A Window of Work

September 9, 2016

We have been on hold waiting for parts and this week the rear brakes finally showed up. We ordered them back in June. After painting the raw metal brackets for the calipers, and trimming the backing plate since these brakes are mounted in a different position than the stock Ford Mustang brakes. The rear end/suspension is from a 2015 Ford Mustang.

David and I installed the new calipers this morning. 

Next up is finishing the rear brake lines  - we completed the fronts a few months ago, and I am glad we waited on the rears since the location of the caliper inlet for the brake line is in a different position than where we expected it to be based on the standard mustang caliper mounting. So no rework will be needed.

The rears are 13-inch rotors while the fronts are 11-inch, good news is we have two different size master cylinders to apply the correct amount of pressure to give correct braking power to the different size rotors/wheels.


We are headed to another long pause in our build due to traveling this fall will have us in Chicago for less than 2 weeks between now and mid-November.

The good news is the fuel tank should be back by then, and we will be able to get the engine and wiring sorted on the ground before we get it fitted to the frame for one last time.

Little by Little

July 25, 2016

We have gotten to a point where we still have a mountain of stuff to do but we are also stuck waiting for parts and re-thinking the build.

For example, we just completed the front brake lines but are on hold with the rears since we are waiting for the rear disc brake calipers. Issues with Ford supplies have us going back to Factory Five for a new designed caliper that current lead times are 8 weeks.

We procured the battery and installed it, but the rest of the electrical is waiting on getting the engine started outside the car. 

For that we are waiting on the fuel tank to be checked out - it's a favor so it on the back burner - our fault since we said we wouldn't need it for months. That was because we were going to do the wiring without checking it out on the ground, our change in strategy has us waiting now.

We also just discovered that the chrome exhaust header pipes we got on the cheap won't work with the EGR ( exhaust gas recirculation) pipe on the 1997 Lincoln 4.6L engine we are using. The parts store lead us to believe that these ones for the Mustang 4.6L would work, so we need to rethink the exhaust strategy. 

We could jump ahead and for example, install the aluminum panels floor, but then it would make the wiring much more difficult. We could assemble the suicide door frames, but the real trick is to adjust them to fit the body and that's a long way off. We could mount the grill and radiator, but then we could damage them when we install the engine. This goes on and on and it seems the best thing is to wait out the part lead times and avoid the sauna-like heat conditions of August in Chicago. Good thing is that there is no rush since the purpose of the build is just doing it with family.

An interesting Comparison

July 8, 2016

Last night I went to a concert and halfway through the show I couldn't help but think about family businesses and how they develop. I was seeing Neil Finn. He was is the groups Split Enz and Crowded house. He has also done solo work and a couple of discs with his brother Tim. Last night his backing band was his family - wife Sharon ( bass guitar), and son's Liam (lead and rhythm guitar) and Elroy ( drums).  It was hard not to make the comparison to our family business and could see a few generations of this type of band working things out. Currently, my brother is the band leader and headliner, when I was growing up it was my father, and a few years from know it will be David and Jacob. 

I picked up on little things like how Neil, still the father, chimed in a few times to acknowledge and correct a few mistakes and the boys wanting to make their father proud - the family banter was great! 

It was a great show, but more it was another reminder of how families in business work together and alone.  

Addendum:
After JoAnn read the post, and we realized that Neil Finn was playing in Milwaukee and we could make his show there on 7/9. We caught his 4:00pm set at Summerfest. Here is a photo with all his family in the shot.

Engine In But Not Happy

July 5, 2016

We mounted the transmission to the engine and spent a few hours getting it in. Isaac and David were helping out.

With the transmission bolted up, the engine had less play and is really tight up against the firewall. We are not happy with it so we installed the drive shaft to see if we had enough play in the spline to move the motor mounts forward an inch to give the engine a bit of space between it and the firewall. It looks like we have a good amount of play so out will come the engine so we can move the motor mount brackets or add some mounting holes an inch or so forward. 

We can move the engine about 2 inches forward before the aircon compressor will hit the front part of the frame. Everything is so tight. It will also give us a chance to bolt up the exhaust headers as installing them while the engine is in is nearly impossible.

While we have the engine in, we started to look at the wiring to see how we could route the looms from the 1997 Lincoln Mark VIII which we will be using for the computer, fuel pump, ignition system with anti-theft and the EFI ( electronic fuel injection). 

It was a real mess as we first just were trying to get an idea of where things would be routed. 

After looking at what remained we realized that we still had some extra circuits that could be cut out since we would be using a second wiring system for lights, AC, gauges, speedo, turn signals...

Cutting out another pile of wires and using zip ties to organize the looms, things are starting to look a whole lot better. Once we are happy with it, we will wrap it to keep the wiring from getting nicked or cut.

