New stuff!

[kb426]

The crown vics are 1/8" smaller at the outlet. The Mustang only has 2 1/4 pipes while the early crown vics have 2". The police version that I looked over before buying the manifolds had a 2 into 1 header pipe. It appears that they have done some things to bolster the low end power of a 4.6 in comparison to a 5.0. I'm running 2.25" tubing and mufflers on this. Unless I find the pot at the end of the rainbow, there won't be enough money for a high rpm upgrade on this. All the cast manifolds I'm looked at have lots of restrictions in them compared to tube headers. The guys on the Mustang forums say that headers are a waste of time on anything short of a serious motor. This is my 4.6 engine so there's room for me to get educated in many ways.

[kb426]

I worked on header pipes today. Had to make or modify most everything from the header back. I removed the downstream O2 sensor bungs from the original pipes and made a mandrel to hold them in the lathe. They're ready to be welded in. The Mustang trans crossmember is non-symmetrical. I don't think I'll be able to match the location of the mufflers because of that. I'm not going to do tail pipes until the rear is in and it's sitting on the ground at ride height.

[kb426]

I went to bed last night unhappy with where the mufflers were. Now that I'm old and senile, the idea god doesn't always know my address. This morning it was apparent that I would have to recut the notches in the crossmember and move the mufflers rearward. I have enough room to run tailpipes over or in front of the rear axle. I'm feeling better now.

[jaybee]

Good solution, it's really coming together.

[kb426]

O2 bungs in. The wind is blowing like crazy and we're about to have a brown out!

[kb426]

Underfloor bracing today. One part on the top will have to be removed for trans removal, hence on the top. I used the square tube dies I have. I'm not real pleased with how it works but I haven't bought anything better yet.  I believe it's more rigid than before I cut it for clearance.

[kb426]

I only got a few things done today. Not from lack of trying.One pic is the driveshaft loop. The other is an under the tunnel brace. I tried to make the tunnel out of 16 gauge and one piece. I have a pan brake but alot of what I tried to do wasn't going to work well. I then tried splitting it into 3 parts. The first was simple and finished. I redid the rear most part twice and still didn't like it. Back to the drawing board later.

[kb426]

I now have a complete 48 front end. It has rust and dents but this is the front I wanted. Just more work.

[kb426]

A little bit of progress at the expense of a lot of time.

[Carnut]

I sure do like watching this build project.

[kb426]

I just found out that I hit my upload quota!

[kb426]

This weekend I removed a lot of the original dash. I made a new part to fill all the damaged and removed areas. I have the din slot for the radio in and the Mustang gauge cluster in. I need to find some style of trim to finish the opening around the cluster. When I find out if there's anything that can be done about the "upload quota", I'll ad pics.

[kb426]

In the words of Vince Gill: this is the last last time I should have to flip the chassis. When I ran the exhaust, I had to widen the frame cut outs to fit how I wanted to run things. Today was the day to finish that.

[kb426]

The "I can do that better" syndrome arrived again. I haven't been happy with part of the engine cradle since day 1. I left it in the back of my mind for later. Today was later. Still not as good as I wanted but as good as I have ideas for at this time. It's boxed all the way around next to the side rails now.

[kb426]

Really lackluster update. I wasted hours trying to straighten the 3 fuel lines from the Mustang. I made the decision today to order a roll of 5/16 and 1/4 line and adapt to the Ford connections and start over. It only costs another $50 to go first class. I filled the last 2 big holes in the firewall.