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Thread: Matt's Gen2 65 Coupe Build Thread

  1. #1
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    Matt's Gen2 65 Coupe Build Thread

    I had my build thread on the other site, but now that I'm finished I decided that I'll duplicate the build thread on this site as well. I had posted my photos on photobucket, but now that they've eliminated 3rd party hosting, all the pictures don't show up, so I'm starting to slowly upload my pictures to the gallery here. That way the pictures will be with the site and hopefully will stay together with the build thread. It'll take a while to complete the process, but I figure if I do a little each day soon it will be finished. Bare with me and I apologize if it may seem funny when I write "today" for something that happened in the past, since a lot of this will be cut and paste.

    We'll see how it works out and hopefully it will be helpful to people as their build their cars.

    Thanks.
    -Matt

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    Trip to Factory Five

    In October 2013, my Dad, his friend and I took the 1.5 hour trip from Hubbardston, MA to Wareham, to take a tour of the Factory Five headquarters. A few weeks later I ordered up the 65 Coupe complete kit with IRS. In the time between when the kit was ordered and when I picked it up, I spent many hours reading this forum, ordering the Russ Thompson turn signal system and windows, mustang pedal box from Mike Everson, and steering rack and IRS and brakes from Mike Forte. Also spent time trying to understand the rules in MA on getting this car registered.

    -Matt

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    Pickup

    January 4th, 2014 was the pickup date.

    To prepare for the pickup, I modified my Dad's BigTex trailer by screwing in some scrap wooden trusses from our addition we built. Yes, the basement under the new addition will be where the coupe is being built. I added some plywood on the side and some old deck boards on the top that the car will rest on. By using the trusses I was able to build a nice deck for the car to rest on and be above the rails of the trailer.

    My Dad came over around 7am and we hitched up the trailer to my truck. It was the coldest morning in a long time as temps were -9F at my house. On the ride down it hit -14F. We arrived at FFR around 9am and waited only a few minutes while they loaded someone in front of me. Got in the truck and backed the trailer into the loading area. It was complete luck that I was able to back it in straight as I couldn't see the trailer as I was backing it in. We got it loaded up and we were on our way home.

    As we got close to home it had snowed and the salt and sanding trucks had been out. So even though it had only warmed up to the upper teens, the roads were getting sloppy. You can see by the pictures below the salt that got kicked up onto the body. Backed it in again into my basement and brought in all the boxes.

    As we sat with the car on the trailer, we realized with just 2 people we couldn't move it. After thinking about it for a few minutes, we were off to my Dad's house the next town over to pickup the engine lift. We brought the engine lift back and were able to lift the chassis through the front windshield, much like they did at FFR to load it up. A few minutes later it was off the trailer and sitting on the jack stands. Then it was time to go out to dinner.

    The first picture is at FFR before the picture. The last 3 are after the sloppy trip back home in my basement.









    -Matt

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    Engine

    After researching what it will take to get this car on the road in MA, it looks like there were 3 options for the engine:
    1. Get a donor car and use engine and associated emissions from that car.
    2. Get a pre 1974 car with a V8 that has been registered in the past 5 years and scrap it.
    3. Get a pre 1974 engine and rebuild it.

    This is all in theory as I haven't finished the car and gone through the process yet.

    With that being said, I'm trying to go with option 3. I found a 1971 Ford Mustang at a junk yard in RI with a 302 in it. I called up and inquired about it and the person said the engine turned over when it came to them. It had been sitting outside in their yard for a bunch of years. I told them I'd take it. It was under a bunch of snow, so they said it would take a few days to pull it out. A few days later, I received a call saying that got the engine out, but it wouldn't turn over. He said he'd try soaking the cylinders with oil for a few days and see if that would help. Got a call a few days later saying, "nope, still wouldn't turn over". I figured oh well, it'll be a learning experience. I bought the engine anyways, loaded it up on my truck and took it home.

    There was a picture of the car it came out of on the yard's website. The car looked in pretty good condition, which probably wasn't a good thing. I started thinking there are probably two main reasons a car is in a yard.
    1. The car is totaled
    2. There is something wrong with the engine or tranny.

    We'll it wasn't reason 1, so it had to be reason 2. I was just hoping the block wasn't cracked.

    Below are two pics of the car it came out of and a few of the engine on my truck.











