FYI FORD MustangSteve's Ford Mustang Forum / The Phoenix Project

**Posted by Hakan** 4/13/2013 1:37 PM

Continuing my progress reports from the old forum.

As I work at least four days a week in Copenhagen, Denmark progress ain't what it could have been. Over the Easter holidays I was also downed by a nasty flu that unfortunately kept me from working on the car for almost two weeks. Better now though and spent some quality time in the garage today stripping paint from the better than I had trunk lid Glen sent me:

Have to buy more paint stripper tomorrow to get the last of the paint off:

Made this tool as I bought a lot of bitumen rubber insulation sheets that needed to be shaped:

Most of the floor and firewall covered with insulation:

Also added some insulation in the roof:

Finally installed the Quarterhorse in my A9L EEC-IV. A Quarterhorse is a piece of hardware with which you can interface the EEC and you're able to do mods using a PC to the software controlling the EFI. Already started to study this "tuning" topic during last week instead of hanging in the Palace hotel bar in Copenhagen with my collegues in the evenings. As they ain't gearheads we ain't got that much to talk about anyway.

**Posted by Hakan** 4/14/2013 12:28 PM

Today's small little update is that I got all the paint off from the trunklid and I was very happy to find that there was no bondo on it, just nice and clean sheetmetal:

This is the other trunk lid I have that I decided not to use as I found all this bondo under the paint. It can of course probably be saved and used. But I rather start with something better:

It's 8:30 PM here in Sweden now and time to start to pack the bag for going back to Denmark tomorrow morning.

**Posted by Hakan** 4/20/2013 3:22 AM

Started on stripping paint off from the inside of the trunk lid. Strange observation was that the outside had one red, one silver and one black layer of paint on it. One the inside I've found one red layer, another layer of another red and a white layer of paint.

Also welded in some new material around the hinge attachement area on one of the doors. The light surface rust here comes from me using citric acid on it:

No pics of it, but I also went over to a local friend and helped him to get the handbrake working on a '65 coupe. Someone had welded in extra material to whatever it can be called handbrake bracket thingie that goes between the brakepads, fixed that with a cutting disc in the angle grinder and got it working.

**Posted by Hakan** 4/20/2013 9:25 AM

And here it is, took a while, but no more paint now. Had to sandblast some of the areas where the outer skin folds over, other than that this old trunk lid was in very good shape and will now be used on my '67. The weather was also nice here today for a change, so I could actually work with one of the big garage doors open :

**Posted by Hakan** 4/21/2013 1:33 PM

Decided today that it was time to clean up the mess I've created in my garage. Had a lot of dust in there from all the sanding and spraying that has been going on for a while now. Took a lot of my stuff out in the spring sun and cleaned things up inside and out with the high pressure washer. As the US state I've spent most time in is Texas I have a Texas Star that I'm very proud of on my garage:

**Posted by Hakan** 5/05/2013 9:23 AM

More paint stripping, this time on the inside of the hood. Also was lucky today and ran into the local rod shop owner and discussed paint with him. The painter two other guys in town had recommended ain't really up to what it takes it seems. The rod shop left a '32 Brookville roadster body to him for paint, but they had to take it back and start all over again...

**Posted by Hakan** 5/12/2013 1:24 PM

Been working on cleaning up the inside of the doors and putting insulation in them and also painted the inside of the trunk, but took no pics as it would be kind of pointless me thinks.

Then started to put the rearend back together, replaced the axle bearings, but unfortunately ran in some problems with the axle seals. Hopefully I can find new seals locally. Reason BTW for the extra long wheelbolts is that I am using a 20 mm aluminum spacer to get the wheels to fit the way I want them to fit. The rear was once shortened with another set of rear wheels with different backspacing in mind:

**Posted by Hakan** 5/26/2013 8:18 AM

Sorry about my messy workbench, but I have been working on putting the rearend back together after I solved the problem with the axle seals. The brake calipers I am using is from an Audi (almost identical to the Mustang SN-95 calipers), the discs are Nissan and I've made my own caliper brackets to make it work. The rearend is BTW a shortened '72 Mustang 28-spline N-case 9-inch, 3:50 with a Trac-Lok. All the strange bracketry on the housing is there for my custom rear suspension.

**Posted by Technomancer** 5/30/2013 1:41 AM

You never fail to amaze me, Hakan. Best wishes, and can't wait to see it done. =)

**Posted by Glens 1965 50** 6/22/2013 8:25 AM

Want More Pics.... Want More Pics....

