The Roaring Season

John McKechnie wrote:Not forgetting of course, George Sheweiry with drums front and rear on his big Mercury Comet.
He ran pre-65 and also beat Dale -all discs Mustang - home at Hampton Downs a few years ago.
I can pm his email if you want

Thanks John, that would be great, I really like Comets, particularly the Comet AFX 427 big blocks.
I will be approaching car set up very soon. I think I have most of it worked out but its always different in practice. I do want to keep within how Holman Moody built the car so I have a few limitations such as, I cant use the Shelby drop as far as I am aware this did not come until later, 1965 I think?

done- hope it all works.
Shelby drop came later I was told , just check as to when Shelby Mustangs came into production

After doing some research on the "Shelby Drop"for the upper control arm of the Monty Carlo Rallye Falcons.
It was actually Klaus Arning (who designed the suspension in the GT40), who Ford tasked to look at redesigning the suspension of the new Mustang, in particular the rear to independent. The 1963 Corvette was launched with an independent rear suspension and Ford wanted to look at a design option for an independent rear suspension for the new Mustang. During this project Klaus Arning redesigned the front suspension geometry by lowering the upper control arm by 1 inch and rearward 1/8 inch. The new front & rear suspension apparently worked very well on one or more prototypes but did not get within the budget of the new Mustang and was abandoned by Ford.
Carol Shelby then picked up Klaus's design of lowering of the upper control arm for the Ford production of the 1966 Shelby Mustang but it was discontinued sometime around mid 1966.
So it looks like the first Ford prototype of this lower upper control arm designed by Klaus Arning was likely done between 1963 and 1964 prior to the launch of the new mustang.
Weather in fact it was used by Holman moody or later by Alan mann racing for the Monte Carlo Rallye Falcons is unknown... but a possibility.

I'd have to look it up but as far as I know the Shelby 1" drop was used by Shelby when Ken miles was testing a proto type mustang coupe around early 65 prior to Shelby building the 65 Mustangs, I know it was used in the 65 R-Models which was in 1965. I don't think it was used in 66 Shelby's much because for street Shelby's they were looking at cost cutting and getting them out the door. Also the last 252 65 Shelby were sold as 66 models and known as Carry-Over 65 Shelby's today and have there own special pricing. Dale M

Paul B wrote:Thanks John, that would be great, I really like Comets, particularly the Comet AFX 427 big blocks.
I will be approaching car set up very soon. I think I have most of it worked out but its always different in practice. I do want to keep within how Holman Moody built the car so I have a few limitations such as, I cant use the Shelby drop as far as I am aware this did not come until later, 1965 I think?

Kiwiboss wrote:I'd have to look it up but as far as I know the Shelby 1" drop was used by Shelby when Ken miles was testing a proto type mustang coupe around early 65 prior to Shelby building the 65 Mustangs, I know it was used in the 65 R-Models which was in 1965. I don't think it was used in 66 Shelby's much because for street Shelby's they were looking at cost cutting and getting them out the door. Also the last 252 65 Shelby were sold as 66 models and known as Carry-Over 65 Shelby's today and have there own special pricing. Dale M

Thanks Dale,
I am not going to use the Shelby drop, as I don't really think the date timing works and more likely it was not used on the H-M Falcons, or as far as I can see.
I can remove some of the factory upper control arm shims to get a theoretical 2 deg camber on this car. I will figure out caster after I fit the rebuilt rear springs which may drop the back of the car down a bit. But I should be ok for a reasonable castor number too, all going well.
Cheers

The 11 inch rear brakes shoes have been finished and built exactly the same as #1250 FIA homologation these have been surface radiused to match the reground drums.


Fitted into the drums you can see the ventilation in between the shoes


So this almost completes the rear brake set up I only need to drill the drums but I will be measuring this carefully prior to drilling so there is no unbalanced drum when complete.

So I finally got back to the fiberglass doors. The ones I imported from USA were too light and flimsy and would not accommodate the windows without flexing creating issues with door closure and secure closure.
So I stripped them down by removing the outer skin from the inner shell frame.

I completely rebuilt a new inner shell frame with structural fiberglass woven mesh and added extra reinforcing to the window mechanism mount points and quarter window mount points. I also added extra structural mesh to the hinge and door latch mount points.
Then to stiffen the frame I added an extra layer of structural woven mesh.
All of this has allowed a structure that can carry the windows and door mechanisms without sagging.
The extra structure also makes the door much safer. Also much heavier.


I also fitted the steel hinge reinforcing panels that I fabricated earlier and fibre glassed these in. It made a huge difference to the door structure combined with the extra structural fiberglass.



