Dr Chickenhawk

Car looks beautiful. Gonna be amazing out in the UK. Love the lights. I hope you have better luck than i did with your power brakes. Mine felt mushy no matter what. Also inconsistent braking due to vacuum variances. Also for some reason were always dragging. I finally removed the power booster and went with wilwood manual. All problems gone finally after nearly a year of constant fighting. I do know some guys have pretty good luck with the factory power systems but i wish i had not wasted nearly $500 US on the system just to pay nearly same for manual. Also much harder to change with the engine in and dash built as YES the power and manual pedals are different with different mounting points. Basically the pivot is closer to the joint to increase pressure with less force (Lever). I sincerely hope you have no problems. I only share this with you for later IF you have any issues with brakes. Also most guys here in Southern California either run manual brakes because of lack of vacuum in big engines or have removed it because of lack of performance. Local shop JBA told me they remove more power brakes on old mustangs than any others. Unknown why they seem to not work well.. wish i could see that beauty rolling around UK Though. Shes gonna really stand out amigo.

Sorry i forgot. The pedal itself DID come from MDL. i forgot because i had to change my brake pedal. So basically MDL sent me everything i would need. Also were available for a couple phone calls to help install.

Clutch cable is MDL. For the trans everything except for the pedal itself came from modern driveline (MDL). Every bolt fluid etc. He recommended roller bearings instead of bushings for the pedal and it is amazing. Super smooth and not even a problem in San Diego traffic believe it or not.

Well, getting pretty close to being caught up. Took the hood back off, as only wanted it on there to line up stripes and keep busy while waiting for engine to be done. 302 (308 now) engine installed near Christmas. finally got engine back. as written about last time everything changes. was going to rebuild engine myself then decided since its already out better go ahead and do it right. took to local shop (Dave ARCE) in San Diego. great small shop cool guys. engine was already 40 over and I did not want to go 60. he recommended just bore the cylinders as little as possible and get custom pistons cut as they only couple hundred bucks extra (sure my credit card is already gasping but I don't want to have to redo anything costing more later). He also had them put the wrist pin slightly lower to get better compression? sounded good to me. ended up 43 over with simple Edelbrock heads and a mild roller cam. Im gonna drive this nearly every day so don't need to be able to race but still want to have fun. COVID decided that everything was going to take forever to arrive so car was nearly done when engine showed up. that's ok because my garage is not big. So engine started but ran like crap and I couldn't get the timing right, called the shop and looks like the firing order is now same as 351. swapped some wires and runs like a top. below is changing plug wires and valve covers. (shiny). Backed her up to a T5 from Modern Drive line. May have to do a whole write up on only that. Those guys are AMAZING. I called MDL and the owner answered the phone. he talked with me for nearly 30 minutes. He wanted to know everything from how I plan on driving to expectations to rear end. ultimately they sent me everything INCLUDING fluid. I only had to source an actual pedal (talked about that earlier) Last thing, note the Power brake booster that I thought was a great idea and took great pains to get the clutch cable attached to. More on that later but boy do I regret that one.

Put Stripes on. Decided an off center would be different. just using vinyl strips that I cut for now. will likely paint on later. Blue tape on the cowl was to Align everything. After putting the vinyl on the cowl and looking terrible on the slots I just painted the stripe on the cowl. Also had front and back glass installed. I didn't do that as I didn't want to take a risk at messing it up. however it was pretty cheap as I had the original back glass. best part was they came to my house to do it. great news as I was worried I would have to tow it to a place.

Corbeau seat was in a permanent recline after the hit. So I understand there is a right way to do things and the right answer is to replace the seat. Unfortunately I am Active Duty Navy and building a car nearly broke haha. SO dismantled the seat and found the culprit. luckily just a bent/split bar. was able to beat it straight and weld the pipe back together. replaced hog rings on the leather and installed seat. YES before you blow me up for unsafe etc, I know its not perfect but as said I do what I can to get her back on the road. I am also sure it is better than the original seats so sometimes we do the best we can. As most of you probably already know (and I have since learned) building our old cars never goes as planned. I have also found that what you budget for your build you should just double that at ehe start. costs adding up so looking at saving where I can. Also, seats are easy to replace later where engine and trans etc are more difficult later.

Seats are Corbeau A4s, ordered directly from their website. bolted right in. Side glass is repop.... cannot get it aligned perfectly, got pretty close bu shimming the TOP of the adjuster. found out from local guy that the repop glass is very slightly wrong on the curve so has issues. I will have to keep eye out for original glass later but for now just need to get to a safe reliable driver.

So interior pretty much done. Had rear seat reupholstered with wider strips by local shop. Doesn't match perfectly but looks good enough to me and I'm not winning any shows, I just need a car to drive. all the panels are repo plastic and kind of flimsy compared to the original fiberglass so I lined them with sound damp material. seems to make them much more solid. Had to do new carpet as well but super worth it. Much thicker than original. had a hard time finding bolt holes so I used a cheap soldering iron and melted the holes through so permanent. Smells bad but makes intall of seats and belts so much better

So please bear with me, I don't think I am responding correctly but, Eastyork unfortunately my coupe was not salvageable. I was parked at a stoplight and the BMW was doing 60 with foot still on Gas. I got sandwiched between 2 cars. the body was completely twisted, floor snapped, etc. there wasn't a single salvageable panel. the pics don't do it justice as it was BAD. Snapped my corbeau seat, put me in backseat and even broke my neck. would have been worse if I still had the original seats.

thanks everyone. Hey Vicfreg! you are the reason I'm on here. thank you. I learned so. much from your posts that I figured I may post so someone else may see something, also to show everyone on here how much you all helped me. thanks everyone more updates to come as I'm still trying to catch up

LED headlights. Building the front end grill, headlight buckets, and bumper are a NIGHTMARE. Finally found out to place bumper first. Then buckets and grill pieces. Yeah. Had to redo everything at least 5 times

Had 3.55 gear and Tloc installed. Then spent 3 days cleaning and sanding rust. Painted with eastwood rust encapsulator

Dash in with dakota digital gauges. Adding clutch pedal so much easier before dash is in.