14 months later... she's back on the road

[mikestang63]

Hey gang,

Been away for several month with work, life and putting back together the 90 convert. Long story short, after 9 months of being at the "buddy's" shop where it sat, was damaged, hacked on, and lies after lies. I finally towed her home in September. I've spent the last months fixing the body and mechanical damage caused by this ******* and also needed the car retuned. ( he stole the chip and had the base timing at 30BTC) I got the panel and hood gaps as best as I can- I am no body man by a long strecth.

These are the items I had to fix and/or installed- mind you all that was needed was to replace the cowl area due to the hood coming up

• Painted under the hood in the cowl
• POR15 the frame, inner fenders, cowl, floor
• Had to retuck all the underhood wiring
• Had to redo all the ignition wiriing that he had backwards
• Installed a FOMOC TFI to replace the crappy aftermarket one he put in
• installed new hood struts as he lost the ones I bought
• rerouted all the vacuum hoses and brake lines on the cowl
• removed the wiper motor and installed a Scott Rod polished piece
• Reinstalled the fuel bpressure boost gauges lines and new Cowl pice
• New plugs cap rotor
• Redid vacuum lines as half were broken
• Replaced TV cable bushing
• Replaced all windshield weather strip, trim, moldings and windshield that he broke or lost
• Installed new
• window tint
• Replaced front speaker grilles he lost
• New dyno Tune and SCT chip- he stole my old one 441 RWHP
• replaced EEC relay that he fried
• replaced cowl to firewall weatherstrip he lost
• repainted front bumpers SEM black that were damaged
• Had to cut and buff entire car as it there was so much trash in the paint.
• Replaced both hockey stick moldings he broke
• Replaced driver rear 1/4 window motor that he broke- found a whole bunch of broken glass there which explains why there was a new 1/4 window
• Replaced the factory tach as he snapped the needle and shaft off- How in the hell did he do that
• replaced all floor mats as they were stained beyond repair
• replaced the fan controller that he fried
• Replaced the rear tail light covers he broke
• Replaced the rack and pinion with a Cardone one- it was leaking- dont' ask me how he managed to do that
• Replaced the PS pressure hose he tried to remove and it was leaking
• Installed a shift light

After 5 months got her done and took her out today for a drive

Glad to be back and hope everyone is well and your projects moving along
Bear with me as I share some pics .

 

[General karthief]

I'm afraid he would have traction problems, like in the hospital in traction type problem.

 

[General karthief]

Oh, and THAT is a spiffy red convertible, I must say!
nice job

 

[Reddevil91]

Very nice man, I just deleted my wipers as well and motor and I’m debating on just mounting the old bracket back for now or buying a 12x12 sheet of aluminum or something, trace and cut the piece and mount it so it’s sealed off. Is that a V3?

 

[mikestang63]

ty...yes V3 runnng #10 with a powerpipe

 

[Reddevil91]

ty...yes V3 runnng #10 with a powerpipe

How do you like it? I might go this direction! But I want to keep my power pipe and run a front mount cooler and just fab the piping kinda like this

 

[General karthief]

Are those lug nuts on the caster camber plates?

 

[Davedacarpainter]

Man what a pita Mike!

It’s really good to see it back together. I’m happy for you getting to cruise again.

Still one of the prettiest convertibles out there.

Welll, no more rust at least huh?

 

[02 281 GT]

Very nice! Your's was the one getting the rust repair by the cowl and windshield frame, right?

 

[Mustang5L5]

Was wondering what became of this. Glad it's back. Looks great

 

[Reddevil91]

Did you tuck all your wiring under the pinch weld on the fire wall?

 

[mikestang63]

How do you like it? I might go this direction! But I want to keep my power pipe and run a front mount cooler and just fab the piping kinda like this

love it.. no oil pan to punch and dead nuts reliabe.. kinda miss the whine from the Ole S trim back in the days though as this one is quiet due to not having the straight cut gears.. It steps up the boost quicker than the older S trims I had as well. Pretty sure the grearing is better. Just change the oil every 3ooo mles..... I have the HO unit.. It will easily handle 550-600 HP all day long. I made near 480rwhp and dialed it back to around 450rwhp to run a safer AFR.

Karthief- those are fancy shmancy strut nut covers. Yes- I have the same ones.. lol

 

[mikestang63]

Very nice! Your's was the one getting the rust repair by the cowl and windshield frame, right?

uh yeah.. that is what was supposed to be repaired.. lol MFER butchered my car while he pulled and rebuilt the engine in his car twice, repainted his car, redid the interior,, etc... He did replace the cowl but even did that half assed. After 9 months of lies and BS. I towed it home.

I CANNOT do body or paint work but I figured like with everything else NO ONE is going to treat your car like you do, so I didnt care how long it took to get it back together and fix all the damage he did.

 

[02 281 GT]

uh yeah.. that is what was supposed to be repaired.. lol MFER butchered my car while he pulled and rebuilt the engine in his car twice, repainted his car, redid the interior,, etc... He did replace the cowl but even did that half assed. After 9 months of lies and BS. I towed it home.

I CANNOT do body or paint work but I figured like with everything else NO ONE is going to treat your car like you do, so I didnt care how long it took to get it back together and fix all the damage he did.

Well, glad you got it back on the road eventually. Looks really, really good!

 

[mikestang63]

Did you tuck all your wiring under the pinch weld on the fire wall?

Yeah and the brake lines and moved the vacuum lines down as well. Had to retuck all the wires in the driver side as this is what it looked like the day I towed it home. He butchered all the wiring WHY I have no clue.
Yes that is my Cowl mounted FP gauge sitting on the master
the boost gauge was om the back seat and you can see the line laying there open
Loved how they just didnt paint the driver corner of the firewall and inside the cowl

 

[Mustang5L5]

Sue him

 

[General karthief]

Kill him
just do it nicely

 

[TOOLOW91]

Glad to see you finally got it back out looks great !

V3 step up is 3.61:1 and the v1 is 3.45:1 - Vortech finally released the heritage blower which is a v3 with the straight cut gears . It’s just as loud as my YSI .

 

[VibrantRedGT]

Who was this shop that did all this? Wondering why I hadn't seen you car on the road. I used to see you on weekends every once in awhile. I'm guessing you'll be up at Packy's soon?

 

[a91what]

Man thats one sweeet looking convertible!! glad to see you back on the road with it, I know all about the buddy deal.... I have had it go wrong on me before as well, just not to the extent that you have.