Bryce's ongoing '73 project thread

that looks awesome!!! i wish my motor looked that nice...

 

B2, you did an AWESOME job! It really looks great! SERE Guy's proud Dad! Tip to fathers: Buy your kid an old fixer, hand them a Chilton's, and say let me know when you need a hand. Hey, check out the cool 2011 Mav GT concept car YouTube video that's poste.

Apparently I left my account logged on at my parents computer last time I was home.

 

Well I've been stalled for awhile trying to figure out which direction to go with the transmission, and finally stumbled upon a T5 at the local pick and pull a few weeks ago. I only paid $80 for everything from the bellhousing to the yoke. Not only that, but after opening it up for inspection, it is in insanely good condition for any price. I spent the last couple of days cleaning up the transmission and prepping for the install. Pulled the clutch pedal today to install the Mustang Steve quadrant, and it turns out I still know how to weld (haven't done that since '01). Also elongated the slots on the crossmember, which by my measurement, should give me just enough room for it to bolt up. My goal on Saturday is to at least get the clutch cable installed and functioning. I still have to make a mount for the firewall. After that its just a matter of hoping the crossmember doesn't need anymore modification, and the driveshaft doesn't need shortened. Here's the pics of the parts ready to go.

 

Just a heads up. You may have to clearence the floor brace to get the trans to sit at the right angle without hitting the floor. I had to do that and drop the tranny x-member about a inch to have enough room without hitting. Some dont have this problem, but some do.

 

It was converted to floor shift by the guy before me, so luckily I already have a hole so I can see what needs cut. It looks like I'll have enough room by the brace to clear the shifter, if not, cutting another inch out isn't a big deal. The harder part will be lining up the cuts to clear the top cover, but I think I've got that figured out.

 

Well, I made some good progress today. Ripped everything out to give myself some room to work with. Pulled the pedal support bracket off, cleaned it up and painted it, then went to work test fitting the pedals. The cowl floor has to be clearenced a bit, but not much. A little "massaging" with a body hammer to lift it about 1/8"-1/4" and the quadrant clears fine now. All thats left to do for the pedal is drill the hole for the cable, and fab up a firewall brace. Hopefully I can get that done on Friday. At some point I intend to do a writeup on the install, assuming everything goes as planned.

 

Well, it's been awhile since I updated this, so I thought I'd share some progress and post up new pics. As of now it's still sitting at the base auto hobby shop. I've been working on swapping in a T5 out of a 96 Mustang for a few months now. Every time I thought I was close to having it driving again, another problem popped up. Yesterday I got everything with the transmission fixed, and then my ignition switch died, and fell apart in my hands. I'm gonna go wire up a new one on Tuesday, and hopefully drive it home. I wound up swapping out everything from the engine back to the driveshaft for Mustang parts (bell housing, flywheel, starter, clutch,clutch linkage, trans). If the driveshaft were an inch longer I would've had to swap that too. I plan on doing an in depth writeup, at least on the parts required for the swap sometime soon. If you are doing the swap, feel free to ask any questions, I'll help where I can. On to the pics.

-Here's what the cross member looks like after being extensively mauled to make it work. I thought I could just elongate the slots and get away with it, but not even close. After attempting to modify, I pretty much just bit the bullet and went almost from scratch. I took it over to the chop saw, cut off the two mounting ends, tacked on some steel to keep it the correct length, and started bending/grinding/welding/hammering for the next 4 hours until it worked. Turned out decent for something I was making up as I went.




-And here's how much of the tunnel had to be removed to make it fit. Please excuse the sloppy cutting on the driver's side. That was where the previous owner butchered the tunnel, and covered it up with duct tape (as evidenced by the paint). It will be reinforced and patched up soon enough. Also, the brake line protruding into the opening was unbolted and ziptied in place there while I was working on the crossmember, to keep it out of the way.