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Originally Posted by Shadylane
Progressed a little bit this week.
The car had a tilt column so I decided to replace it with a non-tilt version I had stripped out of another car.Turns out the non-tilt is 4 lbs lighter than the tilt. Nice weight savings.
Installed the shifter as a mock up to see how everything fit. Didn't have to butcher the floor too bad. I'll weld in some patches and fab up something to cover the rest.
A buddy dropped by to look at my car and I commented I would like to clean up the fuel cell where I welded the mounting tabs on. He ran home and returned with several polishing/buffing wheels and compounds. I dug out my super dupper Harbor Freight bench grinder that had been mothballed because it vibrated too much to use. Removed the grinding disk and wire wheel and installed two buffing wheels. Works pretty good.
Polishing is labor intensive but the results are worth it. So far I have about 3 hours tied up in it, doing about half of it.
Next I decided to tackle installing the electrical control panel I picked up from a friend a few months back.
My buddy that had the polishing stuff and I designed and built a bracket to bolt to the dash. Got it all bent up, pop riveted and I painted it with a rattle can of spray in bed liner from Lowes. I like the texture better than crinkle paint and it's tougher. I like having the switches close at hand.
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Nice progree, on both my 78 Fairmont and 85 Mustang, both with Jerico DR4s and Long V gate shifters, I had to do similar mods, sliced the floor for shifter rod clearance, bent the piece back, and welded in a strip to fill the gap. As for the bellhousing you don`t NEED to spend a grand. I have a McLeod scattershield, with the deeper FOX body depth,it works fine, offered a bit better clearance for the headers than my previous Lakewood, its a bit heavier than a Quicktimes, but unlike many Quicktimes, the McLeod works with a Long style Soft Lok and 164 tooth flywheel. The Quicktime will only work with a 157 tooth flywheel, and on some Ford applications, require stacking block plates to get adequate room to get everything in there. May or may not be an issue if you are using a small diameter dual disc clutch.