Boss 9 Tribute

[Viperpete 36]

Hey all.

Give a little history. This project was supposed to be done with my dad. He passed away in 2019 and i didn't touch the car since. Why a Boss 9? My dad had 2 of them, and one of them had a 494 aluminum block. He sold them years ago but I always wanted one. So I bought a Mustang on ebay in 2018. The sellers did a pretty good job of making a car that was probably dragged out of a field, sellable. I have lovingly referred to it as my grey turd ever since. Originally was a Acapulco Blue base fastback. Only 3 options. Automatic, factory AC, and power steering that I know of. 302 and a C4. Car ran and drove sort of. I had to rebuild the tranz, rewired the car, had to replace the rear end, nothing electronic worked in the car. The dash was literally full of sand. Its been parked in the garage for the last couple years. 

For an ugly s.o.b girls sure like it LOL

So more recently I got the bug to get the project going already. Built a rotisserie and ordered a butt load of parts from Mustangs to Fear. Bought a floor pan from NPD (they are 10 miles away)

Yesterday my brother and I tore into the car. It's almost a bare shell. Just have to remove the front suspension/brakes and other bits.

There is a lot of rust. A lot of deterioration. I need you guys to help me figure out what is reparable and what needs to just be replaced. 

As far as I can the following are in good shape/easily repairable:

Front fenders

Bumpers

Exterior cowl

Fold down rear seat

Hood 

Trunk Lid

Doors maybe? 

Parts on order:

Full floater 9" rear with brakes

MTF Watts link

MTF Long subframe with IFS and brakes

MTF minitubs

MTF roll bar 

MTF radiator support and cross member

MTF frame stiffeners 

and some other things

The plan was to cut out the old floor, install new. Mount on rotisserie and then media blast the car to really see what's what. But with so much rust I'm not sure what to do.

 

 

Please let me know what yall think.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[EastYorkStang 63]

If you could only ask the women to get out of the pictures we could get a better look ....

[stangs-R-me 120]

I don't thing the rot in the inner roof structure is common ... at least I've never seen anything like that.   As it it was upside down for a while !!

The real body men need to get in here and comment !!

Doug

 

[Midlife 814]

You sure this car didn't come from Switzerland?  I've seen cheese with fewer holes...

[EastYorkStang 63]

Have you looked into a new Body from Dynacorn, etc ?

[Viperpete 36]

Car has been completely stripped. I built some bracing to prevent any flexing. The car may be rusty but it's straight and has never been wrecked. I dropped it off at the media blaster and was worried it might flex or something being picked up by a forklift The car is still really heavy even with all the rust so maybe there is more metal there than meets the eye.....

 

 

 

 

 

 

[EastYorkStang 63]

What does a Dynacorn body run these days ? Is it worthwhile ?

[Vicfreg 771]

Make sure you do the frame/unibody dimensional checks before you start welding. Then you can adjust your bracing. Don't assume the rest of the car is straight.

Mike from the forum (Latoracing) built a frame jig and used lasers to align my car. I had missing floor pan and rockers.

 

 

 

[Viperpete 36]

Thank you for this. I have been deciding for the last couple of weeks which way I want to go. If I order all the parts out of the NPD catalog, it'll cost around 13k. If I get a new shell, it'll cost around 20k. Either way, I'm going to have a new car at the end of it but I am not sure which way I want to go with it. It would be fun to build a car from scratch. 

Do you have any measurements that include the interior dimensions? 

I may decide to build a new shell from the floor pan assembly up. I would keep my current shell to assist with reference points, but the entire floor is gone now...

[Vicfreg 771]

My car actually looked a lot worse than yours.  For instance, your floors in the rear don't look that bad from the door jams back.  I just did a 1/2 floor replacement.  I would personally replace just what is needed, and try to keep the original structure as much as possible.   But up to you.

I don't have any interior dimensions.

I would also reach out and get some feedback on the Dynacorn experience.   I think that is an expensive proposition.   You would be better off finding a six cylinder sportsroof and starting with that.  Good luck

 

[Viperpete 36]

Here's where the car is now so you can see what i'm working with and why I decided to stop working on the original shell:

 

Literally... i think the only good piece of metal on the car is the passenger side outer rocker. That's it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[JET 445 43]

Let it die man, it's beyond salvation.

[Vicfreg 771]

It’s a shame. What’s the VIN on the car, was it a big block or something special to begin with?

if not it may be time to get a good single malt have a farewell drink with the car, and give it a Viking funeral…

 

 

[unilec 57]

Wow, never seen rust that bad, even the bondo filler is rusting.

[Viperpete 36]

woohoo! Both my side assemblies came in yesterday! I am borrowing an assembly table from a friend and he is dropping it off tomorrow afternoon. Once i've got it set up i'll mount the floor pan to the table and determine the datum line and get crackin on this project!

