Progress Thread SN95 "Project Father & Son" 1994 GT

Man, I hear that loud and clear. I'm in a similar situation with work and free time and hence, dumped my project car for something else. My only comment is, what is keeping this next car from sitting for days/weeks/months while you make payments and then get jaded because you never drive it? I'm not throwing that out there to be crass, I am just curious because that seems to be the going rate for cars in that particular market.

What I didn't mention is I would be giving up my daily driver plush SUV for the GT500. Actually the wife would get the SUV. My commute is a whopping 4 miles. Some days I can start a song in my driveway and it hasn't finished while I'm parking the car at work. Also, if I really didn't want to do 8 miles a day with the GT500 then I'd buy a beater Volvo Turbo or get a beater diesel pickup (could be used for towing the car).

Since this was a Father & Son project it seems every weekend we ask ourselves, if we had a GT500 we could be at the track right now. We have Test & Tune every Wednesday and Friday nights here. If my son wanted to run a road course or Auto-X we have plenty of events around here currently. Right now we are watching this stuff on YouTube instead.
 
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I think that you have to decide whether having a completed project that you drive is more important than having something to work on in pursuit of that, or ....resign yourself to paying somebody to do the work for you.

That said, I think there are two or three types of car guys...
1. Get in it and drive.
This guy doesn't have the time, or knowledge to work on the car and doesn't want to. Or, he can do all of that, but has the sensibility to know how much he can do....this time. He wants it to run and drive. Rarely making any mod that doesn't go towards looks/comfort/reliability, all in the interest of keeping it running. Perfectly happy to have the car in the state that it came from the factory, albeit with addition creature comfort/looks improvements as mentioned above.
(This guy is Iowa Nick)
2. It'll get done..someday.
The killer of the running car. Whether its budget, time, or pure lack of effort. This guy has a car that is covered up under something in the garage. It could be boxes, or dust..this guy bit off more than he could chew, and now there's a whole mouthful of unfinished stuff that'll never get done because the thought process " if I'm doing this, I might as well do that" outweighed logic. This is the car that if not buried for 5 years gets sold off for a fraction of what's invested, usually in pieces. ( you know who you are here)
3. Well,.its done. Now what?
Speaking from experience. This is the guy that prefers the work more than the finished result. The finished result is temporary, as there's always something left to do, make better, or change. This car is also probably one that'll get sold off purely because the owner gets bored with it, or decides that it's time to stop pouring time and money into it. ( me)
4. How much did you say it was gonna cost?
This guy knows his limitations like guy #1. He may be capable, he may want to do the work, and he may have the time, but having a running car is more important than the money it costs to get it to that state. Too many life obstacles stand in the way, and being able to drive the end result on Saturday is a priority. Every thing is on the table. Performace/cosmetics/convenience/comfort. it's all just a matter of time and money. Usually at the mercy of a shop that usually takes forever to get it done. ( again, you know who you are)

I know I'm far from typical here, but I'm getting there. The " obstacle" standing in my way is how bad my knees hurt after spending a day standing on pavement, working on the car. When the lease is up on the current mindless people mover, I mightconsider selling the monster to leverage myself into a BMW super car ( M2) that I ordinarily wouldn't be able to afford.

I might.

I hear you Mike. My previous 94GT I bought brand new in 1994 and I raced it the night I purchased it for baseline numbers. My very first pass on stock Firestone 225-55-16's (Pony / Waffle Rims) was a 15.3 at 90MPH. A new bone stock Mustang GT would run what low 12's at 115MPH. Oh how times have changed, literally.

Anyway, that car didn't need repairs and every mod benefitted the car greatly. My current 94, I'm doing more repairs than actually adding parts that benefit the car. New Booster, new master cylinder, new calipers, new alternator, new starter, new battery, lots of welding, lots of painting, etc. In the end the motor is still stock and it would run 15's still.

I have to ask myself do I keep adding to this car or do I try and shut it down now before pricing out a motor, trans, etc. If I'm just talking numbers after all this the 94Gt could be in the $25K range or do I buy a GT500 in the 30K range. That's the dilemma. I'm just kicking it around, nothing set in stone. Who knows, tomorrow I could be keeping it and going all in.
 
Oh for god’s sake! Sell the old beater!

I’d be all over the GT500.

Imagine you and your son swapping out blower pullies and taking it out for a spin!

One hour of work, nobody gets tired of working on it and then you’re blasting down the road giggling like kids.
 
After a 6 month hiatus I'm back. My son was going away to College but now that the school took away his grant credit he wound up staying home for FAU.

This means we can finish what we started.

Here is the latest update on the car. I have another Episode coming soon.

