Dennis Lacy

Thanks and THANKS! ?

I can appreciate the idea and workmanship if it was done cleanly BUT that doesn’t excite me in the slightest. My neighbor has a 2020 Ecoboost Mustang with cat-less exhaust and other mods. It may be fast but it’s one of the worst and obnoxious sounding cars I’ve ever heard! ?

Thanks, Craig! The major issue is that the greenhouse is several scale inches too short, and there’s no argument there. I forget how many years ago the original issue came out which only had factory stock and SSP (Highway Patrol) goodies but it’s taken me all this time to warm up to building one. One of the other issues is that the radius of the rear wheel openings is enlarged. They did this because of the drag race version but unfortunately with there being just one body tool then we are stuck with it for any version we might build unless major corrective work was done. I’ve decided to just roll with the inaccuracies because in the end it will still look like a Mustang and I think I can pull off a pretty cool take on it. One things for sure, despite the body many other aspects of the kit are very well done and if anything could serve to improve some of the other Fox Body Mustang kits that have been around for decades.

Thanks! I always thought the Cobra engine swaps were really cool back when they were a new yet fairly uncommon thing in the late 90’s. Nowadays every other one of these Mustang’s are getting later model engine swaps, in particular the 5-liter Coyote engines. To me, it’s honestly getting kinda boring…

Chop looks really good and you can never go wrong with maroon on a ‘40 Ford.

That’s why I went with an automatic transmission. Free hand to hold my beer!

No, it wasn’t. 1988 was and they had the same flag mirrors on the doors as convertibles. ?

UPDATE! I know it’s been a few weeks since I’ve had an update on this project and I assure everyone it has not stalled. I’ve been chipping away at getting the body and interior parts not only in primer but in their final body-worked primer coat, ready to paint. Below are all of the parts except for the interior tub which turned out nice but just needs some touch up around the big floor patch and a fresh coat of primer. Here’s a small group of parts that are painted including the spare wheel, squirrel mascot, subwoofer faces and scratch built amplifiers. I couldn’t be happier with the amps! Lastly, here’s some aftermarket goodies that recently came in the mail to finish off the interior. Billet gauge panels with digital gauges, speaker grills and radio faces. That’s all for now. Next time I make an update should have parts in color. Stay tuned!

It totally wasn’t planned, either. I have a strong feeling that after this Mustang I’m gonna need to do a bread and butter hot rod project.

Thanks! And no worries. It will be fun having a side by side build going on based on the same kit.

What a great idea! Considering the Fox Body Mustang Convertibles were made from cut-down coupe bodies by ASC it already looks natural. Looking forward to following along.

UPDATE! Yesterday I spent some quality time at the bench. The way this kit is made has the floor pan, front frame rails and lower core support as one piece and then the engine bay side panels, upper core support and interior floor as another. Now the full size car is a unibody so the frame rails and engine bay are not separate, they are a constructed unit. The thing I don’t like about the way the kit has them separate is it leaves the frame rails flimsy and also without any positive locating tabs at the front it makes keeping the rails and bay together and aligned a pain. After studying the situation for a bit I found no reason why these two big pieces can’t be permanently joined now to make life easier during construction. It just means a bit of masking when I eventually get to painting. I’d rather deal with masking later than clumsy separate pieces now. The only thing is that when you place the two parts together there is a gap between the frame rails and bottom of the engine bay walls. If you push them together they will touch at the front but still leave a wedge shaped gap. There’s also a gap at the back edge where the frame rails should butt against the lower part of the firewall. To remedy this I added strips of .010” Evergreen to the tops and back sides of the frame rails. The excess was trimmed and sanded flush and then the floor/frame rails piece was permanently joined to the engine bay walls/interior floor piece. Now the chassis has some sturdy structure to work with. Moving on, the next thing was to figure out how to lower the front of the car. After mocking up the tubular k-member and struts I realized I only needed to get a 1/16” drop to have the little bit of tire tuck I want. After some staring and thinking I realized I could cut the “spindle” area off just below the raised D-shaped registers for the brakes then cut the “spindles” off at their base from the unused stock k-member piece, graft those pieces onto the tube k-member and create a set of “dropped spindles” which actually do exist in the aftermarket for these cars. I added some support strips to the backside to strengthen the graft. I’ll clean those areas up some more later. Tube k-member left and stock k-member right. See the pencil cut lines on each: Modified “dropped spindle” and tube k-member on the left, Unmodified “spindle” and tube k-member on the right: Support strips on back side of modified “dropped spindles”: For use with the tube k-member the kit gives a set of front struts rendered with coil over springs. With the “spindles” made taller it means that the struts are too long. I shortened them the necessary amount and inserted .040” rod into the tops. The kit has these locate inside 2 shallow circles up in the bottom of the strut towers but it’s not a positive locating fit so I drilled shallow holes for the pins that I added to the struts to register in (circled in red.) Here is the left front held together. With the struts pinned this is now a sturdy assembly. And here is the resultant tire tuck with the wheel lined up on center. Just right! The last thing I accomplished yesterday was building some front motor mounts to hold the engine in proper location. These are not prototypical (that would be a big undertaking) but they get the job done and sit on the mount pads of the tube k-member. In the end I will paint these so that they look like something. Thats all for now. Next I will move on to the rear axle and suspension and determine if the rear stance needs to be lowered. After that I’ll address adapting the wheels and a rear disc brake conversion. Stay tuned!