    -Matt

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    Engine Tear Down

    I got the engine back home and first thing that I did was to find the block number. After I scraped away all the grime I was able to read the numbers: D1ZM-6015-AA 10L0
    Then back to the internet to confirm that it actually is a 302 from a 1971 Mustang. Come to find out it is a 1971 and it's a Mexican block. After reading up about the Mexican block there's a debate as to whether it is made of different material and therefore stronger. I don't know, but I do know the main caps are bulkier than the non-Mexican block. Well at least it is a 1971 block, now just hoping it is all in one piece.



    Now for the fun part. Tear everything apart and see what is left. I had never done this before, so I didn't know what to expect. The good thing was that I didn't need to put it back together, so I could just take apart stuff and not worry about which bolt/part went where. Armed with a can of Kroil, hammers and a bunch of wrenches I had at it. What a mess. Finally got down to the pistons. Sure enough they wouldn't budge. So I soaked them with Kroil and had at it the next day. A couple of these came out fairly easy, but there were a couple that wouldn't budge. I thought to myself, I need a bigger hammer. So I got my maul, took a couple of swings and had all the pistons out.

    I took a look at the block and it appeared to be in one piece, but can't be sure until I take it to Forte's and have them check it out.









    -Matt

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    Engine Done

    After I tore everything apart and was left with the block, I took it down to Mike Forte's place to have Jesse build it back up for me. The first thing the Jesse did was to bake it and clean it up. Then he was going to magnaflux it and confirm the block was good. After a few days, I received the good news that the block was "A ok!!" and that he was proceeding with the machine work. I was a big relief to know the block was good.

    I had asked him to build me up a 347 with about 375hp. Using a RPM air gap intake, AFR 185 Renegade Heads, Holley Terminator EFI and March Performance Sport Track serpentine system.

    I finally received the call that the engine was just about ready and he was going to put it on the dyno to check it out. After the dyno run, he came back to me and said everything is running great, but it's putting out a little more HP than what I had asked for. It dyno'd at 422.8HP @5650, 426.5 torque @4800.

    Here's a link to the dyno run:


    Here's the graph:


    A few days later my Dad and I took the trip down to Forte's and picked it up along with a Tremec TKO500.

    Here are some pictures with it back in my basement:










    And to prove it is the same block:


    -Matt
    Last edited by mtwarog; 08-03-2017 at 05:01 AM.

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    Body Buck

    Once I got the car off the trailer, I then used the engine hoist to move the car over to the jack stands. Since I didn't want to scratch up the power coat on the frame, I bought some rubber pads for the jack stands. Here's a picture of the car on the stands and where the frame has not moved for the last year and 1/2.



    The next step was to remove the body from the car. Since I didn't have any help at the time, I figured I'd see if I could take the body off with help from the engine hoist. I put a few straps around the roof and hooked it up to the hoist. I slowly lifted the body off and it came off without breaking anything. So that was nice.

    I knew the build would take a while and wanted to have more space in the basement, so I build up a body buck out of scrap wood and a ton of deck screws. I ended up putting some left over small roller wheels on the bottom of the wooden buck to be able to move it around easier.









    -Matt

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    Body Stored

    Once done I backed up the trailer and was able to lift the buck and body onto the trailer and bring it up to my garage. To have more space in the garage I built some supports hanging from the ceiling to store the buck and body. I put together a little pulley system and was able to pull everything up and land on the feet of the supports that I made. Here is where the body has sat every since.





    This has worked out great. And since that time we bought some kayaks and now they live next to the car body as well and keep it company.





    -Matt

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    Starting the Build

    Once the car body was stored away it was time to inventory the boxes and see what was in all the boxes. As I started going through I decided I was going to find all the parts with bare metal and paint them. But, then I quickly realized I didn't know what most of the parts were for and wanted to make sure I was able to put them back in the correct boxes after painting. I ended up taking some of the brown packing paper and laying the parts out and tracing them with a marker and labeling their part number and box. Here's what it ended up looking like:



    With the smaller items, I figured now was a good time to test out my Dad's powder coating machine. He had bought the powder coating about 12 years ago, but never actually used it. So, he made a cabinet and he hooked up the old oven that was sitting in his basement. We read up on how to use it and tried it out. We were both amazed on how nice the parts came out.

    Next up was to try to label the aluminum panels, so I'd have some idea how to put them back together once taken apart. Again I took a marker and went around and labeled it the best I could. Here's what the car looked like under the body before I took apart the panels.









    -Matt

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    Rear

    Now that the aluminum was marked, I took some of the panels off and started going through the manual. First up was the shocks and rear end. It was at this point in the build I stopped taking pictures. I would build a little each night, but didn't really keep track of the day to day progress. So the pictures are when everything is mostly put together.

