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  1. #26

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    Stoked, paint is happening! I know there is still much to do before it'll be done but I am looking forward to getting the car back in the garage and getting on with the build. we've been busy with subassemblies but the engine, tranny, and rear are all ready to drop right in and allow me to clean up the garage.






  2. #27

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    Sydney has been tied up with AP exams but work has continued on the front suspension. We're building the front arms just like hte SCCA cars we've done so they will have adjustable perches for corner weighting, ride height adjustment, and they'll use the springs we have lying around thus putting those to good use.


    Step one, make yourself a pair of shims by cutting a 22 degree section from a piece of properly sized pipe.





    Buy yourself two weight jack plates with 1"-8 thread, cut them down to about 3" width, and weld each one to the shim making this:





    Get your front crossmember and arms out on a table so you can mock up the alignment. Hand the arm, put at the point where they will be for proper ride height, and sit the piece you made on the arm. Clock the piece so that it points to the upper spring perch. Using the weight jack bolt will help. Onc clocked weld it in place.











    Then go make the arms pretty with some chassis paint.








    And this is the end result. Two arms with weight jackers and spring cups. Why put these in this car? I dunno, cause we can I suppose. Eventually I think the car will end up being my toy and it'll go to a track day or two and AutoX, so, it might as well be setup to handle well. However I plan to use isolaters on the springs here where as we do not on the race cars. Cut back on some chassis noise.








    Meanwhile the engine assembly is progressing and Syd and I have clayed up some parts for compression ratio calculations. Without taking into account the area from the top of the piston to the first ring we're coming up with around 10.6:1, so that'll drop a little bit in reality. Next up will be getting the pushrod length straightened out and looking at the wipe patterns on the valve tips.





    And I stopped by the paint shop yesterday to get some better pictures of the car in color. I think it's looking sharp. Color looked much better out of the booth than in.









  3. #28

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    Busy weekend at the Earp garage with getting the race car out and prepped for the first time this year and still making some progress on the five point oh. The gauge cluster will be rebuilt with the uber rare 140mph speedo.





    Engine assembly continued. Before the heads were bolted on Syd and I checked some piston to valve clearance. After she got past the "yay playdoh" phase that everyone has when they encounter it as an adult, we got down to business.








    Predictably the exhaust is fine with something like 0.145" of clearance. The exhaust valve is smaller than the intake and the exhaust lobe has less lift. The intake on the other hand is a bit tight. With 0.555" of lift at the valve we only come up with around 0.095". That's a bare minimum when you count in piston rock, expansion, bearing clearance, and, well, just that **** happens. But it was checked with a solid lifter that we made from a hydraulic roller so we'll pickup some clearance in reality. Anyhow, I think it is okay for a street driven ride but I would have rather seen something around 0.110 or so.


    Once we sorted that out the heads were bolted on and we used our adjustable pushrod to figure out what length pushrods we needed. We have adjustable roller rockers but you've got to watch the wipe pattern too. After checking a bunch of them 6.150" was decided upon as best fit.








    And Sunday morning I spent 2.5 hours with the hodge podge of mess on the front of the engine. I hate Ford's accessory bolt on schemes. They seem horrible. GM has got to do it better but I'm not sure since I'm a Ford guy. Anyhow, after a lot of puzzle solving I got it together. I need a new belt tensioner but we're good to go. New alternator, new power steering pump, new AC, new billet impeller water pump, and a smog pump eliminator bracket.





    Fred says the car will be finished with paint on Sunday so I'll leave the race car on the trailer coming back from VIR and bring the five oh home on Monday. Perfect timing.
    Last edited by Ron Earp; 05-02-2017 at 02:47 PM.

  4. #29

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    I've been off racing but the paint was finished up over the weekend. Picking the car up today and bringing home to the shop. Pretty excited!



















    I think it is comparing pretty good to the original. And it's more bigger so better.



