Mustang at the Track

Today. It's more back half fab. We'll track tune our four L

and check out some rare muscle of 427 R code cop car.

Welcome to muscle car. I got a full tank of gas and I'm gonna need it because I'm back on the stand.

This started out as a horsepower project. It was so successful. They overpowered the pony. So we cut out the back half of this baby and

fed up some frame rails

and all that. They put in a badly needed for

link set up to get a, all that power to the pavement.

Now, this baby is not ready to go to the track by any stretch of the imagination and I gotta make sure that Mike is nice and safe. So I went to competition engineering and got an eight point prebent roll cage for a fox body mustang. The thing that's really neat about it. It comes with a picture showing you how to lay it out.

Now, this is not as difficult as putting in a set of frame rails, but it is just as important. I like to run my roll cage about an inch and a half down from the roof and being that we don't have a floor, it's just a matter of stabbing it in and marking it.

There's a lot of science involved in every roll cage design,

but they all center around the main hoop. You screw this one up,

you're screwed.

Our top bars are next.

You wanna have these where they fall right on top of the shop. This way, when the car launches, it's got extra support and there's less flex in the chassis

as you can see, we're not following the picture too well. Like everything around here is heavily modified.

If you don't have a tubing nacho, like I don't,

simple hand tools will do the job.

That's right. More modifications to the plan.

If you ever put it in the next bar by yourself, you take a piece of sheet metal or angle line and cut a notch in it

and you put it on your existing bar,

clamp it

and then it will actually hold the bar you're putting in

like that. Oh,

I think I got it. First shot.

I'm joined in the main hoop from the corner to the rear to frame, crossing from side to side

in case of rollover. This helps keep the cage from collapsing.

And I put in this bar here for side impact. If you notice I bent it back a little that's to clear the driver's seat. So Mike has all the room he needs when he's stabbing that gas pedal to the floor. This bar here is a door bar. It's also for side impact in case the car ever gets hit in the side, it helps to protect the driver. There's two major purposes for a cage safety and getting the power to the pavement. I think we're gonna get there with it.

Now, the last thing to do is to locate this rear end because you don't want it going side to side. Now, you can use a track locator or a pan art bar, but I got something better in mind. Now, I saw this baby at the drag strip, this guy called it a sliding wishbone which is really cool. You take two pieces of tubing

and you make it so it telescopes inside of each other and it's what it does, it allows you full suspension travel and it still locates your rear end.

But everything else has got to be level.

I am such a genius in my own mind.

I gotta mark this pumpkin. Now,

I don't know whether or not anyone sells these, but I always like to make them myself because it's just more fun

in case you missed it. Last week, we narrowed our rear end houses and ordered some new axles.

Well,

they're here

so now we can reinstall our eating posi

unit.

Then we're gonna slide in these 31 supplying mojor

actions that we got from DTs.

Our mustang is sitting on the ground and the stance is perfect. She's wearing some nice street shoes and this is why you build them at ride height. No hidden surprises, but we're not done yet.

I've got to run some new brake lines, stuff in the fuel cell along with the fuel pump. Then I got to give Mike something to hold on to when he's shooting at Nitrous and he exhaust. But don't go away because if I get this baby done, we're gonna take it to the track and beat the snot out of it.

Coming up some vintage police muscle and later all that work on the suspension pays off.

If you drove a muscle car the way you were supposed to drive a muscle car like they were built back in the day, you probably got some points put on your license. Well, on today's flashback, we got a 63 cop car with a 427 cobra in it. The average cop didn't get this baby. Check it out.

Today's muscle car flashback. Police Muscle and the 1st 4, 27

muscle car guys have always had a special relationship with

the man. You're in a lot of trouble boy

from the old days.

2150 the headquarters right down to today.

This is the part where you do a massive burnout,

but this nearly two ton master plays both sides of that game.

It's an all original 1963 cop car with just 36,000 miles and one of only five Galaxy 500 police cars ever built with the R code

63 was the first year of the 427. And this barge prowled the streets of Austin, Texas packing 425 horses and dripping with chrome. The guys they were chasing had some options too.

The all new 63.5 Galaxy Fast back had an aerodynamic rear window and a brand new 427

Ford started with a 406, punched it out. 10 thousands came up with a big block

that turned 7000 RPM on the street or the track. It was rated at 410 horse with a single four barrel four and a quarter with two. The actual horsepower was probably a little bit higher.

All the Galaxy 420 sevens that year had four speeds

and none of them were really 420 sevens, actual displacement was 425 but racing rules called for a 427.

That's what they named it.

Ford made a lightweight Galaxy that run low twelves at close to 100 and 20 miles an hour.

But the police version was geared for serious top end speed.

That special order 427 was basically the same engine that went into NASCAR races and later into the big block cobra.

This one has a rare transistorized ignition

that makes it a 427 t

you know, a lot of people argue that if there's no four door muscle cars,

I think if there's a four door muscle car, it's something like this. I mean, this is, this has got a muscle car, motor muscle car transmission.

Most Ford police cars weren't this dressed up, but this one belongs to the chief

and everything's still there. Original paint interior, all the cop stuff,

ac and top of the line reverb radio.

Wherever

you go,

there's even a handle to hang on to up front because you ain't getting no seat belt.

This might not be the fastest muscle cart to drag strip, but there's no question. It is strong

and with something this size, you can bring all your friends and roll in some serious old school comfort.

You can take another couple of friends with you and go bombing around and uh pretend you're back in Mayberry and you're a cop.

Yeah, but this time I'm getting a ride up front

coming up track testing our four

lane.

