Category: Floors
Seat mounts..
Lots on the go.. although not much to see quite yet. Car now sits at the perfect ride height and is on the center of the adjusters. The ride height can easily be tuned up or down an inch or so. We have the floors/seating on the go and also starting to work on the fuel system.
Here’s the concept for reinforcing the floors. This will allow stock buckets to be bolted into the car – and the brackets shown will allow the Sparcos to be bolted in at the correct height. Have most of the parts made – now working on getting them in the car. Figured this would work much better than the after thought that was used to accomadate buckets on a stock vehicle.
Firewall, cooling module and more..
Suppose it is about time to post some updates. Making some decent progress lately.
Keeping in the theme of used parts.. picked up some more of them. Found a set of nearly new Energy Suspension 4.6L motor mounts and also a Wilwood proportioning valve. Had to buy the oil filter adater new though – the one from Ford Racing is a nice piece (M-6881-C). Planning on running a remote oil filter w/t-stat and also an oil cooler in front of the cooling module. This part also increase the block inlet hose to 2″ to further reduce the possibility of water pump cavitation.
We made up custom radiator and condensor mounts which allow us to get them both between the frame rails to keep them as low as possible. This way the degas bottle can be mounted where it was intended to go and remain the highest point in the cooling system, but at the same time being low enough to clear the hood which is does nicely. All these parts are from a 2004 Cobra which uses a 36mm all aluminum radiator. All other Mustangs except the Mach 1 have plastic end tanks. A/C compressor is now in and the new Mustang heater box also fits on the firewall. Just need to run the lines and the A/C system will be complete.
The firewall has been completed and is ready to install along with the floor pans. Rear suspension is nearing completion and just needs to be final welded. The only thing missing in the pic is the upper coil spring retainer. ABS wiring is now in place. Last thing to do is run the hard lines which will come next.
As an aside – I had never used the wet toilet paper trick to remove a pilot bearing so I figured I would give it a try. I am used to the messy grease trick. Surprisiningly this worked like a charm and clean-up is a breeze. You sure can fit a lot of paper in there! Installed a resurfaced 2004 Cobra aluminum flywheel, clutch, pressure plate, throwout bearing and clutch cable. Trans side of things is ready to go. Just need to get the mounts in.
We put the car on the scales and put every part and piece we planned on putting on the car. Looks like the car will come in at around 3450lb curb weight (56%ft/44%rr). With driver and gear we are looking at around 3650lb track weight. We put the car in the air and measured all of the corner weights and using the motion ratios front and rear figured out what spring rates to use. We are using 2.5″ ID front springs and 60mm rear springs from Hypercoil. The target is to run a front ride frequency of ~1.55Hz and 1.7Hz in the rear for the street. For the track the ride frequencies will be similar front to rear.
Floors Continued..
OK.. no more stalling with new tools :). Finally got back to the floors.
Put the cutouts in the pass side floors to mate up with the subframe connectors, and added and inch and a half to the front of each panel to meet up with the Mustang firewall. That way I no longer need to use Torino toe pans (unfortunately I bought them already). With the way the subframe connectors are set up in the car, the floors are lowered approx 3/4 in the front to get a bit more room up front for the pedals etc. I quickly put in the seats and dash and it feels perfect for driving.. can’t wait. Now onto the firewall and trans tunnel.
Floors and Frame Connectors Continued
Finally located the parts that were missing from the second transmission. Someone decided to take it apart and just slap things back together when they realized it had issues. We fixed all the issues and everything is as good as new again. Trans #2 is now complete and ready to install.
Now back to the interior once again. The top portions of the subframe connectors are now completely welded in, so it is time to finish up the firewall and the floors. The firewall was trimmed to fit around the torque box and was adjusted to the final position both side to side and up and down. The floor needed to be slotted to clear the subframe connectors both front and back. We ended up lowering the floor 3/4″ to get everything where we wanted it. Just need to add an inch or two to the front pan so it will mate up with the firewall. This works out great and will no longer require toe pans. I had to pull out the hammer and dolly set to get the profile of the front of the floor pan to match the firewall – worked out quite well in the end.