  5. #30

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    And brought the tub home yesterday. The paint looks great in the sun and the color seems to be properly matched with what I remember the car looking like. The paint on the car now is much better than the paint it had from the factory. No doubt there. The car has been painted on the bottom with a hardening undercoat that gives is a uniform color. I like that for the bottoms of cars. Ditto the trunk area on the inside.




















    Next up is brake and fuel lines, booster, master, subrframe, lower control arms, struts, engine, tranny, and rear end install. All that stuff is sitting here waiting to go or ordered in so I imagine progress will be fairly rapid when I get some shop time.

  6. #31

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    I forgot a couple of pics. Putting it up on the lift today. Next time it comes down it'll be rolling on its own power and driving out of the garage. True story.







    More work progress. The daughter unit joined me in the garage for some debriefing and project orientation before her bedtime. I'm sure this went on Snapchat or some sort of place.





    We got the car off the dolly, on the lift, and the goal is to turn it into a roller pretty quickly. Or relatively quickly. There are many subprojects happening so a number of things occurring in parallel. Like this one, early morning before school subframe cleaning with Cayman. Never underestimate how far 8 mins here or 10 mins there, goes toward getting a project done.





    Painted and installed subframe.


    Prepping up for axle insertion.








    All in








    Meanwhile, over on the wiring ranch....Jeff G got a bunch of Deutsch connectors, I got a wiring kit, and we're off to the races. I figure about three weeks of work on this part of the project.



  7. #32
    FEP Power Member Saturn V's Avatar
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    Cool car and backstory. I've never seen the weight jackers for the front. Which springs do you plan to use? It looks like even adjusted all the way down, the springs don't sit as low as stock. btw, is that a cat or a raccoon?
    Present: '84.5 Mustang GT T-top, '06 Mazdaspeed6
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  8. #33

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    Thanks!

    The weight jackers are something we devised for our SCCA race cars. No reason they won't work for the street either. They allow you to precisely set corner weights and ride height. In addition, they use common 5.25" flat ground springs about 8" in height of which we have many, so it is an easy thing for me to adapt to this build. It's a bit overkill for this car but is an easy button for me.

    That's Cayman, one of our three cats. Cayman is a former NCSU Vet School blood donor. A lot of folks don't know, but there cat colonies at most large vet schools that are used for blood donation when needed. After three years the cats are retired and they are wonderful cats because they are used to being handled on a regular basis. As a bonus, most blood donor cars are robust and a bit on the larger side.

    ----

    Alrightly, had a bit of a break for a motorcycle trip to WVA but we're back on the case. We meaning Jeff and I, not Sydney this time around as she has the flu pretty bad. I hope she'll be in shape to work this weekend.







    Spent an hour or so trying to figure out how to put the fuel tank in the car. We've a ton of SN95 parts from the race cars and I wanted to use a 1998 Mustang tank for this car. The 1998 tank has a nice sump, integrated sender and pump, and based on our experiences with the SN95 chassis the 1998 tank doesn't experience starvation issues like the earlier models. What I didn't know though is the 1998 tank has a very different shape than the <1998 tanks. The differences are subtle if you just glance at one but the bottom line is that a 1998 tank isn't going into the 1985 Fox chassis without significant work. So the fuel tank situation was a bust and I ended up ordering a new <1997 tank, 255L/hr fuel pump, and sender for the car. A bit pricey at $325 for the kit but so be it. Time is ticking.


    On to other matters then. The front arms were prepped some weeks ago with Global West bushings and those were installed. The weight jacking modifications worked out really well and are better aligned than the race cars we've done. A new steering rack was installed on the car too. I got one of the SVO units for a Fox that is 2.25 turns lock to lock.










    The rear jackers worked out fine as well. Pins align and so on. Yes, still quite stock in the back but if there is time I'll work that out of the car and a suspension that will actually work well.