[DLN351a 1]

Hi Viperpete,

I am looking forward to your progress on the new build. I hope it is the full floor pan that you got from Dynacorn as it makes life so much easier.  I thought my FB was pretty bad when I started taring it down. It took a lot of time and patience to rebuild it especially the floor. 

[Viperpete 36]

16 hours ago, DLN351a said:

Hi Viperpete,

I am looking forward to your progress on the new build. I hope it is the full floor pan that you got from Dynacorn as it makes life so much easier.  I thought my FB was pretty bad when I started taring it down. It took a lot of time and patience to rebuild it especially the floor. 

Yes it is the one piece floor pan from practically the firewall to the tail lights. I am not a pro or anything at this and bought assemblies that were as put together as possible so make the build easier. 

[DLN351a 1]

Have you seen the following YouTube channel, Peterson Restorations out of Pennsylvania?  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCG-IsvXgmiBXavN03_C-PNA/videos

He has taken on some real basket case hulks to make them into complete shells.

I have seen quite a few of his videos and they are really good reference tools.

[Viperpete 36]

2 hours ago, DLN351a said:

Have you seen the following YouTube channel, Peterson Restorations out of Pennsylvania?  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCG-IsvXgmiBXavN03_C-PNA/videos

He has taken on some real basket case hulks to make them into complete shells.

I have seen quite a few of his videos and they are really good reference tools.

Yup I have watched almost every video he has several times. 

[Viperpete 36]

Got the assembly table. Setting up the floor pan assembly according to this:

 

image upload without registration

 

I bought a spot welder from harbor freight on sale this weekend too. I figure that it will save me a lot of time by not drilling out one side or the other of any particular panel to weld them together. Will also save time with grinding.... At least that's what I'm hoping.

 

 

The assembly table is perfectly level at all 4 corners. So excited to get this going. Gotta get a GoPro so I can put the build on youtube.

[aslanefe 333]

Couple tips.

I would not use the Harbor Freight or other brand portable spot welders like that on structural welds. They do not apply enough pressure to create a good/strong weld. I use them to spot weld non structural stuff.

Also, make sure you get the datum line correct on the table as all other dimensions are from the Datum line. That sketch does not show rocker panels, so don't assume rockers are parallel to the table.

 

[Viperpete 36]

2 hours ago, aslanefe said:

Couple tips.

I would not use the Harbor Freight or other brand portable spot welders like that on structural welds. They do not apply enough pressure to create a good/strong weld. I use them to spot weld non structural stuff.

Also, make sure you get the datum line correct on the table as all other dimensions are from the Datum line. That sketch does not show rocker panels, so don't assume rockers are parallel to the table.

 

The body side assemblies and the floor assembly have these notches in them that line up the inner and out rocker panels. I won't be welding anything at first. Clamps, then self tapping screws then if i'm happy with the positioning, welding. 

The spot welder is a 240v unit. You don't think that'll melt the metals together? The panels aren't very thick. 

[aslanefe 333]

3 hours ago, Viperpete said:

The body side assemblies and the floor assembly have these notches in them that line up the inner and out rocker panels. I won't be welding anything at first. Clamps, then self tapping screws then if i'm happy with the positioning, welding. 

The spot welder is a 240v unit. You don't think that'll melt the metals together? The panels aren't very thick. 

I have the 240 HF spot welder. Melting the metal is not the only thing required for a good/structural spot weld; high pressure between tips when metal is molten (before parts oxidize when molten) is the other requirement for a good spot weld. That is why you see craters on both sides of the factory spot welds. Those hand held spot welders are not capable of applying the pressure needed for 18 gauge (or thicker) steel. I would not use it for what you are doing.

[Viperpete 36]

I'll try practicing on some sheet steel I have to see if I can get those craters like you mentioned on some various thickness steel.... Also I have a question about the datum line and the floor assemblies position...The very end of the rear frame is 11 3/16" high and the very front of the front frame is 6" high (based on the diagram) Are the rockers supposed to be at an upward angle like that? I know you mentioned that the rockers might not necessarily need to be parallel to the datum line. The diagram picture obviously might not be accurate either. 

 

 

 

 

 

[Viperpete 36]

3 hours ago, aslanefe said:

I have the 240 HF spot welder. Melting the metal is not the only thing required for a good/structural spot weld; high pressure between tips when metal is molten (before parts oxidize when molten) is the other requirement for a good spot weld. That is why you see craters on both sides of the factory spot welds. Those hand held spot welders are not capable of applying the pressure needed for 18 gauge (or thicker) steel. I would not use it for what you are doing.

See above ty