http://forums.corral.net/forums/blogs/ Ford Mustang : The Corral is the oldest and best known Ford Mustang website on the internet! Meet new friends, get excellent technical advice. en Wed, 19 Jun 2013 08:06:22 GMT vBulletin 60 http://forums.corral.net/forums/images/misc/rss.jpg http://forums.corral.net/forums/blogs/ http://forums.corral.net/forums/blogs/that89gtguy/293-4-months-later-2012-mustang-v6pp-vs-1989-mustang-gt.html Tue, 19 Jun 2012 20:02:25 GMT So, here we are a few months later after getting the 2012 V6. Now that it's warmed up, the autocross season has started, and I've had a chance to wring it out a bit, I've got some more tid bits to add to my previous entry regarding this car, and how it stacks up against my old 1989 Mustang GT. Lets try to organize this a bit...

Everyday driving: In this area, the 2012 accels. The car is quite, it's ride is smooth... ish, and the fuel economy is great. In comparison the old 1989 was loud, rough, and pretty meh in fuel economy. While the old '89 had an awesome voice when you stepped on it, it droned like all hell when you where just trying to get somewhere. Speeds over 65mph would also cause a terrible resonant frequency that was just insufferable for long (2+ hour) drives. The new '12 car however is nice and quiet though. You hear the music and a touch of road noise to let you know you're still moving, and that's about it.

The fuel economy is nice too in the 2012. 27mpg is my average so far. Even on race days. It's great. The old '89 got 17 average. The highest I got was 27mpg in the '89 though, so it could do well if needed. Sadly, I have not had such a long tank in the 2012 yet, so no idea if I can top of the '89 yet. One thing I still do miss though is the hatchback of the '89. The trunk on the 2012 is basically useless for big things. It's not that the trunk is too small, it's that the opening is puny. The 1989's hatch was amazing. Could take a set of 16'' rims with tires on them, a cart of tools, 2 jacks, 2 stands, 2 peoples worth of luggage for an overnight, and 2 people with room to spare for some snacks. Good stuff.

Autocross: In this area, there is no competition at all. 2012 all the way. There are a lot of details to go over on that though...

In terms of power, the 1989 was nice since it had power everywhere all day. 2nd gear was king of the universe as far as autocross went. The 2012 has good power too, but 2nd gear doesn't have quite as much to give. I believe it mostly comes down to the fact the 2012 likes to rev more, and has a chunk less torque. Once it gets spinning, the 2012 has at least as much power as my 1989 did.

In terms of handling, the 2012 has the 1989 beat 6 ways to sunday. The stickyish summer tires, the better suspension design in the front, and the waaaay better suspension design in the back really help it carve well. In D stock, I am far more competitive (which has been nice since I don't think anyone took me seriously before since the car was so slow :king:), and I am able to keep up with Impreza WRX's now, which is great. Fastest car ever? Not even close, but it leaves the 1989 in the dust. That said, I was SO, SOOOO close to having a great setup in the 1989, and I feel as if it could have been better then the 2012 if I had been able to get my setup completed before finding the rust in the frame. Ahh well. What the 1989 was better at though was visibility. I could see anything thanks to the thin A pillars and expansive greenhouse. The 2012 is a pillbox in comparison, and is hard enough to see out of to cause issues even when driving straight (those cones are mighty small when you're close to them).

Other stuff: One thing I miss about the 1989 was working on it. I'm one of those strange people that likes to get completely pissed at something working on it, and when I get it put together it gives me a felling of total accomplishment. I don't get that with the 2012. Sure, the 2012 is reliable, good on gas, and very quick, but I miss having a project car. That's not the 2012's fault though. That and I miss the fact I could have crashed the 1989 and not really cared, but now I cannot HPDE with the 2012 for fear of a crash destroying the car I just bought.

