Angel's 69 Restomod Coupe

[Grabber70Mach 107]

What's with those shocks? They have springs on them - and you have leaf springs?? What setup is that?

 

Kind of kin to air shocks, a way to make up for worn out sagging springs. Probably will crack the upper mounting points in the same way.

[Angel 24]

Its a high performance racing suspension that's currently under development lol jk. I actually added those things because I used to drive with my friends all the time and although I have mid eye 4 1/2 leafs, the car would sit low in the rear. I didnt want the tire to rub but also didnt want to add real stiff springs. And I know that air shocks can crack the mounts so that was a no no. I found this kit that you basically add to the shocks. I cut the springs down to make them fit. The springs aren't strong enough to lift the car. They simply add some resistance. They wont be going back on though since I hardly ever have rear passengers anymore. I want to lower the rear more and I have been considering the reverse eye 5 leafs from maier. But we'll see.

[Trav_450R 10]

Man that is a really clean car your starting out with

[Angel 24]

Thanks Trav. It was a great driver but now Im adding the power it/I always wanted. Right now Im trying to overhaul the differential. Everything was going smooth until I had to take the third member out of the housing. It won't budge. I bought a rebuilt third member with 3.25's and a posi unit that will replace my old one. I have the axles out and the old third member is unbolted but it does not want to come out. I sprayed wd-40 all around it and hammered it a bit to loosen it up. But it may as well be welded together because its not coming out. Am I missing something?

 

Also, when I removed the axles, I noticed they were different lengths and had 2 different bearings. Actually the bearings look the same but the bearing retainer rings look different. The right axles' seems to be machined or something. Is that how its supposed to be? The new bearings I bought were for a non "WCY" diff and they look like the one on the left axle. Can someone help me out with this?

Edited January 22, 2011 by Angel

[Jayru 17]

You have different length axles because the pumpkin is offset in the rear to line up with the driveshaft. That is a normal thing. Look at the rear and the side that has the pumpkin closer to it gets the shorter axle.

 

The correct bearings are on the left axle. I think the right are probably fine too as my car had the machined lip on the retainer when i removed them (may be the original ford design). I used a set from NAPA and they looked like the one on the left with the bigger retaining ring. No issues. So you should be fine.

 

My pumpkin was a bitch to get off too. Beat on it from side to side. Also... There's 2 spots you can wedge a big screw driver/pry bar into between the housing and pumpkin (don't remember off hand where - but they were on the sides closer to the bottom IIRC), pry the pumpkin away from the case at these location. It'll take some time. I think it took me a combo of prying/beating to get it off after about 20 min!

 

Good Luck!

[Angel 24]

Thanks for the input dude. Its gonna come in handy on Sunday lol.

[Angel 24]

So after a couple minutes beating on it, the third member finally came out. I stripped the housing bare, sprayed some primer and then sprayed semi-gloss black on it. Came out good i think. After that I got started on cleaning the under carriage. This is turning out to be very, very time consuming. Im using a paint stripper to take most of the paint off and its working well. Once I get most of the paint off Im going to get at it with a wire wheel or this other black stripper that I have. Although time consuming, Im glad I decided to strip the under carriage. From below the pans looked like the paint had done a good job at protecting them. However, when I scrapped the old paint off, I discovered there was rust under it. Nothing serious, just a nice coating that should come off with a wire wheel. The wheel well undercoating is surprisingly easy to take off. I took most of it off with a spatula.

Edited July 19, 2012 by Angel

[rangerdoc 22]

That does look like a lot of work. I'm sure you'll be happy with the final results. I sometimes wonder if I made a mistake not doing my undercarriage. I suppose it is always something I can look forward to over the coming years when I'm done with all my other misc. projects.

[Jayru 17]

Have you made anymore progress Angel?

[Angel 24]

I worked on the car yesterday after not touching it for almost a month. Dude Im still working on cleaning the under carriage down to bare metal. Its such a pain! Most of the under carriage is done and ready to be coated. The engine bay is next. I knew going into it that I was doing it the long way but man, its taking forever! Plus, yesterday I took the car cover off and noticed that the roof has small dots in it. I realize its the paint beginning to lift. It happened before on the cowl until it began peeling. So this is very discouraging. But as bummed as I am about the paint, I know I cant just stop working on it. So oh well. If it peels, it peels. I did receive my global west subframe connectors the other day so that helped moral. I'll post again when significant progress is made.

[Angel 24]

So its been almost a year since Ive updated. Mainly because I just haven't had any time to work on the car since I had to focus on school. I got back into it over winter but progress is still very slow. Cleaning all the panels down to bare metal is very time consuming. But little by little I am nearing completion. I am now at the point where I need to repair my shock tower. I have a nice crack on the passenger side that needs to be welded shut. I think it can be welded on the wheel side but the engine side is mostly hidden by the inner shock tower brace, I think that's what its called. Anyway, I plan to weld what ever I can of the crack and then install the pro-motorsports shock tower reinforcement kit. Hopefully that will work. Its either that or replace the tower.

