Chapter 7
Project Planning

by Ryan King
1/07

There are many things to do in preparation for a project. Things like planning...planning...and more planning come to mind. Firsted by research...but followed closely by component sourcing. Otherwise known as buying parts.

I think that one of the most enjoyable parts about a project is buying parts. I also think that it might be a secret (or not-so-secret) favorite of many other people. It’s certainly one of the easier steps. That is, unless, you are hunting down rare parts which can be frustratingly elusive or painfully expensive...or both.

In the case of the Project 351 Mustang, I began the project long before I had ever considered that car projects would benefit from an organized system. Sure, I had grasped the concept of tracking the amount of money I spent on projects, but that’s not nearly the same thing as approaching a project with a well thought out and comprehensive plan.

I’ve learned.

Probably just enough to screw stuff up.

But I’ve learned.

One of the things I’ve figured out, is that a necessity before starting any project, is to look over one’s resources. Those things that you personally bring to a project like your time, your finances, and in this case, a stockpile of parts.

I began stockpiling parts for a 351W swap well before I had the Project 351 Mustang. Not because I like to collect parts, but because I had planned on installing a Windsor into my old ‘66 GT (see Chapter 1 for more details).

Now it’s time to sift through those parts and figure out what I’ve got so that I’ll know what I need to get the project done. As I mentioned in Chapter 6, I’m going into this with an extensive “repair” mentality rather than a “restoration” mentality because of the time and cost involved in a total restoration.

Interior

I’ll start with the interior as that is what I will be disassembling first.

The interior is in good shape, not nice shape, but good. It needs a few things to make it right. Currently, I don’t have anything purchased for the interior. My plans for the seats are to pick up an upholstery kit, a driver side seat frame, some seat foam and a seat track spring set.

Moving onto the dash area: The glove box is pretty ugly, so I’ll pick up one of those from Scott Drake. They make a concourse quality version. She’ll also need a dash pad, a glove box door and glove box door cable. That rounds out my current assessment of the interior’s needs.

Body

The body is my next concern and it needs quite a bit. Even though the car looks “good,” the previous “restorer” did a good job of covering up some crappy parts with shiny new pieces and paint.

The windshield needs to go when I replace the seal. It has a pretty good chip in it (which will make it difficult to remove and install without breaking) and I hate the orange glare strip at the top. I prefer the original blue. It’s much easier on my eyes. I also need to replace the seal in the rear window, but since I already have that part, I’ll only need to pick up the windshield and its seal.

The passenger side window regulator is another concern. It hasn’t worked right since I’ve owned it and it appears to be getting worse with time. However, to be certain that’s the problem, I’ll be digging into the door before ordering any parts.

One of the areas the previous “restorer” covered up was the trunk floors. A nice new trunk mat sat over rust holes where the drain plugs used to be...which were just painted over. For those I’ll need to get replacement panels.

Another area that was covered up was the rear deck. The speaker openings were smashed with a hammer. Thus it will be a remove and replace adventure as well.

I’ll also need to get a new T5 transmission crossmember for the tranny swap. I’m sure other things will come up as time goes on, but that covers most of the major repair work that comes to mind at the moment.

Drivetrain

This is the area I have the most parts stockpiled for. A couple of them come from the Original 351. Those two parts are the carburetor and the alternator offset bracket for the cylinder head. Besides that, I have a ‘77 two-barrel intake that matches the port size and bolt configuration on the E7TE cylinder heads. I also managed to pick up a 289 non-emissions air cleaner at a swap meet.

I have the necessary steel distributor gear from Ford Racing to match a ‘69 distributor to the roller cam and I think I’m going to rebuild and blueprint the distributor myself. See the Electrical section for more of the ignition components.

As far as the exhaust goes, I have a pair of ‘66 289 exhaust manifolds I’m going to restore (I mean, really, doesn’t that sound like fun?) and a stock replacement 2” dual exhaust w/H-pipe to go in behind those. I’ll have to rework the H-pipe to match the 351W, but I think that’s doable.

As I mentioned in Chapter 3, I’m going to be using an engine out of a ‘95 Ford van with a small hydraulic roller cam that matches many of the specs of a ‘69 Windsor grind. Of course, it’s a roller and it has more area under the curve...but it also has a wider LSA, so I’ll have to wait and see what the results are. I’ll also be using a 10.5” Ford Racing billet steel flywheel. The oil pan is from a ‘69 Windsor and should fit nicely.

