You're crazy but in a good way. =)

LOL!

Ok, late last night I had some time to experiment with the spare tire that won't fit. I went into the attic and grabbed an old 1/25th tire from a kit I had as a boy (a 1968 Plymouth Road Runner). It was even bigger than the tires that came with the GT350, but here we go...



Cut off a sidewall to start the work:



Then square it to let it butt up against the rear of the interior, and allow the trunk hinge to clear when closed:



It fits, but is still too big. You can see it poking out through the tail light hole:



So I thinned the sidewall, and cut a length of treads from the remnant of the tire to superglue to the sidewall edge.



Since you can clearly see the chopped off tire, I put a thin black circular card on the trunk floor below the tire. This seems to help trick the eye into seeing a full round tire:



But less so from the side view, but some strategic black paint on the trunk interior walls could really help here.




So... Is this dumb? There are no rushes on this part, so I have some time to think. I also need to find out if the spare tire cover (which matches the trunk mat) that is sometimes seen in photos was a factory item.

What about putting the spare, in its cover, on top of the folded down back seat? I've seen that before at car shows.

I need to look into that, I've seen it too.

Most of those I've seen have a "delete kit" installed:

http://www.mustangdepot.com/OnLineCatalog/images/Fiberglass/MR-176GA.jpg

Not sure if it can be mounted otherwise. Will read up and see.

Any idea why it doesn't fit? Before you put in the tire, the trunk looked "scale" to me.

I have not measured so I'm not sure what's off. Even if I do measure the model, getting any kind of measurements off the real thing will not be easy, or to be honest, really matter. Something is off, and I've just got to roll with it, whatever it may be.

And while researching the idea of mounting the spare on the folded rear seats, I finally come across two photos of the rear seat carpet in a parchment interior... The carpet is black in both:

http://www.nvsaac.com/photogallery/images/1967/500/67_500_624_k.jpg

I also see that I missed the two chrome latches on the rear most panel (just barely visible in the above photo). And interestingly, the parchment color of the interior panels appears to show through to the trunk on the reverse of the access door. Good to know.

More to ponder... If my carpet is wrong, do I just repaint (maybe 10 minute job)? Maybe rip it out and build a "delete" kit?

As a follow up on the parchment color rear carpet, this is the reference I used for that decision:

http://auctionsamerica.com/events/feature-lots.cfm?SaleCode=AS13&ID=r122

There is one photo where you can see the carpet on the back of the folded down rear seat, looking through the rear glass. Looks parchment to me.

I am wondering if I have misinterpreted that photo.

Ok, what I think happened is that I have misinterpreted the photo supposedly showing the tan carpet through the rear window:

http://auctionsamerica.com/events/feature-lots.cfm?SaleCode=AS13&ID=r122

That photograph is, I now think, actually showing the top of the SEAT, with it's chrome piano hinge... Not the two forward segments of carpet separated by the piano hinge.

Scouring YouTube in addition to image searches, I found a GT500 which also shows black carpet (on a restored car):



So looks like a carpet repaint. I investigating a delete now. Seems almost wrong to put something like that and a tire in the beautiful light interior!

Wouldn't there have been different interior color options?

According to this website, there were only two interior options:
http://www.mustangspecs.com/years/67shelby.shtml

Code A for black, U for White/Parchment. Everything I've seen indicates that both codes came with black carpet up front. It's just that bit in the back glass, on the back of the folding seat, that had been hard to find in images.

I also did some measuring with a 1/16th inch grade ruler, and the specs on that page. The model kit wheelbase and front/rear track are to scale within 1/2 inch (likely the error of my ruler!).

The kit's Firestone Wide-Oval tires measure out within 0.4 inches to these specs:

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/cok-62450/overview/

But they won't fit in the trunk.

So did I foul up the assembly somehow? Or did my modifications foul something? I measure, check fit, and look for mistakes. Photos and my logic:

Trouble is the tire crashing against the rear-most wall of the interior, which in real life is a trap door that opens between the interior and trunk space. This part is stock.


It glues to the rear interior sidewalls. Placement on these is a bit "foggy" as there is no solid alignment outside of jamming the entire sidewall up against the vehicle firewall/engine compartment, which was what I chose to do:


In any case, there isn't much farther forward these sidewalls could go to make more room in the trunk, as they are just shy of flush with the door openings up front:


And my engine compartment, of course cut from the body and glued to the frame. Alignment is close with where it was cut away from. It's glued to peg-and-hole alignment mount points on the frame, so is pretty close to where is should be.


