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Modern Safety Upgrades - Playing It SafeYou can certainly enjoy your classic Ford as a daily driver with modern upgrades to improve safety From the December, 2011 issue of Modified Mustangs & Fords By Mark Houlahan
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More and more people are driving a classic car nearly every day for the commute to work, college, errands, and so on, but it can be a harrowing experience for some. Substandard brakes, thin steering wheels, uncomfortable non-locking seats, and more (all by today’s vehicle standards) can mean just half an hour of driving your classic Mustang or Ford can really be a workout. While you’ll never achieve today’s five-star crash certification in a classic Mustang, even with the upgrades we’re about to walk you through, you will be much better off tackling some of these changes/updates to your ride if it sees a lot of street use. You might be thinking that increasing the safety and reliability of your classic Mustang or Ford isn’t high on your project list, even if you only drive it to a few select events and club functions, but you’d be wrong. With today’s increased number of drivers on the road, many driving with distractions such as eating, talking on the phone, or the worst, texting, just being on the road in your Mustang or Ford paints a target on your decklid. We hope you don’t think we’re using scare tactics here, but we’ve seen enough classic Mustangs involved in crashes to know that just some basic upgrades, many that can be incorporated during a build or even on a completed car, would have made a big difference between walking away from a crash and being carried away by EMTs. All you have to do is take one look at our current project car, Project Generation Gap, to see we practice what we preach. Our ’68 Mustang project is benefitting from such safety improvements as power disc brakes, high-back locking seats, three-point seatbelts, a collapsible steering column, and more to keep the owner safe. The ’68 will be a “near” daily driver, only being parked during bad weather or when it would be unwise to leave it unattended (public event, airport parking, and more), so we wanted to incorporate as many safety enhancements as we could to keep anyone inside the car safe. Check out the following captions, as we hope they inspire you to not only build a safer classic Mustang or Ford, but be a more attentive classic car driver—one that hopefully can prevent the accident in the first place. All you have to do is take one look at our current project car, Project Generation Gap, to see we practice what we preach.  1 One of the best upgrades...  1 One of the best upgrades you can probably make to your ’65-’68 Mustang is a set of high-back seats with locking seat backs. The early seats not only do not lock, but the low back height in an accident can cause serious neck, spine, and back injuries. A popular upgrade is a set of Fox Mustang GT seats (’82-’93), as they bolt right in with minor seat track mods. The ’94-’04 Mustang seats will work as well. We found this pair of seats at a swap meet.  2 The popularity of the Fox...  2 The popularity of the Fox Mustang means there are numerous seat cover options to recover the seats to complement your vintage ride, including the popular Pony interior look to give the seats a near-stock appearance. The Fox seat foam is also available from companies like TMI Products to rebuild the seats to a like-new fit and feel as well.  3 Of course if you’re going...  3 Of course if you’re going a little more toward the restomod look and want a more supportive seat, or plan on perhaps doing a little auto-crossing or track time, then you should look into aftermarket seats like those from Corbeau.  4 Seats such as these feature...  4 Seats such as these feature more supportive bolstering to keep you in place during performance driving, and even offer seatbelt harness slots.  5 Corbeau offers seat mounting...  5 Corbeau offers seat mounting brackets which makes its whole line of seats a true bolt-in proposition.  6 Now here’s something to...  6 Now here’s something to think about—rear seat headrests—just like in new cars on the road today. If it’s just you and the missus 95 percent of the time, then maybe it’s not near the top of your list. However, if you regularly take the kids or friends to cruises/shows, then fabricating a mount for stock or aftermarket headrests should be a consideration.  7 Locking high-back seats...  7 Locking high-back seats certainly are at the top of our list of safety upgrades, but they’re not going to help nearly as much without being properly restrained in the seat. This is where a good three-point seatbelt upgrade ties in. Note this ’68 coupe already has a locking seatback and optional headrests, so just adding the three-point seatbelt upgrade makes the seating safer.  