Jeff's 3.8 and 4.2 Projects.

Attached here is an outer rocker panel template that I made up for anyone looking to make a patch panel. Print it at 100% with no page scaling on 8.5" x 11" paper. After it's printed you can cut it out along the inside edge and check the fit on yours and trim as necessary. I tested it yesterday on mine and the cutout fit very well but then again that panel was the basis for the template. The template was made from a piece of wire bent to the profile and then it was scanned and worked over in Fusion360 a bit. The sharpness of the bends will depend on the person/metal brake doing the bending.
 

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Made some tweaks to the sub-frame bushings prototypes and got them where I'm happy with them. Need to order material for them this week. Figured I might as well order material to make every other bushing for the car at the same time to save on the shipping costs later.



Welded in some support structure to help keep the body from moving too much while I work on the floor and rockers. I'm going to do it section by section and not chop the whole thing out but better safe than sorry. It's welded to the rear wheel well area as well as the A pillar, B pillar and transmission tunnel. When it's done I'll make it into subframe connectors and braces.


I already knew the car was beat on hard before but seeing this after removing the seam sealer at the rear floor footwell section confirms it. The body was flexing enough to start tearing the spot welds.


Started the process of removing the rear floor crossmember, part of it is getting replaced and it was in the way of rusted floor. Took a break to start painting up some suspension parts after they were cleaned up. I picked up white rust paint instead of black by mistake so the first couple coats are going to be white and I'll topcoat it black later or maybe keep it white, who knows?

 
Wow just read through this whole thread. Lots of impressive custom work. You are like me, you pick a car that needs work and by the time you finish you could have just saved a bit longer and bought a better car to start with. Hope you plan to keep this car forever because even though you count your own labor as free, you will never get back what you have invested from a time or money stand point.

I wish I had half of the fabrication skills and metal work skills you have. Keep us updated on the progress.
 
Wow just read through this whole thread. Lots of impressive custom work. You are like me, you pick a car that needs work and by the time you finish you could have just saved a bit longer and bought a better car to start with. Hope you plan to keep this car forever because even though you count your own labor as free, you will never get back what you have invested from a time or money stand point.

I wish I had half of the fabrication skills and metal work skills you have. Keep us updated on the progress.
Thanks. I knew the car needed some work when I bought it but that went down hill quickly. The original plan was just to fix the floor, rockers and a basic tune up and drive it this summer. Then the spark plug broke and I found out how utterly f'ed the car was and now I'm into a driveway based partial restoration. A lot of the fun for me is in the troubleshooting, designing new parts and then making them. I am the product of a childhood full of Legos.

I have no plans to sell it and if I could not do the work myself there would be no hope for it but I am enjoying the challenge of saving it from what would probably have been the junkyard and bringing it back to life again. I feel these cars are worth the effort and time but there are some days I am sure my wife tires of me shaking my head and saying "why couldn't I be a Mustang guy? They have it so easy with parts" but overall, at least for me it is much more fun to build horsepower and upgrades than to just buy them from a catalogue. My mental "to-do" list for this grows by the day. For example I seem some gated shifters on Youtube and though that would be cool so I did a rough CAD model for one to fit a 89-93 console that I will circle back around to that eventually after the car is mobile again or I see something cool here on the forum or facebook, same thing happens. Hard to stay focused sometimes.

Today I started wire brushing the rust and grime off the rear subframe so I can reinforce it and paint it. I think my subframe was welded on either a Friday afternoon before a holiday or the Monday morning right after one based on the nasty welds. So much porosity and inconsistent bead placement, oh well. I had to weld it up anyway so what's a bit more at this point.

Some of the welding porosity.

 
Thanks. I knew the car needed some work when I bought it but that went down hill quickly. The original plan was just to fix the floor, rockers and a basic tune up and drive it this summer. Then the spark plug broke and I found out how utterly f'ed the car was and now I'm into a driveway based partial restoration. A lot of the fun for me is in the troubleshooting, designing new parts and then making them. I am the product of a childhood full of Legos.

