Friday, October 22, 2021

All Jacked Up!



I went to Harbor Fright today and picked up their top of the line 3 Ton jack. I did not know that they came in colors other than Yellow. They have three colors now, the Classic Yellow, a Deep Candy Apple Red and the one I got, Sunburst Metallic Orange.

I went for their best jack because it has grease fittings on the wheels and it comes with a 3 year warranty. It's a low profile design that lifts from 3-3/4 in. to 23-1/8 in. It has a very long handle to help with reducing the amount of pumps you need to lift whatever you are jacking up.

It's very heavy at 113 Lbs. The weight and the great wheels makes it super easy to roll around on the garage floor.

The first task it'll be used for will be for changing all the shocks on the F-250. I picked up two front and two rear Bilstein shocks to replace the original Ranchero shocks that are shot.


I already own the Pittsburgh Aluminum 1.5 ton Race Jack. It's pushing it with a full weight Mustang, but will be great once the GT gets down to race car weight. It'll be good to take to the track because it's light (33 Lbs.) and has a handy handle. Plus there was no way I was going to be able to use the race jack on the F-250.

That is all for now...





 

Friday, October 15, 2021

Inspiration


A quick post and a note to myself of my goal and what I want the project car to look like. Not in orange, but in silver and black. I will change my bumper to this Cobra front bumper. This bumper has parking light holes that make great brake cool ducts.

I'm not sure why this car does not have a rear spoiler, it might have been a rule when this car was built. They tweak the rules all the time. In fact some of the new rule changes have led me to want to build an American Sedan car. I'm able to re-wire the ECU and re-program it in the new rules. That will take care of my PATS problem.


Saturday, October 9, 2021

U-Turn

 


Since my last post the project has been on hold. I was heading in the direction of building a fun, "budget" drag car. One that I'd take to test and tunes and to parking lot car shows. I have always wanted a race car ever since I was a kid building model cars in the garage. This project would have been me building a 1:1 scale model car in my garage once again.

The plan was to use a set of rules to keep my budget in check. I found a class in the National Mustang Racing Association, or NMRA. The class was Modular Muscle, or MM. 

It's a bracket racing class where you "Run What You Brung". Your low budget drag car can run against high dollar cars because it's a handicap race. You state a time your car will run and they do the same. The slowest car leaves first and then the fastest car leaves after the difference of each of your dial-in times. The racer that runs closest to his dial-in without going faster than that time is the winner. More information on bracket racing in the link below:

https://www.hemmings.com/stories/article/bracket-racing-basics


Now the problem. The Atlanta Dragway has been sold. The NHRA has sold the property to some developers that will put condos on it. The money from the sale will be taken out of state to fund other facilities. So, no test and tune night, no NMRA events and no more Southern Nationals. Atlanta's premier dragstip will be no more.

The closest dragstrip is Paradise Dragstrip. It's 80 miles from me and it's only an 1/8th mile track. The next closest dragstrip is Silver Dollar Raceway and it's 105 miles from me. Both are off I-75 and the traffic on both parts of that highway on Friday nights is terrible. 

The plan now is to build an SCCA American Sedan class car.



Looking through the SCCA rules for American Sedan (AS) I have found that this class has enough restrictions to keep my costs down. I have most of the parts I need to get started.

In the SCCA Solo rules it states: "Cars listed as eligible in and prepared to the current Club Racing American Sedan (AS) rules are permitted to compete in Street Prepared class B (BSP)".

The Solo events are held at the Atlanta Motor Speedway only 38 miles from me. They are held during the day on Saturday or Sunday so it won't suck as much towing a race car in traffic.

At first I'll run in Solo events to get some seat time. I'm also interested in the SCCA "Track Night in America" event that is held at Road Atlanta. That event will get you on a real racetrack for 3 - 20 minute runs. The cost is super reasonable at $155. Another great way to get some seat time on a real racetrack.

With the parts I have right now it probably won't be a competitive car, but I'll upgrade as I learn how to drive. I will post more often now that I have a direction to head toward. The upcoming posts will mostly be the teardown, the cheapest part of building a race car!   ;-)

The main goal to to get the car moving again. I'm tried of seeing my project car sitting gathering dust in the garage.

Stay Tuned!



Wednesday, December 30, 2020

Moving the Mustang

We added a front 2" DrawTite receiver hitch and an 8" drop hitch mount to the F-250 Super Duty tow vehicle.


 
Then we added a tow bar to the Mustang GTs rear bumper bar. This way we can move the car in and out of the garage until we get it running again.

 
This is a nice setup since the driveway is on hill and pushing the Mustang in and out of the garage would be dangerous. We also put two space saver spare tires in front to make it easier to turn since there is no power steering when it's not running.
 
