More Go Than Show - New Edge Content

[wickedsnake00]

Some pictures of the paint once it has dried. It certainly needs some wetsanding and buffing, but overall it's tough to tell it was a rattlecan job.




It looks nothing at all like the heap I limped into my driveway a couple years ago. It is well on its way to being a decent car.

The downside is yet another setback. I've got a strong suspicion that my radiator may be plugged. After the temperature rose way too high after a few pulls, despite repeated burping, a new cap and new thermostat, I found that the top of the radiator was hot, then suddenly the bottom was stone cold.

If it does turn out to be the radiator I'll be getting a new aluminum aftermarket piece, possibly with some dual pusher fans to help set the stage for the compound build.

Then it's just up to me to put the work in over the winter to take this build to a whole new level; from mild Cobra clone to balls out this means business street monster.

[02Saleen]

nice work!

[MommysLittleMonster]

Always love these "save someone else's hack job" threads.

Keep it up.

x2. It's great to see someone save a car like you are, and bring it back to life the right way. I did the same thing with my car, and my heart goes out to those who do it today.

Also, love the Don H. reference in your gauge pod.

[Chuckdee]

Good job with the paint! looking good so far.

[wickedsnake00]

Isn't it fun to be ***** by multiple communities?



Great to hear you're twin-charging it! Big love to the Termi swap, that's awesome. I'm a big blue oval fan, and having crossed two cars off the "dream car" list already [my Starion and my Shelby Lancer], the next step is a Terminator.

Definitely watching this.

Glad someone got the Don Hertzfeldt reference.

And I love the Shelby Lancers. There was a guy with one back home I was always impressed by. Turbo Mopars never got the respect they deserved, that's for sure. If I could find one I'd snap it up in a heartbeat.

That said here's a little teaser for some of the latest progress.

I sanded off some of the crappy paint I did when I got it to cover up the primer and threw some color and clear on it using rattlecans. Low budget, but I'm actually surprised how well it turned out, especially as a temporary thing.

Here's what it started as-


Here's where I started last weekend-



And here's some in-progress pictures of the sides getting a little love-



Then here's the anti-stance tank you can see in the background-


That's all rattlecan.
I finished up all the panels I sanded last night at about 9:30PM during a stressful week. I was in no mood to upload the final result. I'll get that this weekend.

Keep in mind this is with zero wetsanding or buffing yet. There's some orange peel and dry spray on it I admit, but nothing the aforementioned treatment won't make short work of.

I'm thoroughly looking forward to showing this off to my parents this weekend who had seen what a heap it was when I brought it home.

Meanwhile I've decided to put off fresh rubber till the spring since it would be foolish to put fresh tires on it, run it for a week or two, then sit in the garage. Sucks, but makes sense.

I've also started doing my homework (which is an awful lot like my job ironically) for packaging a compound setup. Short list involves CG Fabrication FF headers, fab up my own hot side with the turbine on the passenger side. It'll require new exhaust and midpipe. I'll need a remote thermostat mount and re-configuring my water hoses. I'll need to fab up and relocate the coolant reservoir, no big deal since my battery is already relocated so there's plenty of room there. I'll need a remote oil filter mount, possibly a liquid to air cooler as well.

Air side cooling will be a challenge. I've looked at another compound build for inspiration. He ran turbo out straight to the SC inlet and just went to increased intercooler liquid capacity with a bigger heat exchanger. I'd like to try and put an air to air in before that, but it will have to be pretty thin or small.

Looks like I should be able to keep pretty busy this winter.

[B Rod]

This is such an awesome build. Keep it up!

[sdosmill]

great save! can't wait to see more progress

[Daviticus]

Isn't it fun to be ***** by multiple communities?



Great to hear you're twin-charging it! Big love to the Termi swap, that's awesome. I'm a big blue oval fan, and having crossed two cars off the "dream car" list already [my Starion and my Shelby Lancer], the next step is a Terminator.

Definitely watching this.

[stance?]

Can't wait to see more progress!!

[hinrichs]

I usually dislike mustangs, but glad to see this one saved, and very curious whats going to happen with the turbo and charger

[wickedsnake00]

Well I actually made quite a bit of progress last week.

