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‘65 therapy build

8K views 49 replies 16 participants last post by  Wildhorse65 
#1 ·
My Dad and I built this car 18 years ago when I was in high school. We built it road race style. Built 302, C4 trans, all the frame stiffeners available, disc brakes, 17” wheels, and geared to get out of the corners. Speaking of corners, this thing will corner with any sports car out there. The car has a ton of sentimental value to me. My wife and I had a few of our first dates in this car 13 years ago. So to build it back to where it should be, and how I’ve always wanted it, will be awesome.

After I lost my Dad a few months ago, I drove down to SoCal and picked it up. And it’s great to have good friends when you need them for sure, as you see my help getting it on the trailer. She will be my therapy project.
I am going full custom pro touring with this car. It has a touch over 400hp. I was going to install an AOD 4 speed trans to make it more cruising worthy, but decided on a T5 instead. All new interior, and a bunch of custom body touches. The body is straight as an arrow as it is, all original, but I am looking to add quite a few modern touches to it. Not sure how long this project will take me, but I am definitely looking forward to it.

I got the motor/trans pulled about two months ago, and got started on the cleaning up the engine. All cleaned and painted, with a bunch of new exterior goodies, rebuilt the Holley Street Avenger carb, turned in my C4 as a core for the freshly built T5 I purchased. I installed a new Pro 5.0 shifter, and swapped out the correct crossmember. I purchased a new Ford Motorsports billet flywheel, and King Cobra 10.5” clutch. I also got the clutch pedal installed, and I’ve got to saw the hardest part about that conversion was clearancing the cowl to fit the cable cam. Now I’m going to install new power steering lines, while it’s easy to access, clean up and paint the engine bay, then I’ll mate the motor and trans, and get them back in the car.

I have a bunch of great, clean, straight parts that I have for sale from the car as well, but can’t list them here because I don’t have the post count yet. So if there’s anything you guys are looking for, but me up, I may have it.
 

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#2 ·
Even though you cannot post for sale parts yet, you could post a picture if that is not going around the rules too much.

Welcome to the forum, I have only been here for a bit over a year, a great group of people always willing to help.

I like the ideas for your build, if you take a look at my build thread you will see I am going for a full pro touring style build too.

If you don't mind, update your profile to show where you are at, you don't have to call out the city, but the general area will let those interested in parts if you are close by enough to warrant a road trip. Also a first name in your posts helps just so that we can address you by name, not just by your alias.

I will enjoy watching your progress.
 
#6 ·
Thanks. Being a high performance boater for as many years as I have been, I’ve always been in love with Mercury Racing’s bluenon their motors. Turns out, it’s a ford color! So it fit perfectly, and will look killer with a clean satin black engine bay, and satin charcoal paint on the body.
 
#10 ·
Sorry for your loss. I'm in a similar situation having inherited my dad's 65 convertible after he passed in 2016. He had our Mustang practically since new, having bought it from his uncle who was the original owner. It was in my life from day 1 and I have many memories of working on it with him and going to car shows. Now its mine to share with my son as we work on it and take it to shows. Your build looks awesome and I look forward to seeing the progress.
 
#15 ·
First off sorry about your loss...and secondly I like the history of your car and that it’s going to be therapy in doing your build it’ll feel good and my kinda therapy. I knew that was the high desert area I’ve passed through that area for years when i was a contractor and have now relocated for my job to Nevada. By the way welcome to the forum tons of great guys here that will enjoy watching your build as well as helping if you need it. Anyways enjoy your build and get that car ready for some more date nights.
 
#16 ·
Thanks a bunch. I’m in Henderson as well, so I’m sure you’ll see it before too much longer. I was origyshooting for the huge car show in mesquite at the end of Jan, but there’s no way I can get her done by then.
 
#19 ·
Just about ready to mate up the motor to the trans. Need to get the flywheel/clutch installed first, then slide them together. Then after cleaning up and painting the engine bay, I’ll drop them in. I will be doing a fair bit of fabrication under hood. Custom built core support, connected tubular montecarlo bar/export brace/upper shock mounts, and a bunch of aluminum sheet metal panels to cover certain areas. With the holidays here, work will stop on it until the first of the year, then I’ll hit it hard again with all of these items.
 

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#21 ·
Some more parts showing up, including my wheels, and my custom 13.5” carbon fiber steering wheel.
 

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#25 ·
More updates. Just about down with all of the little details on the motor. It’s all about the details.
 

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#26 ·
Dove in head first this morning. Now that the fun part is done, meaning the motor build, time to get down and dirty. 54 years of dirt and grime accumulation, adds up. The radiator support was in pretty bad shape, and I didn’t do it any favors when I pulled the motor and trans together. Since this is a full custom build, and being a chassis fabricator, I will be building a custom radiator core support, as well as full Monte Carlo support/export brace/coil over mounts.
 

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#27 ·
Here my latest update. I’ve got the front end all cleaned up and painted. All new front suspension, coilovers and brakes. All new steering linkage on its way also. I will probably build new outer tie rods/adjusters for bump steer correction. My E2 nose arrived as well.
 

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#29 ·
Motor/trans is in! Headers installed. Now working on all plumbing under the hood. Just about ready to fabricate my core support/radiator mount, all of my engine bay bracing, and shock mounts.
 

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#37 ·
Nose is on, and almost blended seamlessly. I couldn’t believe how bad this nose fit from the manufacturer. I ended up having to cut off the lower ground effects piece that runs at the bottom of the fender, and then trim the fender to get it to line up, and shorten those pieces about 1” to get it to line up properly. Then bolted it together, and fiberglassed it all together again.
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