Figured since the guys are busy with Drag Week I'd start the build thread on my mustang.
It's a '66 A fastback. I bought it from a very good friend that has since passed away so there's no way it is ever leaving my family.
When I bought it it was in primer and pretty rough with a not original 289 in it. I cleaned it up, painted it and drove it for a while.
Then one day I said, "hey, why don't I freshen up the front end." Upon tear down I said to myself, "hey, as long as I'm doing this I may as well do that". Pretty soon it was completely apart and you all know what happens next. Other projects get priority and boom, it sits for years.
Well the kids are all out of the house and I'm in the middle of another build (my Fairlane) so hey, perfect time to get on the mustang.
I guess I should give you the low down on what I'm thinking about for it.
First off, I'm not a restorer. Right or wrong I'm a modifier. I realize some guys may hate, hate, hate it, but that's ok.
It will occupy the "for fun only" slot in my little group of vehicles. The Fairlane is a mostly race car, the mustang is all street.
Then I have my cruiser dd truck ('61) and the fun truck ('74).
At first I was going to throw a blown 4.6 in it but everybody has done that. And at first it was going to have air suspension because it was new and exciting when I first tore it apart ( I lost my head), but that's going away for coil overs (I'm better now, thank you)
I'm putting a 428cj block in it. The crank has been offset ground to a 4 inch stroke. Bores are 4.185. It will be injected.
As soon as I can get an aluminum block, that will be what eventually goes in it. But I'm not in a hurry.
Basics of the car are:
Injected 440FE
T600 5 speed (.68 5th gear)
TruTrac 4.11 rear end (31 spline axles)
Front tires 17/225/45s
Rear tires 18/255/45s (26 inches tall)
As of today I'm locating the engine and trans to build mounts. Been running into a few little problems. I'm going to have to lower the rack as it is just plain to high and in the way of getting the engine down where I want it. Will do that tomorrow.
I'm shoving the engine as far back as I can for a few reasons. One, I had to move the seat platform down and back in order to keep my head off the roof. So having the shifter move back with me would be good. Second, that's a bigger engine than this car was engineered for so weight distribution is paramount. Also can use as much room up front as possible (may need an intercooler some day
).
I'll include a few pics so you guys get an idea of where I'm at and then keep adding.
Oh BTW, the reason the oil pan is hacked is because it is a generic Canton pan for IFS mustangs but the front sump just doesn't fit so it will be flat instead of having a front sump.