latoracing

I was thinking more along the lines of the stock fitment, where the stock lenses, and buckets are used. A "flat" approach would be alot cheeper, and easier. The gap between the parts would be an issue. These could be made in a "modular" design, where the face and the inserts are all made seperate, and fastened together. The cool thing about having automated mills, CAD, and materials on hand, make it feasible to make one offs. I suppose samples would be in order to do any market research, or at least some 3D modeling to gain some interest.

Does anyone produce tail light housings in machined alum.? I know that the earlier cars are being reproduced, but I have not seen any for '70s. Is there an interest in having more than one set made? I might want to start making these, if there is some intrest. I work in a company who machines alot of Alum. on a daily basis, and might run some. That said, these will not be cheep, they will come out of a block 9" x 2.5" x 14". I would like your feed back, to see if there is a market for this. (Someone must have made these before.)

OOhh! That Black '70 shure is purdy! I wonder how the pipes are attached to the rocker so they don't vibrate, and rattle like crazy? This looks alot better than glass rockers, and alot cleaner.

Still working, did a bunch of small patches, and alot of fitting of the outer wheel house. The small patches take quite a bit of time to make them blend in where they will not be noticed, you can't tell I did anything, other than there are no rusty holes in the metal, and a little primer. The foward trunk floor (foward of the gas tank) is all most welded in, and looks much better. I bought what was left of a B pillar from a fellow forum person and started working the part out that I need to fix mine. To make a long story short, I am going to make one. The interior portion was fragile, and when I removed it from the outer skin, there wasn't much left. Such is life. I did install the quarter skin for the first time to see if it would even go on the car. I am still amazed at how well this Dynacorn metal fits, and the quarter was no exception. No hammer, just a little push to get the lip to go into the wheel house, and poof! If you are installing any replacement pannels on your ride, I highly recomend these parts. Yes there will be a little trimming, and probably a little fitting on the B pillar area, but compaired to the cheeper stuff, it is worth every penny spent not to cut and beat these pannels on! Now I get to tear it apart to install the trap door pannel, and all the brackets I removed when I installed the tubs. I've been talking to Jason Rushforth, of Rushforth Custom Wheels off and on for the past week, and had him photo shop some wheels for me. The color is slightly off, and there is chrome stuff on the picture (There will be NO shiny stuff on this build, anywhere!). I like the wheel, which is the Night Train design, in a couple of finishes. Jason is fun to work with, and his prices are in line with most other custom wheels. Still looking at some other wheel designs, (like Pro Wheel and CCW), but these are on the top of the list. Check him out if you would like. http://www.rushforthwheels.com/

Thankfully you can order this part. I have one, and haven't put it in yet, not quite there. Any way, here is a link. Hope it helps http://www.cjponyparts.com/fb-rear-window-panel-1969-1970/p/M327/

Did you measure the frame rails from side to side before cutting them? The hole in the rear frame rail past the hole for the spring shackel should measure 43" CL. If this is not within .25", I would cut the welds on the frame rails and make shure everything lines up before solid welding anything. Using self taping sheet metal screws to mock all the parts up will help align and can be taken apart alot easier when making adjustments. I am installing trunk floors, and a bunch of other parts on mine, I know where you are comming from.

The nuts that are welded in the pannels do come out when you don't want them to. Are you removing the fenders? If so then the repair is easier, but not impossible with them on. Depending on the size hole you ripped in the apron, you could use a nut that will thread on to your factory bolt, and weld it into the apron. If the hole is much larger, take a piece of 18ga sheet metal that will fill the hole, weld the nut on the patch before you weld it into the apron, using the hood hinge as a guide. Make shure it will bolt up before you weld it up. You can patch the hole, mark where the nut should go (measure off the op. side) and drill / tack / weld. Welding is probably your best bet. A fat fender washer, nut and bolt will work, but annoying when trying to adjust the hood. Hope this helps

I have been waiting for Street or Track LLC to come out with their new 3-link rear suspension for several months. I have contacted them before and this summer is Test and Tune on the 3 levels of the rear suspension. I E-Mailed Shawn today, and it is about ready to be on the market. (YEA!!!) Does anyone run their front end parts? If you do, would you buy them agean? They do use the Bilstine coil overs, or shocks with their systems, which I do like, and have used. Just looking for opinions, befor I drop some serious coin on a complete system

What type of "Budget" is there for the mods? Are you wanting to pick up 30hp? What do you want your motor to do...? These are the questions that I asked myself on a daily basis for a while. I like 8.2 deck motors, and thought of building one in a 363 flavor. My build is not a daily driver though. For a daily driver, I would try and find a Fox body Mustang and do a transplant of the drive train, EFI is nice when it is freezing out, and good fuel milage. Head, cam and intake packadges are a good way to go, if it is within your funding, they are proven to work. BIG subject, open to all points of view. Look up a mag. on line and search some of their articles, there are a good way to figure out what you want to do, before you spend a dime. Best of luck with your mods!

I have an 86 SVO, these cars came from the factory with Ricaro seats. They sit alot better than a GT seat, alot more bolster, and they have adj. lumbar support. The GT seats feel flat as a comparison. Hight wise, in a 69, shouldn't be to bad. If I was looking for a set, I'd go SVO over Fiero or GT

I ordered these and sorta don't need them. They were delivered today (7-30) They are $54.75 each @ CJ Pony Parts, I will sell them for what I am into them, $82.00 for the pair. Will ship, but buyer pays (sorry). I know that I can send them back, but I thought I'd offer them up before I do that.

