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1968 Mustang body on Howe road race chassis


Tinman

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This is a great project. Awesome job!

 

I have a question though: Have you thought at all about separating the panels and just attaching them directly to the cage with dzus fasteners? The body isn't really adding any real structural support, right? so what about using the individual panels as a covering?

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This is a great project. Awesome job!

 

I have a question though: Have you thought at all about separating the panels and just attaching them directly to the cage with dzus fasteners? The body isn't really adding any real structural support, right? so what about using the individual panels as a covering?

 

That is not far off from my plan. The outer skins will be mounted in a variety of ways. The rear quarters, roof, and taillight panel will be mounted with small light gauge tubing welded between the skins at their stronger points and shaft collars that will clamp to the rollcage and upper round frame rails. The hood and decklid will be attached with hood pins. The front fenders and apron will become one assembly that will slide on and be held with at the rear with quick release fasteners. New rocker panels will be fabbed and bolt to the sheet metal tabs that Howe welded to the lower frame rails. The door skin mounting has yet to be finalized.

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Mark, cut, try, mark, cut, try....

 

6" away from contact at this point.

 

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And after a little more trimming,

 

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All of this just to locate the windshield frame and cowl. Everything else will get tossed once I purchase and fit the new roof and fastback quarter panel skins.

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Still wonder why a man of his means choose a coupe over a fastback.

 

He’s talked about it in interviews, he specifically wanted a notchback because when it comes to high level custom builds, everyone chooses the fastback and there weren’t any notchbacks built to that same level of quality. So basically to be different. I’m pretty sure he likes the design better too.

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I gotta say, I'm not big into classic cars but I've always preferred the mustang coupes to the fastbacks. I'm sure you've seen this car from Cincy, I just saw it for the first time today in my FB feed:

 

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He was at Mid Ohio this past weekend with NASA, was bad ass, and fast as hell.

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We never timed it, seemed fast, looked cool and sounded cool. Wasn't fast overall huh?

 

held me up for 2 consecutive out laps then eventually went quicker than me by less than a second. It was more drive than car though, the old man was driving the car, it's much quicker in the hands of his son. I'd come onto the front straight right on his bumper and it would gap me half the distance of the front straight over just that distance, but I'd be right on him again by the exit of the keyhole where he'd put lengths on me like nothing else...then I'd catch him in madness.

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held me up for 2 consecutive out laps then eventually went quicker than me by less than a second. It was more drive than car though, the old man was driving the car, it's much quicker in the hands of his son. I'd come onto the front straight right on his bumper and it would gap me half the distance of the front straight over just that distance, but I'd be right on him again by the exit of the keyhole where he'd put lengths on me like nothing else...then I'd catch him in madness.

 

I believe it. Probably pretty fun to drive, and looked cool on track. Besides the turbo sounds (which were awesome), it was unremarkable from that perspective.

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  • 3 months later...
  • 2 months later...

Time to make some more progress

 

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Yeah, this looks a lot like a step or two back and not progress. The whole process to this point was to locate the windsheild frame and cowl to the chassis. That has been done and multiple measurements were recorded. Everything currently sitting on the chassis now is scrap metal.

 

 

Here is all I'll be using from the original Mustang that was built by Ford in 1968 and even most of it will be scrap metal also soon.

 

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I cut away most of the lower cowl area but retained the upper windshield wiper motor bracket mounting points and the windshelid wiper arm pivot mounting points so I could retain the factory wiper motor and linkage. I will find a way to fasten the lower wiper motor bracket further down the road. Or, most likely, make a whole new motor mounting bracket with a different lower mounting point. With the loss of the lower cowl panel, the windsheild wiper pivot mounts became quite flexible so I welded in a couple of gussets. The driver side is as stiff if not more so than before but the passenger side is still a little more flimsy than I would like. I may have to add some other reinforcement in the future.

 

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Welding to thin gauge 50 year old rusty metal sucks. My welds are embarrassing. Good thing this is the only time these will be seen.

 

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More slicing and dicing of the cowl panel and windshield frame to come soon. Next step after that will be ordering some fresh and rust free sheet metal in fastback form.

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  • 5 weeks later...

New panels have been ordered. The rear quarters and roof skin have arrived, still waiting on the rear deck filler panel, decklid, and rear tail panel.

 

The windshield frame and cowl panel have been trimmed down, media blasted, and treated with rust converter in the nastier areas. I welded in a patch where the rust had run a train on the lower driverside corner of the windsheild frame and filled some holes in the A pillars.

 

The roof panel, windshield frame, and cowl panel roughly in place. Please excuse the pieces of deceased tree corpses used to get everything to the near proper elevation.

 

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I should be able to get the quarter panels in place soon but won't be able to lock them in place for the drastic modifications needed until the rear deck filler panel and decklid arrive.

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  • 4 weeks later...

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A little progress. Roof, quarter panels, deck filler panel, and tail light panel now welded together. Next step will be fabricating a removable mounting system to secure it to the chassis. After that, mount the cut off wheel to the angle grinder and cut into pieces. She needs to be wider, much wider.

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