New guy, sort of, from Maine

Getting the car registered and inspected varies by state. *In Maine you have a couple of options for registering. *You can register the car as a "Custom Vehicle" or the typical menu of regular plates. *The only real distinction I believe, but I can't get my hands on the section, is restrictions in using the car too much if registered as a custom. *Regular registration has no such effect. You need to have the MCO, Manufacturer's Certificate of Origin, bills of sale for all parts, and so on. *BMV will get you in touch with an investigator and eventually you will have a VIN assigned to the car and then a title. *It may well be the one the manufacturer used for internal purposes. The car is still subject to an annual inspection up here, but the only sticking point is the use of cats in the exhaust system if the year of the engine you are using came with them. The air injection system may or may not be required. *Didn't see where it was required last time I checked it out.

[Steve]

Lawn care business tips

How big of a shop do you need to put this together? I am thinking at least 2 bays? You must have a ton of parts all over! Do you have to do any welding on this project? Were there any steps that you got stuck on that the average person might need to call in professional help with? It must be fun

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The garage is 26 by 30 deep. *One side is mostly taken up by the project. *Boxes of stuff that will come out as I need them are at the back of the garage. *Not as bad as it sounds as quite a few of the bulky parts are on the car already. *I have the body sitting outside on a buck. *I was going to hang it from the ceiling, but I made the buck instead as it was easier to do.

There is no welding as the frame is welded up at the factory in a jig. *Some assemblers will do some minor surgury on the frame in the area of the brake master cyclinder to make room for a power booster. *Power brakes really aren't need as the car weights less than 2K lbs. wet. *Stock brakes work just fine for the Mustang, now take 1300 lbs of weight out of the equation and you see what I mean.

The only piece I needed some help with was putting in the new ring gear. *Needed access to a hydraulic press and some specialized tools to get it all right. *Its not an easy job for even an experienced mechanic. *Took me and an professionsl mechanic a little over 6 hours to get it right. *Had to keep taking it apart and readjusting shims and so forth to get the gear pattern correct. *Then the axles wouldn't go in enough to get the pin in. *Forgot to adjust the thickness of the clutch pack in the limited slip. *Out it came again, had to take the ring gear off the diff assembly, adjust the clutch packs, put the ring gear back on. *Of course we had to make more shim adjustments for the final fit. *Next time I would gladly farm it out, no matter what the price.

Painting of some things was farmed out as I don't like to paint. *I did help with the blasting to prep for it.

I took the transmission to a shop to check it over before I stuck it in the car. *Good thing I did as it had some wear issues that would have caused failure within a thousand miles or so. *They set me up right with a shop in NH that rebuilds T-5s so I bought one from them and gave them the core.

The only fitting problems were the upper rear control arms bushings on the top of the axle as I had to press them out a ways in order to line everything up to avoid binding. *Had a friend help line it up and attach the arms while I bench pressed it into position. *Sounds worse than it was.

The aluminim panels do double duty as they take shear strain to help stiffen the frame. *Some of the edges have to be snipped in order to get a good fit. Cleko pins help tremendously in mocking it all up.

Its alot of fun, just messy doing the disassembly and cleaning of parts. *Once I took apart the donor car, it was vey clear how the different modules all come together. *Just take it a step at a time, have a Mustang manual handy with plenty of diagrams and so on.

[Steve]

That sounds like lots of work, I am sure it is fun.

The thing I wonder about is, tv is just chock full of all these vehicle make over shows. Where is a half hour Chip Foose can break down a car to the frame, rebuild it amd put it all together again looking fantastic.

How often are do-it-yourselfers buying these car packages and getting themselves way in over their heads? I can imagine it happening a lot.

I wonder if there are a lot of these kits put up for sale a few hours into them because the owner just had no idea how complicated it was going to be.

It does happen that guys who have some money burning a hole in their pocket buy them thinking they can emulate the TV shows and have the car up and running in no time and then drive around with the trophy wife/girlriend riding shotgun.

Most grew up in the era of the muscle cars, which are now worth some serious $$$ thanks to Barrett Jackson. *They're smart enough to realize they really can't drive those cars as they get too valuable. *So the next best thing is to build your own, a clone if you will. *

Trouble is its been decades since they worked on their own cars and have forgotten just how dirty and frustrated they can get wrenching and reconditioning stuff. *The outlay for tools can get real expensive if they think they need Snap On or other high end tools. *Most keep plugging away on their own, some farm out the majority of the work, some pay for a turnkey, others give up and sell out at a loss. *

I retreived a partly built car from Long Island, NY a few years back so it could be finished at the dealer's shop up here. *We ended up stripping out all the wiring as the owner truly messed it all up. *When we hooked up the battery to start tracing wires, things got smokey in a hurry. *Incorrect or no torque applied to nuts and bolts was another problem. *He was an executive of a clothing company in Manhatten with about as much patience as a shark in a feeding frenzy. *At least he admitted defeat.

The unfinished cars are hard to find as they are seldom advertised. *A friend or somebody else close to the owner will scoff it up.

[Steve]

What other kit cars would you love to build?

Which would be your dream?

Two cars come to mind. A real nasty '34 Ford 3 window w/o fenders, and a Tornado Sports Cars TS-40 which is a replica of a 1966 Ford GT-40, the basis of the recent Ford GT. Its made in England.

Check it out at www.tornadosportscars.com

That would be about it!

[Steve]

WOW





This looks amazing too!

I think the price is around $40,000.