Progress - despite a lack of posts.....

I had a look the other day and it's been 3 and a half years since i started on this rebuild - can it be that long????

As usual there are just too many distraction lately that allow me time to progress things. There has been no break from work over xmas and i'm about to travel for a month.

However, I can announce some recent progress so here are the latest updates (and it's all to do with finishing the Fastback body)....... sort of......

Anyway, to get the rear wheel wells completed along with the rear guards, I have to have the diff completed to ensure it all fits under the body skin. So I shoved the 16 x 9 inch rims (with fat Goodyear eagles on) under the guards and measured up the wheel bolt up (face to face) distance.

The complicating factor is that my vehicle engineer has demanded that the diff runs floating hubs and axles so I had to get new 3 inch o.d. axle tubes welded in as well (to carry the hubs).

And here is the completed diff housing, hubs and brake assembly photos.

First the bare housing with the 3 inch housing extensions plus the floating hub bearing tubes.

The bare metal bearing tubes you see on each end of the housing also have the "floating axles" pass right thru them and protude another inch or more.

The close-up below shoes the brake caliper mount (painted black), then the first step on the bare metal tube is the polished surface that runs against the axle seal (the seal is pressed into the inside edge of the hub body), then the next step on the bare tube carries the 2 conical roller bearings, then the threaded section and machined slot carries the lock washer and lock nut.

The photo below shows the various hub components. You can see that the splined drive-hub slips over the wheel studs and this is what drives the whole hub assembly. I'm running 35 spline axles - as that's what the good folk at Currie Enterprises suggestd (based on my driveline combo).

The cobbled together weird looking piece of water pipe & welded on bolts is the special tool I had to make so I could tighten/un-tighten the floating hub lock nuts.

And below you can see the nice clean final fit for the hubs. In essence, it's just like the hubs you have on any trailer, but the stub axle itself is hollow - so the drive axle from the diff pass thru and drive the while thing. 

Just to complete things, the phot below shows the disks and calipers mocked up and installed. A keen eye will notice that i've installed them on the wrong axles (they are bakwards and up-side down) - but I only needed the get the overall width measured here. Still - it's a nice looking and reliable combination.

And while we are on the subject of "reliable" (for this car), here are a couple of photos of the diff center that just arrived too - thanks to the strong Aussie $ right now! It's a Currie brand "9+" nodular iron case with the big bearing saddles. I nearly went the alloy case to save weight - but my car will do some miles and I want longevity for the driveline components. This center weighs about 40Kg's - heavy!!!

And to complete the package, i've gone with the reliable Detroit Locker center (35 spline to complement the hubs). I had a locker in my ute for years - love them!  



That's all for now. I'm just waiting on the rear suspension components to arrive from RRS. Their system can indeed work with this modified housing. How you may ask with just a bare tube and no spring-pads?

That will be shown in the next post.

Finishing the tail

Hi to anyone watching. Not much has advanced recently seeing we've had the coldest & wettest winter in years and my work has been very busy. Needless to say the car gets a lower priority in such times.

Anyway, I got a couple of "half days" over the last long weekend to continue to get all the panel gaps right and I believe I've finished cleaning up the tail of the car.

My "problems" were the panel gaps around the trunk and then fixing the ever inconsistent contours of the rear quarter extensions. As I'm using the original extensions on after-market new rear quarter panels - the two just didn't meet in a consistent (nor acceptable) way.

But here are some shots of the results and it has turned out OK by the look of it.

First some shots to see the trunk gap on each side. Both alloy extensions had quite a bit of paint and filler on them. I closed-up the holes in the quarter panel so the studs in the extensions precisely fit their holes. This fixes them in the one position which is important.

For the rear left corner, removing paint and filler did most of the job. I only needed to contour the extension very slightly to match the contour along the top of the quarter. I used a fine grained "flapper" disk on the small grinder to get the contour right without eating away too much material.

