ITS Ford Mustang(s) Build - Stripper Stang Part II

[Ron Earp]

Lots of car work today - Mustang, Lola, and some of those pesky every day driver cars.

Got the dash installed into the car and it is now ready for the cage. Interior is completely gutted and is as light as it'll ever be. We'll be using the factory gauges and augmenting them with a mechanical water temp and oil pressure gauge, along with a wide band O2. You can see the special bezels that will cluster those around the driver, two in the instrument area and one on the column.

The factory gauges work pretty well as indicators and there are additoinal lights that illuminate for low oil, high water temp, and no alternator charging. Therefore we'll be keeping them intact and functioning.

The center console area will house the Traqmate, remote tire pressure monitor, radio, and a few switches for camera and cool system.

[titanium]

Here are the ducts that I'm using on my Mustang.
http://www.lapponline.com/index.php?...7f1cc83dfbc962

[shwah]

For all the effort to remove a few lbs of asphalt, why no Dash2 display and ditch all the guages and cluster? It must be lighter that way.

[Ron Earp]

For all the effort to remove a few lbs of asphalt, why no Dash2 display and ditch all the guages and cluster? It must be lighter that way.

The asphalt is finally all out, a bit more in the back, and it came to 10.4 lbs.

I considered an electronic dash but the Ford piece weighs 2.1 lbs with the bezel, pretty light for what it is. I'll pull it out an take a picture, but it is very flat and thin, all plastic, and there isn't much there. So I could save a pound or so, but I like factory dashes. The other three gauges that will fill the holes are all light Autometer gauges that don't weigh 1.4 lbs all together.

[manny]

Ron, very nice work. I also have been thinking of the V6 platform, just so many parts out there for the taking. Keep us informed as you progress

[Ron Earp]

The car is somewhat of a challenge. Weight is coming out of it but unless the driver weighs zero, and the cage too, it'll never make 2480 lbs weight. But the engine will also respond better than 25% so I'm thinking if I can get a racing weight around 26XX lbs, and all signs point to that being possible, then the car might be competitive in S. I think it could probably hit the 25XX pound zone, maybe, but time will tell.

I don't think it'll be the car to have in S, but if you want to race a particular brand of car, as I did, then you take what you get. I'd not advise someone to strike up a build just yet unless they are dying to race an IT Mustang.

Now the ITR Mustang, I think that one is a full on go. It'll make a lot of power and I know that is can make weight in ITR if the builder is careful. Prices for 1999-2004 Mustangs are dirt cheap too, so if you want a safe bet the ITR V6 Rustang is the way to go.

[Ron Earp]

Busted out the vinyl cutter and did a little stripe work on the Mustang so we'd have a change of pace in workflow. Getting large stripes cut and affixed to the car with no bubbles or runs is not a trivial task. After two false starts and about 12 feet of wasted vinyl I got the hang of it and put the orange stripe with silver trim on the hood. Looks not half bad.