Father-Son 1:1 Mustang GT Project

[Racer 1966]

Since i'm not doing a lot of r/c and probably most of us r/c guys are also car guys and a few of you guys said you wanna see it,here is my Mustang GT project thread.

How it came to be:
I have been wanting to get a project car for years,the lack there-of is why I got into r/c. The problem has been getting my wife to approve Now my son is getting older,13,and he wants to get involved with cars so he has been bugging me and my wife to get something we can work on together. Of course my wife has a harder time saying no to him so she finally caved and said we could get something but it had to be something my son likes and not just my kind of car.

I confess,I'm a craigslist addict! I search craigslist all the time and for the last few months my son and I have looked at cars,cars and more cars. The Ford Mustang is one that always seems to come up as something my son likes and although not my favorite car,it is a tolerable choice. Plus they are everywhere so parts should be reasonable and easy to find. A week before Thanksgiving I saw the add for this car - 1995 Mustand GT 5.0, Runs and drives but need some work. Lost interest and need to sell,too many other projects $1000 firm. I didn't call the day I saw it but the next day I decided I was going to. I checked back and the ad was updated. Now says - It would not start today,not sure why $1000 OBO. My first thought was they went out for a "last" ride and blew it up but I called anyways and got all the info I could on it. After digesting it all I decided to let it go.

During the next week while surfing craigslist I kept checking back on that car. i had found a couple of 5.0 engines cheap and was thinking if I could get the price down to $750 - $800,the car might still be worth having. On Black Friday the ad was still active so I decided I wanted to go look the car over in person. I called and the car was indeed still there so I arranged to go check it out. My son,brother and I drove down to Tulsa to see if it was worth having and possibly try to buy it if it was in our opinion.

Here's what we saw when we arrived(Finally some Pics!):

I messaged the guy when I was leaving Joplin and again when I was 15-20min away to let him know I was actually going to show up. But no,he waits until I drive up then comes out and says the keys are at his brother's house and his buddy is just now going to leave and go get them but it'll "only take 10 minutes". So we start checking over everything we can see from the outside. Then 45 minutes later we finally have keys. The car definitely needs some TLC but there are a lot of good things I like too. I asked about the engine and why it wouldn't start and he assured me it wasn't blown but didn't know why it would not start. I asked if I could try anyway to start it and with approval I stuck the key in and turned it. Low and behold it came to life. He did tell me the automatic trans was probably bad but it did go into gear when I shifted the lever. I could not drive it due to a flat tire and no spare. After thoroughly checking it out here's what we found:

Good:
Bottom end of engine sounded tight - no rattles/smoke
Aftermarket Cold Air Intake
BBK shorty headers
Aftermarket strut tower brace
Aftermarket suspension parts - struts,springs,sway bars
Flowmaster mufflers and off-road x-pipe
"Bullitt" rims
Aftermarket fiberglass 3 scoop hood
HID headlights
Complete Car
Clear Title
Cheap Price

Bad:
A lifter was rattling - #5 according to a mechanic
Stripped fitting on EGR tube
Big header gasket leaks
Bad transmission
Radiator way low and water only in it
Mis-matched tires - one sidewall torn
No tailpipes
Poor paint job/needs a bit of body work
Front seats ripped/torn

I saw enough potential in the the car and I know how to fix about everything it needs so I decided I was going to try to buy it. For me,I had already determined my price but after it started I wasn't sure they would negotiate much on their price. For what I wanted to give I thought the car had enough potential plus enough extra parts if I changed my mind I wouldn't have any problem recovering my investment. Time to negotiate. I hit them with all the bad items I saw then asked what his bottom dollar was. He conferred with his buddies then hit me at $800. My brain was going BINGO! that was my max price but I didn't want to show it. I always try to go as low as I can. I glanced at a couple of things on the car and looked at my brother and asked what he thought. After little head shaking and making a few faces of thought,I told them the most I would pay is $750 and we'd haul it home. He looked at his buddies again,they shook there head then told me ok if you have the cash on you. Done Deal!

Now for the adventure of getting it home. They knew a notary so the title was no problem. I wasn't sure on buying it before I came down to look it over so I didn't rent a trailer. I figured as big as Tulsa is,one of the U-haul places would have one. Wrong! All I could find was a tow dolly. So we drove across town to pick it up. Of course they ask all kinds of questions about what I'm towing and then they tell me on this car I have to remove the driveshaft. Putting it in neutral was not good enough. I did a Google search on my phone to find out that indeed the overdrive would be damaged if I did not remove the drive shaft. The trans may not be good but I don't want to make it worse if I am going to rebuild it. Great,drive back to the car with the dolly.

