My Street 289 build

[1795]

Nice work Stacey. Should definitely help. Your wife must love you, I would be dead meat if I tried to do that on the kitchen counter.

[Ivygreen65]

Originally Posted by 1795

Your wife must love you, I would be dead meat if I tried to do that on the kitchen counter.

I’m pretty lucky - a few years back, she let me have 2 days to get the Mustang’s C4 rebuilt before I got sent to a cold a garage. I got finished in a day.

[Ivygreen65]

Machine shop called yesterday and had my front LCAs welded up. My thought was that the F5 front suspension was limited due to the fact that you only had caster and camber adjustment with the upper arm, and not a lot of adjustment at that. My original plan was to install the spherical bearings that F5 offers in my arms, which would give me me the non-bushed front suspension that I want, but adjustability is still limited. Taking a cue from Bill D and the LCA he modified, I built a jig, bought some DOM tubing and suitable rod ends, and took everything to my machine shop. This should provide all the adjustment anyone could want, plus all solid suspension mounting points in the front. Thanks, Bill.

[Bill D]

I did the same thing on mine

[jolsen42]

Read above, you're the one he got the idea from.

John O

Originally Posted by Bill D

I did the same thing on mine

[Ivygreen65]

I have the trunk tray that Bruce makes. The tray itself is a well-made piece, but 1) it’s about 1/4” too narrow for my spare and 2) it didn’t have the “wings” like the original pan does. So, I took the pan, split it, and re-glassed it with an extra 1/4” of width. I also added fiberglass to the sides to make up the back half of the trunk floor. The chassis only had the trunk pan supported at the front and back, so I also welded in a couple of tubes to support the sides. I sprayed the pan with white primer to see sort of what it would look like once prepped and finished.

[xb-60]

Nice job! Never tried working with fibreglass myself, so I'm in awe.

Keep up the great work

Cheers!
Glen

[1795]

Originally Posted by xb-60

Nice job! Never tried working with fibreglass myself, so I'm in awe.

Keep up the great work

Cheers!
Glen

Stacey,

I agree, I have done a little fiberglass work, and it certainly did not look as good as what you did Did you make a mold or form?

Jim

[Ivygreen65]

Originally Posted by 1795

Did you make a mold or form?

Actually, some 1/8” Masonite, parchment paper (my version of mold release), and a couple of YouTube videos allowed me to fumble my way through. The trunk pan has given me enough courage to try making some changes to my foot boxes now. We’ll see how that goes.

[jolsen42]

Originally Posted by Ivygreen65

Actually, some 1/8” Masonite, parchment paper (my version of mold release), and a couple of YouTube videos allowed me to fumble my way through. The trunk pan has given me enough courage to try making some changes to my foot boxes now. We’ll see how that goes.

WOW!! Stacy that's just terrific. I kind of wish I went the route that you took, having Bruce build the chassis but it never entered my mind since I already had the Factory Five chassis.. Keep posting those pictures. Great work.

John O

[Ivygreen65]

Still trying to get the welding / steel work buttoned up. There are no provisions for a front sway bar, and I want to have that option. Put together some sway bar mounts and welded them in.

[1795]

Stacey,

Nice addition, it will help with handling. Are those rubber or poly bushings? I cannot tell. If they are rubber, then I would suggest going to poly while you have everything still wide open. The poly will perform better than rubber.

Jim

[Ivygreen65]

Originally Posted by 1795

Stacey,

Nice addition, it will help with handling. Are those rubber or poly bushings? I cannot tell. If they are rubber, then I would suggest going to poly while you have everything still wide open. The poly will perform better than rubber.

Jim

They’re poly. I agree with you about them being better, as long as they’re well greased with the correct grease.

[Ivygreen65]

Spent last night with a bottle of Meomi, my dash, and everything that goes into it. I need to weld on dash mounting brackets and want to make sure they’re located correctly. I also wanted to make sure behind dash clearance was as good as it can be - I don’t want to be cutting and welding anything later.

Using a couple of known gauge measurements, I was able to scale some straight-on photos I had and determine a pretty accurate (based on the eye test) placement. Bruce’s dash had some landmarks molded in that proved to be very accurate, so this wasn’t a very difficult process. After a quick inventory, I think I have everything for the dash except the glove box latch. I’ll box everything back up until it’s time to install the dash.

[xb-60]

Stacy,

Can I ask whose dash that is in the picture?

Cheers
Glen

[Ivygreen65]

Glen,

That’s a dash I got from Bruce Chervenak.

[xb-60]

Yes but do you know which car is that in the printed picture in that post?

[Ivygreen65]

Sorry - The yellow car (pic on the left) is Lynn Park’s Dirt Bag 289 car. The pic on the right is one I have on my office computer, which I don’t have access to currently. Both are cars that I am pretty confident are pretty original.

[Ivygreen65]

Bruce’s hood hinges are fabricated from flat steel. I bought some universal hinges from Vintage Wheel that were 3/4” tube and they were bushed. They didn’t fit out of the box (didn’t expect them to), but after some slicing, dicing, and julienning, I got the to work pretty well. Also, after an initial mis-measure that resulted in welding and then removing, I got the radiator mounts welded in and the radiator fitted. Slowly getting my “to be welded” list completed.

[my427cobra]

Great work Stacy. Just curious. What front sway bar are you using?

Are you also doing a rear sway bar?

Cheers
Greg