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Gen1 1969 Mach 1 Restoration/Restomod Build Thread Profile - Gen 1 Mustangs

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13
31
Exp. Type
Time Attack
Exp. Level
3-5 Years
Howell, MI
Hey all!

I wanted to share something I'm working on, even if it hasn't seen the track yet. This forum regardless has been really helpful in my planning and implementation phases, but now I'm about 650 hours into building and wanted to show some progress.

I have an in-depth build thread I just started over at VMF. I'll copy the link below in case anyone wants to see the whole shebang (if pasting a link to another forum is allowed, of course). Here I will share topics related to my plans with it that brought me here in the first place; AutoX and track capabilities.

Full Build Thread at VMF:
 
13
31
Exp. Type
Time Attack
Exp. Level
3-5 Years
Howell, MI
I started planning this car in 2016, right out of college. I had helped a very close friend of mine build his pretty potent track car (non mustang, but a really cool home built car giving some track super cars a run for their money in SCCA and Gridlife the past 6 years!), and decided it was time for me to build my own car before life got too hectic.

Right off the bat I knew I wanted this car to do many tasks, and wanted it to do them all well. I knew this was a tall task for any car, so I researched and planned for years before even looking for a car for myself. I had pretty much settled on Shaun's Street or Track full floater 3 link rear thanks to numerous recommendations and 1.5 years of conversations with Shaun.

To plan for the front, I also knew I wanted to make room for the wider DOHC engines as they are mostly available and I didn't want to do structural work on this again later if I went with a push rod engine first and then changed my mind, so I started looking for front set-ups that were not just for show. This led me to only a few options, and I settled on Cortex after 2 full years of conversations with the entire team to plan what was best for my car and use.

I actually was not settled on a powerplant for awhile. Originally, I had decided to try and salvage the 351C that came with the car (not original or even an option for 1969), but the block and most of the components were not really salvageable, so I started looking at other options. I almost got my hands on a 13-14 GT500 Trinity drop out, but that fell through. I then decided to move focus towards the Coyote Modular structure as they are lighter, have good power output, and can be easily found. For fun, I told myself I'd look out for the 5.2 FPC VooDoo as a novelty idea, if I could find a full car only due to the drop out prices part out yards want for them. This was actually the route my brother really wanted me to take the night we brought the car home, but I wrote him off as crazy. Well 2 years of waiting and looking netted me a 2018 GT350 with a side impact and 6,700 miles. So I guess either my brother wasn't crazy, or we both are because I'm going to give it a shot.

I'm excited to continue to share what I come up with during this process and to eventually share track time with some of you guys/gals on here! I'll work on sharing specific updates on the suspension installs and the parts car soon. My wife and I welcomed our first child a month ago, which is the only reason I have the time inside to make these forum posts rather than work in the garage.
 
13
31
Exp. Type
Time Attack
Exp. Level
3-5 Years
Howell, MI
Yep. If you’ve never been in a car with SorT suspension, you will like it. We run his front suspension on the ChampCar. Handles superb.
I have been given a short, spirited ride along some rural roads in a car that had Shaun's front suspension set-up, and that was an impressive showing so I'm sure on track it's only amplified! Very cool you run your classic in ChampCar! I have a few friends that run that series as well.
 
13
31
Exp. Type
Time Attack
Exp. Level
3-5 Years
Howell, MI
Street or Track Rear suspension install:

As I had mentioned before, I had been almost entirely set on working with Shaun using Street or Track's Full Floating 9" rear set up with the 3 Link Watts Link set up. I spent a lot of time speaking with Shaun and planning my car before purchasing, but ultimately settled on the set-up listed with -1* camber, SoT's Sport Valved Bilsteins with Hyperco Springs, 4 Pot fixed calipers with a 13" rotor (non parking brake), and Diff expansion tank.

With all of the metal work I had already done, including replacing both rear frame rails, I was worried that the saddles provided for the Watt's link frame work and the front 3rd member frame work wouldn't fit right. With minimal massaging, everything fit well to my surprise!

With the frame work all mounted in, I mocked up the rear end and rear suspension. I'm really excited to see it in the car after the years of researching and planning. I'm also really excited to get to tinker with the settings in the rear to dial the car in, but I have a feeling that's a bit farther down the road.

The picture attached of the rear brakes show my stock 2004 Honda Civic Si front brakes for a size comparison! I plan to calculate front/rear brake bias and size the front's accordingly, but the size difference was still a cool comparison.

