My Street 289 build

[Ivygreen65]

I have a Bruce Chervenak 289 body and chassis that he built for me. I thought it might be enjoyable to document the build and share the trials and tribulations with others. The original plan was to start this a couple of years ago, but kids in college, graduating, and moving away has seemed to eat up any free time. Now, since becoming an empty nester, I have a little more time to get the Cobra on the schedule. The chassis is well constructed, but not exactly plug-n-play. There are some items that will have to be added and reconstructed, but that’s fine with me because it allows me to build and finish the car the way I want it. It uses Factory Five (Mustang SN95) front suspension and rear T-Bird 8.8 IRS diff and suspension. This appealed to me because 1) parts and pieces are easy to acquire and 2) transverse leaf spring suspension is really cool, but I don’t want to drive on it. My goal is to build a 289 car sort of accurate enough to make some ask “is it real” (although Dan Case would know different in .0001 sec.) and will be fun to drive and maybe do some rallying in. I’ve built and shown my concours cars, so now I want to do a fun one.

[xb-60]

Will look forward to following your build.
My 289FIA has one of Bruce's very accurate bodies. The front clip on mine was the same as your roadster front, but subsequently modified to FIA flares.

Good luck with the build.

Cheers,
Glen

[1795]

Nice start. looking forward to seeing the build develop.

Jim

[jolsen42]

Hey Stacy, I was wondering what happened to you. I hope you finish this before it's time for my dirt nap.

John O

[Ivygreen65]

Originally Posted by jolsen42

Hey Stacy, I was wondering what happened to you. I hope you finish this before it's time for my dirt nap.

Now THAT'S motivation. Actually, I have been working on it. Bruce positioned the engine in the chassis similar to the FF5 roadster, which I believe is about 2" back. That 2" set back led to a lot of issues when I started mocking things up. Firewall issues, footbox sizing issues, shifter location, etc. But, the biggest thing was I just didn't think it looked right. So, I cut out the engine mount pillars, fabricated new pieces, and moved everything forward 2" It was quite a bit of work, but I think it was worth it and I'm happy with the results.

[1985 CCX]

Great to see another 289 in the works.....
Looking forward to your progress and another "small car" (289) guy in the midst.
Keep pictures coming...
Reach out if you need help, I will try as possible...

[marcalan]

looking forward to watching the progress.

[jolsen42]

Originally Posted by Ivygreen65

Now THAT'S motivation. Actually, I have been working on it. Bruce positioned the engine in the chassis similar to the FF5 roadster, which I believe is about 2" back. That 2" set back led to a lot of issues when I started mocking things up. Firewall issues, footbox sizing issues, shifter location, etc. But, the biggest thing was I just didn't think it looked right. So, I cut out the engine mount pillars, fabricated new pieces, and moved everything forward 2" It was quite a bit of work, but I think it was worth it and I'm happy with the results.

I don't know if you remember, but I moved mine up 3 inches much for the same reasons, but I also moved up the front cross brace 5" because of the engine being closer the pulleys and fan belt were too close and would have hit the cross member. How did I know that? I trial fit the motor after the new motor mounts.

Looking forward to your progress.

John O

[Ivygreen65]

John,

I did not know that you moved your engine. Had I known that, I would have bugged the hell out of you with questions instead of trying to find answers in many, many bottles of red wine. Moving the engine forward isn’t a knock on Bruce’s design, it’s just what I wound up wanting for my car. You can see there’s quite a bit of distance from the front A frame to the fan / water pump pulley. Also, the back of the cylinder heads were almost to the firewall.

[Ivygreen65]

My chassis didn’t come with any provisions for mounting seats or seat belts. Used some 1.5” channel to make some seat rail mounting point (I’ll put some spacers under them to get them off the floor a tad). Also, fabbed up some seat belt anchor points with attached nut. Got the driver’s side finished - passenger side next.

[jolsen42]

It's all part of the game. You'll be fine!

John O

[Ivygreen65]

Originally Posted by jolsen42

It's all part of the game. You'll be fine!

John O

I hope I didn’t sound like I’m complaining. Actually, I look at mine kind of like a scratch-build, but someone has already done the hard part that I can’t or don’t have the space or facilities for. I’m having a ball and learning a bunch at the same time.

[my427cobra]

Love those street Cobras Ivygreen65. Looking forward to watching your progress.

Cheers
Greg

[Ivygreen65]

Working on the passenger side of the cockpit. I welded in supports for seat rails, seat belt bolt brackets, and looked at how to mount the parking brake. After scrapping my first plan, I came up with a bracket that I felt would work. After making the bracket made, cutting into the tunnel triangulation, and welding it in, it feels solid. I mocked up the cables and linkage. It appears that this should work pretty well.

[1795]

Looks nice Stacy. Already have the parking brake lever installed too! Looking forward to seeing the progress.

Jim

[Ivygreen65]

Rear overrider mounts were not spaced correctly for my F5 rear bumper and too low for correct placement on the body. Cut off the old mounts, filled with round bar and welded, and then made new mounts and welded them in the correct locations.

[Chicagowil]

Originally Posted by Ivygreen65

My chassis didn’t come with any provisions for mounting seats or seat belts. Used some 1.5” channel to make some seat rail mounting point (I’ll put some spacers under them to get them off the floor a tad). Also, fabbed up some seat belt anchor points with attached nut. Got the driver’s side finished - passenger side next.

I used the same seat rails for a Locost 7 build. Make sure they get well lubed, They tend to get dry and start to stick.

Thom

[Bill D]

Good luck!

[Ivygreen65]

I’ve moved away from welding for a while so I can get suspension parts ready for mock-up. My car is using a 90s Thunderbird 8.8 IRS rear. I had planned on putting new polyurethane bushings in the knuckles, so I knocked that out this afternoon. Due to the shape of the knuckles, I couldn’t figure out how to fit a couple of the bushings on my press to remove them. I wound up going with the shade tree bearing press made out of all thread, exhaust couplers, and some readily available hardware. The best part of this was the fact that I could do it at the kitchen counter with a cocktail within arm’s reach. The old bushings came out pretty easily, and I’m glad I changed them, because the existing rubber bushings were totally shot.

[Ivygreen65]

After getting the bushing bores cleaned out (old rubber and oxidation), I reversed the removal process and installed the new bushings. All went well and the suspension should be considerably stiffer thanks to the new poly bushings.

A quick Public Service Announcement - if you have never used polyurethane bushing grease, realize that is is the gooiest, stickiest, get-on-everything-within-a-10-foot-radius stuff that you will ever use.