MN12, The car few love.

Working a/c, though I've not actually tried to change anything as far as vents go.

I did put a golf tee in the clear line yesterday. Brake pedal still slowly goes to the floor. So either there is air in the line (would not put it past this guy), or I've got a brake leak somewhere. Pedal bleeds down until it "hits" then I have very very weak brakes.

So brief update today.

I fixed the door. 10 dollar in Dorman parts. It now swings easily and clicks shut... 

List of excuses:

1.) super busy with work.

2.) Youngest kid needs tubes in his ears ($$$)

3.) oldest dog (only 9)  refused to eat for three weeks. Lost 10% of his body weight.  Found a food he'll eat but they are telling me they want to do ultrasounds and he may have a liver/spleen tumor and may need surgery to correct... (He's my first dog so this will be hard for me, I love him but I'm more of a pragmatist that I'm not gonig to spend $4k on a dog...)

I have everything I need to buy in an amazon cart and rockauto.  ~1,000 in parts... just to get it road worthy..

 But, progress!  Hang in there and good luck with the boy and the dog both. 

Just going to put this here thanks to Duster. 

Ignore the front end, that's retarded.  But the flairs. Oh my do they actually work for the car. 

Update:

1.) still busy with work (a good thing now)

2.) Dog had liver cancer and was in last stages, we had to put him down.

3.) a/c died that weekend. 

4.) kid got the tubes, still no bills which is freaking me out. 

so yeah, going to be a while before I finish. 

You're welcome. 

I'm really sorry to hear about your dog. I hope your son feels better soon!

Hey Mad ratel 

-very sorry to hear about your dog. Pets are family too...hopefully the tubes have saved your son from lots of future ear infections.

Is that the CamaroBird formerly of the PA Craigslist? Pretty unusual and cool actually ! There's also a 57 ChevyBird nose for MN12, I like the Camaro nose better. Following this one....

In reply to Tom_Spangler :

1993 was the last year of the 5.0 pushrod motor. Along with a complete interior redo and some changes to the body/headlights, 1994/1995 V8 cars came with a crappy aluminum intake 4.6, 1996-1997 had additional styling changes (same interior, however), and a plastic intake 4.6. 

In reply to Will :

The 1999-2004 Mustang GT PBR calipers and brackets fit up front, with a touch of clearance grinding needed. Otherwise, the 1994-2004 Cobra 13" stuff works. 

Realized I sounded really callous about Dabo (our dog).  His death hit the entire family hard, the 4 year old asking where he is from time to time still brings my wife to tears.  Especially when I ask her why the house is so dusty.  Our other dog constantly searches for him in the yard, though he is finally settling down a bit.  The first two days he kept whining to go to whichever part of the house he could not get to just in case Dabo was there.  He was MY first dog and one of the best behaved dogs many people have ever met.  He just always responded and did what you wanted him to.  

Seeing everyone heading to the challenge made me do some math.

I paid $440 for the car.

it needs:

master cylinder ($57.13)

Power Booster ($125)

New front brake (pads, calipers, rotors) and hubs ($174+$50)

wheels and tires (~$400 on craigslist)

window motors (required to be included in budget? $31 each). 

Rear shocks (cobra...) 95 each. (probably some bushing that need to be replaced back there too...)

Sum: 867.84+400+180 or: $1488.  

leaving me with ~500 bucks in budget left and a car with best hopes of 215 hp and a 4 speed auto.  

eish.  

Probably worth the memories though.  right? RIGHT?

I'd love to say well for 500 I could swap in a coyote and manual, but... no that aint happening.  The manual pedal setup for these cars (from the supercharged birds) costs ~200 if you can find it.  

$500 would put a 125 shot of nitrous into it. After it goes all explody, you can do the coyote swap. 

500$ should more than cover a p.i head and intake swap 

If the 4.6 was availablein 93, what transmission choices were there?  Please tell me it bolts right up to an E40D?

My wife was driving "Fred" when we met and i subsequently asked her out while she was a passenger in it.  A bird close to the one you posted Mad.  It didn't impress me much at the time, lots of 17 to 23 yr old girl miles and it was the base-ist model I think.  A.C. and power locks and windows, that's it.  Oh, a lei and at least a months worth of shoes, clothes and college related stuffs.  I drove it once, did a weak peg leg burn out and decided I'd like a V8 5 speed.   It was a v6 right?  Did they ever come with T tops?

