I’m not a trained body man but I’ve stayed at a Holiday Inn before. Fortunately my son is a talented welder. That and neither one of us would admit there was anything we couldn’t do. Two stubborn Irishmen. Time will tell...
The original plan called for returning the car to factory condition with the addition of updated front and rear suspension. All of the frame rails, doors, fenders, hood, quarters, torque boxes, trunk floor, rockers, cowl, firewall and front aprons have already been purchased. Then I started doing some research on what current 68 GT S-code fastbacks were going for and I realized that I would be break-even or (most likely) upside down when all was said and done. Then I saw a Mustang with an Art Morrison Max-G chassis under it and got to thinking - it might be easier to use that chassis (or another one like it) than it would be to restore the original unibody and then add updated suspension. It's also not much more expensive. And well-built restomods sitting on AME chassis command top dollar. And it should handle way better than any stock Mustang or Shelby would, even with suspension upgrades. For all those reasons, and in light of this car not being a candidate for a concours restoration I decided to take this fork in the road.
Is it stupid ambitious to attempt this having never constructed a car from the ground up before? Probably! But that never stopped me before.
For sentimental reasons the FE is non-negotiable. I have the original 390 and another one on a stand. I've seen where you can coax 500+ HP out of one and that should be enough to get it rolling. The automatic appeals to me because I have 2 other sticks already and in a drag race the slushbox will win. I'd like to run a 3.89 or higher rear gear so it launches well, but don't want to be turning 3500 RPM @ 60 MPH so I'll need an overdrive of some sort. I have a lot of work to do before I need to settle on a powertrain.
It's been said that the thrill of the chase can be just as fun as ultimately driving the car you were looking for. I think that the process of building a one-off car like this will be almost as satisfying as driving it. I won't know for sure until I turn the key for the first time!