hi5.0

May want to give these guys some consideration too.

http://mc-machine.com/mcm_joom/content/view/12/26/

Grell

Thanks for the link and the 411. I had heard of this before but didnt know where it was.

Grell

the alternator is here. cant wait for the engine.

hi5.0

It's all starting to come together... Got the ECU and various wiring planned out? HID/LED lights retrofit?

Grell

I have considered finding some kind of headlight that would be brighter. I didnt know if someone made a HID for 4 rectangle style. I dont want to change from that as I want to keep it still looking like the 83 zephyr lol.

I doubt I will go to LED though, I have not had great luck with them. The ones i have ran in the past in semi trucks, seemed to not last as well as the old style bulbs. The ECU is part of the control pack and wiring is really simple to install, it is getting rid of the duraspark wiring I am a bit concerned about as well as the voltage regulator. The rest is very straight forward or seems to be.

Grell

The suspension pieces came in today. They look really nice and were packaged very well. It did weigh more the 58 lbs though, that was one box which I kind of figured. Overall so far at this point I am pleased with the look. I think I have alot of work ahead of me to install this now. I don't think this kit is for a novice.
Also the engine cover came in today, Wish that engine would get here now. The engine cover looks classier in person even more then the pics. Should make for a nice clean install. I am working on a few more parts to get ordered. Guages I really have no idea yet what I am doing. The rest of the exhast and some of the "misc." pieces are left. And then Wheels and tires. And then the work starts officially. I will be taking some pictures of the start to finish. To bad I dont have a pic of what this car looked like when I first got it. It was full of dents and scrapes and was this awefule calf-poop tanish ick with a two tone avocado goldish greenish thing going. It was NASTY. I am planning on keeping it the yellow it is but it is going to get redone to get the few minors dings we missed the first time and fix the driver side rear wheel well that was pushed in about 3/16 of an inch. Basically the crown of the rear wheel well. I think the rear axle housing will be yellow also to accent the yellow bilstien shocks and the black suspension pieces. I am debating about a fairmont style stripe since I do have fairmont tailights inthis car and I like the fairmont stripe alot. In Black. Input is welcome

hi5.0

Have seen a '66 Mustang with retrofitted (round housing) HIDs, something like these could work?
http://www.suvlights.com/product_inf...roducts_id=270
or maybe convert the sealed beam headlights to halogen bulb versions akin to these...
http://www.suvlights.com/index.php?cPath=28

As for the car, how about flaring the fenders a bit in addition to mini-tubs to accommodate even wider wheel and tire combo? The Ring brothers' '66 "Bailout" Mustang has 18x9 and 18x12 wheels F/R for example (though w/out flares).
The yellow w/black stripe would be cool. Would be fun if it were done Boss302 style (reflective) and maybe even "302" call out numbers on the side.
Sounds like the real work is about to begin shortly - hopefully you'll have it on the road in time for the driving/cruising season.

Grell

I am just going to put the crown back in the rear quarter. We might see if we can expand it a little but I dont want to get into any metal work except for the slight tub work we have to do. Ring Brothers are 8 miles from me. In fact i have bent some tubing for them in the past as well as hauled their cars a few times etc.

hi5.0

Lucky son of a gun!
Well, now that you have the engine, suspension, and exterior covered, what do you have in mind for the interior? Fox Mustang bits?

Grell

The interior is staying as stock as possible. I am hoping to keep the stock bench seat if I can. Not sure why but I kind of like it. I have a new carpet and need a new headliner and other than guages it is staying basic. I might do a steering wheel and I need to do a new dash pad or a cover kit. I am trying to not follow in the fox mustang style. Most do that and it is a nice look but I want to stay away from that on this build.

I am open to advice for wheel design though. If anyone wants to photoshop wheels on go for it. I don't really know photoshop to do it myself. I am leaning towards the rocket booster wheels. but open minded. I don't really care for anything billet specialties makes or colorado custom or budnik and etc. those all seem outdated and not right for this car. I looked at forgeline and didnt see anything I liked, Ring Brothers run those wheels and I just am not into them as much as they are. I contacted BBS but the response I got seemed like they didnt think their wheels should be on this car. The response was, we dont have anything that fit that car. I am thinking ok the wheels are 18 by 9 with a 6 inch back space front and a 18 by 10 with a 6.5 back space rear. And they have to clear the baer brakes which would have been here today but I missed the FED EX truck. Monday I thought about buying outer rim shells and making my own centers for wheels also. I have machining capabilities in my shop as well as bending equipment . I also have aa frame jig so I could have made a whole chassis but I wanted this car to be more simpler and blot together for speed of getting it together.

future9er24

post some pics of the car and i'll see what i can do about 'shopping some wheels on

Grell

this is the wheel I think I want. I will try to get a good side view of the car.

