Wednesday, September 24, 2008

getting ready...

So I am sweating about the old Mustang's engine not being able to start.  My friend Anthony filled my head with dire prognostications about seized up motors, bad piston rings, etc.  I really hope it's something innocuous like a bad starter.  Nevertheless, tonight I will pull spark plugs, have a look around, and put in some Mystery Oil to get the engine at least a little prelubricated in preparation for being started.

We plan to work this Thursday.   If things go our way we'll remove and drain the fuel cell (and fuel system),  and hopefully get the starter pulled out for testing.  

In the meantime garage/shop preparation continues.  I stopped by Sears today and used a couple of gift cards (that I got from work last year) to pick up another set of tools, basically for free.  IMHO, tool shopping at Sears should be regulated like controlled substances - it's totally addictive.

Sunday, September 21, 2008

a sweet cornucopia of 5.0 motor reference material

http://www.veryuseful.com/mustang/tech/engine/

the old Mustang doesn't start

there's decent evidence it's just a bad starter, but we'll have to thoroughly inspect things to figure out what's up. Hopefully next time we'll be able to take off the starter and see if it runs on its own, and if there's any problems at the flywheel.

Saturday, September 20, 2008

the donor car - preparing to dismantle

The donor car is my 1990-body 5-liter Ford Mustang.  I've had this car for a number of years and am fairly happy with how it turned out.  I'll post a more complete write-up about this car later.


Here are some pictures of the donor car - looking a bit sad after almost 3 years sitting in the garage. The observant reader will note that CG has a significant amount of cleaning to do in the garage before the build gets underway in earnest.

The above shows the the donor car where it sat in October 2005.  I had just finished the driving season with a multi-day event at NHIS with the BMW Club.  It was always the plan to get the car out for the next season, but I got busy with the rest of my life and never had a chance to get behind the wheel.  


Front view of the car.  The headlights are taped over to avoid dropping glass and sharp pieces on the track if I ever hit anything (and I did once - look carefully at the driver's side and you might notice that part of the headlight cover is missing).  Also note that air intake at the bottom of the car, and 2 ducts  located just below the bumper - those push cool air to the brakes.  If you've ever driven a 3,000 pound racecar you know how hot brakes can get.



Above is a view from outside the passenger window.  You can see the aluminum race seats and 6 point harnesses.  Note that the interior has been largely removed, and the doors gutted out.  You can also see that gauges are installed where the heater controls used to be.  A large tachometer with shift light is above the gagues.  You can also see some of the roll cage and get a sense of how the safety systems were put together.


Here's a view of the driver's seat.  Note the highly sophisticated and uber-chic tape job over the fabric.  Basically the fabric wore through here.  New seat covers turned out to be seriously expensive, hence the hack job with the racer tape.  You can also see a little more of the roll cage, and yes those are lawn chair in the back seat.

what we're building...

Order information for the Type 65:
  • Coupe Base Kit
  • Powder coat chassis
  • Body cut-outs @ factory
  • Tubular front lower control arms
  • 3-Link rear suspension
  • 302 headers
  • Ultra Lite electric gauges
  • Competition aluminum seats
  • 14" leather-wrapped steering wheel
  • Upgraded Koni coil-overs
The 3-link rear suspension:
  • Modified frame
  • Axle mounts
  • Panhard bar
  • Rear coil-over shock absorber kit
  • Control arms
The 3-link rear is what is specified for the Factory Five Challenge Car.

The Type 65 coupe tips the scales at around 2,200 pounds.  This is a full 1,100 pounds lighter than the donor racecar, and will have substantially better suspension and handling.

Friday, September 19, 2008

the rough schedule

With steady work contributions starting this week, we should be done with the build toward the end of the year. FFR estimates 300 man-hours on the build. And we're going to conservatively estimate it at 400 hours. Often with more than 1 person working at once. As for all the work of painting it (which is not part of the build), we'll decide how nicely we want the paint job to come out when we get there. Tired and beat == 30-foot paint job. Still excited == 10-foot paint job. CG has decided on a British Racing Green shade for the car. And not to stripe it, at least not initially.

So tentatively, we'll shoot for 12/25 (or, you know, before people take vacation) as the day when we drop off the car for paint and clear-coat. It's still possible that we'll attempt to paint it ourselves.

Perhaps the biggest unknown right now is a mod that CG really wants -- an in-cockpit adjustable brake proportioning valve. Based on the location of the master cylinder, it shouldn't be impossible to set up, but there would be no help or references. At least not for on a Type 65 Coupe.

team meet on 9/19

So everyone got together at Phoenix Landing to meet each other. Previously it was all friend-of-a-friend email exchanges, but finally we all got to chill face to face.

It was really cool learning what the Terrafugia guys do at work, and it sounds like a natural fun project for them to be working on the car. They have much needed experience with body prep work, welding, and hard brake line work.

We're gonna get started on firing up the engine and hopefully beginning teardown on the Mustang (which I'll leave CG to describe in detail).

Thursday, September 18, 2008

Some info on the Type 65 Coupe

Factory Five's page on their replica kit.

And the wikipedia page on the original.
I guess it's got a nice slice of history that Dan Gurney and Bob Bondurant took it to a GT class win in the 1964 Le Mans.

Jay Leno driving the infamous long lost 6th coupe.

Factory Five pickup date...

We've been given a date of 2008-10-11 to pickup the Factory Five Type 65 Daytona Coupe kit from the factory.  The plan is to rent a y'all haul, take delivery at the factory in Wareham, and then hopefully have an unloading party at the garage.