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Great job on the console!
Thanks man!
Sorry I don't have any pictures of the wheel clearance now. I have some pictures I posted earlier with it on the ground but I din't take any close ups. The tires clear but they are tucked in there. I have installed all the interior and it is at the shop now to see about getting an alignment. I'll post pictures of the interior later.
That's exactly the look I'm going for on the front end, tires tucked. Look forward to seeing pics once your car is back from the shop.
It drove pretty good over to the shop but the steering felt a little notchy & it it seemed to wander a bit. The car rode great though and the brakes were spot on. Considering it had no alignment on it the wandering was no surprise. I got a call a little bit ago & apparently the universal joint on the intermediate shaft is hitting the mounting bolt on the rack (the notchy feeling) and the rack ends are higher then the center which is causing bump steer (the wandering effect). I went out & looked at it and I could see the issue on the lift that I could not see at home. I had the option of them working on it in their down time and them getting it done in a couple weeks or me doing it at home. Since I'm working on ramps and couldn't even see the problem until it was on a lift (its fine with no weight on the wheels like when on stands) I elected to let them do it. When I spaced the steering column shaft (as shown earlier) Marc mentioned the intermediate shaft may need to be shortened. Well it does and I didn't do it because it looked fine on the stands. That and the rack will need rotated to correct the droop and the binding in the universal joint that is also contributing to the notchy feeling. Like I said I could do all this. And I might be able to even do it within 2 weeks but then I would just have to drive it back out there with no alignment & hope I got it all right this time. This way there is no guessing. Sometimes working out of a 2 car garage sucks. The power steering is nice & the car was WAY easier to turn but the installation has got to have been one of the biggest P.I.A. of the whole build. So much for a "drop in, bolt on" kit.
Well, it will for sure be worth the P.I.A once you pick her up and she's all dialed in.
I can tell you I am running 215/60R15 Kelly Charger GT tires on American Racing Outlaw I wheels. The wheels are 15x7 with 3.76" of backspace. The tires are 25" tall and 9" wide on those wheels. The tires clear lock to lock just fine on the ground and did not rub the 9 miles to the alignment shop. They tuck into the front fenders and to do the alignment they will have to measure off the wheels and not off the tires since the machine wont fit on the tires with more backspace you'd be better off. Before all of this my brakes, suspension, & steering severely limited performance on the car. I think now the tires may be the limiting effect after the alignment & steering fix. I'll test it out once I get back to be sure but usually you can get a whole lot more out of a car on max performance summer tires than on all season performance tires. If I do that I'll keep the diameter the same and go with a 17" wheel so I have a wider tire choice. I'd probably do more offset in the front so I clear & go with more off set in the back so I can go way wider. When I get the car back I'll try to remember to get close ups of the front tires.
The 65's are pretty cool I agree. Nothing else looks like them. The 62's & 64's are mostly the same car though under the exterior sheet metal so check out the builds in this forum on those cars as well. Here is a link to another cool 65: http://www.fordmuscleforums.com/makin-progress/499094-my-65-mini-bolt-6.html I look forward to seeing a build thread on your car!
I've been working out the return to center issue on my rack. I posted about that a bit earlier. I did have a small bit of rubbing when fully loaded & going up the driveway at full lock. I rolled the fender (took 1 1/4" wooden rod & rolled between tire & fender with no weight in the car & the car flat. This helped with the rubbing and didn't do any damage to the fender. The rub was slight just enough to hear it you can see the slight mark on the tire in the pictures below after I started to roll the edge. If I had better back spacing (like maybe 4") this wouldn't have been an issue. With the greater track width of running disc breaks in the front & the small amount backspacing on the wheels it puts the wheels closer to fender. Like I said though not an issue now.Just got done reading your thread, very impressed with all of your mods and upgrades! Especially that center console, it looks awesome! I wanted to ask you about your 1 ½” drop springs. What tire size are you currently running upfront with it? Do you happen to have a pic of the tire/fender gap that you could post?
Keep up the posts, so stoked to read and see all of your work.... especially since it's a 65! Have you found any other 65 builds online?
Cheers -
Man I'm still fighting with it! I fixed the staring column issue in march, then took it to get aligned & since intermediate shaft was binding. Marc from unisteer said this might be the case & if it was to shorten it. Since I couldn't see the binding on my ramps (but it was clear on the lift) I elected to let them fix it. Well $500 later ($130 for the alignment since it was no where near close coming in) and it still would not return to center. I played phone tag with Marc & he had me check some stuff. In the mean time I put on around 50 miles of low speed lots of turning driving just putting around trying to loosen it up a bit. Marc contacted me back & talked me though a yolk adjustment. That helped loosen it up a bit more & now I get a little bit of return to center at full lock but its still too tight to return freely on its own. I called Marc again & he wants me to put 200-300 miles on it & then let him know. I'm honestly not real impressed at the this point. I see the potential & perhaps it will be great when I get it working right but I don't like the idea of having to "break in" a rack to get it to return to center. This wasn't exactly a bolt in affair either with having to cut shafts & make things fit with spacers.Nice work Magnus, I went to many shows up here last summer, I think I saw one 65 Fairlane!
Have you had a chance to test out your p.steering? Wondering what you think of the Unisteer set up.
Thanks. I would guess I have somewhere around 10,000 in it plus the original cost of the car invested. That is of course out of pocket costs on improvements & repairs and doesn't take in to account money wasted on crap I didn't use, the value of my labor or those who helped, and free metal I could scrounge.Great job! Cheers mate! How much does it cost you to do it? approximately
Thanks. Yeah the it's self steering is fine. The fault is in the ball-joints. They are just too stiff. They aren't unsafe or anything, just means its harder then it should be to steer. Should loosen up with some miles. I'm just going to let it be & enjoy the car for now and after a few thousand miles if it doesn't fix itself than I'll replace them again.Great build , nice 65 and a lot of good info, hope you get the power steering worked out , I was thinking about doing this to my 65.
Stance came out nice, eh. Backend will drop once springs settle in.
Hope you get your steering worked out & it is balljoints, I know my buddies 64 had issues with unisteer rack too, not sure if he got the return thing worked out, will have to call him.
The Fatman kit uses a Escort p.rack & pinion, with the KRC pump & adjustable jet for feel, its awesome.
I had those issues with Grant wheel install too, did you use Grants install kit- #8264, I think it was?
I had my local hot rod shop have a go at signal cancelling issue & they worked it out, I know they came up with a solution, a collar that fits behind the wheel, they made for a bunch of other guys having the same issue.
If you can't find a fix, lemme know & I will call Bondis shop, see if they have anymore of the collar they made up.
Followed along with your console build, very cool, I took the easy way & copied the nova guys, picked up a Neon console & it looks like a perfect fit, gotta have the cup holders!
65 coming along nicely, your doing great work!