For the rear right cornet though, much more work was needed. Again I closed the extension stud holes down, but the top outer edge of this extension was a good quarter inch below the top edge of the rear quarter panel - yuck. The inside edge was OK, and the first half of the contour was fine, but after that it just dropped away and didn't match.

The picture above shows the end results, but the shot below shows that I had to swap the Mig over to aluminium welding and build-up the top outer edge of the extension. Painful work and welding cast alloy is a tricky thing. However, after grinding it all back the finish is a really good fit. I will only need a skim of filler to prepare the rear quarters and extensions for paint.

You can see the extra alloy metal added in the photo above, but the gaps are all now good enough to move to the next stage (primer, filler and prep' for paint).

Incidentally, I was just at the local annual Mustang show (400+ Mustangs - amazing!) and could see that the fit of rear extensions to the rear quarters can be very hit-and-miss. This is something I want to avoid as it really detracts from the look that a Mustang should have (just my opinion though).

The final photo above simply shows the car still on the spinner. I am leaving it there until all the gaps are right of course.

But now that the rear is done I can move forward and I just need to "correct" the door-to-front-quarter gaps (which are pretty good now so not much work), but then the cowl will need some work. The bonnet (hood) will be the last thing done on terms of panel fit - and I'm not looking forward to that (but more on that in the next post probably).

Door Gaps

For those people who have had issues getting the door gaps right when they try and fit new doors, this may be of interest.

As I have the time to get the panel gaps right on this car, I've had to do a bit of tedious work to ensure the door gaps look good.

I just thought this method up on the fly......

• First, fit the doors as best you can.
• In my case I could get a good constant gap along the lower sill edge.
• This gave me uneven gaps at the front & rear edges.
• Draw a line along the door skin parallel with the edges (see photos).
• At the areas where the gap needs work, draw measurements of how much extra metal is needed.
• Sand the edge back to metal and carefully build up a bead of weld (see photos).
• Be careful not to do too much in one spot at one time (see photos).
• Finally, grind back the weld to meet your measurements.

Hopefully you can see from the before and after photos - it doesn't look too bad at all.
It will need just a skim of filler or even a heavy undercoat filler would do. Here are the photos in the sequence above....

End of "mini post" about door gaps!

Final Panel Fit

Here are some extra photos that may be of interest to some folk. Just some work-in-progress shots while I've been dummy-fitting various panels & suspension bits......

The photo above has the front qtr just "hanging" there while I check for front wheel room when steering "lock to lock". The rear suspension is just sitting at the standard suspension height - the car will be lower when complete.

This is a 16" rim that has an 8" width. The backspacing is....? I will put that on this blog once I measure it.....

The photo above shows I need to probably get another inch of backspace, obtain a lower control arm that has adjustable length, or flare the guard (which I wont do).

Now that the chassis modifications and frame have been "ok'd" by my vehicle engineer, it's time to perform final measurements on the overall frame itself and then test-fit the bolt-on panels in preparation for paint.

While I was very careful when measuring the frame during construction, you always get a bit of warping when spinning the body on the rotisserie and welding with the vehicle sitting at unusual angles.

So I have dropped the car back on its wheels and the following photos show what the panel-fit looks like without any final frame/chassis straightening.

I have the doors hung pretty close to where they will be in final assembly, but the guards are just bolted on loosely. I'm looking for straight, thin, consistent panel gaps of course! I've had to trim back some internal flanges on the front-guards already as they just don't fit properly "out of the box". You can also see the clear lenses and LED tail-lights installed so I can be sure all the add-ons will bolt up nicely and be aligned.

The areas that worry me are......

    - the rear bumper (the rear right side just doesn't curl up at the outer edge as it should).

    - the top-rear-inner edge of the guards (where they meet the windscreen pillar).

    - the bonnet (front left edge) as I need more wiggle room for the front guards.

    - the outer-rear trunk edges (where they meet the quarter extensions).

...while these areas "worry" me, it's all fixable - but will just need a lot of work to get it right!