Just need to make up extensions for both sides of the firewall and make up a tranmission hump, then everything can be welded in for good. Finally starting to feel like we are getting somewhere. Hopes of being ready to drive for the Power Tour is out the door – but the Bash at the Beach is still in within reason.
Floors and Seating..
Three main things on the go right now – front suspension/steering/brakes, floor of car/subframe connectors and steering column/pedal setup and seat positioning. Rear suspension is on hold until custom bent tubes and rear coil overs arrive.
First the suspension. Have found most of the front suspension components online in the past month or so. Nice thing here is since I am running SN95 (1994-2004) Mustang based suspension – the sky is the limit with aftermarket parts.
Front suspension will consist of (parts are on the way or in hand now for one car):
Maximum Motorsports front tubular lower control arms
Koni dual adjustable (DA) front struts with adjustable rebound and compression damping
Maximum Motorsports coil over kit
Maximum Motorsports caster camber plates
Stock Mustang front spindles/hubs
Since the strut rods are no longer needed, the brackets that house the bushings were removed. Custom brackets will be made up to stiffen the the area once again and also provide mounts for the radiator, A/C condensor and ABS unit.
With the suspension almost in position, the stock control arms make contact with the frame. Tubular control arms correct this issue, although just barely. THe goal here is to get the suspension in the exact same position as in a stock Mustang to keep the suspension geometry the same (easier said than done as we are finding out)
Nearly new tubular control arms compared to the old ones. Since we are running coil overs, spring pockets are no longer needed. They are also lighter.
As for the subframe connectors – hoping to have them in within the next week or so. The passengers side is nearly ready to go in. Just have to jog the subframe connector 4″ as the front subframe is 4″ inboard of the rear (more to come on that shortly). As you can see, the front trans mount has been removed, and the remaining piece left will be used for welding to the connectors. A custom trans mount will need to be made for the 6-speed, and also a driveshaft loop needs to go in as well as seat mount supports. This will all make a bit more sense once they start going in.
Got started on laying out the driving position this week as well.
Starting fitting the Sparco’s into the car. They are extremely comfortable and will help keep a person planted when on the road course. Stangely enough, sparco does not make seat adapters to bolt into a Torino, even though the model name is Sparco Torino :).
Started to fit the Mustang pedals into the car. Several reasons for using these instead of Torino ones. Mustang uses a cable clutch and Torino ones need significant mods to make work with the clutch quadrant. Want to be able to keep the stock Mustang pedal ratios going into the hydroboost. Want to be able to use the stock Mustang electronics since all the dash wiring is from a 2004 Mustang. Also like the pedal positions much more and they are much better for heel/toe driving on the track. Measurements were taken from a 2004 Mustang to be able to position the pedals the same distance from the firewall, height off the ground, and releationship to the steering wheel. The goal here is also to use a stock floor shift Torino column as I hate the look of a new column in an old car.
Well.. here is the first issue as we were expecting. The clutch quadrant hits the windshield wiper motor area. This area will need to be modified to make it work. It is looking like we will end up grafting a Mustang firewall onto the Torino. That way everything will bolt right up (including brake clutch and gas pedals, steering column, hydroboost unit, heater box and all wiring and cable pass throughs) and look much cleaner. Since we have 2 complete Mustang firewall assemblies and a plasma cutter.. this should not be a big deal.. famous last words I guess.
Stay tuned..
Making the Floors Go Away.. Adding Some Stiffness..
That’s the story.. now some progress.
Floors be gone:
Soon to be subframe connectors:
Custom chassis fixture for setting up suspension and powertrain:
IRS cradle fixture:
IRS moving into place..
Finally starting to get some useful work done on the cars after all the detours of project funding, fixture building a parts sourcing. It has been a long road that has brought us through many provinces and states.