I figured it would be no problem to fire up the car and drive in on after fixing the flat. I had my air compressor and a lot of tools with me and tried to air up the tire. This is when I found out it was more than flat,the inner sidewall was ripped on the tire. Plan B,put the spare donut tire on. It's flat too but luckily it holds air. Changing it isn't as simple as it should be,the car has lowering springs on it so it hard to get the jack under it. With the tire finally changed,now to get the car on the dolly. Ummmm.... another problem. The lowering springs strike again. The chain anchors on the dolly stick up higher than the platform the tires will sit on so the front bumper will be damaged if we just drive up the ramps. After some thought I notice the driveway is raised up from the street so if I can back the car up on the top of the driveway then back the the dolly up to edge we can make it a level drive onto the dolly. That works well and the car is quickly on,tied down ready to go. But wait,still gotta get the driveshaft out. I thought the way it was setting on the dolly hanging out over the slope of the driveway I could get under and remove it but I was wrong. My belly is too big. My brother noticed a set of car ramps in back of the yard of the sellers who had long since left us to go to ball game. So we helped ourselves and borrowed them. There was enough room to set them on the slope of the driveway and pull the car forward onto them. Now I can get under the car no problem. I have the right wrench - fits perfect but the darn bolts are so tight I can't budge them. I ask my son for the hammer but he says it's not in the case. and my brother concurs. No hammer. So I have my son find a rock to use as a hammer and I'm able to break the bolts loose. After I finally get the shaft loose,I use a ratchet tie strap and strap it on top of the muffler. Finally,we can take the car home!

Wow,that made for a long day,we got home around 10pm. Now we have a project to play with and I can't wait to dig in on it. Sorry for such a long post,but I thought someone my get a chuckle over all the hassles. The rest of my updates should be mostly pictures,the way we all like it

 

[Nitrotrout]

Looks like a fun project, I'm looking forward to following your progress.
Are you going to keep the aftermarket stuff on it or return it to original or both?
Hows the rust situation? That can be time and budget killer sometimes, depending on the extent.

 

[SMaxxin]

Great story bro, I LOL while I pictured all of this happening! I'm glad you decided to do a build thread, I'm ready to watch it come to life.

 

[Greywolf74]

can't wait to see it get fixed up

 

[Rolex]

I'm glad to hear it all went so effortless for you.
Best of luck with the build.
Why didn't you dolly it backwards with the steering locked?

 

[MudSlinger33]

I'm thinking about a supercharged stang!

 

[Rolex]

Next week will be 15 years since I got my 5.0 HO T-Bird. It has to be one of the best American engines ever built.
It's still as flawless as it was when I got it, but then I've never pushed it over 3 grand and I do an oil change every 1500 miles.

 

[Racer 1966]

Are you going to keep the aftermarket stuff on it or return it to original or both?
Hows the rust situation?

Since my wife doesn't read this forum I can tell you the real plans for this car. My son and I are big drag racing fans so we are going to add everything we can to the car to make it faster for the next couple of years. So the after market parts will stay and whatever else I can find will be added as long as I can easily slow it down when my son is ready to drive it. How far I go will depend on my funding situation of course but right now we just want to fix all the known issues and I believe I have enough funds secured for that. The only extra thing I want to change right away is the rear end gears. I'm thinking 4:10's

There is no rust but there are some areas that need some attention on the body. I plan to replace any body panels I can since we will be doing our own body work. I have a couple of friends to help with paint but we won't be doing anything to fancy there.

Why didn't you dolly it backwards with the steering locked?

Well we thought about it but I wasn't sure how well that would work. Also,since the donut spare was flat I was worried about how long it would stay aired up.since it was a 100+ mile trip home.

I'm thinking about a supercharged stang!

I wish LOL I like the GMC/Roots style blowers but my son would want a turbo

 

[SMaxxin]

i was never a fan of turbos until I owned a car that has them. My current car has a stock 2.0 twin turbo, for a stock 4dr sedan that thing is quick!

 

[Racer 1966]

When they tore up the front tire,they did a number on the wheel too.

While cleaning out the car,we came up with around $7 is change and a hand full of tools.

For Christmas I found this tranny on craigslist,out of 95 GT and supposed to be good for $150. So I picked it up but I may rebuild it still and then swap them out. I also got the the wheel straightened out and some used wider tires on the back of the car.