Still - it's starting to look pretty good when "dummy fitted" together. Those rear wheels were made for a wider Australian falcon body but the offset looks good. This has given me a nice indication of what the rear axle length should be and so I'll be chopping back my 9" diff to be 1 inch shorter on each side.
I will update this post with final pictures of the panels in place. Hopefully my '67 Shelby bonnet (fibreglass skin on metal frame) will be around by then....

Floor & Subframe

Finally - the floor/chassis/firewall combo is complete!
The photo below shows how things look from underneath. While it's easy to spot the sub-frame connectors, keen eyes will spot the box chassis running in the sills and keener eyes will see the front-seat mounting rails as they attach to the sills on the outer edges of the floor (and are cut into the floor-pan at the outer edges).

This photo of inside the cabin shows the custom seat mounting rails (50mm x 50mm box-tube) in position across the floor, including the hump over the trans-tunnel. With these seat rails welded to the sub-frame connectors and the outer sill chassis, I have a very rigid structure setup for the car. The good thing is that it all sits low in the vehicle ensuring any extra weight is as low to the ground as possible.

While the underneath of the car is simply painted in an epoxy to protect it from surface rust (until I work out exactly how I will paint the entire car), the inside of the cabin has been hit with POR-15 to seal it from moisture. I'm only luke-warm with the gloss-black finish it has, but water certainly "beads" on it immediately and drains right away.

The photo below shows the firewall in a semi-finished state. I'm yet to panel-beat & grind it completely smooth, but you get an idea of the shape that was required to sit the engine back as far as possible. The recess for the Trickflow head on the right of picture is about an inch deep.

Note that I've made a custom frame-rail that used to be in place where the rear engine mount bolted on. I've put this piece back in the same location in case a small-block is ever re-installed in the car, but it is extended upwards by about 2 inches to cater for the trans-tunnel being raised by this amount to fit the big-block/tremec driveline combination.

Just for some added detail, note how Ive applied liberal amounts of Rust Bullet to the draining areas of the lower cowl (where the draining hole are cut into the new bracing i've added). Once I finish the lower cowl surface off with POR-15, I'd be very suprised if this area ever rusted thru to leak into the cabin again!

From this point on, the rest of this post is the same - showing the lead-up to completing things above. I am ready now for my first vehicle inspection from an engineer that works with the state traffic authorities. That person will deem this chassis safe (or show me where to fix things) so I can move on to final panel & bodywork items (to fix) in preparation for paint and assembly.

All that will be in a new set of posts......

BTW - if anyone has a suggestion for the color for this car then sent me a message!

Previous post info.............

The floors & sub-frame connectors have proven to be such a beast, probably because of all the custom work I've done in fitting the big-block and squeezing the full chassis within the sills.
Then again, I also went for a custom sub-frame that's cut into the floor to give me "near stock" ground clearance under the car. I nearly didn't put in the sub-frames, but with the chassis not being a suitable spot to run my battery leads, fuel lines, Cat6 Ethernet & wiring harness - they have become the best way to both strengthen the car further as well as hide & protect the above items.

The following photos show the basic approach I've taken.......
First I manufactured the sub-frames that tie the front & rear frames together.

Getting the angles right on these was "fiddly" as I wanted to ensure it was as easy as possible to push the conduit & fuel lines through.
Next I lay the floor pans in position to mark out and then cut out the slots to allow the new sub-frames to push up into both floors as the floor pans themselves were lowered into position.
Once happy after a few last moment passes with the grinder ("flapper" disks are fantastic tool I've discovered!) to get a perfect custom fit, I clamped and then welded the floors to the front frame-extensions (via plug welds), the connectors and the rear floor (under the rear seat). Oh - and of course you can see the copper "weld thru" primer on the parts that will get covered up as well as the custom "humps" I had to include in the floor pans to clear the custom rear transmission mount. It all takes time...........

You can see the way they are nicely "cut in" to the floor. At their lowest point on the car, they protrude 1" into the cabin and 1" below the floor.

