[Barneys66]

Seeing as Photobucket has ruined all previous threads, I thought I'd start afresh. Picture sizes are all over the place though, sorry!

Long story short - bought the car off a friend in 1998. Ran for a while as a stocker, including a engine rebuild by a 'professional' but the paint suffered from being undercover so I gave it a makeover. This was the first step towards being more of a street racer, but the engine let go whilst cruising to a show in 2008 so the decision then was made to do it properly.

And, err, that was 10 years ago! For the majority of that time, Phil King has been kind enough to store some of his dust on a roller short block and GT40 cylinder heads I delivered to him with the request to build up a cheap motor to get me back on the road. However, life got in the way and I told him to place everything on hold as I moved house three times, changed jobs, got divorced (it was our wedding car so I struggled to look at it at times), slipped a disc in my back (twice) and other projects pushed the Mustang further into the corner of the workshop.

Anyway, during that time I've been slowly collecting all of the parts necessary to get the car done as I want it, including a serious increase in engine spec following many conversations with Phil, to whom I remain eternally grateful.

As I bought the car in 1998, and it's been off the road since 2008, I thought 2018 was the year I should make a concerted effort to drag it out and (hopefully) get it back on the road.

Anyway, pics are way more interesting than waffle, so here's the story so far..

Car was featured in Street Machine before I bought it. Note the price - those were the days..

Stored outside our first house in all weathers..

Cheap cover was not kind to the paint - rubbed down here

Fortunately I had the use of a warehouse to store and refresh the car in - just a cheap blow over with fresh trim and some mechanicals (engine had already been rebuilt by this point);

 

[Barneys66]

Phase 1 was complete and the car was run around like this before the rebuilt engine let go..

And let go it did..

That was in my previous rented workshop and as you can see there's not a lot of room to work on it, especially when hemmed in by tools and other projects..

Thankfully I moved into a new workshop in the same yard and now have much more room, though the Mustang was shoved straight into the corner..

Truck (over)due to go to Nobody for some lowering / fabrication work once the engine is refreshed.

 

[Barneys66]

Right, that kind of brings us up to date. The Mustang was originally an I6 manual car, but was fitted with a seventies 302, C4 and 8" before being imported. Unfortunately that means manual drums all round, and not only that but also but four lug wheels on the front and five lug for the rear!

As you can see from the truck (and the 205) I like my cars to be function over form, and I was never intending the Mustang to be a show car. The Trans-Am cars are always something I've admired, so the car will be pretty raw, and everything you will see will be done in period, but a few modern touches will be hidden along the way. And by raw the car will retain all it's original 'charachter', i.e dings and yes, the odd bit of plod, not pretty floorpan repairs, pitted quarter lights, dented subframes, etc - this has and never will bother me.

I'm unsure on a colour change for the next incarnation, as I'm very tempted to go for a flat blue, but the bonnet and wing tops will be matt black. It will also sport number roundels and maybe a few period decals. Essentials are as follows, and all are new and sitting on the shelf waiting to go on;

R-model front valance, bumper delete
Stripped and caged interior (cage to follow)
R-model dash
Racing bucket for driver with stock seat for passenger
Harnesses for both
Wide steels wheels (to follow, but have some new TTDs to get rolling)
Period tyres (either stencilled moderns or Goodyear Blue Streak if the budget allows)

Can't decide if I'm going to delete the rear bumper so will experiment with that. As for the running gear..

302 roller cam motor - being built by PhilK, to include
Stroker kit
Custom ground camshaft
AFR 185 heads
Tri-Y headers and side-exit exhaust
Induction - see below..

T-5 WC gearbox (under original style shifter and 4-speed gear knob)
Mustang Steve long clutch cable kit with pedal and roller bearings
3.55 Trac Loc 8" axle

All new springs
Total Control dropped shaft upper arms (replicates Shelby drop)
Koni shocks
CSRP disc brake kit - twin pot aluminium calipers
V8 steering gear and spindles included with above
Flaming River steering box
Aluminium radiator, etc

Someone else I shall remain eternally grateful for is a couple of friends on the local airbase who have been kind enough to have things sent to them. Enough said. Unfortunately they're shipping out to LA next month, so I had a final splurge, some of which you can see below..

The FiTech, like the 5-speed and the new wiring harness I have, will be one of the modern upgrades that will hopefully make the car that much more usable and trouble free. It will be hidden beneath a Trans-Am style aluminium airbox, and the necessary electronic distributor and MSD6AL ignition control will have their markings removed and / or painted to look inconspicuous. No coloured anodised fittings, no insulated / crimped electrical connectors, etc - it will all look like it could have rolled out in 1966.

The wheels were delivered direct thanks to eBay (for once) and the tyres sourced online.

Anyway, thanks for reading / skimming - more updates to follow.

Soon-ish. Hopefully..

 

[30psi]

I got that Street Machine issue. Way before I learnt to drive and was dreaming on a yank.

Good luck with the project. You're the 2nd person I've seen using that FiTech setup. Will be interesting to know how it works out for you. Interestingly the other person has got the twin FiTech setup which syncs the two together.

 

[uber cool]

I like your plans

 

[roscobb]

I got that Street Machine issue. Way before I learnt to drive and was dreaming on a yank.

Good luck with the project. You're the 2nd person I've seen using that FiTech setup. Will be interesting to know how it works out for you. Interestingly the other person has got the twin FiTech setup which syncs the two together.

Who's that Martin?

 

[Barneys66]

Thanks guys - I'll be keeping the thread updated.

I'm a bit daunted by electrics (I have a new generic loom to go in too) but hopefully this will be idiot proof - it's the model that controls ignition too, so that'll be interesting to set up..