Those kits look to move the sway bar forward and not relocate the mounts to under the frame rail like on the SN95. My k-member doesn't move the wheels forward. I'll remember to look into those when I decide to upgrade to the MM k-member.
Yeah, it's easier to remove the engine by lifting the body off. While we don't have a lift, the car is stripped enough to be able to use an engine hoist on the bumper reinforcement mounts, or even using the front rotisserie unit. Once the underside and engine compartment are painted, I expect the engine to be mounted in less than an hour.
Yeah, the swap is the same as a Fox Mustang, with it's own quirks. For me, it's going to be easier to drop the body onto the cart. I don't have lift brackets and there isn't a place that makes me feel comfortable attaching chains to lift the engine and transmission. My hoist doesn't go high enough to clear the radiator support with the amount of tilt I have to work with either. After I remove the valve covers, the engine should clear the sway bar mounts. This transmission is a beast as well, so wrestling the trans to mount it to the engine laying on my side is out of the question.
Had some time today. Got the rear section of the rotisserie hooked up. Tomorrow the rear comes out. While I was at it, I did a little test fit to show my dad that, indeed, this engine will fit.
Just have to contend with the sway bar mounts. This gets me excited.
Fired it up on the "Cobra Cart." Now onto finishing the underside we can drop the body onto the cart. Then it's a good month of wiring, tpuppies the harness down and merging it with my 84 harnesses.
That's what I'm using in mine. The pins have enough length when held to my hinges. Should work fine. I just need to figure out what I can do to replace my rotted out door checks.
Got the column mounted. I still have some bracing to do. While I was working on that, my dad got the upper half of the firewall painted.
Also got the driveshaft length figured out. For those interested, a mod motor installed with a 94-04 style k-member, attached to a Tremec 3650, requires a driveshaft 3/4" shorter than the one I pulled out, or 48 1/2". The rear will come out in the coming days.
With the driveshaft figured out and the steering column fab work mostly done, it's time to get the car on its side. While that's going on, the engine needs to be fully assembled and moved to the lower garage to get attached to the transmission. The last parts to be removed from the donor are the steering shaft firewall pass-through bearing and the starter with associated wiring. Hopefully by next Sunday night, I can turn the key and breathe life into this beast.
After it fires up, for just a minute, I can get the wiring sorted out and start laying it in the car. Once the underside and engine bay are painted, it'll be a matter of getting everything into the car. Engine and trans first, then wiring, suspension, interior, so on...it'll be tight.
Finished the welding on the front seat cross member. The front pads sit night and level.
The rear is up next. I have the floor marked where the holes will need to be drilled. I drilled out the rear pad reinforcement plate from the donor. I just have to drill the holes, cut out the section of the reinforcement plate that the frame runs through, and plug weld the plate onto my floor. This section of the floor is surprisingly similar between the two cars.
Aerocoupe, thanks for the heads up with the rear of the seat. Judging by this pic, I think it'll have enough room for no interference.
Also reamed out the holes for the hydro-booster and got that fit up.
And a pic of the '99 pedal assembly bolted into my car and to the hydro-booster.
Then, to finish off the day, I put the driver seat and center console in to do a quick mock up for the steering column.
The angle is wrong, but with the dash shell set in place, it looks like there will be plenty of room to bring the column to a better angle. This is my goal for the end of the week. Once the column is mounted and fit with the dash frame, all of the interior metal fab will be done, and we can focus on getting the car inverted to finish the subframe connectors and get the underside prepped and painted.
I had to strip the timing cover yesterday. The chrome powder cured fine. Something funny happened with the clear coat. The finish came out with a wrinkle texture to it. The cover looked like it was cheaply spray canned. I have to try again as soon as my dad gets it re-glassbeaded. Hopefully it comes out better or else it will be going together ugly. Next weekend I want to fire the engine up, probably on my garage floor. Should be good times.
Took the day off of work. I had enough of their BS for the week so I decided to get some work done instead. Started out doing some powder coating. I did the first layer of my timing cover.
Came out pretty good. It's too bad the clear top coat will cut the shine down considerably. If I had prepped the cover better, it probably would have better clarity on the flats. The upper intake will have better prep. This part will be covered with a belt and pulleys so it won't be so clearly seen. It's a chrome powder from www.powderbuythepound.com. I bought the Ford Blue Wrinkle there as well. I knew the chrome wouldn't be anywhere near the mirror shine of real chrome, so I'm not disappointed with this. It's going to give the timing cover and upper intake just a little more pop.
Then I decided to tackle the driver seat. I can say this wasn't near as bad as I thought it was going to be. I hope my plan for the steering column goes as smoothly. Once this and the steering column are finished, the interior will be done minus the wiring. I'll dive into that once the car is on the rotisserie. I just have to finish all the welding inside and under the car before I begin the process of losing my mind dealing with wiring spaghetti, and so my dad can paint the underside.
It hurt just a bit cutting into the brace that I had just finished welding back into place(and together, thanks to my dad for cutting it out in two pieces).
Original mounting hole on the left. I ended up tpuppies a bit more out just to make sure there is enough clearance. The hole didn't make it through and was cut in half then welded shut. Hopefully the carpet won't give me any fits.
