1970 Fastback Restomod/Rebuild

[Chappy 18]

Little update for today, not a ton of pictures or anything, but progress...

 

Picture of the patch panel installed at the bottom of the windshield.

 

 

Coated both of the cavities next to the cowl with Zero Rust.

 

 

 

Got the new cowl installed in the car, also installed the cowl to fender apron brackets.

 

 

 

[Grabber70Mach 107]

Looks good, keep it up and before you know it you'll be ready for paint.

[unfrozen1969 11]

Love the photos thanks

 

Bill

[Chappy 18]

Haven't put an update up for a little while. Actually kinda slowed down a little on things a little bit. Waiting on some parts to come in/other things going on.

 

So I finished up the patch panels on the under sides of the front of the shock towers where the aprons meet. Then I patched up two rust holes around the rear window.

 

I modified the firewall to accept the hydroboost setup and got the steering column losely installed. Put the AJE K-member back under the car with the steering rack as well.

 

At this point I decided to start on the last major rust problem on the body. The inner structure of the body was rusted out right at the roof/quarter panel seam on the drivers side. Couple of pictures from inside the car looking up at the inner structure.

 

 

 

 

So I started cleaning up the exterior of the seam to make sure there weren't any other rust problems. Ended up wire wheeling out all of the original lead seam due to what I found.

 

 

 

 

Also did this on the passenger side too just to check. Found a small hole over there that needed patching.

 

 

So with the new findings I figured there was only one really good way to fix what was going on. Basically cut the original spot welds on the quarter/roof seam, then cut the roof and quarter approximately 1.5-2" above and below the seam. After I did this I could get in to the rusty inner structure. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of this step (wife had the camera at a baby shower during this). I cut out the inner structure and made some patch panels to repair the area. Couple of pictures of the patched inner structure before welding on the exterior metal.

 

 

 

You'll notice that I had to extend my cut on the roof due to rust that went higher than my original cut along the inner structure/drip rail seam.

 

Welded on the quarter panel and roof parts that were cut off and patched/welded up the rust issues.

 

 

 

Ground down the welds to finish it off. Going to need some filler to smooth things out a little, but that was going to be required anyway due to the original lead not being in the seam.

 

 

 

After this was done I started working on patching a few holes on the underside of the stock hood. Don't have any pictures of the before or after at this point. Still have a little bit of finishing to do on the patch panels and it should be good to go.

Ordered my engine wiring harness and air conditioning components this week, hope to have most of that in about a week and a half which should allow me to figure out what holes I do and don't need on the firewall/inner fenders. At which point I can weld up the unused holes and finish off the engine bay, firewall, and wheel wells with some zero rust and paint.

 

Still don't have my drop engine mounts yet, spoke with AJE this week and then said they had a hold up at their powder coater and they should be here early next week. I haven't needed them yet, so I wasn't too concerned. If I don't get anything by the middle of the week I might just make a set to do what I'm looking for.

[PaleRider 12]

Just stumbled onto your post - the work you are doing is unbelievable. Next time I'm moaning about patching in a piece I will fire this up again to get some inspiration just to keep me from whining. Nice job!

[maxsterblaster 10]

i was really suprised when i came across this thread. it looks like some of the pics from my project.

[Chappy 18]

Been a hell of a project so far, no doubt about it. I've learned a ton though. Before this I had only welded a handful of times, never did any metal work on a car, definitely never done anything with sheetmetal. Just takes time, determination, and guts. There have been quite a few times that I've been sitting there just about to cut out a piece of metal thinking 'I don't know if I can do this job', and you have to get past it and get into it. I guess the big thing I've learned is that all of these repairs are only metal. If I were to mess something up, I can always cut it out and try it again.

[Koby 10]

Wow! How much time and labor plus parts cost would you say you have spent? This is what I could never do on my own and the reason why I think a Dynacorn 69 fastback would be better for me.

[Chappy 18]

Can't really say on hours or labor to have someone else do it since I'm doing the work myself. Not to mention this is the first time I've done work like this, so I'm sure that things are taking me longer to get done than someone who has done it before. For parts, I'd have to look at the total from receipts, but I think I'm somewhere around $1300 on metal right now... obviously I've used quite a bit of welding wire, gas, grinding discs, etc...

 

I'm definitely well under the price of a dynacorn body... keep in mind that the price of it is just the shell, not including panels...

 

The big answer is if you can't do the work yourself, spend more money up front for a rust free car. Otherwise you can probably do it cheaper yourself (not counting my time).

[Chappy 18]

Haven't really put up and update for a while here. Been busy with other things and the car has been put on the back burner a little bit. I finally got the drop mounts from AJE. They gave me enough of a drop that the stock hood will clear, which is a big plus for me. After I installed those I checked driveline to body angle and in order to get the angle correct I needed to raise the tranmission tunnel. I've since cut out the trans tunnel, railed it ~1" in the rear shifter area.

