JET 445

I used a dome light from a 68 Mustang, but I had to add a cross brace when the headlining was out.

If you still have the original rear end you can use that to make a fixture that will align the mounts and also give you the correct pinion angle.

Well, The car is essentially done. Although we all know that our cars are never ever really done! I do have a list of things I need to or want to change/fix or tweak.
I belong to the local Mustang & Fords club here in Delaware and we had our fall show sponsored by a Ford dealership in Newark Delaware, Porter Ford. It was a nice day and we had a great turnout. I took the car to the show where it made it's debut.  The car got a lot of attention and took home it's first trophy. The awards were based on spectator popular vote and a Dealers Choice award.

looks great.
i hate masking.  I'm also not to worried about overspray in the cabin area (except trunk and dash).  i spent several house masking when prepping to paint the cage, just to prevent having to sand overspray from the other surfaces when it's time to final sand those (and prevent dirt from getting blown out from goofy places like the roof area).  I spent most of the evening tuesday night masking the cage to prevent it from getting any oversprays....

 

 

Acapulco.

This is a favorite topic on another forum and has been going for almost a year now. Midlife is trying to wake-up the site, because it has been rather quiet lately. I'll start with what I posted earlier today. Your's can be anything- just keep it going!
My garage is mostly done now so I can show the highlights, but as we all know, your shop can never be too big and you can never have too many tools. My house has a two car garage on the main level and what is known in my area as a “boat garage” in the basement. This is a hilly area and at least one side of all the basements are at ground level with windows and doors. I believe I may be unique in my HOA for having a second driveway and pad for the boat garage. I know this sounds strange, but all my neighbors have a 12’ door on the side of the house with lawn or dirt outside. My lower garage is an odd “L” shape and since it’s in the basement the overhead is not ideal and there is one particular post that isn’t where I would prefer. It could hold three cars. The Stang and Vette should just fit nose to tail straight-in (although I’ve never done it) and one more could angle off to the left.

This garage is the reason I bought the house. The kitchen is the reason my wife bought the house, so it worked out well for both of us. My next project is a shed for the backyard to house more car parts with the dryer and compressor, because I ABSOLUTELY HATE the noise that thing makes. BTW, air is routed to six places in the shop, one of which is a reel hung from the ceiling.

This shows typical Home Depot stand-up shelving and shelves I built that are suspended from the overhead. I attempted to cram-in all the storage I could. More about the lift later.

This shows more suspended shelving. Each of the threaded rods will support over 500 lbs. On the back wall of the L-shaped work bench I built, is my old tool board that has followed me to all of my houses. My first wife, who passed from lung cancer many years ago, painted the shapes of all the tools in black on the white board so I could identify what I had misplaced and where to put it. What a treasure. The table with the vice in the foreground has kick-down rollers to move it wherever needed. On occasion I’ve backed it up to a post and clamped it on, when I really needed to go cave-man with the vice and a hammer.

I did all the shelving, benches and desk using my old ShopSmith, shown on the left. It is an all in one: table saw, drill press, 12” sander, horizontal borer, wood lathe, jointer, jig saw, and vertical filer (hew). I think that’s all. I had to rebuild its power head with all new bearings, belts and a gear or two. It’s a 1984 model that I upgraded to newer tables that are bigger and makes it much more useful. The power head uses variable pulleys and belts for adjustable speeds. It was designed in the 50s before electronic motor controls. Directly above the machine in the wire shelving are many of the accessories. On the bottom shelf is a cross-cut sled I built. It allows you to trim the ends off 2x4s (up to 10’ long) very accurately. Behind it on the floor is a jig I built for making tapers while ripping.

Next to it is a Harbor Freight blast cabinet with all of its deficiencies addressed using Tacoma Company upgrades. Now it can do a beautiful cleaning and then bead blasting at far less than 25 psi if you like for delicate pieces. A Dust Deputy isn’t needed for the vacuum because there is a waste gate on the back to set the negative pressure using the monometer on the top, giving a clear view and making practically all the media recoverable. I typically only pour in a Dixie cup full of media at a time, and then reuse it.

On the right is a Harbor Freight parts washer with pump. I upgraded this with a heater and thermostat which greatly improves the cleaning. The pump and flexible spigot are a known problem on these. The spigot is attached directly to the motor with plastic fittings. I moved the spigot to a separate bracket and used brass fittings to give it durability. The other problem is the pumps don’t always start. After inspection I found that the pump is underpowered and to overcome the problem they designed the impeller to only engage after about 350* of rotation…if the impellor is backed up to the stop. To insure that it is, all you have to do is blow canned air (for cleaning a keyboard, etc.) down the spigot. That backs the impeller up to the stop and allows the motor to turn almost a complete revolution before the impeller is engaged. It works every time. It would be nice if Harbor Freight stuff just did what it was supposed to, but they doesn’t always happen.