    For this part of the build the manual was pretty good. When it was unclear in the manual, I went right to this forum. Any question that I had, someone else had already asked it and had it answered.

    I had bought the rear brakes, knuckles, differential from Forte's, so everything went together pretty well. The rear brake lines also fit in perfectly. The crazy bend kept the lines close to the brakes and out of the way. You can see in the pictures how nice it fit. Once I saw where the lines to the brakes went, I was able to find a spot to mount the other side to the frame. I tried to make sure it wouldn't rub on the wheel and still have enough play during the up and down movement of the wheel.

    I did need to get the hubs pressed into the knuckles, so I made a trip to the local Ford dealership and had it done.

    You can also see the rear wheel spacers that I added. More on that in the next post.















    -Matt

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    Tires

    I've always liked black wheels, so I spent a bunch of time trying to find ones I liked. I came across the Ford Racing MUSTANG GT BLACK TRACK PACK WHEEL M-1007-DC199B and thought those were the ones.

    They specs are:
    19"x9" wide
    42mm offset
    6.8" backspacing

    I knew with that offset and backspacing that to fill up the rear wheel well I'd have to get some wheel spacers. I ended up getting the biggest ones I could find at 50mm. This brought the tire to tire spacing around 71" which is slightly inside the 72" of the body. Hopefully it looks good once I get the body on. I haven't gotten the ones for the front yet as I want to see what will fit best with the hood.

    For the tires I got 275/30R-19 Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric 2 XL on all 4's.

    I brought the wheels and tires to get mounted at a local tire shop. They said it would be a few hours before they could get to them, so I dropped them off. My wife was heading back to the area later in the day and I asked if she could pick them up for me. So she comes back with a good story saying it took 4 guys to get them mounted on the rims and it took them until closing to get it done.

    Here are some pictures of the wheels/tires and some on the car:











    -Matt

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    Storage Boxes

    After installing the gas tank, I noticed a large amount of open space between the top of the gas tank and the bottom on the floor in the truck. Like others have done, I decided to add a storage box above the tank to store tools, clothes, parts, etc.

    After taking a bunch of measurements it was decided that 17.5" x 24" x 7" deep would be able to fit. I mocked up the box with cardboard from Cheerios boxes. As I was mocking it up, it looked like there was an extra piece of square metal bracing in the floor that is supposed to be used for the battery. Since I was putting the battery up front, I decided I could remove this piece, since it didn't look like it was providing any structural benefit. This will make it a little easier to install everything. Once I finished the mock up, it looked like there was more space to install a second box. I figured if one box was good, then two boxes would be better, right? The second smaller box ended up being 7" x 14" x 7" deep.

    I made the boxes of out a sheet of aluminum that my Dad got from his friend. We cut up the pieces with a jig saw and made the bends with a brake. Once all the pieces were cut, I took them home and riveted them together. Also made a hole in the bottom with a cover to get access to the sending unit. Used rivnuts in the aluminum to hold the screws.

    Installing the box required some trimming and fitting, but I eventually was able to get them in ok.








    Just enough clearance over the tank......




    -Matt

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    Parking Brake

    Now on to the parking brake. There were two reasons I didn't really love the stock location of the parking brake. The first was that the cables ran under the 4" round part of the frame and would be rubbing against the frame and didn't seem to route nicely to the stock location. The second was something that I read from someone on the forum a while back. Sorry I don't recall who, but they said once they were strapped into the drivers seat, they couldn't reach the parking brake. So they had to unstrap, release the brake, then put the seat belts back on. I could see that happening to me. After researching more what others have done, I decided to try to mount the brake on the transmission tunnel.

    I took the parking brake that came with the kit and rigged it up to fit on the right side of the transmission tunnel. I cut out the cable mounts that were on the frame which were running vertically and made a piece that would put the cable mounts horizontally. This way both cables would be pulling the same. I don't know if it really would matter or not, but figured it wouldn't hurt.

    To connect the cables, I bought the Lokar Parking Brake Cable Replacement Connector Block S-8070 and connected that up with a bolt to the clevis. For some reason I never feel confident that small set screws will be able to hold the brake cables, so I also wrapped the cable around the block and cinched it together with a stainless steel hose clamp. Where I mount the handle assembly to the frame, I used some bolts and nuts, so I'll be able to adjust the height of the brake above the transmission tunnel.

    Lastly, needed to cut a hole in the transmission tunnel cover for the brake handle.











