Swords Evolution

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hotmustang95

hotmustang95

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Side Exhaust complete

I completely forgot to post up any info of the finished side exhaust. I did end up going to the scrap yard and getting another back seat pass side interior panel because I had to destroy the original one taking it out. I cleaned up and then cut in two the new piece. The made it so the cut section ended up right behind and in line with that section of the roll cage bar so it would not be seen. Once the interior pieces were back in the cabin it was much more quiet. Here's a pic of the cleaned up and cut panel.



First day that I was able to run the car there was allot of smoke because the wrap was burning off all the crap and oil and whatever was there. I've driven the car many times since I finished it and even ran it for the Mustang Triathlon with no issues. I did make a little video back when I finished it to show off the sound. Very happy with the outcome.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HhiaN8twHE
 
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hotmustang95

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New Rear Rotors


Got a real good deal on some ATE Cobra rear rotors from a fellow track dawg. I'm told these are great for track days as well.




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hotmustang95

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Rear Suspension Upgrades


The time has come to put some attention on the back end. Recently at a track event I noticed the axle had a large amount of side to side play. Enough to cause my 315 tires to rub the inside of the fenders hard enough to remove the undercoating. You could also hear the rubbing and see the smoke it caused. My plan always was to use Maximum Motorsports goodies since I already had their subframes. After much reading and searching I decided I really needed a panhard bar and new lower control arms. Also for now since I'd only be running the panhard bar by itself and not the combination of a PB/TA=torque arm as recommended by MM, I'd have to leave the upper control arms in but I wanted to replace the worn out and probably destroyed 19 year old rubber bushings. As of today I've found a PB and is in the shipping process. Still looking for the LCA's but might just buy them new soon. For now my attention was to find some used UCA's and buy new RUBBER bushings and install them.


So it begins with me going to the U-pull-it and finding any Mustang between 1979-2004. These all use the same UCA's. After choosing the easiest car to remove them from I placed and order to MM for set of their axle side rubber bushings and their bushing removal/installation tool. The problem I ran into was MM does not sell the bushings for the frame/body side of the UCA's. They only sell the complete UCA's with the new bushings already pressed in for a little over $200. I had to find new oem style rubber bushings for the body side of the arms. I found a set on ROCKAUTO.com. If you don't know this is probably the best site to find oem parts for cheap. Once I had all the bushings it was time to start. I didn't realize that the bushings for the axle side of the UCA's were smaller then the body/frame side.

Here's a picture of the new rubber bushings next to each other and placed next to the UCA's in the locations were they belong.




The reason why I went to the scrap yard to find another set of UCA's and not just use mine was because this would allow me to work on them without having to keep my car on jack stands and out of commission. After reading and watching many videos on youtube on how to remove and install rubber bushings I'd new it would take time. Plus I wanted to really clean and paint the arms before going back in.

The next step was to remove the old rubber bushings from the UCA's I found. The best method for me was to use a torch and heat the outer metal cup of the bushing to cause it to start to melt and be pushed out. Once that's done you need to remove that metal cup from the control arm. Many ways to do this. I found using a hammer and a big flathead did the job. Just hit the center of the cup and make it fold in on itself and that would cause it to become loose.


I kept the oem bolts from the control arms I removed at the scrap yard and cleaned them and the UCA's up. Gave the control arms a little gray primer before installing the new bushings.




I took some sand paper to all 4 of the new bushings outer metal cup and the inside of the control arms to allow for and easier install of the new bushings. You can see the difference between the bushings that have some surface rust and the one I cleaned up. I used a little grease on all the bare metal to help with the installation. The MM installation/removal tool was only designed to be used with the axle side bushings which are smaller then the frame/body side ones but I was able to modify it by adding some extra pieces to allow me to use it to install the larger bushings. I don't own a press so this was the best way for me. It worked great. The use of an impact gun really works good.




Here's a picture of the old axle side bushings and the new one already in place with the use of the MM tool. The old ones are destroyed.



So the final step was to reinstall the reworked UCA's. I decided to paint them yellow for two reasons. First because I like to be able to see parts that I've replaced especially in a dark area. Second is because while on the MM site I noticed that their panhard bar and torque arm are yellow. I've never actually seen a yellow one anywhere. They all come black but for some reason their all yellow on the site. I'd thought id be cool to have the MM parts yellow so I started with the UCA's. When I receive the PB I'll probably paint that yellow also along with the LCA's.





TO BE CONTINUED...........
 
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hotmustang95

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Rear Suspension Continued....


Maximum Motorsports Panhard Bar



Found a hell of a deal on a brand new panhard bar and I had to snatch it up.


I'll be installing this soon when the new lower control arms come in. For now I wanted to change the look of it. On the MM site allot of their suspension parts are yellow in color but you get it in black. I thought maybe that was the way it use to come and I like the idea of having that bright yellow pop out from under the rear of the car so I prepped and painted it. While I was at it I polished that aluminum rod too.





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hotmustang95

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More Rear Suspension



My new rear lower control arms from Maximum came in. Like the panhard bar it too got sanded down and painted.


Before


After

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Progress


Started installing things tonight. After taking it all apart and cleaning what I could I got the lowers in place.




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hotmustang95

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Someone asked, Why the bright yellow? Any reason?

Another person answered,

If you go to the Max. Motorsports page, all their parts are always pictured in yellow, but they come in black. No idea why, maybe they used to be yellow?