This is where I left off tonight. My back and knees started killing me. I just have a few more pieces of sheet metal to fab up and it'll be ready to be coated internally. I put the seat in and sat in it for a bit. It feels solid and the height feels good. Sitting in it for the first time in almost a year brought back memories and hopefully will help give me motivation to push on. Some days it feels like it'll get done and others feel like it's just too much.
Everything, except the engine and transmission, is from my 99 GT donor. Everywhere I've read says unbolt the Fox tracks and bolt the SN95/New Edge seat to the Fox tracks. I haven't come across a single account of the seats needing spacers.
So here are a few pictures showing the issue with the seat bolting to the track.
The top is bolted flush, the bottom is a good inch, inch and a half off.
I could take that space up with washer or a custom made spacer, but anyone who has done this swap will tell you that the seat mounts high after swapping tracks. The passenger side feels high, but I honestly don't have anything in the car to compare it to. I may try to put a power passenger track in down the road. I think going from manual SN95 seat to power Fox track might be an easier conversion. For now, my wife can feel like a big person. I'm 6' tall, not the tallest person by any means, but the way I sit, I'd have the wheel in my crotch and my head brushing the headliner if the seat sat any higher than factory. I want to retain the power so I can adjust the height.
The other issue is the slide handle interferes with the power panel on the seat. More of a none issue as, if I decided to use my manual track, the new seat covers would allow me to delete the panel.
I think that'll be the goal for this weekend. Try to get the engine together and mated to the TR3650, test fit the K-member/steering rack+shaft, and get the column mocked up so I can center the seat and get the new mounts in place.
The manual seat buckets are different from the power buckets. The manual buckets and tracks are flat, or the holes are all on the same plane. The power bucket holes are on different levels and the bucket frame has a recess for the height mechanism. I'll have to get a few pictures to show the differences. All my excitement for having 99 Cobra seats in my car turned to frustration. Like I said, a million times, just switch seat tracks. It won't be that difficult to mount the new seat, but time consuming. Two new holes for the rear mounts, and cut the front seat support with studs out of the donor and weld it to my seat support. Again, a picture will better illustrate what I mean.
Been plugging away. Not looking good for my goal of June 1st. Just way to much to do and the weather hasn't helped. I'm not too pleased with my dad at the moment. I've been saying we needed to get a rotisserie for well over a year, closer to two probably. He's also helping his brother with his '70 Olds 4-4-2. He dropped the bomb last weekend that my car will be going up on the rotisserie first, then the Olds. We're at 2 and a half months....and now he wants to put it up. Yeah well. I can finish the floor and gussets a lot easier.
I played around with the new edge seats. I've read it a million times...they fit with changing the seat tracks. Sure...except when I do it right? Here's the passenger side bolted in.
Apparently...power lower buckets don't bolt to manual seat tracks. This goes for Fox Mustang's as well, as I have a set of manual Fox seats. So I have to figure something out there. I want to keep power, but would have sacrificed it for ease of installation. I don't want to chance buying a power seat track from eBay only to find it won't fit either, or even worse, the mechanisms are shot. I have a plan to get the New Edge seat in. Just have to find the time.
More pressing is figuring out how to mount the steering column. Which is going to involve hacking the New Edge dash frame, my dash frame, and probably the dash itself.
Next I have to figure out the wiring. I have every single wire removed from the donor, as seen here.
Most of that is getting removed. I don't need the airbag stuff, I don't have time to keep the ABS/TC stuff, and a lot of the emission stuff is getting axed. Essential items are the engine/trans wiring (duh), the FPDM (fuel pump driver module, this is a returnless system), fuse box, and interior fuse box. I have to lay the new wiring out and go through both EVTM's that I have to merge the 99 and 84 harnesses...yay.
On a positive note, I am about to finish final assembly of the engine. I have a few more gaskets to buy and two more things to powder coat. Tonight, I finished the valve covers. I did the coil covers about a week ago to test the color and baking procedure. They came out great, except for a few spots no one will ever see. I blame the cheap gun my friend let me use. ProTip - if powder coating semi-professionally or trying to become a pro....spend the money for a really good gun.
Pics!
This weekend, hopefully I'll be able to finish the engine, get the car on the rotisserie, move the engine to the lower garage to mate it with the trans, mount the pair on a cart and do a test fit. I need to find time to yank the starter off the donor too. Then I'll be able to get the oil system primed and perhaps even get the engine fired on the floor. I'll video that, most definitely.
Today I got down to the garage to finish stripping the engine bay to start paint prep and do some repairs.
Since I had to remove the column and pedal assembly, I took some time to test fit the New Edge pedals so see how they'd fit. As you can see with the below pics, the two assemblies are quite different.
Luckily Ford didn't change how they mounted that much.
They bolted right in. Only mods I'll have to do will be to ream out the holes for the hydrobooster.
This weekend hopefully I'll get the donor stripped so I can test fit the steering rack and column. The column will most likely be where I'll have issues. Here's hoping the issues won't be that great.
So I'd like to ditch the prop rod, and I prefer not to use a gas strut solution. Does anyone have or know where I could get a set of sprung hood hinges? I'm kicking myself because the last Fox Cougar with them the u-pull-it I go to had, I passed on them because I didn't have the time or help to attempt to get them off. Then the next trip out, all the Fox Birds, Cats, and Ponies were gone. Ebay had a pair of Mark VII hinge springs that look to add on to the non-sprung hinges, but I don't know if those would have worked on my car and the price was too high for a gamble. Thanks in advance.