And a side view of the wheelbase. Axles are sitting in place, tire for reference.


I don't see many places there I could take up enough slack in realigning things to make the tire fit. I'd need about 3/16th of an inch more.


Anyway, I just wondered. It'll get put together somehow.

After seeing your auction site link, you did a great job with the tire. I just don't rember the trunk being that small.,but its been 30 years.

Thickness of the plastic at the tail end of the trunk being too thick, or even on the other side, same thing? That's all I can think of...

Yep, certainly could be the case.

Today I repainted the carpet to black... well really dark gray, same as the front carpet. Also I had forgotten the seat back support plates! They are the small chrome plates in the rearmost corners of the rear deck.

Looks great! Am I seeing correctly that you also scored the passthrough from the trunk to the back seat? Are you looking at having that folded down to help with holding the tire?

The passthrough was already a separate part in the kit, but not hinged. I'm not going try to make it function. At minimum, there's a little wire handle on the right hand of the passthrough door (which I've yet to build) which would most likely hit the spare tire and prevent the door from opening.

This week, a few small structural details on the pass through door.



And then I got to thinking... It's getting later in the year. If I spend another month detailing the trunk, and then sit down to a month of body prep work, it's going to be getting the point that I can't do any primer (enamel) work on the body outdoors. The tiny pieces left at this point can be enamel primed with a brush, and I already do my acrylic spray work indoors.

So I'll begin on the bodywork NOW!

First, removing the flat molded windshield wipers for later replacement. Scraped off with a blade and then wet sanded.


Also from my to-do list of bodywork, there are two missing panel lines rear of the hood. I masked off the area leaving guides for my blade.


The hood pin moldings are too far forward, so they get the same treatment as the wipers.


Working on the sun visor and mirror mounting hardware. The wire is just test-fitted at this point. Added two thickeners to the windshield pillars, and may get another.



Here are the finished scribed panel lines. I tried to use a raking light to reveal them a bit better.

Very little hobby time this week. But some important progress.

I built the brackets that are welded to the top of the roll bar, which bolt to the roof of the car. These are glued to the roof, and thus don't touch the roll bar. Yet... I may amend that as assembly closes down the road.



Now the inside of the trunk lid needs some structural elements based on the photos I have. Below is the buildup. This is all glued and drying in clamps now. Still need the trunk latch underside of the lid. Then similar work on the underside of the hood next week!

Well I skipped the update last week, not much that was worth showing. Mostly very tiny sanding and such to refine the gaps on the doors, hood, and trunk. I want them to close and travel without touching the bodywork.

Oh, and those trunk detail parts... The arrow shaped part in the middle, I looked at the photos, drew it UPSIDE DOWN, and then glued it upside down! Some time was spent correcting that.

Built the hood latch:




A shot of the door gaps:


And I've been drilling the holes for the hood pins, windshield wipers, and radio antenna:


Test fit radio antenna (final part will be steel, not copper):

Well, an early update this weekend! Got a couple of good sessions finishing off body work, and got to spray primer!

First, some changes to the hood. I noticed that the hood was sitting a bit forward, mostly due to my gluing it forward to allow a decent clearance for the rear of the hood to open. You can see the overhang here, particularly notable at the red arrow.



And here, the reshaped hood. Red line indicates the shaping area. This was done with a piece of 100 grit sandpaper on a wooden block clamp, by hand.


Side view:


And here, you can see that the very tip I blunted (it had been a bit sharp) and sanded-in a reverse angle slope toward the grille, as per photos of the real thing.


And primer! There were a few more details I had been considering adding before primer, but they can easily be done later. The body is lighter (and looks more rough) because the primer on it has been wet sanded at 1000 grit. It's actually smoother than the doors, hood, and trunk lid, which still await their wet sanding.

A few tune-ups, and then another light primer coat will follow, and maybe more wet sanding to finalize for the acrylic body color.

Wheels sit in for added fun. Sorry the photo has poor depth of field... low light, hand-held, and tired.

It really looks great even in this primed/wetsanded state. I wish I had your patience.