My Track Toy Build

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Been working on the car again. Not to make excuses or put my personal life out there but since I have started this project I have been through a divorce and then the family business that I have worked for, for the past 15 years shut down. Its been hard
to get motivated. I have a great girlfriend now and job prospects are looking up but I'm still looking. So I have been trying to do a little
each night. I have more time then money right now so I can take the time to do things I wouldn't have before.

I got the doors on a scale, I have them down to 40 pounds each. I think I can get some more out of them. Would love to know what stock doors weigh? The are very heavy!!!
I decided to keep going with the shell prep. I have all the glass out and then went to fun task of removing all the seam sealer inside the shell.
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Ford decided to use half an inch of seam sealer on everything.
This is such a pain but I'm glad I'm doing it. The seam sealer was hiding the "R" word witch you can see in the pic.
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Its not bad, just surface rust. If I hadn't done this I wouldn't ever found this. I wonder how many cars are like mine with rust hiding and waiting to get out. This was a southern car and still has this. I will wire brush everything and spray with rust converter when I'm done.
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I have about 80% of the seam sealer out of the inside of the shell. I still need to do up around the fire wall. I will use a wire brush on a angle grinder to clean it up and get the rest of the tar paper residue out also. This hasn't been a fun job and I can't wait to get all those wires stuck in my cloths.

On a fun note I have a youtube video for you guys. Its of the
new fastest production car in the world. They are running it at the Kennedy Space Flight Center. Its incredible and 50 state legal to boot!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWAavCjVQvM
I found it very inspirational, Kennedy was dead long before I was born, we sure could use someone like him now!

Been working on the car a lot, I have about 25% of the inside of the shell almost clean enough to eat off of. This is such a crappy job that I can only take so much before I'm looking for something else to do. Its hours of a knotted wire wheel on a angle grinder with a face shield and crap flying every where. No fun!
So one of the things I did today while taking a break from the mess was to lower the back of the roof 1". The is something our
resident NASCAR builder (KY BIRD)suggested to get more air to the rear spoiler. I had no intension of doing it when he suggested it but the more I looked at I realized it wouldn't be hard to pull off. It still needs to be tacked up but its done. I cut the roof where the two bolt on moldings are after the "B" pillar.
I cut all the way from the "B" pillar to the back of the roof. This allowed me to pull the back of the roof down with out putting a kink in it. Just has a nice curve. I don't have to worry about the glass fitting back in because its getting lexan windows, so that is not an issue. Will post pic later.

The other thing I did was drop the 8.8 out of it. Its off to its new home and I will begin mocking up the 7.5" rear suspension. I know MM didn't in vision anyone being dumb enough to try and run a 7.5" rear with there stuff so I will see what I need to do to get it all to work. I know for sure the torque arm will take a little fab work at the front of the diff. I will post pics of that too, later.


WOW, I just edited this. Note to self, no typing when tired!

glad to hear you actually decided to drop the roofline! cant wait to see construction pics.

i drove mine some more, and lit the tires up just to salute the first day of Spring. Now they say more snow's on the way... c'mon dagnabbit!

i hear you loud & clear on the hardships, troubles, and having way more time than money and never enough of either. Still, you're making great moves. hope the 7.5 isnt too much hassle.

-n8-

I have been putting a ton of hours in on the TC. I have the shell in really great shape now. I spent many, many hours on cleaning it up. I have all the tar paper residue and 99% of the seam sealer out now.
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Here are some pics of the roof mocked up. Its far from done. I'm going to bring the sail panels down to match the roof line but you guys get the idea.
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The next project is through the floor subframe connectors. Griggs calls this type "World Challenge" subframe connectors. They also charge about $300 for them or over $500 for the full kit witch includes the lowers too. They also don't offer the WC type for our cars. What makes them special is the go through the rear bulk head and tie into the rear frame rails. The regular type stops at the rear bulk head and they do offer those for thunderbirds. The Jeff Webb Challenge subframe connectors will tie into the rear frame and cost $100 with jacking rails included. This is the steel I picked to do both jobs
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If your wondering why I'm not using the Kenny Brown jacking rails its because they are made from 1/8 steel and are very heavy! Mine are
16 gauge and should work fine. The 2"x2" steel tubing I got is 14 gauge, again plenty strong enough. The 2"x2" fit perfectly inside the stock frame rails.
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The channel I cut for the connector to fit inside.
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This shows the hole in the rear bulk head. Right through that hole is the rear frame rail.
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The level shows how it will work and how the 2"x2" will fit in the floor and frame rails. Griggs claims this will make the car 1500% stiffer. I can see why! Your turning the car into a full frame car. I'm doing this to make the car stronger and also to give me a very sold place to tie my seat mounts in. I'm setting the seats very far back and want something more then sheet metal to mount them to.

wow, you got a lot done. looks great, keep it up, your giving me motivation to get going on my car.

Thanks guys, I appreciate the comments.
I didn't get to touch the car over the weekend but got to work on it tonight.
I got the passenger side through floor sub frame connector mocked up tonight. Unfortunately the connector in the pics is scrap. The front and rear frames aren't in a straight line. I have to bend the bars in two places. I don't have a tubing bender so I cut 3 of the 4 sides of my connectors so I can bend the tubing then and weld them back together. I made my cuts too wide and wider then they need to be. I can't weld them back together has strong as I would like because the gap to bridge is too wide. I can tac this one together and use it has a model for the one's I will actually use in the car. I can then cut this one up and use it for other stuff later so no real loss unless I screw up again witch is possible.
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In these pics the connector is all the way down in the frame rails, front and rear. So this is close to how the finished product will look. The fit in the rear frame rail is very tight!
You have to persuade it in with a hammer but it does fit. I will
post more details after the final install. I'm going to tac this
one together in the car so I know I have the right angles. Then pull it back out. I'm then going to drill holes down the stock frame rails so I can plug weld the sub frame connector into the
stock frame rails before stitch weld the floor of the car to the
connector. It should be incredibly strong when I'm done.

from those pics, it look like a 3x2" would work as a connector too. I had planned on using that size when I get to mine.

from those pics, it look like a 3x2" would work as a connector too. I had planned on using that size when I get to mine.

Yes, 3"x2" would work. I liked the 2"x2" because it was easy to get and when installed sits flush with the floor where your feet would go. It doesn't start to rise above the floor until after the cross brace. I might end up with floor mount pedals
and having a flat floor will make that no issue.

The wheels are turning. Now that I have the right angles I could get a pipe bender and make these. The ones that go under the car are probably the same angles. I still need to find a shell for my quarters and some other parts. I could check the lower subframe connectors then. It would be nice to have some connectors that actually fit our cars unlike the MM ones I had to cut up to work on mine. The through the floor ones would be good for you guys that push your cars hard on the street but don't want to install a cage or even with a cage. You can keep the carpet it would just have to be cut to fit around it in the rear floor area. We will see what I can do?

nice work bro, that's going to be a great improvement. i remember when Scott & Glenn had done some thru-the-floor subs years ago and it looked way more complicated than you are making it look now. job well done.

i'll be watching!