8 Many upgrades we’re discussing...  8 Many upgrades we’re discussing can be added to a completed car, but sometimes you’ve got to tear into your car to make these safety upgrades work. Case in point is the three-point seatbelt upper mounting point. Ford didn’t add them until mid-1968 (shoulder belts became a separate option). During the paint and body phase of your project, it’s easy to weld in a support and mounting nut to make the belts a bolt-in affair when you’re ready to tackle your interior. With a little planning we bet you could fabricate rear three-point belts as well.  1 With today’s traffic density...  1 With today’s traffic density and highway speeds, having a capable braking system is of utmost priority. A dual-reservoir master cylinder should be your first braking upgrade consideration. A dual-reservoir master cylinder splits your original single-circuit braking setup into two separate circuits. Thus, if you have a brake system failure on one circuit, the other circuit will still hold pressure and will allow you to stop the car safely.  2 Speaking of highway speeds,...  2 Speaking of highway speeds, bringing a 3,500-pound classic Mustang down from 70 mph in a hurry isn’t going to happen with stock drum brakes (especially if they are manual brakes). Upgrading to a front disc brake setup and adding a power brake booster will dramatically lower braking distances and will not fade with repeated stopping either.  3 Try finding your Mustang’s...  3 Try finding your Mustang’s emergency brake handle in a hurry. While it’s called a parking brake for liability reasons, in a pinch that “parking brake” can be used to stop your car in the event of a hydraulic system failure, brake pedal failure, and so on. Moving the parking brake to the trans tunnel using a kit from Lokar (shown here) is one of the simplest ways to accomplish this safety update.  4 If you’re really feeling...  4 If you’re really feeling courageous, you can add a factory parking brake handle setup during your project’s build by adding the trans tunnel from a late-model Mustang. In this build, an ’05 and up trans tunnel was used to go along with the late-model GT500 modular engine swap.  1 Part of being safe is being...  1 Part of being safe is being able to see and be seen on today’s roads. None of us are getting younger and all it takes is moving from your daily driver to your classic Mustang to see how bad the Mustang (and early Ford) gauge illumination is.  A very simple solution to...  A very simple solution to the issue is upgrading the stock incandescent bulbs to bright LED illumination. LED dash bulbs from Mustang Project directly replace the stock bulbs and even allow you to change illumination color if you like. Your eyes will thank you.  3 LED taillights are a popular...  3 LED taillights are a popular upgrade and have been widely publicized, but they deserve a reminder mention in this story here. Mustang Project carries LED taillight kits for just about any Mustang on the road and they are available in sequential and non-sequential styles. The LEDs are not only brighter and more visible, but LEDs illuminate faster than incandescent bulbs; meaning your brake lights come on faster and at highway speeds we’re talking a considerable difference in reaction time for the drivers behind you.  4 If you’re still using standard...  4 If you’re still using standard headlights in your classic Ford, you owe it to yourself to see what you’ve been missing, literally. We strongly encourage you to at least upgrade to a sealed glass halogen at the minimum. Better yet, you can purchase replacement lamp housings that retrofit modern halogen light capsules like new cars (shown here). Other options include HID headlamps and LED headlamps. Be sure your headlight wiring and switch are up to snuff too. Headlight relay upgrades can be installed at the same time as your new headlights.  5 Side marker lights weren’t...  5 Side marker lights weren’t federally mandated until 1968, and even then, the rear marker on the Mustang was nothing more than a reflector. Adding side marker lights, either custom or from another vehicle, is always an option during a project build. Here, we’re using 6-inch LED strips with flush-mount lenses from Mustang Project in our Generation Gap Mustang build.  6 A center high-mount stop...  6 A center high-mount stop lamp (CHMSL), or more commonly called a third brake light, is a known safety enhancement that all cars have been built with since 1986. Adding one to your classic Mustang is a good idea and can be had several ways. One simple way is a pre-made package tray with the light built in. We’ve also seen custom LED strips mounted at the top of the rear glass. For our project, we flush fit a 12-inch LED strip into the Shelby decklid for optimum visibility.  1 None of us like to think...  