We diagnosed a few problems and got them sorted. One was the car running on 7 cylinders, after spark test we found cylinder number 3 Steeda spark plug wire not working. Found a 25 year old OEM #3 plug wire and the car runs perfect. I"m going to confirm that the Steeda plug wire is the culprit before I contact them.


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGSE3M_Kicg&t=1s
 
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Cool beans, wondered where you been at.
is it me or are the two injectors that are the same color have different tips on them? One looks recessed

Yes 2 of the injectors are the same. They are the FRPP 24 Pound Injectors. The yellow tips are stock but the moron I bought them from through them inside a box with no packing. The boxed arrived destroyed with broken tips. Well they don't sell the yellow tips anymore. Had to buy aftermarket which are these blue Borg Warner. They just don't have the snap the yellow ones have. For some reason the injectors actually work. My issue wasn't fuel it was spark. All along I blamed the injectors because of how damaged they arrived.

The skinny injectors are what came with the car. They are 4.6L injectors and connect to the 94-95 wiring harness with an adaptor. All the harness clips were broken, I don't know how the car was even running. The connection between the harness injectors were pressed on but no clips holding it tight. I had to buy all new harness connectors and redo them. Everything has been a fix instead of installing parts for racing.
 
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Thought I post a funny picture.

My friend who bought me the FRPP 5300-C Springs and Sub-Frame connectors, well I gave those parts back to him. In case I sold the car I would have felt bad if I profited on parts he gifted me. He has 3 Mustang's so he could use the parts anyway.

As a joke and for the meantime when taking out the 5300 springs and putting the stock ones back in I cut 2 coils off the front. Figured who cares. Problem is I didn't cut the backs.

So here is my low rider, slammed in the front.

Hey, 1977 van with chain steering wheel called......they want their stance back.

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Untitled by jpjr50, on Flickr
 
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Hey, that looks pretty good! Now you need to get some 15x10 cragar ss and a pair of g50 supercharger tires and it's 1975 all over agin! :nice:

Yes, Cragar rims with Coker tires, Chain steering wheel, Skull shifter, curtains for the windows and some side pipes.

I'm going to cut the rear springs this week to equal it out.
 
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Ready for some old school mods. How about boxing the stock upper control arms. I think BBK still sells this style for $139.

I'll be adding this homemade upper control arms. Anyone have any stock lower control arms for a 94-95?

Here is the work. This will all be in the next Episode.

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Untitled by jpjr50, on Flickr

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Untitled by jpjr50, on Flickr

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Untitled by jpjr50, on Flickr

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Untitled by jpjr50, on Flickr

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Untitled by jpjr50, on Flickr

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Untitled by jpjr50, on Flickr
 
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We used to do full plates. A buddy of mine used to box them for everyone in the late 90s- early 2000s. Would change the bushings while we were there. That's a cheap way to help stop flex.
 
So what happened to selling? (I'm glad you didn't, BTW.)

Still on the table, just haven't made a decision.

Guess what, I cut the stock springs in the rear and now that don't fit onto the bucket. I didn't realize the stock spring sort of come to a point at the bottom. Guess I should have paid attention. I'm buying stock springs this weekend, 4th time is a charm. Car kicks my butt every day. Some are my fault like this one.

Still need stock rear lower control arms. Craigslist came up empty so I have Joseph on Facebook market place looking. He's dying to come up to your place for more Nascar stuff. I'll let you know next time I come up.
 
I got a set on a 91 vert parts car. It has springs too, guess I could have said something sooner.
good excuse for a road trip.

I appreciate your offer. It seems the 1994-1998 rear control arms differ than the Fox (a tad). Same with the 1999-2004 are a tiny change.

It's funny that most aftermarket rear lower control arms say fits 1979-2004 so I'm sure the changes are miniscule. I'm sure I'd have problems though so I'm going to get my specific year.
 
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I think that you have to decide whether having a completed project that you drive is more important than having something to work on in pursuit of that, or ....resign yourself to paying somebody to do the work for you.

That said, I think there are two or three types of car guys...
1. Get in it and drive.
This guy doesn't have the time, or knowledge to work on the car and doesn't want to. Or, he can do all of that, but has the sensibility to know how much he can do....this time. He wants it to run and drive. Rarely making any mod that doesn't go towards looks/comfort/reliability, all in the interest of keeping it running. Perfectly happy to have the car in the state that it came from the factory, albeit with addition creature comfort/looks improvements as mentioned above.
(This guy is Iowa Nick)

My 347 swap, frame rail rust fixing, 1 off front bumper creating, 5 lug swapping for better brakes, complete fresh suspension, self welded on subframe connectors, steering rack swapping, and many, many tune downloads/uploads puts me in the looks/comfort category, eh? You crotchety old coot you. I ought to drive my very (currently) uncomfortable car down there and teach you a lesson.
 
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