bnickel

hey Steve, after looking this car over pretty well, from the couple of pics posted, I don't think it's your old car. I guess it could be but the new owner must have really changed a bunch of stuff or he wrecked it and put it nack together like this......hope that's not the case though.

sweet!!! sounds awesome can't wait to see the full fledged production setup ready to go! I can't honestly imagine using a 14" wheel either but I am pretty much old school when it comes ro wheels and tires and I prefer the good old 15" wheel, it just looks better to me, I only wish that there were more 15" tire options these days, like back in the 80's when it seems that all of the tire manufacturers had a line of Hi-Po 15" tires. Today about all there is Mickey Thompson and a few BFG's unless you want to run a 225/50 or smaller.....it's even getting hard to find a good 16" tire too. That said I think 15" wheels are starting to make something of a comeback in classic cars lately so maybe the tire makers will take note and give us some more options.

hey Gmachine, how's your front suspension project coming? any plans for production yet?

hey Demon, lokoing awesome man!!!!!!! that fuel line actually makes a really noticeable difference in the stock feel of the engine bay, much more sleepy now....LOL

actually a basic 75 pc. "mechanics" tool set will probably do 85-90% of the stuff you need to do and what it doesn't cover you can either pop for a piece at a time as the need arises or use the AutoZone (advance, NAPA, etc) loan a tool program. you can usually even rent engine hoists and transmission jacks from the local U-Haul if needed as well. also certain tools you can get from harbor frieght if you only need them occasionally.

if that offer is still open I might take you up on it for the Cougar

yeah i never did get the original driver game after i finally bought a PS2. I played the original on a friends PS1 all the time and finally had to have the PS2 a couple years after they came out, but the driver game i bought at the time really sucked, don't remember if it was 2 or 3 though.

1: dremel tool 2: punches and chisels 3: 2 or 3 ton floor jack and at least 3 pairs of very tall jackstands 4: ratcheting wrench set 5: lots of different length sockets in 1/2, 3/8 and 1/4" (deep and shallow) 6: a flex handle ratchet 7: an impact driver (the kind you hit with a hammer) 8: timing light with dial back feature 9: blast cabinet 10: large air compressor and a nice set of air tools and paintgun 11: various screwdrivers 12: cordless drill, impact, flashlight and sawzall 13: various prybars 14: large workbench and a small portable workbench like a Workmate 15: suspension tools, like pitman and idler arm pullers, pickle forks, etc 16: welder or a friend with one 17: various pliers, vise grips and clamps 18: some sort of torch, propane, oxy/acetylene, etc the above list will get you through about 95% of every job on restoring a classic car of any type. i have all these except the welder but i do have a friend with one.

good, cause you know once i get started on the cougar i'll be expecting the same kinds of reviews from you as well :blushing: i still haven't made up my mind 100% if i'm going straight up sleeper or if i'm gonna do more of a vintage street machine vibe with it or a combo of both. i do know that after watching the guys on MuscleCar paint their Comet gasser that I definitely want some flake and some candy paint and a little pinstriping and some pearl paint as well. but I'm only going to do the roof of the car; i was already planning on doing the roof pearl white before i saw that show and then i decided i wanted to some 70's style panel painting on it as well, but most likely something small like just on the sail panels to kinda pull the car back to late 70's/early 80's era which will be perfect with the vintage canyon carver theme i've been leaning very heavily towards for a long time now, i think it'll work just about perfectly. the engine bay will have a few obvious bolt-on mods and a whole bunch of hidden mods too, but i'm trying to decide exactly how much i wanna show off under there

just so you know, I wasn't trying to diminish your accomplishments in anyway. It is still a very stock looking engine compartment actually. as far as the dizzy goes it's not really that big of a deal especially once the engine bay is full of wiring and hoses, etc. if the car had ac that would actually hide the dizzy to the point of being almost a non-issue anyway and even without it it can still be toned down quite a bit. the biggest problem in my eyes, if you're going for a really stock sleeper looking bay, is the cap itself. the old style MSD cap with clips like the stock ford cap would be the best solution and IIRC you can still get the parts to convert it from MSD, the housing itself with a little blasting and/or some cast blast paint would bring the look more in line with stock and you could always buy vacuum advance unit and disable it and just have it screwed to the dizzy base to make it even more correct lokoing. as far as the snorkel tube goes, there are aftermarket kits that you can either weld or use hose clamps to attach the pre-heater hose to the headers and use a cloth-type hose up to the snorkel. I have one myself that I may use on the cougar if I decide to use headers and to be honest the look of it kind of approximates that of a 70 boss 302 pre-heater hose setup which, while not exactly 100% correct for a 69 351w would be pretty darn close. edelbrock has one for about $60 that would be so damn close looking to a factory style kit it's almost incredible http://www.summitracing.com/parts/EDL-65951/?rtype=10 and summit has other kits for less money as well http://www.summitracing.com/search/Department/Exhaust/Part-Type/Hot-Air-Kits-and-Components/?Ns=Rank%7cAsc and i do remember, now, that we did discuss the fuel line already..... just trying to help a brother out. :biggrin: plus, i just really dig those sleeper engine bays...:wheelchair:

i only see three things that look out of place enough to keep that from being the ultimate sleeper engine bay. the fuel, line routing, the distributor and the lack of the pre-heater tube for the air cleaner. and for as bad-ass as i know that engine is gonna be that ain't too bad.

