73 Coupe Project

[7stang3]

I'm likin' what you're doing to it! Should be one fine ride!

Thanks! Not working today but had to look at the new seats. Boxes sitting out front of the house when I got home. Mondays suck, till you're home from work.



Slid out seat.



Set in spare room until ready.



Cerrullo SC seats with TMI bulk ginger vinyl.

 

[matrixx]

You mean you didn't want to stretch vinyl and fiddle with those upholstery staples haha.

 

[Totalled]

Oooo, those are neat. Where did you get the seats?

 

[7stang3]

You mean you didn't want to stretch vinyl and fiddle with those upholstery staples haha.

Getting to the age where I hurt too long and bleed too easy.

Oooo, those are neat. Where did you get the seats?

http://www.cerullo.com/sportsSeats/sc.html

The Cerullo's have been great to work with. I had contacted them about the seats as my drivers seat was bent/broken and I just did not fit in them well at all. It has been 29 years since I drove in that seat, age 24, and they just were not comfortable then. I was looking at repairing the frame, adding the tmi sport cushions and then covers. I just made up my mind to find something different.

I had contacted Sue Cerullo and had sent her a piece of the original vinyl as I originally wanted to get a fabric cover. After looking at the fabric options and thinking about changing/painting/dying all of the interior pieces I decided to follow Sue's suggestion and provide the cover. I bought bulk vinyl from TMI in the original color and pattern and shipped it to Cerullo for installation.

I am really happy with the look and sitting in them on the floor, without the pedestal, for 15 seconds:blush:, they seemed comfortable. Where the rubber will meet the road is how they fit into the car. Unfortunately, not quite ready for them yet. Down the road I will report on fit - a while down the road.

 

[7stang3]

Hello;

Back to work on the car.

Completed the Auburn installation ( and lost the original tear down pic for a before/after).



Installed the axles and the rear disc brakes.



I have ordered the flex lines (who knew they would not be in a brake line kit?). and we are installing the stainless hard lines tomorrow. Sure wish I had read about the stainless being more prone to leak before I had ordered them.

Yesterday, cleaned up the hood hinges and hood latch for paint.



Currently researching engine and transmission options and putting together a wish list for interior pieces. Will post more pics as things happen.

***Mods - can one of you move this to the project car area, please?***

 

[7stang3]

Finished the front suspension work. We installed a grab a trac setup on the front suspension. Everything seems to fit with the possible exception of the front sway bar.



The bolt is not vertical, which concerned me a bit. After posting on the suspension portion of this site, I am less concerned. A consensus of opinion is that once the car is on the ground, the sway bar will be ok.

We have finished the brake portion of this build. We installed SSBC disc brakes on the front and rear. Also used the SSBC brake booster and master cylinder. The only problem we encountered was on the front calipers. The disc pads fit extremely tight and we managed to knock off an edge installing the pads on the drivers side front. After fitting a replacement set of pads, we moved onto installing the lines.





I had purchased a stainless steel line kit, before researching the subject here, and was concerned about leakage. We had great luck, however, and only had to work on two of the connections. We had to make lines for the master cylinder to proportional valve runs and for the proportional valve to brake kit runs. The pictures really do not do the install justice, looks better in 3D.

The last little problem I had was the steel braid lines to the front calipers. I had purchased a kit to fit the 1973 factory disc brakes. I did not think ahead to the fact that the SSBC calipers are a bit bigger than factory. We had to find a braided steel line a couple of inches longer so that we could get a full range of travel from the steering.

 

[7stang3]

Onto the metal repair portion of the project. Started by knocking off the "knobs" under the vinyl on the roof.



Cleaned up trunk to determine size of patch needed.



Cut out damage on inside rear quarter/fender well.





and repaired.







Installed plate behind rear seat. We only used a 16 gauge sheet as the function of this is for sound suppression.



Installed new fuel tank (looks like I forgot to hang the breather!).



Mounted dynamat. Using the dynamat light in the trunk, roof and interior sides. Will use the regular dynamat on the interior floor.





Started taking engine bay apart.



Will remove engine and outer fenders in order to repair some rust under the fenders.

 

[mach71351c]

Nice progress.

 

[7stang3]

Long and cold winter over - back to work on car.

We pulled engine and installed inner repair panels in front of shock towers.



We installed dynomat into cabin.




We dyed interior pieces.



We cleaned the garage and then decided to shoot the underside of the trunk lid to test color.



More to follow!

 

[71_resurrection]

I like it, great progress!

 

[mach71351c]

Trunk looks good!!

 

[Steven Harris]

Great to see the progress.

 

[73vertproject]

Looking good! Great progress.

 

[Jeff73Mach1]

Nice work!

 

[1972MustangSVH]

Where do I get the guages?

