Siverbarge.jr

[Racingcritters]

Thanks to CDMBill for allowing me to borrow his nickname for my latest build attempt.
I happen to have a similar, silver '71 Mustang convertible with a big block Ford. Not quite as sophisticated as Bill's. It is my first car and
I have owned it for about 37 years the first 10-15 as my daily driver then put in storage while I played with other toys.
As this is the Tenth DW and will be my 5th I thought it would be fun to dust it off and go for a nice cross country cruise.
The years of storage has not been kind,so there is quite a bit to do.
Plans are for a 545 SCJ redo the C6 add a Gear Vendor, retain the factory 4:11's and locker,cage it and have some fun.
Should have it done around the second week of September.

[Racingcritters]

Auuhhgg!! Should be Silverbarge! Damn lack of typing skills/proof reading!

[BBR]

Pics or shenanigans!!!!

[greenXpress]

Sounds like a plan. Yep Pictures. Hope you can figure that one out, I've been stuck with this avitar for 3 years since I can't seem to get any other pics uploaded.

[CDMBill]

Yeah, com'on Michael, pictures at least.

[Racingcritters]

The only photo I have is from years ago and the quality is rather poor. I will take some though.
Also suffered my first setbacks,parts that I'd ordered are now snowed in somewhere in the mid-west,perhaps sometime next week they say. The other is the critters that rummaged in the interior and spiders! Billions and billions of spiders,spent a few bucks on insecticides, not before one of the buggers got me though. I now have a nice line of bites and a really red rash from wrist to elbow on my forearm.

[milner351]

Great to see it - knowing your depth of knowledge of the subject of internal combustion from our DW discussions in '12 - I'll be very very interested to follow along with this build, and wish you the best of luck in this endeavor. Are you starting with a cage "kit" or starting from scratch?

Are you building (from a safety standpoint) to make it NHRA legal to a certain ET? (DOM mig welded or full tilt chromoly tig'd?)

Following James recipe to go 10's "inexpensively" is tempting (imagine a BBF in my ~2500lb falcon) but all the stuff I have laying around is small block - so I'll stay with the little guys for now.

Hope the spider bites heal quickly, and you have a well insulated and efficiently heated workspace!

[Dignlif]

can't wait to see the progress of this and how you bring it back to life. Awesome to see long time ownership like this

[BBR]

Park that sucker outside for a while. I'm sure some sub-freezing temps will take care of those pesky critters.

[Racingcritters]

John, thanks for the kind words. Bar or cage will be tailored and moly if the budget allows.
I'm going to try a couple of runs and see whether cage or bar. Bar gets me to 11 flat and then it's a cage.
I'm the in the opposite position and have quite a collection of big block parts. Alas at the moment my garage is full so I'm relegated
to the carport.
Mid forties,rain and wind here BBR.

[CDMBill]

If you decide you need a cage I'd be happy to share my drawings and lessons learned. I built mine from scratch in CrMo and had great assistance from a buddy who is a certified welder. My TIG skills are poor and I learned a bunch along the way.

[milner351]

I just realized a huge advantage of running a cage in a convertible - lots of room to work on the cage with the top down!

Even with a thumb control and short tungsten, I don't know how some guys get the welds they get inside a hard top car. I would think welding the top of the cage lowered from final position with down tubes slid through the floor is the only option in many cases, then slide the whole thing up tight to the inside of the roof, then weld in the bottom of the tubes.

[CDMBill]

That is how it is done. In the convertible I was able to complete the two major sections and then I had them powder coated which has worked out really well. That won't happen in the Fox notch.

Pictures Michael!

[Racingcritters]

Thank you for the photos Bill. I'll let you know when I get closer to doing the cage.
Patience on the pics. Soon.
At the moment I'm still in survey mode,making lists and checking 'em twice. Did get a new set of rims and tires,pistons are on order
with a large order for the brake and fuel systems going in today. I must say I've been pleasantly surprised with how much is available
for the old thing. Some of the prices not so much.

[milner351]

Bill
I notice the angle of your main hoop is angled toward the back several degrees from vertical - I like you the legs were added and the door bar lowered.

It seems inspectors don't like removable door bars but are OK with creatively located fixed bars, or shaped bars as I've seen in a few custom jobs.... hm.