I got my CC plates in, so no more stupid camber up front!
Of course the strut towers were pretty rusted underneath, so I sanded/primed/painted/cleared them. And now they look better than 85% of the car.


I'm pretty happy with the resulting fitment, at least compared to what it used to be.


The only catch is I'm still getting some rubbing, especially on the drivers side during heavy braking and turning. I think I'll need to tuck the harness in there somehow. It's also got me apprehensive to put those new 17x9's up front with 275's. It might be too much until I get this figured out.

Other than that lots of other goodies went in. Intercooler pump wired up, wideband and boost gauge all wired up

Any Don Hertzfeldt fans? They might recognize the crudely drawn figure in the empty bezel to the left.

I even threw in my 03 Cobra interior.



Aww yeah. Lookin' good. Probably the best the interior has looked since I owned it. All the interior panels are actually in place.

While I was installing the new seats I found a couple nametags. Out of curiosity, I looked up the name on Facebook. Sure enough, it was the guy who owned the car before the guy I bought it from. According to him he took it on as a project car, and it was still an electrical clusterf*** back then. It also had Altezzas and underglow at that point.

Needless to say, this thing has come a long way, and if I do say so myself, has been saved. I got a laugh when he said he thought it was pretty quick running 8.6's in the 1/8th, and that he always dreamed of Cobra swapping it. Well buddy, dream achieved.

With all sorts of nonsense installed and the engine bay tidied up a bit, I gave it the first wash in a long time. I was pleasantly surprised with how well it actually looked, at least compared to six months ago.






And of course, a sight I like to think will cause most people's blood to run cold when they spot it in their rear view mirror-


With all that accomplished I took it for a good romp, this time venturing to 11psi and 3k RPM. I did a few quick 1st-3rd pulls and she definitely moves out. It has no problem pinning you to the seats even if you don't have the pedal pinned to the floor. Exhaust sounds good too.

What really shocked me was how quick the torque comes on. After making a gentle turn while still rolling I decided to goose the throttle a little. I figured it would chirp the tires and then take off.

NOPE.

What I got instead was a 100ft rolling burnout before I let out. I think it's safe to say I'm going to need those 10.5" wheels out back, because these 245's are no match for this engine.


Now some would be happy with that kind of neck snapping performance.

In my best Billy Mays-

But Wait!!! There's More!!!

I picked up this little gem this week for stage II of the build, likely over the winter and spring.




I'm thinking compound boost, with this HX50 feeding the M112 Eaton for a torque curve fatter than the state of Mississippi. Should let me break 700, which is about all I'll ask since that will be at the max of my current fuel system. The drivetrain and engine should have no problem up to 850 and beyond.

Looking forward I'm going to try and improve the paint a little and get some fresh rubber for the tires. I've also got a few spots picked out for some photoshoots in the near future, and maybe some obligatory acceleration videos.

[Chuckdee]

Love these type of "saving/restoring car" threads, glad to see you've accepted the challenge. Keep up the good work!

[C-Hutch]

Keep up the good work. Looks kinda rough but I bet it's fast as hell now!

[wickedsnake00]

Always love these "save someone else's hack job" threads.

Keep it up.

Big fan of your build, so I will definitely take that as a compliment.

**** those cars, but glad you accepted the challenge! Oh and put OEM cobra headlights on it!

Doesn't everyone **** these cars though? I know I'm ***** by the Honda community, the Camaro community, the BMW community, pretty much every import, and even the Cobra community.

Those projector headlights are definitely going in the trash at some point. They're some lousy Chinese made ones. The connectors are poorly made, they used to be heavily oxidized until I buffed them out, but there's actually small fissures INSIDE the lens. Garbage. But since they work they're low on the priority list, especially with the list of mechanical work I have, including the flat tire and blown heater core I discovered this week.

Get some new head lights, those are terrible.
otherwise, it looks great!

They're on the list. I'd like to go with some smoked or black housing OEM style ultimately.


I'll continue the updates as I make progress. This week should be mostly mechanical/electrical work to at least get it running properly, which is anything but noteworthy/interesting. If all goes well I might at least get to play around with dialing in the front wheels this weekend.

[milano_red]

Good work so far! I wish I had the time to take on a big project such as this