Grell

I had a pleasant surprise today. I was leaving for awhile and thought I will sign the fed ex thing just in case they would deliver on saturday. to my surprise when I returned, there were nice new baer brakes waiting for me. WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOO. So of course the first thing I did as any crazy hot rod car guy would do is open them up , well ok I have to get a towel to wipe the drool off of them (ok maybe not) but they are freakin' awesome. This project has really given me some spark.

hi5.0

for you - at least you get the cool car parts delivered. Meanwhile, I'm waiting for my car's 4th radiator to be delivered. (No more Fluidynes for me! 2nd one just died - fresh rebuilt engine, fresh distilled water/coolant mix, no heater hooked up... but I digress).

If you want to keep the bench seat, you may need to adapt it for a good set of harnesses because if the car is going to be a handler, you'll be sliding around hustling the car through corners. 60/40 split bench seat done up Ford Lightning style?

What's up with that B response to your inquiry? Probably because they don't do custom orders? Here's other wheel companies you can try:
http://kinesismotorsports.com/#/?page=Swheels
http://www.ccwheel.com/wheelprofiles.php

Some photoshops w/various wheels would be awesome. Need pics.

Grell

Thanks for the links. Have you tried a Be Cool radiator module unit? I bought one for this car with dual 11 inch fans. It might be overkill but nothing worse then wanting to go somewhere and overheating.

hi5.0

Haven't tried them yet. Sure the amount paid for the two Fluidynes + shipping, probably would have covered it nicely. Nothing like doing things right the first (and last) time. Being short on funds, just went with a Ford Racing unit - had one in another car before and never had problems. Also thinking of a dual fan assembly from a V6 Contour/Mystique or a S197 fan from a salvage yard one of these days to replace the electric fan I'm currently running.

Thinking about the bench seat some more, how about reupholstering it with some lateral support. Though the 6-speed shifter location could be kind of, um, awkward. Figured you'd want to use a remote-mount shifter setup to bring the handle more inline with the steering wheel rim to avoid the long reaches required for 1-3-5 (like how various GM RWD cars and the S197s are set up).

Grell

I won't know if the bench will work until the trans is installed. I hope I can keep it because I kind of like it (just the way it is). That part is odd but I just like it for some strange reason. I thought about some bolstering if i had the seat recovered. The back seat is perfect with no wear or rips or anything the front has a slight wear mark /tear on the driver's side and needs cleaned some. Otherwise it is perfect. Just the headliner and the carpet were bad and I had to cut the dash pad to clear the speakers so I was thinking of getting a cover pad and painting it to match if they make them anymore. I saw them awhile back. Pictures of the side are coming today I think. I am charging my old outdate digital cam up. It takes floppy disks and thye are hard to find anymore. I also pushed the car ahead since I dont have a battery in it at the moment and didnt want to install one. I robbed it out of it for my 1980 308 GTB Ferrari. This car is so light it pushes easily. I think the weight of the car with the new engine and trans and suspension should be almost identical, maybe less. The engine is like 414 lbs I think I read or somewhere in the range and the 3.3 l 6 cyl was probably close. With the weight savings of the suspension this car is going to be light. I might be wrong but I think this car weighs less then 2800 lbs. I thought i saw advertised delivered weight was 2694 but i might be wrong and that might be with no fluids.The suspension weighed a bit north of 250 lbs. That is pretty light. One box was 58 lbs.

Grell

Here is the begining picture of the Zephyr. The wheel that are on it now are mid 90's Grand Marquis wheels. I bought them from a salvage yard for $150 for the wheels and tires. Even got the spare which matched. I actually like these wheels on the car as the design I feel matches the body lines. And of course they were cheap and available so that helped at the time. This car was kind of fun to beat around in this way but I am very eager to do the changes.

hi5.0

the 1st of many pics! Time to make some photoshop requests...

Since you can fabricate wheels, would be interesting to see how those Grand Marquis wheels translate in the size you need for the larger tires and brakes.

BTW, another custom wheel manufacturer:
http://bozeforged.com/index.html

Grell

I have considered that as an option. This picture doesn't show the wheel very good but it has alot of detail that really comes out in person. I would probably work away from the large center cap but keep the hole design if I did a wheel based on this pattern. I might make the holes larger.