We also decided that since we will be taking the engine out again, we should hook it all up outside the cramped quarters of the frame and see if it still runs. If not it will be much easier to troubleshoot on the floor than in the frame. Also, if we give up on the donor car wiring, it will be easier to install a new wiring loom without having to work it through the routing holes we would make with the donor wiring loom.

In the next few days, we will be taking the engine out once again.

Fathers Day

June 19, 2016

Today I am thinking about my father on fathers day. 

Sid Plofsky passed away a little over 10 years ago, but he would have loved being a part of this project and especially seeing his grandchildren being a big part of the business he created. As I work with my brother and nephews, I can't help but be drawn into many memories around the business and my father. I won't bore you with many memories but one stands out as I was working on the project this past week alone one morning, this memory surfaced.

Almost 20 years ago in the late 90's my folks were planning on visiting CA for an extended stay. I had the idea that during the month stay, I would take off 2-3 weeks of it and maybe for the last time, my father being in his late sixties at the time, we would go out and purchase my dream muscle car and restore it. The idea was to look for it, purchase it and get it ready for the paint shop in the 4 weeks. I figured it would be long days but that he would really enjoy the project but more importantly just working on it with his son. I also thought it might be the last big project we could work on. We were on the hunt for a 1963-64 Chevy Impala convertible. 

 

On paper the plan seemed reasonable, but in reality it was flawed from the start. Having done no real pre-work and at the time finding project cars on the internet wasn't like it is today, we started with a local edition of the classifieds and a copy of weekly that had all sorts of cars and truck advertised for sale. This is where the plan started to fall apart. In the reasonable 200 mile radius there were few if any Impalas to chose from, so we went to plan B and changed our target to any 60's cool car. We hit as many U sell it and parking lot auto dealers looking for something unique, not too expensive, had a workable list for 3 weeks and we could get the parts for in time to complete. I also forgot to mention that during this time we also had a few tourist things to do since this was my parents second trip out to see me in CA and the first was just a weekend in San Francisco, so the list was fairly long - 17 mile drive, a beach party at a friends house, Napa Valley - you get the picture some of these were whole day events. 

I'll cut to the chase, we never did get around to pulling the trigger on a vehicle to restore. I remember about a 2 weeks of trying and coming close on a 1964 Ford Thunderbird 










and a 1967 Pontiac Bonneville. 

Both of course were not a bargain, again a flaw in the plan and they never really captured the dream of an Impala convertible. But all was not lost and in fact looking back the results were much better. The days I got to spend with my father driving around to check out the potential cars, working up the punch list of things to get done, figuring out how much money we would be dumping into the car and it's potential resale value were all are great memories and what they call quality time. Once we figured out we couldn't make it happen, we went on to do a few projects on my house at the time and ticked off a number of tourist items. All in all a great memory and everytime I see a 1960's Impala, Thunderbird, or Bonneville I am reminded of that time.


Also here is a picture of all the grandkids with their Bubbi 
(Grandmother)

Firewall Modifications

June 10, 2016

The engine is back on jack stands as we look to finish up the firewall. When we put the engine in we had bent a few bolts holding it and we were afraid that we would break the aluminum engine block if we continue to hoist the engine in and out this way, so we fabricated a new system using a plate used for hoisting engines with a carbureted intake, remember ours is fuel injected, so we needed to modify things a bit.

We are really concerned that the engine being so close to the firewall and that the firewall is only 16 gauge or .063 inches, we will have a heat problem in the cabin of the car unless we do something.

We decided on three tactics.

1) A heat shield on the engine facing side of the firewall,. We picked an aluminum cloth that's rated to reflect up to 2000 degrees F.

2) We have a Factory Five upgrade kit for heat (black) and sound dampening (gray) that is attached to the cabin side firewall

3) We added some fire rated to 1800 F insulation behind a secondary firewall

As mentioned we built a secondary fire wall on the cabin side. This is so we can mount the computer, another fuse box, and other dashboard electronics. We need to do this since we are adding Air conditioning and it will take up precious space behind the dash.

The air con will mount to the third firewall

Schools out for Summer....

May 25, 2016


We are a little worried that even though we have seen our engine fit ( just barely) into the engine compartment in internet pictures, we needed to try it ourselves. So after a few attempts  needing to take off the power steering pump, the oil filter bracket, and the air conditioning compressor lines, we got it to fit. It is tight! We will be taking it out so we can heat shield the firewall and get the engine cleaned up before we do the final install.

You may have noticed that the Firewall looks bad with the grinding marks around every rivet, not to worry we will be adhering a heat shield that will keep as much heat as possible from entering the passenger cabin. It's rated to reflect over 2000F degrees. We will also be putting some fire resistant insulation in as well for heat resistance and sound dampening.


Other things that have been completed.
Rear end - IRS ( Independent rear suspension)
Front brakes
Brake pedal