things are tooling along... The boat anchor is out of the Squire and its in the yard.. the Marquis is in the garage and I am figuring out a way to run it.. Cue - Megasquirt from diyautotune.com Some assembly (all assembly) required Some base programming... Wiring it into the Marquis before I strip it... that way I'm not chasing issues making it run in the new chassis. OH... and new car part days are AWESOME... RCI fuel cell to replace the non replaceable OEM fuel tank
IT RUNS!!! I havent forgotten about this car... but fishing was way more fun this summer. I spent some time on the weekend and got the donor car running on the megasquirt ECU and have started the tear down of the Marquis. Hoping to have my Squire back inside again next week!
And now the illegal chop shop operation is in full swing http://s1284.photobucket.com/user/b...y Squire/20150920_132534_zpshq7fiavp.mp4.html
Got the Squire back into the garage last night.. got the new frame and cross-member reassembled without an engine in the way.. and picked up a TR-3650 so I can do some shifting instead of blowing $500 to control the 2003 automatic trans. Just need to find a Mustang pedal set and clutch cable now.. Next I need to do some cleaning/moving in the garage so I have enough room to do the front frame swap.
Wow! First read through of your thread and I am impressed with the way you are going so far. Better engine, suspension and a clutch to boot. Sweet project! I personally went old school with my wagon but... I really wish I had the nice interior and wood grain siding on mine. So.. call me envious and a new watching on your thread.
The for the kind words Jairus, I can appreciate old school flare just as much as the resto mod and customs. I've always been a better bigger faster kinda guy. Cleaned up the garage a got the car sideways to make more room Rolled the new frame under the car to size it up At 62 5/8" vs 67 1/8" there will still be a lot of room to fit wheels inside the 77" body. Likely a 1000 ways to cut this and 998 are wrong lol... so this week will be very slow and methodical to make sure it goes well next weekend.
Don't forget that Crown Vic ran much higher positive offset rims than the squire did originally. Not saying that will cure all of your problems, but it might not be as bad as it looks.
Oh its not an issue at all.. except for being able to steer when it's aired down. Definitely playing with offset Kevinvarnes
Ahh. Didn't realize you were going with air bags. How far back are you going to go with the Crown Vic frame or do you already have it cut to the length you want right now?
After many different deliberations.. the cut will be just inside the Squire cab mounts and the Victorian frame will be sliced up to fit in it.... terrible attempt at explaining it I realize. I cut a pile extra of the vic just in case... I'll let the pictures explain it all this week/next weekend when I hope to have it completed.
Measure... Measure... Measure.... Measure.... Measure.... Measure.... Measure.... Measure.... Measure.... Measure.... Measure.... Measure.... Level... Measure.... Measure.... Measure.... Measure.... Measure.... Measure.... Time to cut.. and pray...
No turning back now More cutting Needed to find center and be able to transfer the cut onto the new frame 1 of 1000 test fits Made room for the lower control arm mount That's a bit better Measured another 100 times.. it's not perfect, but it's about 1/16" out of square over 9' and I think I'm happy there.. so it got tacked in Let the first few welds cool and rechecked the measurements and level.. I raised the front frame about an inch to lower the front more... stood back and had a look The welding up top is almost all in... tomorrow I'm going to crawl underneath and build/reinforce the pocket needed to clear the rear lower control arm mount. Thx for looking
Cut up some 1/4" plate to reinforce the frame.. Still have to clean up welds and frame rails before I paint it.. then reinstall the subframe and fit the engine/trans and cut a hole for the shifter..
