68 Mustang on a Crown Vic chassis-Page 2| Builds and Project Cars forum |

rustomatic Reader
1/6/21 11:58 a.m.

Good work, sir! You have definitely made what was left of that Mustang something far better!

jfryjfry (FS) Dork
1/6/21 7:08 p.m.

Did you weld in supports before you cut the floor out?

03Panther SuperDork
1/6/21 7:23 p.m.

iansane said:
Wow. This makes me thing a crown vic coupe would be a sweet daily.

Only 2 dr modern panther I ever saw was a Marauder convertible (1 of 1). It looks fantastic. the shortened chassis with longer doors does have potential

NOHOME MegaDork
1/6/21 8:12 p.m.

In reply to 03Panther :

This is, presumably, one-of-one and had a build cost approaching half a million dollars.

03Panther SuperDork
1/6/21 8:29 p.m.

"Only" $300K supposedly!!!

https://www.supercars.net/blog/2002-mercury-marauder-convertible-concept/

03Panther SuperDork
1/6/21 8:30 p.m.

I would assume a coupe version could be built for at least a dollar ot two less...

Geofordman New Reader
1/6/21 8:42 p.m.

#15

The point of this build, if I must have one, is that, there is a way to rescue the too far gone Mustangs and Cougars, using another under appreciated car and a pile of work but not a lot of dollars! This hobby is filled with $100,000 builds and that's great if you can afford it, but I wanted to prove there is still a chance to build a $10,000 cool car. As I will show, you don't have to build the crazy flares I did to make this work. The flares on my car are my own bit of "art", some flares from the likes of Maier Racing can easily be adapted to a project like this giving it a much less controversial look.

Geofordman New Reader
1/6/21 9:38 p.m.

In reply to 03Panther :

The only thing that stumped me was door /quarter glass. What to use for it? Well maybe not the only thing... I had figured to weld the shortened rear doors in place and use lexan for the quarter glass portion.

Geofordman New Reader
1/6/21 9:43 p.m.

In reply to jfryjfry (FS) :

I did not put any supports in the Mustang as I cut it up. I left the rockers intact for fore and aft support and didn't worry about body spread because I thought some more width might help! Lol. I knew I was okay because the doors still opened and closed the whole time! I later cut out a large chunk of the rockers but never the section directly under the doors. It never moved with the hoist under the front and rear of the rockers.

Geofordman New Reader
1/6/21 9:55 p.m.

#16

And so on with the show! I removed the entire front clip from the firewall leaving the hood hinges in place, that didn't work! The drivers side hinge and the brake booster want to occupy the exact same place, so I removed the hinges. I then removed the complete floor from the trunk to the firewall and then removed the firewall leaving only a small lip to weld to around the perimeter. Here's a secret: cut the floor flush with side of the rockers when removing it, look closely at the inside edge of the rockers and you will see some tiny slots. These slots are the cut line on the rocker as the rocker will sit on the CV floor here and if you remove any more of the rocker major conflicts arise. Like the throttle body sticking through the hood! Also I removed all of the Mustang rockers, but you don't have to! Measure the CV floor with its rocker panels removed and you can figure out how much of the inner portion of the Mustang rocker needs to be trimmed. A small vertical filler panel will fill the gap between the CV floor and whats left of the Mustang rockers. This will give you a stock appearing lower body, meaning all you will need is some simple flares for the wheels, not the elaborate ones like I built. Most Mustangs have rotten quarter panels so you might as well cut out all of inner and outer wheelhouses as you will use the CV inners and have to build out to the Mustangs new flares. There is some structure above the Mustang wheelhouses that require intricate cutting to remove and you will probably want to try to weld it back onto the new wheelhouse, so be careful here. You can see in the pics where the Mustang and CV rear package tray meet, keep in mind I lowered mine too much and trimming as you go is easy here. I left the dash in place on the Mustang but you should remove the steering column. This is the time to fix any cowl rust! Also there is some interference with the brake booster and the lower cowl near the vent hole so make yourself some room while repairing any rust here. Bash the cowl up about 1 1/2 inches above the brake pedal assembly .

Geofordman New Reader
1/6/21 9:59 p.m.

The view of the front of the rocker on the hoist. It was amazingly solid.

Geofordman New Reader
1/6/21 10:08 p.m.

Geofordman New Reader
1/6/21 10:14 p.m.

