here we go again....need a project name though..

[blacksheep-1]

Bump steer kit and offset rack bushings came in from Kunming suspension and fireworks corporation..

[AScoda]

I then went to work welding up the 1,500,762 holes Ford punches into their engine compartment panels and firewall.

Those are speed holes!

[blacksheep-1]

Those are speed holes!

that car must have been a rocket ship then..

Also..doing some day dreaming on paint schemes, I've always liked this one

[blacksheep-1]

Started to put the front end together, and temporarily set the ride heights. To do this I nailed together some pieces of wood that are the right height, they are of course, lazer beam accurate to go along with my sub 1 degree level floor in my garage...on the right are the Pirellis I've rehabbed to use.



This is the blacksheep lo buck toe bar measuring device, in essence, it's a piece of tubing with another piece of metal in it and a wing nut welded on it as a locking device, so 1 person cane measure the toe without having to grow a third arm





After sitting the car frame on the high tech pieces of wood, I decided to go ahead and center the steering box and check the bump steer, this is going to change a bit, but I wanted to get past some of the procedure while I had great access to it.



So I set the toe without the tie rods hooked up, I moved the toe gauge front to back, and constantly checked to make sure I took the correct amount (or added to) the same on both sides, what you can't see is that the steering shaft is marked on the housing as to what is straight, so the key is to not disturb the rack, but to keep in centered.



After that song and dance, I carefully slid the heims onto the bumpsteer bolt making sure not to disturb the toe..Somewhere just before this, I drilled out the spindle for a 5/8 grade 8 bolt, instead of using the mystery metric bolt that came with the kit.I then rechecked the toe.



In order to maintain the ride height, in the absence of engine weight, I measured up some pieces of wood that will be used in place of the springs, this will allow the car to be pushed around and for me to install some body work so I can measure up the splitter..



And the car mocked up at ride height with the toe and bumpsteer set, FWIW I went through the inventory at the local parts store and found a ball joint that was taller than the stock one, to try and improve on roll center, inevitably, on these cars the lower control arms will run uphill, the lower control arm pivot point is ...kinda.. close to the same plane as the steering rack, so with an offset rack kit, and the bump steer kit I can mimic the length and angle of the lower control arm, while I realize that all things should start out level, it's not gonna happen on a foxbody, and rather than having the control arms in one arc, and the tie rods in another, it is advantageous to have them parallel with each other..at least that's what the bumpsteer told me..

[AScoda]

That's a lot of "tars" as you say. It's not often that your stack of tires is taller than your car.
Since you are cutting and welding and such, have you thought about angling the upper strut mount boxes inboard? should improve the geometry through it's arc of motion, and give you some clearance for coil-overs(?). Although, what you have in mind may not have much range of motion.

Also (geek alert!) it's Fox chassis, not Fox body. There were 4 different bodies that went on that platform. I know you know this.

[blacksheep-1]

It's funny all the names the foxbody cars have, the 4 eyed fox, Fox, SN95 and fox 4, New edge..I told an engineer at Ford that I had a new edge mustang and he said, "what's that/" They called them all SN95s after 1994. The same platform as Fairmonts and T birds...
Anyway, I've got some castor/camber plates that have 2 sets of hole sin them, I think I'll be fine on camber, if not, I have a die grinder.

[AScoda]

I forgot about the Tbirds/Lincolns. That's 5 bodies. Counting the short lived Capris as the same body as the Mustang. I don't think I have even seen one of those since the 80's.

[Loren]

if not, I have a die grinder.

And a welder.

[blacksheep-1]

if not, I have a die grinder.

And a welder.

and a plasma cutter

[blacksheep-1]

Nothing like losing an unobtainable bracket to stop a project cold... had to cobb one up on my own..no cad cams here.

[blacksheep-1]

In other news, welded up some radiator/front end support tabs..



Pulled my old 99 cobra nose out of the loft, this was on my car when some dink dropped a pallet off his truck at night and I hit it..so it has a little "wang" to it..it will do nicely for this..



Also sizing up the 325/660/18 fronts and 325/720/18 rears

[twistedwankel]

Okay you win seeing a car built before my eyes from scratch got me off my ass and I now have two working back and forth untorn Ebay C5 50th Anni seats.
Thanks Rob.

[Loren]

I blame Rob and people like him for inspiring me to do lots of dumb things in recent years. Stuff that I'd have never dreamed of doing before. Cool stuff.

Thanks, Rob!

[blacksheep-1]

I'm going to say..that's a positive influence?..maybe

[blacksheep-1]

Went back, reset the ride height, checked all the measurements and started the splitter support build. I would like to find a way to hang the entire splitter, radiator support and nose from 1 bracket, so I have my work cut out for me...baby steps.




measure, check..re measure..check level..a couple of million times...




Splitter support is done, now to make the splitter and misc brackets..
finally starting to see some progress

[blacksheep-1]

Cut up the splitterf rom 3/8 ply wood and mocked it up under the car.




I then pulled it off, and installed the "l" brackets that will hold a panel that fits between the nose and the splitter..



After trimming it up, I coated it with bed liner



I sprayed the bracket with self etching primer..It will stay this way for awhile, since I'll probably be welding on it again.

[Native]

Something tells me you didn't learn all this from YouTube...

[blacksheep-1]

Installed the splitter...



Located a previosuly scrounged Mach 1 lower edge that may..or may not be used to close the gap between the splitter and body work. I know it's not straight, the nose is not bolted up in the pic

[blacksheep-1]

So I laid my hands on a Porsche wing that met it's demise at Sebring, the struts were ripped out of it so, it can no longer be repaired to spec..it's a fiberglass over Styrofoam core.
As you can see, it's all wanged out







So the key here, is to wrap the thing in tape so it, at least reasonably goes back into shape that appears to be a wing
and sealing up all of the cracks and splits in the glass.



Then creating somewhat of a cofferdam, I poured fiberglass resin into the splits to hopefully glue everything back together again internally.



So I've sealed it all up for overnight drying

[blacksheep-1]

So the rehabb'd Porsche wing turned out very well.. So I need to finish it up and build a working prototype. This means the banzai run to the local hardware store for..stuff.



Had a buddy carve up some aluminum stock for brackets




Picked up some heims and L brackets..I'll probably have to come up with something better than these L brackets, but it wi
ll let me dummy up the mounts.




I whipped up some doublers to bridge the gap between the 2 broken pieces..just in case..then epoxied and riveted the doublers in place..