Doug's 65 Cyclone build

The Era of The Square Body Racing Comets
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DesertRat
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Re: Doug's 65 Cyclone build

Post by DesertRat »

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I will check my photos and post what I can find.
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The vendor will send detailed instructios. I cut the bottom out of the front subframe to where the connectors would slide in. You will have to deal with your E-brake cable. You may have to trim your front seat braces for clearance. Once I had the connectors in location in the front I used a bottle jack to lift the rear up to the torque boxes for tacking in position. Once tacked in both units I mig welded them up solid. I will put a couple 10 GA gussets in position at the seat braces.
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A/FX
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Re: Doug's 65 Cyclone build

Post by A/FX »

The progress looks good! Are you leaving the leaf springs in the factory location? Rear wheel tubs? Keep the pictures coming.
Jim
‘64 Cyclone/ Boss 302,quads,4spd, Winters 9”

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DesertRat
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Re: Doug's 65 Cyclone build

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A/FX wrote:
Mon Feb 15, 2021 10:51 am
The progress looks good! Are you leaving the leaf springs in the factory location? Rear wheel tubs? Keep the pictures coming.
Jim
Jim: I just ordered and have most all the new suspension. For the rear I'm going with new replacement leaf springs-no tubbing. I will keep the 8" rear end but rebuild it to trac-loc. I have Bilstein shocks and Calvert racing #6301 Cal-Tracs on order and the rear sway bar in hand. I'm thinking of 15" or 16" 8" Torque thrust wheels with the proper backspace. I'll mock it up on CAD to verify.
For the front I'm using Opentracker suspension with Bilstein shocks and Street or Track adjustable strut rods and 1" front sway bar. The new coil springs will be whatever John at Opentracker recommended. BTW to all of you-If you want to talk to people who know the suspensions on our cars John and Shari at Opentracker are the absolute best at what they do.
Due to the PO's torching of the shock towers I had repairs to do there anyway so I have embarked on the journey of cutting the entire shock tower which is nearly complete and I will be posting up a sequential thread of how that all goes. I still have substantial metal repair to do on the whole car and once the shock towers are complete I will be working on that. The worst of which is the trunk gasket seat channel. I'm starting to problem solve that issue now-------------------------
Cheers to all and happy snow day----------------------DR--------------------
Oz never gave nothing to the tin man that he didn't-didn't already have-Image

smithhe
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Re: Doug's 65 Cyclone build

Post by smithhe »

Looking good man, im excited to see this build to the finish. I also have opentracker suspension on my car and it has made a world of a difference from the stock crap i had.
1964 Mercury Comet 404 with 347 stroker
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poboyjo65
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Re: Doug's 65 Cyclone build

Post by poboyjo65 »

Doug I ordered & just got these wrenches in;
https://www.fix.com/parts/router/porter ... E-EALw_wcB
for the caltracks adjustments.makes it easier than 2 full size 1 1/8'' wrenches or big crescents like I first used since I didnt have 2 of the 1 1/8'' wrenches . calvert sells a similar short pair for 40$ ,these were under 20 shipped. thought they'd be good to leave in the car since you run them a little looser on the street than track. though you can probably get by without them they make it a lot easier for a buddy to reach around the back tire to get to the back jam nut which has to be adjusted at ride height with full weight on including driver weight.
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Johno

DesertRat
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Re: Doug's 65 Cyclone build

Post by DesertRat »

Thanks for the tip, I'll order them today. I didn't buy caltracks wrenches, they were a bit spendy and I have two standard 1 1/8" wrenches. Not planning on needing them much after the initial setup but one never knows:-)
I think you were the one who recommended them to me for the shock plate. None of the vendors could come up with the shock plates and I am not repairing and installing the old stockers. They are even worse than I remember after beadblast-------------------
Edit: Your car is bitchin cool, I would love to see a color photo of it. It is close to what I am trying to build.
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poboyjo65
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Re: Doug's 65 Cyclone build

Post by poboyjo65 »

DesertRat wrote:
Mon Feb 15, 2021 5:09 pm
Thanks for the tip, I'll order them today. I didn't buy caltracks wrenches, they were a bit spendy and I have two standard 1 1/8" wrenches. Not planning on needing them much after the initial setup but one never knows:-)
I think you were the one who recommended them to me for the shock plate. None of the vendors could come up with the shock plates and I am not repairing and installing the old stockers. They are even worse than I remember after beadblast-------------------
Edit: Your car is bitchin cool, I would love to see a color photo of it. It is close to what I am trying to build.
That's exactly what I thought Doug but this second time around I decided they'd be worth 20 bucks just to have in the car. My car is ruff & needs lots of body work but for some reason it looks better in pics most of the time. there are plenty of pics in my build thread of it;
https://cometcentral.com/forum/viewtopi ... &start=735
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Johno

DesertRat
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Re: Doug's 65 Cyclone build

Post by DesertRat »

I am contacting brightwork restorers to see if I can get my Cyclone specific badging restored. Someone should be able to do it.
----------Doug-------------------
Oz never gave nothing to the tin man that he didn't-didn't already have-Image

DesertRat
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Re: Doug's 65 Cyclone build