No t tops for the mn12.  (which was 94 to 97).  

base model was a weak v6, or the v8.  pre 94 was a 5.0 ho motor, 94 and on were a 4.6 v8.

SO I did some lkq-pick a part -sleuthing.  

I can cut the brakes down to ~$50-60 total and still do the upgrade to dual piston front brakes.  If the pads are bad I'll buy newer mustang pads.  

I also can pick up a newer 4.6 from a 2003-2004 mountaineer/explorer that's all Al instead of iron blocked, pi heads etc for ~250 dollars. Trade in my current motor as a core.  That nets me a motor originally rated at 260 hp vs the 215 my currently has and removes ~100 lbs from the nose of the car.  link to the how to: 

I'll have to do some research into converters and see if it is worth replacing the converter at the same time. (with the mountaineers?).  

I also see I can get slightly used bilsteins for the back of the car for ~75 total on ebay instead of 95 each. 

I also just need to hold out and see if I can find a set of mustang wheels with tires for cheap.  17" or greater. 

In reply to Justjim75 :

the 93 was the A0d I believe, my car has the 4r70w... SO long as you lock out OD it's a pretty decent trans.  Which reminds me that I'll probably have to do the JMOD if I keep it.  (Or switch for a manual from said LKQ for a few hundred ponies and figure out pedals later.)

LKQ charged me way more than $250 for my Explorer motor, so if you get it for that price, you've done very well.

Also, 5.0 MN12s had the AODE trans. Will also bolt to the 3.8, but not the 4.6.

In reply to Will :

Did you order one to your door (where they take it out?)

or go to the pick your part lot and get it out yourself?

listed price for "engine complete package FI" is 279+75 core.  I'll hand them my stock motor as the core. 

Random question, how do stock replacement parts count for the budget?  I.e. replacing the brake booster? 

Justjim75 said:

  It didn't impress me much at the time, lots of 17 to 23 yr old girl miles

"GO, CAR!"

"You mean these tires are bad?"

"So all these keychains are why I can take the key out while I'm driving? I don't believe it."

"So. Slow down in the rain. Got it."

Decided to put lipstick on a pig yesterday.  I figure I need to start doing those little things to move the car along while I plan what I truly want to do. 

So, rustoleum satin black paint,  some rustoleum primer high build.  

start:

Some primer:

some paint:

Can had leaked paint in storage.  I got some spots the first time.

Final look

The trim around this is rubberized so I'm concerned if I paint it that it will fall off (the paint will.)  Need to figure it out.  I'm amazed how much "de-aging" this did.  If i could find the stock color in a can I'd give that a try on the roof.  (sides are still pretty good after 21 years.)

You'll notice that i switch sides for a second in one of the picturs. I actually started on the drivers side four times yesterday.  Each time i'd get done with 600 grit and do a whoops and drag the paper through the primer or touch it.  Necessitating scraping it completely off and starting again.  It'll get finished later this week. 

Fun fact: on some MN12s, the B-pillar trim is actually a sticker. The part number is E9SZ-6320000-A9G, but it's long discontinued, of course.

Allegedly, Ford used the sticker from 89-93 and switched to paint for the B-pillar beginning in 94. But either my 94 SC or 95 LX (can't remember which at the moment) has the sticker.

If you want to go full concours restoration style, the factory paint code for the B-pillar trim is YGYA (or PPG 9741). Most touch-up paint sources have it, as Ford still uses it for various things.

Will,

I had found sources saying that, but mine was very obviously painted not a sticker.  (My Father in Law confirmed that he never peeled anything off of there when he had it from new.)   At this point I really did not care. :D

I need to filter these posts and put them on TCCOA.  

Other News, Found some Rota P2's that have both 5x bolt patterns to them.  he wants $450 and they come with not worn to death tires.  Going to wait a bit and offer him $200 for the set.  This will allow me to switch the front hubs out for mustang hubs without having to redrill my rear hubs to the new BP.  

I'll have to verify bore sizing, the wheels appear to have mustang hub bores (70.3) and the thunderbird is much much smaller than that. 

I noticed you were talking about brake upgrades and that you need a new master cylinder. Make sure you check the piston sizes on the calipers if you upgrade those. If the new calipers have larger pistons the original then the original master cylinder wont work, or i guess a more accurate description is it would work but the pedal will be super deep. Your best bet is to get your upgraded calipers from one vehicle and get a master cylinder for that same vehicle. You probably already know all this but if not i wanted to save you money and frustration.

You also mention needing a new booster. Is yours failing, or is this because you need a different one to make the swap work?