Feb. 11/07

Not much had happened before yesterday. I had some work to do on my cousin's truck and such, but during that time we decided Saturday's mission would be to get the car running. While the car is mostly finished mechanically, there were still a lot of loose end things to finish up and a couple of major things that needed to happen before we could fire the engine up.

Despite our best efforts yesterday, we did not get to fire it up. We did get very close however.

This is the list that was made of everything we needed to get done before starting the car.


We make a list before each day that we work, this one was just particularly long.

My job for the day was to get the dash into the final resting location and to sort out the rat's nest that was the wiring harness. I got the whole thing up and in the car with the wiring in place, but have 2 mystery connectors left that didn't have tags on them. I have to research that further. I may invest in a Helm guide if I run into problems.

Here is the dash in place with the guage cluster installed.



Before I put the wiring up under driver's side of the dash, I removed the plastic in the harness that made it form-fitting. That made the harness a lot more pliable and easier to work with. The form fitting puts the harness in a spot that interferes with the chassis.



The important thing to remember is that even woth the form fitting removed, you want to get the harness in roughly the factory location. Many of the connectors under there only have so much slack to work with so if they are in the wrong location, they may not reach eachother.

Remember to widen the hole on the driver's side for the distribution block that has to go to the outside of the car. There is already a hole there that is the correct length for the plug, you just have to widen it by about 1/4 of an inch.


Here are some miscellanious pictures of the wiring (still not in exactly the final resting place).





On Monday I will button the harness up cleanly and make sure nothing is rubbing on the sharp metal peices found on the dash framing.

Aside from the dash, we got everything final installed on the bottom of the car including the smog pump and drive shaft.



You can see where the twist ties are hold a peice of rubber between the lines and the tunnel. That is because the lines were touching the car there and you can't have that or they will wear through. Also, make sure to use red thread locker on the drive shaft bolts. If you don't, they will loosen off. I have seen cars where the bolts were loose enough to turn them out with my fingers because no thread locker was used.

I finalized the heat-exchanger mounting. I turned the bracket around the other way so that it sits recessed behind the front bumper. I am going to have to cut the front bumper cover to make room, but my ground effects kit will cover that up and offer a direct stream of air into the exchanger.



Also in that picture, you can just see where we got the air filter and mass air installed. Mostly everything in the engine bay is complete except for mounting the overflow tanks, wiper motor, and installing the hood hinges.

Here is the cooler I got for the hydraulic system. The cooler that was on the car was crushed. Even though there were no holes in it, it still looked like ass.



It is just a big heatsink and it looks kind of spiffy.

I did mention the smog pump was mounted. I will touch on that on the next update as there is some modification required to fit it in where it needs to go. I forgot to grab pictures of it though.

That is it for now. Hopefully I will have another update Monday or Tuesday.

We put in 14 hours on Saturday + 234 = 248 hours so far.

Feb. 18/07

Bitter Sweet Symphony.

A lot of work happened to day and we had one very major victory as well.

The first thing we did was get the exhaust up into place. I am using the complete exhaust from the Cobra because I used the IRS. I had some trepidation about how it would fit, but it buttoned up right in the perfect place. I was elated that it worked. My early estimations had me shortening it a little bit. Here is a couple of pics.





That's the 3" pipe sticking out the back. It looks so good with the Cervini rear valance on too. It fits in the exhaust ports perfectly.

Next, I worked on mounting the coolant tank. Originally I was going to use a piece of flat bar to mount it, but I changed plans. I found a bracket that came off of the Cobra that I cannot remember what it was for. All I know is that with very little modification, it made a great mounting plate for the tank. Here it is.



It looks great compared to what I had going with the flat bar.

Next I just bottoned up the EEC and attached the ground. If there is one ground in the car that you really want to ground good, it is this one. It would suck to fry a Cobra EEC and have to replace it.



My cousin finished the filler neck for the gas tank, which was one of the major hang ups last Saturday. The filler neck had to be heavily modified to fit in the fox car. I will not get into it right now because I lack pictures. I will document it soon though.

