Long story, but I purchased my 65 FB in 1990. Worked on it off and on for a half dozen years or so amidst a house remodel, refresh, repair.

Built the one off special recipe "old school" 422 Windsor stroker. Used a 400 Ford crank offset ground to my specs to get the KB pistons to zero deck. 4.140" stroke. The Chrysler 340 rods are longer with a smaller rod journal so that facilitated the offset grind. They had to be narrowed to fit the 400 journal width. The 400 Ford crank needed a couple very minor mods to fit in the block .I worked with Steve Moody at AMS here in town. He's a top notch engine builder, holds several land speed records and does some work for Troy Trepanier. He likes working with people who know what they want; I've built nearly 10 engines with his machine work. I added ARP 185 heads, Comp 274 XE cam, roller rockers, Weiand dual plane. Bagged it up.

Built a fully rollerized C4 in which I machined reliefs in the various parts to make way for the TH350 and C6 thrust bearings replacing all of the thrust washers. Welded the forward drum, modded the pump, added more clutches in both clutch packs, refreshed everything. Built a home brew manual valve body. RPM secured me a 9" out of a 69 parts car and we narrowed it, added Torino large bearing ends and disk brakes. Got some Moser 31 spline axles and a Detroit locker center section.

The shock towers were destroyed by the PO making way for a 351 with manifolds. RPM secured some JY donor car shock towers and I drilled a zillion spot welds to make way for the new. I sandblasted the replacement shock towers.   

That screeching sound was everything coming to a complete halt. Along came 1998 when we had our first child. It went on hold, the engine about 85%, the beefed up C4 bagged, the 9" still in pieces stood up at the end of my lathe. I went through a bunch of car covers. The shock tower less body hiding on the west side of our house. Out of view, not even thought about for a long long time. As RPM built his 69 I was intimidated by the enormity of the task. I maintain a fleet of BMW for our family, 4 E60s and an F10. Seems like constant maintenance and a few repair thrown in. 

And a million other things. 

I enjoyed RPM participating in the Bashes from afar. The Bob invited me to the 25th. With Audi seats and functioning A/C, it seemed very do able. Other than a couple of failed clicky clacky fuel pumps, the trip out went swimmingly. Then I met a bunch of the guys. There was this esprit de corps that is pretty cool. The Bullet Bob stories, the hands on car time, the opportunity to relive some old feelings I hadn't had since I was in HS. My old 440 RT Charger wrenching days, The innumerable times I had that Holley carb apart. 

Then I met Lieutenant Dan. He bought his 65 around 1990 when he was stationed at NAS Lemoore, not far from Fresno. He has driven it all along. It was in similar condition to my FB, which I tore apart immediately. I was thankful for meeting Dan and hearing his wisdom. Keep it on the road. Don't get it perfect, get it running. Damn. We had 180* different approaches. Damn. I should have LT'd it and just kept it on the road. I could have been enjoying the car all these years. 

MS told me about the 2018 Must GT brake upgrade. I bought some calipers from him. Lt. Dan let me drive his 65 which was awesome, generous, very cool. I loved the road feel, the solidity of the car and most of all the stance. I told him I wanted my FB to be like his. He shared all the front suspension info. I ordered the coilovers. RPM found a set of upper a arms like Dan's for sale used. I bought those. 
I left TX with a lot of things, but most of all a determination to revive my FB project. It had been missing the front shock towers for decades. Time to change that.   

I noticed the MS mod on flattening the cheeks on his FB shock towers. Did that. Cleaned up the engine bay, removed the light surface rust (thank you desert climate) and trial fitted the shock towers. RPM's son welded those in for me - my welding unit and skills probably not up to structural components. Well, definitely not. 
 



Prepped and painted the engine bay, ran NiCop brake lines, Ranger MC, plumbed the front brakes. Wanted standard vented rotors so I used some 08 Challenger 14" rotors. After fabricating a dozen or so aluminum spacers for the pivots, a bunch of trips to get grade 8 hardware of just the right length, the front suspension finally went together. I fabbed my own strut rods with spherical joints at the front using AFCO tubes and I threaded the rearward section of the stock rods. Did some OpenTracker style old school lowers, reinforced, spherical pivot, screw in ball joints. Street or Track tubular uppers, Viking coilovers. Stock steering box I rebuilt (fun that.)
Got the engine out of my storage cabinet, pulled the pan just to check a few things and install a one piece pan gasket. All looked well. Ran it on a run stand, doing the nerve wracking flat tappet break in ordeal. Mercy. 
Learned with a project car that pretty much nothing goes easily. Flex plate didn't play nice wit the TCI convertor. Did that dance until it all was picture perfect, just 1/16" fore aft clearance, but it does float - no preload on the crank and the bolt holes enable finger install of the bolts. Can't anything go simply? 

I thought it'd take a day or two to final assemble the 9". Took way longer, so many trial fittings of the brakes, the brake lines, the Torino bearing retainer didn't fit over the Torino bearing. Had to turn that in the lathe. Was missing some parts for the brake calipers, clips, banjo bolts, mixing metric with SAE line fittings. Bending and fitting the lines. Finally after 10x more work and a zillion more trial fittings, it was ready to slap into the FB. Getting the old 8" out of the FB wasn't too bad other than the car was (is?) coated underneath with a fine silty dirt, like it was a field car at my Uncle Simon's ranch. Damn. Shoulda pressure washed it when it was driveable. Wrestled the 8" out and the 9" in solo. RPM asked, "Isn't that a two man job?" Yes. Definitely. 

Got the motor tranny ready to drop in. Seemed a bit much. So I took a spare Windsor block and bolted it to an empty C4 housing and trial fitted it. Good practice. Ended up affixing the leveler differently to the engine. Fabbed a couple of steel brackets to do that properly. Plumbed some NiCop cooling lines for the C4 and had those in place before I dropped the engine in. Seemed like a good idea. 

Then fun with stock trans linkage/shifter. Refurbished that with a ton of machined bushings and spacers plus heating and bending the main linkage rod. Good and tight. Firm. 

Learned that there are dozens of combinations and permutations when it comes to Ferd u joints. Huh. Never knew. Some are a lot more common that the ones I needed. I had a box u-joints among the stuff that "Dead Nuts On" left behind when they escaped the Californistan business climate. He said this leave behind pile of parts was going in a dumpster if I didn't take it. I didn't even want to go to look at the pile. My neighbor dragged me over there. Took it. Two pickup loads. Still shaking my head at that one. A handful of different u-joints. Not one of them worked. Dude, really? Ordered 2 correct and 1 wrong u-joint. Wow. That wasn't easy. Fortunately a driveshaft in the pile of parts worked. If you have the right u-joints. 

Then the small stuff. Oh Lord. I'll spare you - all of you who've built one of these knows. I can't imagine working around a freshly painted car. This has been a trial of gigantic proportions - but making great progress. 
Just fired the 422 up sitting in the car yesterday. That was the same day the car sat on all fours for the first time in 34 years. Thirty four.... Can't wrap my head around that. Shout out to RPM for his huge postive effect on this. Without his donations, direction, counsel and even in person help (he's driven twice to Fresno in the last month to lend a valuable hand) this wouldn't be getting anywhere. Tanks bruddah. 



I'll be at the Bash. Just hope it's with my FB. Please God, let me make that happen. 
 
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/tS1LpmetOFA

 

Last edited by RCodePaul (9/30/2024 2:38 PM)