latoracing
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Posts posted by latoracing
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The last of the repairs has been accomplished, at long last.
Two less speaker holes, makes the door look much better.
I installed the hinges and stuck the door on the body. I didn't take the time to line it up, but it does fit quite well, which I am very pleased to see after the extensive reconstruction.
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The funny thing about ordering this I didn't know what it would end up looking like until I opened the box. I requested a rendering or a similar picture of what they were building, they said no. Just a little bit of trust was needed there, but it definitely meets my expectations. I have no clue on assembly order. They must have some interesting TIG torch cups to get into some of these places. The welders earn their keep. I wanted to take a picture of the valley pan as they have inscribed the Hogan's logo in it, I like the "hidden" logo.
I'm going to talk to my local anodizing vendor (Advanced Motorsports Coatings) and see if it is possible to get this died black. They charge by the square inch, might be rather expensive,(like this thing isn't all ready lol) but will help protect the raw aluminum from corroding, well see.
The fuel rails and bungs on the intake runners are similar to an OEM setup as the injectors are clipped into the rail and dropped into the intake bungs. The two bolts keep everything in place. Both ends of the rail are threaded so I can have a return or non return style fuel system.
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Well, it fits... (and it is not a radiator)
Santa came a few days early. I have been looking at these manifolds since the beginning of my build. I was torn between an 8-stack EFI setup, or this...
Forward facing throttle body, cross ram, single plenum with a removable top. Hogan's recommended an oval throttle body as the plenum is wide and short, which I liked anyway. I had them leave the top plate plain a I want to do some 3D milling on the top, just don't know what to put on there yet...
With the top removed you can see all the innards and the amount of work this thing took to make. The pictures do not do this thing justice.
They also stuck me some ports in the rear, where they won't be noticeable.
Hogan's is great to work with and have been building manifolds for years, their work is impressive. I'm sure this will work as good as it looks.
Ridge Runner reacted to this -
I can't get over how quickly you are able to get this into a primer state. My hat is off to you!
I'm with the others, can't wait to see some top coat on this. Nice job!
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Finished up the passenger door today. The lower corners on the outside need to be fixed which was more of the same cut, weld, grind...
I also completed the lower inside area repairs. The patches were not that big, but were quite necessary as there were several rust holes in the area. All nice and clean now.
The outside was metal finished and this door is ready to hang on the car.
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Back to the door repairs...
A little bit of melted wire and a lot of sanding, this section is just about done. As I was welding this together, I found more rust held together with paint. So, there will be some more quilt work to get the bottom back to an acceptable state.
Two patches to do on the skin, as the corners are the usual bubbly 47 year old debris catchers. Thankfully, the driver's side door looks to be much "goodlier".
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Thanks Bob for all the "Janitorial" duties. We appreciate you (and the other mods) keeping the site "clean"
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No kidding! There are some of us who live vicariously thru Mike and his work on the 70 Grabber Green. By the way Mike, have you named your Mustang yet?
It is GREEN for a reason lol. ($$$$$$$$$)
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Mike, I think you did "all" the work on that car in the time it took me to remove the radiator support and two front aprons....LOL! After the body shop, will it be coming back to you for any additional work? Thanks for sharing buddy, guys like me glean a ton of useful information from projects like this.
John
I do not foresee it coming back here, but am always open for other challenges, or other custom bits. With such a huge chunk of the car missing when I picked it up to having it rolling again is an accomplishment in and of itself. I'm glad I had the opportunity to reassemble another Mustang that could have easily been discarded as unfixable. Seeing this type of information shared on these forums has inspired me, and I am glad to share what I have learned with others to hopefully inspire them.
Mike
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Took a break from the door repair to do something that this car hasn't done in a very long while, ROLL.
Rolling on the make shift pallet it came on, and the ride on the frame table from the lift and back doesn't count. I cleaned up my mess as I was using the floor board for a tool holder, retracted the adjuster feet on the table and rolled it all over to the lift. A little positioning, unbolt the rear and up in the air it went.
I had a few areas I wanted to touch up on the bottom side so a little grinding was in order. It is much easier to stand up and get to some of these places as compared to semi laying down under that table. A few pics of the underside, while it was suspended.
I found one more rusty spot in the passenger side wheel well that needed a quick patch, so I fixed it. Digging out my old 8" rear and some ultra crunchy leaf springs, with equally crunchy bushings, I bolted all of the rear suspension in place. With some trend setting rear wheels, it sat on 3 wheels and is mobile once again.
Rolling it back into it's hole, it looks funny all jacked up, just like back when I was a kid lol.
Get the doors all fixed, and it will be off to the body shop.
