This page was the original post when it was completed 2006

This was a 6-Cylinder Coupe when purchased 16 years ago

For the record, all pictures ARE of the same car. Just mixed them up a bit. I wouldnt call it a budget build, but compared to other vehicles I see on this site, it is. 

Had a coupe, wanted a fastack, so I found a fastback Roof, bought a Lincoln Mig Welder and Got Busy last winter. The restoration took about 10 months, but the first 2 months of work was done 4 years earlier. I like coupes alright but was hesitating on spending too much money and ending up with a body style I wasnt in love with. I know a 6-Cylinder car isnt worth all that much and since I bought this in Bakersfield California 16 years ago, it had like no rust anywhere. Someone had dropped an old 302 in it, and I put a V8 rear and front spindles years ago on it. I had painted it dark green and drove it for a few years. Marriage and responsibility put a damper on the work early on. At 38 im finally getting back to hobbies. I had stripped it to the chassis and leaned it up in the garage on two tires for about 10 years. Saved garage space!

The only rust I had to deal with was from it sitting around in Maryland, and most of that was due to old seperated undercoating holding moisture. Thats why I stripped all of that off first.

This is what It looked like just before chopping the top off.

General
Lowered Upper Control arms, Flaming River Steering Box, Auborn Pro Posi, 3:55 gears, GT350 Under Rider Traction Bars, Magnaflow 2 1/2" Stainless Exhuast with X-Pipe, Ceramic Coated Try-Y Headers. Suspension is all new. Painless Wiring Harnes for chassis and 5.0 motor. Also added Frame Rail Connectors and Torque boxes on both sides just to tighten things up a bit. Modified the front to accept the wider 69 radiator with an electric fan. Installed Granada Spindles to get front disc brakes. New 74 Maverick Master cylinder works perfect for this setup, just make sure you get the adjustable brake pedal push rod. Added the clutch pedel and installed needle bearings in the clutch/break assembly for smoother action.

Stripped Bottom of car of all undercoating, acid etched, and treated with several coats of POR15. Removed the 120 spot welds that held the Cowl in place to repair vents so it wont leak in the rain. I was lucky, in this picture, you will notice that this car has all the original sheet metal. Only Three quarter sized rust holes in the entire car.

I was playing around with a 500,000 BTU brush burner one winter, and figured out that it does a beatiful job at loosening up undercoating. Peals right off with a big scraper. Then you just wipe it down with some solvent that doesnt evaporate too fast. Like mineral spirits.

Roof Work
Fastback Roof section was not complete when i bought the roof and associated parts. Pic below was one of many test fits before cleaning up the roof and starting to weld.

Built the Window Frame first using the glass as a reference. Used 1/8" steel plate for the frame

Had to do alittle creative creating to get the rear of the car completed. I can say its all welded steel and very strong. Welded 4 complete boxes similar but thicker than what was originally used to support the rear of the roof to the body. Finished all body work with a mixture of long and short hair fiberglass, then skim coated with filler. Of course, two months after I finished the re-creation behind the rear window, part of that steel section became available as an aftermarket part for about $85.00!!

Paint
Garage Painted using Dupont Epoxy Primer, Dupont Urethane Base coat/Clear coat 2001 PT Cruiser Inferno Red.

Stripes were painted first, then red, then clear coated the whole car. Ended up using 3 different guns to get the paint to work right. old school cheap gun for regular primer, Sharpe 1.3mm for the base coat and Devilbiss finish line 1.7 for clear coat and Epoxy Primer Sealer.

Engine Work
Engine and Trans was from a 94 Mustang GT. Bad choice. Had to chuck the computer and get a 93 A9L computer. Had to tear down the trans and replace the input shaft with the shorter 93 version along with using the 93 bell housing. Also had to use an older timing cover and a 93 reverse rotation water pump.

