latoracing

Since I have the speaker hole all fixed up, the rear corner was in need of some repair. There was no way I was going to attempt "filling" these holes with weld, that would have ended up constructing the corner out of MIG wire and grinding it smooth. I marked the area that i wanted to fix and cut it off with a cutoff wheel. The piece that I removed i covered with masking tape and marked the flange location with a pencil. Knowing that this part needed some extra material for the tuck (raised hump in the middle) the tape accommodated for all these profiles, much easier. I cut a piece of 20ga for my patch, leaving some extra material, and transferred the tape to my new corner. I measured the angle of the flattened out mark I had made earlier (which was 85 degrees) and made a forming plate out of some 3/16" plate. The corner was tack welded to the 3/16" plate, allowing for the step that will be formed in it. My line was moved off the plate by 3/16""ish. Clamped to my vice, I used a combination of tools and a chunk of aluminum to hammer the shape into the 20ga. Using aluminum and UHMW tipped forming tools (made when I did the battery-less apron) there were very few tool marks. Checking my progress with the original corner of the door, things were looking fairly good. A few more touch-ups and it was time to put the tuck in the part. More scrap plate was used to form the tool to shape the "tuck". More beating with a soft faced mallet, and a little creative vice work, the new corner was looking like it should. A little trimming, and it was tack welded in place. Weld, Weld, Weld, grind, grind, grind, done. The outer edge needs a little trimming (I made a template before I cut anything apart). This is in need of some epoxy along with the door skin, and the two will become one.

Vic, you're not old enough to have a grandkid, much less three lol. I'm sure they were a lot of fun, and they will hold Grandpa up to taking them on cruses in the convertible once it is completed. I hope that you are taking notes and writing down all these electrical components, cause you can come wire mine if I ever get to that point. It's looking very nice.

I love grabber blue. If my '70 had not been an actual grabber green car, it would most definitely been painted grabber blue. The '17 is so refined, unlike any of its predecessors, it will spoil you. I can't get past not having to put a key in the ignition to start it, that is still weird. Since fotosuckit messed up the picture hosting for my build thread (what do you expect for free???) I'm adding pictures back to my thread little by little. It's time consuming but well worth the effort. Pictures are worth a couple of words...

I have been very lazy the past several weeks, just had all kinds of excuses to not work on pretty much anything. The wife and I have been on several adventures (one was to the Ark Encounter in Kentucky, you all gotta check that out), lots of autumn fishing excursions, and getting everything ready for the winter months (i.e. splitting wood lol) I've gone out and got me a Coyote motor, just because... It came in it's very own special shipping crate... 2017 GT with the performance package (can you say 15" Brembo's up front?) 3.73 tortion diff. and Recaro sport seating, it's fun and a much "needed" upgrade for the DD. I dug out my passenger side door shell out of the waiting to be fixed pile as I needed something straight forward that didn't need "inventing". (I'm kinda at a standstill with the tail lights, I've got to get my hands on some buckets.) The shell has been sandblasted forever ago and it hasn't rusted at all, which I am amazed. This shell is in very good shape with only a few areas that need some attention, like the lovely speaker hole someone used a hatchet to form. The usual cut and weld new metal in (I'm surprised I can still do this lol) didn't take too long. I've got it welded up and ground all nice and neat. There is a crunchy area on the bottom rear corner that will have to be fixed next and a few small screw / pinholes that will have to be taken care of, then it will be epoxy primed. I promise I'll do better and keep my project moving, even if it is slowly....

Oh the days of sitting in that engine bay when it was ugly lol. That looks very nice Vic!

