Radiator solution

Left side is the focus radiator, right is the Mustang Radiator

 

When I picked up the mustang radiator, it sounded like plinko on the "price is right".  I shook it and a couple mouse poison pellets fell out.  I shook it some more and:

 

Fortunately no dead mouse in it.

 

The mustang radiator core is 1.5 inches thick,  The focus radiator is 1 inch thick.  The mustang radiator is about 50% taller.  Unfortunately It is also a little wider and doesn't fit between the headlights unless I mount it super low, or too far back.  I don't think the focus radiator is up to the task of cooling this motor, but I looked around online and found another builder who used the stock focus radiator.

 

In the spirit of get it running and driving before committing money to fixes, I think I will build with the focus radiator which will require no mounts or fanciness.  See what happens, and then react accordingly.  The stock shroud and fans will not fit.  However since I won't have the AC core in there, I now have room for a pusher fan:

one year down

So teaching swatted out my progress pretty hard like I expected.  Should pay for the fuel injection and then some, so worth it.  I just found out I will teach in the Fall again, so this is turning into a good bit of income on the side to fund vacations and car stuff without touching my primary income. If I can just get a few more tree surgery gigs...

Anyway this month makes one year done on the project.  I feel like I took on many of the harder problems in the build, and have good, safe, and innovative solutions to show for the effort.  I have spent almost nothing, learned a lot of new things about cars, and about how to make things.  I am very happy with where I am at.

I am burning up some vacation this week and have gotten out there a bit.  I have some progress to report:

Steering / suspension: 
I bought the bump steer kit from Maximum motorsports and a 5/8 drill bit from Mcmaster and drilled my knuckles out with my neighbor's mill.

So then I could put the struts, knuckles, brakes and new links in to see how everything fits:

 

I will have to move the brake hose attachment points aft about 8 inches but I have parts to do that.  Bottom line is this can be on its wheel now whenever I want, and I can steer it with the steering wheel.  Really psyched about that.  I will set bump and toe later in the project.  The kit came with Nylock nuts.  I will probably add a cotter pin to the mix for good measure.  For now I will swap to non nylock so that I don't waste the nylock feature when I know stuff will come apart again.

 

Clutch:

I mounted the slave cylinder to the car.  I will beef this up a little later:

 

 As you can see above, I found a brake line that is 3/8-24 male on the slave cylinder end and 7/16-24 on the female end for my flare nut. I don't even remember now the trickery I used to find this, but it is a Dorman hose H64843 available from anywhere, and really cheap.


 I took the little push rod and threaded one end, ane threaded one end to mate to a rod end, and lathed a groove to receive the dust boot:

 

Here it is with the hardware that will hook to the clutch arm: 

 

Now I am looking at where the accessories wil sit, the belt routing and tensioner, and the radiator.  I want to be sure that I hve clearance for everything.  I through back on the ront of the car that has been off for so long to check how all this will fit.  The engine looks like it belongs in there, and the suspension looks like I never touched it:

 

uncutting the firewall

I finished the reset on the master cylinder tonight.

Here is where I had ground out a spot to get the lines through for the new MC:

Cut the patch (including the holes) with the plasma.  Looks ratty, but this side is covered with the MC.

With the pedals and MC back in place:

Here is the engine side with the reservoir and my adapter hooked up.  

Nothing worse than being careful and deliberate and still making the wrong call. But at least this is behind me now (I think).  Next step is to run the MC line finally, and hook up the slave cylinder.

tubing straightener

Hard lines can be bought in straight shortish lengths, or in a long cheap coil.  You can use a tubing straightener to straighten the coil.  For some weird reason these are really expensive.  I am waiting for some Summit parts so I thought I would make one.  Here is one you can buy for $200 from Eastwood:

I bought these rollers from Lowes ($6 for a pair):

Plus a piece of angle chopped in half and a couple screws:

Does alright:

I got this in the mail tonight:

Brick of coke?  Nope, something way better: 

This is the first time I have really sat down and spent time with the handbook.  I suddenly realize that it is the reason everyone seems to know so much about everything.  I can't believe how many questions I have had in my head for years that are answered so plainly in here.  Best $45 spent in a while.  So I am still $140 ahead of buying the Eastwood straightener...

making the steering column do something

So now the the hardware connects the steering wheel to the rack.  I still need to drill and secure everything, but it is tight and smooth, and moves freely.  The next hurdle is connecting the steering rack to the knuckle. 

