1969 Mustang Coupe build/restomod

[lilvega]

So I have had my 69 coupe since I was 14 years old. It was my great grandfathers car from new. When I bought it from him it had 28,888.9 miles on the odo, orig interior, orig green paint and even the dealer orig Goodyear Cushon nylon ply tires. I drove it off and on throughout high school and beyond but it has been parked for the last 9 years. Today it has 54k miles. The stock 302 runs fine.
Last Feb I decided to throw some money at it and make it the car I always wanted it to be. I started collecting parts for the interior, exterior, suspension, etc. Bought a 302 roller block, crank, rods and pistons for a 347. Alum heads, air gap intake, Demon 650 carb and a bunch of other goodies.
I tried to take as many pictures as I could along the way.

[Baron Von Crowder]

Subscribed.

[UserX]

I'm liking the story already.

[lilvega]

Step 1, new wheels and tires.
FR500's with Sumitomo 245/45/17 front and 275/40/17 rear.





Step 2, pull them back off because the offset on the front was all wrong. Nothing that a lathe and tig welder couldn't fix...







Amazingly we were able to get them as good or better than factory. They both balanced with just .250 oz of weight.
17x9 with 5.875" backspacing before mod. 17x7.75 with 4.750 backspace which clears the upper control arm without spacers.

[lilvega]

Since I was planning on a mild 347 I needed better brakes. It is a factory power disc/drum car but the factory stuff is...well...factory stuff.

On with the wilwoods..
12.19" rotor Forged Dynalites. 4 Piston Calipers.



Pretty straightforward install.
Kit works with disc or drum spindles. On the disc spindle you use the 3 dust shield bolt holes for the caliper attaching point. The 5/16" holes must be hogged out to 3/8" and tapped. 2 of the 3 are blind holes so that sucked..

















Took about 3 hours on the drivers side and 45 mins on the passenger side.

[lilvega]

On to Engine!

Block was from a 1987 Mercury Marquis. I had planned to just drop it in as is but I wanted to look at the cylinders first. When I took the heads off...disappointment. The pistons were flat top, no reliefs. Big open chamber heads.
347 time...



Scat 4340 HBeam rods. Assembled on my kitchen table. File fitting the Mahle rings sucked...



Skip White NKB 185 heads. Budget - yes - but it was worth it. You will see later.





I ported/blended the intake runners. Ported/polished the exhaust side. Polished the combustion chambers.

[lilvega]

Short block assy.
ARP main studs



I hate filing ring gaps. That was probably my least favorite thing about this build..



Clearancing block is number 2!









Custom grind Comp Roller. Yes please.

[lilvega]

Summit/TFS Billet Roller timing set.



GMB alum clockwise rotation wp. Way lighter that the stock cast iron.



Summit pro street balancer.

[lilvega]

ARP 12pt heat bolts.



Lifters and spider installed as well as custom length pushrods, AFR adjustable guide plates and Stainless Steel roller rockers.



Add some CVF Racing alum pulleys and brackets.







And all installed

[lilvega]

I am not sure if this embed will work.
Dyno session video.

[lilvega]

Idle Video while on the dyno.



Motor made 430hp/447.7 ft lbs of tq. A/F ratio was 8.5 on the 430/447.7 run. I didn't realize the A/F was so off until we had started to disassemble the dyno. Prior run was with 34degrees of timing and the A/F was 12.1. We backed the timing down to 30degrees and it like that a lot better. Picked up hp and tq even with the rich fuel. Might have reached 450/475 if I had made another run with smaller jets.

[lilvega]

Now we are up to this past weekend.
I worked on the front suspension, installed a Global West shock tower brace, KYB gas adjust shocks and Scott Drake billet aluminum shock tower caps. Did a lot of scrubbing in the inner fender wells and engine compartment.



Doing the infamous Shelby Drop.

[lilvega]

I also picked up a 8.8 rear end from an Explorer. 3.73 gears, posi track and 31 spline axles. The offset pinion isn't an issue in the 69 chassis as it is a bigger car.
Just need to cut the leaf spring perches off and install new ones in the right spots.



Installed a B&M girdle cover.



CPP disc/disc polished M/C for the brakes.

[mk5.0]

Cool, looks like it is going to be a nice build.

[76 Maverick]

Looking good! Glad to see you got a build thread going.