Post by DesertRat »

Time for another update to my build thread. This is a suspension/subframe mod I saw somewhere. A lot of the vendors sell the pieces but I have material so I built my own.
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First I made the templates then transferred them and cut and fit the pieces.
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I painted inside the frame and the pieces except for the welding surfaces.
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Tacked in ready for welding, I hand marked the Shelby drop just for the fun to see how close I came with the template.
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All welded in and ready for the shelby drop drill jig and drilling. Then I have to test fit the clearances if the new upper a-arm and lay out the tower cut.
Next up the shock tower cut and re-fit.
------------DR--------------out------------------
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poboyjo65
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Re: Doug's 65 Cyclone build

Post by poboyjo65 »

Doug have you heard about the .100 shaft move for the UCA's? by moving the shaft forward in the arm it puts the arm back for more +caster. you gotta fight to get +caster with stock parts on these cars. even if you dont want to do it I would highly recommend checking to see if the new UCA's are centered. I checked my new ones & one was .090 off center ,almost the .1 that dazecars mentions. so if I would have put that on the wrong side it would never get the caster i wanted. so on the other UCA which was pretty close to center I just pressed the bolts out & turned the shaft either a half or full turn,or more,then pressed the bolts back in. it was enough to mirror the other one. I think it turned out about .095 thou's but it was real close. here it tells about it;
https://dazecars.com/dazed/UCA.html
the only drawback is it cramps the grease fittings on the back side. they say to peen a dent in there but if I had it to do over again I would holesaw about an 1.5'' hole there not to get to from the inside but just to have more room because my dent ended up not quite in the right place after alignment :roll: there are some tight 90's grease fittings from scott drake that I had to get.
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DesertRat
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Re: Doug's 65 Cyclone build

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poboyjo65 wrote:
Thu Feb 18, 2021 4:31 pm
Doug have you heard about the .100 shaft move for the UCA's? by moving the shaft forward in the arm it puts the arm back for more +caster. you gotta fight to get +caster with stock parts on these cars. even if you dont want to do it I would highly recommend checking to see if the new UCA's are centered.
John:
Thanks for the tip, I will check the shafts on the upper A's out to see. My plan is with the Opentracker ball joint bearings in the lower arms they are designed to move easily forward and backward as well as up and down. I am using Street or Track adjustable strut rods so I will get my caster by pulling the lower arms forward with the strut rods essentially moving the upper ball joint back in relation to the lower ball joint. I also did drill the Shelby drop change and to not change my mind I welded the stock location holes closed. No going back now :D
The Opentracker Upper arms come with 90 degree grease zerks installed in the upper shaft and I mocked everything up to make sure it would work but you know how it goes-----------------crossing my fingers----------------- :wink:
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poboyjo65
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Re: Doug's 65 Cyclone build

Post by poboyjo65 »

Doug the opentracker uca's are good ,they are better quality ,if you are getting those from them too.I think they have some with lots of built in +caster. with the balljoint slid back & it's good to get all you can with the UCA because there is only so much you can get with the strutrods & LCa because your tire will rub the fender opening in the front. the more you put the top ball joint to the rear the less you have to pull the bottom one to the front. the strutrods are great for fine tuning when doing the alignment .
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DesertRat
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Re: Doug's 65 Cyclone build

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poboyjo65 wrote:
Thu Feb 18, 2021 5:55 pm
Doug the opentracker uca's are good ,they are better quality ,if you are getting those from them too.I think they have some with lots of built in +caster. with the balljoint slid back
John: Thanks for the tip. I am sure the Opentracker upper ball joints are centered but I will ask John at Opentracker. I already have the front suspension on the shelf so I am committed to use it. This caster deal is a pain in the ass, I went through in on my 67 Notch and rebuilt a brand new front end rebuilt from stock to offset uppers after one year. I think I will investigate the
shaft tip you gave me and see if I can pick up a little there too.
Edit: I'm digging your new avatar photo!
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poboyjo65
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Re: Doug's 65 Cyclone build

Post by poboyjo65 »

Yea my UCAs were moog or some other medium grade - elcheapo ,I didnt realize you had good ones from opentracker but it is good to check everything before you get to install day . when I got the split mono leafs i didnt check them,put one front eye on & raised it to the rear & ut oh & they were 5'' short. but I only had to return the back halves,front half was right. so when the new back halves came in adding the back part to the side with the front already on was a breeze. so on the other side I put on the front half by it self then the back half using a small floor jack to raise it slowly into place while i put the bolts in. when I was younger & could sling big weight around,,,, it would have seemed easier to put the halves together then put the complete leaf on.but doing it half at a time was a lot easier on these old bones.
btw did you say you had split mono leafs already on the shelf?
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DesertRat
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Re: Doug's 65 Cyclone build

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poboyjo65 wrote:
Thu Feb 18, 2021 8:35 pm
btw did you say you had split mono leafs already on the shelf?
No I have new factory replacements from General Spring, new shackle kits with bushings, Caltracks low profile #6301 with Bilstein shocks and a 3/4" sway bar kit on the shelf.
The springs and shocks came in today :!:
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