1969 Mustang Prius conversion
 

Priustang... mustius... mustaprius... bridstang... Ok not quite at catchy as Firebrid but im open to ideas. Im starting my own thread so I can stop intruding on BilltheEngineer's thread about his firebird.

The mustang I used is a 1969 coupe that was a mud truck before i purchased it for 300 dollars. It was very rusty and had been chopped up to add an s-10 frame and chevy drivetrain. I dont feel bad about ruining this car.

The prius is a 2010 iv with about 95k miles when i bought it wrecked, runs and drives perfectly though.

I had this idea about a year ago and I stumbled on Bills thread after i had already started chopping my cars up. The only thing I measured was the wheelbase of the two cars - Im more of a cut first, then cut again till it fits kind of guy.

http://image.fourwheeler.com/f/53546...d-ford-mustang

Ill skip to how the car sits today and then ill make some more posts later with some of the progress from the last couple months. I took the car out on paved roads today as it is and got an average of 55 mpg with most of the driving cruising at 60mph. The car rattles like you wouldn't believe but Ill get to that later. otherwise it drove perfectly as expected.

http://ecomodder.com/forum/attachmen...p;d=1522867020

Wonderful! Subscribed.

55 MPG is fantastic for a "1969 Mustang". :D

2 questions off the top of my head:

What year is the donor Prius?

Any plans to lower it a bit? (The Prius springs, I mean. I assume the body height on the Prius platform is as low as it's gonna get.)

The prius was a 2010. My two choices are to lower it a bit to make the prius tires fit a bit better inside the fenders or maybe bump the tire size up a bit, but only if i can find a way to program the prius computer to compensate for the bigger size.

http://ecomodder.com/forum/attachmen...1&d=1522868500

http://ecomodder.com/forum/attachmen...1&d=1522868500

Pull those hubcaps off for an entirely different look!

I have the same wheels on my Corolla.

Build pics? :)

Yeah, I think you are missing some pieces of trim...

^ Don't even notice the extra body height from that angle.

I'd chop a coil or so off the Prius springs.

Larger tires may fill the wheel well better, but they'll lift the car higher too.

subscribed!

I have 3 other 1969 mustangs here at my house. between them all i have ALL the trim when it is time

Thats what i will do then. the stock mustang tire is only 1.1 inches taller than the prius tire so its not worth going to a bigger size. I will chop the springs and probably add 1 inch wheel spacers to the rear to bring the tires out flush with the fenders. I plan on keeping the Prius wheels on there to confuse people as I drive by in EV mode

Another classic hybrid! Cool.

Did you transplant the Prius guts into the Mustang body and S10 frame?

Nope - this is a similar conversion to Bill's Firebird. Check near the end of Bill's thread for the OP's photo of the Mustang body on a lift over his Prius chassis.

I'm sure we'll see more photos. I hope so, anyway.

Here is a picture of the Prius after I started removing the bolt on parts, and another picture after I went at it with a sawzall. I left the drivers seat in because the car still drove perfectly just like that. I used it all chopped up to ride a half mile to my mailbox for a couple weeks

http://ecomodder.com/forum/attachmen...1&d=1522887310

http://ecomodder.com/forum/attachmen...1&d=1522887310

Here is the 1969 mustang when i started chopping out the floors. this car was so rusty from being in the mud i gave up trying to remove any of the nuts and bolts, i just chopped everything out with the saw.

http://ecomodder.com/forum/attachmen...1&d=1522887551

http://ecomodder.com/forum/attachmen...1&d=1522887606

With the mustang body mostly chopped I used my 2 post lift to lower it down on the prius. Like i said I did not measure anything beforehand so it took multiple attempts of lowering the car and then cutting more of the prius away until it started to fit like i wanted it to.

http://ecomodder.com/forum/attachmen...1&d=1522887924

http://ecomodder.com/forum/attachmen...1&d=1522887924

http://ecomodder.com/forum/attachmen...1&d=1522887924

http://ecomodder.com/forum/attachmen...1&d=1522887997

I used the prius fuel door and welded it completely around onto the side of the mustang body, i left the latch intact so it still opens from the lever by the drivers door. I ground the welds down and sprayed some black paint to keep it from rusting. when I start the real body work ill smooth out the section with some body filler.

