Coming up on a year in progress, the Street Fighter Mustang is actually starting to resemble a functioning car, thanks to a fresh interior. The last major jobs we did were welding in the 'cage, rewiring the electrical, and installing the gauges. The idea was to keep the inside mostly stock and very clean, but with hard turning and safety in mind. Like all projects, it's a great idea to keep as many original parts from the car as you can, but for the things that couldn't be saved, we browsed the National Parts Depot (NPD) catalog, and found our missing items. We got a dashpad, carpet kit, window cranks, door release handles, doorsill trim, package tray board, and some other dress-up knickknacks to finish it off.
This is where we left off...
This is where we left off after the wiring was laid and the 'cage was primed and painted.
Since the stock seats would not suffice for track work, we sold those on Craigslist for $200. This was a nice chunk of change to contribute to the Corbeau replacements. Like the original project car rendering, we stayed true to the design with simple black seats and red harness belts, also from Corbeau. The seats we choose were Corbeau's Forza design, an extremely well-priced fixed-back seat we've been pleased with in the past. Corbeau has a bracket for nearly all of the popular car and truck models, as well as more obscure ones. If you've got something odd, it would pay to look at the Corbeau website to see if they've got it. Ordering two sliding brackets to mate the '66 with the Forza seats was a no-brainer.
The first thing we did was...
The first thing we did was paint the dash before any new parts came in. We sanded the surface with a soft block covered in 220-grit paper and masked it with leftover supplies from the paint and bodywork. We sprayed it with VHT Wrinkle Plus paint, waiting 5 minutes between three medium-wet coats.
With safety and streetability in mind, we chose Corbeau's SFI-approved 3-inch five-point harnesses. We decided not to install the antisubmarine belt at this time (the one fixed to the floor between your legs). There are two types of belts to choose from, the latch-and-link style, and the camlock style. The camlock type allows you to push each section of the belt into the receiver independently, while the latch-and-link type requires you line them all up at once before locking them in. Camlocks may be preferable on the street, where you have to account for passengers who have never used anything but a three-point inertia reel belt system. The $50 upgrade for the camlock was well worth it. These belts can be mounted with or without a rollcage with a belt bar, so if you don't have a rollcage and want to use these belts, you can.
We picked up some tips along the way, one being the proper order of operation for the interior assembly. First, you'll want to take the carpet out of the box and lay it in the sun. The carpet will be stubborn to relinquish its in-box shape if you don't. A full day's sun should relax it enough to make working with it easier. The bare floor in the 'Stang is pretty uncomfortable to work on with its metal seams, screws, and tabs. Throwing the carpet in early makes working inside the car a lot more pleasant. We definitely recommend doing absolutely everything you can before installing the seats. Between the 'cage and the seats, space becomes very limited. Popping your head behind the dash with the seats in is an act that should only be performed by a trained gymnast. Many of the interior parts that came with the car were usable, and just required a scuff-and-shoot refinish. We used VHT's Wrinkle Plus black spray paint for the dash, inner door skins, and rear side panels. It's got a neat look, and covers up a good amount of damage if you've got some to hide.
Somehow we managed to turn the Mustang's completely gutted cab into something that was ready to race in 30 hours. That may seem like a long time, but the interior holds a lot of small pieces that each need special attention. Hour-for-hour, it was the most gratifying project to date, and one of the least expensive.
Once the paint was dry, we...
Once the paint was dry, we popped the dashpad on and the JME billet gauge pod and glovebox door. (Refer to "New Pod," September '10.) Here you can see how the texture turned out. We liked it so much we painted the inside of the doors and inner quarter trim that sandwiches the back seat.
To get an idea of where to...
To get an idea of where to cut the inner quarter-panel trim, we measured from the seat to the bar, and from the bar to the package tray surface, and transcribed that information onto the panel. We used nothing but a cutoff wheel to cut the top off, and then trimmed the opening to fit.
Once we were happy with the...
Once we were happy with the fit, it was paint time. We used a body-prep scuff pad from Summit Racing to rough up the panels for paint.