Vixen 302 V8 Tweety

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Hi all,
This is a post describing the restoration of LVX13134. It was purchased by me in 2007 in the USA from a former 60s Shelby Racing employee. He had the intention to get it back on the road and to use it for occasional racing. In the downtime of his company, he let his people work on it for over 10 years, but progress was hampered by part availability and probably time/money. As an example, he planned to use 60's Mustang rear lights and convert it to a pick up style rear because the rear screen was unavailable! I saw it for sale in a car magazine and a quick call taught that he would only sell it to someone he could look in the eye because he wanted to be sure that the buyer understood the car 'otherwise it WILL kill you'. So one day later I was on the plane to Groom, Texas, and a day later the deal was made to bring it to Holland. Other projects which I was working on at the time meant it was stored for a number of years but in 2013 I started the restoration, which as so often, turned out to be a nut and bolt affair.

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Arrival in Holland

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With its little brother (CE20XE Redtop on ITB's powered Vixen)

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Body off the chassis. Mid section had been reengineered in s/s and strengthened and widened considerably.

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Rear end is Viper LSD with driveshafts

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Body undressed and ready for stripping. Areas of attention marked. Special rear light recesses shown for the Mustang tail lights. Decided to flatten them to accept Cortina Mk1 lights. Vixen S2 has of course normally Mk2 lights but it's a b*st&^d anyway.

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When emptying the internals of the driver's door this came out...

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Bonnet repair. Played with the idea to fit a Griffith style bonnet but after testing saw that I could fit the intake systems I was planning under this bonnet.

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Looking much better

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Body repaired and painted

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Wooden bar during repair and painting was needed to ensure later rear window fit, the roof had sagged a bit after standing all these years without rear window, and I didn't want to risk cracks in the fresh paint come rear window mounting time

Edited by ephemera on Tuesday 18th August 00:15

Edited by ephemera on Tuesday 18th August 00:15

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Engine was a Ford 302, decided to completely strip and rebuild. Trickflow alloy heads, high compression Keith Black pistons, weight balanced, fast hydraulic camshaft, roller rockers, crank polished, all bearings and pumps new, lightened flywheel, all balanced. Next time I might go straight to the AJP8 engine.

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Chassis stripped, powdercoated, rebushed in poly, suspension on, Revolution 5 spoke classic wheels custom made in 7x15 and 8x15.

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differences to standard chassis clearly visible

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Also custom rear suspension parts visible

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Mazda RX7 FD alloy four pot brake conversion, front. Rear also RX7 FD. Vented large diameter discs. Custom made brackets.

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Engine dropped in, poly solid engine mounts. Gearbox on Mustang rubber, custom mount, 4 speed alloy cased top loader. Custom driveshaft. You get the idea.

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Roll bar fitment

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Fuel tank mounts to chassis