The second picture is the car with the front end fit up with sheet metal screws to test fitment and to decide how I am going to cover up the lower part of the prius radiator.

http://ecomodder.com/forum/attachmen...1&d=1522888238

http://ecomodder.com/forum/attachmen...1&d=1522888412

This is how the car looks today. The Fenders are bolted on correctly and the hood latch is in and secure. the back of the hood will be held down with hood pins because I cant fit hinges in there. I put a new windshield in and a used rear window from one of my parts cars. I drove it today and managed 55 mpg.

http://ecomodder.com/forum/attachmen...1&d=1522888598

Awesome! Thank you so much! :)

What remains on your to-do list for this car?

Someone discussed a project like this ten years ago and they said it could not be done (or at least that it shouldn't! :) ) https://www.stangnet.com/mustang-for...ustang.740511/

I assume the Prius a write-off. What was wrong with it? How did you come by it?

Yes the prius was a non rebuildable salvage car I picked up from an insurance auction. It was silly because there really was nothing wrong with it except for smashed fender and front bumper cover and the wiper fluid bottle. no part of the cars suspension or subframe was damaged.

My to do list includes finishing the car. In the near future ill be working on a custom front bumper cover to hide the radiator and also some kind of side skirts to hide the prius rocker panels down the sides. I will probably make a bumper something like this white car and then make fake side exhaust pipes to cover the rockers

http://www.amcarguide.com/wp-content...ks-mustang.jpg

http://www.partsformustang.net/wp-co...de-exhaust.jpg

At this rate, some day someone will tell you "Nice Prius!" :D

Even if you changed the wheels for some more period-accurate to match the Mustang's body, people would already get quite surprised to see it going on without any noise.

It will always be a prius. I only refer to it as a prius and so does everyone who has seen it in person

Love the thread. We'll need to get our two cars together someday when they are finished!

Bill the Engineer

And turn them into a Mustang-Firebird hybrid?! :eek:

:D

You could always use a loudspeaker system like they do with some modern cars that have smaller engines with turbos. They also pipe masculine muscle car sounds into the cabin, but I doubt you would care about that.

[Edit] Have you considered creating a post on PriusChat like all of the cool kids are doing? You could just announce it to them and link here if you do not feel like updating two threads. Maybe you could announce it in this thread: https://priuschat.com/threads/good-r....108087/page-2

The thread creator is acting every part a troll while everyone is responding in a nice and friendly manner--except for him replacing his Prius with a v6 Mustang. They made comments like "[I]f it's not a V8 then you bought an overpriced Focus."

Ah. Nevermind. That was closed.

Still got that badge?

Got a fancy name for it, like the Firebrid has? Priustang may be a bit too obvious, no?

Great project!

If you want to go for a performance build, you could add hub motors to the rear and power them off a dedicated battery bank in the trunk. Run them in tandem with the Prius power train.

Very interesting. I've never heard of doing that. Got a link to some kind of article I can learn more about it?

Or maybe a motor-differential assembly like the one already fitted to some Toyota and Lexus hybrid SUVs :thumbup:

I forget how I logged into Jalopnik back when I had a job. Someone is putting a GM engine into a classic VW on a Miata frame. I do not have any idea if that is crazier than this Frankenstein or the Firebrid, but since I do not know how to share this there, I thought I would mention that project here. https://jalopnik.com/this-1968-volks...ata-1825036646

Phinzor, do you mind telling us your background? Where did you learn the ways of mad science?

Cool link!!!

Agreed! That VW Type 3 on a Miata chassis story had another link to someone putting a Datsun 510 body onto a Miata, but I can't find it at the moment. The level of cutting & trimming in each project gets more and more intricate though. NOT a "simple" re-body.

One of my favorite modifications was when Mighty Car Mods put a turbocharged Subaru engine in an old VW bug. The only exterior modifications are holes drilled in the front bumper, the muffler, and widened, but stock wheels: https://www.haltech.com/dissecting-miss-daisy/

The proportions on that chassis swap work out really well! I'm impressed.

Soon?

How much did/will you recoup when you sold/sell the S-10 parts and those mudder wheels and tires?

Who started the S-10 rumour?

...

Reading attention/comprehension slipping...

I blame computers.