Idle hands: assorted projects

[UnderControl]

In fairness the og mustang was really more of the secretary car, until Shelby got a hold of it anyway. 67 saw a fair number of changes to make the chassis more rigid and accept a larger tire.

 

In other news I've recently been updating garage storage and playing around with some new tools, so progress has happened, but been slow. Tonight I'm playing with some new bead roller dies. The goal is to make factory looking arches that stick out an extra 1/4-1/2 in. So far IV managed to make a near perfect 620 rear arch replacement.

 

 

[Lockleaf]

Very cool.  I do one day want to much improve my metal tool collection with some the toys you are playing with.  Hand built panels are sweet.

[UnderControl]

I some day hope to have the space and money for the big boy versions of the metal shaping tools I currently have. Currently the bead roller, shrinker/stretcher and the baby english wheel all mount in the same vise. Adds a lot of time and effort when making panels like this.

 

So far I'm pretty happy with how the flare is shaping up. Although there was a bunch of bondo in the passenger side quarter. Enough that I'm thinking a whole new quarter wouldn't be a bad idea. Alternatively I've been considering some pre-fabbed mold in glass flares.

 

 

Actually pretty stoked on this so far, but...

 

 

this had a shit load of bondo.

[UnderControl]

Haven't had much time out in the garage of late, but what time I have had has been spent playing around with metal shaping practice. As much as I kinda like the bubble flare section I had previously made; I'd still prefer to get closer to the original contour. Lots of wheeling, shrinking, stretching, rolling and then doing it all again the opposite way I have some general idea how the tools work the metal. But sometime in the last couple of weeks I realized that I'm supposed to be relocating out of state in the fall so I really need to get this project moving. To that end as a last ditch I'm finally getting around to incorporating a wire form to help me gauge where I'm at.

 

 

 

The compound curves are certainly causing me some strife and at this point I'll give it to the end of the week before moving on for now. Short term a trim and a roll, plus the slight widening of the front inner tub should get me the clearance I need to fit the 245s I plan to run initially, would just be cool to have that extra bit of custom. 

 

I have set the goal of this thing being able to drive on to the trailer when I move, and I really want the glass in for transport so I need the metalwork done, and enough of the body work done that the glass isn't at risk.

Edited February 16, 2022 by UnderControl

[UnderControl]

Moving on from frome flares for now and turned back first to that inner tub I started a while back. To recap the passenger side had a little rust in this corner. As it happens there is a vintage racing technique of widening this section of the tub for additional tire clearance within rules. I'm not worried about rules, but anyway. Since this side had rust I needed to cut back some more and patch back up.

 

 

 

Still needs some trimming/finishing, but good enough to get the inner tub section made.

[UnderControl]

Almost finished up with the drinker's side. Just need a small bit to connect the flanges.

 

[UnderControl]

Been pretty busy with various other projects lately. I had spent a good bit of time working on shaping panels to fill in between the rear lower quarter and the trunk pan, but as has happened before, with the amount of time I have into it, plus the time to finish then do it again for the other side I just decided to buy the panels. While waiting for those I did do something I guess can be called picture worthy.

 

 

This was the sketchiest spring removal I've done to date, so lucky me, I get to do it again on the other side. With the exception of getting the ball joints out of the spindle everything came apart pretty easily.

 

Current plan is to get the arms cleaned up, new bushes and ball joints, some grand am inspired bracing and naturally the Shelby/arning drop. Already have the disk brakes and hubs, and still undecided on if I'm going to move to an adjustabler strut rod.

[UnderControl]

Lots of blasting later.

 

 

[UnderControl]

Dead thread redemption time. Lots to catch up on, but I'll have to dig up and organize pictures for full updates. Short version: still working on the 66, and a lot has changed since my last update. 

 

In the meantime here's a quick project from this evening. Steady rest with all of the adjustment.

 

 

 

 

I did get around to bringing home the old farm truck a couple weeks ago. Other than the lack of rear brakes everything seemed good nuff. This will be a side tinker project mostly to get caught up on maintenance and not much else for a while.

 

 

[UnderControl]

I shall start this update by mostly dumping what pictures I have in a semi chronological order and may even include some description of what was going on. I may also very likely edit these update posts as I go with detail.  I did get pretty bad about taking pictures of things in my internet hiatus, so for somethings you'll be stuck with imagination land.

 

I suppose rust repair is as good a place as any to start and since that's actually getting pretty close to done. At last update it looks like I was still working on making my own flares, well, that didn't last much longer. "Full" quarters for this thing were just too cheap not to use even just for the arches.