I have no plans to sell it and if I could not do the work myself there would be no hope for it but I am enjoying the challenge of saving it from what would probably have been the junkyard and bringing it back to life again. I feel these cars are worth the effort and time but there are some days I am sure my wife tires of me shaking my head and saying "why couldn't I be a Mustang guy? They have it so easy with parts" but overall, at least for me it is much more fun to build horsepower and upgrades than to just buy them from a catalogue. My mental "to-do" list for this grows by the day. For example I seem some gated shifters on Youtube and though that would be cool so I did a rough CAD model for one to fit a 89-93 console that I will circle back around to that eventually after the car is mobile again or I see something cool here on the forum or facebook, same thing happens. Hard to stay focused sometimes.

Today I started wire brushing the rust and grime off the rear subframe so I can reinforce it and paint it. I think my subframe was welded on either a Friday afternoon before a holiday or the Monday morning right after one based on the nasty welds. So much porosity and inconsistent bead placement, oh well. I had to weld it up anyway so what's a bit more at this point.

Some of the welding porosity.

Always an adventure! I'd be interested in doing one of those intakes on my car it has a 4.2 and 2.1 kenne bell
 
Always an adventure! I'd be interested in doing one of those intakes on my car it has a 4.2 and 2.1 kenne bell
That split-port intake is something I still think about often and want to get back to it after I get the car mostly sorted and mobile again. There are some things that I have learned since the first go at it that I would change about it.
 
Last month I got the rear subframe cleaned up with some seam welding and bracing added. It's back home now and living in my basement until it's time to re-install it.



More spot welds were found tearing and popping as well as some non-factory ripples in the driver side floor.


Some photos of being in the process of removing floor sections.
 
I started working on getting the outer rocker panels I had previously made cut to size and fitted.


So....Much....Rust.......
I had to pull the fenders off to get access to some of this so of course, the bottom of the fenders will be rusted as well.



A couple more photos. The wood you see in the photo is from a pallet under the car that I fasten my car cover to that works very well as a tie down point.


Pulled the front rotors off and cleaned them up in the lathe. I didn't need to take much off of them per side to clean them up.


I finally got the material to make up the rear subframe bushings. The grey one is a 3D printed prototype. The white UHMW is all cut up now into bushing sized chunks.


The replacement panels for the floor/inner rockers and supports are in the process of being built in the basement when I have time so hopefully I'll have some of it done by the end of the weekend. The metal is all cut for it and I just need to finish it on the brake and bead roller. I am really, really wishing I had listened to that voice in my head that wanted me to buy a plasma cutter for the last number of months. I ignored it and spent way too much time cutting a lot of sheet metal with a grinder in my driveway with a ground level pallet as the workbench. Lesson learned, don't ignore any excuse or reason to buy more tools.
 
Wow, just wow, amazing work! Makes me want to tackle my tbird projects. Work has consumed all my time lately.

Thanks. Once you get started on it I find it helps to do something each day for it even if it's something small and only a few minutes such as taking a measurement, research, cut a piece of metal etc. It's not always easy and doesn't always happen but it helps me keep the ball rolling so to speak.
 
Thanks. Once you get started on it I find it helps to do something each day for it even if it's something small and only a few minutes such as taking a measurement, research, cut a piece of metal etc. It's not always easy and doesn't always happen but it helps me keep the ball rolling so to speak.
Doesn't help that my birds are spread out in different property's. Plus I recently bought another project so I want get that finished before I tackle my tbird ressurections lol
 
Finally got the rear subframe bushings made for it and they turned out well and fit good. I didn't have any round bar for the center section of the bushing but I did have hex stock aluminum so I used that instead and machined the hex into the UHMW to match and the tool radius on to the hex stock. Most of it was done on a CNC mill and then I machined the final finish cut on the lathe. Saved a lot of time doing it this way.







I plan on upgrading the rear brakes eventually and made some brackets for when the time comes. Mostly went by pictures and measurements on the internet but it seems correct. I'll have to grab rotors from Rock Auto next time I order and see if anything needs changing but I think it should be fine. Made the prototype on the 3D printer before committing to doing it in metal.


 
Not a great deal done over the last few weeks but slow progress is still progress. I got pretty far along with the replacement panels for the floor sections. Most of the rolling and bending is done and it's almost time to cut them to size (intentionally oversize a bit right now) and weld them in. As far as the sheetmetal goes the floor panels are almost done, the outer rockers are ready to install and the inner rockers and crossmembers have just been started. Once those are ready it's time to weld it all back together.

