So Excited, I'm Welcoming a New Family Membery. She's red

[hotstang_46]

So real brief story. My wife's bmw vert was hit by a 90 year old man in a rental car. It's totaled. She at first resisted but I finally was able to talk her into a mustang convertible to replace it, as it is more practical than the z3 she previously drove.

So I began searching. I'm perpetually stuck in the 90's when I look at cars because that's when I was in HighSchool eyeballing all those fine ride's like the rx7's and stangs. Now that I finally have money for those cars those seem to be all I admire (I'm 31 right now)So, I set out to find 94-98 low mileage vert.

I found a 98 red (not sure which red it is) GT convertible. 1 Owner car. It was purchased originally by an older woman in Ohio and literally used for Sunday driving only. She became too old to drive and gave it to her daughter who was grown up as well and just didn't use the car or anything other than sunday drives too. The car only has 11k miles. I sent my parents from IL to look at it (I'm in CA) and my dad says it's unreal, even bolt heads and whatnot on the undercarriage don't even show any rust. He simply said it's the finest used car he's ever seen. It is bone stock without even as much as exhaust, and I intend to leave it that way. I can't wait for this thing to get out to CA. When it doesn't I'm going to probably clear bra, light tint windows, then lay down a ton of wax and paint care products.

Sorry to start a post like this without a ton of pics but I'm just sooo excited.

 

[N8Dogg98]

Incredible find man!! That car needs springs and 18" staggered wheels.

 

[joshjwc9]

Paint code is Rio Red. And yes. Grab some UPR Pro springs, tint, shorty antenna and a stereo and you got one helluva DD for Cali..

 

[hotstang_46]

ummm mods are a big no, you guys see what I would do if it were my car, see my sig below.

With springs, I'd give the car a week until she scraped something. She does not understand the concept of angling the car to avoid scrapes, among other things. So factory ride height it will stay. Factory wheels too. It's the way she wants it and I'm fine with it. I'm just happy to be adding another stang as fine as thins one to the garage. Plus the hotness factory of a girl driving a V8 stang...... I had always hoped this day would come...lol I've shown her the light..

 

[N8Dogg98]

ummm mods are a big no, you guys see what I would do if it were my car, see my sig below.


With springs, I'd give the car a week until she scraped something. She does not understand the concept of angling the car to avoid scrapes, among other things. So factory ride height it will stay. Factory wheels too. It's the way she wants it and I'm fine with it. I'm just happy to be adding another stang as fine as thins one to the garage. Plus the hotness factory of a girl driving a V8 stang...... I had always hoped this day would come...lol I've shown her the light..

I have the eibach pro-kit w/o front isolators and I never scrape despite having low hanging exhaust (had Magnaflow catted x-pipe that was very low and now switched back to MAC o/r h-pipe) Speedbumps, steep driveways, parking ramps, etc.. never gave me any trouble. In MN have awful roads that get f**ked up every winter with the freeze thaw cycle.

I'll add that I didn't notice the ride quality being much different when I switched to the pro-kit. If anything the car felt tighter and more controlled over bumps AND turns.

Those stock wheels are one of the better sets of stock wheels to ever have come on a GT. Here are a couple pics with the same wheels your wife has, but with my car lowered and 1" spacers on the rears...

 

[hotstang_46]

I have the eibach pro-kit w/o front isolators and I never scrape despite having low hanging exhaust (had Magnaflow catted x-pipe that was very low and now switched back to MAC o/r h-pipe) Speedbumps, steep driveways, parking ramps, etc.. never gave me any trouble. In MN have awful roads that get f**ked up every winter with the freeze thaw cycle.

I'll add that I didn't notice the ride quality being much different when I switched to the pro-kit. If anything the car felt tighter and more controlled over bumps AND turns.





Those stock wheels are one of the better sets of stock wheels to ever have come on a GT. Here are a couple pics with the same wheels your wife has, but with my car lowered and 1" spacers on the rears...

I'm happy you added those pictures. It just adds conviction for me that those stock wheels look great. They do look real nice, and besides she likes them so they will stay. I'm also happy you put up that little tid bit about the spacers. That thought had crossed my mind immdiately when I saw them sitting so far in (when stock). I have already been looking at hubcentric spacers for the rear but had no idea what size.

So question. If you had it to do over again would you choose the 1in again? It looks perfect in the pic but thought I'd ask. PS, you still have the spacers?

 

[Kornnut]

I would rather have the z3. To me it is a huge step down. Still a nice car and example of a survivor.

 

[hotstang_46]

I would rather have the z3. To me it is a huge step down. Still a nice car and example of a survivor.

I can understand your point of view. Her z3 was real nice. I did it up right with so much stuff and it was a super car I built for us to keep forever. I lost a ton of money on this car from all the mods and I'm actually getting screwed pretty hard in that respect from the insurance co but that's a story for another time.

But.....long story short we moved to the beach 1 year ago. I lost a 3 1/2 car garage and and a huge driveway for a 2 car garage, no driveway, and my enclosed car hauler 15 miles away in storage. I sold my navigator, my vette, my hummer h2, my zx10. It's was a worthwhile tradeoff to live on the beach but I now only have 2 cars and her z3 was our primary driver. My stang with mods below sits under a cover for cruises on the weekend. We weren't living here when we got the z3 and it was practical at the time. But with the stang we pick up rear seats (used in a pinch) and more importantly trunk space. When we go to costco with z3 we come home with the top down and all sorts of stuff like 50 rolls of toilet paper sitting on her lap.