    The radiator and condenser came in so I to trial fit them. The radiator is a three core aluminum so a bit thicker than stock. I'll hold up on the fan situation until the motor is in place so I can see what sort of room we have for a fan. I won't be using the stock fluid coupled clutch mechanical fan though. I like those for nostalgic purposes but they've no place on a restomod car.





    Brake lines need to be run and in order to do that we need a booster and master in place. I'm using the 94/95 Cobra brakes and 14" rotors up front, stock SN95 rotors in the rear, so I ordered a 1993 Cobra booster and master to put into place. Why not a 1994/1995 Cobra booster? The bolt pattern for the booster doesn't match a Fox so the easy solution is use one that does match a Fox.


    However I found that the 93 Cobra booster fouls on the strut tower wall and that needed a bit of massaging with a hammer to allow it to slide into place.









    There it is in place, easy peasy. I won't be using that stock brake proportioning valve after all. I'm just going to straight plumb all the lines with a rear proportioning valve. There isn't any ABS on the car and I've always liked the brake feel of the track cars so that's the way it'll be.





    Meanwhile on the other side of the garage taillight restoration is going on. Both of the lights looked a bit rough, especially considering the repaint, so I bought a lens kit and went to work. Pretty simple, clean the lights up, remove all the sealer, re-spray the silvering on the inside, and sandwich back together with the spring clips. They look good.












    Next installment is running brake and fuel lines, then the engine and tranny are going in.

  9. #34

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    We got things moving along now. Sydney is back on the case now that school is winding down. We were able to get the front suspension bolted on with brakes and the steering rack. She did this work with me giving a few pointers and I think she has some understanding for how struts, brakes, and steering works. I hope.





    Lot of turning wrenches for these operations but something she did pretty well. Unfortunately I forgot to direct her to install the dust cap on the right hand assembly so I had to go back and correct that for her since she was out of work time. Proud brake owner. I think this machine will stop pretty well, certainly much better than it did back in 1985!





    We also got the rear buttoned up with caliper install and springs in place.



    Jeff G and I got the brake lines installed at least for the front so that we can continue with engine bay activities. Camber plates visible in this photo too. Not a fan of the camber plates but for the moment they are an easy button (came with the car) since I don't have any stock Fox plates. I would have preferred to use some stock plates and set camber around -1 neg with crash bolts and called it a day. It ain't a race car.




    Sydney's calc exam is today and tomorrow's activity is a milestone, installing the engine. It's ready to go in. It's wearing original polished aluminum valve covers that were stock for the 1984/1985 5L model years. Shorty equal length headers and the Holley Sniper rounds out of the package.


  10. #35
    FEP Super Member 84StangSVT's Avatar
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    You guys are cruising! This project is coming along nicely.
    Brock
    1984 Mustang LX Convertible 3.8L V-6/Auto (SOLD)
    1984 Mustang GT Hatchback 5.0 V-8/5 Speed

    I'm an FEP Supporter and proud of it. Are you?

  11. #36

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    Thanks we are trying to make progress.

    The time arrived for the motor insertion. Sydney and I trussed the engine up, several times actually before we got the balance right, and hoisted it off the engine stand where it has lived for the last couple of months.







    Notice the Fox Mustang shirt.





    Really not a lot of tell about this operation. Just your standard pick and stick deal with no real drama the first time around. Even mom came out to assist a bit.





    And there it is.





    Drama still occurred however. Sydney had to run off to her jazz band so Jeff and I planned on buttoning things up, including the transmission install. I looked at the motor for a few minutes when I suddenly realized it was sitting really damn high. Further inspection revealed there was no way the tranny bellhousing would bolt up because the engine was being held in the wrong position. Further research revealed that I had gotten the wrong motor mounts from the parts store, so, out came the motor and on when the correct mounts after a quick visit to Advance Auto.