I need to find an original ‘66 four-blade radiator fan still as well as pick up a new fan shroud and mounting hardware. I’ve already installed a new three-row radiator in her. After the racing season in 2005, she blew the radiator out twice, the second time was permanent. Of course, as I found out later, it did so because the cylinder head gaskets were blown (see Chapter 6 for more details). I’ll also need to pick up a new water pump. Thankfully, I already have a set of non-emission pulley’s for her, I even managed to get a good deal on them through eBay.

I have to kick myself about the transmission. I bought a T5Z (which I’ll be installing in this car) for the Project LX some time ago before Ford Racing started raising their prices, but I returned it because I decided to go with a Tremec TKO600 (which was the far better choice for the design). If I’d have kept it, I wouldn’t have to buy it now for more scratch. Such is life.

On the positive side, I already have the clutch linkage engine bracket necessary to install the ‘66 clutch release equalizer bar on the ‘95 351W. I also have the clutch kit, pilot bearing, throwout bearing and speedo gear (which, incidentally, is the same gear as a factory 5.0 with the 3.08:1 gear set).

I still need to pick up the U-joints, yoke, transmission adapter plate (to connect a T5 to a stock ‘66 bellhousing) and tranny mount.

Rounding out the drivetrain section, the driveshaft needs balancing, I’m going to need to have some engine parts powder coated as well as the rear end housing. I’ll probably paint the pumpkin myself.

Chassis

The Chassis is a bit of a convoluted area because I’ve already done some of the work which I will have to undo, restore and reassemble. Specifically I’m speaking of the brakes which I did in Chapter 5. Besides the components I’ve replaced, I’ll need to convert the rear brake lines over to a dual exhaust brake line set up and I still need the parts to do that.

Besides the brakes, I’ve picked up the Cragar S/S wheels and an aluminum donut spare from a ‘96 Mustang GT to allow me to carry a spare, but keep the weight down.

The part of the chassis that’s going to take the most work, is the suspension. The entire thing needs to be replaced, of which, I have only the KYB GR2 Shocks which I will be using to try to keep the suspension slightly more stable than stock replacement shocks would allow because of the torquey nature of the 351W. With this engine’s size and torque output in the little ‘66 chassis, it not only causes massive tire spin but also twists the chassis out of shape whenever the throttle is applied so a little help will be nice keep this beast under control.

Electrical

Although the alternator is okay, the current bracket configuration won’t be as I’m converting the car over from a California emissions vehicle to a “normal” non-emissions Mustang. To that end, I’ve picked up a set of brackets off eBay, however, I still need the non-emissions water pump bolts.

The ignition is almost all taken care of, save for the distributor cap and rotor. The coil I’ve chosen to go with is a Pertronix Flame-thrower II and the wires are Pertronix as well. The only other engine related components I’ll need are an engine wiring harness and ground wire.

In the interior, I need to pick up a new heater plenum (the old one is warped, damaged and no longer seals), new AMP and fuel gauges (as well as a sending unit and float to go along with the fuel gauge), a two-speed wiper switch, instrument panel light filters (the old ones are melted) and a Rally Pac wiring assembly that I can use to better install the Sunpro tach that’s already in there.

Trim

This section is still under some pretty heavy review, but I have some of the more major considerations written down.

The majority of the parts needs for the Trim section are decals to finish off the various parts of the engine. Other drivetrain related trim needs are a shifter knob and handle.

Up to this point, my other major area of concern is the Interior section. The driver and passenger side front seat side molding shields need replacing, as do the seat hinge covers. The instrument bezel and lens are a bit ugly as well.

I’ve also made a note to myself to look into the condition of the headlight trim rings.

There you have it. While I’ve managed to put together a stash of parts for this project, that stash is no where near enough to fill out the list of components I’m going to need to finish it.

On the positive side, with the Project Commuter taking up my time at the moment, I’ve got plenty of time before I’ll need that long list of parts to complete Stage 2.

Now if I could just add 120 hours to my weekends and an extra $100,000 a year to my income, I might just be able to get through all these projects...

Click image for Chapter 7 Parts Photos.