Front end tease!

Ok I only have one updated picture for the moment, but the hood is fitting damn fine now. We are going back to the tail light panel for the rest of this week. We still need to do a few things to the nose but it is looking very good and as you can see the gaps are looking almost perfect.

Hopefully this weekend we’ll pull her out of the shed for some full body shots! Stay tuned.

Lining up the Hood and grilles – More drama!

Well we’ve had a lot of issues with the hood and it’s beginning to become a major headache. It seems the front nose is not square to start with and being perfectionists we’d like to get it straight on. But as you can see from the above image she’s beginning to come together!

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Fabrication of functional brake vents

So as you all know the car is going to have functional upper scoops and lower scoops. Early on the scoops were functional but as costs got higher and higher they had to cut back and in 1967 the lower brake cooling vents were not functional as Carrol Shelby said on TLC’s “Rides”

In 65′ everything was functional……air scoops, all that stuff was functional. 66′ semi functional. 67′ and 8, not so functional anymore.

I’m doing it a bit differently and opening them up, not that they will need cooling though!

Anyway we’ve made some progress and here are two pictures showing the tub cut through the side and into the wheel arch from the inside.

Glueing the upper scoops – More progress!

Good news! The upper scoops are now glued into place. We’ve opened them up and had them glued into their final location. They’re looking great.

The other two photos are of the front end where we’re still working on making it all fit up nicely. Another issue we’re having is deciding how to fit the front grille. I’m told there are several ways that can be used to fit this but i still need to investigate. For now here are the update pictures, enjoy.

Eleanor gets her nose!

Another week and another updated on the fitting of the kit. Having finished fitting just about everything to the rear we’ve now turned our attention to the front of the car.

You can see from the above the we now have the front facade on and you can see the black hood pin brackets I purchased from Unique Performance. Now it’s not all roses up front with things far from lining up. You can see that below.

Now those with a keen eye will notice the hood we are using is a GT style hood and not the Eleanor one. This is just while we are trying to get it to line up. When looking at the hood fitting pay NO attention to how out of line it is long-ways, this is because the GT hood is shorter than what the Eleanor hood is. With the Eleanor front kit it pushes the car out a bit longer.

What we are looking at is how the corner tip of the hood is sitting on the nose and not falling into the groove. See below for circled versions.

So all in all it’s looking great, but there are lots of man hours going into getting it right. But we can’t rush these things. It’s been nearly three years… what’s a few more months…or years.

Fitting the kit – Another update

I most probably will have regular updates on the kit fitment so here is another installment.

We’ve now got the rear all squared up and looking good as you can see in the pics. The side skirts and wheel arches are fitted up and are being prepped for gluing.

If you compare these pictures to the ones a few weeks ago you can easily see the difference, things are lining up a lot better and generally just look right.

We’ve also had the upper exterior vents painted and ready to go, as we’ll soon have to glue the upper scoop over the top of them.

Gas cap installed, functional side vents and a whole lot more!

Well it’s been a little while since I gave you all an update on how my old girl is going but that’s been because not much has been happening. But now I have some post worthy news.

Slowly but surely it’s coming together. The side brake cooling vents have been made to be functional as you can see below.

The gas cap has also been installed and looks great! You often see some cars that have the gas cap sitting out a bit off the panel, but this one is sunk in and flush, just the way i like it!

The gas cap has also been made functional with a custom made side filler tube that connects through the trunk to the fuel tank. This was custom made for my car by the guy handling the body work! It looks top notch.

The rear panel is also now mocked up, the fit isn’t the best but will be worked on in the coming weeks. We’re just trying to decide on the best way to affix the kit, what glues etc. But things are coming together fast.

The hood hinges have also now been installed and the bonnet is now on the car! She looks mean.

Stay tuned more info coming soon. I’m looking into a Tremec TKO500 transmission this week, so I could have some good news very soon.

Fitting Eleanor’s body kit

Well good news in this week. The fitting of the kit has FINALLY begun! Early days yet, but we’ve started mocking the kit up to see how she fits and how much work will be involved. As a lot of you know these kit’s don’t fit first go, far from it. every mold is different as is the shape of every car, so expect lots of hours and lots or work.

I’ve even been told about some parts of certain kits being so out of shape they had to be discarded and replacements bought.

So far we’ve just started on the upper scoops, side skirts, rear flares, trunk lid and rear panel.

Not the best photos I know but it’s all I could get. You can really see her taking shape even with the littlest of changes. Now I’m getting excited.

We also started mocking up where the gas cap would be and this is something I want to get right. I’m very adamant about the position as I don’t want it as far back as the Unique Performance caps. I want it in the position like the movie car had, like this:

So here are some shots of the progress of the gas cap:

Looking good I think, I should have some better shots in the next coming days, so check back soon.

The Mustang arrives for some final body work

So last Monday she was put on the trailer and taken to the panel shop for the last of the body work and fitting of parts of the Eleanor body kit.

Everything went well and without a hitch. Now it’s a waiting game as the guys at the shop are quite busy, so it may be a month or so to get her back, maybe quicker if I could pump some cash into it.

Here are some pictures of the car arriving at the shop, unfortunately the camera battery died while loading her up so I have no pictures of the journey.