Hackster's Autocross Track Day Truck (Garage Build)

[hackster]

Thanks for the kind words everyone. It is definately not on the same level as most of the builds on this forum. I read through a few of these builds and my mind is literally blown.

Been stumbling along the last several weeks with some less than exciting work but its all gotta get done to go together.

Driver side fender was trashed on the truck when I got it along with the core support and a few other bits. So I picked up a parts truck for a few bits and pieces. The fender had trim on it and a couple pretty good dents so it needed a bit of work.

Did a little bit of body work on the fender and welded up all the holes on it, no filler. Primered with the same factory stuff, grey and then red oxide, then the pebble beige on the truck from the factory.



Then some rattle can in a little more yellow to match the rest of the truck.



Keep in mind, trying to match the rest of the truck. This is the red stripe going on.



Now with the brown.



Here is what a nice and pretty fender with lots of paint would look like =)



Hit it with some paper and started to get it to match the rest of the truck.



I have not done any color sanding on the door yet but its damn close and will fit in just fine on this turd.



So on with some other stuff. I needed a little more clearance for the upper link in the bed floor and I dont have an english wheel or other fancy tools so I got to work with some plate and u bends.





Giant hole cut in the bed floor and some welding later it was all good.

[hackster]

I also needed a way to get some fuel into the fuel tank so lets cut more holes in the bed floor.



I snagged a gas door from an explorer and worked on making the gas door from the old bed floor. Worked really well and I have plenty of clearance for everything. Little hammer and dolly work and I have a nice finger recess to open the door.



Continuing work on the bed, I needed to fill in all the holes on the bedsides from the farm hooks someone put in probably in the 70's. Trying to teach myself bodywork as I get going in life. So in order to keep the filler to a minimum or not at all, I did some lite hammer and dolly work to get the hole flat before I hit it with the welder. Very little welding on these holes but I still had to disturb the bed.



Again, just metal worked the holes with some abrasive pads to just get them flat, no filler on these holes either. Hit them with some etch and red oxide and then some 600 grit paper to flaten it all out. I ended up going with just a touch of clear over the primer spots to seal everything.



Lots more color sanding and even more buffing and finally got the bed on the frame somewhat resembling a truck for the first time in months.





With the bed on, I knew that I needed to wrap up all the wiring to try and get this thing back on the ground and in one piece.

Onto more wiring...



Extending the wire harness to the headlights and building the main power harness up under the fender well.







And with that done, I was able to finally finish bolting the passenger fender on and roll the old girl out of the garage for the first time in ages.

[hackster]

With kind of final assembly going on, I needed more room to maneuver, I pushed it in the garage at an angle, seems like I have lots more room this way.



Pulled the radiator, finish worked the upper mount and shot it with some clear installed some foam on the bottom mounts. Finished up the wiring with some weatherpack connectors on the fans as well and got it final bolted in.



And here is where I have been living for the past few days. Getting rid of anything I dont need out of the 68 harness and adding in everything I needed for the Coyote stuff. Also started on the install of the VHX gauges. This is pretty buttoned up at this point.





That my friends brings me up to where I am today, no more secrets and Ill keep the thread up as I do work. Truck is up on jackstands, measuring to try and figure out how I am going to get a driveline under it. I know its going to have to be a 2 piece unit.

Sean

[hackster]

I had some good chats with friends and a couple experts on the driveline situation and was able to finally come up with something that I think should work just fine.

The very front of the stock mustang driveline has a swage to it and it was bent right there so I went back just behind that and cut off the stock front yoke that is friction welded on there. I knew that I was going to be needing to machine the flange at the other end near the carrier bearing. Stock tube was just over 3" tubing so I grabbed a piece of 3" Driveline tube and a 3" 1350 weld yoke and non greasable 1350X spicer u joint. and Wanting to make sure that I got the driveline just right I mocked this up.

This is the mocked up version of my driveline hacked together in my shop for fitup.



