65 Futura in East TN . . .

[bigdan]

Seats and cage, including our own tilt feature on the passenger seat. Keep in mind cage is for rigidity, so isn't necessarily to NHRA rules. 1 3/4" DOM tubing. One of the driving issues is that both of my boys need to be able to ride with me, so the tilt seat was a nod in that direction. More on that later. Thanks for bearing with me -

Dan

[lavron]

The Pictures are better sized

Keep it coming, and eventually I will have questions

See Ya,
Mike

[comethead]

Wow! Looking great Dan!!
I like the tilt seat idea and the cage looks great.
Man I gotta get out into the garage...

Glad you started a build thread!

Joe

[bigdan]

Hood, few random braces.

I wanted a cowl hood, but didn't like any of the available options. If you look carefully, you can see where the car had suffered a carb fire, so I had no issue cutting it up. I snipped out the center, raised it up a little, and welded it up. I ended up revising it a little as it needed to be a little longer in my eye, so that's why I added on after I was finished. Also the bare edges are reinforced enthusiasts hot rolled round bar (1/4").

The lower brace was made out of 1" tubing with 1"flat bar bent for reinforcement, too be a little smaller and sleeker than aftermarket. Same with the tower brace, I wanted more room and didn't just want a Mustang piece. My style is heavy wall tubing and 1/4" flat bar bent to shape. More to follow - Thanks for looking!

Dan

[Loner]

Cool you have the kids involved! One of the best things my father did was to let me be involved with his car builds. Memories I will never forget.
You must have some history in welding/fabrication. Do tell.


Matt

[bigdan]

Cool you have the kids involved! One of the best things my father did was to let me be involved with his car builds. Memories I will never forget.
You must have some history in welding/fabrication. Do tell.
Matt

Matt -

I caught the car bug from my dad growing up; a 64 Falcon sedan we had a blast with, and a numerous more, so I try to involve my boys as much as possible and teach them what I can. As for the welding/ fabrication side, I spent 11 years in the US submarine service as a machinists mate(think millwright) and have worked construction/ industrial maintenance etc ever since, so the welding/fab/etc has been a daily thing for me for as long as I can remember. Thanks for looking.

Dan

[Lou's Comet]

Very nice! Like the personal touches/fabrication, like the front bumper, sectioned upside down rear??

What the plan for paint/color?

Lou

[bigdan]

Very nice! Like the personal touches/fabrication, like the front bumper, sectioned upside down rear??

What the plan for paint/color?

Lou

Lou -

The front bumper is actually all fabbed except for the starting point. I used the original stone deflector then banged sheet metal from there. I blocked it all out and studied on it for a while. In the end, I decided to use fiberglass to be lighter and allow for more airflow than with my design. It's not going anywhere, though, and who knows what'll happen on the next project.

Color plans are simple. Going with a dark metallic grey for the body, all original stainless, satin black interior, gloss black wheels with chrome spiders.

Thanks for looking.

Dan

[popscomet]

don't think us for lookin......THANK YOU FOR SHOWING !!..you and LOU would make a heck of a team...

[bigdan]

Thanks Pop!

Continuing along. All the craziness working on the 65 finally got out of hand crawling around. So i built a rotisserie to speed things along. It worked perfect, and I won't attempt a full resto again without one. You can see in the last pic how i finished it the upper 4 link mounting points. I built the short A-frame in the last pic when I was working out of my smaller 2 car shop; it was short to get out of a 7' door on my tri-5 floor pan jobs. I used it for"sag insurance" when it stayed on the rotisserie for extended periods. Didn't need it, but made me feel better. More to follow -

Dan






Final ride on the rotisserie for the 65, in the shop dedicated to it. This was around the end of last summer.

[bigdan]

Ok, E-brake. I know I'm bouncing all around, but we'll get there eventually. I'm running 4 wheel discs with e- brake calipers. I picked up a Lokar e-brake lever and cable, then had to make it work. Started with my favorite flat plate, then a little shrinking/ stretching/ beating and bashing and voila! An e-brake brake handle I can reach from the drivers seat. More to come -

Dan

[bigdan]

And the last update for a few days. Grabbed a cheap mockup 302 to get the big pieces and parts fitted up. Headers are Dougs tri-y ceramic coated. Exhaust is 2 1/2" with h-pipe and flowmaster super 10's. I used turn downs just in front of the axle because the upper links on the rear suspension gets tight in a hurry! Plans call for cutouts later, but way later. It may be hard to believe, but the deep sump pan is higher than it looks - the lowest point under the car is the 4 link axle brackets, then the h- pipe. Radiator is a triple pass from Summit, i scooted it forward and opened up the core support add much as possible.

More to follow -

Dan

[poboyjo65]

Dan I had turn downs on mine & I hated them. Stirs up dust really bad. -in the shop, on grass,gravel,driveway, road, even in a parking lot . I tried turning them out to the side but without pointing them at part of the car,(like yours) it would still blow dust up clouds & get all over the car. really aggravating right after a wash job.Not to mention dusted out the brand new paint on the bottom of my car. Hindsight; If I had it to do again I'd have it exit in front of the back wheel. but I had thoughts of tail pipes at a later date but the dust changed my plans to not so later,, & so I built tail pipes.

Oh yea & the drone sounded like I was in a locomotive! at certain low rpm's, most of them!

I like the e-brake. makes me think you'll make another one on the other side of the hump with cupholders & stuff,,, just to kinda even it out.

[bigdan]

Poboy -

Believe me, I agree with you on the exhaust. The turn downs are not welded for that very reason. I'm hoping, once i get my gas tank mounted, that i can figure out a way to snake them through above the axle. As low as the car will sit, the mufflers are pretty much confined to the location they're in, so that complicates things also. We'll see on the cup holder idea - hadn't thought of that one! I'm just in a flat out sprint right now on my off days to try my best to have this baby painted before fall. Then I can take my time plumbing/ wiring/ etc till spring, when I'm itching to warm these tires up!

Big plans for this 4 day weekend coming up, so hope to have some serious progress soon. Thanks for looking -

Dan

[Rocket989]

Really cool/ great work man! x2 on the e-brake...I can't get enough tension on the rear calipers with the beloved t-handle (not to mention it isn't exactly easy to grab) so I've been looking at center mount options. Daze has a write-up on using a Fox 'Stang lever, etc. that looks promising.

Looking forward to seeing the Bird come along, fantastic stuff!