Birddog0347 rescues a Fox

[bird_dog0347]

Well Kevin had another busy week with the Frankenstang and the shell is now rust free, and free of crappy "repair" jobs. Since we had a complete and almost perfect front clip from the donor car (the cowl wasn't perfect) and there was a ton that would have to be replaced due to rust or damage on mine, Kevin just swapped the whole front clips. He did have to swap the cowl with a good one he had on hand though as well as the core support, but other than that it's all from the donor. He also replaced the whole driver's lower rocker panel as it also had rust issues. You can't even tell they were replaced though as it's all done to look like the factory with the factory looking spot welds.


Next up will be getting the doors (the red one in the pics is just one he had laying around), fenders, hood (which I will likely have to sell and buy a cowl to get the engine to clear it), and bumpers test fit and make sure the gaps will be good... then it will get the engine bay smoothed from the shock towers forward and finalize the T-Top frame install.


At this point, the only original untouched parts of my car will be the back half of the roof, the passenger door and front fender, and the fuel filler door.












The Rocker

[bird_dog0347]

Door Jamb

[DON SVO]

Wow. Keep on truckin’ man, great progress.

[bird_dog0347]

Wow. Keep on truckin’ man, great progress.

Thanks! After 25 weeks he has finally started blocking body panels instead of replacing them, lol.

[DON SVO]

Thanks! After 25 weeks he has finally started blocking body panels instead of replacing them, lol.

Hahaha, headed in the right direction 🙂

[bird_dog0347]

Hahaha, headed in the right direction 🙂

Exactly. Next week it goes to the media blast guy to blast the whole front clip that was replaced, the under-carriage, and the interior so we can determine how much of the floor pan to replace after I patched it but it doesn't look factory. It doesn't make sense to leave my repair in place (even though it is structurally sound) when his repairs look like it was factory panels.

[bird_dog0347]

In the last couple of weeks Kevin was able to get the driver's side door, front and rear fenders, and trunk lid aligned and gaps worked on. He and I discussed my previous floor pan repair that was documented earlier in this thread... while a good solid repair that would last for another 30-50 years easy given it's storage conditions, I felt it wasn't acceptable to have that repair easily identified when all of Kevin's work was made to look 100% factory correct. Thus, he also fixed my B- repair job with his usual A++ work. Next up will be the sandblasting of all the undercarriage, engine bay, and any yet to be explored parts so we are 100% sure it's a straight clean shell. I also ordered the Cervini's Terminator style heat extractor hood for clearance of the 97 Cobra engine (and the looks).

[bird_dog0347]

I had originally bought a new stock steel hood from LMR as I hated the old huge 3" cowl hood I had on there, but after getting the 97 Cobra we were pretty certain that the engine won't fit under the stock hood. Since The car is going to be a mix of different Cobra parts anyway (04 IRS, 97 4.6 32v) I wanted to give a nod to that and picked up a Cervini's Terminator hood for it as I also wanted the cooling vents to help with heat extraction. It arrived at Kevin's yesterday and now he can keep setting the gaps on the fenders (the driver's side was damn close even without the hood).

[Rick Modena]

Not sure if it was talked about but what color are you going with?

[bird_dog0347]

Not sure if it was talked about but what color are you going with?

It will be a custom mixed blue, but to give you an idea it will be similar to Bright Atlantic Blue.

[Rick Modena]

Nice. I've always loved that BAB color. The formula for that color uses a fine metallic so its more radiant than metal flakey looking colors.
Ford really hit that color out of the park, the next closest color is the 2015 DIB (Deep Impact Blue) that uses an extra fine metallic to.

I fell in love with Kona Blue and my first '12 5.0 was that color, I sold that car to Jose in '18 and then I bought a '20 5.0 in Kona Blue as Ford was discontinuing that color.
HP's first Mustang after his Lightning was DIB and there's a picture of both cars together, I'll have to look it up...

[Rick Modena]

Hmmm, I did have a picture saved...

[bird_dog0347]

Hmmm, I did have a picture saved...

Very nice... I always liked those colors too, but they are a bit too dark for me. I really loved my old 2008 ZX-10r that I had. The factory color was Candy Plasma Blue and then I painted my race fairings but can't recall exactly what color I used. I'm sure I could go through my old threads on a different forum to figure it out, but I also shared those pics with Kevin and he knows my tastes now and will custom mix something that's one-off.

[bird_dog0347]

The last week or so has been more about getting the 97 Cobra drive train out so the new owner of the roller can come get it and it will be out of the way. Not too many surprises, but there were a few during disassembly... First off I was told when I bought the Cobra that it had a Walbro 455 LPH pump and 60# injectors, but when Kevin was driving it on the Dragon it's like there was a hard rev limiter at 4k rpm. Kevin decided to drop the tank even though we don't need it and I already have a better system on the way to him, and he found the only fuel upgrade appears to be a 255 lph in tank pump. Hard to tell on the injectors, they don't appear to be marked so we will have to have them tested to know what we have. Obviously the car was seriously under-fueled for it being supercharged but that will be solved so no worries there.


Also, when Kevin pulled the after cooler he found this.





Then later when he pulled the heat exchanger he found this.






Not to mention some of the crap wiring work and spaghetti mess, as well as the subwoofer box in the trunk that was so big it had to be put in from the back seat, but they had to cut part of that frame to put it in THEN put a crap weld on the frame to reinstall the seat.

[bird_dog0347]

All good now though, the engine and trans are officially out and ready to get cleaned up a bit while they wait to go in the notch. I'm going to just order some new headers and X/H pipe as well as they are not in good enough condition to be put on this car. These are usable and could be cleaned up, but I'll just sell them cheap to someone who wants to put in the work. Next up Kevin will put the roller back together so the new owner can pick it up.