    Later in the afternoon we went for the tranny install but that didn't work out either. We have lots of tranny parts around from the race car campaign and after scratching our heads for an hour about why the tranny wouldn't insert properly we discovered we had the wrong front bearing retainer on the tranny. We had one of our long nose units from the race car SN95 style while we needed one of our short units for this application. Swapped that out, checked bearing preload, and all is good.


    So, a good day of work. The engine and tranny are in, with the addition of a few more accessories and parts I believe we can start the wiring which will be a pretty long job.

  12. #37

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    It has been a couple of weeks since I've updated this thread but a lot has happened. First up is the HVAC reconditioning. I wasn't sure of the HVAC condition but given it is 30 years old it needs a rebuild. I do know that back in 1990 I replaced the heater core in the car and it was a hell of a job. And, now that the HVAC unit is out of the car I can see evidence of that junior league replacement.


    Got to have a good work area for this sort of thing:





    Splitting open the HVAC is a pain in the ass. After removing as much as possible, vacuuming out what I could, I was able to split it using heat and some tools. Nice AC evaporator there with lots of leaves and nuts. No doubt this unit has been home to many a small mammal.





    And lots of detail pics so I can reassemble it, in no particular order:











    Nasty AC core shown to match sealing around the edges.



    It's getting a new AC evaporator and heater core. Here is the unit partially assembled and it needs some foam and taping around the heater core.





    Some of the doors I'm rebuilding with new foam that you can get off Ebay for this sort of thing. Most notably the recirculation door. The inside blend door is actually in great shape. The blower motor seems to be fine too. It's quiet and powerful so I don't plan to replace it.

  13. #38

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    And brakes have been happening. running brake lines, new calipers, new master, etc are covered in previous posts but suffice to say that takes a lot of time. Then dealing with the inevitable leak, remaking a line, and so on. But, as of now the hydraulics are all up and working.


    Rear underside line with Cobra rear splitters.



    And brake bias valve for the rear. I suspect she'll be the only girl around with one of these on her car.



    The parking brake was a pain in the ass. What I ended up doing is getting some cheap $30 for the pair 87-93 parking brake cables and cutting them up and resizing them for this fox body.





    I'd start by cutting the end off that connects to the parking brake handle tee. Then pull the cable out of the sheath. After that remove the metal piece there on the end of the sheath by cutting it off then using pliers to unwind the sheath thereby providing a sheath. The sheath gets cut down to fit the fox, the end is crimped back on using my huge crimp tool, then the cable is run back through the sheath. New fittings for the ends from McMaster are crimped on and done - $30 cables that fit great. Done.






    Routing of cable using leftover SN95 parts.



    And once all that was down the nice ally driveshaft got bolted up.

  14. #39
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    Great work being done here. Very inspiring! She'll be ready to roll soon at this pace; especially with the team effort!
    Quote Originally Posted by Travis T View Post
    I think this is my favorite car on the site right now.
    Quote Originally Posted by BLUECRAPI
    This is the best thread on the internet.
    Darran
    1982-1C (Black) GT T-Top:http://vb.foureyedpride.com/showthre...he-Road-Thread
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  15. #40

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    I hope she'll be ready to roll in August but it is still going to be a stretch!

    Also I didn't get around to posting the other day but a few cosmetic type things were done. The LX didn't originally have fog lights and I always wished it did back in the day. Fast forward and it's now wearing a GT nose, by chance actually since that was the only good one I turned up on Craigslist, and now I can put fog lights on it for that restomod look. I went through my cache of Marchal stuff I picked up on Ebay and selected a couple of good ones for the car.





    Remember these? All the rage in the 80s.





    And since the car is an LX it had no light bar. Quick bit of searching turned one up that was painted to suit.










    And it fits as expected.



    Meanwhile, since we're messing around in the general area time for a radiator and condenser installation. All new parts here of course. The condenser came with the LMS R134a conversion that has a new evaporator, compressor, lines, and drier.





