We had the floors cut out and wanted to start installing the new pans. After we got the old rot cut out we noticed the rear front floor supports were rotted out where they attach to the rail (under the toe board). Called a number of vendors both in the US and in Canada and it would have taken at least a week and $150.00 bucks after shipping. Canadian vendors wanted twice what they sold for in the US.

Since we didn't want to wait a week on the floors I drove to the Industrial Park and found a metal shop. I got 2 pieces of 14ga metal, measured, cut and bent them into my own custom floor supports in 20 minutes. Thirty minutes later we were back in the garage fitting and installing them to continue with the floors. Total cost was $20.00 bucks for both!

Their was a very small 3/4" rot hole along the inside edge of the main support where these attach to that I cut out. Welded in an 8" length of 14ga steel along the side and bottom. After grinding it down you really cant even tell. The pic below shows the floor support installed on the drivers side and about 1" above it you can see where I had ground down the 8" patch. The next day I ground down the welds and it looks great now though I didn't bother with a finished pic.

First full project car I've done and I've never worked with metal before (ehh 25 years ago for 6 months in high school a bit) so it was fun to make up my own stuff. It saved us a week waiting around for the parts and $130.00 bucks!

[IMG]local://upfiles/78041/DD1D3AF767EA4B7D8518884745F6A08A.jpg[/IMG]

 

Back before the aftermarket was so well stocked with parts for our cars I cut and sewed covers for front and rear seats in the fastback. Have since replaced them with new ones from one of the vendors. Mustang owners now have it easy in that we can replace nearly anything with aftermarket parts and they look good. One reason I say that old Mustangs are the poor boy's classic. Everything is available and at very reasonable prices. Now, on to ordering my parts for the t-5 swap.
Dan

 

Thats a good point Norm, old school "Hot Rodding" is all about making something work. And of course its gotta be cool and fast. For me, I collect road signs, old frige doors, any aluminum or stainless steel. Some of the weirdthings in my garageinclude a WW2 500 lb bomb (inert),a helicopter tail roter, fire hydrant, old gas pumps, parking meters, a piece of the Bristol Track, old oil barrels and cans (Gulf), an old aluminum serving trey holder that become a powder coat oven someday and 10 Mustangs.Often having the right tools to make things is a great help. Its often challenging and rewarding to make something and see it work. Oh yeh, I hate the Borg, they always tryto assimilate you (sometype of assault, I think).

 

I worked at an auto upholstery shop for a year before college. Upholstered a 52 ****** PU I had.

On my current 65
I made some blue LED replacment lamps for the dash using 1 watt LEDs.
A digital tach that has 4 diigits, goes to 9999.
A digital voltmeter.
Transmission shift lever.
kick panels with speakers.
In progress - package tray with speakers.
Other odds and ends.

A photo of the LEDs is below.

 

Even with aftermarket stuff, there's such a wide array of combinations, that there's always a chance that something won't quite work right with something else. You can either accept it as is and consider it "good enough" or make/modify a part to get it exactly the way you like. Especially with performance, there are often compromises to be made and fabrication is required. Bolt on is a severe misnomer.

As far as carb tuning, it can be a REAL pia. It took basically a year to get it exactly the way I want it, though the intake change a few weeks ago prolly didn't help. One of the pump cams was almost right, but I knew what it needed to be just right. So, I made a cam, or rather altered an existing one. It had the right amount of total fuel delivery, I just needed it to deliver less of it at lower throttle positions and more from off a higher throttle position.

 

Sorry to be a smartarse but Icant help it...

I made my wife very angry when I bought my Mustang without consulting her "expert" opinion!!!



Truth is, I havenot really made anything for my car but I have complete respect for the guys here who have and arewilling to share their experience with the rest of us!!!

 

Besides work on the car, most of which is just welding in sheetmetal, I built myself an engine test stand in about a weekend. It has a 4 gallon aluminum fuel cell, moroso battery box,autogauge Tach/voltmeter/oil pressure/water temp, afco circle track radiator, toggle switch ignition instead of keyed,I use a 650cfm double pumper and mech advance dizzy to test run all the engines, so I have provisions for throttle and choke cables, there is also a mount for the coil and ignition box. I have the plans if anyone is interested, the materials were right at 800 for the metal, radiator, gauges, fuel cell, batt box, casters, hardware.

Also made some spark plug holders out of 22ga I bought at home depot and bent on a bench vice, and currently trying to make a piston and rod tray and valvetrain tray.

 

I couldn't see spending 600 to 1500 for a rotisserie so I fabbed one for about 275.

 

do "custom valve cover spacers" count?




i also have a custom spacer on my balancer. i didnt make it, but my dads buddies in a metal shop spun it outta a solid bar of aluminum. its got the proper lips on the front and back to keep everything centered too [8D]

 

Only thing I've fabbed up so far was the rear seat dividers I made, but I put a good bit of money and time in them, and I'm very pleased with the results. I personally think it looks 100x better than the brown fluffing falling out of the back seat. True66GT has one of them too...