 

 

 

 

The 245 wide tires I'll be running fit the rear tubs fine and down the line I should be able to get 275s in there with some inner tub work. Then there were several other little rusty bits.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Haven't actually finished this passenger fender. Got the patch pretty close before needing to do something other than rust repair for a bit. For this post I'll actually skip forward to present since I have been back to doing some sheet metal work. I had been hoping to get this wrapped before it got too cold to try to paint, that didn't happen so I've got all winter to do some fiddly stuff I wasn't sure I'd get to. Top on that list is deleting the lead seams. Started with the driver rear as that one will be the largest single panel considering I'd be cutting out the patches I had previously made for that area. Not many pictures here either, still getting back into the habit.

 

 

 

 

This feels like a good spot to conclude this update, everything here was pretty much making holes go away. Actual rust repair is nearly done other than the passenger fender, and whatever I dig out when I cut open the other sail panel and A pillars for the rest of the lead seams.

 

[UnderControl]

I'll keep the updates rolling with a bit more sheet metal work. One of things that had bugged me for a long time was my blower motor and heater hose delete. I knew I could make it OK in the actual bodywork phase, but I just didn't like it, so...

 

 

 

Around this time I did manage to find an appropriately priced T5 and since, despite appearances I'm not a caveman, I'd need to bring the clutch system up to date a bit with hydraulics.

 

 

Kits exist for this, but they generally expect people to be swapping them into running cars. As such they are designed to be minimally invasive. I'm well passed that point here so notching the firewall to keep the cylinder bores even was totally fine as seen here in marker.

 

 

 

 

 

No pictures of the linkage, but the clutch master is nicely in line with pedal arm and remarkably close to the factory pivot. I just drilled a hole in the pedal arm and bolted a rod end to it.

 

On the other end, kits exist here as well, but they are stupid and/or expensive. Random scrap is free and 280z slave cylinders are cheap.

 

 

 

As it happens, transmission mounts for this swap are dirt cheap. Made my own anyway.

 

 

 

 

A transmission needs a shifter, and I have some options laying around.

 

 

While doable, this spare Hurst shifter handle from the other mustang is just too dang low.

 

 

This random column shift arm and Rocket T handle I got in a box of parts with my 620 on the other hand are perfect, with some modification of course. In the last couple of pictures you may also notice I actually got the vert seat riser welded in along the way. With that I'll call this post good and I'll have to see what I've found enough pics of for the next.

[]2eDeYe]

Digging the steering wheel 😄

Excellent sheet metal work. 

[UnderControl]

You might be shocked how difficult it is to move the steering box out of full lock by hand from the pitman arm.

 

Why did I need the steering box in?

 

 

Not sure yet.

 

[datsunfreak]

On 11/22/2023 at 5:31 PM, UnderControl said:

On the other end, kits exist here as well, but they are stupid and/or expensive. Random scrap is free and 280z slave cylinders are cheap.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Do you have a plan for checking to see if that slave provides enough stroke, or just thinking "bolt it up and see what happens"?  😁

 

FWIW, on the T5 swap we did, we used an aftermarket hydraulic throwout bearing. Made for a cleaner install, and as I recall it was only around $100. 

 

Yours does look much easier to bleed out, though. 👍

[UnderControl]

On 11/27/2023 at 10:05 AM, datsunfreak said:

 

 

Do you have a plan for checking to see if that slave provides enough stroke, or just thinking "bolt it up and see what happens"?  😁

 

FWIW, on the T5 swap we did, we used an aftermarket hydraulic throwout bearing. Made for a cleaner install, and as I recall it was only around $100. 

 

Yours does look much easier to bleed out, though. 👍

 

Mostly did the "this slave has the same casting numbers as the one used in this kit, so it'll probably work" approach, but also a bit of see what happens.

 

I like hydraulic release bearings, other than serviceability. External slave being $10 doesn't hurt.

 

Took last week off to tinker on some other things. One such thing is the start on a press break since I have so much call to bend thinker than 18ga. Started the project with a trip to the local metal supplier to raid the scraps.

 

 

I got most of the way through the frame before the 220 side of my mig.

 

 

I did go ahead and add the vertical rods in with the tig and will just have to decide if I'll finish it with the tig or leave it aside until I get the mig fixed. Also not pictured, but I did finish grinding the bending bar as well. Otherwise last week was shop cleanup so I could actually pull the wife's car in for maintenance.

 

This week is back on the 66 with passenger side lead seam removal.

