rules state that you can modify or tub the wheels but an alternative structure must be in place in order to cover the wheel opening from inside the car. and im going to be making my front fenders out of the part i cut out of the rear quarters to widen the front 3" per side and still maintain a good looking bodyline
used an electric 3" cutoff wheel to make the cut- came out pretty good and followed my line precisely
then i bent up some .035" aluminum to take up the space i cut out. then slotted it to take car of the arc and used some split rivets to hold it all in place.
got to work on the hood the last time it was nice out a few weeks ago and wanted to gut the underside of it to shed weight and make it easier for venting. didnt do a before/after weight comparison but i’d say its probably a good 40% lighter than it was. still kind of heavy though.
laid out where my cuts were going
finished. thought the under side would pop right out like my last one but apparently they used some crazy bond glue on Cervini’s hoods that blows to get off. so i had to cut it in multiple sections in order to pry it all out of there
then i got to work on flaring out the rear quarters tapering up from big to small as it went up the car. came out better than i had hoped and still looks good and will shield any air from catching the front of the tire. this begins with the side skirt flaring out from its normal position to 2.5" at its biggest part towards the rear of the door.
here is a good reference picture to how much they are pushed out as opposed to being flush with the stock panel
then i got fancy with some aluminum and made 2 separate pieces to fill the gap between the door sill and the side skirt and the space where the quarter is flared out
so all that body widening allowed me to use these to their full potential changing the rear track width from 72" to 78" 2.5" spacers per side plus the 15mm per side from different offset wheels. still have to order extended hardened studs for the spacers
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did you miss the last 2 pics? lol. it shows the piece i made to cover the gap
they are normal length studs that are in there now. the hole they are pressed into is just recessed from the rear flange of the hub so it doesnt need a stud that is 4" long
most guys that run mustangs in NASA run some type of spacer. front and back. and they are bolt on spacers that bolt to the hub. then the wheel bolts to the spacer. The Roush has had 1" rear spacers for the past 6 years. and anytime i tracked it i ran 1.5" rear spacers and 1" front spacers with no problems.
they are a much better alternative to a generic slide on spacer that would require extended studs
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more track width. if i did nothing i would be 8" shy of the rule for max width so why not take advantage of it?
I wasn’t really concerned with stud threads and so on as much as the pressures put on the wheel bearings and a bit on the suspension when spacers like that are used.
I used to run big spacers back in the day and went through a set of wheel bearings every 4000 miles. Wheel bearings go unnoticed in stripped out race cars because there is so much else to drown out the noise. Its not fun when they fail completely lol
im not too worried since the car will probably only see less than 1000 hard miles of just track use per year so rebuilding/replacing wheel bearings every year is no big deal
made a support bar to extend the dash out to a reachable distance and to provide solid mounting for switches etc
and i have access at work to use the brake over at the machine shop but its a pain in the ass to drive there and take shit with me and hope i measured right and drive back and test fit yadda yadda.
so ive been on the look out for about a year for my own 8ft brake basically just for the convenience of having it right there to use at any time. picked this up back in August from a guy down state. bent up to 3/16 steel that was about 9" wide and thats probably about the max type thing i can do with it
and i bought a bead roller also just to have for the convenience of it but had to make some kind of stand for it with i was originally gonna make out of some scrap 2" piping from work but instead of doing that i figured id make a removable piece and use my engine stand since i dont use it too often anyway
fabbed something up out of 2" pipe and some 2" angle and some plate. works perfect for what i need it for and removes with one bolt.
used some .040 aluminum for the dash. nothing crazy, just wanted it to look good and fill in the space between the steering wheel and windshield
laid out where i wanted my gauges and tach. and cut some holes. going to run the following
water temp
water pressure
oil temp
oil pressure
fuel pressure
volts
tach
and i have the possibility to add more if i want
laid down some bead roles
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here’s a copy of my pedal setup. the steering shaft kinda fucked me on where i really wanted them but it worked out ok.
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rules require a rear firewall separating the fuel fill and open ground etc so i opted to make a rear firewall starting behind the main hoop and extend all the way back rather than just doing a 2 piece part to suffice the rules. i think the way i did it is a cleaner look anyway
made the 2 top pieces. quite the obstacle to get them in there but its a nice tight fit and looks good. unfortunately cant bead roll it because it has a pretty good arch to it while putting it in. but its .050" thick so its not going to bend easy anyway. both pieces are joined in the middle with a bar going across welded to the cage for support. all the panels are dzus’d in as well so they can be easily removed
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view from the front angle
after all the dzus springs and fasteners were installed
made the front piece which dzus’s into the piece above it. had to use nutserts on the bottom for lack of space to get inside to install the springs.
i love seeing the end result of sheet metal work because it is so aesthetically pleasing. to me anyway lol