A few other minor points would be the steering. The 1989 had over-assisted steering, but it felt more natural then the 2012. I have the 2012 set for stiff steering, but it's not the same. The 2012's always on traction control is also stupid. I almost always forget to turn it off until just before the autocross run. Annoying. The back seat in the 2012 is also slightly worse then the 1989. There is about the same leg room, but the head room in the 1989 was better because of the taller, less curved roof.

Overall, I would say each car has it's merit. I miss the 1989 as a fun project car to race with, but I love the 2012 as a car I can drive to a race, do well, drive home in the AC, and get 27mpg with nothing breaking. Give and take I suppose. ]]> That89GTGuy http://forums.corral.net/forums/blogs/that89gtguy/293-4-months-later-2012-mustang-v6pp-vs-1989-mustang-gt.html http://forums.corral.net/forums/blogs/yellow-bumble-bee/287-yellow-bumble-bee.html Thu, 07 Jun 2012 17:42:58 GMT -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I have a 2003 Ford Gt Mustang 4.6 v-8 engine and the service engine light is on and I had it put on a computer and it read the back passenger side oxygen sensor is bad...it has 4 oxygen sensors..so i switched to 2... --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I have a 2003 Ford Gt Mustang 4.6 v-8 engine and the service engine light is on and I had it put on a computer and it read the back passenger side oxygen sensor is bad...it has 4 oxygen sensors..so i switched to 2 back oxygen sensors and had it checked again and it read the front passenger side one was bad so.I switched to 2 back ones back and bought a new one and put it on and it read the new one was bad..so I called 2 diffrent garages and both said it is probley the cataltytic converter..so I put a new one on it but I put the old oxygen sensor back on it..the owners manual said to run 87 octane gas in it andthe man I bought it off of put about 14,ooo miles on it and ran 93 octane in it .you think it might have done somthing to the car to make the light stay on the car runs good and gets good gas mileage. ]]> Yellow Bumble Bee http://forums.corral.net/forums/blogs/yellow-bumble-bee/287-yellow-bumble-bee.html http://forums.corral.net/forums/blogs/yellow-bumble-bee/286-yellow-bumble-bee.html Wed, 06 Jun 2012 16:57:28 GMT I have a 2003 Ford Gt Mustang 4.6 v-8 engine and the service engine light is on and I had it put on a computer and it read the back passenger side oxygen sensor is bad...it has 4 oxygen sensors..so i switched to 2 back oxygen sensors and had it checked again and it read the front passenger side one... I have a 2003 Ford Gt Mustang 4.6 v-8 engine and the service engine light is on and I had it put on a computer and it read the back passenger side oxygen sensor is bad...it has 4 oxygen sensors..so i switched to 2 back oxygen sensors and had it checked again and it read the front passenger side one was bad so.I switched to 2 back ones back and bought a new one and put it on and it read the new one was bad..so I called 2 diffrent garages and both said it is probley the cataltytic converter..so I put a new one on it but I put the old oxygen sensor back on it..the owners manual said to run 87 octane gas in it andthe man I bought it off of put about 14,ooo miles on it and ran 93 octane in it .you think it might have done somthing to the car to make the light stay on the car runs good and gets good gas mileage. ]]> Yellow Bumble Bee http://forums.corral.net/forums/blogs/yellow-bumble-bee/286-yellow-bumble-bee.html http://forums.corral.net/forums/blogs/that89gtguy/259-comparison-1989-mustang-gt-2012-mustang-v6.html Mon, 13 Feb 2012 07:09:20 GMT So, due to car issues and possible job stuff, I recently had some interest in buying a car. And I did buy a car! Being an old car nut though, it was a bit of a change. For poos and giggles, here are a few differences between them: Power: The 89 GT I have has been bored and stroked, and there was... So, due to car issues and possible job stuff, I recently had some interest in buying a car. And I did buy a car! Being an old car nut though, it was a bit of a change. For poos and giggles, here are a few differences between them:

Power: The 89 GT I have has been bored and stroked, and there was some exhaust work, but nothing crazy. Also was using stock gearing with a 5spd. The old car had pretty good power at about any RPM. It did not really need to rev much to get some power. The new car needs a noticeably higher RPM to get some power going. However, once you let it start to spin a bit, it's got tons of power. It's basically the same amount of power as the 89. The sound of the 89 is a lot better though. Both cars reach high speeds pretty fast, the 89 at this point has no speed limited due to a tune though. The 2012 still has the factory limiter on it.