This shows the mini mill and lathe. The countertop is Formica so it’s easy to clean-up the oil and metal chips, with an aluminum trim on the edge so stuff doesn’t roll off. The wall behind and the bottom of the shelf above are covered with FRP Wall Board because these machines tend to throw oil and debris everywhere- on the wall and even the ceiling.

Next to my desk and garage computer (again the table surfaces are Formica) is one of those combination metal breaks, shears, and rollers. To the left you can see part of the basement dehumidifier, and various floor jacks and stuff. The basement heater and AC unit and the house water heater are down here too. There is ducting, wire and pipes all over the ceiling. It reminds me of my shipboard military days.

Miller 220 AC/DC TIG/MIG/Stick Welder. I had to rewire much of the basement adding several sub-panels to get power to the welder and rewire for many other circuits that were previously overloaded and always tripping breakers.

My Stang patiently awaiting restoration. You can see from the dust that I need to move the ShopSmith outside before I do any cutting or sanding, but sometimes weather doesn’t permit. I need to get the leaf blower going and blow out the garage again. Wouldn’t it be nice if there as a static system or something that would take all the dust out of the air and deposit it in one place for disposal (besides my car)?

The lift is a two post MaxJax, because it works well with the confining ceiling height, and can be moved out of the way for a rotisserie. Yeah- the columns unbolt and they have wheels on them so you can tuck them up against a wall out of the way. I had the area under the posts sawed-out then jack hammered, and put in a generous pad that is 12” thick with rebar tying into the surrounding concrete. That puppy ain’t going anywhere. You can see all the subpanels I added and the welder 240v plug in front of the Stang. I’ve got a 50’ 8ga cord set so I can do welding on the other side of the shop. That shelf and the one to the right of it holds all the volatiles that I wouldn’t want a spark around. There are four fire extinguishers in the garage and adjoining rooms, and fire sprinklers with Wood’s metal above the cars.      
 

Grabber Green?, looks fantastic you have done a great job on that car.

I just found out yesterday they came out with the New TKX transmission same as the TKO600 but slimmer tighter case made just for the Classic Muscle Cars/ Hot Rods. I notice they have several choices for our Fords. Nice!
 

As suggested, I started a build thread in the garage section of the forum. Thanks for the idea!

Am I the only one who's aware of the state law that requires a 390fe be used for power in a 68 fastback in Highland green?

Wow, very nice.

Loctite make a teflon paste, 567 Pipe sealant.

Well to answer my own question.  Yes.  In my case a 235/60/15 tire on a 15x7 wheel w/3.75" back spacing.  Stock suspension w/KYB shocks.  Add the Shelby-Arning drop and to my surprise no fitment problem at all.  Brian

How the hell did you lift that car high enough to get it on that rotisserie ?. The underseal seems to have done it's job, the floor looks very nice.

Of course he did, well spotted.

When I did the right hand drive conversion I had to change the location of the wipers. I had just bought a TIG and as I was learning so warped the panel. I tried hammering it out and even with bog I wasn't happy so I decided to get a new panel and have another go. This time with the old faithful TIG. As I have no idea what sort of paint or coating was used on the bonnet I can't match it so will need to repaint that as well. I'm pretty happy this time round.

I got mine a few years ago on ebay, can't remember who the seller was. I think rechroming the originals would be better for a concours or special car.

I bought some repro's, had to put them over my knee and carefully bend them to the right shape but they ended up fitting quite nicely. It was a bit scary bending them because I thought they might break.

Funny you mention that,  had a customer last week asking if he could send me the motor and make it fit our MTF subframe:)

I did my cowl panel the same way you are doing yours.

Just got these in today, we have matching lower grilles also 

We use Ididit and they all tilt. 

Patch is all ready to tack in place. There is some tape on the back holding it up.

The general fit, tack, beat, repeat until it is all fully welded. A little sanding and its ready for more beating. Sanding the inside is helpful to get a smooth finish.

Between filing off the proud weld, more beating and a ton of planishing it looks presentable. Once again, I left some of the minor imperfections that will only require some putty to get ready for primer. There are a couple of places I'm going to take care of while I'm at it, then it"s on to the passenger side fender.

Those old colors will not do it justice, I used a new colour that looks a bit like an old color but much more vibrant.

There is nothing wrong here, you just need to pull the inner shaft out a bit, you might need to give it a light tap with a hammer just to make it slide out.