Santa in July, a present from me to me! This looks like it will be alot of fun to install, and it will be nice and neat

I had a fun day today. Got a bunch of work done, since I haven't spent much time lately. Finished fitting the inner wheel house, and made shure I was still at my 55" seam measurement, thankfully I was. I made an attachment flange on the foward section of the frame rail, since I chopped off the origonal, I didn't go past where the sail pannel and the floor meet, that will come with the new floor when it gets installed. I fabbed up an inner brace on the frame rail to give it some support, and to lock it into place. Finished welding the frame rail, and ground it smoothe. Welded in the trunk brace, after patching the drivers side frame rail underneath. Swiss cheesed the nicely fitting trunk floor, and checked it for fit one more time. Welded it into place, just needs to be ground down and a little primer, it will be good as used. Here are a couple of pics for today...

Got my gas tank from the Fed-Up guy yesterday, I'm glad I waited. Bolting this thing into place makes everything line up so much better, and I know that it will go together once it is all welded up. I marked and trimmed the trunk floor, fit the inner wheel house once agean, still needs more trimming. I was about to melt, when my wife brought some ice cream out to the shop. That did me in for the eve. Here is a pic before trimming...

If I had gone to the trouble to remove the 1/4 skin, and replace it with new metal, the outter wheel house would be a no brainer at that point. The parts are not that expensive, and if you are doing it yourself, do it right, with out regrets.

I don't know of any one else who has either, but I will keep my eyes open, and post it as soon as I do.

vanscooter hooked me up. It is on it's way.

I didn't have a bunch of time in the shop today, went out to try and find a mock up gas tank at the local junk yards, with no luck. I like having everything in place before chopping, welding, or really screwing up a part that could be totaly avoided, like the new trunk floor. I went on line and ordered a Stainless Steel 22 gal. tank kit from my parts source CJ Pony Parts. The only problem with making this right, is waiting! I ended up scraping, and adjusting some of the frame rails, and other parts that are going to stay. I stuck the outter wheel house in place just to see how much cutting and beating it would take to fit it, I was, and still am amazed at how well this part fit. This is maily directed towards the fit between the WH and the rocker pannel. If you have ever replaced an outer wheel house, and used some lower quality Ti-Chen parts, you know what I'm talking about. I didn't smash the lip, or even touch it with a hammer in order to fit it. I hope that I haven't cursed myself by posting my likes about Dynacorn parts. The real test will be when the quarter skin goes on, that will be the tell all.

Once the tubs are installed, I am going to re-install the trap door, and all the attachment tabs. This car is a fixed rear seat, which I am going to do away with, but the side pannels will be reused on my build. Don't wory, I'll post lots of pics on this one, alot of people seem to be interested. Slight mods to the parts are part of the fun! This is not a paint and chalk mark type of build (those can be fun also). Still, this is a learning curve for me also. :punk:

Welcome, from yet another VMFer, nice ride, and wheels!

265-35-18 on 18x9 front, 335-30-18 on 18x12 rear. Ought to be enough rubber to go hang some corners, don't ya think?

Don't feel bad, the metal isn't that expensive compaired to metal + labor at another shop. I feel your pain on having alot of rust, and rot. If you can keep getting one piece at a time, it will all be worth it. I have built a few of these cars and yours isn't the worst I've seen, it could be worse. I'll be shure to watch your progress

I'm happy! I made a patch for my frame rail this afternoon and was able to tack it into place, and trim it up a little. I had my welder turned up just a little much and blew a few holes in the old sheet metal, what else is new. Any way, these pics really show how much was removed in order to make these tubs fit. I am going to put a few braces on the inside of the frame rail, to give it a little bit more support since I removed the flange off of one side. Trunk floor fitting is next...

Worked on the mini tub fitting some this week end. Those of you who are of the pure, unmolested Mustang fans, viewer discretion is advised. Its not that bad, but there is alot of modification to the frame rail area. I have a couple of parts that are on the way that will be modified also, so the rusty stock parts can be played with and turned into templates. Started by removing the old inner wheel house, and set it to the side, with all the brackets still attached. I removed every thing except the lower portion of the wheel house so it would be easier to lay out the cut lines for the new, 2" wider tub. The flash on the camera washed out my line on the picture, but it is there. The cut line was right next to the seat bracket (which I totally removed) and center lined the outer seat belt bolt hole. I drilled the two spot welds that held the threaded plate and removed it. Marking the trunk divider was next, I did remove the "L" shaped mount, what was left of it, before chopping out the area. All cuts were made to leave a little extra material in case my measuring was off. One thing MEASURE at least a dozen times before chopping up the car. It can be fixed, but save time, and be sure before cutting. I had a 55" dim. from the seam on the center of the two wheel houses, and used that to trim to fit. The area where the rear floor pan around the rear torque box could be trimmed to leave enough material to form a .75" lip to attach the new part, but that is one of the parts I'm going to install later. Every thing was carefully trimmed and fitted several times, until I was happy with the rough fit up front. Next was chopping the frame rail! There is not a whole lot of parts on this car in the right rear, so measuring before was a must. I did temp install the trunk cross member with sheet metal screws to help keep things square. These frame rails are one of only a few parts that are not crunchy, so they might actually weld up nice. I had a little bit of the trunk floor left under the divider that needs to be removed, but quite a bit was removed along with 12" of one side of the frame rail. I left 2 of the 3 sides of the rail, to trim to fit later. Taking the side off of the rail was a noticeable difference in strength, it didn't move, but it wouldn't take much to move it. Thats where the measurement taken before comes into play. A few more trials of the tub's fit, and it was time to put some 1/8" holes to cleco it in place, and a few vice grips to help insure that I have trimmed enough material. I had to stop, my buddy was having a cook out. I will continue this week though. Next will be fixing the huge hole I made in my frame rail. I get to fire up my welder on this thing for some re-construction!

Passenger side