The Bitch is Back!

[65-408 10]

great fab work, can you tell me where you got your rod ends for the UCA's? and a part number would be great if you have it. Considering building a similar set and would like to know what you picked...

 

thanks!

[RPM 1,190]

Thanks 65-408. Sorry I have not checked my progress thread till today. I got the rod ends from QA1, they are the XM series. The lower arm is 3/4" thread with 5/8" hole, I used a high misalignment bushing to reduce it to 1/2" for the bolt. The uppers are 5/8" thread with 1/2" hole.

[RPM 1,190]

Finished up with front and rear coil over installation. Went with QA1 proma star #DS501. Now it's time to remove the control arms for plating or painting, depends on my wallet. Sent my brake booster off to Booster Dewey for rebuild. Just received an 01 V6 Mustang master cylinder, which has a 1" bore for ft & rr disc. It still amazes me how little you can get done in a day.

Edit: That 01 Mustang V6 master cylinder has the ports on the right (passenger) side, which is problematic in that the brake lines are too close in my mind to the header tubes. I surely won't use another like it.

 

Bob.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Kiwi John 10]

Hey RPM

What rear calipers will you be using and why did you pick the 01 V6 MC? Will it fit the stock 69 booster?

Are you by-passing / leaving out the stock rear proportioning valve and / or will you be adding an aftermarket proportioning valve to balance the front and rear systems? if so, on the front or rear system.

 

John

[RPM 1,190]

Hey John, the rr calipers are circa 1984 El Dorado. Mainly because of easy conversion and cost. Mustang Steve has been doing and selling the 4 wheel Cobra for years and recommended the V6 m-c, and OEM brake distribution block/proportioning valve. The m-c bolts to the booster like it was made for it.

[RPM 1,190]

Painted front & rear control arms, machined spacers for the rear rod ends, aligned the rear end painted the under carriage to cover the red overspray, and cleaned up the original brake lines. Took quite a while to get grade 8 bolts with the proper shoulder and threads for the suspension ends. Got a rebuild kit for the brake distribution block and prop valve, need to rebuild them and install the brake system. Once that is done I'll get to work installing the wiring harness. Oy!

[RPM 1,190]

Installed u joints, after returning one because the knucklehead parts guy gave me 2 different styles. Guess I should have checked them before leaving the store. I haven't installed u joints in many moons, forgot how easy they were to install. Bought an adjustable prop valve for the brakes, and a rebuild kit for the distribution block. I believe I'll not use the dist block and use generic T blocks for a cleaner look. Need to fab up a mount/spacer for the prop valve. been dragging my feet on the brakes, need to get rolling and get them installed. I'd post some pics if my computer would read the camera card or my phone would allow me to post them.

[rwcstang 201]

nice, congrats! be sure to post pics! :D

[RPM 1,190]

Wow, 8 months since I've checked in. Well, in the mean time I've added convertible inner rockers, spliced in the hump center portion of a convertible one piece seat riser, these two mods are supposed to add mucho torsional stiffness, made longer rear upper control arms and mounting brackets for better geometry, fiddled around with double adjusters for the front upper control arms but ditched that idea, this last week I've been locating and buying parts that couldn't be located since being put " away" circa 2001 in an attempt to break in the engine. Once I get the motor fired and broke in, I'll begin brake lines and electrical.

 

 

Bob

 

 

 

 

 

Edited March 27, 2015 by RPM

[RPM 1,190]

Crossed a big hurdle this weekend, got the shaker sitting in a good position relative to the hood. With stock motor mounts the scoop was around 1" too high.

 

 

In order to lower the shaker to fit properly on the 351w and Weiand Stealth intake manifold, I considered milling the intake manifold, using a drop base air cleaner or making motor mounts to lower the engine. Decided on making the cool looking motor mounts.

 

 

 

 

 

Bolted up the new mounts then discovered the stock pan won't allow any lowering of the motor. Doh! Maybe shoulda checked the clearance first. Took a look at the stock x member and realized Ford did a really crappy effort in its design. Drew up some plans where the tube goes beneath the LCA bolt at an angle then under the pan. The stock tube goes above the LCA pivot bolt which causes interference with the pan if the motor is lowered.

 

 

Had some 1-1/2" o.d. 4130 tube bent, fit and welded the pieces for a better stronger mouse trap. No interference with the steering as I was concerned with due to different routing of the tube.

 

 

 

 

Installed all the parts, centered the shaker scoop in the center of the hole in the hood.

 

Bob

Edited March 7, 2014 by RPM

[82firebird 11]

Glad to hear you are progressing! If you want to upload pictures and have a smart phone, download the photobucket app. You can upload pictures and they even give you the image code links so all you have to do is copy and paste. :)

[stangme428 33]

congrats on the progress!!

[RPM 1,190]

Thanks guys, should have some pics up in a bit.

 

Bob

[RPM 1,190]

Hmm... well it's back on the rotisserie as I somehow forgot to seam seal the bottom. Argh! Oh well, a few days delay after 12 years won't really matter. I did attempt to do it with the car raised about 18 inches, but at 57 years it got old real quickly.

 

Bob

[RPM 1,190]

Let me see if I've got this pic thingy fingered out again.

 

First pic should be upper control arm dropped 1", and 2nd pic is upper arm dropped 2". Pro Motorsports said the 69 could take up to 2" of drop. I checked the bump steer for both and the 1" worked out best. At full compression

(2-1/2") it was 1/16" toe out. The rest of the suspension travel was dead nuts on. These pics were from over a year ago. If it works for me, I've got a few more pics to post.