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13
31
Exp. Type
Time Attack
Exp. Level
3-5 Years
Howell, MI
Cortex Front Suspension install:

In a similar fashion to the rear suspension, I had started doing a lot of reading on front suspensions for my car. With the want to create a little more space in the engine bay by removing the stock sheet metal shock towers, I knew I would need to look into some of the bigger names for that kind of set-ups. I called a number of companies and asked all the same questions to find out more about the set-ups, their adjustability, capability, and how they have been used/tested on track, and Cortex was the only one that took the time to not only answer my questions, but show track pedigree of their systems (other companies also have pedigree, but didn't seem to want to have much of a discussion with me). They also helped me come up with the right front set-up for what I want to do.

I ended up going with the Xtreme Grip Radial X Front setup with the Radial X spindles, double adjustable Penske front dampers with Hyperco springs, an SN95 rebuilt rack, and the Upper shock mount jacking screws.

Of all the metal work I have done, setting the front hardpoints made me the most nervous. I spent a lot of time dropping a plumb bob to the floor to make sure the car was set up square and that my front suspension points would be aligned with the frame rails and the rear suspension. From there, I followed Cortex's directions for the K member placement and the UCA mounting plates. I then bent up some tubing to be a base support under the UCA plate.

Placing the jacking screws in space was the big hurdle. I made a jig per Cortex's direction to rough them in space. From there, I made supports from the front of the frame rail, rear of the UCA tube support, and outer firewall corner to help triangulate the point in space. There will be a removeable support connecting both points to the center of the firewall as well, but that will be made later.

With all of that tubing mocked up, I installed the front suspension parts and realized I needed to edit a little bit to help run the shocks centered in the upper arm. Thankfully, that didn't require a remake of any of the tubes, just modifications. Between the first revision and the final, my wife actually came out and asked "will your engine fit between those front tube supports?" Without her asking that, there would have been a 3rd revision as I had forgotten the golden rule of measure twice, cut once....

It's definitely an exciting point now having all suspension mocked in front and rear. I'm not ready to pull it off the frame jig, but that thought is in sight!

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13
31
Exp. Type
Time Attack
Exp. Level
3-5 Years
Howell, MI
It's been a minute, but I've been doing a bit of work out on the car! I now have my front brake situation decided. I'll be using Wilwood's Aero6 calipers and 14" 2 piece rotors to pair with the rear set up from Shaun. I went down a very complicated rabbit hole (self inflicted) as a side project for almost 2 months before settling on the Wilwood set up.

Originally, I wanted to try and re-use the GT350 brembos in the name of using as much as I could from the donor car. Cortex had talked to me about that, and let me know it wasn't an option with their spindle at that time. I trusted them of course, but still wanted to see if I could maybe figure a solution out. Many weeks of bashing my head against the wall, feeling like I had it only to be thrown by a small issue here and there lead me to finally reaching out to Wilwood directly through some friends from the track. Piston area calculations didn't make me excited for the Aero6 off the bat considering the ratio front to rear was going to be higher in the rear than I would like, but after talking with Wilwood I learned that the Aero6 caliper could be had with a larger piston area. (4.0in2 to 5.4in2). This size is a bit larger than what I was aiming for, but my pedal setup has a balance bar and I am planning to run a prop valve, so everything should be able to be dialed in at the macro level. Another perk to this brake set up vs the GT350 brembos is wheel size. I'll be able to run 18" wheels rather than 19".
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With the brakes physically on, I was too giddy to just leave it. I haven't been able to have a front and rear wheel on the car since tearing into it just over 3 years ago. I put the stock GT350 front wheel on and have my wheel mock up tool with a 315 Hoosier on the rear. For the first time in a long time I was able to see it as a car.
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This of course gave me a chance to start looking at wheel offsets and clearance to suspension components, which was somewhat unexpected at this time, but is important for work coming up. I want to run a square set up for track use up to 315, so I'm using the Hoosier at each corner to plan for that. Street set up will be the stock GT350 wheels. After performing Shaun's rear mini tub modification, the 315 fits surprisingly well inside the wheel house. The fender lip would definitely need rolled/shaved, but I was expecting to need to flare the rear as well. With both tire widths up front (295 GT350 and 315 Hoosier) I checked for rack travel and clearance to suspension components. Of course, this is at full droop with springs and without the sway bar installed yet, so clearance can be a bit different, but this was to get a general ball park idea so I can start having talks with people in the industry on a good wheel offset and fitment.
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I had the wheel mock up tool set to a ET32 offset, basically to simulate an Apex 18x12 ET57 with a 25mm spacer. This spec worked really well front and rear, so I'd either have to run a spacer on all 4 corners with this wheel or find a different wheel with the lower offset. I still have a lot of time to figure wheels out, but this gives me a narrower search window to use.