    Radiator is an ally three core unit that fits in the stock location. We'll be mounting an electric fan on it so it'll be coming back out soon. So, a bit of TIG will be happening to put some mounting tabs on the radiator for proper fitment. I'm planning to us a 96 and up Mustang electric fan as I have a few of those in the parts pile.



  16. #41

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    We also got the fuel tank installed. Jeff G and I did all this work as Syd was MIA. My first plan was to install a 1998+ tank. It checks all the right boxes: we know it well and have them in the parts pile and they have a good center mounted sump. But after we brought one down we found out it won't fit in the early foxes. Not enough clearance and the fuel filler neck would have to be custom made. So, plan two, a fox tank with fuel injection. A new tank was ordered, which are really inexpensive, and parts added.








    And with a hell of a lot of struggling the tank is in place. It did not want to go into place at first and we were about 4" shy of making the straps mate up. So, we used longer bolts to get the straps in place, lots of tank wigglging, and we finally got the straps pulled to the shape they needed to be in and everything in place. Eventually the stock bolts could be used. I think what happened is the tank straps got bent out of shape pretty badly and that slight amount of bend has negative influences on initial fit.




    Last edited by Ron Earp; 06-29-2017 at 06:53 AM.

  17. #42
    FEP Super Member 84StangSVT's Avatar
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    Looking good!

    I feel ya on the tank struggles. I think they all fit like crap when trying to get them up in there....even if you just took it out and are reusing the same tank. Place, wiggle, slide, wiggle, tilt, wiggle, drop bolt, cuss, drop tank while reaching for said bolt, and repeat process.

    It's even worse when you don't have a lift or a helper to reinstall. Done it way too many times by myself, laying on the floor with the car on ramps.
    Last edited by 84StangSVT; 06-29-2017 at 07:24 AM.
    Brock
    1984 Mustang LX Convertible 3.8L V-6/Auto (SOLD)
    1984 Mustang GT Hatchback 5.0 V-8/5 Speed

    I'm an FEP Supporter and proud of it. Are you?

  18. #43

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    Man that is tough to do on jack stands and ramps. I did it like that 20 years ago and still remember it. Even with the lift it wasn't a hell of a lot of fun.

  19. #44

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    I took on the task of rebuilding the air cleaner. It was a pretty nasty mess of old paint where someone had painted the aluminum top black along with the entire housing. I want to keep that carb look and I always liked the factory housing with the 5.0L HO label and twin snorkel inlets. It looked the business back in the day.


    Restore in progress and I'll get the final pics up when I finish it up.


    Here is the lid after a lot of paint remover and scrubbing.





    And the housing after a lot of cleaner and some scrubbing. With much more to go.





    And one of the snorkels undergoing some work.





    Meanwhile Sydney is out of school and I gave her the task of nutting and bolting the entire rear half of the car from the tranny back. It was a good learning experience. As we all know, it takes many years of experience to be able to choose the right sockets, wrenches, extensions, and so on to access a particular bolt. Since she doesn't have that experience the N&B job took her quite a long time. I had to performing the tasks on her own and marking all the fasteners with silver sharpie for verification. She struggled a lot with the job and was NOT amused when after an hour I showed her the air rachet and how it could be used to knock out some of the crimped nuts that appear on some suspension bits.



  20. #45
    FEP Power Member Saturn V's Avatar
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    Love this thread. Y'all should be cruising in it soon.

    See post #9 in this thread http://vb.foureyedpride.com/showthre...op-restoration I really like the way his air cleaner lid turned out. He chucked the lid up to a drill to get the original machined look back. I guess the trick is figuring out how much scuff to apply during the turning process. The original lettering on the lid was painted on, but all I see available today is stickers. I guess that's OK, but it would be cool to see a stencil made to repaint the lettering. I guess you could include both "4V" and "E.F.I." on the lid to generate some puzzled looks.