We got wheels onto the car and actually sat it on the fround for the first time in a couple of months. We had a laugh because the ride height needs to be adjusted up. It is a low rider in the front at the moment.





The pic above is deceiving. There is actually onle 4.5 inches of clearance from the ground to the heat exchanger.

Now for the bitter sweet part.

Tonight marked the culmination of 4 months worth of hard work. After a final look over of the car, connections, hoses, and pulley clearances, we flushed the gas lines and then hit the key.

With the first turn of the key, the engine fired up like a champ. No codes came up on the computer and everything ran exactly how it did in the Cobra.

In a project of this magnatude, you could almost expect something to not work 100% on the first attempt, but it did. That is a testiment to careful planning and organization when it came to this project.

It is a sweet victory to have it run now, but it is bitter because I have really enjoyed this project and it is coming to a close. It is going to the paint shop in a week's time and then it is out of my hands.

Here is a video of the first start up. Ignore my excitement, haha. You will notice I tell him not to rev it. A supercharged engine absolutely needs to warm up before putting it under load.

Video



And here is a couple of revs after the car is warmed up.

Video

So that is it for now.

248 hours + 12 today for a total of 260 hours in so far. That is nearly 11 straight days worth of work if you worked 24/7.

March 07/07

Where are all the updates? The car moved to the paint shop about a 2 weeks ago now. There are not going to be any real updates until the body work starts on the car. It could be a month or 2 before the work gets started as there is a queue that my car sits in. There are some big things planned for the paint and body that will be revealed in time.

In the meantime, I am going to start on a technical info website that will get more into the how-to aspects of the swap. I expect that to go live within the month.

March 29/07

2003 Fuel Neck  in to Fox Modification.

This is a rough drawing of how the neck looks in the Cobra from the trunk area.

This is how I did it. I have not provided measurements, you will have to measure for your application.

This mod is prett easy, but you need to be handy with a welder.

Step 1. Cut the hard lines attached to the filler neck.

One the neck, there are 2 hardlines attached to it. One is a fat line and one is thinner. These are emissions related and will need to be bypassed anyway to get the mod to work. Once the lines are bypassed, they will work as stock. Here is a diagram of the neck and roughly where the lines need to be cut. You will see where the cuts need to be when looking at your neck.

When you cut the thinner line, make sure you leave enough at the part where it enters the filler neck to get a line and a clamp on it.

After I cut the lines, I left the remainder of them there. You may want to grind them down.

Note: Do not throw out the pieces of hardline you cut off just yet, you will need a piece later on.

Also, in the picture in the next step, you can see the remainder of the hardlines.

Step 2. Cut and reweld the filler neck.

Since the trunk area on the 98+ cars is much deeper than the Foxes, the necks are too long to just fit directly in the car. You need to cut a section of the neck out and re-weld it together. The neck is constructed of a thin steel, so no special welding is required. Of course you need to cut and weld the neck when it is removed from the gas tank. After you have re-welded the neck, go around the entire weld with resin impregnated solder to make sure you have a complete seal. Even the smallest of pinholes will allow fuel to get through.

I do not have an exact measurement for you, but you can estimate how much needs to be cut by looking at the next picture.

Step 3. Drill hole for a PVC elbow.

You will need to drill a hole in the Fox plastic box for a PVC elbow. Check the line size and get the appropriate size fitting and then drill a hole for that fitting.  You can affix the elbow using plasti-weld or a high strength urethane, just make sure it seals completely. Here is a picture of where I put it.

Step 4. Install neck into tank and plastic box.

Now you should at least mock the neck into place. This can be difficult given the tight clearances. Once it is in place, do not bolt anything down yet, it is easier to work with if you can wiggle everything around.

Tip: Learn through my mistake. On the bottom of the filler neck is a one way valve that is cased in plastic. It prevents fuel from spilling down the neck in the event of a roll-over. I broke this piece on install. It is a delicate part of the neck and breaks easily. The stock Fox necks have no such device in them (at least not for my year), so I wasn't too concerned about it, although a piece of it is still lost in the tank somewhere. Just be cautious of this part.

