Installing RRS "Notch Kit"

Now that the rear of the car is mostly complete I can move forward to finish the forward sections of the chassis & suspension.
For suspension, I am going to use the local Australian RRS system as this gives me all the required "fixes" I need when installing a big-block in the '66 body. These fixes being......

• Ability to widen the engine bay.


• Ability to install modern suspension & brakes.


• Ability to handle extra engine weight.


• Ability to reposition "under bonnet" brake plumbing.

I will also be installing a new firewall (a firewall from a modern falcon) to perform a RHD conversion. But when doing so, I will use the opportunity to make room to position the engine as far back as practical to get the best weight distribution I can into the car. When you combine the engine bay mod's made possible by the RRS suspension setup as well as the new firewall mod's - this will be a very different looking (from stock) '66 Mustang engine bay.
Here are some shots of progress.....
Firstly - having cut away the portion of the shock-tower according to the RRS supplied templates. You can see here that the near tower has already been cut away and the paper template loosely positioned on the far shock-tower awaiting proper alignment. No turning back to OEM front suspension now!

The photo below shows the amount of shock-tower "scalloping" that is achieved. You can see that I re-installed the shock tower brace to make sure everything is kept aligned when cutting and welding. Readers of earlier posts will remember that the shock tower shown below had "sagged in" (in towards the engine) nearly an inch over the years. This procedure straightened everything up (back to OEM spec's).

Shown below is some detail of the welding from inside the shock tower. The supplied steel plates from RRS are very solid. I had the MIG voltage turned way up when welding these in!

And below is a photo of the "notch kit" done on both sides. It took about 5 hours all up to do both sides. Fitting the templates and marking the first cut-outs was very quick, but there is quite a bit of trimming & trial fitting to do to get a flush fit all round (and have both sides done symmetrically). This is what takes time and is more of an art/craft. As for just about every little piece of custom work done on this car - if I did it again it would take half the time. Trouble is - i'm only doing everything once!

In the photo below you can see i've trimmed & ground things smooth. You can also see how the base of the notch kit runs almost in line with the frame rails.

And this last photo (taken from inside the passenger compartment - with the old firewall cut out) really gives some perspective of how much extra room there now is.

Soon i'll be able to remove the space frame which will allow me to do a dummy install of the big-block. That will then show me what needs to be done to finish and weld in the new firewall . But fabricating and installing the firewall will be the subject of another post. Stay tuned....