You can see in this photo the chunk that I had to cut off the driveline. You can also see the bolts and stuff needed to bolt up this to the truck.

My buddy Dustin managed to take my stuff and build me a very factory like driveline that should be perfect. It fits extremely well.







Carrier Bearing mount



And then this happened....



Fluids. This is where things really get real. I managed to get the power steering fluid in the system and got it kind of bled out, opened up some fitting to make sure I was getting fluid around the system.

Got 7.5....yes 7.5 quarts of oil in the engine.

Then started bleeding the brakes. I did not have the best luck but I did manage to get the system all sealed up I think... and got all the air out after several hours of bleeding.

I am not sure about the pedal feel though, its really soft at the top and then firms right up but there is some pedal travel, quite a bit. I need to get it on the ground and see how it stops, if it sucks, back to the drawing board.

Hope to clean up my mess this morning and see what blows up when I hook up power.

Sean

[MaxHarvard]

Bitchin! I dont know how i missed this thread. I love it

[Sieg]

Excellent Sean, love the creativity and home fab talent.

[hackster]

Originally Posted by MaxHarvard

Bitchin! I dont know how i missed this thread. I love it

Thank you!!

Originally Posted by Sieg

Excellent Sean, love the creativity and home fab talent.

Thanks man, trying to up my build quality with each car or truck. Trying to get some new tools in 2016.


Damn good weekend, if I can say so.

Picked up the filter and it is perfect, just what I wanted. It is nice and clean and fits well in the engine bay, away from the radiator and near the front corner away from as much heat as it could be and protected from any water as well.

Got to building a mount for the air filter, might have gone a bit overboard for just a filter bracket but its cool.







I think the intake turned out well for modifying the stock crap. Once I can get the truck on the road and find someone that can tune it, I will likely do a JLT intake on it but this should work for now.





And that is the end of photo taking for the day.

I did a bit of other stuff though. I was having issues with the clutch master cylinder, I could not get it to bleed very well so I tackled that first. Got the wife to help me a little bit more. I tapped on the hose and got it as flat as I could and uphill the entire length of the line. See there is no provisions for bleeding this thing, its just through slowly pressing the pedal and releasing to get all the air out. We got that sorted out and the air bled out of it but I could still not get the clutch to release, I felt like it was just not pushing the pedal far enough or not getting all the travel out of the master.

So i started measuring and looking at the pedal. Turns out my hunch was right. Where I built the double shear on the pedal apparently It hits the heim joint and I could only use the top hole. So out with the air saw, the cutoff wheel, some files and a die grinder and an hour or so later I was able to get the full travel on the master cylinder and got it pretty well adjusted.

One more try, the wife pushed down the pedal in gear and hot damn I could spin the driveline!!!! This was a pretty big relief that the stuff I had was indeed going to work and play well together.

So, I moved onto the gauges to see if I could get all that crap to work together. Read the manual and went through all of their setup and got everything to work with the exception of the oil pressure. Pretty sure that the coyote does not use or is not setup to use the input from the oil pressure sender. I swapped in the sender from the Dakota Digital into the block and hot damn we have a full set of working guages on the truck.

I also cleaned up all the wiring under the engine cover and got the insulation on the fuel rails and got the factory heater hose guides on. Most of the work on the engine is complete. I need to build some exhaust and get the overflow for the radiator.

Garage is a mess, time for a few hours of clean up!!!!

Sean

[WSSix]

Looking great Sean. This is one cool build. So glad to see you're getting close.

[hackster]

Originally Posted by WSSix

Looking great Sean. This is one cool build. So glad to see you're getting close.

Thanks man, hope to get it on the road sooner than later, try and do some shakedown before next month.

Looks like I missed a post somewhere on here.

https://youtu.be/jeEpcDkV3eY

Happy Monday

[SSLance]

It runs!

Figured you must have started it if you were chasing oil pressure gauge issues.