It's been over 3 months since the last update. A lot has been happening over the holidays with some things related to the Mustang and most things not.
For the RestoMod, she's on bit of a hiatus right now; I'm waiting until my investment property sells and I can free up some cash. Beyond timing of when I'd like to have the car completed, I'm hoping it'll just be a matter of a month or two before we're all back on it again.
So lets see...an update...
November 4th or 5th was the last time I saw the car and the guys had made some great progress; all the body panels had been placed on the vehicle to get an idea of how we wanted to roll sections out. The quarters are now welded into place vs. being tacked in.
One of the key areas of focus is on the rear quarter panels. The car is 2" wider in the rear than stock. This will eventually mean that custom tail sections will need to be fabricated to make up for the size difference.
The goal is that unless an individual looking at the car is a Mustang fan, the average person won't be able to pick up the changes. Anytime someone see's another Mustang, especially one sitting next to mine, they'll be thinking "what's different?". And that's what I want; something totally unique that makes, to quote Arsenio Hall, "that makes people go hmmmmm...".
That said, I think this change is helping to give the car a more aggressive look. With the custom tire wells able to hold bigger tires, that "aggressive look" is sure to become reality.
With that, we've been testing a design idea of rolling out the fender flares for the quarter panels and front fenders.
Johnny had rolled out the quarter panels by about an inch, which looked good, but looking at the car in person, it just didn't seem to be enough. What I mean is that it looked too soft, not aggressive enough. I left it off with Johnny to bring it out more.
The front fenders were just mocked up at this point for rolling in the flares but we'll come back to this when I have a bit more scratch to devote to the project.
A new purchase to be made sometime in the future will be a replacement for the drivers side door. It's been bang up before as is evidence of some of the patch work. For the equivalent dollar in labour, it's just easier to replace the entire door itself so that's what we'll do.
That said, I talked to Marty since and he's updated me that the front clip has been tacked in until we're ready to go on the project again. The Resto will be going into storage until the next update.
Harvey
Have you seen the new Camero? How about the new Charger? New Shelby Cobra maybe?
What do they all have in common? Big horsepower; that's what!!
Johnny has been making progress on the Mustang.
The rear frame rails have been installed and offset to be closer in to the center of the car (to accommodate the large rear tires we're going to be placing in the car).
The rear tire wells are using the stock look even though the tire well has essentially been tubbed out. When someone looks at the underside of the car, unless they know the car (the everyday person won't), the effect I'll have is essentially make the person think "What's going on here? How did he fit that large a tire in that car?".
As we're making subtle tweaks to body panels, these changes will help to add to that "What's different with this car" effect.
I mentioned that to Johnny. "Johnny, I'm real happy how these changes are coming together. We're making subtle changes and tweaks to the car that adds to the car, the way it should have been out of the factory, and yet makes it unique!!"
So what's the deal with mentioning the horsepower at the beginning of this blog? Well, I've been telling the guys we're aiming for 700+HP. Johnny was thinking that 300HP aught to do it but not in my mind. The new production cars coming out today are coming out with 500HP - all tuned out. That's not acceptable for my custom. What has to be built is a car that is absolutely unique. I don't know if another Mustang out there will have a 460 7.4 Cobra engine in it with 550HP out of the gate. That said, I don't even know if of those cars that have that power plant will have it converted to EFI and supercharged. My baby needs to be unique. So unique that it turns heads at every show we go to!!
So powerplant is one way to get that name for the car. In order to fit that block, out come the shock towers and in goes a brand new suspension support for the car.
With the engine comes customizing of the transmission tunnel. And all of this is to fit under the hood without cutting the hood. The engine just has to fit!
The second way is making changes to the body work - already doing that.
The third way is the interior - custom all the way. We're throwing out the rear bench and creating our own 2+2 seating. I'm getting the 2006 3-series bucket seats for the front and we're going to make our own two seats for the rear. There will be a center console that runs the length of the car and will wrap around the rear bucket seats.
The forth way is around finishing. This will be from metal finishings used, dashboard work done, and jewellers that I'll be working with to get the emblems made for the vehicle.
The fifth way is the electronics to be used in the car - I'm going with a Car PC so it'll be all hightech.
In fact, the colors have also changed to use European accents. I like some of the colors on the Bugatti cars and I think that some of those colors would be good to use for Mustang.