Step 5. Run your lines.

The fatter line is easy enough. Just run it up to the PCV elbow you installed and that is it.

The thinner guy is a little more involved, but not by much. This line had a factory line clip on it. Grab the piece of hardline you cut off the neck and clip it into the line as it would normally. On the other end of the line, run a piece of hose to the top piece of hardline you left at the top of the neck. Picture.

Step 6. Tighten it all down.

Put in your bolts that hold everything together. You will have to drill at least one new hole where the neck attaches to the plastic box. I can't remember if you have to drill any others. You will see yourself during the install. Here are a few more pics.

Any questions can be sent to mustang1234562003@yahoo.ca

July 01/07

I've been getting a few emails about progress and site updates. The car is not going to be worked on again until fall. I have a baby on the way, a garage to build, and a basement to finish first.

Clearshot Customs in Brantford, Ontario will be doing the bodywork and basecoat and clearcoat. Total Custom Car Audio wil be doing the custom interior.  I will be doing the custom paint on the car. I have some ideas of what that will be, but I won't reveal that just yet. So until the fall, hang tight.

October 13/2007

Just popping in to say that the car has been moved into the work queue, so things should be moving pretty soon.

I have compiled a list of things that are going to happen in the next months. The completion of the car will probably be somewhere around mid-May to June. This is everything that will be happening between here and then.

Mechanical and other

-Wheels. I will be going with a new style Shelby Cobra wheel. My suspicions about offset and backspacing were confirmed by an email I received from someone who read this site. 2005 + wheels will work with the IRS.

-I have a new Canton supercharger coolant tank that needs to be fitted and installed. It will sit where the battery used to be since it is about the size of a battery.

-Remove the Cobra swaybar as the extra track width on the bar does not work with the suspension set up. The inside of the wheels rub on the bar and cut the turning radius down. I will install an after market fox bar.

-I need to locate a tail light harness.

-The car needs a full alignment

-Alarm installed

-Driver's exhaust pipe needs to be rounded out as it is bent up a bit from the accident the Cobra was in.

Body and Paint

-Car needs to be stripped and prepped. The top of the cowl is being cut off as it will be easier and quicker than trying to fix the leadwork that I did (hey, I never professed to be a body-man :)  ).

-Door handles are being shaved.

-The hood cowl is going to be extended to the windshield and the hood is going to be modified to open the opposite way.

-Body kit needs to be mounted and molded onto the car.

-Full interior has to be basically custom made front to back (My wallet am cry).

-Paint, custom airbrushing and clear.

When the car is finished, I will be sending pics, a link to this site and whatever else to every Mustang mag out there. I want this car to be in a magazine spread.

November 30/07

It has begun!  The other day, my project was moved into the workspace and started. It is very early into the process, but here is what has happened so far. The pictures will be fairly uninteresting for awhile, but bear with me.

The trunk key has been shaved.

One door handle is almost shaved.

That is about it. I tore down the cowl, basically undoing what was done before. It was for the better.

Also, as most experienced fox body owners know, there are weak points where the roof was factory welded to the chassis. These points are badly welded together at best and then factory lead is applied over the area. These spots tend to crack after some abuse, especially in the a-pillars. Where the roof joins the chassis will be welded in a continuous bead. Here are some pics of the spots in question.

Other than that, I removed the Cobra swaybar. I have acquired a fox bar, but I will have to make some modifications to make it fit to the chassis.

If you are interested in being notified of updates, shoot me an email at mustang1234562003@yahoo.ca and I'll add you to the notify list.

May 15/08

No, I am not dead, but thanks for the e-mails expressing concern :) I just ordered a full set of Cobalt gauges for the car. I am going to send it around the corner for the pulley install and full on dyno-tune. I am also pushing to have the car worked on very soon. I am just finishing up a 1967 Camaro, and then I can shift my attention back to the Mustang. I will be sure to document the dyno run et/al.

Also, my email server (read yahoo) went balls on me and deleted a good portion of the contact emails for updates. Drop me another line if you want to be added to the list.

Later for now.