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[quote="rmaynard"]damn..
1st off glad to hear your all right..
2nd off it didnt surprise me that it started right up!
i own and drive every day a 93 ford ranger ext cab 5 spd...
and its about to rollover to 300,000 miles and i still would trust it to drive me to California..
cant beat down an old ford...i wish i could keep mine just cause i love it!
ryan[/quote]

I've had three rangers, I loved them all... Next 4cyl truck I get will be a 2.3 ranger, which wont be to far down the road if the gas prices keep going up...

damn..
1st off glad to hear your all right..
2nd off it didnt surprise me that it started right up!
i own and drive every day a 93 ford ranger ext cab 5 spd...
and its about to rollover to 300,000 miles and i still would trust it to drive me to California..

cant beat down an old ford...i wish i could keep mine just cause i love it!

ryan

another thing to do the a early stang is relocate the upper control arm. Its a very common mod done to 64-66 stangs. There is even a plate you can buy that bolts to the factory location, then has holes premade for you to drill the new ones. This enhances the handling emormously!!

I think you should go with a fox body, cheap and easy to find, cheap and easy to make fast.

From everything I've read, the Mustang II front end does literally bolt on with minimal modification. Haven't done it, though, so I can't attest to it. IIs had a better suspension than the 65s, but the Fox platform was obviously even better. Either eliminates the big shock towers and opens up room for a big block, though. I don't see the need for a big block in a 65 Stang considering that you can stroke a 351W to 427 cubic inches should you wish to do so.

Really you can make a early Stang handle pretty well without the conversion, though. Main thing is strengthening the unibody by tying the subframe together, and bracing everything horizontally (esp. shock towers).

[quote="Jonathan"]I didn't know that the Fox body would fit. Good stuff. I know the Mustang II front end will bolt up easily, but the Mustang II doesn't have what I'd consider to be a booming aftermarket :lgh . It will let you stuff a big block in there, though.[/quote]
I don't think its necessarily a "bolt on" kinda modification, it will require some fabrication to make it structurally sound. But I have a friend in Texas that did it about 10 years ago with a 65 fastback, road racer, and it was a fairly straightforward mod...brace it here and there, hook cage on for added strength, weld some sheet metal to bolt fenders to for proper alignment and so on. Some people frowned on the struts in a 65 stang, but now with all the options available, it would make an excellent upgrade!

As for the lopey monster cam, HELL YEAH!!! Especially in a small block, big blocks seam to be smoother with the same sized cams because of the increased C.I.. I have a set of 1965 closed chamber 289 heads. The guy who built that road racer 1965 had them EXTREME ported, for stock heads :p , and flowed, along with 2.02 1.6 valves. The combustion chamber reshaped, heart shaped... removed the little power robbing knot in them. Then milled the hell out of them. All within safe tolerances. The point of them it to look stock, no aluminum heads, but be able to get some serious power :happy055: I want to put them on a 347, but will probably put them on a hot 289. But thats down the road.....

Sorry, I got Horsepower on the brain as soon as I started typing this post.

[quote="Jonathan"]I didn't know that the Fox body would fit. Good stuff. I know the Mustang II front end will bolt up easily, but the Mustang II doesn't have what I'd consider to be a booming aftermarket :lgh . It will let you stuff a big block in there, though.[/quote]
I don't think its necessarily a "bolt on" kinda modification, it will require some fabrication to make it structurally sound. But I have a friend in Texas that did it about 10 years ago with a 65 fastback, road racer, and it was a fairly straightforward mod...brace it here and there, hook cage on for added strength, weld some sheet metal to bolt fenders to for proper alignment and so on. Some people frowned on the struts in a 65 stang, but now with all the options available, it would make an excellent upgrade!

As for the lopey monster cam, HELL YEAH!!! Especially in a small block, big blocks seam to be smoother with the same sized cams because of the increased C.I.. I have a set of 1965 closed chamber 289 heads. The guy who built that road racer 1965 had them EXTREME ported, for stock heads :p , and flowed, along with 2.02 1.6 valves. The combustion chamber reshaped, heart shaped... removed the little power robbing knot in them. Then milled the hell out of them. All within safe tolerances. The point of them it to look stock, no aluminum heads, but be able to get some serious power :happy055: I want to put them on a 347, but will probably put them on a hot 289. But thats down the road.....

Sorry, I got Horsepower on the brain as soon as I started typing this post.

Realistically, though, I'm looking to build something a little more streetable this time. I'm actually considering doing a Fox Body (87-93 preferably) Stang. Build the motor up for a wide powerband in a streetable RPM range, possibly add a supercharger later on. It's hard to beat boost when you're talking about a street car. When you aren't under a load the motor acts pretty much the same as a naturally aspirated engine. A N/A producing the same amount of power is going to be ill mannered and have horrible gas mileage, though I do love a nasty lope from a monster cam and induction system ;)

I didn't know that the Fox body would fit. Good stuff. I know the Mustang II front end will bolt up easily, but the Mustang II doesn't have what I'd consider to be a booming aftermarket :lgh . It will let you stuff a big block in there, though.

I've always wanted to do that, but it would be the same as a 64-66 stang considering it is the same car with a different body. My brother actually started to do that, problem was you have to go to extreme measures in a 65 stang to get a big block in there. The easiest way, and best way, is to take a fox body front clip and put it on the old stang. Several guys who did this said you should really put a cage in so you can bring it through the firewall to brace the new front clip. Just for safety since you are welding the frames together! With the fox body front clip you also have access to ALL the aftermarket front end, stearing and suspension, parts available for the 5.0s.
someday.....