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My wife's old car. A '66 coupe restomod-eration

I think with the HP you should use a TKO 600. I have one in my 65 with no floor mods. works way better than the T5 in the 67 and I don't have as much HP as you.

The feel is better and the gear ratios are better. 1st is lower and 5th higher I think. Not sure about 5th, but sure about 1st.

You will be very happy you did.

Mel
 
I've been looking into the TKO 600. It does seem to be a better fit for my needs. Thank you for the recommendation.
 
image.jpg Engine bay panels are on the way finally. Rear differential is finally back together and going under the car later today/tomorrow for 4 link brackets. Once it's all fitted and welded up it goes in for powder coating. Ordered a billet AC/heater bulkhead plate, Lokar accelerator pedal and modern driveline clutch master cylinder. Hope to have the engine bay completely mocked and begin to smooth this week. Then the front fenders will go on and we will get to see how the wheels fit with the 255's up front. Moving along again!
 
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I have been pretty busy this summer between work and family. The Mustang is still moving along very nicely. Corey has been pretty busy but still manages to make headway. The 4 link is nearly completed. The car is off of the frame machine and the fire wall work is ongoing. Here are a few pics of progress since my last post.

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Few more pics. Still learning how this forum works. I mainly post from an iPad so that probably doesn't help.

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Few more. This is the ride height. The 315's look HUGE under the car to me. When the car will be aired out the rear tires will tuck until the rim is about 1 inch above the edge of the fender. The rear fender lips are not rolled but we will most likely roll them to give some extra clearance. I couldn't be happier with the amount of actuation of the rear suspension. The bottom of the car is inches from the ground when all the way down.


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The car is still in the fabrication and mock up stages. Details are slowly being worked thru.

I don't like the axel vents on the car and ordered a pair from Jegs. We will drill and tap the axels to accept them. I am also going to order a billet cover for the center section. Both of the tubes are now full welded to the center section as well as all brackets are now fully welded. Josh the tech from Ridetech has been very helpful in getting all of the geometry right. Once we get the upper shock mounts in place and have the correct measurements I will order the rear Shockwaves.

The work on the engine bay is also ongoing. All unnecessary holes are being close and smoothed. Here is a before and after of the work so far. All wiring will be hidden.

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Body work ongoing. Will begin working on the interior mod's soon. Once this is complete the majority of the mods requiring welding will be complete. Hope to have the engine complete the first part of Sept and mocked up on the car. Once we are happy with the fit of everything it will be torn back down and put on a rotissery for final clean up and prep for finish. I intend of spraying on a truck bed liner on the bottom of the car filling the frame rails internally with rust preventative and spraying lizard skin on the interior. Hopefully the end of October we will be ready to start on paint.

Haven't seen many comments. Any intrest in the project?
 
There probably won't be much to show for a while. Body work is kinda boring. Grind, grind, grind. Sand, sand, sand...... I'll post up the results when I get something interesting.
 
I wanted to carry on a comment from another thread over to this one as to not clutter up another persons project thread.

Horeseplay, you are absolutely right about the amount I've spent on getting my coupe to the level it is now body wise seeming to be excessive for what it is. A common inline 6 coupe....... At least to some people perhaps. But when I sit back and think about it. How common are any of our cars today? I can only think of 2 anywhere in the area that I live and both of those are maybe 5 out of 10's. And neither of those are '66es. My car, even as a coupe is actually pretty rare where I live and getting more rare every day. As other cars out there are lost to rust and accidents. They don't make any new '66 Mustangs.

When I bought my car I had no idea the amount of problems it actually had down deep. I could have fixed at the car and it would have lasted for quite a while with just patches. Many people would. However, that is just not how I do things. When this car is all said and done I'll likely have between $60 to $70 K in it. That sounds like a lot of money for just a regular old coupe right? But this car will no longer be a regular old coupe. It'll be a totally custom, bad to the bone, classic MUSTANG! And it will be as solid as a 1966 Mustang can possibly be. No where in this car will there be any hidden rust or corners cut. If I was to go out and buy a car all done and ready to go built to this quality how much would it cost me? $80,000? $100,000.00? More? How many hack jobs would I have to sort thru before I finally found ''The one''?