Handling: I have not been able to take the 2012 Autocrossing or anything yet, but basicly impressions from driving it around the street seems to show promise. It feels like it is barely trying even at decent speeds. Now, the summer tires are unable to get very warm, so it slides kind of easy, but I'm liking it. However, the steering is not as nice as my Focus, and is not as "natural" feeling at the 89 GT. I've heard that about electronic power steering, and the Mustang is supposed to be better than some systems out there, but it's just something I've noticed. The extra weight and size of the 2012 is also very noticable. The light weight of the 89 GT is something I will miss. The 89 GT was easier to put where you wanted it too. Ahh well.

Comfort: The 2012 has the 89 beat 6 ways to sunday. It's just crazy. The space in the 2012 is much larger and considering how much larger the car is, I suppose that makes sense. It's still pretty drastic though. The 89 GT has much more utilitarian space though. With the hatch and fold down rear seat, you could fit an elephant back there! It was seriously cavernous. The 2012 does not seem quite so spacious in the same sense. The rear seat is basicly not better that the 89 GT either. The ride is a great deal better, but rubber bushings versus poly and solid busing is not a fair comparison.

The 2012 is awesome. I cannot wait for the break in period to be over and the autocross season to start. It's going to be awesome! The 89 GT still has a lot to be desired though. It seems more "no more than it needs to be", and that it something that I really like. The extra comfort is good though. We shall see... ]]> That89GTGuy http://forums.corral.net/forums/blogs/that89gtguy/259-comparison-1989-mustang-gt-2012-mustang-v6.html http://forums.corral.net/forums/blogs/that89gtguy/257-old-stuff-svo-93-cobra-brake-upgrade-notes-part-1.html Fri, 03 Feb 2012 23:46:47 GMT So, for the sake of getting it written down before I forget, I feel like talking about doing the SVO brake upgrades on my car that I tried in spring 2011. I know there are a lot of useful sites out there, but I feel like maybe I can throw a few things out there via this blog thingy that might help... So, for the sake of getting it written down before I forget, I feel like talking about doing the SVO brake upgrades on my car that I tried in spring 2011. I know there are a lot of useful sites out there, but I feel like maybe I can throw a few things out there via this blog thingy that might help someone with some frustration later down the line.

Ever since I got the 89 GT, I had a feeling the brakes where pretty bad. I tried a few things to make them better like stainless steel brake lines all throughout the car, the Maximum Motorsports "stock" brake upgrade kit, rebuilding the rear drums, high temp brake fluid, usual kind of stuff. The Maximum kit helped stopping distances a bit I would say, but brake fade was still pretty bad, and at least in my car, the distances where not very good (probably my poor mans tires, but still) overall, but the brake fade was really what I was after to fix.

I had read about the 1994 Cobra disk setup with the 13'' duel piston fronts and 11 point something rears, and for about 2 or so years I had planned on getting some of those. Around the time I could finally afford them and felt like everything else was in order, they discontinued them. Everywhere else that carried them still wanted a bazzilion bucks for the kit. I opted out. I looked around on the web, and compiled a list of components that I could use. Here's a quick and dirty idea of what I found would work:

SVO style front brakes: The piston is a good deal bigger, and my calipers where origionals anyways, so that had to be an improvement anyways. They where compatable with the rotor size I already had too which was nice. There, IIRC, where nearly 11'' disks with 73mm pistons, still retaining the same 4 lug setup as stock. Also, keep in mind there are plastic (!) pistoned versions of this caliper. I went with the metal ones. Because they're metal, like me...