[Angel 24]

Also, I noticed that there are some gaps at the bottom of the towers as well as at the top. The bottom gaps look like theyre supposed to be there, only because theyre on both sides though. I have a gap at the top of the drivers tower(black picture) but I dont have that on the passengers tower(green). I think a couple whacks with a hammer will straighten that out. I was reading up on the mods made to the boss 302 to strengthen the chassis and I was wondering if I should weld any of the seams up?

[Junior2561 10]

I've been asking myself the same thing about the shock towers. What all came in the lkit you bought and why did you choose them? Thanks

[Angel 24]

This is the kit Im planning to buy.

http://drgas.mybisi.com/product/187546/Mustang-Shock-Tower-RepairReinforcement-Kit_1082092.html

 

But I also found this on ebay.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1969-Mustang-428-cj-scj-Boss-302-Shock-Tower-Reinforcement-/300605430413?pt=Vintage_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&vxp=mtr&hash=item45fd7ada8d#ht_500wt_1202

[Mike65 475]

Angel, I was also looking at the kit from DrGas to add the reinforcement to the shock towers.

[Angel 24]

Well plans have changed for this car. My shock towers are no longer an issue, as I should be receiving a rod & customs mustang 2 style front suspension next week. Yup, going modular! For now, I'll install a 2001 cobra engine and transmission that I got earlier in the year. Its got some miles but I only need it to last for about 5 years or so. Eventually I'll install a new coyote engine. Surprisingly, its cheaper to go this route than to build the 408 I was planning to build. Of course, this means I can no longer use some of the stuff I had acquired for the reconstruction of the car. So heads have been sold as well as most of my front suspension. The unisteer power rack is for sale as well. I think I will use the rebuilt third member I bought even though is has 3.25:1 gears in it. Should work ok with the 4.6, although lower gears would be great as well. This decision to go modular was hard to make but hopefully the end result will still accomplish my goal of making the car a great daily driver again.

 

Anyway, the stripping and detailing of the undercarriage has been very tedious and rewarding at the same time. In hindsight, I should have just paid to have the undercarriage blasted. It would've saved me a lot of time and frustration. But what's done is done. Although it looks awesome in the white primer, I'm painting it low gloss black. Engine compartment will be the same color.

 

I have a question about sub frame connectors. I have them ready to install but should I wait for the car to be in a rolling state on the ground or can I go ahead and install them while the car is in the air? The reason I ask is because although I have four jack stands under the car, only 3 of them are holding the car up. I have two under the rear frame rails just behind the torque boxes and two under the front rails behind the front torque boxes. The front passenger side frame rail is about a 1/4" off of the jack stand. I think the body is twisted a bit. This would explain why the passenger side of the car always sat a little bit higher than the drivers side. Will this be a problem?

Edited July 19, 2012 by Angel

[Angel 24]

So I received seven packages containing the R&C kit on friday. Really nice stuff. Yesterday I cut the towers out and started prepping the body. This was actually an easy task considering I had never done anything like this before. Took two hours to get the drivers side out but less than an hour to remove the passenger side. My dad helped. I cut the towers out with a saws all. Then, because I didnt want to drill a bunch of holes into the frame rail, I used a chisel to cut the spot welds out. There was 20 spot welds on each rail. Fun times! Today Im going to just paint the bare metal cross member and control arms. I'll also start measuring and getting things in place. I should have everything tack welded by Monday and then I just have to wait for my friend to come over and finish welding everything up.

 

By the way, I am very happy with the quality of the Rod and custom kit. The welds are beautiful and the kit is complete. It even comes with a DVD on how to do the install. The power rack is a re-manufactured rack off of a fox body mustang. Had I known that, I would have asked him to keep it, as I can get it locally for much cheaper. I also asked him to delete the brakes from the kit since I intend to use mustang steve's brackets to mount the 13" cobra brakes to the drop spindles.

[Junior2561 10]

Looks like a nice setup

[Angel 24]

Oh god, I haven't done anything to this car!!!! Haha. Well very little progress has been made on this thing. Mainly, the rear suspension and rear end is back on the car. But that's about it. Ive been focusing on other things for the past couple of months and the mustang hasn't been a big priority.

 

Anyway. A few months ago I ended up selling the 2001 cobra engine and got me a 2003 cobra engine and trans for cheap. So the plan was to install that engine and t56 trans into the 69. Engine is all stock and has 50k miles. However, I have yet to see this engine installed in a 69 with a stock hood. I dont want to have to use a cowl hood for this swap.

 

So that's where this project is at. Im hoping to work on this a lot more over summer when school is out.