With the 315 on the front, I definitely will need to do a little bit of flaring to the fender. The fender isn't fastened properly at all, just clamped to what sheet metal is left, but again, gives me a rough idea.
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Alongside this work I've been doing a lot of working making interior panels to cover the tucked tubular structure, but I don't want to flood this thread with all of those details; rather keep this one to the things that are more related to the character of this forum. I threw a bunch of pictures and details in the VMF build thread linked in my first post if anyone is interested in the full write up. Really excited to see it looking like a car again!
 
13
31
Exp. Type
Time Attack
Exp. Level
3-5 Years
Howell, MI
Another really delayed post. I promise things are moving forward! I keep the VMF build page up to date on everything, and mainly try to focus this one more on the track oriented items.

One thing I didn't consider posting here until I was talking to another member was the "cage" I made for the car. The Cortex front suspension install above shows the tubular front structure I made for that portion of the car, but not shown is the inner structure made to tie the front suspension to the rest of the chassis. I'll preface this post with this: This "cage" was made to stiffen the car, tie front and rear suspension, and give occupants more protection in the unfortunate event that it's needed. This was NOT designed to be a certifiable, conforming, sanctioned cage. That said, I spec'ed the materials to standard SCCA requirements, so it's at least compliant there. This car will see track time, but really isn't built to any specific series for that sole purpose. Maybe down the road I'll do another early mustang for road racing specifically, but for now, there are other cars for that purpose in our group. Alright, onto the cage built for my purpose.

I started with some pictures and Microsoft paint to get a general idea of what I was looking for. This then evolved into cardboard and painter’s tape or magnets/clips and bright orange sting. I wanted to see if I could build a cage INSIDE the structure of the body. Considering I had already removed basically all of the interior panels and inner structure due to rust repair, I had the opportunity to try. I went with 1.5 .120 DOM as it fit inside the C channel structure above either side window fairly well and was compliant SCCA wise for 2700+ lb vehicles. The basic idea was a main hoop tucked as close to the roof as possible, then A pillar bars inside the structure tied together with a front upper bar. Those A pillar bars are then tied to the firewall in the same spot as the front tubular supports for the suspension. I don’t have provisions for a dash bar, but do plan to tie the front tubular supports back to the center of the firewall with a removable piece. (Again, not a sanctioned cage, so please forgive the non standard practices here). Back from the main hoop would be down bars inside the sail panels connected by a bar under the panel between the rear window and trunk. The nodes here would also be triangulated down to the frame rails as well as the remaining section of the down bars. The pictures below will show it better than I’m explaining, I’m sure. I’ll also end up making a harness bar, but that’s later down the road as things are still being set.

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After a ton of planning and 1 messed up main hoop, I found a trick online that saved me from wasting my DOM tubing. I got 1.25” conduit from my local hardware store for pennies compared to the DOM tubing. OD was 1.51” and I was able to use my tube bender to practice and get my angles/planes correct with the cheap stuff before moving to the real stuff. Only downside was the conduit didn’t like to bend cleanly. I’m sure if I packed it with sand it would have been fine, but all I really needed was to see the bends and what plane they were in, which this did just fine. All in, this whole cage took me a few months to make, but I was also working on it a night here, day there. When it was all said and done though the only tubes that will be seen will be in the trunk and the sides of the main hoop near the door. All other areas of tube are covered by new panels/false roof or are tucked into the existing structure.
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I have quite a few more picture of this, but to prevent a huge write up on it here too, I brought over some of the ones that I think get the gist of the work portrayed. On another note, the thought process behind hiding the tubes inside the structure was for occupant safety without helmets. This car is going to serve many purposes, and I want to be able to enjoy it with my growing family. That meant their safety off track was as important to me as mine on track. Basically, I figured if the tube was inside the existing structure, it’s no more dangerous than stock (downtubes) and for any spots where I had to make panels, I tried to make any contact surface flat rather than round and I put either 1/4” thick rubber with a small air gap between the flat panel exposed to occupants and the tube. Is this perfect, again, probably not. But I believe it will give me enough safety to at least mimic the original safety level of the car. This concept was applied to the false roof under the main hoop, new panels over the window and down the windshield for the A pillar bars, and the new panel across the top of the windshield for the front halo bar. Hopefully this wasn’t too much of a ramble on. This was a huge section of work crammed into 1 post, so I’m sure I missed important details and could use more photos to help show what was done. Overall I think it will add to the safety of myself and others in the car regardless of the situation while also tying the vehicle together better to allow for the forces to be transferred better, and hopefully help the suspension do it’s job better than if the structure wasn’t there.
 

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