1 None of us like to think about it, but the more you drive your classic, the higher the chance you’ll eventually be involved in an accident. The stock Mustang gas tank simply bolts to the trunk floor with self tapping fasteners in the ’65-’70 Mustang. To effectively place it “outside” the car means creating a new trunk floor over the tank. The easiest way to accomplish this is with a bolt-in solution called Tank Armor from Antioch Mustang Stable. Tank Armor is 11-gauge steel and structurally reinforces the rear of the Mustang and protects the passenger compartment from fuel tank rupture.  2 A steel rear seat panel...  2 A steel rear seat panel is available through most Mustang vendors that will also protect the occupants from loose items in the trunk (floor jack, tools, and so on) from entering the passenger compartment. The panel can be made into a firewall of sorts by using fire retardant caulk/sealer during installation and the addition of another panel to cover the package tray area as well.  3 Ford didn’t offer a collapsible...  3 Ford didn’t offer a collapsible steering column until the late ’60s, and even those are usually a non-tilt offering when it comes to the Mustang, Falcon, Torino, Fairlane, and other intermediates. While you can swap a factory collapsible column, you have to have the correct column mounts for it, too. A great option is this laser-cut, collapsible column from Flaming River. It offers the utmost in crash protection by collapsing when needed, but offers tilt wheel functionality for ingress/egress and driving comfort. You can order the column to work with a stock Mustang wheel or an aftermarket wheel. We’re using one of these in Generation Gap as well.  4 Reinforcing the stock door...  4 Reinforcing the stock door sheetmetal is a good option if you’re doing bodywork and metal repairs to your classic. Adding thick plate steel to the door latch area will reinforce the latch and prevent tearing from the thin door shell in an accident. You can also upgrade the simple stamped door beam in the early Mustang/Ford to a more substantial round steel tube, which will help with side impact accidents more so than the stock stamped metal “bar” in the door that is often simply just glued in place.  5 Every vehicle we own has...  5 Every vehicle we own has some sort of fire suppression unit available for quick access to the driver. Consider a HalGuard unit from H3R Performance. The HalGuard product does not leave a residue or mess and will quickly extinguish electrical, fuel, or other combustible fire. Don’t put it in the trunk. The quicker you can access the unit the less fire damage you will have when the smoke clears (literally). H3R offers several mounting solutions, including surface mount and rollbar mounts (both shown here).  6 Everything you do on the...  6 Everything you do on the road goes through your tires; accelerating, braking, turning, etc. If your tires aren’t up to the task, you’re asking for trouble. Many of our cars aren’t driven daily, so you might think the tires are fine because there’s lots of tread left, but age is a big factor. If your tires are more than three years old, we strongly suggest replacing them. Lastly, if you drive in colder climates, be sure to use a true winter tire, as performance tires are not recommended below sustained temperatures of 45 degrees.  2 Another hands-free option...  2 Another hands-free option is one of today’s mobile GPS solutions. Not only do you have mapping, traffic info, and local info like restaurants and gas station locations at your fingertips, but you can Bluetooth your cell phone to the GPS for hands-free driving as well. You also have the benefit of moving the GPS from car to car.  1 While many of us consider...  1 While many of us consider a classic Mustang or Ford a haven from today’s technology and constant contact, if you feel you just can’t let go, then do yourself a favor and add Bluetooth connectivity to your ride. A simple add on kit, like the one shown here, allows simple hands-free phone use without tearing into the dash for an expensive car stereo.  3 Finally, our classics can...  3 Finally, our classics can have some pretty serious blind spots (ever try to back up a ’69 SportsRoof with rear window slats?). Adding a rearview camera system, similar to what’s in today’s cars and SUVs, is a fairly simple job.  4 You can use a small camera,...  4 You can use a small camera, mounted to the bumper, embedded in a license plate frame, or mounted in the trunk lid, to send a signal to an in-dash stereo with video input, a windshield mounted GPS-like screen, or to an updated rearview mirror assembly that puts the backup camera’s image in the corner. However you do it, you can easily prevent personal injury to those you care about as well as prevent damage to your ride.
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