 
This project was very close to dead. It was at the point of becoming a project car cliché, where it just sat until the car was sold off. My intrest was renewed when my brother picked up this car:

 
It is a 2011 Shelby Cobra GT500 with only 4,800 miles on it. It has the SVT package and is very fast! He is looking to do parking lot shows and might try it out on the drag-strip. 
 
This is the motivation I needed to get my Mustang project back on track. I want to be able to park next to his car at these shows and run him at the track with my 4.6 2 valve GT.

I know it's been almost 2 years since my last post and in fact I had just recovered the blog since I had deleted it in Oct. 2020. So this project was really dead. It was my brother getting into the Mustang world that has revived this project.
 
I will post more in 2021. I promise!





Thursday, January 10, 2019

Driver Door Panel Removed

Spent a bit of time in the garage today and got the driver door panel off. Trying to stick to a plan of doing just a little bit at a time. I'm also taking my time as I strip down the Mustang. I and not cutting any wires and I'm using the right tools for job.

These tools are great for removing door panel push in tabs and the 'christmas tree' fasteners that attach the wiring harnesses to the car. For $15 and some change they are a lifesaver.



I was going to remove the speaker, but it's pop riveted into the door. I know I can unscrew the speaker off it's mount, but I'm going to sell the whole Mach 460 stereo unit and all it's parts. I'll wait until I get the other panel off before I whip out the drill.

Then there is this blue box that is attached to the drivers door panel. I have no idea what the thing is, time to look it up.


OK, it's a "Ford Mustang Auto Down Window Module Power Door Lock Relay". I had seen a video on how to remove this panel and their panel did not have this on there. So I guess it's a 1998 thing? Anyway good to know.



Monday, January 7, 2019

New Year, New Post!

Getting some work done on the project. Starting to strip it down and selling the parts off to help fund the project and lighten up the car.

Here is the gauge cluster before I removed it.


The cluster has been removed and the steering column has been stripped-down. The white spot on the right is where the kid that owned the car before me superglued a switch for some tacky blue fog lamps. That will be a perfect place for a start button.

Taking out the Mach 460 stereo system, with it's amps, speakers and subwoofers.

I have looked at Racecraft's quick release steering wheel adapter and it's a tad pricey. I think it's because it keeps all the electronics for the turn signals, horn and airbags. I'm going to look into another option of a weld in quick release.

I'm going to be working on this little by little. I'll post more often with shorter posts, but more photos.





Friday, August 10, 2018

It Begins!



The drag car project starts. There were many ways that I could have taken the project, but I have settled on a simple old school drag car built on a budget.

To me an old school drag car is one with a stick shift, slicks, stripped of everything that is not needed, no power adder, a lumpy cam, a carb and a clean engine bay. I have been taking off the EFI parts that I will not need and selling them. I'll do the same with parts that will only slow the car down.

This will be a dedicated drag car so I can run it on Friday nights at Atlanta Dragstrip's test and tune nights. I have always wanted to drag race a car at the track so that is what the project is all about. I will also take it to parking lot show just to show something different. 

I was turned on to cars and drag racing at a parking lot show back in the late '60s when I saw my first full on drag car. That and getting a ride in a Bucket T got me building model cars and loving hot rods. I'd love it if some kid sees my drag car and gets the bug.

I have to build a workbench and move some things around because it's a tight fit working in a one car garage. I'll also have to look into getting a new LED shop light, because that 500 watt halogen does not help with the heat on a hot Georgia summer day. I'll keep it around for this winter.  :-)


Monday, April 23, 2018

An Update With A New Photo





Another photo to help show the size of the truck. It's got new silicon body mounts that are 3 inches taller than stock. I'm 6' 6" and I still have to use the running boards to get up into the truck. It is really nice being above the traffic so you can see what is going on up ahead.

Saturday, April 21, 2018

It's Here! The Big Surprise. Every race car needs a tow vehicle...



A 2005 Ford F-250 XLT Super Duty, Super Cab, four wheel drive. It has the full tow commander package and can tow up to 12,500 LBS. I'll get more photos up later. Oh, the Mustang is back in the garage...


Wednesday, April 18, 2018

Not the surprise, but some progress

The car has been outside for over a year now. For the last six months it has been under some scrub trees and looked like this:




I soaked it with the foam cannon.


Then I just used the pressure washer. No hand washing just touchless with the washer.





I believe that the crud was easy to spray off because under all that crud the car had been polished with Zanio.

https://www.zainostore.com/

I like Zaino and have used it since I got the GT back in 2008, but I'm going to give Turtle Wax Ice a try. I can get it locally so if I run out of something I can just run down to the store and get more.

The Mustang is going back into the garage and won't see the outside much so I'm sure the Turtle Wax will do the job.

I'll post again this Saturday or Sunday about the surprise!