While checking out the engine we found the battery cables to be loose and the terminals were damaged so we couldn't tighten them down. We cleaned/stripped the wires bought new terminals(my son wanted the $10 each gold plated ones LOL) and installed them. So far the car has started every time since. The weather has been crappy so we haven't done much else yet. But I think this made my son's Christmas:

View My Video

Then I took it out on the street and we drove around the block a few times. The trans wants to kick out of gear when first taking off but then will go. 2nd & 3rd seem fine. Of course I had to see if it was a posi too. I think that's it,you're all caught up to where we are now. Time to buy more parts!

 

[Greywolf74]

Sweet!

 

[Mike220ST]

interesting read, as a Ford guy from this side of the big pond its nice to compare. mine runs with a American 3lt V6 duratec lump. but Ford Europe fettled it from 180bhp up to 225bhp with a bit of work from me so far she is at 245bhp and by summer she will be at 280bhp and weighing 3210lbs
she will do 0-60 in 5.9sec and will top out at 160mph.
looked at a charger to take me up to 400bhp but at £2500 or $3750 fitted it would be cheaper to buy another car.
we do have a advantage over here as i run 99 octane fuel.
but the down side is our fuel cost £5.60 for british gallon or $6.72 for basic, premium is a bit more.

i also do high end paint corrections for a living so have a slight advantage on keeping it looking good.

 

[Racer 1966]

UPDATE TIME!

Anyone think I forgot about this project? LOL As mentioned above I don't have a garage to work in so I didn't get to do anything to the car over the winter. What I did do was a lot digging around on eBay and craigslist and started collecting parts for the project. I was able to stretch my funds with several good deals for parts that we need to get this beast rolling. Now we have a lot of work to get done!

As soon as we switched to daylight savings time,the weather also warmed up and immediately we started some evening work on the car. The engine was our first focus. I think I mentioned before it had leaking gaskets(headers) and EGR leaks. We also found out the radiator is shot while trying to winterize it with anti-freeze and the worst problem is a knocking noise in the top of the engine when it is decellerating. I thought it would be a collapsed lifter but it could be as simple as a loose rocker arm or bent push rod. We removed the upper intake,injectors and valve covers to find that simple was out. No loose parts and no bent parts. So deeper we go. We drained the radiator and pulled the lower intake so we can access the lifters. I can't tell by looking but experience says it has to be a lifter so I bought a full new set. With those parts removed I could see and easily reach the upper transmission bolts and the transmission does have to come out. So I decided not to put anything back together yet and this is where we stopped on the engine. I did however discover the reason for the leaks. Both sides have loose/missing header bolts and the EGR tube ends are stripped and not tight on the EGR valve. Sorry,I didn't picture anything yet on this part of the work.

Now for the biggest issue on the car,the transmission! As noted above I had bought another transmission and was told it was good/ready to install. As much work that is involved,not being able to test it before buying it and not trusting many people,using the trans as-is was out from the beginning. So we pu it on the stand and completely disassembled it.

It was immediately clear this was the right thing to do. Most of the valve body bolts were loose which meant someone had recently been in there. I also found parts to indicate a shift kit had been installed but there is no way to tell what type of kit they used. Then I found the first gear clutch pack was severely burned up. And why it burned up was obvious too. The clutch piston lip seal had a chunk pinched out of it and the chunk was under the piston. This would have created a massive pressure leak and the clutches would be slipping from the start. The previous owners tried to rebuild this and failed miserably. I'd bet they never made it out of the driveway! I had to press some of the clutches off the hub(at top in the pic).

Having so many issues with this trans I decided I was not going to build it. Last weekend we put the car up on jack stands and got the trans pulled out of it. I stripped it down to find a much better unit for building. I have been cleaning parts on breaks at work and hopefully will be building it this weekend.

Now you're basically caught up again. Things will be moving quickly now and we will diving soon! I want to make a couple of test-n-tunes at the track and then will hopefully be racing the sportsman class Memorial Day weekend. Don't expect fast times though,this model year of car is notoriously slow for a Mustang. It will be fun to see what we can do with it and I'll be able to show my son how different parts affect the power/speed of the car. And that is one of the main reasons for the project! I'm getting excited to do some more work and I'll update you again as soon an I can.

 

[SMaxxin]

Nice to see an update in this project, can't wait to see it run!

 

[Greywolf74]

can't wait for the final vid

 

[hamz9561]

Hope there is enough time at the test and tune for a little "smoke show" video. I used to help wrench on a friend's door-slammer when he'd race at Heartland Park in Topeka. It's a lot of fun even if you're "Only" wrenching...

 

[HPIguy]

Very cool!

 

[Alexander_0_1]

Man, sweet project build! A long while back I bought a similar car, well the only real differences were, the one I bought was a standard, and no tower brace.

I had plans to put the engine/trans in an 99 f-150, but decided that I'd just look for the right engine, since the stock was a romeo, or shorter 4.6, than the winsor.

