Firewall Fab and Driveshafts

Date: July 14, 2009  Author: Craig  Category: ,

Jumping all over the place lately as far as different parts of the car goes.

Finally got the last of the firewall out.. had to remove the upper lip that ties into the cowl (gets rid of the 1″ or so overhang too which is good). Kinda doing the opposite to what most people do when they remove the cowl panel :). Actually got a chance to put the stretcher shrinker to work since the upper lip of the firewall is curved. Have the drivers side almost ready to weld to the firewall.. just have to work on the pass side.



Next onto the driveshaft. Special thanks to MZ 500 on this one.. as I am recycling the driveshaft from his Crown Vic brake swap. Believe it or not, it is the perfect length for our setup. Just had to swap out the slip yoke as the T56 uses the only 27 spline shaft in Ford’s trans lineup (since it is a GM based trans). Has just enough clearance to the tunnel as well. Now that it is in.. time to get the tunnel made up. We have the rough shape made up.. just need to get it made out of sheetmetal. Note the difference in length from the Mustang one.



Dash Electrical and Door Locks..

Date: July 5, 2009  Author: Craig  Category: , ,

Still progressing on fabricating the firewall up.. just not much to show really until it is ready to tack in.

We started to lay out all of the wiring in the car as that stage is quickly appreaching. There is a lot more room to put everything in here compared to the original Mustang that it came off of. The big challenge here is going to be making room for everything once the HVAC is installed and in position. The computer processor, fuse panels, and lots of other items that wer never on the original Torino need to find home too. The Mach 1 cluster and all the wiring connectors will stay until the car is started for the first time.. and then everything will go on a diet. Al the wiring and connectors that are not needed will be cut out. The parts that remain as original Torino parts (very few pieces like the steering column and various lights) will be spliced in also.


Got started on some of the smaller details of the project. In this case, the door locks. Every once and a while you are really surprised that something works for a change. In this case it was with the door locks. Believe it or not, a lock cylinder from a 2003 Mustang actually fits exactly into the stamped hole in the body of a 1968 Torino. It fits exactly with no mofifications – retainer clip and all. A custom rod is needed to connect it to the door latch – but that is to be expected. I ended up making a quick one with a welding rod, and the key now locks and unlocks the door.. kinda neat. Note that the lock is actually black – for some reason 2004 Mustangs are polished as we found out. Black will eventually be removed. Only one issue here – Mustangs do not have a lock cylinder on the pass side, and Torinos do. As luck would have it – a local Ford dealer was selling off excess stock this week on Ebay, and one of the parts they had was replacement Mustang lock sets. These come with 5 bags of key tumblers, and you simply select the tumblers to match the key you have, and then you assemble and install. This adds a cylinder to the pass side with ease.


Floors Continued..

Date: June 21, 2009  Author: Craig  Category:

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.



Bridgeport Purchase..

Date: June 15, 2009  Author: Craig  Category:

Getting lots more done on the car.. but most of it is behind the scenes sheetmetal work and nothing that is overly photogenic.

We did manage to stumble upon this beast which is a welcomed addition to the shop. Have been wanting one of these since I saw my first one in action. Did not really “need” it, but the price was waay lower than they usually are as the place was closing down. Needs a bit of work and a good cleaning but other than that should be productive in the coming weeks. It is a Bridgeport Series 1 mill (All 1800 lbs of it). Now just need to get the phase convertor up and running to get 3 phase in the garage. Have most of the parts and pieces to make a 5 hp rotary converter as I have been collecting off Ebay/Craiglist for a couple of weeks. I have a friend who got one of these machines last year and it came with a dolly.. he was about to send it to the scrapyard.. so I put it to good use.

Subframe Connector Clearance

Date: May 28, 2009  Author: Craig  Category:

I think we are going to end up making a custom hump – gives us an excuse to brush up on english wheel skills. I may try to use parts of the original – we’ll see. Mustang one won’t work that well as it is set up for a car with a complete console (as they all have consoles). It is somewhat square/box shaped and will not work well with stock carpet. That is my only concern at the moment is fitting carpet over this as I am not using a console. Want to make the front of the interior very simple. Stock dash, Sparco seats, somewhat period looking shifter/handle and that is it.

In order to get the lines perfectly straight – we ended up making a custom guide on the sheet metal brake and cut reliefs in it to go up and down contours. Worked like a charm. You just rest the tip of the plasma cutter against the guides and cut away. There is now very little gap on both sides. Took more time that I had wanted to get right.. but it was worth it.

Floors and Frame Connectors Continued

Date: May 27, 2009  Author: Craig  Category: ,

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.



T56 #2 Nears Completion

Date: May 17, 2009  Author: Craig  Category:

Almost have transmission #2 done. Not much new as far as pictures go.. as the trans is exactly the same as the other.

I bought this one from a guy in Ohio for very cheap.. he was fed up with the way it shifted and had brought it into the dealer to take a look. The dealer pulled it apart and found the stamped keys destroyed and pieces were all over the magnets (just like the other one we have). The blocker rings (shown below) were warn out and then some. Thankfully they did not wear down more or my gears would have been chewed up. At this point – I am guessing the dealer found it would be cheaper to just replace it, so they did. They quickly pieced it back together (leaving several key pieces out) and that is how I bought it.

Here is a pic of everything disassembled and in the parts washer. Still amazed they can actually make these thing work.


T56 #1 Complete

Date: May 13, 2009  Author: Craig  Category:

Finished transmission #1 this evening.. and #2 is ready to tear down. Finally getting to the fun stuff. Process was quite straightforward being the first time we had done a modern trans.

Car was not going anywhere with this shaft. Ebay $13 replacement will do the trick. I will not be running enough power to replicate this failure.

Ebay used press coming in handy..

New sycro billet keys and blocker rings installed and ready to go:

Measuring shaft preloads (since they use tapered roller bearings) and added shims to get 0.000 end play.

All done, cleaned up and ready to install:

Trans #2 ready to tear down. This one should go much faster.

T56 Carnage..

Date: April 30, 2009  Author: Craig  Category:

Tonights theme was Tremec T56 6-speed trans rebuild. We bought 2 of these knowing there was some internal damage, but the price was right. Symptoms were hard to shift into 3/4 gears, and also the transmission was popping out of 3rd and 4th while driving. This is a classic symptom in these transmission of failed stamped steel keys in the trans. This is a faily easy job as long as you have gear pullers available and heavy duty snap ring pliers. Another evening we should have this one cleaned up/rebuild and another torn down.

As you can see below – the fragments found in the trans of the stamped steel keys, what the stamped steel keys originally looked like, and the upgraded billet keys. Also the difference between the bronze shift fork pads and the plastic originals (the other ones were in pieces all through the trans). Transmissions will also receive carbon kevlar synchronizer rings and an upgraded steel shift fork (from aluminum). Otherwise all the gears in the trans were in great shape with no noticeable wear.





Subframe Connectors Tacked In..

Date: April 29, 2009  Author: Craig  Category:

Got the subframe connectors clamped in and tacked into position. Coated everything with SEM copper weld through primer and started welding them in for good. Don’t think they are are going anywhere now :). The old transmission crossmember worked out perfect to stiffen these up and tie them into the subframe.



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