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CP66's 66 CP Solo II Notchback or "Racing, the Disease"

63K views 506 replies 54 participants last post by  CP66 
#1 ·
I was inspired by this thread: http://forums.vintage-mustang.com/track/1081554-autocross-primer.html to become active with this forum since I've been a member since I believe '09 and have a grand total of 6 posts to my name!

Long time lurker 6th or 7th time poster. It was recommended in another thread after posting the following photo that I start a build thread. I'm hesitant to do so as it would show the world how little I've gotten accomplished on a project started over 15 years ago.


Just a little background; I started autocrossing in '77 with a nice 66 coupe that was primarily a street car. As things go it slowly became a gutted out race only project that by then was being regularly raced in Texas Region events along with several trips to Nationals in Salina and Topeka until I decided to build a new tub with a proper cage into which I would transfer the suspension/driveline into once the body and cage were completed.

As often happens with a slowly evolving project scope creep set in and I decided to go to a coilover 3 link style rear suspension and ultimately hoped to find someone to help me build a front suspension more conducive to dicing the cones than the factory front suspension on the car. Although I had lowered the A-arms and tried various springs, swaybars, etc. the truth was that the factory based suspension just wasn't going to take me to the next level. Since I am not an engineer and could not find someone able to design, build and install the "ultimate" front suspension for me, the project languished for several years.

During this time I moved to the Indianapolis area and thought “Hey cool! The racing capital of the world should allow me to find someone to get my project back on track!” I found that to be a not quite accurate statement but before I could start moving forward again life kicked in and back burner’d the project yet again. Fast forward to about 6 years ago and I had just discovered Ride Tech and after talking to them decided that they had exactly what I was looking for.

So for the past several years UPS and Fedex have been making fairly regular deliveries and the pile of boxes eventually hid the “racecar”out of sight out of mind neatly at the back of the shop. Recently when another project stalled due to lack of fundage and the “honey do” list had been largely vacated I felt it time to inventory and sort the boxes of parts, dust off the racecar and make it a point to have it operational at least to the point it could move under its own power by January 1 2017.

So here it will come to pass; I will attempt to stay the course with planned work sessions on the car and photographic updates of my “progress” as it happens. I’ll warn you right now though that I am no fabricating genius and some of my “skills”are rusty at best. If you happen to see something you don’t agree with or have a better idea during the course of the next several months by all means speak up!
 
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#169 ·
Rapidly losing the weather so I took a couple of days off and have the underside and interior completely primed now. Maybe a couple of spots where the primers a little thin but other than that it's ready to final sand and finish coat.

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Not real sexy but it's progress!! Now, should I pop rivet the rear flares on or glue them and mold them in? I believe I'll go ahead and mold them in, I don't think it's going to be a big issue and it'll really clean up the install. I'm beginning to believe this thing will actually move under its own power soon!😆
 
#171 ·
Sorry no. I'm planning on weighing the tub before I start reassembly so hopefully I'll be able to provide that number. I'm not too concerned about weight as the car has to weigh, 2700 pounds, 3000 pounds or 3300 pounds dependent on what the final driveline configuration is. I'm definitely putting a 351 in it so it'll have to be either 3000 or 3300 pounds so my only weight concern is front/rear bias which cannot exceed 51% rear.
 
#174 ·
Currently working on the flares but I didn't order enough panel adhesive to get them both glued on. With the lower temperatures I allowed the driver's side flare to cure for a couple of days before removing the clecos. I've started molding that side in now.

Requisite porn: Sheet metal dash a buddy formed up for me.

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Being vertical I'm not sure if instrument gauges will be adequately visible when seated in the car so I may build an optional gauge panel to attach to it in some way. I'm considering raising the shifter (B&M Quicksilver reverse shift pattern)up off the floor in close proximity to my right hand while it's on the steering wheel. Economy of motion and all that. Remote reservoirs and balance bar adjustment for the brakes will also mount as well as requisite switches.
 
#176 ·
Alright gents, need some assistance here. I'm trying to find some foam to rebuild my fresh air intake for the racecar. Pictured is a simple solution to seal the air intake to the underside of the hood which opens into a cowl induction hood scoop. I built this about 25 years ago and as such the foam has degraded quite a bit. Anybody have any familiarity with foam that can help me identify it so I can order fresh? It's open cell and compressible, 2 inch by 3 inch which isn't critical as I had to cut it down to that size when I built it originally. I've been looking at pictures all day and my eyes are crossing.

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#177 · (Edited)
Well the flares are in place and roughed in and ready for blocking I've actually made a lot of progress on this in the past couple of months. I've got two more days of decent weather and I'm pretty sure the door is going to slam shut so I'll be getting the roof and quarters ready for primer and the whole thing will be the same color for the first time in 25+ years! 😁

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#179 ·
The hood seal...racing creates incredible underhood temps, would foam really work? Why not use a nascar style aluminum carb base with a rubber vertical seal. Something like what Summit offers here.. you could prob fab this yourself. Big plus, aluminum is a great heat shield.
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#180 ·
That is a good looking piece and I am considering building something like that. Since this is an autocross only car I've never been worried about the heats effect on the foam although it's flammability is of some concern. I'd thought about building an airbox that fed from the cowl ala trans am back in the day but since we're allowed hood scoops decided it wasn't worth the extra effort.
 
