86 Mustang challenger build

In the words of Clarkson, "It's vicious, but in a fun way. Like a shark in a funny hat."

Sounds like the custom A arms are making progress, the builder went to a friend's shop where a tube framed Camaro is being constructed, he scored the cut off pieces of chrome-moly tubing for free.

Yep that's right, my A arms will have $0.00 material cost and $0.00 labor for custom built pieces.

"my point being, that there were tubing scraps laying everywhere, and I picked up everything we need tubing-wise, in chrome-moly, for FREE! It's .095" wall 1-1/4" for the thicker sections, and .120" wall 1" for the cross section."

aussiesmg wrote: the builder went to a friend's shop where a tube framed Camaro is being constructed, he scored the cut off pieces of chrome-moly tubing for free.

unless you pulled them from an un-guarded dumpster outside the fenceline or the shop lets random strangers come in and pick up tubing off the floor and walk out without paying, those scraps probably should be accounted at FMV. you said it yourself, "a friend's shop"

Latest cage pics

The cage is completed

Nice cage.

Reading through your thread raised a few question:

If you don't mind saying, what was the material cost for your panhard bar set up?

Any particular reason why you anchored to the chassis on the passenger side and the axle on the driver's side?

Any bind issues with the UCA's?

I purchase these swedge rods used from ebay specials from time to time. Ssssh don't tell everybody. I then make them fit. The brackets are made from cheap or free scrap metal and then fabricated in our shop.

So far UCAs are working great. They basically cannot bind as they have spherical bearings in them. Plus being almost equal length as the lowers they move through almost the same range of motion.

The reason for the panhard mount on passenger side is purely weight distribution. The chassis mount is heavier so it is on the non driver side.

Thanks!

A friend of mine picked up a mig welder and I'm considering building a panhard bar for the Mark VII. I'll probably hit a junkyard and snag the bar from a Camaro/Firebird and build my brackets and mounts around that.

Pretty cool stuff.

Found an aluminum "air" tank, it is nicely shaped to make one needed part from it, and so the cutting begins

Can you guess what it is for?

OK, you've got my attention. What are you going to make? Flares? Hood scoop? Don't keep us in suspense.....

Take "good, consistant photos" and submit it to David as a tech article.

I guess dashboard.

Stainless-steel humidor?

EvanB wrote: I guess dashboard.

Nicely done Evan.

Yep the corner will do nicely for a half dash, it is cut out and ready to mount.

Lots of spare aluminum for brackets also.

Updates

Rewire underway.

Caged painted

Dash pics

Fun and games

But we did get it to run last night, woot

Continuing down the road of awesome. Nice work.

Just curious, is there a set purpose for the cage? ie: Lemons, NASA, etc? Or just a general safety upgrade?

Either way, car looks killer, as an owner of a couple 4-eye stangs I totally approve of this build and have been following it since the "I just picked up this POS and am taking it to the Challenge" introduction.

The Fox chassis is very flimsy from the factory, my car is 27 years old and has very strong 408 engine. The floor was cracking under the passenger seat, it is common for them to do this. IMHO the cage is simply good sense in one of these.

the car was built to comply with the GRM Challenge rules and I exploited the bolt in cage rule until the loophole was closed this year.

I do intend to keep the car and it will see some track day duties.

BTW I got the side and rear windows cut out and curved the side windows in my shop oven, I need to use a local plastic coating guy's oven to do the front and rear windshield due to the size..

Started installing the rear springs, had to cut and re-curve the rears to fit the stock location. Ran out of oxygen right after the local supplier closed for the weekend.

Cut out a Lexan windshield from some 1/4 scrap retrieved from Peidmont's junk bin on Thursday. Nice lead Mike.

Started building brackets to hold the windshield/windows inplace, and to replace the OEM bumper shocks with aluminum brackets.

Also started drilling out the aluminum bumpers to save a couple more ounces.

I haven't scaled these yet, but damn are the steel ones heavy

Very cool. I'm interested to see what you come up with for bumper supports.

In reply to aussiesmg:

What's the pipe nipple/ bung to the right of the instruments for?

Push button starter location, beer tap?

fasted58 wrote: In reply to aussiesmg: What's the pipe nipple/ bung to the right of the instruments for? Push button starter location, beer tap?

Honestly, it was in the tank and I haven't thought of a use for it yet.

Thinking cup holder you can never reach, or GoPro terror face recording mount.

Bumper progress