Now that the vision of the vehicle is embedded in my mind, I've already started thinking of future projects (or at least dream cars that I would love to have). What would I like to do? Here's a list:
Restomods:
1. 1968 Mustang Coupe (already on it: the premise of this BLOG)
2. 1963 - 1968 VW Beetle
3. 1973 - 1978 Toyota Land Cruiser
4. 1970 Plymouth Barracuda
5. 1968 - 1970 Dodge Charger
6. 2000 - 2006 BMW X5
7. 1950+ Ford F-150
8. 1992 - 2000 3-Series Cabriolet
9. 1998 750i BMW
Dreams:
10. 1993 Porsche 993 (the one from Bad Boys the movie; I'd just buy this)
10+. 1997 Ferrari 355 Spider - this will never happen; this car would be too much to maintain afterwards ($5K CDN for just replacing a clutch...forget that) but it is a car I've been drooling over ever since it's release. Besides, if I'm going to spend $180+K CDN on a car, I'm going to build it from the ground up!
Ok, ok...so it's a million dollar+ list (if I average $100K per car) but hey, in order to make dreams work, you first need to set goals or a vision to strive towards. Then you got to lay out a plan. The final piece is to then set milestones and start executing on those milestone goals.
I've done that with the 540 and I'm doing that with the Mustang. This list may be a big one; the only way that I can see ever checking items off of it is to chip away at each individual project; piece by piece!!
Harvey
Ok...so you haven't seen an update on the restomod since....when?...Feb? Yeah...since Feb.
Reality is that not much has progressed. After the floor boards were in, Johnny was going to start work on the rear frame rails to put in.
The original idea was to get an entirely new racing support system for the rear and for the longest time, we were waiting for parts.
The parts finally came in (pic below) and we were totally set to start work a few weeks ago to install the new system.
There was only one problem - the new frame rails truly were racing rails. It meant that the rear seat would have been lost; completely impractical for what I'm trying to build.
So what happened? All the parts that you see in the pic above were sent back and a replacement sent of factory frame rails were ordered (pic below...not so exciting is it?....sigh...).
Anyway, we're going to have to build our own 4-bar link system for the rear and we'll be going for a coil-over setup vs. the traditional leaf-spring system that was in the car originally.
We'll also be putting in a coil-over conversion kit for the front of the car and will be cutting out the original shock towers to make way for the 460ci block that'll be going in. 750HP baby!!!
So...though I'd like to have reported progress on the vehicle, other than time and some new planning, there hasn't been much progress on the ride. I'm feeling a little bummed about that...though I should also say that the guys taking time is also not a problem right now (ie. I don't want to be handing out buckets of cash and until this late summer/early fall, I won't really need to sit down with the guys to hammer out a schedule).
Oh..the colors for the car have changed as well as some thoughts around the flow of some of the lines on the hood, the door skins, window drips, and rear panel. Just more of a fluid look.
Harvey
The last 6 weeks, while I was on vacation, have been productive for the Resto-mod...and man was I eager to see it after all that time away. In my mind, I had imagined that the entire car had been completed for bodywork (it was my wild dreamings of the finished product though Marty did tell me that the car was and is coming along); I felt a little deflated last weekend when I saw it as I dreamt it was near ready for paint...oh well.
In all fairness, the boys have been working hard (they have a number of projects on the go and need to schedule time between jobs) and the body work done on my Mustang has progressed quite a ways.
The front end has recieved some very badly needed TLC - a new radiator support is in, the old frame rails have been removed and replaced (man and are the old ones rotten...they are so bad off the old frame rails look almost like wet cardboard), front torque boxes are in (one is anyway, there were issues with a few new ones that came in so Johnny sent them back...when the new one comes in, the front end will be in shape to weld up), the floor boards have been cut out and replaced (some panels need to be welded in and finished), and the rear torque boxes are..well, I missed this..they are either in now or they are about to be mounted in, one of the two. In all, a fair amount of work has been completed and a good amount of the old rusty Mustang has now been replaced with brand new metal.
As an update, Maya Wheels never got back to my email on if they could whip out a custom set of wheels for my new ride...so I picked up the phone and called them instead. Maya Wheels is a subsidiary of Dazz Motorsports (as I found out when I called the sales line). I ended up talking to a sales rep (who sounded very cute by the way...I love chicks that love metal...ggrrrrr...tiger paw...) and she told me that they'd help me with this; they just need wheel sizes, widths, and offsets. This is AWESOME news; I feel good about this!!