I remember you telling me that story. I’m sure it was fun while it lasted!

I had totally forgotten about this one @Kit Karson and @Rocking Rodney Rat Awesome that someone was able to take it on and get it finished. Looks killer as a two seat sport coupe!

Turned out really nice, Jim! That’s about the best (basically) out of the box ‘30 Coupe I’ve seen yet. Beautiful shade of red, restrained flames and just enough extra details. I also think the Nailhead engine suits the Coupe better than the Chevy (and the Chevy suits the Roadster better than the Nailhead.)

Man, this looks awesome as a Pro Street car! Looking forward to following the build and can’t wait to see it finished. I’m a bit nostalgic about these SS Impala’s. One of my good friends had a low miles, mint condition teal ‘96 SS about 15 years ago. Only modifications were dark window tint and Flowmaster exhaust. He was fanatical about keeping it perfect. He kept towels covering the carpet at all times and if we were out to lunch he wouldn’t let us get refills on our drinks to go. ?

Black walls for sure considering your theme and back story. Looking good. That metallic red is killer!

I mocked this up a couple of weeks ago when I picked up my Mooneyes kit. The AMT chopped ‘25 T body fits down over the extra frame nicely. The front tires are original 60’s Revell parts pack that were made to fit the extra Halibrand front wheels in the Mooneyes kit.

Thanks, Steve! I’m not sure if the front will be quite as low as my mock up as there’s some limitations the way the front suspension is made. There’s probably only one vehicle from the 70’s I might actually see myself building and that’s a ‘77 Trans Am SE because Smoky & The Bandit is one of my favorite movies. Naturally, it wouldn’t be factory stock if I did… As for the 80’s, my 42nd birthday is next Friday and I have it on good authority that one of my kids picked me an ‘88 Mustang GT kit so if this one goes well I’ll have to dig into the GT.

Nice to have you back and you can’t go wrong with a pair of ‘30 Coupe hot rods to get you jump started back into building models. It’s hard to see in the pictures, how “metallic” is the metallic black?

That is a huge advantage for me, true. Between my own Mustangs and the vast amount I’ve helped many of my friends build over the last 25 years I know them down to every last bolt. Is that the 1995 Cobra R kit from Tamiya that you have? That’s a kit I’d love to get my hands on one of these days. I remember seeing them on the hobby shop shelves back as a teenager in the mid 90’s and passing them up because I was put off by the odd Tamiya brand name that I knew nothing about, LOL!

THAT might be a tight squeeze. Probably need a shock tower delete!

Don’t do that to yourself. Just build them and don’t worry about it! ?

Hi Andrew. Depending on the situation I use a tiny drop or two of CA glue (Zap-A-Gap) that can easily be snapped apart or a drop or two of white Elmer’s glue. I also pin a lot of parts which allows me to mock things up over and over and always get them located exactly the same.

That ‘80 Turbo Cobra would be an awesome kit bash with the ‘90 kit. Definitely do that!