Somethingclever's operation 65 Mustang DD - built and bought

[Martin0660]

Nice score! It bums me out that SBFs are becoming a relic of the past.

phtttttttt …. Welcome to my world. I’m driving to northern Michigan this weekend for parts.

[somethingclever]

phtttttttt …. Welcome to my world. I’m driving to northern Michigan this weekend for parts.

Hope you make it to Mackinac Island for the long weekend....

[somethingclever]

The interior was also sprayed wimbledon white with the same PPG products to make sure everything matched....and with a shipment of new parts it started coming together.

[somethingclever]

The interior went together pretty quick actually.....guess that is the benefit of installing all new parts and new hardware properly labeled in a bag where they are to be installed. (thank you AMK hardware)

The seat covers were the long-lead time item....once they came in I took the seats to a local interior shop to install the foam kit and new covers.....

Seat covers with wrinkles are as bad as sagging headliners...

[Martin0660]

Hope you make it to Mackinac Island for the long weekend....

nope, just out, inspect this deal, and back. If it pans out I’ll post details

[07v6vistablue]

Looks Great!

[somethingclever]

Interior kept coming along and then he re-focused back to the exterior....

And he added a man-pedal assembly that I purchased from MustangSteve - roller bearing converted and setup for his (Ford) clutch cable kit.

[PaxtonShelby]

Let me know how you like that roller bearing setup. Did you buy it complete or send your core to him or DIY?

[somethingclever]

Let me know how you like that roller bearing setup. Did you buy it complete or send your core to him or DIY?

I bought it complete from mustang Steve...pricey but simple to more or less just bolt it in.


Originally this car was going to be a paint job only deal for him but he was interested to do the interior as well...so I was trying to minimize his time for install and my time for sub-assembly work.


At the end of the day, this approach really added up. LOL

[somethingclever]

So in the last interior picture for those interested, the std vs pony interior packages offered by Ford have some interesting differences. I went with a mixture of both,

The glove box door in std interior is black with chrome trim but I like woodgrain on my 80's/90's caravan's and my classic cars...I have looked high and low and cannot find a wood grain sweep style instrument cluster (GT cars and 66 cars have 6 individual gauges unlike the 64.5-65 non GT cars which had the sweep cluster.) I have my old surround which I will use as a template and buy some woodgrain overlay material to practice on the old cluster and then install on the new one with a good template so both are matching. The pony glove box door also is thicker and uses a different latch mechanism. Knowing all that now, I would have bought a std black door and just done the wood overlay on that as well. Same effect and less cost.

The kick panel carpets are part of the pony interior package.

The seats covers i bought mimic the pony seat covers although they have extra bolstering with a stock look.

I didn't spring for the pony door panels which have molded in arm rests and a courtesy light. The courtesy light would have required wiring harnesses to be purchased and I think the door and window handles are also different as the panel itself is thicker. If my wife trips while she is getting into the car at night because there was no door courtesy light....well then that's her fault. I can't do everything.


Jumping ahead a bit but since I am talking about interior....here is a picture of the seats finished when I picked them up.

[somethingclever]

My next sub-assembly to tackle was the engine.

I wasn't planning to use the Mass-Flo EFI system but instead a carb...atleast initially.

This meant swapping to a Performer RPM intake for 120 yr old air/fuel delivery technology.

I pulled the EFI intake off and what I saw didn't give me a warm and fuzzy.....

The more I looked at the heads I thought I should atleast pull them and have cleaned/checked.

I really didn't want to put this engine in the car and then have to pull it again in 5k miles.

Pulled the heads and found some scoring in cyl #1.

Debated for a couple days if I really wanted to keep digging or just call it superficial marks and keep it simple and stop where I was.

Decided I have to know more....and glad I did.

Piston #1 pushed an oil ring and that is what caused the scoring.

[somethingclever]

The rest of the shortblock was in nice shape and was all original - std brgs and the pistons are the original forged TRW's.

The block was going to need to head to the machine shop and I didn't want to spend $750 on hardware to build a 306 when I can spend $1300 and get a 331.

So i ordered a complete Scat 331 kit for 28oz balance. This kit comes pre-machined, pre-balanced with matching damper and flexplate, king brgs, ICON pistons, and scat branded rods and crank. I ended up getting an alum mcleod flywheel for this fire-breather which was a great buy from a CJ Pony sale. (like 50% off or more)

I haven't rebuilt an engine in quite a while - have been restoring my house and buildings over the last 10 yrs...and this was my first SBF rebuild. Previously it's been FE's, BBF's, and 2.3T's.

That said, I should have done more homework on what I could actually use off this engine for a first gen mustang installation.

Since I didn't use the factory rotating assembly, the only thing I actually used from the engine I purchased was the cylinder heads and the block itself. DOH!

So much for saving money on a good used engine. :)

[86GT]

Thanks for posting all of these details on your build. I can only hope
to see this car out & about some day.

[TooFast98Cobra]

I have a nice small cap msd dizzy and a few other things on shelf. No charge just get this sbf shit outta here

[somethingclever]

I have a nice small cap msd dizzy and a few other things on shelf. No charge just get this sbf shit outta here

I can stop over thursday?

[PaxtonShelby]

Looking good John!! At this point, don’t even think about the money - just git-r-dun!! ��

[somethingclever]

Looking good John!! At this point, don’t even think about the money - just git-r-dun!! ��

pfft....I always think about the money.....it certainly isn't free! LOL


Honestly alot of people do build threads but don't talk about what it cost to get there....I am not going to be shy about it...maybe the info is helpful to someone.


Additionally I gave myself a budget to work within without doing the necessary homework for "today's" prices....blew that number out of the water!

[somethingclever]

I took the heads to SMO machine for cleaning and inspection.

The heads ended up having titanium retainers which had seen better days...the springs all checked out good, but one of the seats needed some rework. (can't remember if exh or int)

The seats on these little AFR 165's actually touch in the center of the chamber and SMO was hesitant to re-work it.

Ended up taking them to Evanuik Performance for round 2.

$1000 and 4 weeks later I picked the heads up with new valve job, retainers, decked and exh guides.

Considering a set of new "renegade" 165's is about $1700, the idea of purchasing a used engine in an effort to save money was again not helping my case. LOL


in the meantime my new rotating assembly showed up and I started putting that together.


I ended up ditching the F cam that was in it in favor for something a little milder for this eco-friendly decarbonization mustang for the sake of some MPG's. :)


I have always like the comp extreme energy grinds for OTS stuff....was debating between the XE262HR and XE270HR.


I ended up going with the 270HR and I may regret that from a MPG standpoint on a car that should see partial throttle and 2000rpm for 99% of the time.


That went in with some new FRPP hyd roller lifters for valve actuation.


The king bearings in my experience in with BBF's run pretty generous at the parting line as compared to 12 and 6...and these were no different.


Oil clearance was approx 1.8 thou at 12/6 and 2.8 at 9/3 on the mains....the rods were a touch tighter but similar difference between the 2 points.

[Dickbag 5.h0]

Really enjoying following this build. That's going to be a sharp machine when you're finished!

[somethingclever]

one thing i forgot to mention is that I was impressed at the quality control of the piston dia and the ring package supplied in the kit. The rings are nothings special total seals and the piston are forged ICON's.

All the rings came pre-gapped for a street application....i didn't even have to gap 1 of them. (but I checked them all)

Is this typical of today's stuff now?

Gapping rings is time consuming...was glad to not have to spend that time.