To add to the above, Marty had bought a wrecked Mustang Cobra for about 30k CDN; he's going to salvage it. The original owner of the car crashed it up (he hit a poll or something) and took out the entire passenger side area of the car...sucked it good! The unfortunate part is that he babied the car and pumped in a tonne of money to upgrade it...it's a Mustang GT with a Vortec Supercharged Cobra engine, 9" Posi-tration differential (this sounds complicated but I have no clue what tis is other than the rear axle...I know houses, car audio, and computer crap - Marty and the guys are the experts on these cars), manual transmission, and a tonne of upgraded in the interior as well.
The poor guy, he didn't insure the car for collision damage and lost the $70K CDN that he pumped into the overall car....I'd be crying if that was me.
Anyway, Marty is thinking about keeping the engine and driveline for a car he's restoring but showed me the wreck in case he passes on the idea and if I want to go forward with it (we're both debating for our own applications...it's Marty's deal though so if he passes on it, I may talk to him). It's a 1994 car and engine that is going to be salvaged and the car only had 1700KM on it. Like I said, the original owner babied it until it hit that poll.
I've had the week to think this through a bit more and am probably going to go with a new engine and driveline. I could save some money but with the project, that's not the point. With the project, for me, the money doesn't matter; it's the enjoyment of working on this project (actually doing some hands on) and having a finished product that is as hassle free (I'm not kidding myself...there will be some hassle) but as hassle free as possible. So...long story short, I don't want to inherit a problem and I'm going to pass on taking over the guts of the crashed Mustang. Here's the engine that I'm thinking about right now:
http://www.fordracingparts.com/
In other news, I talked to one of my co-workers that had gotten married a few years ago. Summer, my friend, had hired a photographer that took amazing pictures...so I started thinking. "What if getting my finished car into magazines and into shows is going to take time? How can I get press on it? What if I want to create a portfolio or even have something that is professionally done and that I can have framed and put on my wall?". The gears were turning and I got the photographers info from Summer. Long story short, I now have someone who is willing to take the snaps of my new ride (when the 'stang is all completed and ready to be shown off that is).
For more information on getting some excellent professional photography done for your event, take a look at Reine's website: http://www.reineweddings.com/
I met up with Marty yesterday to go over some details before he leaves for X-Mas break and before I leave for Thailand (the next time I see the car will be mid-Feb). I also got to meet up and chat with Johnny (the gentleman doing to body work on the car). I like working with Marty and his team – very personable folks and they have a passion and care about the work they do; I like that!As Johnny is working on the car, he’s finding issues. The front end of the car pretty much needs to be replaced. The radiator support and lower rad support are both terribly rusted. Combined with the front frame rails, the torque boxes on the car are also mush. For the type of project we are working on (not looking to do; we are doing it), it doesn’t make send not to look at replacing these issues.
As we went over the car in detail, both Marty and Johnny showed me what issues there were with the frame and what that meant. I’m no car restorer, I know houses, but even from what Marty and Johnny showed me, it was evident there were issues. The floor pan can essentially be seen through, even where the feet would be resting near the firewall. The seat area for the back seat bench is mush. The entire underbody near the rear frame rails are also rotten.We’re going to be putting 20” wheels in the rear and are going to widen/tub out the rear frame section in order to support a large wheel width (ie. Porsche size wheels such as 285+). This means that we’re going to rip out the rear frame rails (which are rusted and need replacing anyway) and may go with a whole new rear suspension package that will support what we want to do with the new wheel requirements. To that end, we want to make sure the car has a good ride, travels well on the road, and can provide a good looking stance for the car; we’re looking at the following for a rear suspension: http://www.bearsperformance.com/page65.html
This will mean the entire rear end of the car (trunk floor, etc..) will need to be custom created. This will also mean that customization of a gas tank will be required as well as the stock location for a tank is going to be modified. You can see in the current pics how badly rusted this is:
I also talked to Johnny about the tire sizes and what will work for the car. The 20" wheels for the rear are going to be fine. The size for the front have to be 18" wheels, anything bigger just will not work without changing the body design and look of the front end (this is not what we want). I have emailed Maya Wheels to see if they plan on releasing any 18" versions of their DTM wheels soon or if they would be willing to work with me on creating a custom set of 18" wheels for my car. I'm just waiting right now to hear word. If they say no, we'll have to go to another vendor or may just end up getting a similar look but as one-off wheels for my car.Beyond that, Johnny is going to first work on restoring the car to a solid stock feel. We will then begin work on customizing afterwards. The goal is to get the car on a show circuit and take it on tours both here in Canada and down to the US. The highlight is to do what we can to get the car into a magazine as well as have it recognized at the SEMA show to highlight what us Canucks can do. Next update in Feb upon my return from Thailand and Japan.Harvey
