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This is the point at which I'm supposed to reappear from the dead and say "Hey, it's finished! Ain't it gorgeous?" Right?
Well, no.
It's closer, incrementally, but not there yet.
One learns many things when working their way through a project like this. One is the value of subcontractors who turn work around promptly. It's taken a while but I've now got machinists, welders, and so forth who get the stuff I can't do done promptly at reasonable prices. So some of the odd bits for both the wagon and the '65 Mustang are getting done now.
Another is the predictability of the unpredictable.
The body shop guy, who works solo, takes only one job at a time and has a reputation of doing good work at a reasonable cost, got mired in a four-plus-month Dodge Challenger resto then lost his space just as I was next on his waiting list. I've still got my fingers crossed that he'll get back up and running very soon.
As for progress: the car is basically ready for the body guy now. It rolls, for now it's got the original rear axle and some threaded adjustable spacers for front springs, but it's got four wheels and steering.
The transmission is due back this week; it's been over a year, but I'm not going to complain too loudly as it's been done by a friend as something of a favor, and it's never quite been a critical-path bottleneck anyway.
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The base of the intake has its eight little injector bungs now, waiting for me to find a decent price on some 48lb/hr injectors. I can't finish the plenum until the engine's in the car and the fenders and hood are on so that I know how much vertical clearance I've got.
The steering column assembly and mounting for the '65 Mustang has proven to be a good prototype for how I'll do things on the wagon. The wagon's original shaft has gone off to be cut down for the Mustang, meanwhile I've found a floor-shift column to serve as bits and parts for the wagon.
And, finally...how 'bout this:
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A Porsche 996TT caliper sitting on a $50 13.5x1.25in Brembo Merc ML55 rotor on a '70 LTD spindle. Okay, so I've got to do better than the bar clamps and wire tie to get everything jigged in position - I'm working on it. But everything fits nicely: the hub started off life as a Ford disc rotor that's now had the rotor and hat machined off and nestles nicely up into the rotor hat, the rotor's had its centerbore and bolt circle opened up to fit the hub, now I've just got to do a reasonable job at taking the measurements for the caliper bracket and translating them into a drawing the machinist can cut from.
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The Porsche front caliper next to a '69 Lincoln Kelsey-Hayes iron caliper, also found on some Thunderbirds, and commonly used in vintage Trans-Am Boss 302 Mustangs.
I'm supposed to have pix of a 285/40-18 BFG KDW2 on an 18x10in S197 Mustang Bullitt-clone wheel sitting cleanly in the rear wheelhouse here, but somehow I can't find the pix right now.