Figured i would post this up here, put it out on another forum and realized i really havent posted any progress of the car since my old photosharing site took a dump and my links are bad. I am finishing up my solution for not putting a automatic in the car, and breaking tremecs, it just needs some more sound deadener and the carpet installed and it will be complete. The trans is a liberty LSC5100.
This was the first cut, tried to take as little as possible out of it and not get too carried away.
Cut the hole for just the shifter assembly, then bolted the shifter in to see where i had to make room for the linkages.
Completed hole in the tunnel
With the tunnel done, i had to adapt the trans to the crossmember. These transmissions use a pretty narrow bolt pattern, and finding a poly mount was proving to be pretty difficult. I also needed some kind of spacer to take up the gap from the transmission mounting pad being higher than a factory transmission, so i went into CAD, and designed a adapter that would bolt to the transmission, and accept a factory mustang poly transmission mount, so that it would be easy to replace down the road if needed. The thickness of the spacer also set the driveline angle. I had two thicknesses machined up and ended up using the thinner one.
The clutch setup will be a Ace powerforce, with help from Cale Aronson and Bruce Hemminger, i think this thing is going to work very well. I have the option to run it as a single disc or a dual, right now it is set up as a single.
Now for the tricky part, getting the interior back in it without losing my street car stuff. It was a bunch of sitting and staring at the car before i did anything, so by the time it was ready to have the tunnel made i had a good idea of how i thought it should be done.
Started with a old beat up console i had, and just started cutting
I sent the car to the bodyshop that painted the car, Custom Coach Works in Springfield, MA. They finished up the tunnel and trimmed up the good console. Chris really killed it on this one. It came out exactly how i had pictured it in my head.
Started out by welding a plate to the factory shifter hole, this was done so that the top shifter cover could be removed without without taking out the center console.
Here is a shot of the side cover
We finished things off with a Joes Racing shifter boot to try and keep as much heat out as possible, the boot is made from nomex and is reflective on the inside so i think that should help out a bunch, it is attached by 7 of the 8 buttons on the boot, that are riveted to the floor structure. It fits this application very well, it is just a little bit small so thats why we couldnt get the last button to snap. Looks right at home though.
Here is the console trimmed up, radio delete plate is just temporary, there was extra plastic so they got carried away. Need my tunes in the streetcar haha.
So when i got the car home, one of the first things i did was see how difficult it was going to be to get the shifter in and out of the car, the answer to this, pretty damn easy. All that needs to be done is taking off the original shift boot plastic trim, take the top plate off of the tunnel, and remove the linkages and two bolts from the shifter, everything comes right up thru the top hole without having to remove the console or side cover, which is a relief because originally i thought that half the interior of the car was going to have to come out to remove the trans. I think transmission swaps will be easier than with a tremec with this setup.
All in all, i am very happy with the end results.
This was the first cut, tried to take as little as possible out of it and not get too carried away.
Cut the hole for just the shifter assembly, then bolted the shifter in to see where i had to make room for the linkages.
Completed hole in the tunnel
With the tunnel done, i had to adapt the trans to the crossmember. These transmissions use a pretty narrow bolt pattern, and finding a poly mount was proving to be pretty difficult. I also needed some kind of spacer to take up the gap from the transmission mounting pad being higher than a factory transmission, so i went into CAD, and designed a adapter that would bolt to the transmission, and accept a factory mustang poly transmission mount, so that it would be easy to replace down the road if needed. The thickness of the spacer also set the driveline angle. I had two thicknesses machined up and ended up using the thinner one.
The clutch setup will be a Ace powerforce, with help from Cale Aronson and Bruce Hemminger, i think this thing is going to work very well. I have the option to run it as a single disc or a dual, right now it is set up as a single.
Now for the tricky part, getting the interior back in it without losing my street car stuff. It was a bunch of sitting and staring at the car before i did anything, so by the time it was ready to have the tunnel made i had a good idea of how i thought it should be done.
Started with a old beat up console i had, and just started cutting
I sent the car to the bodyshop that painted the car, Custom Coach Works in Springfield, MA. They finished up the tunnel and trimmed up the good console. Chris really killed it on this one. It came out exactly how i had pictured it in my head.
Started out by welding a plate to the factory shifter hole, this was done so that the top shifter cover could be removed without without taking out the center console.
Here is a shot of the side cover
We finished things off with a Joes Racing shifter boot to try and keep as much heat out as possible, the boot is made from nomex and is reflective on the inside so i think that should help out a bunch, it is attached by 7 of the 8 buttons on the boot, that are riveted to the floor structure. It fits this application very well, it is just a little bit small so thats why we couldnt get the last button to snap. Looks right at home though.
Here is the console trimmed up, radio delete plate is just temporary, there was extra plastic so they got carried away. Need my tunes in the streetcar haha.
So when i got the car home, one of the first things i did was see how difficult it was going to be to get the shifter in and out of the car, the answer to this, pretty damn easy. All that needs to be done is taking off the original shift boot plastic trim, take the top plate off of the tunnel, and remove the linkages and two bolts from the shifter, everything comes right up thru the top hole without having to remove the console or side cover, which is a relief because originally i thought that half the interior of the car was going to have to come out to remove the trans. I think transmission swaps will be easier than with a tremec with this setup.
All in all, i am very happy with the end results.
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