Progress Thread The Northwoods Notch

Cheapskate207

The left one hangs a little lower
Jan 12, 2020
691
506
103
Maine
Here it is. My 1990 Mustang LX coupe. While on a business trip in Phoenix i made the "mistake" of searching the local classified for foxes. I had previously owned one 2 years prior but foolishly crashed it.. young and dumb right. I have had an obsession with fox mustangs since a was a young kid so naturally, I had to have another. Anyway, I arranged to buy it and shipped in home to Maine. It had a ton of good parts, a new paint job, and most importantly IT WAS RUST FREE. People up this was claim to have "rust free" cars that needs strut towers and other rust repair. Anyways, here it is when I bought it:
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The bodywork and paintjob was ugly, it ran poorly, and it was ugly in general. It had a T5 and a rebuilt 302 mated with edelbrock heads with ARP studs, edelbrock intake, unknown cam, 1.7 crane rockers, BBK intake, 30lb injectors, BBK shorty heads, catted H pipe, and flowmasters. For brakes it had a 5 lug swap, Baer fronts with 13 inch drilled/slotted rotors and SN95 calipers in the rear. Suspension work included a QA1 kmember, BBK lowering springs, AGX struts, BBK rear control arms, and BBK SFC. I knew this would be a perfect starting point for my build.
 
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My first course of action was to get it running and driving properly. The blinkers didn't work and it idled terribly. The binker issue was a loose wire in the hazard switch and the idling issue was a long list of things. The "Surging idle checklist" helped me sort that out. I found that it had spark plugs for stock heads, not the correct Edelbrocks, numerous vacuum leaks, bad o2 sensors, and a bad coolant temp sensor. Along the way I swapped of the C&L MAF for a BBK unit. I also swapped in a offroad H pipe.
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Now that it was much better I moved onto aesthetics. I did a full paint correction, removed the interior and steam cleaned everything, fixed the ashtray door, removed the baked on, old, sunbaked arizona tint (PITA!!!) and replaced the headlights and tail lights.
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Now that it was finally looking presentable I wanted it to run to its fullest potential. I knew there was more on the table so I called Pete at Performance Dyno in NH. He installed a SCT chip and Dyno tuned it. I was happy with the numbers:
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At this point i was totally bitten by the mustang bug. I was lacking traction with the bullitt wheels and 245's but LOVED the look. I decided to get a new set of replicas. 17x10.5 rears with 315 Nitto's and 17x8 fronts (forgot tire size). LOVED the outcome:
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I went to the dragstrip that night an lost the alternator ON THE FIRST PASS. I also lost the rear axle seals on the way there. The following week Installed new axle bearings and seals and a 3g alternator.
 
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I pretty much drove the car like that for the rest of the year. That winter I got bored and decided to chase some power and install underdrive pullies, a taurus fan, alternator relocation, and delete the AC. In doing so one of the waterpump bolts broke and I had to remove the timing cover to extract it.. what a PITA!! I forgot to mention the car also has a flaming river manual rack in it. Here is pics of the engine bay cleaned up. I also removed all the emissions and vaccuum lines i did not need.
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I had enough of the ricer grant steering wheel and installed a leather wrapped Grant. I forgot to mention it had some type of aftermark front seats when I bought it. I also installed a double din DVD reveiver.
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Next I replaced the front control arm bushings with poly ones, installed SN95 balljoints, new inner TRE's, a MM bump steer kit, and sway bar links with poly bushings. This helped the handling quite a bit.
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Chasing HP, I decided to install some long tubes. I got some BBK ceramic coated ones with a summit H pipe. I also forgot to mention I deleted the EGR:
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I'll be interested to dyno it again since the efan, pullies, ac delete, and long tubes. Hopefully I'll be over 320hp/355tq.
 
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That's pretty much where the car is today. I've done a lot of other little stuff not worth mentioning; mostly cleaning and such. It's been a lot of work and I have other plans for the car. Immediately, MM adjustable rear control arms... the car has about 1/2 inch foxbody lean and it drives me nuts. Eventually I want to repaint the car the original Twilight Blue, install new seats, and supercharge the car. I'm sure I will do other stuff as well and plan on posting it all here. Here are some of my favorite pics of the car:
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not to ignore all the beauty of the car.... but I’m about to build those crib blocks for mine. How are they working out as far as stability?
 
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Nice...! I recently purchased a rust free Fox (really hard to find) and brought home to Maine. I am in the Bangor area and would love to see your car. Every year there is a cruise just for Mustangs it’s called the coastal Mustang Cruise you should check it out on facebook.
 
Nice...! I recently purchased a rust free Fox (really hard to find) and brought home to Maine. I am in the Bangor area and would love to see your car. Every year there is a cruise just for Mustangs it’s called the coastal Mustang Cruise you should check it out on facebook.


Small world! Very cool, not many foxbodies in Maine! I am down in the portland area... but always down for a cruise and to talk mustangs! Unfortunately I work weekends and haven't been able to attend the coastal cruise, though I hope to next year. I am however, a member of their facebook group. Speaking of FB groups, check out Maine Foxbodies. A local guy started it and its been growing!