Beauty is in the eye of the beholder
 

Been to the Lourve and in about every castle up and down the Rhine and Mosel rivers. Given the choice between all I've seen or your car and I couldn't sell it I would be doing burnouts with the lovely Cleo at my side. Just sayin, Wyatt.

Thanks Sunman, very kind words!

I've been doing a bit here and there, but the major hold up before road testing has been heat insulation. David provided some heat shields, but I guess the guy that fabricated them calculated for the bends wrong and did not factor in the extra rail on the outboard side, so they will now work. And, I discovered in comparison, because i did beat the crap out of one shield to make it work, that the DEI heat insulation actually made a bigger difference than the stainless metal heat shield. However, the floors are still getting WAY TOO HOT in the areas located above the mufflers and more insulation must be added.
Results were:
Underside of floors: 270 degrees Fahrenheit directly above mufflers on reflective DEI surface. The heat gets trapped in this area and I am sure it is better while driving due to air flow helping to move the heat out , but still.

Floors topside: 115 degrees Fahrenheit

Battery cable 105 degrees Fahrenheit

The plan is to wrap the mufflers with DEI muffler wrap and hope it will cool them enough to the point where further measures are not necessary. Next I plan to insulate the top sides of the floor with a thermal barrier and insulation, but the key is to stop it at the source. Now, if the shields fit properly and were used in combo with the DEI insulation, that would be extremely effective, but I dont have the time or resources right now to cut and re-bend the shields from Kirkham.

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I had my Spintechs powder coated black in hopes it would lower the exterior temperatures that would get radiated to the floor boards. However, after a drive they are about 450 - 470 deg when shot with an IR gun. I applied Lizardskin to the underside of my floor panels and even it is starting to bubble but is holding on. I have enough insulation under the carpet that heat in the interior is not really a problem - but I'll be curious to see how that DEI insulation works as I may need to step up to it.

I can't imagine any coating holding up to that type of heat. I've used lizard skin on the interior of a mustang before, but I thought it was more for sound insulation, not heat.
Anyway, at least one of the muffler wraps should show up this week and I will post back with results once I have it or them installed. They are around $50.00 a piece, but well worth it if they actually reduce the heat. Im guessing overall I will have around $250.00 in insulation. Picture and link below.

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Heat & Sound Barrier | Exhaust Header Wrap and Thermal Performance Products | Design Engineering, Inc.

No, it's a thermal insulator coating - supposed to be good for 500 degrees but I'm right at that threshold. Plus, I may not have been thorough enough with my surface prep before applying it. The mufflers with ceramic coating seem to act like a heat sink. Long after my headers and collector are cooling off the muffler temperatures stay up there. Doing it again, I think I wouldn't ceramic coat them.

Just FYI, one kit apparently has enough for two mufflers. They showed up this afternoon, but I won't have time to install them till next Wednesday at the earliest

If you are using an IR gun to measure your temperatures, on that aluminum and otherwise silver materials you may not be getting accurate results. IR guns are calibrated for a black, flat finish and shiny, reflective finishes throw them off a lot. I'm convinced that the benefits in radiant heat reduction everyone thinks they are getting from silver, ceramic coated headers is just due to the inaccurate IR readings they get off of it.

If you are looking for an under carpet insulation I really liked EZ Cool. It's only for thermal, it's very light weight, and it's not expensive. It doesn't come with an adhesive side so it would have to be put down with contact cement unless you just install a piece loose under the seat area and let the seat bolts and carpet hold it in place.

http://www.lobucrod.com/faq.html


Good luck.

Dan, the muffler wraps combined with the DEI Insulation on the bottom side of the floor board made a huge difference. Once the muffler wraps were added the bare aluminum floor stayed cool to warm to the touch on the interior side after running the car and while letting it sit at idle at full operating temp. Previously, with only the insulation on the bottom of the floor board, it was very hot to the touch and I could not keep my hand in contact with the aluminum on the interior side for more than a couple of seconds. I'm very impressed with the DEI products.
I'll post pictures as soon as possible.

I wrapped the fuel and brake line in DEI heat sheath with velcro and installed the floor and tunnel shield on the underside of the floor pan just like the passenger side.

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Mufflers wrapped. I can't believe how big of a difference this product makes. If you measure and cut carefully, one kit will do both mufflers.

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The heat shield to protect the master cylinders fit correctly, so I installed it with some of the DEI heat shield on the side facing the pipe...tight squeeze!

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Looks Awesome!!!

My 3 week old son requested he be allowed to test out the kirkham seats while mommy was in the shower. :)

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He looks like he knows what happens next :3DSMILE:

Ours is 8 months old. I have pretty much that same picture of him. He was skinny like yours then, also. He'll bulk up! Congrats!

I couldn't resist now that I have the car at home and not in my shop. He's actually around 8-3/4 pounds and was 8.1 at birth. However, you are correct, he doesn't have the typical baby chunkiness.

Does your wife know you've already test fitted your son's car seat???

[quote=GT350Mike;1371809]Does your wife know you've already test fitted your son's car seat???[/QUOTE

Yeah, that would go over well. :). I would need to incorporate a special head restraint. It doesn't take much to get knocked around in this car. The Ford Racing 363 striker is a spectacular motor.

Here are some pictures of the car more or less finished. It's been on road worthy for a few months now, but I just now finally managed to get the car registered in December. They registered it as a 1965, which was nice since I did not have to pay as much in taxes. The car is an absolute joy to drive. The 363 Ford Racing stroker is way more than enough power, which I like. It starts right up, idles with a great lump at 800rpm and runs at 180-190 degrees. If you are looking for the right engine for your cobra or sixties Mustang, I would recommend the Ford Racing 363. One note though, it does have high port heads, so be aware that this could affect your exhaust selection.

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If anybody is interested, the no haggle price is $160,000. I'll list it in the for sale section as soon as possible.

Price reduced to $140k OBO. I promise that you will enjoy this car more than any 427fe!!! She is lighter, faster, quicker revving,and very much well behaved under normal driving conditions. However, 500hp and an aggressive cam can and will get you in trouble really fast. This car must be handled with extreme respect.

Beauty of a car. Sorry to hear you are selling.

After much thought, I have reduced the price to 129,900, which is about what it would cost to build the car with all options if you did every bit of the work yourself. I was a bit exaggerated with my initial price.