The stang will be a much better vehicle for us and I'm glad she allowed me to find this car for her.

Here is a few pics of her z3, posted them before i think but I was real proud of this car and literally spent 100's of hours fabbing things for this car, sound deadening it, etc. May she rest in peace

I'm very proud of that plexiglass you see in this pic. It took me so many hours and different bits in my router to try to figure out how to cut those things to fit in there. But man did it make a difference in wind inside. It's actually my primaty concer with this new car. I don't really see any wind buffeting tools. I will have to do something or my wife will complain it's too cold even in the middle of the summer. lol

 

[fiveohwblow]

I can understand your point of view. Her z3 was real nice. I did it up right with so much stuff and it was a super car I built for us to keep forever. I lost a ton of money on this car from all the mods and I'm actually getting screwed pretty hard in that respect from the insurance co but that's a story for another time.

But.....long story short we moved to the beach 1 year ago. I lost a 3 1/2 car garage and and a huge driveway for a 2 car garage, no driveway, and my enclosed car hauler 15 miles away in storage. I sold my navigator, my vette, my hummer h2, my zx10. It's was a worthwhile tradeoff to live on the beach but I now only have 2 cars and her z3 was our primary driver. My stang with mods below sits under a cover for cruises on the weekend. We weren't living here when we got the z3 and it was practical at the time. But with the stang we pick up rear seats (used in a pinch) and more importantly trunk space. When we go to costco with z3 we come home with the top down and all sorts of stuff like 50 rolls of toilet paper sitting on her lap.

The stang will be a much better vehicle for us and I'm glad she allowed me to find this car for her.

Here is a few pics of her z3, posted them before i think but I was real proud of this car and literally spent 100's of hours fabbing things for this car, sound deadening it, etc. May she rest in peace

I'm very proud of that plexiglass you see in this pic. It took me so many hours and different bits in my router to try to figure out how to cut those things to fit in there. But man did it make a difference in wind inside. It's actually my primaty concer with this new car. I don't really see any wind buffeting tools. I will have to do something or my wife will complain it's too cold even in the middle of the summer. lol

VERY clean AW z3. Love me some bimmers. You migrated from Oregon to so cal I assume?

 

[Kornnut]

The Z was nice. My wife just got a e90 and I love it. The vert you're getting is a great looking car as well. Are you planing on adding any sound deading to the 98? I would think there is a big difference between the z and the gt.

 

[72 fastback]

That's one clean gt right there.

 

[N8Dogg98]

So question. If you had it to do over again would you choose the 1in again? It looks perfect in the pic but thought I'd ask. PS, you still have the spacers?

The spacers on my car were 1.25" actually and I thought they were perfect. They were cheap too, somewhere around $150 on StangSuspension.com. I still have my old ones, but I use my stock wheels for auto crossing so I'd prefer to keep my spacers.

Here are a couple more pics (front end still has the spring isolators that's why it looks high here)

 

[SteedaGT9150]

A light bar is a must for sn95 converts, IMHO it makes them look 100x better

Great pick up though

 

[hotstang_46]

The spacers on my car were 1.25" actually and I thought they were perfect. They were cheap too, somewhere around $150 on StangSuspension.com. I still have my old ones, but I use my stock wheels for auto crossing so I'd prefer to keep my spacers.

Here are a couple more pics (front end still has the spring isolators that's why it looks high here)

I do think where your tire sits in relationship to the quarter panel surface is much much better than stock, and I think that is one of the few things I'm going to do. Thank you for posting the pics. I just saw a car with these wheels on it yesterday and man were they tucked in. It almost looked like a v6 from the back.

To the other person that asked yes I am going to do sound deadening. It's just so easy and makes such a huge difference. I don't want to take apart too much so I will do the doors, trunk, trunk lid, and remove the rear seats to do the surfaces under them. I'm not going to strip the interior.

 

[AZmustang98]

Are the stock GT rims 17x7s?

 

[N8Dogg98]

Are the stock GT rims 17x7s?

The wheels in the pics above (OP's red vert and my car) are 17x8

 

[AZmustang98]

The wheels in the pics above (OP's red vert and my car) are 17x8

Gotcha. Thanks.

 

[puma1552]

Damn, that Rio Red is hot...gorgeous car...mind asking what you paid?

For how many Rio Red ones were built, it seems like you almost never see any for sale, let alone any that are cherry and not faded. I wanted Rio Red, black, or yellow, and wound up with black.

 

[hotstang_46]

Paid 10.5k I personally think it's a steal no matter what stupid KBB says.....lol My parents in Chicago picked up the car today from the woman in Ohio and drove it back to chicago. She had all books, keys, remotes, original window sticker, and even the toneau cover which she said was not put on the car a single time. I'm very excited to get this car out to CA in the next few weeks.

 

[hotstang_46]

I thought I'd share a few more pics my parents took for me. The car is now at their house in Chicago. I'm flying out the 28th to visit and then drive her to her new home here in CA. I'm excited to see what kind of gas mileage I can coax out of her on the highway.

Also, I love these wheels and want to keep them stock. I may widen them to 10.5 or 11 but for now I'm going to just do a spacer. You guys with the 96-98 think I should have a 1.5in spacer made? Is that about right?