I wish I could say I owned this car, but I don't... it belongs to my brother. An impressive albeit shabby car as pictured here when it first arrived from California in 2010. Brother John bought it soon after with the intention of carrying out a rolling restoration. As the old saying goes - "the more you dig, the more you find." The body of this car underwent a full bare metal rotisserie restoration at arguably Melbourne's highest end car restoration company. It is with certainty, that no acrylic paint is getting shot onto this car by me. It has a unique mix of options and is indeed a one-off, in terms of specification when you consider the information contained in the Marti report. A gorgeous car, with an expected completion date of late 2015, this car has been returned to it's original Lime Gold metallic exterior and original numbers correct 302 4V engine that arrived with the car in a poor state... It has now been fully rebuilt and has been stroked and kitted with some ultra high performance parts. The 351 Windsor engine it was fitted with, (photographed below) ran well, but was disassembled and sold to me. It too, has been fully rebuilt and resides in my XW Falcon. The restoration of the XW is being documented elsewhere on this site and can be found under the "Ford" tab above.
A very brief video of my brothers Windsor he built for the Mustang. Although not fully sorted, it made 443HP with a nice flat torque curve peaking at 434 ft/lb.
|
And here's the 302 after he waved some mechanical know-how and lots of dosh at it. He wouldn't say what the final cost was, but I'm tipping it was fairly hefty. All machine work was carried out at an extremely well known and reputable Melbourne engine reconditioners and the list of goodies is considerable - no cheap stuff here. This engine displaces 347 cubic inch and is estimated to develop 420hp.
Here are a few pictures of the car as the bodywork is being tackled. All relevant items had to be taken to the restorers, including door seals so gaps could be accurately set up. The last two pictures of the covered car signify completion of metalwork and commencement of preparation for paint.
Finalising work on the engine running stand. A video of it running is located above. The last two pictures are a couple of doors from another vehicle at the restorers. I included them to illustrate the quality of work they do. Look at the reflection of the white car... and these doors aren't finished - they are yet to have their final buff. I reckon I'd be too scared to drive a car around with paint as utterly flawless as that. I guess that's why our Mustangs bodywork and paint is costing $36K.
9/6/15: I took these pictures a couple of weeks ago as body work is nearing completion. It's almost ready to be primed...
9/6/15: Below is the engine dyno test report. Where initial estimations were around 420HP, it produced 443hp with a nice flat torque curve... and it isn't even fully sorted yet! The carburettor and headers were pinpointed as potential restrictions and replacements are being contemplated.
8/7/15: Well, we've been visiting the car on an almost weekly basis and progression is moving along nicely. Colour is due to be applied within the next fortnight!
25/7/15: And here is this beauty finally in paint... and believe it or not, that finish you see is off the gun. Although it's an expensive job, the results speak for themselves...
1/8/15: John and I went to the restorers on Saturday and fitted the new competition front and rear ends. We then fitted the existing wheels and tyres so the car could be moved about. It will be back to his house in around a week for the much awaited job of re-assembly. Note the strengthening rails on the underside.
8/8/15: With it's body and paint complete, the Mustang sits awaiting collection for it's trip home. Re-assembly to commence now...
A slight contrast below... The day the car left 12th October 2013 and the day it returned 8th August 2015.
1st November 2015: The car has been back for a while now and is slowly being fitted out. As with many cars undergoing restoration work, loads of the reproduction items are ill-fitting and require some re-working.