Foxette - Foxbody and C5 Corvette Mashup

Been lurking on the forum for a while now and I have finally decided to begin posting on the build I've been doing.

I felt that this was the best forum to post to for help and feedback.

It's a 1993 Ford Mustang, originally a 2.3 auto and the car I drove in highschool.

The donor car was a 2002 Corvette that was hit in the passenger door pretty hard. Picked up in North Carolina in February. 

The more and more I looked over my Fox, the more and more I wasn't happy with the fox platform and the abundance of Foxbodies that exist now with a Maximum Motorsports bolt-on kits. Decided C5s were cheap enough and I liked the suspension so why not change it up?

This is excellent!  While my brief experience with Maximum Motorsports stuff was very good (bought a Fox-stang for engine/trans only years ago, but chassis was all new with MM stuff), the Corvette goods will definitely be the supreme improvement.  Through experience, I found that the OEMs do performance engineering a bit better than most of the aftermarket types, plus parts wind up being far easier to source (and cheaper) when they break.  Your major issue will probably lie in dealing with the five-ish-inch wheelbase difference, but it can be hacked.  Looking forward to massive updating!

Agreed that GRM has become one of the premiere places  on the internet to place build threads. Big part of that is the non-denominational  nature of the hive.  

You did not say explicitly: Are you doing a full chassis swap or just the suspension and drivetrain?

I won't post all of my tear down pics, but here's some from both cars.

The goal is to keep as much of the Corvette chassis as possible.

Inner frame rail to inner frame rail on the Vette is around 53". The Fox's rocker to rocker is also around 53", but the Vette's frame rail is 6" tall and 4" wide! 

Narrowing the frame and making a cradle for the Fox to mount to is what I'm working on now.

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In reply to NOHOME :

I'm attempting to do the full chassis and drivetrain.

In reply to rustomatic :

Agreed, I'm a big fan of Optima Streetcar Challenge and alot of the top cars are C5s. So it seems to be pretty bulletproof. I'm not too worried about the wheelbase, I planned to hack-it in the front fenders and line up the rear with the wheel wells.

This is awesome.  I am anxious to follow along.  I've never seen a C5 chassis cut down that far.  I knew from the pictures of cutaways and such that it was basically a hydroformed frame built into the unibody but seeing yours really reinforces that.

People underestimate how adding a bit of wheelbase can really add to drivability (especially in anger)--the C5 was the greatest example of this coming from the C4.  The C5 added nine inches, and everyone raved about how amazingly different it was . . .

F1 cars are literally like pickup trucks in length, so a Fox-thang will definitely benefit from a few more inches between the wheels.

It will be interesting to see how you connect the frame to the rockers--it is one of the bigger challenges, at least until you get to the firewall phase . . .

On a final note, there's a really good integration of a C5 into a '69 Camaro on Lateral G/Pro-touring.com.

This is lovely.

I'm absolutely here for this 

I have feelings about this. Carry on fine sir!

Welcome aboard! You came to the right place! 
 

This is going to be great. 

I vote fox in a box (flares, that is) over full-width C5 chassis.

In reply to rustomatic :

Mating the frame to the rockers is what has me scratching my head at the moment. I feel like I'd be alot further along if I had a solid plan to do it. I did come across that Camaro and it gave me a few ideas.

Part of me wants to make it so the body is removable to have a vettekart or incase of a wreck or damage, but at that point, what's left anyway?

I could just weld the two together and let future me deal with it if I want to separate them.

rpbritt said:

I could just weld the two together and let future me deal with it if I want to separate them.

This is the correct answer.

Cool project!

Ohhhhh!  Cool!

Isn't the C5 frame aluminum?  Guess not.  Steel makes it easy-ish.  What I did with my C4 was cut the frame into thirds (punctuating either end with a cross-beam), and make a rec-tube middle that located itself nicely near the rockers.  After that, you weld the two together, then spend a couple of months in sheetmetal heaven (or the opposite).  The torque tube will probably make maintaining your distance easier.  If I could post a picture . . .

Nobody ever un-bolts the body that is "easily removeable."

In reply to rustomatic :

Yep, the base C5 is steel, I do believe that the Z06s were aluminum or that may be the case for the C6 Z06s.

I will be keeping the support in the middle and the transmission tunnel, so that will be helpful. Plans were to use rect tube and tie back into the frame rails and cope it all to fit.

I also had the idea of squaring everything off and tying into the transmission tunnel.

In reply to rpbritt :

Inner frame rail to inner frame rail on the Vette is around 53". The Fox's rocker to rocker is also around 53", but the Vette's frame rail is 6" tall and 4" wide! 

Not real clear on what you are calling "Rocker to rocker" on the Fox body? 

Consider slicing the entire section of the Fox off below the door level from wheelwell to wheelwell.

Then give the Vette chassis a 2" haircut on top.

You should then be able to drop the Fox body on top of the Vette frame with the vette frame now doing the structural job of the Fox's original sill structure. Bonus is that the Vette will be much stronger. Some of the Vette frame might intrude inside, that should not be an issue. Some might extend past the door plane; up to you to sculp that muffin top into either an aero kit look or whittle it down so it can be covered with original tin to disguise the vette frame. 

In reply to NOHOME :

By rocker to rocker, I meant pinch weld to pinch weld. The inside area of the body just below the door is just about 53". I'd like to get rid of the pinch weld to make the car that much lower even though it's only like an inch

The reasons you stated are exactly why I am using the c-5/6 front suspension in my car. I also understand the effort to drop the body over the frame. Have a look at my build and see what may help you.

No idea how your gonna make this work. But I'm here with some popcorn 

Not that exciting of an update. Had a busy week so today's pretty much been the only day I got to work in the garage. 

I FINALLY got rid of all the fiberglass on the Vette chassis. Last bit was around the transmission tunnel where the firewall mounted. That glue is something else!

Also just cut the firewall out of the Fox. I'm either going to clean up the cut areas or cut the rest of the floor out now.

Great project!  Watching with interest...