for applying the paint. Here Wayne has started the final steps prior to paint. Final priming, sealing, wet sanding, etc... I tell him "It looks good to me, just paint it." and he says "I know that you want to start putting it together, but I am not going to rush at this point in the project." I respond with "Boyd would have had this car painted months ago." His answer is "Well, if I were a slave driver who passed down unrealistic deadlines and had 30 people working on one car, I WOULD have had it done months ago." after which he firmly plants his foot up my ass. :-)



After apologizing profusely and removing said foot, I went about finished up the stereo installation. After some higher math calculations ( 1 / (pi x r squared x depth) ) I determined the finished size of the sub enclosure. What you see there is 1 cubic foot of air. To get a strong, air tight bond, we used urethane to bond the enclosure to the spare tire well. Now we have to figure out what to do with the cavity we created. Wayne suggests converting it into a martini bar. :-)

At this point, the dash is basically complete. To finish we just have to wire up the parking brake function to the head unit and install the windshield mounted AM FM antenna. We are going to mount the antenna behind the rear view mirror and the "green" band at the top of the windshield. If you are wondering about the green tape on the instrument cluster, it is there to prevent any stray dust from entering the unit. When we originally stored the unit, we did not take this into consideration. So, when we went to install the cluster, we found that the inside was covered with a light layer of dust. I had to disassemble the unit and clean the inside, which is no easy task. Getting into all the corners was a real pain in the butt.




Anyway, back to work. Today, I have to figure out how to mount the sill plates and kick panels.

Catch ya'll l8r

[62fairlane]

and here all this time I thought you were out of black tape to cover that check engine light that wouldn't go away

[SN65]

Hi All,

Lots of new photos at the site. Some great ones of the sealed panels.

Go to the month of Oct project journal and check it out. For those who don't know the way, just click the link at the bottom of the SN65 home page.

[SN65]

Hi All,

Wayne just got back from SEMA. This was Wayne’s first trip to SEMA and he was amazed at the shear size of the event.

Before he left for the show, we had a short discussion about what he was expecting to see. He thought that he would be seeing the best of the best. He also thought that the quality of work we were producing would fall somewhere in the middle of the pack. And while he saw some mighty fine rides on display, he now figures that our project would have been somewhere in the top 5%, as far as overall quality goes. This was a real shock to Wayne.

This was very gratifying to hear. As I said, we talked about this very topic before he left. I was a little disappointed that we could not find a sponsor willing to showcase the car. In fact, I had difficulty finding anybody who would give the matter more than passing consideration. This left me with the feeling that maybe this is not as nice a project as we have led ourselves to believe. Now I feel a bit better about showing the car in the future.

I am wet sanding the interior pieces getting them ready for their final paint. Wayne is catching up on paperwork for the shop. I will be posting an update soon.

Catch ya'll l8r.

[SN65]

Hi All,

New update at the site.

Catch ya'll l8r

[SN65]

Hi All,

I have been plodding along on the electrical. We have the windshield wipers wired and functioning. The door locks and interior lights are wired and function with the remote, just like a real car. :-) Today I start on the rear wiring (tail lights, licence plate light, etc...).

Wayne has been making progress on the paint. The door jambs plus the inside of the hood and trunck lid are all in color. After he gets the body and a few other misc parts in sealer, he will be applying the color to the rest of the car.

Updated Photos are at the site.

Catch ya'll l8r.

[SN65]

Hi All,

Yesterday was great. I finished wiring up all the rear light connections. The parking lights and the tail lights and the license plate light and the trunk light and I even ran wires for the third eye break light. I just have to find a 12 volt THIN led strip about 36" long. If anyone knows where to find such an item, I would appreciate a heads up.

It is interesting to note that the color codes are the same today as they were in 1965. All of the wires I spliced together (from the 03 harness to the 65 pigtails) are exactly the same. Also, when I completed the wiring of the tail lights, the weird "buzzing" that was coming from one of the relays stopped. It appears that that circuit needed a load in order for the relay to latch properly. So now I have parking lights, turn signals, break lights and driving lights all functioning.

Woo Hoo!!!!

Wayne is detailing and wet sanding his heart out. He should have all the separate panels painted complete by the end of the weekend. I should have up to date photos posted on Monday.

Catch ya'll l8r

[SN65]

Hi All,

OMG, OMG, OMG!!!

I walked into the shop this morning just like any other day. Still half asleep, a freshly brewed cup of coffee in hand, I worked my way through the dim shop and started turning on the lights. As the shop started to brighten up (it takes a few minutes for the lights to kick in), I noticed that the Hood, doors and trunk lid were missing!!! I walked around the shop looking to see if they were perhaps moved from their normal resting place, but I did not see them anywhere. Where the heck were they? Wayne said that he was going to paint them today, so I looked in the booth to see if he had moved them in there. Maybe he finished all the wet sanding and put them in the booth so that they could get painted first thing.

When I turned on the booth lights and walked inside I almost cried. Before my eyes was one of the most spectacular sites I had ever beheld. Wayne worked late last night and started laying color. If a picture paints a thousand words, these speak volumes. So, instead of me going on, and on, and on, and on, I will let the images speak for themselves.

One parting comment... Just look at the reflections.




As always, more images are available at our site.

Catch ya'll l8r