Block was line bored along with all the rods.
AARP Rod bolts.
Block bored 30 over
New Federal Mogule 30 over pistons
Crane 2031 Compu Cam With matching Valve Springs
Removed all EGR bumps and ported exhuast ports on heads.
Ford Racing High Volume Oil Pump
Crank was turned 10 and 10
Ground valves, new valve stem seals
Scorpion 1.72/1 Forged Roller Rockers.
Ford Racing Hydrolic Roller Lifters
Trick Flow Intake
75mm Mass Air
70mm Throttle Body
Not sure of HP but I am guessing its 250-275 if I am lucky.  Im almost completely finished installing a Kenne Bell Supercharger in the hopes to get around 400HP.  Earlier this year I upgraded from a T5 trans to a Keisler Tremec TKO600 5-Speed with the roadrace 5th gear.  It is suppose to handle 600hp.  The main reason for the change to correct the 1st and 5th gear ratios that I really didnt like in the T5.  Its a perfect match to the 3:55 1 rear now.
Had to make a custom Support Brace for the engine compartment since nothing on the street would fit around the Trick Flo Intake. This fit very snug, but you can still remove the intake and heads without removing it, and it stiffend up the front end quite a bit. Hopefully the new blower will fit under this support when I am done.

This tall intake didnt look like it would fit, but there is around 3/4" of space before it will hit the hood. So far, hard take offs with stock motor mounts has not caused the two to meet. Little concerned over how long the stock motor mounts will last. Recently changed out those factory mounts for some poly mounts that wrap around themselves.  I wont have to worry about those breaking loose now.

Interior
In short, All interior is new.
Seats were 69 Mach 1 seats. Rebuilt the frames and found a upolstry guy nearby who totally hooked me up on the seat cover instalation. Used new buns, new burlap, and covers. Would have been a nightmare to do myself without the air driven hog ring guns that he had. This is the one part of the car that was touched by someone other than myself and im glad it did. They turned out very comortable and still look retro. I did however have to lower the drivers side seat support pan 3/4" so I fit comfortably. 69 seats sit a little higher than stock and if you tall from the waist up, you would want to do this modification.

Didnt care about the back seat too much so I made a deck that holds infinity 6x9 speakers, and a rockford fosgate Puch stage II 8' Woofer, and a 4 channel 280 watt amp. That hooks this up with some sound that can overcome the exhaust. This started as a make shift deck with an outdoor carpet matt from home depot. ended up putting the front on it with speakers and installing a hinge so you can stash your jack and wrenches. Suprising to me nothing rattles with the sub tucked in there. After closing up the 6/9 speakers with boxes, you cannot hear a sound difference with the lid open or closed. At least with the outdoor carpet it doesnt show dust. That was the idea at the time.

Planning on a re-do on the rear interior finishes. It was 110 degres on the day i painted and installed those pieces and it was miserable to install. Its low on the priority list.

After about 5 adjustments, my home done front alignment is perfect now. Tracks straight on a flat road, and brakes dont pull to the right or left. Glad I stuck with the quick ratio Manual steering box. Has a slight negative camber and 4 degrees positive caster. Toe-in is as close to 0 as I could get it.

Decided to be different when it came to the wheels. Have never seen these on a Mustang. They are 15" American Racing Salt Flats with the spinner center. I thought they were unique and yet they were around back then on other cars. I like the fact that I could just fit 226-60-R15 tires under the car (9" wide) with only 1/4" clearance, and the rubber is cheap to replace compared to the low profiles that are popular now. These are custom backspaced. 66 is a bad year for wide tires. All four are the same so they can be rotated.

Doors and Front Fenders are New. Basically used new to save a months worth of stripping and redo work to finish the car. Took 8 months to do the car anyway.

Hood is Fiberglass with Steel Reinforced Frame I highly recommend this type of steel reinforced hood. Works like the all-steel version, but weighs less, and the scoop looks better than a bolt on version. If you shop around, they are not too bad in price. This one was around $350.00

There was alot of wiring to do. I couldnt imagine doing this conversion without the WEB as a reference. You cant spend too much time reading up on what everyone else did. It will only save you time and money when you get the parts right the first time. Unfortunately, I purchased the 94 Motor and Trans 5 years ago, before there was alot of info out there. 94/95 are the worst years to mess with. Live and learn.

One Mustang site I visited the most is Mustang Steve . There is alot of good information there for the do-it-yourself types.