So, he thought he'd do it the way it looks on their site,

example:

rear_lowcontrarms_subcat.jpg
 
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hotmustang95

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Rear Suspension Complete...........for now


99% done. Just have to mount the tires and adjust the bar to center the axle. Took me a few days to install due to rain and at the last minute I ordered new spring isolators. Looks great and should really make a difference on track. Sometime in the future I'll look into a torque arm to complete the rear. For now I'll run it with the stock uppers and see how it feels. Also I'll be keeping the sway bar off to see how it acts.











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Rear Gear Swap 373s to 3.55s


Not a big change since my car already had the 73s but a perfect match for my setup. There's about a 400rpm difference between the two. Being that I no longer have an overdrive gear in my T-5, driving the car on the highway kinda sucked. The car would travel at around 65mph at 3Krpms. At a track like Sebring on the back straight I would be able to use all 5 gears and it was great but I knew any longer of a track and I'd run out of gear. I do plan to return to Daytona which has very long straights and add to that I still enjoy driving the car on the streets made the decision to switch easy. With the 55s I feel the car is set up perfect for track events and street use.

I had my guy George from GB Performance do the swap for me. I was able to see the entire process of swapping out gears and what PIA it can be. It all came down to shimming the damn thing perfectly for it to fall within spec. George easily spent 2 hours installing and removing the gears and trying different shims to get it perfect. I'm very happy I let a pro do this crap.

Complete rear end gear kit from 50RESTO. Not included in the kit are the axle end bearings and seals that I purchased from the local autoparts store. Since the rear was going to be taken apart now was the time to replace everything. Also The kit came with 2 bottles of Royal Purple gear oil which was not enough for me at least. I ended up using 3 bottles.



Couple pics of the work.



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ODYSSEY PC680 BATTERY


Decided to retire my very reliable but also very heavy Optima red top battery for this light weight odyssey. It only weighs 16 pounds compared to the 34 of the Optima. This is the PC680MJT which means it comes with a metal cover and SAE terminals. I knew I'd be keeping it in the original battery location so the metal cover is recommended for under the hood usage. I do have an aluminum hold down built for it but I like the homemade one I made for it cause it shows it off. I do keep it on a battery tender when not in use. I hear if you let these die that it can hurt the life span. It cranks my car right up with no issue's.




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Custom Front Splitter

I decided it was time to add an areo package to the car. I couldn't find any made for my car so I had to make one myself. You can really save some money by fabrication your own and build it to your exact needs.

First thing was deciding on what material to use. Probably the cheapest would've been plywood but I ended up buying a 6'X3' sheet of 3/8" marine grade starboard. It cost me $150. I've seen other guys use this. What I like about this stuff is it's already black in color and has that textured look. What sucks about it is being it was 6' long it was hard to work with to get it into position to outline where the cuts were going. After using a few jacks and lots of wood to hold it in place I could lay down the thin rubber blue tape as my cut line.



Here's the first design I was going to go with. The front of the splitter will stick out 3" past my spoiler. On the back side I had it cut in a way that the center section of splitter came right to the swaybar.


I later ditched the idea of having the splitter go back that far. I still wanted as much of the splitter to cover the underside of the front of the car but still leave me room to work on things like brake ducts and the radiator so I redesigned it. Also to make thing easier I added some bracing to the underside to stiffen the thing up some.



Because this is a full underside type splitter it needs to have a really good support system to hold it in place. The idea I came up with was very simple, cheap and I didn't even have to take the bumper off. I decided on using two lengths of 3/8" all thread bolted into the bottom side of the metal bumper support.


After many times of mocking up the placement of the splitter and repeatedly checking to have it centered I mounted the splitter in place. The two pieces of all thread held the entire thing in place very well. I used a thick piece of aluminum angle to tie both ends of the all thread together on the underside.

On most splitters you'll see guys use these adjustable rods called splitter rods to support the front section of the splitter. I've always loved the way they looked so I purchased a couple from Wine Country Motorsports. These are from a company called Longacre.


What you don't see in any pics is how the rear and the entire length of the front side of the splitter is screwed to the bumper. My fiberglass chin spoiler is screwed and bolted to the bumper. I made sure the screws I used to secure the splitter to the spoiler went thru both the spoiler and bumper. Because I felt the splitter is so secure I didn't go with my original plan of fabricating some type of bracket to connect the splitter rods from the splitter itself, to the metal bumper support like most racers do so I just bolted the rods from the splitter to the bumper cover. I might just go ahead and add some supports from the metal bumper to the rods just to be safe. Here is how it looks now.


I'm thinking I might also remove those two braces from the underside and use big washers for the all thread rather then that aluminum angle for a cleaner look? But then again no one can see what's going on under there.

Whatcha guys think?????

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Finally done transferring everything over. This is where it's at today. I'll begin to post updates as I move forward. There were 16 pages of discussions and questions and such not added here so if you have a question or comment feel free to ask.
 

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I've been planning to do a belly pan - didn't really know what material to use. I'm going to take a close look at marine grade starboard now - I don't even know what that is but the Googs will tell me! Thanks for the idea ;)
 

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Thanks for copying this all over to here! I've been anxious to read about all the work done to your car! Great job!
 

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I've been planning to do a belly pan - didn't really know what material to use. I'm going to take a close look at marine grade starboard now - I don't even know what that is but the Googs will tell me! Thanks for the idea ;)

If you figure out what you want let me know. We get tons of it at work.
 

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