Why a coupe? (I hear that all the time) I personally prefer the look of a coupe to a fastback so to each their own. I could have easily converted this coupe to a fastback and my builder tried to talk me into it up front. I decided not to. It started life as a coupe and it will continue to be a coupe as long as I own it. All of this goes into the question I asked previously on the other thread. How far is to far before the car is no longer the car you started with?

No one knows what they are getting into with one of these cars. You can go through a car from front to back, it can have been in your family since new, whatever. Until it is completely stripped down and all of the paint and rust is removed you have no idea what you are dealing with. This car is a prime example. I went through the car tapping, pushing, probing look for hidden problems. I thought I had a really solid car with a little rust on the fenders and doors. WRONG. Look at the beginning of this thread. When the extent off the rot was finally known I was well into $10 K between the purchase price and previous work. Should I have walked away? I decided to continue on. Why? Because I felt what else could I expect from any 50 year old car? Not much better I'm sure. My car was over 50 percent sound. I think if my floors, firewall and frame rails had been bad I would have just walked away. That's my story.
 
If you go with the TKO 600 I'm pretty sure you will have to modify the trans tunnel.
 
Glad to find another member that prefers a coupe on here. :) Didn't prefer a coupe in 66 when I purchased mine and still don't.
 
I make oil said:
I wanted to carry on a comment from another thread over to this one as to not clutter up another persons project thread.

Horeseplay, you are absolutely right about the amount I've spent on getting my coupe to the level it is now body wise seeming to be excessive for what it is. A common inline 6 coupe....... At least to some people perhaps. But when I sit back and think about it. How common are any of our cars today? I can only think of 2 anywhere in the area that I live and both of those are maybe 5 out of 10's. And neither of those are '66es. My car, even as a coupe is actually pretty rare where I live and getting more rare every day. As other cars out there are lost to rust and accidents. They don't make any new '66 Mustangs.

When I bought my car I had no idea the amount of problems it actually had down deep. I could have fixed at the car and it would have lasted for quite a while with just patches. Many people would. However, that is just not how I do things. When this car is all said and done I'll likely have between $60 to $70 K in it. That sounds like a lot of money for just a regular old coupe right? But this car will no longer be a regular old coupe. It'll be a totally custom, bad to the bone, classic MUSTANG! And it will be as solid as a 1966 Mustang can possibly be. No where in this car will there be any hidden rust or corners cut. If I was to go out and buy a car all done and ready to go built to this quality how much would it cost me? $80,000? $100,000.00? More? How many hack jobs would I have to sort thru before I finally found ''The one''?

Why a coupe? (I hear that all the time) I personally prefer the look of a coupe to a fastback so to each their own. I could have easily converted this coupe to a fastback and my builder tried to talk me into it up front. I decided not to. It started life as a coupe and it will continue to be a coupe as long as I own it. All of this goes into the question I asked previously on the other thread. How far is to far before the car is no longer the car you started with?

No one knows what they are getting into with one of these cars. You can go through a car from front to back, it can have been in your family since new, whatever. Until it is completely stripped down and all of the paint and rust is removed you have no idea what you are dealing with. This car is a prime example. I went through the car tapping, pushing, probing look for hidden problems. I thought I had a really solid car with a little rust on the fenders and doors. WRONG. Look at the beginning of this thread. When the extent off the rot was finally known I was well into $10 K between the purchase price and previous work. Should I have walked away? I decided to continue on. Why? Because I felt what else could I expect from any 50 year old car? Not much better I'm sure. My car was over 50 percent sound. I think if my floors, firewall and frame rails had been bad I would have just walked away. That's my story.
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I think the one thing that sums up this discussion is that in the end the decision on how much is too much is simply up to the guy financing the project. You can start with the most solid, complete, highly sought after example of a car and by doing only a moderate refreshing already have more invested in it than any future buyer may want to pay for it. That is just the nature of the beast.

On another note, there are 50 year old mustangs out there that are not rusty and do not need much, if any, metal work done. I know because I found one. Mine. And just to make the message strike home...I found it in Louisiana! Needed some apron repair (battery acid) and I replaced the bottom 5 inches or so on one quarter due to a crease from a minor accident (PO apparently needs lessons in backing up!). I didn't want to use filler to fix it.
They are out there. Just have to look in the right places. And know what to watch out for.
 
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