 

When looking for bump steer kits, there are two sorts I find.  One kind retains the tapered hole through the steering arm with a special stud.  The other kind has you drill out the knuckle and bolt through with a standard bolt.

 

Initially I wanted to retain the taper.  I liked that the connection could always be made to be very tight.  Many of these studs I find are for mustangs.  Here is an example below:

 

 

 

I have already found that the mustang tie rod end (TRE) does not fit through the hole on the focus knuckle.  I could buy a tapered reamer and open up the hole until it fits.  Ford and GM have different taper angles.  It seems like Ford uses a 7° taper.  I couldn't verify that Ford uses the same for everything.  Anyway it looks like a taper reamer goes for about $75 - $110.  I measured my TRE hole and calculated about 7.9° I checked and if one of my diametrical or thickness measurements were off by as much as .010 inch, it changes my answer about 0.5°.  So I have little confidence in what I have or need.

 

After reading more, it seems things work just fine if not better using a bolt through style:

 

 

The maximum motorsports site (their bump steer kit seems to be used and well regarded in forums) is kind enough to post what is in the kit.  They use a 5/8 grade 8 bolts.  My large side was .580 so this wouldn't really influence any wall thickness concerns, and gives me some margin on shear area.  I am planning to drill out the knuckle to just undersize and then ream to 5/8.  Then BFH the bolt through.  There is nothing in that $140 kit that I can't make myself in an afternoon, although I may not be able to do it much cheaper, and it might be nice if my wife and kids can blame somebody if it breaks.

 

Oh by the way, I wanted to make sure bumpsteer was reasonable before I started buying stuff.  So I threw the wheels on and and put the whole mess back on the ground.  Ground clearance seems to be about 5.25 inches which is pretty much right on what I wanted.  The fender gaps are a bit larger than stock, even with me sitting on the bumper, so I am scratching my head on that one. 



clutch adapter

The Ford quick connect for the clutch is fine for the remote reservoir but causes problems for the pressurized side where I am hooking up to non factory things.  I thought over a few options and decided my easiest path forward was to lathe a part that was Ford quick connect on one side, and 3/8-24 inverted flare adapter fitting on the other.  I cut the threads with a die since I still don't have a threading tool for the lathe.  The die did a terrible job, but fortunately the threads are not what make the seal.

Top: my lathed piece and a 3/8-24 union that will accept a tube nut.  Bottom: Original hose.

Here is my part assembled in the the Master cylinder.  It fit perfectly.  I just hope it seals!

Crud!

I always try to do things in order of risk.  The things I assess to be highest risk get dealt with first.  There is always the chance that a bad decision made early on can unravel a lot.  That sort of happened.  I cut out the old clutch location, and ground it out nice and big:
Streering column is long but looks mostly ok.

Here is the titular crud:  Steering angle from inside the car is much harsher than I expected.

So my assumption last may (?) that I could make this work with these headers was bogus.  I need a custom header, and I need the steering column to go where it should.  So, now I don't necessarily need the Wilwood MC.  I think the connections to the original Ford one will take less machining and adapters, so I will go back to that.  I unfortunately can not return the Wilwood since I had to cut its pushrod shorter.  I also will have to put the pedal box back how it was:

and make a plate to replace the area I chopped from the firewall (to be done later).  

While I was repositioning the the steering column I filled up the racetrack shaped hole where the old column went through:

I didn't have a hole saw big enough for my steering support bearing.  I marked with tape and a marker where I wanted it:

 Then burnt it out with the plasma torch, which was very sketchy due to endless flammables and expensive parts behind it.  I got close and touched up the last bit with a dremel.  To hide my poor workmanship, I mounted the bearing on the far side of the firewall:

Finished steering column connection from the engine side:

So now I am mostly recovered from that fiasco.  I start teaching again in two weeks.  I can't imagine I will get very many nights out there for a few months, so I need to make the most of this time.