I'm gonna bring back an old idea i had for the first run. take the the third pic that racer posted and have a matching 70 as a mirror image on the other side so that the space between them is like a big upside down v and put a drag race christmas tree between the two of them. that would look awesome on a white t-shirt or you could do an inverse of the same image with a white outline to the cars and put it on a black shirt. i wish i had the skills to draw what i'm talking about but i think Pak could do a reasonable chop to kind of get the effect anyway.

hahahaha, they have the A-team van and the Starsky & Hutch torino too>>>>> LOL that's hilarious. they're painted in different colors but you can tell that's what they're supposed to be. the van has the wheels and the pushbar and even that goofy wing on the roof. the torino has the slot mags too... I see it's going to be available for Wii too, so maybe I will have to grab one up. the main reason i bought my old PS-2 was to play driver and the driver game i bought sucked.........but this one looks pretty good.

no sweat, that a pretty rare pic that i found online, in most of the pics of Dyno Don's cougar you can't really see the eliminator stripes.....

no sweat, that a pretty rare pic that i found online, in most of the pics of Dyno Don's cougar you can't really see the eliminator stripes.....

what you have is Pro Stock/Super Stock Boss '9 scoop like what the 60's and 70's race cars would have used.

what you have is Pro Stock/Super Stock Boss '9 scoop like what the 60's and 70's race cars would have used.

hmmm, those stripes are interesting, i'd never thought about using 69 mach 1 stripes. my idea was always to use the 70 mach 1 tail panel stripe.

hmmm, those stripes are interesting, i'd never thought about using 69 mach 1 stripes. my idea was always to use the 70 mach 1 tail panel stripe.

here is the heavily modified 1,000+ cfm factory Holley carb on Lane Carey's 9 second 71 429 SCJ Mach 1. Note that the fuel crossover is bigger than the stock 5/16" line, looks to be 3/8" at least possibly larger. Dave Dudek enlarges his 3/8" fuel lines by internally sandblasting them to open them up some, probably only about 1/16" or so but when you're making as much power as these guys are every little bit has to help. i have so much respect for the guys running in the FAST class and the pure stock drags also and I'm totally in awe that they can those cars into the 9's on repro bias ply tires.......absolutely amazing. reminds a lot of some of the old street racers from back in the 80's when I was in high school they would look as stock as possible and run in the low 13's or high 12's or occassionally you'd see a high 11 second car which any of those were really good for a street car back then.

oh man that is so awesome!!!!!!! I do have one minor suggestion however. you really should re-route the fuel line to enter on the driver side fuel inlet like an original 4v windsor or any of the migh performance engines that came with a factory holley carb, like the Boss 302 or 428CJ, even the Ford Muscle Parts carb for the 4v windsor used that same inlet and you have the provision to do it with that carb. just a suggestion and obviously it's your choice to do whatever you think best, I just think it would add a little more to sleeper-ish stock type look you're going for though :detective::devil:

Gmachine, long time no talk to. I've been wondering how this project was going. Quick question can you also still use some stock-ish style rotor and caliper comboa as well. like say the calssic T/A Big Brake setup with the Galaxie rotors and T-bird/Lincoln calipers? heavy as that setup is it's still my favorite choice since I refuse to go with any larger than a 15" wheel on the 69 Cougar once I finally am able to sell the stang

yeah man the FAST cars are amazing some of the stuff they do......I've always kind of thought of them as the ultimate street sleepers. some of my favorite mods are the balsa wood framed styrofaom stuffed passenger side and rear seats with stock covers that look bone stock but wouldn't hold 10 pounds without collapsing, all the lightened body panels inside behind the interior panels and the the handmade aluminum pieces like brackets and stuff to replace not usually very heavy steel pieces but every ounce counts so if you can cut 2 puunds by making 10 brackets from aluminum versus the stock steel pieces all the better. I also like all the gutted electronics stuff like gauges and wiper motors, etc. I'd like to use some those trick on the cougar but gutted parts won't work well on a street car so I'll have to stick making aluminum brackets and stuff....LOL

hi Bill, I never thought of taking a pic of the pic....I'll have to give that a try.

yeah, i'd forgotten that your's are modified and smake around quite a bit, but they still tuck in pretty tight though. i think you'd be better off laying those in and wiring them up to hold them in place and then drop the engine in. what's funny is that when i installed my motot it looked "almost" identical to yours, cast iron gray headers and all, albeit mine were shorties and i had a performer intake and the ac compressor and PS pump and no shaker but still damn close. i wish my scanner worked and i'd post some pics of mine going in, it really did look amazingly similar. then again i guess that's why you went to so much trouble to make yours look as stock as it does huh?.....LOL when i get ready to do the 351w in the cougar it will look even more stock since i have an actual Ford Muscle Parts "over the counter" intake with an actual C90 ford part number on it. basically just like a shelby intake except it says FORD instead of shelby. i'm even going to install the flapper lid and correct ram air seal on the cougar to make the future eliminator/ram air CJ scoop functional so it'll look totally factory right down to a set of "stock" cast iron exhaust manifolds which will recieve a heavy does of F.A.S.T. style modifications to make them flow on par or at least close with some shorty headers. the FMP intake will recieve a similar treatment and I'd like to have the intake, GT-40-X heads and exhaust manifolds extrude honed as a matched set as well but i'm not sure the wallet will be able to take that kinda hit