Johnny Cash Mustang project

[blacksheep-1]

Yeah, I wear goggles and a respirator, it's extremely hard to get the gun where you need it. I'm not sure about the glare, we'll see how it turns out.

[blacksheep-1]

I finished the chassis of the mustang today, of course there is always detail work to be done but the fabrication is mostly over. First off, I always hate it when you can't find a decent place to jack the car up so I made my own hard points. I cut some 1/8 inch plate, drilled 1-1/2 inch holes in them, and cut up 1-1/4 tubing. I placed the tubing as close as I could to the bottom of the roll bar, tack welded them, and placed the plate over that and welded up the whole deal. To make up some of the space between the floor pan and the plate, I used some scrap metal and welded it in. Now the car has four hard points to jack the car up and place jack stands.

The fabricated plates:












After all of that I painted the chassis and engine compartment.









The bottom of the car, you can see the hard points if you look close.

[1BADP71]

very nice as always !

[blacksheep-1]

Thanks, I added a couple of more shots.

[blacksheep-1]

I had the neighbor come over with his John Deere tractor, we placed the forks on the lift and slid them under the car. To make sure the car did not fall we strapped the rollcage to the tractor. We then lowered the car onto furniture rollers so I could still push the car around.



Here's a pic of the Granatelli subframe slid into place. I had to have surgery for a hernia in the intestinal wall, so I will be out a few days.

[blacksheep-1]

More parts......
Granatelli a-arms, and coil overs, they will be going on Monroe struts for now, eventually I hope to pony up for some adjustable Bilsteins but they're kind of pricey right now. Gripp "Export brace" (that's old school, now they're called strut tower braces )and solid motor mounts, that should tighten up the front end. The strut mounts are UPR.








Here's the IRS out of a 99 cobra, somewhere in that pile is a 4.11 pumpkin that will be going in it

[seifreit]

If you are looking for Shocks/struts talk to Alex at T & A Shocks (ww.tandashocks.biz). I just got a set of custom valved Bilsteins for my American Sedan Mustang. These guys build everything from budget friendly Bilsteins to top $$$ Penske. Several of their cars have won SCCA National Championships.

[blacksheep-1]

I can't afford it, I just bought some guy's fenders.....

[blacksheep-1]

So, in order to use the lo-buck Monroe sensitrac shocks they had to be modified, the dust cover was removed, then a small 3/8 inch by (about) 1 inch piece of metal was cut out, polished and welded to the shock mount. THIS IS IMPORTANT! IF you do this do not weld to the actual shock tube!! this will damage the shock, keep any heat on the actual bracket that surrounds the shock and supports the spindle, This will allow you to use the cheapo shocks with the Coil over shocks. I will try to have a photo on this in the future.
Now back to the shocks, the instructions say to remove the coating from the springs in order to get them to fit. What they should have said was to "Polish the living hell out of the spring to get it to seat acceptably"
The first photo shows the spring on the adjuster before polishing/grinding / etc.



and after..........



The same with the top mount.....



and this was how much we had to grind off, especially the end of the spring itself...



Now the spring can actually be adjusted quite easily, instead of binding and tearing up the aluminum adjuster.
I've spent most of today trying to line up the K-member, more tomorrow.

[blacksheep-1]

Her'e the photo of the tab I made in order to use the cheapo shocks with the coilovers. Again DO NOT weld to the shock tube, weld to the bracket that supports the spindle and keep the shock tube cool.



Here's an unobstructed view and shows how the coil over kit indexes on it....



and the complete front end..

[plazma]

Looks good man. The car should awesome when done!

[blacksheep-1]

I just scored a set of.....

http://img825.imageshack.us/img825/2594/photo3yh.jpg

and a set of.............

http://img689.imageshack.us/img689/4089/img3938q.jpg

that look like...............

http://img717.imageshack.us/img717/9929/pic2cs.jpg

[blacksheep-1]

Updates. I've been working on the mustang a little at a time due to this hernia thing (my wife has been riding herd making sure I don't hurt myself) but I have got a few things done..

I've finished the front suspension, I went with 99 Mustang GT brakes for now. The reason is that at some point it may become a track car, and I'll upgrade to some aftermarket front brakes. As it is, the GT brakes are very sufficient for autocrosses since we don't build that much heat, and I didn't want to waste money on Cobra fronts, since they may be replaced. I also located a MM front sway bar.



The steering rack is in and I'm using the 99 master cylinder with no hydro-boost. I don't know if that will work, I've been all over the net and apparently no one else knows if it will work either, but it's a place to start. The pedal geometry has been changed to allow for another 1 inch of leverage on the brake pedal.



The pedals,and steering column are in, the dash and seat are dummied up for now.

[slowmoving1]

looks good call me if you need a hand 352-603-1062 Spencer

[blacksheep-1]

I will definitely give you a call..

I built up an IRS unit out of spare parts, here's the original 28 spline rear



I had to gut a 31 spline unit and use the gears in the 28 spline, Yes of course I would rather use the 31 spline but I have no 31 spline half shafts and they go for about $1400 from DSS. So we're using the 28 spline but it meant I had to change the carrier. The new gearing is 4.10



in mid -change, you have to remove the half shafts to gain access to the pumpkin



I had already obtained the front bushings and had a new rear mount so I installed them.





Next is getting this hog into the car where it was never meant to be..............