Ridge Runner reacted to this -
This door is coming together, but the more I look, the more I find. The easy ones to spot...
are fairly straight forward to make a patch...
tack weld it in place...
weld, weld, weld.... grind, grind, grind... on to the next patch.
This area is a little bit more interesting. I got to play with my assortment of hammers and my stump (yea, that block of wood in my shop isn't for aesthetic purposes lol) and got the complicated portion of this patch roughed out.
A little trimming, some more forming and it was tack welded in place. I didn't tack the bottom edge, as I had more to fix.
Removing the rest of the swiss cheesed material, that patch went quickly and was tack welded in place.
All that is left is to weld all this up and more grinding. Only 50 more places left to fix, on this door lol
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He already has that intake you mention.
Actually I don't (yet)
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A brazillion dollar radiator?
You will just have to wait and see, just like everyone else lol
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I have not accomplished much on this poor thing in way over a month. I have been contemplating how to go about running this exhaust and fabricating the transitions from the headers to the X pipe. I have also been hung up on running the under seat riser convertible reinforcements. I cut out a few contour templates of the tunnel area and floor pan, but that's about as far as I got. The exhaust is going to take up a ton of room in that particular area. I'll do the exhaust first and build the reinforcements after, maybe...
I did order some flex couplers, hanger grommets, and some gasket material as I needed all these items to get these parts under the car. They do not make oval flex couplers with a liner, in 4" long versions. So I purchased 3" round and will form them to oval (I've all ready modified one, it's nice)
I have also jumped off the deep end and ordered a present from me to me, should be completed around the first of the year. I'm going to keep everyone in a little suspense, but it connects to this...
69Mustang16 reacted to this -
I've installed 3 full floors, 1 Dynacorn and 2 Golden Legion (NPD). They all fit quite nicely and the NPD kit comes with seat risers and rear torque box tops. The NPD parts (that I installed) are not stamped exactly like the originals. They might have correct stampings, if that matters to you. I liked the Dynacorn part personally, one gauge thicker material than the NPD parts.
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the more you replace the less original your car is and the more taiwan it becomes so the more like a KIA it becomes . a good shop can flange the metal and make a clean looking splice and a really good shop can butt weld the metal and grind it flat removing most evidence of a splice . i have never automatically passed on a car simply because a piece of a quarter panel was spliced in instead of changed out with a taiwan one but have passed on plenty for various reasons that had full quarters put on.
your car is only original once.
Much like this? (With a TiChen patch)
Patch all butt welded, metal finished inside and out.
If it not totally killed, or completely rusted away (like my KIAtang) then you do what you have too to make a good repair. I chose to tackle a rust bucket and had every intention on putting a bunch of metal in it a I could care less about having an original F code Sprotsroof. Mine was purchased to modify.
These cars are only original once, which is very true. At least some of these less original cars are back on the road and not being swept up (like the trash can of rust particles out of my car) and thrown away.
The OP's car has all ready been modified and needs a repair that HE can do.
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Got the can opened trunk floor welded back in place.
With a little grinding, no one will ever know...
I got started on fixing some holes that someone hacked in the lower inside doors to install speakers, nice... With a little metal and a few hundred tack welds, one patch down, several to go.
There are a few rust areas that will need attention, they will also get some patches on them too.
The body is ready to come off the fixture and get some temp suspension put under it. While it is on the lift, a few areas that need to be ground will be much easier to access, lifts make you lazy lol.
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I didn't have a lot to work with when I started my project. I basically had a roof and some frame rails. Ended up replacing the back of the car, literally.
Full quarters are great for less bodywork, but they are not Ford parts. Having your doors aligned and your deck lid in place is a must for a full replacement (also fit to the door on a skin replacement). The valance area (I used all Dynacorn parts) were not great, and required some tweaking. My passenger side went on without any issues, the driver's side all most ended up in the scrap pile. It isn't awfully difficult, but you have a bunch of areas to line up and fit.
I would highly recommend full quarters to replace the swiss cheesed parts on your build.
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You obviously didn't install it backwards lol. Looks good.
Done tore up your nails, what are we going to do with you Bob?
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Having a quite busy week but still got a little more done. Installed the "two piece" driver's side connector and tack welded it in the correct position. Removed it from under the car and fully welded the bracket back in place. Pretty straight forward from there as I had all ready cleaned the weld areas, both were made to stay.