    -Matt

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    Seats

    Time for the seats. So I open up the manual and the first thing I notice and think to myself is "Hey those aren't the seats that I have." Back to the forum for more searching..... I wanted to have a slider for the driver's seat. After looking around a bunch I purchased the JEGS Performance Products 70220 seat sliders. They were the thinnest I could find to keep the seat as low as possible.

    Then I bought 2 sets of Kirkey Universal Seat Brackets 99204 that I would mount to the seats.

    After thinking about how to mount the seats, brackets and sliders for a while I settled on a design. I ended up using a bunch of aluminum angle and bolted the thing together.

    To mount the slider to the floor, I was able to tap into the frame in two places. The third place I added some aluminum channel to spread the load. I was thinking that 3 places would be good enough. Once I got the seat together I was wrong. The seat was way too wiggly and I needed a stronger 4th mount. I ended up making a piece out of some steel and tapping it into the frame. Now the seat was solid.

    For the passenger side, I used the Kirkey seat brackets and hard mounted them to the floor.

    Here are the pics:

    Slider parallel to transmission tunnel. Seat slightly rotated to point straight to front of the car.




    Seat mounts about 1" above the floor. Drilled holes in the seat to adjust tilt.


    -Matt

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    Seats cont.

    Forward


    Back




    Front left mount to spread load:


    New bracket for right rear mount: (just noticed that scratch...)


    Passenger side. Used steel bar to raise seat above carpet and pad.


    -Matt

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    Fuel Lines

    Installing the fuel tank required bending the sides of the tank flat like mentioned in the manual. Also needed to buy longer bolts for the straps that held the tank on. With those done, the tank went up pretty easily.

    I purchased Forte's 255 LPH Fuel Pump Kit for the in-tank pump. This came with 3/8in outlet and 1/4in return. I decided I was going to run 6an hose so picked up these to slip on the ends and convert to 6an.

    Russell 644123 -6an male to 3/8in female QC
    Russell 641303 -6an male to 1/4in female QC

    Next I needed the hose and ended up using 811 Stainless Steel Braided PTFE Racing Hose, 6AN. I got these pre-made with the correct length and ends on them. I routed the hose in the transmission tunnel into the engine bay. There I connected to the fuel filter right next to the engine, so I'll be able to get access to it. Used the FUELAB 818 Series Inline Fuel Filters 81801-1 filter and needed to create a mount to keep the filter in place. Also need to create a mount for the regulator which I tied to the frame.











    -Matt

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    Battery

    I decided to mount the battery up front, in front of the engine on the passenger side. I went with the AFCO Racing Steel Battery Boxes 50303.
    I cut off the mount on the right side of the box to move the battery closer to the right side of the car. I tapped two bolts into the 4" frame tube and two on the left side of the battery box into the X. These also double to hold the power steering cooler (seen in the pictures below) and overflow coolant tank.
    Once the box was fitting correctly, I took it over to my Dad's and we powder coated it black to match the frame.





    After powder coating


    -Matt

  18. #18
    Senior Member Rodster's Avatar
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    Matt -
    Thanks for sharing your pictures and notes. I am way behind in my build, so thanks a ton.

    -wayne
    Ordered Type 65 Complete Kit Aug 29, 2012 - The 50-50 $ale!
    Standard Width IRS; Halibrands - 17x9, 17x10.5
    Kit Arrived: Oct 9, 2012; Build Started: Oct 28, 2012
    WordPress: http://wayne-yoshida-kh6wz.com/
    LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/waynetyoshida
    YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/kh6wz?feature=results_main

  19. #19
    Senior Member Rodster's Avatar
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    Matt - You have IRS, right? On the battery box location -- does it block the fill and drain plugs in the pumpkin? I initially mounted a battery box there, but noticed it blocked access, so I am moving my battery to the front. My rear end came from a Lincoln, but I think all Gen 2 Coupes have the same unit, if ordered from The Factory.
    Ordered Type 65 Complete Kit Aug 29, 2012 - The 50-50 $ale!
    Standard Width IRS; Halibrands - 17x9, 17x10.5
    Kit Arrived: Oct 9, 2012; Build Started: Oct 28, 2012
    WordPress: http://wayne-yoshida-kh6wz.com/
    LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/waynetyoshida
    YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/kh6wz?feature=results_main

  20. #20
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    Quote Originally Posted by Rodster View Post
    Matt - You have IRS, right? On the battery box location -- does it block the fill and drain plugs in the pumpkin? I initially mounted a battery box there, but noticed it blocked access, so I am moving my battery to the front. My rear end came from a Lincoln, but I think all Gen 2 Coupes have the same unit, if ordered from The Factory.
    Hi Wayne,

    Yes, I have IRS and I have two storage compartment/boxes in the back that I put together, but the smaller one wasn't meant to hold the battery. I have the battery up in front. Neither box blocks the fill/drain plug for the pumpkin that I have. I know this because I neglected to put oil in the pumpkin and drove my car. Needless to say I had to replace the gears in the pumpkin and I filled it up with oil after I put it back in the car.

