65 Mustang Fastback pro-touring build

[65fstbkNFB]

Well I have finally decided to bite the bullet and go ahead and put together a build thread, somewhat for my own sanity so I can keep track of this money pit and see how much it has changed over the past 4 years, from me learning to tinker with it at 17 years old, to me now building it as a pro-touring car at the age of 21.

Little back story on the car, it was my cousins first car back in 2000 or 2001 that he drove during high school, and because it was my big cousin's car, that made a 65 Fastback my dream car, and that very vintage burgundy metallic that my cousin had, was THE car I wanted when I got older. So fast forward to spring of 2010, when I was 17, which was also my junior year in high school, and the car came up for sale, mostly because my cousin had lost interest in the car, it was just sitting out in front of their house just wasting away, and they could use the money. So on April 25th of 2010 my uncle, dad, and myself went and looked at the car and bought it with the intentions of it being a father/son project.

Had the car towed home on a tow truck from Hayward CA to Alamo because the right front brake caliper was seized up. Got it home and had tons of friends and neighbors over all day to come check it out while we cleaned it and then shoved it in the garage. That entire day of bringing it home was like being on cloud 9, I was so excited and that is a day that I will never forget!

Hope you all like my story!!

Nik Becker


Going to pic her up




After getting home




After getting the car back, my dad and I did little things here and there on it over the summer of 2010 going into my senior year at San Ramon Valley High, and we got it to a point where I could drive it to school and around town with all my friends safely and man did we all have a blast in it.


putting a new sending unit into my lovely dented fuel tank....








So after driving it a few months my dad and I decided it was time to swap the motor, convert to disc brakes, new front suspension, and put a rack and pinion set up in it, which I regret so so so much! The rack and pinion that is, which I am still in the process of converting back to a gear box set up.





after the motor and suspension conversion

[65fstbkNFB]

Drove the car for about a year or so like this and then decided it was time to tackle the back half of the car and do all the popular tricks like a 9 inch and disc brake swap, which has now turned into a swap that has a C&R third, with a Detroit locker and 3.50:1 gears (third member is currently on its way to the Maier Racing shop for me to go pick up) So what started out as simple upgrades turned into getting the Maier Racing 165 race leaf springs, along with Mike's panhard rod, adjustable rear sway bar, bilstein shocks, moser 31 spline custom axles, a powder coated 9 in. axle housing, wildwood 4 piston brakes, and to top it all off, I undercoated the entire underside of the car...... which took me months to degrease, sand, scuff, prep, and then spray, all of which was by hand and I swear I will never do that again!!














Here is how it sat after finishing up the rear suspension!

[WSSix]

Looking great! As someone working entirely on their back under their car too, I feel your pain. Oh man is it dirty and I'm not working on cleaning the car. I'm just installing parts.

Good luck with the build!

[GregWeld]

I want to know the story behind the rack and pinion??

[DBasher]

How do you like the rear 165lb springs? I need to get mine ordered and I'm unsure which rate to go with.

Car looks great.

Dan

[GregWeld]

Originally Posted by DBasher

How do you like the rear 165lb springs? I need to get mine ordered and I'm unsure which rate to go with.

Car looks great.

Dan

Here's the problem with a question like that Dan..... This is most likely his one and only Mustang.... so what would he base a response on? If a guy hasn't had too stiff and then gone too soft -- it's like the three bears. It depends.

He might like Grandma's Buick ride and you might be looking for "sport" ride.

Sorry - as this sounds like I'm ripping you and him - but I'm not - I'm just posting this because others read this and it should be food for thought. It's the old bull talking to the young bulls. LOL

[craig510]

Nik,

What don't you like about the rack. It looks like you have a Randall's unit? I thought they were one of the better ones?

Thx

[DBasher]

GW do you know your rear spring rate? 165lb is one of the lowest advertised rates out there. Mike sells these and the 200lb., most seem to be 175-185lb. I'm not sure 10-15lbs difference I would even notice, maybe. Mike said that the 220lb he's ran are too stiff for everyday use.

I don't think you're ripping on me, its all good conversation and like you said, food for thought. Besides, I don't have many feelings left and I left my two chits in the van!

[65fstbkNFB]

Originally Posted by GregWeld

I want to know the story behind the rack and pinion??

The rack and pinion was an entire fiasco by itself. It was a kit from unisteer that went in very easily and had no clearance problems but the performance aspect of the rack was just not even close. It was nice to just cruise down the road with, but if you wanted to start taking corners.....good luck. Very unresponsive, sluggish and I lost a LOT of my turning radius. Not sure if I just had a bad ratio set up or what but I had a couple of car buddies drive it and they all did not like it one bit. Now I'm not here to say rack and pinions are bad or to rip on unisteer because this is kind of one of those things that you have to try to see whether or not it is for you. But what did make me a little ticked and that is why I'm sharing this, but when we were at SEMA 2013, I just thought I'd ask one of their guys about some of the problems I was having and his only answer was, "well you must have installed it wrong"........there's only one way to do the install. So I decided to get my responsive steering back (which I am currently doing and I will update soon) and better yet make the car safe to go around corners with cause let we tell you it sure was sketchy! So that's it in a nutshell. Sorry to have it so long and hope that answered some questions!

[65fstbkNFB]

Originally Posted by craig510

Nik,

What don't you like about the rack. It looks like you have a Randall's unit? I thought they were one of the better ones?

Thx

Sorry forgot to quote you in my response to that! Just posted the entire diary of it above!