 

 

 

[UnderControl]

I suppose I can get back to these back dates.  I'll start with the exhaust since I teased that previously. I picked up a super cheap set of headers at a swap meet, a few bits of tube and some VBands and got to work. I had 2 requirements for this exhaust the first of which being X-pipe.

 

First requirement and first time making an X-pipe check.

 

 

Not specifically a requirement, but I was gonna also always gonna be running Vbands so a little bit of work to the headers got the flanges in convenient spaces to be able to actually get the clamps on and off.

 

 

then to connect the the headers to the x.

 

 

The other actual requirement I had was side exit, because awesome.

 

 

I'm still working what exactly to do about the tips, but it's done enough to send it.

 

[]2eDeYe]

Looking good. 

Not sure why, but exhaust is pretty satisfying to build. 

[UnderControl]

Yeah it is, gets a pretty quick gratification especially compared to hand forming sheet metal.

 

Speaking of sheet metal; another project from earlier this year was the fuel filler. The stock one was fine, but I'm already in here so why not.

 

 

Mounting holes all lined up close enough that I could have just slapped some hardware in there and called it a day, but then the cap would just be floating out in space looking silly. A frenched flange on the other hand would be titties.

 

 

I took this as an opportunity to do some more testing with press/hammer forming with 3D printed parts.

 

 

This set did not survive to bend again, but they did manage to get the flange close enough to fine tune.

 

 

 

Bonus content to include the only pic I found that kinda shows the exhaust tips as they currently exist. Just a straight cut piece clamped on to the end of the pipe to get it out passed the body. That may just end up getting welded on, after a slash cut or maybe I'll get a proper tip. Hard to say, been back and forth on it many times.

 

 

 

[datsunfreak]

Minor turndown and flat black paint gets my vote, but I like stealth. 😁

[UnderControl]

Meh, if I were going to coat them it be in white to compliment some of the other 60s race car features. Also feels silly to coat stainless, in this application anyway. The mild steel headers may very well get wrapped and sprayed though.

 

Speaking of stealth things, one of the few things I've done with it since bringing the squarebody home was to replace the ashtray with a little Bluetooth receiver.

 

 

[datsunfreak]

That's very cool! Does it work pretty well?

[UnderControl]

Haven't actually wired it in yet, but I'm using the same one in my 620 driving 2 speakers and in the 05 mustang driving 4. Plenty loud enough in both cases and audio quality is good enough for me.

 

Not a lot of picture worthy progress the last couple of nights. The sail panel patch is close, but not quite there. I'm at the point I run into with these pieces where I'm not entirely sure what it needs so I stepped off it to ponder and not fuck up 3 days of work on a panel doing something rash.

 

My heater box came in the other day so I've been thinking about where to mount it and the fuse box under the dash. Heater box looks like it should fit nicely right in the center of the dash behind the factory radio. For the fuse box I'm leaning towards the passenger corner under the glove box. Of course in order to make a bracket to mount the fuse box I'll need a glovebox to build around. Spent the night making a CAD template that I didn't take a picture of before deciding I'd need a softer radius bending die for the baby break.

 

 

Just a section of angle stuck to some 3/4 round rod. Then figured I'd do a test with the actual measurements for the box to see how far off the bends would be.

 

 

Radi turned out nice, though I'll need to come up with a better way to repeatably set the bar. As is it's difficult to get my mark in the center of the bends.

[]2eDeYe]

I like that stereo option. Very tidy. 

[datsunfreak]

On 12/7/2023 at 9:27 PM, UnderControl said:

For the fuse box I'm leaning towards the passenger corner under the glove box. Of course in order to make a bracket to mount the fuse box I'll need a glovebox to build around.

 

I can't remember, are you running an aftermarket fuse box/harness? If so then a nickel's worth of free advice. Check the length of the wires that go to the dash/column before you commit to a location. On my Galaxie, I put mine in the glove box and the wires to the dash/column barely reach. (dash switches right, gauges left). I wish I had gone a little closer, but wanted easy access to fuses.

 

 

 

 

[UnderControl]

Good nickle. I have a standard 22 circuit kit, because maybe I'll add a lot of electronics or something. I'm already adding an auxiliary box for relays and with the way this project has snowballed I have no problem gutting this box if needed. I still need to throw the wipers back in and finalize the heater, and ducting, and then there's, and after that, and on and on. 

 

For the moment I'm rolling forward on the glove box. I added some bolts to locate the bending bar and ran through several test pieces to figure out my bending locations.

 

 

Then it was time for the real thing. 

 

 

 

Still have some trimming to do, but it's fitting up nicely.