For some reason this is the only time that I was able to view you pictures!
in the words of a wise wise man: Very Nice!

 

awesome arin, looks great. will be quite interesting if you get that blower to work.

 

Hey Arin here's a Blower I seen today maybe it a bit too long do yah think ?

 

Lol, just a little ed

So far tires are great, turning is no longer as hard as it was with the skinnies, which is kinda odd. you'd thihnk it would e harder with a larger mass top turn. Maybe im just beefin up

Only some slight issues with rubbing. Fronts only do so when at full lock, which was to ve expected with the 65 profile. I can deal. Besides, I'll probably eliminate the rubbing issuse when i upgrade to tubular A arms in the front, for a little more clearance, and put stiffer 600lb springs in the front. Rears, however, need some help. The bracket where the leaf springs are attached to the axle is hitting the inside sidewall of the tires. I touched em after i parked today, and they were warm n sticky :-\

I will have to grind down the edge of the brackets soon, so that it doesnt shred my new tires If that doesnt work I'll get some spacers or something.

The ride height is beautiful, and the wheels and tires fill up the wheelwells soooooo nicely.

 

A lift kit ? I remember a long ago we used to use Gabriel Air shocks , but bigger springs or is it the tire width ?

 

A lift in the rear aint neccasasary, but i may get the lifted leaf springs for the rear. not anytime soon though

I fixed the rubbing issues. For the rear, turns out it was part of the body, the insides of the fenderwell were rubbing on the insides of the tires. Nothing i couldnt fix with a mallet

The front however... will need spacers, stiffer springs and tubular A-Arms i beleive, If i want the tires i have to fit nice. So for now, the old 13"ers are on the front and my big meats are in the back. The new tires handle like a dream though. Aside from the horrid rubbing noises, teh ride was smoother.

Cant wait to do some smoky brakestands on these new babies

 

remember that part about me thinking my P/S rack would be ok for a while until i got myself a manual rack?

Well guess what: "for a while" is over. I asploded my steering rack My II now has a turning radius equal to that of the bloody Titanic!!!!

shes gettin parked. Oh and have i mentioned the massive amounts of slippage my tranny is experiencing? I can sit at a stoplight and rev up to 15 seconds at times and not move.

Today was a ****ty day, and thats not even counting the other less than ideal aspects of my life in the past few weeks. grar!

 

Wow, sorry to hear that. So are you going to get an aftermarket manual rack and a T-5 conversion? Isht does happen, but don't let it get you down, just keep at it.

 

I've decided on definately getting me a manual rack. That way i can unbolt that accursed pump and put on my blower

As for tranny, not quite sure yet. I have three options in my mind:

Rebuild AOD to hipo specs. This is probably going to be the middle of the road plan, costwise. It would be relatively simple, not extra work other than just getting a tranny specialist

T-5 conversion. It will probably be cheaper, or comparative to the AOD option, because in addition to a tranny (and I'd want the world class version ) i'd need a new driveshaft and a bunch of other parts to convert

and finally, the uber expensive custom T56 transplant. I have heard of belhousings for the windsor motor, so thats not an issue, and fitment shouldnt be either, sicne the AOD's big honkin bell fits. No idea on exact cost, but i know it will not be cheap.

While I'm at it, maybe, juuuuust maybe i can get my hands on some suspension bits and a cage. I've finally found my springs, on froogle. 500#ers for around 80-90 bucks. a cage would do wonders for stiffening, and would allow me to install seatbelts that my passengers can, you know, use. and hell, if im doing that, i may as well add in tubular control and A arms, and maybe 5 lugs and discs and.....

I'm far too optimistic sometimes

 

Time to fire up the welding rig!

Don't think I'll ever go as far as you when it comes to cars. If you can do all that plus the exterior - you'd have one sweet car magazine-worthy ride (hint! hint! ), how could it not be? LOL.

 

Ahh the big IF lol

And dont get me started on my exterior. Lord knows how many paint and body combos I have though up. stripes, no stripes, custom differnt stripes, pin strips, primer, sigh

maybe i'll go back to DHG again lol

 

that II sure has given you about every problem you could have. You have made tramendous strides on this whole project. keep it up.

 

Arin, there's a manual rack in the Jegs catlog for $139.99 on pg. 180-N, current catalog. Its made by Unisteer and its brand new. As for your tranny probs., I'd rebuild the AOD, if budget is a problem. D&D Performance (the Walshes) will have all you need for either the T-5 or T-56 conversion, but the price is pretty steep, especially if you get a new tranny, not used or rebuilt. Even then, it can get expensive, thats why my '84 is still sitting in the garage w/out a tranny. I am thinking of going with my C-6 since thats what Foose is using in all of his vintage stangs on Overhaulin' even with stock displacement 302's, and it is what I have on hand. I had it rebuilt for about $700 a while back (it was shot!!) and the C-4 for about $300. Btw, I do not forgive you for buying that camaro!!!!! John

 

Arin-

I have something that may cheer you up . . . a little. The Cavalcade of Customs was in town last weekend and I took some shots of one of my favorite II's (a Mach too!). It's been mini-tubed, 347 stroker, Cobra 10th Anv. rims (widened in the rear).

 

Gorgeous II Jason Definately cheers me up I've actually always wondered what those wheels would look like on a II

Sorry about the Camaro John , but techincally, I didn't buy it. Its a car owned by a club. Eithery way, its sitting until we figure out some sort of insurance plan.

As for the manual rack, I see them on Ebay all the time, for similar prices. I'm just wondering if it's something simple enough for me to do, or if i should have a shop do it

In any case, last night a decided to get organized and make a list of everything I want for my car, and i started price hunting and whatnot. I'm going to put it into a spreadsheet with prices and places where i can buy whatever the part is so that I can have a checklist of what I want to do.

I do think I'll be going with a Performance AOD and possibly get some money of the $1000ish price with my core (if thats how that works...)

Heres the spreadsheet. If anyone sees something that they think I may have overlooked, something that should be on the list, or just comments or questions, please add let me know. Feedback is always a plus, helps me see what im doing, where I'm going and what I've missed. Thanks everyone!

 

also.. what does everyone think of this?

I was hunting around on eBay and....
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...ayphotohosting

 

hmm... not bad, just make sure it's legal for street use.

 

most newer cars have lights like that, with turn signals and headlamps all in one assembly. plus i can put fogs in my grille and have an off center cobra logo

hell i could even go for the straight up Bullitt look, which I know is popular among many of the readers of this thread lol (*cough*lalo*cough*)

 

Your plan seems to change 180 degrees everytime I read an update to this thread. If it was my car I would definitly go with a manual trans. If I remember correctly, one thing you liked about the car before you swapped engines was being able to shift gears. Keep tackling things one at a time and you'll get to learn a lot. I'm sure you're gonna know every inch of your car before you're finished.

and whatever your plan ends up being for the exterior, I'm sure it'll look good. You've had lots of great ideas so far.

That's a great looking II you posted Jason, pretty hard to trash talk these cars when they look like that.

 

Yeah, I am a bit on the eccentric side, but everything keeps changing as I learn and the actual mods that go on the car are dictated by budget. For now a performance AOD is probably the best idea, but I still have that dead clutch pedal just hanging. Who knows, maybe sometime down the road there will finally be some resistance when i push down on that pedal.