    If you don't mind, would you post which a/c door foam you used and what you think about it? I may be doing that project this year.
    Present: '84.5 Mustang GT T-top, '06 Mazdaspeed6
    Past: '79 5.0 Capri, '86 Buick GN, '90 Mustang GT, '92 SHO, '95 SHO
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  21. #46

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    I just found this thread and have been enjoying the build.

    Hope you enjoyed your trip to WVA. I have family all around Green Bank and some that work at the observatory. Cass and Snowshoe (nearby) are also fun to visit.
    Larry

    1984 Mustang GT Turbo

  22. #47

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    WVA was great, highly underrated state for sure!

    Flapper door - the foam was pretty good on it so I used some rubberized pliable coating spray and lightly sprayed the surfaces to ensure it'd stay together and not crumble. I was very pleased with the result. If it didn't work I was going to re-foam it but I think it is good. HVAC bolted up. I've been on vacation for seven days and need to catch up on the project and update this thread.

    Air cleaner - great idea. I'm going to try that as my results thus far are less than ideal.

  23. #48

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    Alrighty back from vacation and some things have been happening on Project Fox.


    We finally got the exhaust mounted up and it wasn't as easy as you might expect. On the race cars we do a dump into a race muffler on the car. Street car with duals? Man, space is tight back there and I never really realized it since one of the first things we do prepping one of the road race cars is stripping off all the exhaust, axles, etc. to fab up the suspension, cell, etc. And it never goes back on. Anyhow, the "best" stock appearing system I could find was the Flowmaster setup as I'm wanting it to be quiet. I'm sure it won't be quiet unfortunately which means I'll be back into this project once it is rolling. Pipes look good though!








    And the tail lights were rebuilt and finally installed. Got those twin pipes under the bumper, gotta like it.


    The light bar was installed along with the fog lights. I think they look great on the LX even though it didn't come from the factory with the integrated fogs. I know I always wanted them on the car though back in the 80s and now they are in place.








    Got all the AC lines installed and setup too but one of the lines had a kink in it. Boo. And it won't come out.











    And last I chucked the air cleaner up in the drill as other have suggested to try and get that machine polish like it had from the factory. This one has a lot of pitting though so can't get that out, but otherwise it looks good with the newly applied decal.





    And the engine complete with all lines run for fuel etc.





    We've been working on wiring for a couple of days and I'll get pictures of that up soon. We're harvesting connectors from the stock harness to work with the Ron Francis kit. Slow going, but I think we'll end up with a great harness that will be reliable, clean, and tidy.

  24. #49
    FEP Power Member Saturn V's Avatar
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    Lid looks great! Fogs definitely help to fill out the LX front bumper ... great choice for a restomod. Engine compartment is looking fantastic ... assume the wiring will be done as neatly as the rest of the car.
    Present: '84.5 Mustang GT T-top, '06 Mazdaspeed6
    Past: '79 5.0 Capri, '86 Buick GN, '90 Mustang GT, '92 SHO, '95 SHO
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  25. #50

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    Thanks! We are on wiring now and just got done fabbing up a bracket to properly mount the Ron Francis box up in the dash. I'll get some pictures up soon. It'll have a completely fresh harness and it'll be neat and tidy with an OEM appearance. I've already done the starter/battery/ground harness and it is using factory push tee connectors and corrugated plastic wire protectors to keep everything organized.

    We did have one setback - the front SN95 arms. As you might know we fabbed those up with spring perches etc (in another post) and now that I have the car sitting on wheels and tires the tires are out too far. I thought it'd be possible to find those FMS Cobra wheels with the 6.42" backspacing but it's not easy. And the more I thought about it the more I don't like having a asymmetric wheel setup as those would not work on the back so well as it'd pull the wheel in a bit more than I'd like.

    So......we're fabbing up new lower control arms from a Fox base. This will allow me to use basically any 17x9 standard Mustang wheel on 245s (rear fenders are already rolled) and open our wheel choices up a lot.
    Last edited by Ron Earp; 08-08-2017 at 07:22 AM.

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