    -Matt

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    AC/Heater

    Bought the Vintage Air AC/Heater with the kit. There were quite a bit of pieces and wires to the kit. The first thing to do was to find a place to mount it. I wanted to find a place that fit and still would allow me to route all the hoses in some orderly fashion. This looked like a good spot. Actually my first spot was an inch or so closer to the passenger door. You can see the unused drill holes in the cross piece.



    Next up was fitting the hoses. I was able to use 90's for both the AC lines and go directly through the firewall with the hose.





    For the heater lines I bought some Vintage Air Bulkhead Fittings 34236-VUG "10an male oring to 5/8in hose barb 90 degree (bulkhead)" and put these in behind the center console. I kept the shut off value on the inside of the car.





    The AC hoses came out between the square tubing and the footbox



    The heater hoses came out here inside the engine bay



    -Matt

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    AC/Heater cont.

    Here's a picture with the drain added below the AC hoses. This is connected with 2 - 90's and shoot's straight down inside the start of the transmission tunnel.



    Everything associated with the AC/heater/drain hoses was very tight and just barely fit. Let's hope it actually works....

    -Matt

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    AC Hoses

    For the AC hoses, I borrowed my Dad's Mastercool 71550 Manual AC hose crimper. This worked out great. I was able to put it in my vise, then crank down the bolt and crimp the hoses. Make sure you crimp these down really tight. For the 8AN hose crank down as far as you can, ignore the mark on the tool. If you don't, you'll have a leak. I couldn't imagine trying to mark all the hoses and take them somewhere to crimp. There's no way I would have gotten the length or locations correct since there is a natural bend to the hoses. After crimping one side, I would then screw it in and double check the other side again before crimping. For the connections to the compressor, I needed Vintage Air Beadlock O-Ring Fittings 8AN - 135 degrees (35842-VUG) and 10AN - 135 degrees (35843-VUG). This brought the hoses at the angle that I wanted. Put the access ports in this section.

    I ran the hoses out of the firewall along the square tubing and are currently just temporarily held on by tie wraps.



    It looks almost like a pretzel.





    For the drier, I make a bracket out of 2" aluminum angle that I tapped into the frame and held the drier on with steel clamps.



    Then ran the hoses to the condenser and attached to that with a couple of 90's.



    I mounted the condenser to the radiator using some aluminum pieces and bolts. It was positioned so the 90's would just clear the radiator.



    The routing of the hoses came out better than I expected. Like I said the last post, hopefully it works.

    -Matt

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    Steering

    When I installed the steering shaft it wasn't really centered in the hole in the dash. I then put on the steering wheel to see what that looked like. I noticed the wheel seemed a little high and also totally blocked the gauges. I decided to lower the wheel and center it a little better, so off with the old mount. Then I notched into the frame some to lower the shaft and wheel.

    This is not the best picture, but you can see the notch in the frame to lower the wheel


    Then I needed to create a new way to mount the pillow bearing. Ended up making some crazy mount, but it seems to work. Then you can see the Russ Thompson turn signal mount into the new piece.


    Now the shaft was a little lower and better centered.

    -Matt

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    Dash

    Like others have done, I decided to go with the two piece dash. I don't know how I could have done all the wiring, heater, etc. with a single piece. After I cut the piece, I put in in the car and saw how the dash pointed straight down. I ended up bending the dash up to be perpendicular with the steering shaft. I thought this will make it easier to see the gauges and it also provided more room behind the dash for the AC/heater.



    I then added 3 pieces of aluminum from the frame to the bottom of the dash for support. One on each end and one in the middle




    See middle mount under rats nest of wires


    Passenger side


    -Matt

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    Dash Cover

    I decided that I was going to cover the dash with 3M Di-noc Carbon Fiber Vinyl. Here are the before, during and after pictures.

    Before


    Spread out dash on back of vinyl


    After cutting


    Started trimming out around holes

  27. #27
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    Dash Cover cont.

