Twin-Turbo Coyote '69 Hardtop

[Twin 69 2]

I've been meaning to make a build thread for months now, if only to keep a record for myself. Hopefully it will be useful for other people as well. I've had the project for 15 months now, and finally know exactly where it is going to end up.

I had been shopping for a 67-70 Mustang for a few months, and had moved too slow on a few excellent deals. I finally found a red '69 hardtop that seemed in good shape. It was originally a Grande, but the vinyl had been removed at some point. It had been repainted, the interior was redone, and it had a built 347 stroker. The price was a little high, and the motor was mated to a 3-speed and an 8 inch. The frames and panels all looked solid, except for evidence of a crash on the passenger front quarter. I ended up buying it. The original plan was to slowly upgrade things as I went along, starting with the trans and a 9-inch. 

The car was running and driving, but it was 2 hours back home.

Interior was pretty nice, with some small details being a bit wrong, such as the door panels. 

Had the car for all of 2 weeks, before I blew the 8-inch to pieces. To be fair, both the 3-speed and the 8-inch were ticking time-bombs with that stroker in front of them. Got it back to my garage, and started deciding what to do with it. I had a pretty solid body of a Mustang that wasn't particularly special. I also had a decent motor, but nothing worth getting excited about in 2021. I decided that I was going to go pretty far as a restomod, though at that time I was still planning ion using the stroker. 

The motor was far prettier on the inside vs. the outside, but still was only an old stock roller block. 

Started pulling it all apart in January 2021. It is still up on jacks in my garage as of today. 

I won't bore y'all with all the details of the teardown, just the interesting bits. Overall it went smoothly. Some parts were a little crooked due to subpar repair on the previous wreck. There was also some rust that had been poorly repaired when they painted the car. Both doors and both front quarterpanels had bad Bondo jobs that had been painted over. The front floorpans also had significant rust, though it couldn't be seen from the bottom. Someone had fiber glassed over the floorpans, encasing the rust, before they had done the interior. There were a few other small p[arts, like around the gas tank mounting and where they welded support tabs for the previous exhaust. Drip rails aren't terrible, and the only other body rust is a 1/4" hole in the rear passenger quarterpanel. 

Passenger door cancer. Drivers is only slightly better. Luckily entire doors are cheap to replace. 

Floorpan after the fiberglass was taken up. you can see the chunks of it in the picture. Both sides are similar. Whoever put this in must have simply gone right over the rust without repairing. 

The rest of the teardown was uneventful. during this time,  I decied on what i wanted to do to try and make this thing go anywhere other than a straight line. I went with TCI's torque arm 3-link and IFS. This setup fully braces the subframe, allows for a no-bind setup to mount a 9-inch rear end, deletes the front shock towers, provides new motor mounts, replaces the front steering and suspension with a double a-arm coil spring setup and custom spindles, and allows the car to be lowered. This particular kit also came with 13' 4-pot Wilwoods all the way around, and double-adjustable Ridetech shocks. 

Before the new front suspension setup, with the shock towers deleted.

View just before final welding.

Fully installed with rotors from outside the fender well. 

The rear suspension install is ongoing. I'm currently debating the overall width of the 9-inch, and whether or not to add small rear fender flares to give it a subtle widebody and allow for wider rear tires. The rear end will need to be beefy, because I sold the original 347 stroker and acquired a Gen 1 coyote and a pair of Precision 6266s. Current plans are to put 1,000 hp to the rear wheels. The turbos can get that high, but the stock Coyote internals will need some help. This power will go through a new close-ratio TKX, hardened by American powertrains Extreme package. They claim that it'll hold 950 lb-ft of torque. Clutch is TBD, but I will be running a 31 or 35 spline Trutrac or Wavetrac posi 9-inch rear and hardened axles. Standalone engine management will come from a Holley Terminator X Max to retain Ti-VCT capability. This car will be a daily driver, with the occasional track and drag outing. This means I'm adding A/C, sound deadening, etc., but I'm also installing a roll cage, SFI fuel cell, and other safety equipment. Currently, I expect to have it primed and running by Summer 2022. I will update this thread as I get significant portions done. If anyone has questions or wants further pics, please let me know. 

The coyote fit perfectly onto the crossmember provided by TCI.

[EastYorkStang 63]

Looking forward to some progress.