You can see the way it all finished up nicely in the photo below - even before I've finally welded the floors all along their inner edges (to the trans-tunnel) and outer edges (to the inner sill panels).

In the following shots the trans-tunnel is finally welded to the floor and I've created the recesses needed for the rear gearbox mount - but allowing it to mount forward or rearward a few inches to optimise the final engine location.

Now you can see my firewall templates being installed. I had originally created a single steel sheet (after making a cardboard template) but had to split it into two sections just so I could handle it properly and get the best final fit. You can see where I've marked it to make various recesses for the heads, for the "bend-lines" to start the transition to the trans-tunnel, etc.

And here is the firewall in place, but waiting for the recesses to be cut & welded in to cater for the offset of the heads on one side of the engine-block (American drivers side) as well as the pedal-box & steering wheel mounting plate on the other side.

As you can see below, I've plug-welded the new firewall on its edges, but seam-welded it to the new floor panels and up along the full length of its top edge (where it welds to the firewall/shock-tower brace).

The photo below shows the car spun on its side so you can see the seam weld along the firewalls top edge.

It was great to finally receive my under dash brake booster from RRS. This unit includes the clutch pedal assembly too - so all hydraulics except the remote reservoirs are concealed. While this really cleans up the engine bay, I've had to do this anyway so the big-block will fit. The quality of the unit is first-class and it bolted right in with very little problem.
The photo below shows things close to complete. I've grafted the firewall section from the original firewall in place to allow the RRS under dash pedal-box to bolt in. You will also notice the notched cross-brace and recess in progress. And lastly, it was great to bolt the steering wheel & column back in - as that makes it start to look like a real car again. You can see I did a trial fit that included the steering rack to ensure no binding in the universal joints would occur.
In terms of strength, the shell will be quite rigid I'm sure. No doubt I'll "pay" for that however with a harsher ride, but that's a small price in my opinion. Something I will need to keep an eye on now though is the front pillars (where they join the cowl and roof) - as this would be my logical weak spot(s) and thus a place to flex and cause paint cracking. More on what I'm doing to mitigate that potential problem in another post though.....

Firewall & Engine fit.

After dummy fitting the engine for the first time, i've had to modify the sump to clear the rack & pinion and existing front cross-member.

You can see below how I scalloped it and radiused the edges. I've also allowed enough room to shift the block forward or back a few inches from my initial "default" location.

There is still a good half inch or more room between the spinning crank & rods and the bottom of the sump at the new scalloped section.
Now you can see the block being "enticed" into position......

All ancillaries that need to be catered for (for firewall and extractor construction) are bolted on so I don't get surprises when doing the final installation.
Now you can see the Tremec bolted up and i've raised the tran's tunnel 2 inches to give me just enough "wiggle-room" to make future driveline installations easy enough as well as include the cross-member that welds in between the frame extensions at this point. Thankfully, the standard rear engine mount from an Australian '72 to '79 Falcon bolts right onto the Tremec with no mod's and fits perfectly between the frame extensions. I have however had to modify Mustang floor pans to clear the rear cross-member "humps" (that allow for the twin exhausts to pass thru).

Below you can see the block now sits nicely in the engine bay and the transmission is perfectly centered.

And below you can see (if you enlarge the photo) the room I have available to construct my custom headers....

I had a single sheet of steel for the firewall, but had to split it in the middle to make it easiest to handle and "custom fit". You can see from the photo below that it's initially a nice snug fit around the driveline. But this is an illusion - I will be cutting and bending the firewall to make more clearance room. Otherwise the fit would be so tight that I couldn't install the engine/transmission in a single unit, and, i'd struggle to swap to an auto in the future.

Notice the marker pen scribble on the sheet-metal.... this is where I am "indenting" the firewall to provide adequate clearance around the motor.

And below you can see the tight fit with the final positioning. But the important thing is that it does fit!

And finally below you can see my "helpers" having a bit of fun!

When I get back from my travels it's out with all the driveline & suspension, then the shell goes back up on the spinner so I can cleanly weld in the firwall & floor to finish the shell.