1995 Mustang GT - Resto Build Something Whatever

Hello! 

Over the years, I have had the pleasure of owning a variety of cars and trucks. Some projects, some daily driven, and some that never amounted to anything.  This car right here, has not been defined into any of those categories yet. Let's see what happens.

The car is a 1995 Ford Mustang GT, equipped with a 5.0 and AODE trans. The car has a 107K miles on it. Car supposedly has a B303 cam, has some sort of exhaust and wheels.  The first thing I did was of course submit the title and register the car.  No problems there. Car has peeling clear coat all over. IDK if I can sand it down or it needs a respray or what?  Dip? Wrap? Paint?

Actually first thing I did was to replace the tires, rears were shot.  Car has a square set up on it, 275/45 all around. New Federal SS 595 tires were fitted. Tag and title now done. I drove it around for a couple of days.  Couple issues. The transmission intermitently seems like it doesnt want to shift.  Needs TLC under hood. Things such as no PCV line hooked up, vac leaks, exhaust leak, etc.

I swapped the filter and transmission fluid out with new. Fluid was sorta burnt, filter was meh, and didnt see a whole lot to worry about with the pan contents. 

Performed an oil change with Motor Craft oil and filter.

Now, the car has at some point been wacked.  Right front.  Fender on that side has been painted, core support slightly tweaked and you can tell its been done because of the lack of paint on the replacement bits. 

Me being me, I pulled off the front end.  Header panel was broken, lights fit like crap and several tweaks needed doing.

So pulled it all off. Trashed it all, as I intend to replace with new or good shape like kind parts.

I decided - while I was in there - that this car needed a wire tuck.  Yeah. I have done some on Honda's before and figured whats the difference.

I relocated the ignition module to the inside of the passenger side front liner, relocated the fuse box to the driver side front inner liner. Shortened the crash bar to allow the cleaned and wrapped harness to run through the crash bar from one side to the other. Still working on the power wiring. Ordered a power distribution box to simplify, and lengthen a couple of harnesses.  Still a work in progress.

The interior was in fine shape.  Missing a passenger side kick panel (anyone have one?), seats and carpet were dirty. The driver seat works but has a lean in it where somebody leaned so much in it the bolster is done. So that got replaced with a Pro Car by Scat racing seat with the correct seat bracket. 

Carpet was cleaned out of the car, touched up in areas with carpet paint and reinstalled. 

Odometer gear failed. Fixed that, swapped it out and cleaned the cluster. 

I started this whole thing with intentions of doing a rear seat delete.  Well once in there (bear in mind the car sat for 2 years) I discovered a critter nest on/in the passenger side rear. Pulled all that out and it snowballed to pulling it ALL out. Remounted the ECM properly as it was loose.  Honestly so many little things. Broken clips fixed, wires tucked, all cleaned and bleached where needed.  Did all that before I slapped the carpet in and put it all back together.

Steering wheel was crap.  Followed a video on youtube from ChrisFix, stripped the well shot steering wheel cover off and cleaned it well.  Decided to wrap it as a short/long term fix. So I did. 

As it sits right now?  Waiting on the following to be delivered and installed.

- Radiator (was leaking slightly)
- Transmission cooler install (see above, will plumb in series with factory bit)
- Battery relocation (waiting to figure out rest of tuck and what exactly I will need)

Goals for the car?

Well. I found a localish guy with a late model Explorer 5.0 upper/lower intake setup which I will scoop and install when I get all this done and focus on cleaning/tucking the engine bits. I would like close to 300 crank hp, but short of longtubes (possible) and GT40 heads (possible) I realize thats optimistic.  I would like to at least stay ahead of minivans. Basically a cruiser that sounds good, looks good and can at least stay up to speed.  Goals down the road?  IDK. 351? Turbo? Nitrous? 

Lets see.

I have a ton of pics, these reflect the best I can of where I am. Please ask any questions, and I am open to feedback.

Chris

PS Thanks to Mazdeuce Seth for the stickers and inspiring me to post up a thread.  Thanks again. I will try to make the car worthy of the sticker lol.

Mounted up the radiator. Began plumbing the hosing for the aux transmission cooler.

in for updates

Resto build on a 95? That would mean......ah crap, I'm old. 

I look forward to you making me not hate these any more. Great work so far. 

Also, what are the chances that the grey kick panel from a 97 V6 car would be an acceptable match? I can't seem to make the whole car in my driveway go away, but maybe I can get rid of it piece by piece? 

