'66 Vert Project

[Brent]

Well you guys need to appreciate the clean, easy, nice fitting build of your Unique Kits. This is the flip side of a car build. Dirty, tough pain in the a$$. The '66 Mustang pro touring project is in high gear and I sure miss the Deluxe Pallet kit. First I disassemble the car to the bare body,sand and soda blast,order all new body parts, narrow the 9" housing, remove the front frame,expand the rear wheel tubs (soon), and fab up a torque arm. I cut out the bottom of the stock front and rear frame rails and shot a laser between them. (The stock version is a "uni-body style" not prepared for 500 hp and traction.) Then I cut out the floor pans and the seat platforms between them so the new frame could slide up into the slot and be completely welded to the car. To fit a 3" exhaust in the tunnel later I removed the center "vert" brace and it will be replaced with 3 crossmembers including the front torque arm mount.


This is what I have so far after 200 plus hours:
I will post more as I progress if everyone thinks it is appropriate here.

[RJacobsen]

Cutting, cleaning, laser, welding, fabricating, this all sounds like normal stuff to me. I'm sure the end result will be something fantastic Brent.

[eliminator]

I am getting too old for all of that, good job Brent.

[will butterworth]

this one is for the younger folks---looks good Brent, what powerhouse do you plan for the baby?Sure, this is a good place to keep us informed of your progress.Me and Cyrus worked on a 66 stang all summer one year, kept unibody,but we worked our butts off dragging it from one place to another.I got a hammer you can use. Will-alabama

[Russ Dickey]

Brent:
Very nice! I am planning a similiar "g-force" style makeover to my '66 Mustang, so I will be anxious to see your updates as this project progresses!

Russ

[Brent]

Rick, You are more fit than I am.

Russ, I will post as often as I can. Glad to hear you are doing the same.

Will, It is the same little 408" Windsor I built last year, AFR 185 CNC ported heads, Lunati roller valvetrain, Scat crank and rods, KB pistons, gapless rings, Wiand intake, MSD, main girdle, Milodon pan, and probably a Paxton Supercharger with an alcohol/water injection system. Should make 500 on the motor and ????? with 8-12 lbs of boost. C-4 trans, fully manual reverse valve body, and a 9" rear. Check out the polished billet Wilwood calipers

Thanks guys,

[glenn]

looks good brent, Your really building this one from scratch. I'm playing with a 68 fastback, but i'm not nearly involved as you are. Still a slow process. Keep posting your progress and pics. I'm certainly interested. Take care Glenn

[RJacobsen]

Brent, I'm wondering why you chose a C4 trans. I always thought they were too light duty for what your doing. Would a C6 or something aftermarket be better?

[pbrown]

The C4 is plenty strong. There are a lot of drag racers beating on them every weekend. I have one in a 62 Falcon behind a 400+ HP 331 motor.

[Brent] Are you planning on a Mustang II front IFS kit? It looks that way after seeing your oil pan.

[Naumoff]

Nice work Brent. Is the front clip going to flip up or is it going to be a conventional set up?

[Brent]

I am glad you guys don't mind me posting this here. There are some Mustang forums but it is really about the people not the cars. I don't have a Unique anymore but I still feel attached here.

Thanks!

Patrick, You are correct. Heidt's Mustang II. It wont even come close to fitting my application but it can be modified to work. I ordered the 2" drop spindles and that only gets you back to the original ride height. I have to install a frame rail above the existing frame rail and after everything is welded in place remove the original frame.

Hey Tony, The front will appear stock from the outside. The hood will open as usual with hinges (no springs on the hinges) it is a GT350 style with the same scoop as the Cobra. The grill will be an aluminum '66 with fog lights, horse, and corral, stock bumpers etc. The goal is a "stock appearing" muscle car that will play with a new ZO6 all day......with the top down (-: Under the hood the shock towers will be removed and the firewall will be smoothed. The burgundy car below has the exact same set up and engine compartment but it is no lower than stock so the frame was left alone. My project has the front lower frame 3.5" from the ground.

Glenn, I just want a car as cool (or close) to a Cobra with 4 seats. I really don't know how this will work out but I have a pretty good idea and over 1000 pictures and drawings. The reason I chose a rusty inline 6 auto car was the fact that only the shell would be used and I would not want to cut up a rust free solid GT.

[ralphscott]

All right Brent! My 72 Mach 1 needs that kind of frame. No more shimmy and shake just GO!

Too bad I am trying to keep it body wise stock. Glad to see you are into the project.

Ralph

[Naumoff]

Brent,

Have you ever checked out Bill Parham's Falcon? It has a Windsor based stroker and no shock towers.

[Brent]

Tony,

I have seen Bill's Falcon. Very nice car!
That motor is a "Clevor". Windsor block and Cleveland heads.
The Cleveland has always had 2 problems. It has the weight of a big block and the runners were so large that the motor had to be turned pretty hard for them to really run. They do run well though. Kelly (bittentoo) had a very mild Cleveland in his orange car and it was very impressive. Not too many big blocks wanted to play with it. If you put that head on a Windsor you have the buzz capabilities of a Windsor and the flowing heads of a Cleveland. Good combo! Not far from a NASCAR plant.

I know he tried to play with it in front of Unique a few years ago and it was from curb to curb. Lots of power but he ran out of talent........I am kidding.......I am kidding. The car was beautiful, well detailed, and a bad &^%%$*&(.

[will butterworth]

gonna be surprised at that 408 and set-up you got in it, looking good---keep us posted--nexyear homecoming?Will-alabama

[will butterworth]

valve covers look exactly like ones Cyrus-Zach put on engine they built for my car.Have to get Cy or Zach to tell you what -how they built , all they told me was a 383 stroker. Has lot more than me and momma needs for our tooling around though.Will-alabama

[Brent]

The housing is narrowed and the new Moser axles arrived last week.
The custom lower control arm/shock mount brackets for the rearend turned out nice. A friend at Evansville sheetmetal cut them out on a water jet machine. The torque arm is finished and everything is tacked together.
While waiting for the axles I decided to go with a smooth painted dash ILO of the factory dash pad. So I shaved all of the pad supports and mounting hardware off of the top.

At least something is going back IN the car. After all of the carnage there is nothing left of it.

[Naumoff]

Smoothing out the dash should look nice. Are you going to put a rollbar in?

[eliminator]

Keep them coming!

Intresting stuff!

[bittentoo]

Sweeeeettttttt!!!!!!!