    Installed with some gauges






    With wheel




    View from head height in seat. Can see most of the tach and speedo.


    -Matt

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    Pedal Box and Hydroboost

    For the pedals I bought a 94+ Mustang Pedal box from Mike at replicaparts. When it came in the mail, it was perfect and looked better than new with everything freshly powder coated. I was planning on using hydroboost for power brakes. To mount the pedal box, there are 4 bolts which go through the firewall/metal and hold it tight. To mount the hydroboost, I had to take off the plate and use some of the spacers to space it properly. On one of the spacers my Dad welded a small tab to fit in the notch of the hydroboost to keep it from spinning. This spacer is held on with the hydroboost nut, then another spacer before the firewall and bolts through and sandwich the pedal box.

    The hydroboost unit came from a 2004 Mustang. When I received the unit, the low pressure return fitting was broken off, with the thread part of it still in the aluminum block which bolts onto the hydroboost. I tried to remove what was still in the aluminum, but couldn't get it out. So over to my Dad's who has some bolt extractor bits. When we tried that, it wouldn't budge and would just strip the bit that was still in. Finally, we decided we would drill it out. As soon as we put the drill in, the piece came right out. It was a left hand thread! I couldn't imagine why they would use a left hand thread. Oh well, the piece was out. Next was trying to find a replacement, but I couldn't find any.

    After much searching on the internet, I came across this post on the sn95 forum:
    "*****Important note, there are differences in the Hydroboost units that you buy, so try to get them from the same car. On the 96-98 the 3 lines for the fluid all go into the unit, but on the 99-04 they have a separate aluminum block that bolts to the side of the hydroboost unit for one of the high pressure lines, and the low pressure return. ALSO I WOULD RECOMMEND NOT BUYING A UNIT FROM 2004, in 99-03 they aluminum block I just mentioned is perfect and can be changed to AN Hose easily, but on all Hydroboost units from the 2004 year they have a LEFT Handed fitting and you have to be careful not to strip it out. My unit was from a 2004, so I have mine machined to use right handed thread fitting adapters."

    Once I found that post I decided to buy a -6AN to 1/2-20 o-ring fitting and drilled and tapped the aluminum piece for that.

    The other two fittings I found adapters for -6AN.

    For the brake master cylinder I got a Cardone Select 13-2937 Brake Master Cylinder.













    -Matt

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    Gas Pedal

    I ended up using the gas pedal that came with the kit, but only after a few modifications. I trimmed the edges of the pedal to make it a rectangle instead of a parallelogram to fit in the foot box better. I put a bolt through the pedal to keep it from pivoting on the spring where the pedal mounts to the arm. I also created a piece out of aluminum to mount it and double as a pedal stop. Lastly, I had read a few posts about this pedal breaking off from the mount at the spot weld points. I ended up taking the metal that was supposed to be used for the AC drier mount and wrapped it around the pivot point and mount. I then JB welded it and drilled holes in it to match the mount, then painted it over. Seems like that should hold now.

    I didn't like the throttle cable/mount that came with the kit, so I ended up getting the Lokar TC-1000U48 48" Universal Throttle Cable. This gives plenty of length to have gentle bends in the engine and also doesn't use a pivot ball to mount to the pedal. It goes right through the hole in the pedal and makes it easier to mount the pedal straight up and down instead of at some strange angle to meet the hole in the firewall.



    You can see how the Lokar cable attaches to the upper arm. Used the middle hole in the upper arm to desensitize the pedal a little and put the pedal at the height I wanted.


    You can see the screw keeping the pedal from pivoting where the pedal mounts to the arm.


    Pedal to the metal.


    If you look close, you can see the piece I put around to strengthen up the welds.


    -Matt

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    Power Steering

    Going with power steering. Not sure if I need it or not, but thought it would be easier to put in while building, rather than try to add in later. This did complicate the build a bit going with hydroboost and power steering. Bought the rack from Forte's, then when I got the rack found out about the rack extension as well. Called up Factory Five and ordered those as well. Next was the connections, got the adapters to -6AN from Breeze. Then of course more reading on this forum and more spending money, had to have a cooler as well. Got the Derale -13310 cooler. The rack was fairly straight forward to put in, but required a bunch of tweaking to center it and the steering wheel. Once I got that all set, then I need to cut the tie rods a bit as they were too long.

    Next was the power steering reservoir. For that I got the PSC 8.25" Pro Touring P.S. Remote Reservoir w/ Filter For Hydro Boost Brakes Brushed Aluminum. It just kept getting more complex and expensive. I was in too deep to turn back now, just need to figure out how to mount and connect all of this together. I made a few more pieces from aluminum and mounted the reservoir right above the pump and it just fit.