 

[Racer 1966]

Time for another update!

As with everything I seem to do,it takes longer than I think and finding that extra un-planned for time is tough. Throw in a few problems and well....anyway here we go again. The build is finally complete but it wasn't without several problems and set-backs. I took a lot of pics along the way so I hope you don't mind if i share but if you do,then skip to the last pic and ta-da... the trans is done!

Over the the winter I did manage to collect all of the parts for this operation. New parts include the complete rebuild kit,a Fairbanks Trans-Action shift kit,hardened shaft and of course,the books.

Then we start with a clean case and a lot of clean parts that have to be re-used.

The first step is to build the clutch packs. Assembly of the piston in the pack without damaging the lip seals is IMO the hardest part of an automatic rebuild. Most people use feeler gauges to help but I found my old plastic medical cards were thin enough and rigid enough to do the job. Being wider than feeler gauges,to me it seemed to work better.

But right away I ran into problems with the first pack,the direct drive clutch. First the kit shorted me 1 new steel pressure plate. The trans hadn't suffered a severe failure,so I decided to just re-use one of the old steels. Then the next problem arose with this same pack,when assembled it had too much clearance. After checking it out I found the problem to be the new clutches were all .005" thinner that the old ones - times 6 clutches! It is designed in to adjust clearance by different thickness of retaining rings but by the book I already had the next to thickest one available and my tolerance was over by more than what the thickest one would make up. I could go on about how I finally fixed it but to simply,what I ended up with was using a thinner retaining ring that was in the first unit I tore apart and then taking another used steel,grinding it to the right thickness and adding it to the pack. Finally I finished the first sub-assembly with the direct clutch,output shaft and ring gear and installed the assembly in the case.

Then it was easier for as bit. Just install a bunch of parts.

The I assembled the forward clutch pack and input shaft. Then the reverse clutch pack in its drum and assembled it on the forward clutch housing. Installed that sub-assembly, then the overdrive band around the reverse drum and the last clutches,the intermediate pack.

Next is the last of the big parts,the front pump. This is where the shift kit mods started,by drilling one oil passage larger. With it built and modified I installed it in the case. Time for another problem. When I started to torque the bolts,I found 2 to be already stripped. When you pick up a bolt and see this,it's not good.

I hadn't noticed it when I disassembled this transmission. Then when applying the torque,3 more stripped.I was using a torque wrench set to a little less than finish spec too. There are only 3 ways to fix this problem, replace the case(ain't happening at this point!),repair the holes with heli-coils or tap the holes for a bigger bolt. Both of the latter 2 ways require drilling and tapping but I can drill and tap for larger bolts without any dis-assembly so that's the fix I used. The original bolts were 8mm which happens to be right about the same size as the tap drill for a 3/8 bolt. I do that that stuff all the time so this was no big deal for me. I drilled,tapped and installed new bolts. Move on!

Next was modifying the valve body for the shift kit. This involved making few holes slightly larger,changing a couple of valve components,changing a few springs then cleaning and reassembling it. Then I read about one other mod that should be done for a performance application like mine but the part is was not included for it. apparently there is a known issue with one pressure plate flexing causing pressure loss at high rpm. The fix is a replacement thicker plate. Unfortunately,that is an item not normally stocked anywhere and is special order only.
I wanted to finish this build and not wait for another part to be shipped to me. Since I had the other transmission,I figured I would try just using 2 plates by taking one from the other unit. After carefully checking,it appears there is enough clearance to do it I just need longer screws. A quick run to O-Reilly and that problem is fixed.

With the valve body done it's time for more assembly. Next up is all of the servo units. Again,here are some changes for the shift kit. A couple of completely different servos and some different springs and those parts are done.

Then we put the valve body on,add the electronics and torquing all the bolts. Then push the filter in place.

Now all the internals are installed! Next on is the pan followed by extension housing and the transmission mount. The old mount was worn out so I bought a new polyurethane mount from Energy suspension.

Finally we add the electronic sensors and wa-la....... the transmission is done!!!!

Well,there is one more part,the torque converter. For how I intend to drive,I went with a 10" converter that should stall around 3000 rpm. This converter looks small next to the stock part. Being small is good in 2 ways though,1- less rotational weight meaning less power loss from the engine and 2 - it's stronger. The stock converter is said to start ballooning at 5000 rpm and I will be getting close 6000 when it's all said and done. I will install the converter just before we hook it up to the engine.

Once again you're caught up. Hopefully I will be putting it back in really soon and of course I'll update you when it happens.

 

[DRUNKMAR1NE]

Nice mustang don't have one for my self but I do have a truck