 

 

 

Edited March 27, 2015 by RPM

[RPM 1,190]

When I read about Shaun's convertible inner rocker install over at VMF, I was hooked and decided to do it along with the one piece seat riser. I had already removed the stock seat risers because the NPD Ventura phone sales guy said the conv and sportsroof were the same height. This after I axed him to compare the two. I found out otherwise when I went to pick them up. You don't need a tape measure when they're side by side. Because the conv seat riser raises the seats by one inch, I figured I could just splice in the center hump piece which goes over the tunnel. After measuring twice I cut into it. A the center piece is 1" higher than the stock risers, I made several relief cuts in it and bent down the hump ends and tacked them. Surprisingly I only had to add one small filler wedge piece on each side.

 

The inner conv rockers were fairly easy to install, just time consuming. I can't imagine doing them without a rotisserie. The fun part was welding a zillion plug and tack welds.

 

Crap, shoulda uploaded all my pics when I had the chance :(

 

Bob

[latoracing 256]

Bob,

 

Did you use the '69/70 inner rockers, or the earlier versions? Get some pics up, I would like to see how your's turned out. The inner rockers are not bad to do without the rotisserie, espically without a floor in the car.

[RPM 1,190]

I used neither lator. I made my own out of I think 14 ga sheet I had sheared. I used Shaun's as a guide. Had about $50 in materials compared to the price of buying them. I suppose no floor would ease the pain of installation. Every time I post I try to add pics, don't know how I lucked out last nite. Shoulda kept posting pics.

[RPM 1,190]

I'll try the moronic way of posting pics with a link to my photobucket. Is it possible to caption the photos or add text?

 

http://s782.photobucket.com/user/robertpmcdougal/library/?sort=3&page=1

 

Got the brake lines pretty much installed, may have to redo the lines out of the matter cylinder of they're too close to the headers. Need to attach some more line clips and put some brake fluid in the system.

 

Bob

Edited November 12, 2013 by RPM

[BuckeyeDemon 211]

I'll try the moronic way of posting pics with a link to my photobucket. Is it possible to caption the photos or add text?

 

 

you can caption photos directly on photobucket.

 

or you can simply copy the contents of the "IMG" code associated with that picture and paste that entire line here then annotate your pics on this forum. Here is an example:

 

[RPM 1,190]

Well, I guess you can teach an old dog new tricks.

Suppose I'll start with the convertible seat risers. As others have done, I spliced the fb model from NPD onto my stock seat risers. Since I had them out with the intent to install the one piece convertible riser, I moved them back 3/4" for leg room. I also installed some self fabbed convertible inner rockers.

 

Edited December 11, 2013 by RPM

[RPM 1,190]

Had a pair of 70 big bearing drum spindles on hand but didn't know I could use my 69 hubs with different bearings. Doh! I had already made brackets to mount 13" 01 Cobra discs to my 69 disc spindles, but when I learned of the needed bearings I made some brackets for the 70 spindles.

 

 

This is why I went with the 13" Cobra front brake. OEM vs 01 Cobra :)

 

 

 

Bob

Edited December 13, 2013 by RPM

[RPM 1,190]

Back in about 2006 I bought an Air Ride rear cradle as the base for a triangulated 4 link QA1 coil over suspension. For the control arms I made them from 1-1/4" x .095 wall 4130, Tig welded and normalized, tube adapters for 3/4" QA1 xm rod ends.

I made the lower shock mounts adjustable, and they bolt to the stock spring pad on the rear axle. After assembling I could see something wasn't right. Turned out the upper left coil over mount was 3/4" off. Nice. I could have eye balled it closer than they did. By the time I noticed screwed up mount, Air Ride had been sold to Chris Alston. Should have made my own rear cradle.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rear lower coil over brackets prior to welding.

 

 

Bob

Edited December 12, 2013 by RPM

[RPM 1,190]

This was covered in another thread, but I thought I'd document it on my build thread. In order to lower my shaker to fit the hood, I considered milling the intake carb plate or lower the engine. Since I really liked buening's motor mount plans, I decided on lowering the engine. For my engine combo the stock front cross member design wouldn't allow the engine to be lowered. Why not make a new cross member?

After crawling under the car and eyeballing things, I came up with a design that I thought was a good one. It would have only 2 bends as opposed to 4 for the stock, made from 1-1/2" 4130 rather than mild steel for stock, and have better looking tube mount ends vs crushed tube ends. I drew up full size plans and took them to a local race car fab shop to bend the chromoly tube. I trimmed the ends, tacked them in place while on the car, then removed them for final welding. I normalized the cross member after welding.

I had it installed for a couple of weeks before I decided to add the Shelby tie in mod to the lower control arm mounting bolt.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bob

Edited February 15, 2014 by RPM

[RPM 1,190]

Speaking of buening's motor mount PDF file, I cut out some steel and made a set. I considered using 6061-T6 aluminum for the mounts. Seeing how I've made just about everything twice on this car, I may do it once I've got it on the road again.

 

I had a piece of polyurethane rod on hand and turned it on the lathe for the bushings.

 

 

Since I was guessing on how low to drop the engine for the shaker to sit in an acceptable position thru the hood, I used a spacer between the frame mount and engine mount pieces.

I made the first spacers from aluminum, and a second set from pieces of 1/4" rubber which were glued together.

 

 

The before and after pics.

 

 

Thanks buening.

 

Edit: I later used a 1/4" thinner spacer and lowered the shaker for a nice fit.

Edited March 27, 2015 by RPM