#19

Now we're at the scary part! This is the part no one will talk about, electronics! The Crown Vics I have dealt with all use the linear style canbus system. This is important because that means you can remove modules and wires and the rest of the system can still communicate and thus function. The best way for any electrical beginners is to remove one system at a time and try starting the engine. A P71 car does not have PATS, Ford's anti theft programming, so they are easy. If you're doing a luxury car like a Marquis, you're gonna have to keep the steering column until you can get PATS turned off via your favorite tuner guy. That's also a good time to delete egr and the cats if thats legal in your state or province. Remove the entire dash and HVAC system. Everything unplugs. Pull the wiring out of the dash while its on the floor and mark each plug as you disassemble each item so you know what you're cutting out. You will probably want things like the pedal moving switch and OD cancel wires later. I removed the BCM and Airbag modules and all their assorted wiring. I kept the fuel pump module and the variable steering module as well as the gauges. Run the part numbers of the modules on the net to find out what they do. Remember when test firing the car that the inertia safety switch is in the trunk and may have got dropped, turning it off. Umm... that happened to a friend, not me! Nudge nudge! I left any wires that went to the BCM long so I could attach whatever I needed to somewhere else, like the turn signal wires would now go to the Mustang steering column, etc. If you can find a factory wiring book for your car on the web, it will save a lot of grief! I spent about 3 long days just opening harnesses and stripping wires. By the time you're done the complete interior will be stripped from the car. If you still want it drivable put the drivers seat in and build a bracket from under the windshield that holds the column up. Expect a ball of discarded wires about 2 ft in diameter and some serious questions as to what those poor Mexican workers were thinking when they layed out the harnesses!

Geofordman New Reader
1/6/21 10:23 p.m.

Geofordman New Reader
1/6/21 10:27 p.m.

The modules I kept.

jfryjfry (FS) Dork
1/8/21 9:29 a.m.

How much longer are you gonna keep us waiting?? Moar!

Geofordman New Reader
1/8/21 6:50 p.m.

A dude's gotta work! Lol.

Appleseed MegaDork
1/8/21 8:07 p.m.

I wonder what else you could stuff that shortened chassis under, especially if you weren't using any of the drivetrain? Wide body Dart? Volvo Amazon? AMC Pacer? You might have unleashed a storm of good-bad ideas.

gumby (Forum Supporter) Dork
1/8/21 8:42 p.m.

Appleseed said:
I wonder what else you could stuff that shortened chassis under

Bradley GT?

Appleseed MegaDork
1/8/21 9:39 p.m.

Aw yiss!

Geofordman New Reader
1/9/21 3:54 p.m.

How to cut a Crown Vic. Remove dash and remove wiring from it, if you haven't done that yet stripping out the extra wiring.
Remove HVAC. This might be a good time to remove the body from frame. I left it on the frame myself, but it made cutting the frame more complicated. If you do pull the body, remove the master cylinder from the brake booster. Isn't it nice that Ford put flexible brake lines on the master cylinder! Note body bolt locations, some are different. Cut floor along rocker on the inside of the upright seam. Cut firewall just under the crosswise seam. Make firewall 54 inches wide. Note, you will have sliced down through where one of the major wire connectors goes through the firewall. I cut a hole through the side of the Mustang footwell under the cowl drain. If you do this make sure you waterproof it as the drain will surely corrode the connection quickly. Cut down thru the firewall to the floor beside the body mount bolts. Then cut over to the edge of the rocker (3 layers). This is hardest area to cut ! The front of body should be free.
Cut rear seat ( package tray support). Remove rear quarter panels to access inner structure and cut it out!
Cut rear package tray upright at the ends, quite low, as they interfere with Mustang structure around wheel wells.
Slice across the rear most flat portion of the trunk floor and also forward along the trunk drop area. I tried to leave these bits on the CV but they just got in the way later. Remove the whole body from floor. Leaving the firewall and rear package tray support attached to the floor. Once the body has been removed, it is a good time to shorten the frame as required for your body. 3.75 inches for a Cougar and 6.75 inches for a Mustang. Also cut off the rear section of frame in the trunk area. I shortened the trunk pan 12 inches, but if I do it again, I would take less out and tie the flat part around the upper rim of the trunk floor drop into the Mustang taillight panel/ bumper supports.

Geofordman New Reader
1/9/21 4:04 p.m.

I took 12 inches out of the CV trunk floor and welded it back together. I tried leaving the trunk drops from the CV in place but that didn't work. I ended up cutting them off and building my own.

Geofordman New Reader
1/9/21 6:18 p.m.

So now that we have both cars cut into pieces it's time to try putting them together. I had to get creative with hoist pad placement as the pads supporting the rockers hit the frame on the way down. It took about 6 tries before I fixed all the interference points, most of which I have already covered. I was pleasantly surprised that the rear package tray lined up as well as it did. I had measured the front wheel centerline to firewall and to the rad support so I knew they'd line up, but the package tray was a gift from the Ford gods or good old dumb luck!

jfryjfry (FS) Dork
1/9/21 9:56 p.m.

I see you switched the pickup point on the body. Did you just set it on the chassis and reposition it?.

Geofordman New Reader
1/9/21 10:04 p.m.

In reply to jfryjfry (FS) :

See the jackstand in the first picture...gues what it's for. I used 4 of them on the rockers a d repositioned the hoist. I used the wheelwells in the back.