Here is a few pics of some of the floor sections in various states of mockup and fabrication. I made them up on a sheet metal brake and bead roller that I made a few months ago. They still need a bit of hammer work to finish them but they are close.

 
Time has been hard to come by lately. I changed jobs late in the summer and the shifts are not the same as my old job and not always conducive to car work or updates. I don't have photos for everything but I'm still working on floor and rocker area and found out today that I need to repair/remake the area that the subframe brackets bolt to at the floor pan area as they are weak and heavily corroded. I also don't have those brackets anyway (rusted away to scrap) so I suppose I will have to get creative about it. I will pick up some thicker metal this week and see what I need to build for it.

I've been ordering parts here and there and removing and repairing rust damage underneath as well as painting up the repairs with POR15 products. Expensive paint, it's $80/quart here in Canada at the moment.

There are probably have about 30-40 individual bushing parts to make in the coming weeks for the entire rear suspension and differential. The UHMW and aluminum are sitting on the bench waiting for me. The measurements are done, just need time.


3 of the 4 captive rear subframe bolts failed on me when attempting to remove the subframe which was honestly completely unsurprising. Of the 3 that snapped one also spun the captive nut so I ended up creating access holes to deal with that on those 3. After removing the nuts and broken bolts they came out fairly easily once in the vice with some oxy/acetylene persuasion.


Decided to redo that MAF I made a while back as it was not useable without further machine work so I designed on an 80mm version with removable sleeves and made a couple of prototypes on my 3D printer, the blue one is V2 and the red one is V3. I have a 255lph fuel pump, adjustable fuel pressure regulator and 42lb injectors to go in soon in addition to the MAF. A Moates Quarterhorse is very likely a necessary purchase in the near future for tuning as I fully expect to need it and really want to learn anyway.

Finally got the rear subframe back in the car after cleaning it up and reinforcing it months ago. The UHMW rear subframe bushings I made for it worked great. The bolts I bought from Grainger were a bit too long (not enough thread down the shank of the bolt) but a couple extra washers made up for it. I left a bit of clearance for a tight fit, the gaps compress out of it once tightened. I learned a lot from reading DLF's subframe bushing posts on various forums, wish he was still here to thank.

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Here are the dimension/prints for the rear subframe bushings similar to the ones I installed on my car so you can make them or have them made. They have not been road tested but fit very well. No guarantee that these will fit yours but they fit my 1993 SC very well and I would expect them to work with any other MN-12 chassis vehicle as well but have not tested nor verified this. Rounding/converting to metric might get you closer but these dimensions are what worked for me. You will also need some 1/2" Grade 8 washers or equivalent as well.

Disclaimer:
For off-road use only. Not road tested. No warranty expressed or implied and the user takes full responsibility for any use, and/or misuse of this information and agrees that the draftsman (JB351) holds no responsibility for any consequences, legal, or other, of such use and/or misuse.
 

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  • Sleeve.pdf
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  • Upper.pdf
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Long overdue for an update. Winter, Spring, Summer and Fall for 2022 came and went and it's still up on jackstands but progress continues.
Things are looking better for next spring though. I didn't have the time to work on it this year that I had planned on. Some older pics mixed in here that didn't get posted previously.


Enlarging outlet on supercharger case.


Older experiments with 3D printing a flexible parking brake cover.

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Replacement throttle body part being made.



Needed tools so I made some. Bending brake, bead roller, anvil from old railroad track, pipe anvil and a transmission/differential jack attachment.
 

...more rust.






Rear strut tower brace in progress.


Replaced axel seals in a spare 8.8 that is to be installed. It has 3.27 gears and a less abused limited slip.


Second attempt at the MAF sensor housing.
 
Sheet metal reinforcement while working under the car, fitting and installing the UHMW rear subframe bushings I had made and third attempt at the MAF sensor housing.













 

Antother view of MAF housing v3.


Flexible TPU intake connectors that I designed and 3D printed to accommodate my setup.


Machining UHMW bushings for the rear control arms.
 
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