    So I started drawing some diagrams and figuring out the adapters and hoses that I needed. I'd spend a little time every night refining it, "if I use a 90 here, then I'll need a straight here", "if I route this hose here, then this one will go here", etc. Ok, enough planning, time for some "doing". I ordered up the hose got 10' Russell 632640 -6AN power flex hose, 8 - 90's and 2 - straight ends. Then I started making hoses. Read a little on the internet how to make them and it wasn't too bad. Well I haven't tested them out yet, so I can't say for sure if I did them correctly. Slowly it started to come together. I got lucky that the 90's just fit on the rack and between the X of the frame and still could get a wrench on them. Looped around to the cooler which I mounted to the X frame, then to the pump.

    Reservoir


    Reservoir also doubles as coil mount.




    cooler mounted






    90's just fit.....

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    Power Steering cont.

    Once that was all in, the last thing was the connection from the reservoir to the pump. Need to head back the Breeze website for these. Got 1 foot of -10AN Braided Stainless Steel Hose and 1 -10AN 120 Degree Swivel Hose End. This worked out pretty well. It's tough to see in the picture, but if you look close you can see the big -10AN hose going down to the pump.



    Looking up a reservoir




    Looking down from top. Bottom of the picture is pointed towards the front of the car. I tried to show the mount, but it is really hard to get a good picture of it.


    -Matt

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    Brake Lines

    My goal with the brake lines was to use as many of the lines that came with the kit without having to cut them. First thing was to come up with a plan. I started with the front brakes. I knew I wanted to mount the battery box to the X, so I didn't want to run the brake lines there, so I decided to run it along the bottom frame. Before I started bending lines, I cut a piece of thick aluminum wire to the same length as the brake line I was going to use. I then bend this piece via trial and error to come up with the bends that I wanted. Once I had this piece with all the bends, I then took the real brake lines and mimicked the aluminum wire.

    Here's the front brake line. I drew some lines in red so you can see how it was routed.


    For the flexible connections to the brakes, I ended up mounting the hard line on inside of the square tube and then ran the flexible line down, then up. It looks like it should clear the aluminum shield (yet to be put in) and still provide slack to turn the wheels.

    Here's the passenger side:


    Here's the driver's side with the wheels turning left


    Here's the driver's side with the wheels turning right:


    From the brake master cylinder, you can see the lines going to the front and to the rear:


    The rear went down along the frame:



  34. #33
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    Brake Lines Cont.

    Then up to the T. Check out the little short piece that I used. My Dad laughs at that one, but hey, they gave it to me in the kit so why not use it...


    Here's the one to the rear passenger side




    All in all I got pretty lucky. I think I only messed up one line and only had to flare one line (The one from under the car to the back T). All the others I was able to use from the kit. I added fluid and bled the brakes the other day and haven't seen any leaks. At least not yet....

    -Matt

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    Radiator

    I thought I should try to use a shroud for the fan as I assumed that would help the cooling through the AC condenser and the radiator. For the shroud I ended up making in by using some 3/4" by 1/2" aluminum C channel on the top and bottom. To hold the fan (see previous post on fan) I used a piece of sheet aluminum. I (with the help from my Dad) cut out the circle where the fan would go. With a brake we bent the ends to go over the C channel that I tapered on the ends. I riveted the aluminum to the C channel, then bolted the fan to the aluminum. Then I took the whole thing and could bolt the C channel to the radiator at the top and bottom.

    I should have taken some pictures when I built it, but unfortunately didn't.


    Looking down from the top. You can see I started piecing together the aluminum behind it.


    I used the radiator from the kit and put it in place according to the directions. I cut some hose and put it around the mount, then put the radiator in. I put some foam strip on the top where the top mount goes. I painted the top mount and then bolted it on. The mount bends down and holds the radiator tight.

    I mounted the condenser with some aluminum about 1/2" from the radiator. I used some aluminum bars 1"x1/4" to space it away and mount it.
    Not the best picture here, but you can see the condenser mounted. Also, in this picture you can see the mount on top of the radiator and the gap between the frame and the mount. When you put the bolts in, this mount will bend down and touch the frame as you tighten the bolts up.




    -Matt

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    Coolant Lines

    For the coolant lines, I used the flexible metal ones that came with the kit. From the top of the engine, I bought from Breeze the coolant fill T kit BREEZE #70586. This gave me a 90 that went right to the cast aluminum T. From there I used the flexible metal line right to the radiator.