As I wasn't 100% satisfied with the way the holes lined up on the lenses, I had to do some alterations to the hammer form. The outer holes needed to slide to the outside by 1/8", so I epoxied some .125" steel onto the form and removed a little more on the opposite sides. That being taken care of I attempted to flatten and reshape my first part. It didn't fair too well, but gave me a good idea of how the form will function on the next part. I had to figure out how to get the upper and lower bends in the proper location, and made a tool to duplicate the lower bend's larger radius. The upper bend was as easy as sticking in my box and pan brake and bending it up. The larger radius was accomplished in the press with a little bit of creativity. Both bends turned out just right. A little measuring, and some sharpie marks, I went ahead and trimmed the panel down to a pre-fit size and fitted it to the car. I have been looking at my tail light buckets and I might see if I can get my hands on some '69 buckets as my original approach isn't going to work out like I had hoped. I have spent a bunch of time getting to this point, but still haven't modified anything on the car yet, or spent any money, so IF this doesn't pan out, I've just wasted a bunch of time.

I don't have a direct shot of the area you are referring to, but if you can get the wire through the lower A pillar and out before your fresh air vent, keep it tucked in close to the A pillar. Go up to the top of the toe board (bottom of the HVAC box) and go towards the tunnel, bore a hole to the engine bay, secure with a bunch of cushion clamps and bulk head grommets . Otherwise you'll end up going through your lower cowl and ending up on the outside portion of the aprons, or trying to go through a torque box. Should have put you a channel in there lol. Hope that made some kind of since.

I would center the transmission between the frame rails. The shifter hole is offset towards the driver's side to accommodate the various stock transmission shifter levers. I have installed a TKO-600 in my project. Fitting the shifter up through the stock tunnel opening. I ended up cutting my new 1 piece floor to get the transmission centered in the car. Your measurements are correct.

Very pricey, (looked at the price after I posed it) sorry :(

If you decide to go with a different radiator, and possibly an electric fan setup, check out https://www.crracing.com/mustang_cougar_radiator_69_70_sbf_passenger_side_inlet_outlet_transmission_oil_cooler_accepts as another source. They have some pretty wild applications for the custom stuff too.

I've been bad, haven't posted on this is forever. Kinda lost the drive of posting with all the picture issues lol. I have been working on odds and ends, but got irritated with the exhaust tip floor pan patches. I did get the the other frame beef up put in place a while back So I decided to get my motivation back by completing the hammer form for the modified '69 tail lights. I despise wood (best use is for keeping the house warm in the winter lol) and do not like the way it works. The MDF that I used to make the form out of is still annoying, but I got everything ready to try out a piece. As the '70 tail light panel has a convex shape to it, the form also has the same radius to match, it may look flat, but it isn't. Sandwiching the material between the blocks, the clamp holes were marked, punched, then bolted together (so nothing slips) and carefully forming the material edge (starting in the middle of the long opening) around the hammer form shape. This gives a general idea of the shaping process. As I worked around each opening using several different hammers and punches, I was able to form the small edges into a decent shape, that needs a bunch of touching up. I smushed the middle opening's top, so that will have to be fixed. For the first attempt, it turned out decent. Removing the top revealed the formed 20ga. I had to see if the lens would even come close to fitting in the openings, with a little tweaking, they kinda fit. The corners are the biggest issue, as I need to build a dedicated forming tool to help form them better. The flanges are not quite tight enough due to the MDF giving a little, and hammering this by hand. I have a few more bends to add to this part, along with refining the shape. I'll stick it on the tail light panel and see if I like it before chopping up a brand new panel. More to come...

I thank you for the compliment. It was a lot of work, and very enjoyable. I am always attempting to go to the next level in whatever I am building. I am my own worst critic and look for ways to improve my techniques and abilities. I want to get to wheeling some parts on it, but have to finish up some other areas. Kinda like the USAF "hurry up and wait" lol. I'm just glad it didn't turn into the "big magnet" lol.

Looks like everything lined up, or at least I hope it all lined up lol. That is turning out quite nice. The sway bar ought to help out a bit. You're going to be adjusting on all this for a while once it is drivable ;)

Nice looking job Rich. I have to give a big thumbs up to the person behind the spray gun. Small areas with lots of crevices can spell "marathon" (really big runs lol). That looks to have covered quite well. Very nice

Without the wheel, adjuster and lower anvils I probably have close to that in materials. The total outlay is a little north of $2k (ouch lol) If I didn't have a great perk (sometimes its better than cash bonuses lol) to use the shop equipment for my personal indulgence, it would have been about half of that for the powder, cleaning, phosphate treatment, and baking to an outside customer. I tried to move it without the engine hoist, just to slide it a little, and couldn't. I personally can't see bolting it to the floor, it would take a rather large hit to move it. I'm not strong enough to budge it, it is heavy lol. It would be a very bad day if it did topple over, I wouldn't want to be near it.

