Shock tower bracing

With everything coming together and meshing as they should, the apron and towers are welded in for the final time.

One last step in this operation is to connect the braces that tie the towers to the cowl. It was Fords attempt at trying to control flex I suppose.

I turned to the internet again for lack of instructions. All I could go on were pictures from the original ebay auction and a few other pictures of Boss 429 Mustangs showing their braces.

The braces are sheet metal formed on a brake

My plan was to approximate the look from the pictures and weld the braces to whatever they come in contact with.

The braces would not conform to any pictures I looked at and again, the left tower was being difficult. Where the right side brace fit square and even across the back side of the right tower,

the left brace curved away from the tower or to be more precise, the tower curved away from the brace.

By this time, I had been working on the car for about 2 years. This build could only be done on my free time and there was very little of that.

I had attempted to section and hammer the tops of the aprons to conform to the shock towers and the results were disappointing. This and now with the braces giving me grief, I wasn’t exactly the happy camper I was hoping to be at this stage of the build.

I had told my friends on many occasions that this car seemed to fight me at every step. It was the story of two steps forward and one step back and I was tired. I made the decision to step away from the car for awhile. Not the project, just the car.

It would be two and a half years before I decided to get back to work on the Mustang again.