Blake's 1965 Mustang Project

[jasons]

That is a good looking Mustang.
Enjoying that garage, I hope.
-Jason

[digitalsolo]

Thanks Jason!

Yeah, the garage makes life so much easier, especially the lift.   I wish it was about 8' longer, but hey, if it it was 8' longer, I'd wish it was 6' wider, haha.

I spent some time last night working on rear bumper fitment.   I cut apart one of the mounts and reworked it to get fitment correct, the other side I could fix with a bit of shimming.    After that was done, I didn't like the way the bumper looked under the quarter panel extensions as it was just the stamped edge at about 1/4" wide and you could see inside/behind it.  Just looked unfinished.   So I welded a piece of plate in to fill that gap to make it "solid" in that area.

Next up is fixing the stone guard, then I'm going to make alignment pins for the trunk and hood hinges, pull them both, pull the engine, fill the last holes in the firewall and start final body work to prep for paint.     Oh and finish the exhaust once the last bits for that come in stock.   I might be able to get the chassis into paint this winter, though I'm not in a big rush as I'm out of money for the moment, hah.

Oh and I got some leather/material samples from Austin with ESH that I'm drooling over for the interior. 

[Geoturbo]

  Lots of progress from when I last checked up on the thread.

The car is looking great!

One thing about your builds that I really like and respect is that you are a perfectionist down to the last bolt!

Cant wait to see it all done! I'm certain it will be a show quality car!

[freeskier7791]

Front looks mean

[digitalsolo]

Thanks, I spent a little bit today dialing in the front bumper fitment a bit more, finally got it right, next is alignment dowels then final body work.

That said, it may be for sale soon if I end up relocating, so if anyone is interested in some or all of it, let me know.

[Tictakman]

Where would you be relocating?

[digitalsolo]

Where would you be relocating?

Not sure, looking at options right now.   I would prefer not to as I just built my dream house, but we all see how it goes.

[digitalsolo]

Wastegate dump tubes.   Pretty happy with how these came out both from a fitment and TIG standpoint.   About out of gas, but had just enough to squeak these through and finish the exhaust forward of the axle.   I'm not going to do the rear until I finish the fuel system so that I'm sure I have clearance everywhere I need it.





And the exhaust system in place.  You can see the dump tubes just aft of the turbos.   The black painted area is A) where I plan to wrap it, though I may add some a bit further back as well and B) I had to do some heavy MIG tacks at the turbo v-band and I wanted to seal it up with some VHT2000* paint so it doesn't rust.   The WBO2 sensors will go just behind the turbo outlets, toward the transmission on each side.





That finishes most of the major work for the exhaust and charge pipes.     Pretty happy how things have turned out so far.   Next I'm going to dowel the hinges for alignment, then blast it all back apart to finish bodywork on the rear bumper, front valance/rock guard and bumper area, and engine bay.   Then I'm hoping to spray the bay and possibly the body.

[wickedrx7]

Looks Great!  I am impressed with your TIG skills in a relatively short amount of time.

[WannaBeFast]

Blake is the man!

[digitalsolo]

Thanks guys.

I did a little more work today.   Redid the frame side mounts for the driver side bumper bracket as one of the nut plates was trashed and the other was almost trashed.   I just welded a couple grade 8 bolts into the frame to make them studs instead of threaded inserts.   MUCH stronger mount now vs. the old trashed parts.

Also finished up the tweaks to the stone guard so that it fits properly and built a couple little fabricated tube pieces to hold the bottom of the valance to the frame rails.   The front of the car is SOLID now.   I've been obsessing over all of the front end sheetmetal/pieces to assure that A) it funnels air into the radiator/intercooler as much as possible and B) that's it strong enough to hold up to 150+ mph speeds if I ever take the car to a standing mile event.    I also plan to reinforce the rear valance/fuel tank area in the back to keep it from flexing and to fill the gap so that it's not a big sail back there.

I also looked at the front and I think I can build a splitter that will sit nicely.  I utterly despise the muscle car era splitters that stick way down in front.   I know they're relatively effective but I just really hate how they look, particularly on Mustangs.    This will just be a flat splitter, think current NASCAR style, but likely short enough and thick enough to not need any reinforcement struts.

Oh!   And I have a design for a rear spoiler that will have reinforcement struts, partially because I think it'll help with aero a tiny bit but mostly because it'll look bad ass.

It will be somewhat similar to this (Ring Brothers spoiler):

[freeskier7791]

I can see how your tig skills have increased in a such a short time, you must be pretty happy.  I will be taking a close look at your spoiler setup, I want to do something similar on the FB.  You should be able to get Nascar surplus reinforcement struts cheap on ebay or racing junk

[digitalsolo]

Yeah, I'm hilariously excited about the spoiler because I think it's one of the little "touches" that sets the car off.   At least it looks that way in my head.   Plus the back of a Mustang coupe is kinda bare.

[Supe]

[gc3]

personally I really dislike that spoiler.
you're bleeding off all the high pressure because there's a gap between the horizontal and vertical surface.
I vote for some alternative!