Finally was able to get my parts out of powder coat purgatory. The guys have been swamped, but was able to get it on the line the other day. The main color is Silver vane, kinda like hammered antique. It is just a tad textured, but should hide dirt and scratches Now to put it to some use, and get back to work on my build...

I'd be happy to build stuff like this (or anything for that matter) for $75.00 lol. Don't have very many customers, just entertaining myself lately.

As my Photobucket account has been deleted, had to go and redo the pics. (My build will take a while lol) Got all the grinding and pinhole filling accomplished over a few afternoons. As the last portions of the machine were needed to be built to hold this thing up I looked at several different size tubes and ended up going with the same 4" x 4" square to match the front. A little bit of creative compound mitering with my plasma torch produced this... I was anxious to get it all assembled to see if my laser layout was accurate, and I was surprised with the results. It took very little adjustments to get the wheels all in line and square (thankfully!!!!) Then it was time to try it out for the first time. I haven't "driven" one of these in quite some time, but after a few moments of ... where is this thing going... I got my bearings back. In just a few passes the wheel produced a nice shape, without a ton of effort. This is a piece of 3003-H32 Aluminum, .060" thick, which I had laying around. It is all blown back apart and at work fixing to get some plastic melted all over it. All most done and getting ready to be put into some use.

I installed the upper mounting plate that was provided with the adjuster on the top portion yesterday. Welded the attachment plate for the removable arm on this afternoon. The laser trick worked nice and helped get it all aligned. Now I need to fix the rear legs and get the rest of the frame all smooth...

It's going to be powder coated, but don't know what color yet. Ought to just clear coat it lol.

Fabricated the two radius parts for my front leg mount that encloses the ends of the chopped up square tube. I marked the location on the frame and the cut angle on the bottom of the leg. A little prep work and the mount was fried in place. A little more grinding... In preparation for mounting the lower anvil holder post I got out my trusty laser level. Getting the frame level in the critical planes I leveled the laser and adjusted it to the center of the upper mount. Measuring then marking the place where the beam landed yielded a nice surprise. The lower portion is less than 1/16" twisted, which I am well pleased. These marks were transferred to the outer edges of the lower frame for reference. I'm going to get the lower mount cleaned up and bolted to the attachment plate and tacked in place. once it is tacked, I'll check it again with the laser.

Grind, grind, grind, grind......

No need to call for help from the Road Runner just yet, I think it might just work. I just hope I do not come across the preverbal "cliff" lol... I had some drops left over from my chassis table and thought it would make a nice front leg. It is 4" x 4" x 3/16" with a plate that will be bolted to a mount constructed out of a shorter drop of 4" x 4" tube. The mount will be boxed in and is contoured to fit the bottom of the frame. Need to get some fasteners... I haven't built the removable anvil holder yet, so I got it mostly together this afternoon. I added some 5/16-18tpi adjustment set screw provisions (just in case) for possible fine tuning. These parts were cut using a keyed style fitment, note the four alignment holes in the plate, which didn't burn out too nicely lol. The keyed assembly went together nicely, after getting rid of a few chewy areas and a little more beveling. It was tack welded in place. A little while later, we have a fully welded part. I welded it so that it can be ground flush on most of the seams, so it will look like the rest of the frame. I need to design the rear legs and buy a bunch of flap wheels, I've got just a "little" bit of grinding to do.

Haven't updated this in a little while, been busy with that E-wheel build , it is a fun distraction but hopefully going to be useful on future projects. I did get the passenger side beef-up welded in place a week or so ago. I have the other side all trimmed, fitted and on it's way. The floor is laid out for cutting and that's where it's been sitting... The E-wheel is getting closer to being completed, I'll get back to this frame reinforcement business soon. Meanwhile, weld, weld, weld, weld.....