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/
Here's an idea of the stance I'd like to get - the pic is of a '64 Chevy that the shop was working on.