The project is coming along, and just from my perspective, seems to be going at a pretty good pace.When I first started looking for a vehicle, I did some searching for a vehicle on the internet. I did the typical searches for a project car on:- eBay Canada (http://www.ebay.ca/)
- AutoTrader (http://www.autotrader.ca/)
- and even the local Vancouver Buy and Sell (http://www.buysell.com/)
I mostly searched eBay because this site had tones of ‘67/’68 Fastbacks listed for sale. As I’m in Canada, the only issue for me was that most of the vehicles listed were located in the US. I didn’t want to have to have the hassle of buying a car unseen in person and especially having to deal with shipping the car through Canada customs.Canada customs, though I honestly don’t have any issue with supporting or spending money in Canada, has this thing that if you buy a car from outside of Canada, you have to pay for both Federal and Provincial tax on top of any purchase price and taxes paid on a vehicle within the US. As this price can be essentially 14% on top of a total purchase of a vehicle from the US, as well as any customer fees, the cost of the vehicle would add up. To top that off, in order for the local insurance corporation (which is government run, it hasn’t converted over to a private insurance model in BC) requires a vehicle to be inspected and converted into Canadian specifications. I can’t help but feel that this is essentially just another cash grab by the government and I equated that final costs could be anywhere from 16-20% on top of a final purchase; at least, that’s how I see it, reality could be different. In all, I didn’t think purchasing a vehicle out of Canada would be worth it, especially for the hassle.So, what would be fun and what would be an easier way to do what I want to do? “Hello!! McFly!! Why don’t you buy the car locally?! Dumbass!!”Well, that’s easier said than done. There is essentially very few ’67 or ’68 Fastbacks for sale in Canada (at least on listed on the Internet). There are even fewer for sale in my local Province. In fact, I had only found 2 fastbacks for sale in BC and the cheapest one was for a heap of a car in Kelowna for $16,000CDN. “FORGET THAT!!!”, my cheap East-Indian nature was coming out.That’s when I decided to change the model of the vehicle I was looking for and decided on a Notchback instead. That’s when I found my car; a local one that was listed in the Buy and Sell.The car itself was Maroon in color; the interior was Maroon, the whole freakin’ thing was Maroon. What an ugly color! Have you ever seen pickup trucks that have a bed liner in them? Ever see those trucks that have, instead of a plastic bed liner, have this spay coated liner on them (called Rhino hide)? Well, when I got my buddy to check the car out, he could see it had rust, that it had been hit on the passenger side quarter panel, and in the trunk, the trunk had been sprayed with this Rhino Hide spray. Whoever had the car previous to the current seller that I was working with was trying to hide something. And that was rust and water leakage in the trunk. Beyond that, original engine was a straight 6-cylinder engine (at idle it would sputter and stall but when driving it, it performed fine). That was the only saving grace for the car. The car has now been stripped down of all parts (including the engine; nothing is going to be original in the car other than the body and even that we’re going to modify), media blasted of all paint and the Rhino Hide, and as of this week, sections of rusted body parts are being cut out and replaced.The car today has been placed on a movable metal bench. Marty, the owner of the restoration company performing the work mentioned the reason for placing the car on the bench is to make it easier for them to work on the car. That and the bench is completely level. The car, now mounted on the bench, is level to the bench. Any body work done now will ensure that the car work done will be perfect for when the car is rolling down the road or sitting on the street. It’s going to look good.Metal sections of the engine bay that were rusted have been cut out of the car. New section pieces have taken their place and have been temporarily screwed in for placement until they can be welded. The reason for this is that the front frame rails have to be cut out first and replaced. Once the new frame rails are welded in place, the body sections in the engine bay will then be permanently welded in as well.The rest of the body work will also start soon (maybe this week or after the holidays). 
Beyond that, Marty and I went over paint samples for the car, discussed the audio/video install (which I want to b involved in; ie. actually doing the work), talked about the engine and mechanical needs for the car, and even discussed something I never really thought of until now – vehicle maintenance after the car is finished.The restoration is progressing well and as of today, I’m feeling pretty good working with Marty and his team. I’m looking forward to the process.Harvey