 

I've ran the engine wiring a couple of times on the car to see what holes I do and don't need in the engine bay. The unneeded holes have been welded shut and ground down.

 

I have a CAA (Classic Auto Air) underdash air conditioning setup that I have losely installed. Looks like it should clear the DOHC 4.6 ok on the passenger side for the outlets for water and AC. Ended up getting an aftermarket block for the stock Cobra AC compressor from Doc's Blocks.

 

Things are moving, but at a little slower pace. As the weather gets nicer it's harder to find time to work on things.

[Chappy 18]

Haven't really put up and update for a while here. Been busy with other things and the car has been put on the back burner a little bit. I finally got the drop mounts from AJE. They gave me enough of a drop that the stock hood will clear, which is a big plus for me. After I installed those I checked driveline to body angle and in order to get the angle correct I needed to raise the tranmission tunnel. I've since cut out the trans tunnel, railed it ~1" in the rear shifter area.

 

I've ran the engine wiring a couple of times on the car to see what holes I do and don't need in the engine bay. The unneeded holes have been welded shut and ground down.

 

I have a CAA (Classic Auto Air) underdash air conditioning setup that I have losely installed. Looks like it should clear the DOHC 4.6 ok on the passenger side for the outlets for water and AC. Ended up getting an aftermarket block for the stock Cobra AC compressor from Doc's Blocks.

 

Things are moving, but at a little slower pace. As the weather gets nicer it's harder to find time to work on things.

[rd49221 14]

Keep the faith. Post pic's when you have them.

[rd49221 14]

Keep the faith. Post pic's when you have them.

[Chappy 18]

It’s been quite a while since I’ve put up an update on the car. As with most things, life has gotten in the way of progress. In the past year, we’ve sold a house, bought a ‘new’ one, and had to do updates/upkeep on it. That’s taken most of my time away from the car. The past month or so I’ve been able to get out and start working on things a little bit, progress has been slow though.

 

For whatever reason when I moved the car I didn’t take any pictures of it. It was the first time it was sitting on the ground with the suspension on it with the new parts installed… too many other things going on and I just forgot I guess.

 

Got the car to it’s new home (which has a lot more room than the previous house). I’ve done a few more patch panels on places that needed rust repair (door jam area, lower cowl where someone cut holes for traditional fender nuts, instead of the actual ones that should be on the car, etc).

 

A co-worker of mine had a rotisserie available from a previous project, he offered it up for me to use. I think he just wanted it out of his garage (takes up a lot of space). So now the body is on a rotisserie for undercarriage cleanup work.

 

 

I then ZeroRusted the inner fenderwells on both sides, and shot some primer in the engine bay (after all of the non used holes were filled).

 

 

I don’t think I put up any pictures of it, but I did have to raise the trans tunnel to fit the T56 with the proper driveline angle. You can see the modification here.

 

 

Test fitted the CAA underdash AC stuff, looks like it will clear, but it is going to be a little tight.

 

 

Last thing I’ve done here is made a custom set of subframe connectors. These are based off some plans from DazeCars, seem to fit up really well. Each connector started life as a 4’ long piece of 2x2 square tubing. They are welded rear frame rails, and also have gussets on the inside that were welded as well. The back end of the floor supports was cut off, the connector was inserted into the floor support and plug welded in, then the seams were welded up between the back of the support and the connect. All in all, they look good. They follow the stock lines of floor very well. I might fab up a transition piece to blend the connector into the rear frame rails a little better, although it’s not really needed.

 

 

That is it for now. Next jobs on the list are to weld in some extra bracing between the front frame rails and the radiator support. And I am also going to weld in the AJE front crossmember into the car as well. This should add quiet a bit of rigidity into the car.

[Grabber70Mach 107]

Looking good, does the CCA AC kit hook up to the stock AC dash vents?

[Chappy 18]

Sorry for the late response on this. They sell two versions of the kit, one for non factory AC, one for factory. They are supposed to hook up to the factory locations. I have a non AC lower dash right now, so I can't really say 100% on that one.

[buening 63]

What are your plans for the transmission crossmember? Also don't forget to check your driveline angle between the transmission and the rear pinion and keep it between 1° and 3° Nice work so far! I'm loving that AJE setup!!!

[Chappy 18]

I'm going to make a crossmember for the car. I'm going to wait until I get most everything in place (specifically exhaust, etc) before I weld something up.

 

I've checked the driveline vs body angle right now. I'm going to be using an 8.8" rear end in the car that requires new spring perches to be welded on, so I'll be able to weld them on at whatever angle I want. I haven't started that work yet though.

