Blake's 1965 Mustang Project

[digitalsolo]

Going to pull the engine out this week/weekend to finish weld things.  I'm going to clearance the subframe a little more for the intercooler piping, since I can, and it'll make life easier.    I'm also going to measure out how bad it would be to raise the engine about 3/4" while I'm at it.   I designed these mounts to make that dead easy, and getting a little more ground clearance would be great.

I have designed a "v1" of the skidplate bars which I think are going to work out.   I'm going to basically shroud the entire engine bay from the bumper to the back of the turbos in 1/8" aluminum plates to keep it safe as it's the lowest part of the car.  Those will be bolted to 1" steel tubing framework that is welded to the chassis.   It's similar to what I had before, but a lot lighter.

[freeskier7791]

Going to pull the engine out this week/weekend to finish weld things.  I'm going to clearance the subframe a little more for the intercooler piping, since I can, and it'll make life easier.    I'm also going to measure out how bad it would be to raise the engine about 3/4" while I'm at it.   I designed these mounts to make that dead easy, and getting a little more ground clearance would be great.

I have designed a "v1" of the skidplate bars which I think are going to work out.   I'm going to basically shroud the entire engine bay from the bumper to the back of the turbos in 1/8" aluminum plates to keep it safe as it's the lowest part of the car.  Those will be bolted to 1" steel tubing framework that is welded to the chassis.   It's similar to what I had before, but a lot lighter.

I have been meaning to do skidplates on my car for a few years but never got around to it, interested to see how yours look the crossmember on the FB is very similar

[digitalsolo]

Mine won't be super heavy duty or anything, goal is to NOT extra weight this time, since I paid zero attention on the first go-around.  .  It should be enough to keep it from whacking the pan/turbos, as long as I don't do anything toooooo stupid.

I did some work yesterday.   Pulling the engine in/out on this car has always been a pain as my lift/leveler just BARELY hit the hood at the point the engine needs to be at to come out, and I HATE pulling the hood on this car as it sucks to move/install/align and weighs roughly 1 ton.   A glass hood is on my "eventually" list...     Anyway, I was staring at the load leveler about to pull the engine and thought "hey, if these chains were shorter, it sure would make this easier.."   Yeah, duh.   I can make that happen.  So took 2 links out of each chain and BOOM, life is much easier!   Wish I did that 3-4 years ago...

Anyway, I finish welded the lower radiator mounts/front cross braces, those are good to go now.   I also finish welded the engine mounts, though I need to fab one more plate for each side to get a little extra strength in them.    I also notched the subframe for intercooler pipe clearance under the A/C compressor as it was tight there, and a notch is easy to do right now.    The plates for all of the subframe notching are cut, tacked and ready to TIG up.   I would have done more, but I hurt my knee a bit in a tournament on Saturday, and getting up/down 500 times working on the car was making it worse.   Hopefully I'll have a few nights this week to get the plating in done, then I can do that skidplate "frame".

Once all of that's done, I'm going to go over a bunch of the welds with seam sealer, then get everything sealed/painted, and put the drivetrain back in.    List after that is:

New "hot side" intercooler pipes
Redo exhaust section from turbos to mid-pipes as I did have to move the turbo angles slightly
New lower radiator pipe/hoses (I'll build these out of aluminum)
Close-out panels around the suspension to finish out the engine bay better
Finish a little bit of engine bay wiring from the Nexus re-work (mount MAP sensor, wire new combo oil temp/pressure sensor, etc.)
Finish new A/C system work (changing to a Sanden compressor due to clearance issues with the OEM Ford one)
Build brake caliper brackets on steering knuckles
Build new front brake lines
Mount hydraulic hand-brake handle and run fluids to/from it.
Build new center console around new hydraulic hand-brake
Align suspension
Wash/buff car

I'm sure I'm missing a bunch, but that's most of it.

[FC3S Murray]

Lol, I did the chain removal on mine last winter doing the Wife's engine rebuild on the Miata.


Made it sooooo much easier.

[digitalsolo]

Made several hours of progress today.   Bracing for the skidplate is in and may be slightly over-engineered, mostly because I was playing with my tubing bender.   I also painted up the control arms, swaybar, etc.

I seam sealed all of the spots that looked sketchy for holding water, then etch primed the rest, and undercoated the bottom with Raptor liner.   Next up I'll scuff/sand the bottom half of the engine bay (and a small spot up top that needs it), and shoot my 2K ceramic chassis paint to match what's there (at least, match good enough for the part of the bay you can't see anyway.

Then I can put the engine back in, sort out height and manifold clearances (I want to move the engine up a little in height), then start building the skid plate itself and the ducting for the radiator/coolers.   Oh and build brackets for the brake calipers, so that I can final install the front suspension.

[digitalsolo]

Designing brake caliper brackets.   Anyone interested in the process I use from cardboard to CAD to 3D printing to laser cut steel?

[Cobranut]

Designing brake caliper brackets.   Anyone interested in the process I use from cardboard to CAD to 3D printing to laser cut steel?

Definitely.
Always interested in your techniques. I almost always learn something new.
Sometimes how to do it, other times how NOT to do it. LOL 

[MPbdy]

Yea post it up! I designed a brake kit for porsche calipers on my FD using basic metal prototypes, CAD and 3d printing, but haven't made them yet.  I want to, but a blown engine trumps more boxes of uninstalled carparts.

[Exidous]

I'm sure Meffari would be interested.

[digitalsolo]

Progress!

Shocks and knuckles are just mocked up, as I'm getting slightly longer and heavier springs, and I need my custom brake caliper brackets to come in from Send Cut Send so that I can weld them on and finish that out, but the rest is "final" installed.









I also changed out the firewall pass throughs to use quick disconnect cables instead of the previous cable gland setup:

[digitalsolo]

My longer springs are too long.  LOL.   Anyone need some Eibach 2.5" diameter 450# 10" springs?   Doh!   If I need to extend the spring bases to push preload up, I'll just get some 1" spacers for the springs, should have done that initially.  Oh well.

First brake caliper bracket is installed and fits great!   It has an integrated mount for my wheel speed sensor too, which I'm rather proud of.   .  I'll get pics later this week when I do the other side and get the engine put back in.   I need to mock up the manifolds for EGTs, as I ordered an 8 channel EGT kit for the Haltech.   I like data.

[babillaracing]

Dang bro looking bad ass

[digitalsolo]

Dang bro looking bad ass

Thanks!

Oh, all of my parts came in for my EGT setup.   I'm very excited to drill and tap 8x holes in cast iron manifolds.



That was a lie.  This is going to suck.

[Cobranut]

Dang bro looking bad ass

Thanks!

Oh, all of my parts came in for my EGT setup.   I'm very excited to drill and tap 8x holes in cast iron manifolds.


That was a lie.  This is going to suck.

I found when adding DRO's to my mill and lathe, that the spiral flute taps seem to work better on cast iron.
It seems that when cutting dry, the swarf falls away as dust between the flutes and doesn't clog the tap nearly as much.

[digitalsolo]

Shockingly, the drilling and tapping of the manifolds was dead easy.  Unfortunately I had some interference with my original location of a couple of the probes, so I had to relocate them, and I'll just put in some stainless plugs where I'm not using the holes.

I did get the engine back in, and theoretically set in final position.   I need to build a new spacer for the transmission to set height off the mount, but I'll get to that.   I ordered the pipe plugs, once those come in, I should be able to install the exhaust manifolds, which then lets me mount the turbos, which lets me finish the exhaust, etc. etc.

Getting closer.