    In the middle to tie down the hose to the chassis, I cut some of the unused rubber from the ends, wrapped it around the hose and just used a steel clamp to hold it down. So, the metal line is just one section, that clamp just holds it from flopping around.


    The lower hose was a little trickier. I was trying to figure out how to route the lower hose and got lucky that I was able to fit it through the X in the front along with the power steering hoses. The flexible hose was great as it allowed me to snake it around the crazy bends.

    You can see it go up and over the steering bellows


    Then down under the cooler.




    You can see that I mounted the hose to the frame here and also added a drain. I got a 1-3/4" x 6" Be Cool Radiators 72014 drain.


    From there back to the pump. Note, it was really hard to get the rubber ends on to the pump and needed to break out the heat gun to give me a fighting chance.

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    Coolant Lines Cont.

    Now zooming back out.


    -Matt

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    Recovery Tank

    For the coolant recovery tank, I bought the Canton Racing Products 80-201 2 Quart Aluminum Recovery Tank. I mounted this to the left of the battery and over the power steering cooler.

    I made some metal mounts out of aluminum angle and shared some of the mounting points with the cooler and battery box.




    -Matt

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    Electric Fuse Box

    The electric. At first I thought it would be hard with all the sensors, wires, etc. Then I thought it would be easy since I have the wiring harness with the complete kit and it should just be plug and play. Well, my first thought was correct. It's not that it is that hard, just very time consuming. I spent a lot of time looking over the schematics and trying to draw up my own. I really wanted to understand where all the wires went and not just plug it in and hoped it all worked.

    The first thing I did was to mount the fuse box. This I did in the recommended spot under the steering shaft.



    Then once it was mounted I tried to trace all the wires going to the fuse box and see where they got their power. I wanted to know whether it was powered from the battery feed, ignition feed or the accessory feed. The schematic in the manual didn't show that detail. Below is a picture that I drew up with the location of the fuses and the wiring to each fuse.


    Once I had that information, I could start drawing up the full schematic of how I would connect everything to the fuse box. I redrew the fuse box and added in some additional labels.


    Then I put together this sheet with how I would wire in the power to the fuse box. I also show how I wired up the battery, alternator, key switch going to a 12V distribution point.
    At the bottom of the page I have the head light switch.


    That's about it for the basic wiring diagrams. I'll add in more later showing the turn signal, hazard lights, backup lights, cameras and fog lights.

    -Matt

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    Heat Shield

    Before I installed the engine, I wanted to put some heat shielding along the foot boxes and the firewall. I bought some Zero Clearance Aluminum/Fiberglass/PSA Insulation from Breeze Automotive. First I made some templates with brown packing paper, then when I was happy with that, I started cutting up some pieces. I mainly uses scissors to cut it, but it wasn't easy to cut. I then peeled off the backing and stuck the pieces on. In some cases also added rivets with washers on them to make sure the pieces stayed on.

    Here you can see where I added it. I also ran it down the inside of the transmission tunnel a bit.


    You can also see some of the wiring that I talked about in the last post between the passenger motor mount and foot box. I ran a + and - from the battery to the starter, then a + and - to the fuse box.


    I still plan to put a piece on the top of the passenger foot box and the driver side once I get those panels installed.

    -Matt

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    First Start

    Today's the day (9/13/2015) to attempt the first start, but let's jump back to last week for a moment. Last week we added in the power steering fluid. We disconnected the fuel pump and coil wire and I attempted to turn the engine over to spin the power steering pump. I put the key in, turned the key and the gauges came on, then I turned the key some more and the engine turned over. A lot had to go right for that to happen. After that, my Dad and I took a trip to the gas station to pickup a 5 gallon container of gas. We were going to add the coolant in and then start it up. To make a long story short, we had some coolant leaks, so I fixed them during the week.

    So back to today. My parent's came over and my wife and kids were all ready. We pushed the car outside and gave it a quick look over.






    I jumped in, turned the key to on, listened to the fuel pump fire up and make funny sounds while the air purged from the lines. Then turned it to crank and fired it up.

    Here are the videos for proof:
    First start:


    P U - It stinks
    https://youtu.be/Mlwt8Vd_00U

    Burn Rubber:
    https://youtu.be/ooY9nF15Vjg

    Jesse's turn:
    https://youtu.be/NI_iKy5n7S0

    One last spin:
    https://youtu.be/xmfUF1hsVuw

    -Matt

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