Off the Stand and on the Ground

March 16, 2017

After almost a year of having the car being built on a wooden stand, we have it on the ground. 

From now on we will use the hydraulic lift and floor jacks to work on anything under the car. 

Some pictures with my nephew David and his Mom Evie

The car rides really low, the clearance from frame to the ground is just 4.5 inches. It's lower than the 73 corvette David is restoring.

The first time we could look at the engine from above - it fills up the engine compartment!

A few items to close the loop on.

We could not find a way for the rear donor car wheels to fit over the 13 inch rotors and brake calipers, so we went with doughnut spare tires -  a $17 purchase from the pick and pull to be able to roll the car around and use until we figure out the custom wheels and tires we need to order. No sense in getting them now and trying to keep them clean and paint free while we do the body work.

We finally have a solution for the air conditioner compressor. When we moved the engine forward two inches it caused a lot of modifications. For example the motor mounts, driveshaft, exhaust headers - all mentioned in earlier blog posts. The last one we were noodling on was the A/C compressor. Being two inches forward, it is in a tight space and the hard lines could not fit. We could have went with another compressor and mount it somewhere else, but we have little room for an alternative mount and we would have to configure a new serpentine belt. Both more difficult to do vs trying to get the existing one to work. We got lucky and our custom hose shop was able to modify the compressor block with a 90 degree escape which now just fits. So we avoided changing the serpentine belt and mounting a new A/C compressor.


Old compressor block

New modified compressor block

Installed - just need to reinstall the exhaust header.

We also needed to get an extender for the Oxygen sensor on the driver’s side and we added a  FORD MUSTANG SVE MIL ELIMINATOR (O2 SENSOR SIMULATOR) for the rear Oxygen sensors so we could fool the computer for any check engine faults – we did this because we want to run a wireless OBD connector to a tablet to display key engine performance and be our check engine light with specific faults displayed

We also finished up moving the brake pedal and steering shaft so we have room for the accelerator pedal

Caught in a Trap

March 5, 2017

We are currently looking at everything to finish up before we get the car off the wood stand it's been on for about a year. The kit was delivered April 3, 2016 and it would be nice to drive it around - of course without a body - before 12 months of building. Our trap is now that we are looking everything over and finding things we aren't comfortable with and have decided to re-engineer in some cases. We also are trying to avoid adding to the budget so we are spending a few extra cycles thinking about the most cost-effective way to accomplish. Here are a few examples and an update on a previous redo.

First off the update. We decided to move the battery disconnect and remote battery terminals from the trunk of the car since we were concerned about a rear end collision and the proximity of a live battery cable very near the fuel tank. We moved the disconnect switch to the center console area so when we leave the car we can just disconnect it and the switch will be hidden, but easy to get at if you know where it's at. A poor man's security system and easy to arm and disarm. 

Also,  we got the emergency brake installed which is in the photo below - the disconnect switch is circled.

We moved the remote battery charging terminals to the front of the car. The battery location is in the rear and has no real access to charge, this will allow us not to have to take the car apart to give it a jump start. We are worried since it's a drive every once in a while vehicle, and the chance of a low battery is increased by just sitting; there are a few vampire circuits         (always on like the computer and other memory setting saving circuits) that can drain a battery. Another reason to have a disconnect switch to disconnect the battery is if we know there is a long period without running and recharging the battery. Of course everytime we fully disconnect, the computer needs to relearn the emissions and smooth running settings, but that is better than a dead battery or a stolen car.

For the remote terminals, we made a simple aluminum bracket and then coated it with rubber paint so the battery cables don't spark in case we touch them to the plate when setting up the charging.

After installing the trans tunnel and seeing how little room is available for the accelerator pedal, Jake suggested we look at moving the brake pedal to where the clutch pedal would be. Since we have an automatic this made a lot of sense. The devil is always in the details and it wasn't a simple moving of a pedal. The bracket for the pedal needed to be hacked up and a new mounting plate fabricated. After the work, we are very happy with the result. Great idea from Jacob! We also noticed without the brake pedal on the right side of the steering column we could relocate the steering shaft to a more direct location where the brake pedal was. We could also do this since the headers are smaller and provide the room past the firewall to accommodate the more direct path. The way the steering shaft was routed and the extreme turns it took was making turning a bit more strenuous, with this new path it should turn much easier as the force will be in a more direct path and not needed to turn a 135-degree universal joint turn.

We have completed the brake pedal movement and will rework the steering over the next week or two. Check out how much room we have for the gas pedal.

The hole will need to be redone 3-4 inches to the right on the other side of the frame brace, but that should be easy. We will make an aluminum plate to cover the current hole - a much better solution for us and saves us from a $1200 power steering unit. 

We are also trying to use the donor vehicle wheels until we have the body work done and the car painted this way we won't have to worry about getting paint on the new tires and wheels. Similar to painting a room that you know you will replace the carpet. Like everything, there is a bit of an issue with this. The lincoln wheels are 16-inch rims with a bolt spacing of 4.25 inches, the mustang wheel hubs have 4.5 inch spacing. The fronts have 11-inch rotors and the rears have 13-inch rotors. Getting used rims and tires with a 4.5 inch bolt pattern cast about $50 each, but just getting a spacer that changes the bolt pattern are $20. We found that works for the fronts, but the rears although they fit the calipers rub. We are going to grind the rims just a bit to eliminate the rubbing, something we will try before we get 17 or 18-inch tempory wheels.  below is a shot of the spacer and the wheels on the car - remember they are temporary while we roll it around the shop and do the body work.