We're back and so is Mike. We're scrambling to get things finished up on his mustang or at least enough to get it to the tracks.

And as usual, it's the little things that take time

and some things require some fines

or at least

a good hammer.

But most of all you gotta have some patience.

Come on, man. Hurry up. I'm ready to tack this on. I got a whole another bottle.

I got a whole another bottle.

I got things to do

II,

I see it

and stopped by to give us a hand

and gave us a thumbs up.

Oh, God, close enough mamas. Don't let your babies grow up to be fabricators.

Brake lines are through. Brake lines are done.

All right, fuel cells in fuel lines are done. Feed in returns, fuel pumps mounted. I'm gonna go ahead and wire. The actual pump, drive shaft is done. Drive shaft safety loop. We got fashionable exhaust to get us by. I'm not gonna do tubs in because I wanna see the car filled with smoke. Really good.

Oh, thanks

before anybody smokes anything around here. I got a little bit more information to give you first.

It's really important to know where your center of gravity is with a four L car. So you can dial in your suspension

the way you do it without high dollar scales. Four jack stands a couple of friends.

So what you're gonna do is you're gonna set your jack stands as close to the middle of the car as possible. You're going to have your friend in front let down the car.

And if the car is heavy in the nose, which it should be because of the engine,

it's going to start to come off of these rear stands, you make them stop so the car doesn't fall off. Brett, lower the car.

Whoa,

pick it up.

Now, keep moving the front stands forward in small increments until they completely support the car, then find the center between the jack stands

and that

is the cheap way to find the center of gravity. Now, I'm gonna go out and try and defy gravity.

Now, we're only gonna do some short hops here to see just how the car leaves the line.

Well, let's see how this baby works right out of the box. No adjustments. No, nothing.

See how it pulled a little over to our side. You don't want that and it didn't raise up even I could fix that.

The beauty of a four

link is that almost every characteristic of a launch

is adjustable

because what I did was I shortened the top bar on the passenger side, which actually will cock the rear end a little bit, which should keep the car from going to the passenger side. So let's see what it does. We'll get it to launch straight

man.

It was perfect. What else can I say? I do? Good work well, perfectly straight anyway, but there's not enough lift in the front of the car and Mike's losing some traction.

It needs a little bit more weight transferred to the rear,

lowering the top bars, one notch on the front brackets will put the pivot point of the rear end behind the center of gravity, forcing more weight on the rear end during the launch,

more live

better traction. And we kept it all in a straight line.

Now, we could keep tweaking this thing and dialing it in even more.

But Mike was way cool to help me with this project.

So we deserve some play time.

Talk to me. Tough guy. What do you think? Man? This thing is on a rail? I didn't even have to touch the steering wheel and it went straight. It's what I do build perfection. Now, I've got one little problem, a little too much car and not enough motor. That's not my problem. That's your problem. You handle it and that it is. And I've got a small block turbo on my mind. Oh God.

Well, there you go, guys. Four link, 101. I've armed you guys with the basic knowledge of a four link. So when you're looking at it, you're not totally lost. Don't forget though. There's still a lot of black magic involved with this stuff, but you can get there. You just got to do your homework and work at it and you're good to go. I gotta go bother Joe at the good guys event later

after the break midway. Muscle with good guys.

Hey, everybody. Welcome back. I got bored hanging out in the shop by myself. So I decided to come down to Nashville for the first good guys. Rod run. Great town. Great people. And I brought someone with me, Joe Elmore is gonna help me out. So you might see him around. Let's get going

like the Oldsmobile.

I like that. I mean, they, they're nice cars too, man.

That's nice.

Oh, it's a jet star.

So, what's your name?

Mike Johnson. Yeah, because we're gonna need to say that. Hey, this is Mike Johnson.

The good guys, Rod and Custom Association started back in the mid eighties. They've got 78,000 members,

25 shows across the country.

This event was open to cars all the way up to 72. You know what that means? Serious Muscle.

Oh, we see everything and that's what's so cool about our events. Open it up to 72. It allows us muscle car guys to come out now and I mean, we just see some of the most beautiful Camaros and Chevelles and road runners and Challengers and just everything that you can think of muscle car wise and it just adds a really neat addition to the show.

Um I mean, we love the 32 Ford. Don't get me wrong, but we also love the 69 Camaro.

This was actually my first car.

Yeah, I got, I got, I had an SS but it got stolen.

I see you got ac on it. Thing does it, does it blow cold in

there? Freeze you to death and it's still R 12.

That's so cool man. Factory air power steering and no power brakes, but it'll stop real good

boards around here.

Boards,

boards.

I saw somebody pushing one by earlier.

You want Ford's Joe.

How about this hot Rod Falcon?

Or the 64 Fairlane two door post car?

Oh, man. And this one, a 69 Torino with a Stroker.

You're happy now.

Hey, we both agreed. This 64 GTO Drop Top is one of the coolest muscle cars out here. It was built by Time Machine and it's got the Australian made LS one

making its horsepower original convertible or they,

or

they don't

really. Your

VIN number.

Have

a barn in New Hampshire. No way.

The cool thing is when we got it,

the floor obviously was no good. Right. I already knew that I didn't want a floor because I

do.

So the car,

everything else was near perfect.

It was unbelievable. It was awesome.

Several lead sled,

lead sleds

to Marilynn Monroe suicide knobs.

They need to have something like this on the power block.

Well, that's it. This week from muscle car, we decided to go with something a little bit more along Joe's speed low but not really slow.

That's it. From Nashville. We'll see you guys next week.