#182 ·
Nothing really to report just a "page 3" bump. I've been looking for some new opportunities to occupy my time, space and money and I believe I've come up with the answer. Composites!! Once I get the car sitting on 4 wheels and able to move under it's own power I'm going to start playing around with composites again. I've been thinking about doing some carbon fiber panels to lighten up the front end further but DAYUM the price of buying finished carbon fiber components is just stupid!

Just as an example Ring Brothers I believe sells CF doors for a 66 for $2700 EACH. And that's not even for the pretty ones! Those are $4900 each. Discounting the cost of building the molds I'm sure I can bring them in under $600 each and perhaps less, I'm guesstimating on the cost of the CF materials.

Hopefully more to come on this in a year or so! 😁
 
#183 ·
:ROFLMAO:
The warm weather is near so it's time to order the paint for the undercarriage and interior. In the meantime, I ran across this pic the other day. Me and my original racecar just prior to getting painted, probably 1985 or so.
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Notice that this one is still streetable but due to the mods I'd take it out to the local Corvette and Porsche events and clean up on the stock "hosts". The Corvette club actually started handicapping me between 3 and 6 seconds. No biggie, they all knew that "old ratty mustang" was beating up on their pretty plastic cars and fancy vee dubs!😁
 
#184 ·
I am doing the air cleaner housing pan sealed up to a cowl induction hood. I can't find anything aftermarket that will work with my 4'' tall cowl hood so i think i'm going to fabricate one from aluminum. I have have holley sniper xflow efi and im thinking about making the air pan underneath the throttle body to isolate it, hopefully prevent any heat damage to the electronics that is a common problem. I like the tall aluminum style pans with the round rubber seal on the top edge of the pan (similar to the Allstar pan)
 
#186 · (Edited)
Well the paint for the underside, interior, and trunk should arrive this weekend. So with the suspension setup in the back I can no longer place the mufflers under the back seat bump ups. I'm trying to keep the car low and maintain as much ground clearance as I can so I think I'm going to bring the mufflers into the backseat area and exit in the passenger side in front of the rear tire where the Shelbys had their brake scoops. Dummying the mufflers in place to help me plan the tubing and routing.
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Underside shot to illustrate the dilemma; the mufflers usually go where the red outlines are but the lower links of the 4 link in black eliminate that area for muffler parking. The green shows the potential route of the exhaust pipes going back up thru the floor where the blobs are at the end of the green lines. I don't know if it's a big deal but running the exhaust under the passenger side would help a little with the weight distribution. We'll see. . . . . . .
 
#188 · (Edited)
Looking at a cradle like this to hold the mufflers. A couple of bolts thru the hump and a couple of legs bolted to the floor pan should be strong enough. The two downpipes will go thru the floor where I'll run both pipes into an X and then one side crosses over and ties into the headers.

I'll finish fabbing it up and final fit it then prep it and prime it. I'll cut the two holes for the down pipes and after that no excuses! The underside and interior will get it's final color coat and then it's time to start putting the suspension back under it and get serious about getting this thing operational!

Clearances dictate mounting the mufflers in such a way, it has to clear the cage, the suspension rods underneath, the suspension rods inside as well as allow some sort of fairly easy routing of the exhaust pipe thru the right side of the panel in the vicinity of the side scoop area.

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#192 ·
No room underneath. There will be an insulated panel enclosing the back seat area. Short of redesigning the seat mount and battery box, cutting and raising the floor and relocating the mufflers this is a relatively painless solution. I'm open for suggestions. Remember that this is an autocross car so time in action relatively short it's not like I'm running enduros with it.
 
#194 ·
In-car exhausts are fairly common in my class at the national level. I had actually considered a set of over the top180 degree headers but they'd have had to been custom built to fit between the shock towers.
 
#195 ·
It's not just how thick they are; there just isn't any place for them with the links crossing diagonally under the rear set pedestals. If there were a 3 inch thick muffler that would fit between the subframe and drive shaft, had a 3 inch inlet and outlet as well as meeting the SCCA sound requirements it would be a no brainer.
 
#196 ·
Copy that. As stated, I know zero about your goal or rules you must satisfy. I’ll keep asking the totally uninformed questions. Next one is, could you cut up the floor and box it in to make space for the mufflers. Reason I’m asking is if you have to build a box inside to cover them and still have the floor as well, it seems a little redundant. If that’s not “allowed”, then I guess it makes more sense. Just asking…
 
#197 ·
It is allowed but.. . . . . . . . I should have been thinking about this issue sooner than I did. In order to do it now I'd have to redesign and install my battery box and drivers seat mount. It would be another step/obstacle in a journey that has taken FAR too long. I originally thought I would have to have this car on track the first event of the season due to my plan of attending the 50th Annual SCCA Nationals. Fortunately for me and possibly due to Covid the 50th takes place next year and not this year as I had originally believed.

No at this point I'm still hoping to get in enough events this year to at least get it somewhat dialed in and then run a few to loosen up my rusty driving skills in the hopes of finishing at least mid-pack at the Nationals next year.

The box inside isn't entirely for the exhaust components, the upper links on the rear suspension enter the cabin and they must be covered, I'm just taking it a little farther and covering the whole back seat area. Some have questioned the added weight of some of these additions but the car must weigh in at 3050 lbs as raced. My last car completely gutted came in at 2450 so you can see that added weight from additional components isn't too big of a concern as long as I put it in the right place.
 
#199 ·
What about running Supertrapps?


These would give you the space and sound reduction you are looking for and are "tuneable". I ran them years ago and really liked them.

Chris
 
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#201 ·
:) Can you use those instead of routing your mufflers into your car?

Chris
 
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