Will the Explorer intake clear the hood? Pretty sure these got the same intake as the 91-93 5.0 Thunderbird/Cougar because the old Fox intake was too tall.

Though I've been wrong before.

mazdeuce - Seth said:

Also, what are the chances that the grey kick panel from a 97 V6 car would be an acceptable match? I can't seem to make the whole car in my driveway go away, but maybe I can get rid of it piece by piece? 

mazdeuce - Seth said:

Resto build on a 95? That would mean......ah crap, I'm old. 

I look forward to you making me not hate these any more. Great work so far. 

I said the EXACT SAME THING. 

Will said:

Will the Explorer intake clear the hood? Pretty sure these got the same intake as the 91-93 5.0 Thunderbird/Cougar because the old Fox intake was too tall.

Though I've been wrong before.

Can't remember if that's true or not, but to me it sounds like a good excuse to get a cowl hood regardless. Because cowl hoods are cool.

In reply to mazdeuce - Seth :

Actually same part. I’d be down to purchase that and a center console lid if they are in even decent shape sir. 

Chris

In reply to Will :

Yes sir. No issues. It’s a late model explorer so it’s a bolt on. Some people say the earlier explorer 5.0 stuff is better. Some say other. Either way that gent is allowing me to pull what I need for the same price. Within reason of course. 

Chris 

In reply to slowbird :

Lol. I’d rather not. I don’t need anything making the car look faster than it is. Has a cowl hood on my bolt in 00 GT. Obnoxious. I’m older now and it’s just not my cuppa. 

Chris

I think you sent me a message that my computer thinks is a terrible virus or something. Drop me a line at ttwo.elm at gmail.com and we'll figure out how to get crap from my driveway to your driveway. 

In reply to mazdeuce - Seth :

Yes sir. 

Also an update. She is back running. No issues running at all. Ran into an issue with the fittings on the radiator for the transmission cooler originally I was running it with an auxiliary cooler in series. But since the fittings got messed up I am now running the auxiliary cooler as a primary cooler I have been assured it will work fine. I will re-look at the battery at a later point but for now I just did this. Also fabricated an overflow bottle.

Also on a sidenote Seth you should really brand this sticker I’d love to buy a T-shirt or a shop flag I’m sure I would not be the only one.

Also pics of my daily for fun. 

Not running that hood or bumper support anymore. 

1997 Subaru Impreza AWD. Lifted with Forester struts and all that. 205/75 15s. EJ22 manual wagon.  No real power mods but I did put a single port UEL header on. Gives it the Subaru rumble. 

That logo is on the back of all the shirts I make. Still hoping to see one in the wild someday. 

Checked with the Mustang owner and pulled the kick panel for you. Same picture should be sitting in your inbox. 

Me, I've always liked the pushrod SN95s. 

I know, I know, I'm weird. I don't care.

Welcome to the forum. I'm looking forward to seeing this evolve.

In reply to mazdeuce - Seth :

It is yes. I replied. Where can I purchase said shirt. One of the stickers you provided is goin on my fathers 65 big block impala. 

Chris. 

In reply to Floating Doc :

Thank you kind sir. I guess I’m trying to make a GTS clone of sorts. Cept an auto. Smh. 

So little work done. Waiting on parts.  Ordered a electric cooling fan. Either the one that was in it wasnt the right year, or the thing wont fit the new rad.  I dont know. Either way waiting on that. 

I did install the ABS delete.

Why?  I hate ABS.  Used to not having it.  Better pedal feel, less weight and cleaner look IMO.  Some bad pics.

Finnishing up the brake line bleeding. While the wheels are off I'm will paint them. Probably magnesium color for the hot rod look. Also thanks to Seth for the parts. Everything fits perfect. Console lid is a slight mismatch in color but far away better than what I had. So I'm thankful. 

Thank you to all that helped me along the way and again to Seth for the parts!  
 

Also my father is helping me with some body work. Dropped off the fenders with him and he is working his magic. 
 

Little progress. Headlamps are in and waiting to be installed once fenders come back. Gonna post up how to or at least how I am gonna make some aluminum door panels. 

How it sits right now.  
 

nice! my wife has a 94 that has a vortech v1 strim on it. its a fun car. 

i dig the wrinkle paint on the intake tube

In reply to surfshibby07 :

Thank you!