So after this cures I will start fitting the inner shell to the hinges with the door rubber fitted and door latch on. When this fits correctly then the outer skin can be fitted to complete the door.

Nice work Paul. That is super impressive.

B.

Very nice, and so cool that you share your journey.

I agree with these guys ^^. Stunning work, and an awesome effort. And really enjoyable to see come to life.

Thanks Steve, Rhys & Bruce,
Only one word to say about fiberglass doors..... mission!
You really must use separate clothing gear to wear to protect your whole body (cover all skin, hair, eyes etc) from the glass dust and use highest quality respiration gear due to the very strong solvents.

These doors sure have been a journey Rhys. Thanks all for the positive support! very much appreciated.
Cheers

Update:
The Falcon is now away getting the roll cage fitted, It will be a homologated 6 point, period, bolt in cage, a much more expensive option but something I felt fitted the period of the car I am trying to build.
The 1964 Monte Carlo Rallye Falcons did not race with a roll cage fitted - As you see in many early pictures, safety in pre 65 cars and tracks was rather minimal to non existent.
This 64 Mercury Caliente had a roll cage. not sure what happen to the wheel!.. Rim failure?

Driver was lucky to be thrown out of the car!

While the car is away I have started fitting the Polycarbonate windows to the door window regulators. The old glass requires careful coaxing to remove the stainless side trim and the window regulator.

It is difficult to get window regulator rubber that is 1.6mm (I only managed to get 1.1mm) so I very carefully removed the old glass and cleaned up the old regulator rubber which was fortunately still in good condition and used that.
After doing some research on Poly-carbonates I found that the traditional urethane based black window sealer is not compatible with poly-carbonates due to possible plasticizing reactions . They recommended using non acid silicone based product to seal.
So I will be sealing the Poly-carbonate in with this to secure it all.
This is a pic' of the clear Poly-carbonate fitted to the door window frame. I used 4.5mm on the side windows which was almost the same size as the original glass

Many thanks to Paul McCarthy -Plastics Constructions Ltd. for the abrasion resistant poly-carbonate

I also had a look at the firewall sound deadening. The original was Bituminous board and under felt.
This was what it looked like when I removed it... seen better days (a bit like my hair follicles)


So, I made a pattern from this and fitted it into the firewall to ensure all the holes were in the right place. Then I got some Bituminous board and cut to suit. I use a Maun hole punch set to make all the holes, It helps to get a nice look, Then some 23mm under felt was cut out to the same size and glued together with contact adhesive. Same as it was done in the day.

Probably would have been easier buying it ready made, But its much cooler making it

This build continues to amaze me.

I just love it...no worries re weight. It is all about correctness.
Your an inspiration Paul.

Spgeti wrote:I just love it...no worries re weight. It is all about correctness.
Your an inspiration Paul.

Thanks very much guys, nice to know someone is reading all this!
Yes, weight is of course a very big consideration but something that in this particular build I cannot let take precedence over what was correct in 1964 when Holman Moody built these cars.
So this car built to #201 Graham Hill/Ian Walker spec' will be a little heavier running as much interior trim as possible, as it did in the day.
But again the car on period OEM 5.5inch wide rims will surely be at a disadvantage. It will be interesting to drive as they did in the day.

Some Monte Carlo Rallye Falcons were more stripped out than others, number 49 driven by Bo Ljungfeldt had no interior trim at all and the OEM bucket seats were modified for extra side support and likely lightened.

Interesting site about MCR and George Merwin
http://www.ponysite.de/georgemerwin.htm

Also here is the final 1964 MCR placement list and DNFs link
https://www.ewrc-results.com/final.php?e=14887

The car came back last night with the new roll cage. I stuck with a period bolt in cage as planned, Karl at the Trailer center in Upper Hutt fitted it for me, it looks great.
Just need to finish the holomogation papers etc to send into MSNZ
Its starting to look like a real car now

It's starting to look like a real race car, though a bit nicer than many with those better than factory panel and door gaps.
The cage looks great, he made a nice job of it.

B.

Yes, you are right Bruce, not many of these types of cars from this era had a particularly good panel fit from the showroom floor. As a mass produced car was back then.
All the panels on this will fit as they did in the day, not too bad, but not perfect. gaps were 3-4.5mm (big difference from todays Audi's)
The fiberglass panels, particularly race panels move a lot and in changing temperatures & can typically have hollows and some ripples occur after painting, when it was all straight when it went in for paint. I am not worried about that, its all part of the character that makes the car.
A bit like a wrinkle on your face, some see the wrinkle and others see the character.