[Junior2561 10]

any updates?

[Chappy 18]

Unfotunately nothing really major. I've been really busy the past year or so, and haven't had a lot of time to work on things. Recently I've dropped the engine back in, started checking fitment of all the underhood coolers/rad/etc...

 

The T56 I purchase has some problems (bad synchros), so I'm actually changing the trans to a GT500 TR6060. They have a twin disc hydraulic clutch. This should make hooking the clutch up a little easier. Only downside is I have to modify the tunnel further, as the trans is a little larger at the back, plus it has the remote shifter location (which actually should sit the shifter about perfect for driving position without having to have an angled shift handle). That work will probably start this weekend.

 

I'll try to take some pictures this weekend and post up a few.

[buening 63]

Chappy, there is a thread on the Corral.net forums about the TR6060 that you may find beneficial. The guy went through a ton of crap to get it to work on his car. I'll see if I can dig it up.

[buening 63]

http://forums.corral.net/forums/showthread.php?t=1072829

 

He used the Viper trans. I think he had issues in that the midplate is integral with the bellhousing, whereas they are separate on the T56. The conversion bellhousings from Quicktime and others rely on bolting to the midplate. I believe he bought a McLeod midplate to solve this.

 

He also had issues with the yoke IIRC, but you may not have that problem. It also has a remote shifter, but it's probably removable and you can put the normal shifter in there.

[Chappy 18]

Was out in the garage some this weekend, but didn't have a chance to take some pictures. Starting Friday of this week I should have a couple of weeks to work on things, so hopefully I have some good progress to report.

 

Thanks for the Link on the TR6060 stuff. I've looked that one over before, I think there are some differences between the Viper and Shelby TR6060. I've actually got the trans bolted up to the 03/04 Engine right now, same bolt pattern on the flywheel and bell, so no issues there.

 

The remote shifter location is a good and bad thing... the good is it will put the shifter right where you want it to be when driving without having an angled stick. The bad is it requires a lot of height in the tunnel in that location. I'm looking at having to raise the tunnel ~3-4 " around the shifter mount (as it won't clear the yoke on the trans otherwise).

 

The clutch stuff shouldn't really be an issue, they are selling fittings that adapt the stock mustang line to an -AN fitting, so that is easy enough. I don't have the underdash stuff worked out yet, I might end up with a stock 05+ clutch master under there, or I might just decide to get a universal and mount it up. Something I've got to look into soon.

 

The only thing that concerns me a little bit right now is the output shaft yoke on the trans, GT500's have a two piece driveshaft stock, so the slip joint is remote from the trans yoke. They make aftermarket '1' piece driveshafts (which are still more than one piece, they just don't have a carrier bearing on them) that still have the slip joint external from the trans. Basically I'm going to just have to pull off the yoke and see what I can do. I don't see why there would be a concern with replacing it with a traditional yoke. Then again I could goto a Shelby style 1 piece driveshaft made to my length (which actually looks like it might be close to the stock Shelby length). Again, I'm going to have to work on that one soon.

[Chappy 18]

Here are some pictures of where I stand as of yesterday evening.

 

The engine is back in the car, TR6060 is bolted up, changed out the SC to the ported eaton (still need to install the SC pulley on it). Started figuring out all of the fuel line fittings/locations, remote oil filter location, etc.

 

 

 

 

This is a rough picture showing the remote shifter on te TR6060, and relationship to steering wheel. Basically it's about 6" more to the rear, and then is it is raised 2" or so from the stock location. From my rough placement in the car, it should be comfortably placed, no need to have an angled stick, or have to reach for the shifter.

 

 

Shows rough placement of all of the coolers on the car (AC condensor, Heat Exchanger, Oil Cooler, and Radiator)

 

 

 

The 8.8 Rear axle is under the car, still need to weld the spring perches on the axle, but I'm going to hold off on that for a little while. You'll also see that the exhaust is ran losely. The front section is from an offroad x I had that someone had made, basically it has the stock manifold mating pipes, with some short extentions welded onto it. From there it goes back into a full Magnaflow 2.5" kit. The only things modified so far on the magnaflow are the front extention pipes. These needed to be cut down to fit the stock pipes. All in all, looks like it is going to fit pretty good.

 

 

 

Then finally I bolted on a set of 18x10 Chrome FR500s with 295/35/18 BFG KDW2 on them, these aren't the wheels that are going on the car, but are being used for fitment. The ride height is roughly set where I want it to be, I might want it a little lower in the rear.

 

 

 

I also ended up finding a picture from when I moved the car, this was the first time it was one the ground. Gotta love the Tri-Bars as well. ;)

 

[468stang 11]

Damn that fits in there nice. Looking good.