I had a thread about buying the car somewhere. but it got cluttered up with the usual “MikeRi24 sucks at the managing money” thing, so I decided to start a new one to focus more on the build of the car.
Background: When I was about 13 or 14, a friend of mines older brother had a 1993 LX 5.0 hatch, black on black leather. It had Chrome Ponies, Mach 1 hood, and was supercharged. Ever since he had that car, I’ve always wanted it, and when he sold it, I didnt have a license, and also had no money and couldnt buy it. I’ve always wanted this car and in the spring of '07 I had a small epiphany and decided to stop blowing money on cars that I would tire of in a few months, and just buy what I have always wanted (just to clarify, I have also always wanted a black on black 4th gen WS6, but ive tried buying that car about 5 times, and it never happens, so I figured Id try the mustang this time haha). So in May '07, I began searching for a Mustang.
Finding the car: I looked on autotrader, corral, ebay and everywhere in bwtween, and basically found that it was damn near impossible to find a 90-93 black on black leather LX. So, i decided to widen my search and go for an LX that either had black interior or black exterior, and would paint/swap interiors to get what i wanted. I soon found finding any decent Fox Mustang LX 5 speed with black interior for under $4,000 was harder than I thought. I got quite discouraged, and eventually stumbled across a 1992 Mustang GT, automatic, black on Black. It had 70,000 miles, and was all original, the only modifications being GlassPacks welded into the stock exhaust, and a Mach 1 style cowl hood. It also had these horrid looking rims on it. These are the pictures I saw of the car on Corral:
A LOT of PMs and a few phone calls to the seller later, I agreed to purchase the car for the price of $2800. He lived in Lima, OH (look for Columbus on a map, and go directly west almost to the edge of the state), but we agreed to meet at a Travel Center off an Exit in Lodi. This price was without the rims, as I knew someone at my work selling a set of Pony rims and tires which i picked up for $200. On June 24, 2007 my friend and I threw the Ponies and a jack in my truck, gassed up the 'ol 8.1 2500, picked up a U-Haul trailer and set out to Ohio.
A few hours later, we were at the Lodi Travel Center, changed the rims on the car, loaded up the extra 8.8 rear end the guy had for the car, signed the title over, got some Popeye’s Chicken (not all its cracked up to be, gotta be honest), and gassed up the 2500 (again lol) and headed home. with the exception of a stop on PA to load up on fireworks, we were home a few hours later with the car.
The Project Begins:
First thing that had to be taken care of on the car were some safety and drive ability issues. The front brakes were shot, the passenger side caliper was frozen up, and the radiator leaked. So, we put some new rotors, pads and calipers on the front, and threw some stop-a-leak in the radiator for the time being (actually worked pretty good). Next, I tackled the physical appearance of the car. The red molding stripe was peeling and bubbling and I didnt like it to begin with, so some time and a heat gun took that off. I also cleaned up the car in general, which made it look a little better.
The previous owner thought he was McGeyver, and was sadly, sadly, mistaken. he tried re-painting the front bumper and the top of the rear spoiler, and failed…miserably. the car didint look very appealing (adn still doesnt) but thats ok because its getting painted anyway. We also ran some Sea Foam through it for the hell of it.
Next, I began to ponder what to do with the performance of the car, and what I wanted to do about the paint. For the time being, I cleaned up the engine bay, and added a BBK CAI, Ford Racing wires, and an MSD cap and rotor. This made a noticeable difference in how the car performed
Before:
After:
I drove the car as it was until about the middle of August, when I got the answer to my questions. My friend who had a Lincoln Mark VII with a mildly build 5.0 in it, decided to part his car out so he could get a Grand National. He offered me the engine at a price that I could not refuse.
Engine Specs
-stock 5.0 block
-GT-40P heads
-Ford Racing/Crane Cams full roller 1:7 rockers
-windage tray
-Ford Motorsport headers
-BBK off-road H-pipe
-1993 Cobra intake manifild
-Ford Racing 75mm throttle body
-March aluminum under drive pulleys
I got rid of the AC with the Ford Racing AC delete kit, and ripped out all of the emission shit (i saved the stock H-pipe with cats JUST IN CASE lol)
I also got the old AOD out of my other friend’s 5.0. It had a shift kit in it, and a B&M torque converter.
Let the deconstruction begin:
I think the pictures say it all
Reconstruction:
Before I put the new transmission in, I put a new filter and replaces all the fluid
Then it was in with all of the new parts
I also added an external transmission cooler
The Glass Packs made it kinda loud without the cats. heres a quick vid
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2036049575240002960&hl=en