Next on the agenda was to get the Total Control panhard bar brackets installed. These brackets are a weld on item, so a little more cleaning. Following the directions, as I did not want these to be in the wrong location, I got a rough idea of where they were to be mounted, cleaned the rail and clamped them in place, well, that was on the passenger side. The driver's side, as we all know, the trunk floor is really tight to the frame rail. The directions said to weld the bracket perimeters all the way around, yea, sure. These brackets all but touch the bump stop bracket, and are 10.375" long, which puts the majority in that congested area . There is absolutely no way to get anything else in that area, much less see to weld. So, I made an access hole in the trunk drop off area just forward of the gas tank opening.
Tack welded everything in place and the welding got under way. The galvanized frame rail protested a little, with a few blow throughs, but ended up welding nicely.
I completed welding everything in place, just have to fix the "can opened" access hole in the trunk floor along with some patch work on the interior of the doors. This portion of the build is all but complete. Time for it to be on some wheels!
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As the replacement battery apron didn't have any fender attachment holes, it was in need of a little more attention. Bolting up the passenger side fender the holes were marked and the fender was removed. I made some templates of the necessary openings to make it look like it's supposed to. A little drilling and some filing, all the holes are ready for use.
Tidying up a few more small projects, one of them was to roll the rear quarter panel wheel opening lips, just incase Vic wants to run some wider rear tires. I have used my forming bag as a sound / impact absorber on other vehicles when doing this same procedure. It was a little easier on the convertible as I could clamp the bag in place, and not have to strap it in place.
The bag does a nice job, as the neighbors will attest to, and provides some much needed support in order to get the lip nice and flat to the inner wheel house. About 10 minutes a side, and they are ready to go.
With the lips rolled, the outer tab on the bump stop was removed, just incase. With three sub projects left on my list, I wanted to get the sub frame connectors started. I temporarily installed the passenger side connector, marked the areas on the frame rails to be cleaned, and cleaned up the powder coating on the brackets for welding. I wanted to fit the driver's side next, stuck it under the car, and could not get it to go on. Pulling it back out from under the car with a little examination, realized the people at Global West had goofed. The brackets have a "P" or "D" stamped on the inside of each connector, I had the "D" on the driver's side. Putting the two parts side by side, they were welded at the same angle.
Ooopss, that happens. So, off came the attachment bracket, the weld removed along with the powder coating in that area. I used a little paint stripper to clean the inside of the attachment bracket. In just a few minutes, it was all clean and ready for reattachment, this time, in the correct angle.
I'll put the two pieces back under the car and weld the bracket in place, no one will ever know it was cut off...
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Oh the life of us OCD people lol.
Its fun sweating the detail, the pillar looks great and should last a very long time.
Where did you get the perforated metal for the snorkel hole? That stuff is neat. (and expensive when bought in a full sheet)
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Been busy today and have gotten a good portion of the items on my to do list checked off. I got the driver's side shock tower welded to the frame rail on the inner portion.
Trimmed, fitted and welded the B-302 plate in place. I did throughly coat the inside area with more POR-15 before capping it off
I had the driver's side plates all trimmed and drilled, ready to install, so they were welded in place. I got out the grinding tools and started the clean up. I knocked down all the big stuff with a 40 grit flap wheel.
I thought it might look a little more factory if I didn't fill the spot weld areas slam full, leaving a little indentation for cosmetic reasons. Since I welded the permitter of all these plates I didn't want them to look out of place so I made them look like they had been seam sealed, only with very high temp, very quick setting "seam sealer". Being careful to not remove the weld yet bevel it into the shock tower without digging into it is fun, and tedious.
Once they were properly shaped, and a light hit with some scotch brite, they are presentable.
I welded and cleaned up the tops all the way up. Gives it an even look.
Having those areas all finalized, I punched the locations for the rosette weld holes on the battery apron, did a little prepping and fried it in place.
Got some more grinding to do on all those spot welds, along with the last patch on the shock tower top. It's getting there.
1970 Grabber Green Project
in Project Progress Forum
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Look, I actually worked on this today!
I have been looking at getting this exhaust fitted for some time. I had the collector reducers formed for a while, but haven't welded the flanges on yet. I haven't seen this done quite like this with the flanges and a slip fit. I have a gasket laid out that I need to trim to make sure it doesn't leak.
As these will be welded to the collectors, I purged them as the flanges were welded in place.
The beginning of the exhaust section stared with it's own flange, which was welded in place on both sides, then ground smooth.
I had modified the flex connector a while back, they started out round and with the help of my vice, are a nice oval shape. These are the double layer, bellow inside, braid outside. They should help with any vibrations and thermal expansion during use.
With the upstream parts all shaped, I trimmed the two 45 degree elbows to fit and tack welded everything in place.
I am in the process of welding all this together. The flex couplers are fun to weld. It helps to run a small bead on the wire to fully cover to the bands. Basically having to do a double pass. Time consuming, but the results are nice and neat.