Edited July 9, 2013 by Angel

[Angel 24]

Ok guys. Time for an update. The rod & custom m2 kit is installed and so are the 13" cobra brakes. I used mustang steve brackets to mount the cobra calipers to the mustang 2 drop spindles. I had an issue with the mustang steve brackets because they are designed for heidts drop spindles. Steve did warn me that although they should fit, he has not tried them on all mustang 2 spindles. As a result, I had to drill an extra hole in them to match the bolt pattern on my spindles. No big deal. Steve was real helpful through it all.

Im glad I didnt throw away my original drums and spindles. I had to reuse the drum hubs. A press made quick worth of separating the hubs from the drums. At first glance, I was worried that the hubs were too corroded to be used safely. I threw them in the sand blaster and thankfully, they only had surface rust. The original studs were too short so I pressed them off and replaced them with new ones from a 2001 E-series van. Steve gave me the dorman part number (610-441.1). I ended up needing 5/16" spacers to clear the calipers so the longer studs were perfect. They measure 2 3/16" in length. Stock measure 1 11/16". I also replaced the dust caps but had to grind the new ones a bit so they would fit right. I love how some paint and new studs can make old hubs look cool!

Once all that stuff was on the car, I was able to install the wheels and lower the car. That's the first time its been on wheels in over two years! its nice to free up the four jack stands that were holding it up.

Next was engine and trans mock up. I have an extra engine that I'm using for this. The engine slipped right in without a problem. There is plenty of room on all sides. I have read that many people have issues getting a master cylinder to fit in the stock location. I know some have even had to relocate the master about an inch closer to the inner fender. I drove the car with manual disk brakes for 5 years before the car went down. I never had a problem with the stiff pedal and I actually prefer it. So Im very happy to find out that the master cylinder clears the valve cover with no mods needed. Btw, I'm using a master cylinder from a '96 explorer. It's light weight and has the fittings on the fender side. Plus it is cheaper than a cobra master of the same year. The down side is that the cylinder bore measures slightly over 1". This might make the pedal too stiff. I'm not completely sure if I'll keep this m/c or not, but its nice to know I have the room.

I knew going into this that I might have to cut and raise the trans tunnel to fit the t56. However, I was not sure how much. Some have had to raise it an inch, some have only needed to notch the tunnel support. I was able to get it in there by just cutting the tunnel support but I'm not sure if I'm satisfied with the position of the trans. The shifter hole in the floor might need to be moved about two inches forward. Im hopping not to have to raise the tunnel as it will save a lot of time but if I need to, due to drive shaft angle or clearance, then I will.

Finally, I mocked up my stock hood to check the clearance under it. Surprisingly, nothing hit. But some parts are too close for comfort. The front of the supercharger has maybe an 1/8" between it and the hood. I knew the stock Idle air control valve would probably hit, and it does. I never liked how it looked on top of the inlet and thankfully, there is a clean way to relocate it. More on that when the time comes. The throttle cable bracket comes close to the stock hood as well. Not a problem for me as my fiberglass hood has a 1" scoop.

So that's where I'm at. As is, I have 1/2" between the engine oil pan and steering rack. I have some polyurethane mounts that I'm going to modify to hopefully lower the engine about 3/16". I know, not much but it should help a bit. Then I can figure out what to do for a drive shaft. I might have the original shaft shortened about 2-3 inches or I might just get a custom shaft. Would the stock shaft handle a 500hp engine? I plan to use 1350 u-joints.

[Angel 24]

More pics.

[Angel 24]

Some more pics. If anyone wants any specific photos of something, just let me know. I know this has been done before but there is still some information that I haven't been able to find online. That kind of info will definitely be included in this thread. Rudolph Schenker is a member on here that answered a lot of my questions. His thread was very informative(link below). I would love to return the favor by helping anyone else who has questions about this kind of swap.

 

http://www.1969stang.com/mustang/forum/showthread.php?t=8636&page=27

[lead_magnet 12]

Sweet build! What are you going to go with for a rear end?

 

My car sits on only 3 of the four jack stands as well, same as yours.

[Angel 24]

I'm using the original 9 inch. I installed cobra rear disk brakes and a posi third member with 3.25:1 gears. I'm using the stock 28 spline axles. I hope this set up holds up. If I end up breaking something, then I'll go ahead and upgrade everything and most likely narrow the housing a bit. The reason why I didn't beef everything up now is because I want to see if I'll like the gears. This will be my daily driver again so cruising rpm's are important to me.

[lead_magnet 12]

I hear you there, that Mark VIII I just bought wraps 1,800 RPM at 75 MPH. I'm all for taller gears wherever possible. Mine will be a daily driver to, unless my evil scheme comes to fruition.

 

I'm half tempted to use a suspension setup like you're using, loos pretty painless.