**Posted by Hakan** 6/22/2013 5:38 PM

Glens 1965 50 wrote:
Want More Pics.... Want More Pics....

Yep, wish I had something to show, but have been busy with house maintenance the last couple of weekends using the short good weather time slot we have up here.

Not automotive, but here's some of my better pics from my week day nights bike trips in and just outside of beautiful Copenhagen: http://public.fotki.com/VikingMustang/other-projects/denmark/?cmd=fs_slideshow

**Posted by Tonie** 7/06/2013 2:14 PM

Hakan,nice to see the project again

show us more pictures

Tonie

**Posted by Hakan** 10/18/2013 3:27 PM

Reason for most of my pics in this thread being offline at the moment is that my photo storage provider is moving their servers from the US to Europe.

Anyway, I have been back home from working in Denmark for a couple of weeks now and made some progress putting the suspension components back on the car to be able to take it down from the rotisserie. Next step will be to put the engine back in and build headers, ducting for the intercooler and turbo setup and that's the reason I haven't painted the engine bay yet as I do not want to scratch any paint there while working, specifically on the headers.

Only cloud in the sky right now is that I just got the word that they want me back at another client in Denmark and I'll start the next assignment there November 4th and it will last for at least a year.

Here's the pics:

**Posted by Glens 1965 50** 10/18/2013 3:45 PM

Really Great work there Hakan... Hope the motoring public never see's that view. (2nd pic)

Last edited by Glens 1965 50 (10/18/2013 3:47 PM)

**Posted by MS** 10/18/2013 4:10 PM

Hakan, what are you going to use for bumpstops on the front suspension? Looking good !!!! I am envious of getting to do one from scratch like you are doing. Maybe in my next life...

**Posted by Hakan** 10/19/2013 2:47 AM

Thanks!

About bumpstops I've been thinking that I should put something on the framerail inside the LCA bracket when I have fine tuned the ride height.

**Posted by Tonie** 10/19/2013 4:59 AM

Looking sharp Hakan

keep posting

Tonie

**Posted by MS** 10/19/2013 1:00 PM

Hakan wrote:
Thanks!

About bumpstops I've been thinking that I should put something on the framerail inside the LCA bracket when I have fine tuned the ride height.

Think about the amount of leverage acting on a stop at that posiion. It will be quite alot if your suspension uses it for an abrubt halt of movement. That is why they are usually right at the ball joint. What do you think? I would hate to see you bend one of those cool LCA's.

**Posted by Hakan** 10/19/2013 4:30 PM

MustangSteve wrote:
Think about the amount of leverage acting on a stop at that posiion. It will be quite alot if your suspension uses it for an abrubt halt of movement. That is why they are usually right at the ball joint. What do you think? I would hate to see you bend one of those cool LCA's.

Yes, that's a very valid consideration that I also thought about, maybe it would be a better idea to have something going down to above the upper ball joint from the reinforcement I did that connects the shocktower. Hmm, I could bolt something on there and might even be able to have some cool dimpled holes in it...

**Posted by JSHarvey** 1/31/2014 9:24 AM

That car is a work of automotive art! I always get excited when there's a chance to see photos of your work on that car. :-) Simply amazing!

**Posted by Hakan** 2/09/2014 9:56 AM

JSHarvey wrote:
That car is a work of automotive art! I always get excited when there's a chance to see photos of your work on that car. :-) Simply amazing!

Many thanks!

As always, got a little carried away on the detailing of my rear end. I've actually "chromed" all the bolts, etc. using the "Replica Chrome Kit" I described here: http://fyi.boardhost.com/viewtopic.php?id=2112 :

**Posted by jerseyjoe** 4/11/2014 7:23 PM

I love the lower shock tower braces...cool...what steering rack is that ?....jj

**Posted by Hakan** 5/20/2014 11:42 AM

jerseyjoe wrote:
I love the lower shock tower braces...cool...what steering rack is that ?....jj

Thanks, I made the rack & pinion myself using two Mazda 929 units that I converted to center take off. Here's an album with pics showing how I did it: http://public.fotki.com/VikingMustang/the-phoenix-project/engine-mounts/

**Posted by R5CYA** 5/21/2014 12:28 AM

WOW! you really put the metal working equipment to good use, don't you? and the rear end is too nice to even put under a car!
is this going to be a show car only? or will you be driving it?

**Posted by R5CYA** 5/21/2014 12:29 AM

WOW! you really put the metal working equipment to good use, don't you? and the rear end is too nice to even put under a car!
is this going to be a show car only? or will you be driving it?