 

[jbojo]

Nice project, keep the pics coming.

 

[protouringstang73]

Looking good.. Which SSBC front and rear brake setup is that? Looks really cool!

 

[7stang3]

Where do I get the guages?

http://www.summitracing.com/search/brand/new-vintage-usa/year/1973/make/ford/model/mustang?SortBy=Default&SortOrder=Ascending

There are a couple of options, I chose white. I do not remember them being that expensive , but I have had them for over a year. I think I caught them before a price increase and on a mid-winter sale.

Looking good.. Which SSBC front and rear brake setup is that? Looks really cool!

I have copied an email I received from SSBC. As you can imagine, Option 2 seemed preferable and that is what I ordered.

I have two options for you. The first one includes 13" slotted and plated rotors and Tri-Power, 3-piston front calipers with a Sport R1, single piston rear caliper with integrated parking brake. The package price is $2903.95 with free shipping and powder coating.

 


Option #1

 


A133-4 $1674.95


SSBC Performance Brakes - Disc Brake Kit Front - 3 Piston Tri-Power with 13in Rotor - for factory 1 (Single) piston disc brake cars


A111-34 $1228.95


SSBC Performance Brakes - Disc Brake Kit Rear - 1 (Single) Piston Sport R1 Plus with 12.8in Rotor


Option #2 includes our Comp series 4-piston calipers with 11.25" crosss-drilled, slotted and plated rotors for the front and our Sport R1, single piston rear calipers with integrated parking brake and 11.25" cross-drilled, slotted and plated rotors. The package price is $1859.80 with free shipping and powder coating.

 


Option #2

 


A213 $554.95


SSBC Performance Brakes - Caliper Set - Comp S Quick Change Aluminum Caliper Upgrade Kit


23017AA3L $150.95


SSBC Performance Brakes - Rotor - Big Bite Cross Drilled & Slotted - Left Front


23017AA3R $150.95


SSBC Performance Brakes - Rotor - Big Bite Cross Drilled & Slotted - Right Front


W111-20 $1002.95


SSBC Performance Brakes - Disc Brake Kit Rear - 1 (Single) Piston Sport R1 with 11.25in Rotor - Wheel kit only (pair)


Take a look at the two packages and let me know if you have any questions. Options #1 is a far more powerful option to help with the added rolloing mass of the 17" wheels.

 


Sincerely,

 

 


Dan Classer

I ordered mine from Summit, but a guy should probably shop around.

BTW, They are not huge, but damn, they do look Gooooooood!

Caution, they are too big to get 15" rims around - at least the rims I had available. My stock were 14". I had always planned to go at least 17" and have have decided to go 17" front - 18" rear. I now have the car on 16" donuts to roll around and there is good clearance.

 

[7stang3]

Engine Plans:

The car was original with the 140 hp 302, 2 barrel. I had originally planned to massage the 302 until the rest of the car was done but plans change! Rather than spend money on a stop gap engine and then building a 347, we planned a 351W that we could just drop in. Our reasoning was that we could build a 351 cheaper than we could build the 347 and it would be more reliable.

Again, plans change! I had wanted to crack the 400 hp/ 400 ft lb barrier and I also wanted to have a mild mannered ride. My intended usage is as a boulevard cruiser. I can guarantee that the car will never see a racetrack. As I told my engine guy (brother-in-law), "I plan to build this thing once. I am not going to go out and try to break it".

My plan is to drive the thing around the local area on "cruise nights" and make an occasional 200 mile run. I.E. gas milage is not crucial. After checking the block, crank and rods we had we determined that the rods and crank would need some work. Coupled with my desire for "manners" and my power hopes, we decided to punch the sucker up.

My builders had built 393s for the strip but had not done a 408. As the rotating group was the same price, I decided that it was time for them to build the 408. After a brief discussion we had a virtual meeting of the minds. Eagle rotating group with hyper pistons to minimize piston slap during warm up and to save some $. Edelbrock RPM heads and CompCam roller cam, roller lifters, push rods and roller rockers. Edelbrock air gap intake and a Holly 750 carb with an automatic choke. My guys have used Edelbrock, Comp and Holly on the strip for a couple of decades and trust the products. There is a familiarity in place that cannot be minimized.

I realize that this is not the optimum setup for horsepower - on paper. However, for the money, I will have a good engine that satisfies my needs and if problems arise, my guys will have a great knowledge base to correct the problems.

The only questions at this point is which headers to use (C4, any suggestions will be considered!) and if the carb will be permanent or if I will change to an aftermarket fuel injection in the future.

 

[protouringstang73]

Thanks.. Yes it really looks good , looks like nice quality stuff.. I do understand you went with option 2, the other one look expensive!