Some history:

My Dad bought the car for me in So. Cal. in 1987. I drove it until 1989 when I met my girlfriend after moving to Alabama, she's been my wife now for 18 years. (Humm, notice the coincidence.)

I was 17 she was 21. Dad didn't like me dating an older woman. I moved in with her, he threatened to sell the car, of which my friend and I had just rebuilt the 302 in it. I made up some story about how something was wrong with the engine. Removed the engine, sold it. Got married. Car stayed at parents house in Alabama while my wife and I moved to ATL, GA and started a family (which now includes 16 yr old son, 13 yr old son, 8 yr old daughter, and a 4 yr old son). We then moved to Tallahassee, FL for a few years, finally got the car down to Florida, then I moved up here to the Pacific NW in 1995.

Got hooked up with some vintage racers, one of which I worked with and had a shop. He let me work on it at his shop.

My friend and I did a total strip down to bare metal (in 1999). It is a San Jose car and lived most of it's life in Cali. No rust. 289 2V, 4 speed car.

Applied a coat of DPLF epoxy primer, 3 coats of sandable primer, another coat of DPLF epoxy primer, a gallon of '98 Porsche ocean blue metallic. (Awesome color), and a gallon of DCU 2010 clear coat. (Did I mention the 100's of hours of body work?)

My friend who was letting me use his shop moved suddenly, I had to store it at someone else's house for 2 years, you get the picture. I finally bought a house of my own where I could work on it. YEAH.... It's taken a few years to get settled in, but now I'm finally working on it diligently.

Built the new 302 to BIG JOES specs from a magazine article:

ENGINE:
Block: '71 302 Mexican Block (beefy mains)
Pistons: Slight dish '71 302 - 0.030 over
Heads: C9TE 58cc milled to 55cc chambers. Minor port work, 1.94 - 1.60 valves
Cam: Isky 280 Mega - 232 @ 0.050 - .549 (1.7 ratio) - 108 LSA
Intake: Offy 360" Equa-Flow (Divided plenum, not ports) 1" 4 hole spacer
Carb: ProForm/Holley. 750 DP
Headers: 1-5/8" Long tube with 18" collectors
Ignition: Jacobs Pro Street digital with Ultra Coil. Crane street strip distributor.
CraneCams

TRANS: Jackson Racing C-4, GER 2800 stall convertor, B&M Megashifter
REAR: 8" with PowerTrax and 3.80 gears.

Also built it to road race with the following:

I have 620# front coils and 5 leaf reverse eye rears. I did the Shelby 1" upper control arm drop as well. Welded in a pair of custom made subframe connectors made of 1-1/2"x1-1/2" TS (tube steel, it's actually square). Matched the contours of the floorpans. If you weren't looking for them you wouldn't even notice them. In the last few weeks I welded in a full cage as well, so I probably could have forgone the connectors, but what the heck...

I welded in the Pro Motorsports Vario-Centric kit. I can't remember the instructions off the top of my head, but I think it gives you 8 camber settings in 0.5* increments. I'm shooting for 1.5 - 2* negative camber. Also installing Global West Adjustable strut rods, which will allow for the caster adjustment. (+3* sounds good)

I chose these two items to eliminate the need to use shims on the upper control arms at all. This also provides more precise settings.

1/8" toe in. I have seen some road racers go to 1/16" toe out, but you have to be careful. While it helps turning in, it can make the car wander at higher speeds on the straights.

When you take an early Mustang into an alignment shop, you'll see the veterans scurry away like roaches (because of the whole shim thing, get the camber right, go set the caster, re-check camber now it's off again, and the younger guys just tell you they don't know how to do it cause the computer doesn't go back that far)....

(VERY STIFF, perfect for high speed handling)

If I remember anything else I'll add it later. I will add more pics later as well.