Thunderbird Turbocoupe rear brakes: This was probably going to be a big improvement over the old rear drums. About 10'' rear disks with some small calipers, but hey! At least it can breath better than the drums. I chose to keep the stock caliper brackets and longer axles from the Thunderbird on this. More on that later.

A few other things needed to be purchased with all this as well though. I got a new MC from the SVO, adapter lines from Maximum Motorsports, rebent hardline on the rear brakes with adapter fittings to make it all mesh. You also need to remove/gut the stock brake system balancer, and the stock rear brake pressure fitting. I replaced it with a Wilwood adjustable bias valve.

I also got front brake ducts which install to the dust shields from Quantum Motorsports (that company is gone, but I've heard they where bought by someone else... I dunno). Lastly, I picked more aggressive front pads to go along with all this.

To get the rear thunderbird hardware, I got a whole axle from a guy selling one up in Maine. That day was awful for a lot of reasons, but that guy was really nice, and while the axle was rusty as hell, it made for a good core and was in good enough shape to get some stuff from it. Taking it apart is an adventure. If you're taking the same path as me, there are a few things you want to do on the old axle:

1: Do not worry about salvaging the old lines. The fluid junction box is different from the Mustang and uses different threads I believe. Just rip that shizz off and be done with it.

2: Axle/gear oil is the WORST. STUFF. EVER. Do not have anything you like anywhere near the stuff since it will probably stain like a son of a gun and ruin whatever it touches besides metal. Also notice how everything comes apart because it won't be so convenient (assuming the axle you're cannibalizing is not also under a car) to play with when your under the car trying to put stuff in it.

3: The axle to caliper brackets are held on with 4 really freaking hard to remove bolts/nuts. Use penetrating oil often and liberally. Do not try to use some kind of cleaner, since it just makes the nuts come off even harder for some reason. Just leave them nasty and soak them in PB blaster or what have you. I did not reuse mine, since they where so rusty. I'd recommend you do not either. I easily found some exact replacement grade 8 nut and bolts at the local hardware store.

4: The caliper to caliper bracket bolts are just SOBs to take off if your axle is like mine where it has been allowed to rust for a while. I used a 3 or 4ish breaker bar on mine, and it stunk to do by myself. The axle want to spin with it. Get a friend to help, or get an awesome impact wrench. Again, penetrating oil the hell of of the things. One of mine rounded off after the socket broke on it. I recommend Craftsman bolt outs. Work like a charm. I also replaced these bolts. Again, found some great replacement bolts at the local hardware store. Got the highest grade bolts I could buy.

So disassembling the old axle was not really that hard, which was nice. The old axles where actually in pretty darn good shape too. I got some decent gears out of the Thunderbird axle also, so a good score. I really love my low revs at highway speed though, so I kept my old 3.08 gears though. I drive hundreds of miles to events, and I want to burn as little fuel as I can, and also keeping the noise down a bit is nice too.

The dissasembly of the axle in the car was not too bad either. the oil gear oil was pretty nasty, but otherwise it went well. One thing that I will mention though is that I had a torsen rear diff in my car. Because of that, the torsen had 2 large shims in it to keep axle play to a minimum. After removing the stock axles, the shims got stuck together somehow (the oil displacing when the two went together make them stick to one another I think). It was a real pain getting those apart. Keep this in mind when working on your car, if you have them. Other than that though, installation of the Thunderbird axles into my GT was easy as pie. Replacing the diff cover was also easy. But then, I tried to add axle oil...

I used Redline gear oil, 75/90w. Holy crap adding oil sucks. I tried doing gravity feed, and then did NOT work. I then went out and bought a weird fluid extraction thingy that works by hand. It worked, but it was probably one of the messiest things I've ever done. I ruined a good deal of clothes with that stuff. If you ever plan on doing the gear oil in your car, get a good plan going into it that involves forcing the oil in, because you're going to need it. This was probably the single worst part about working on the rear end.

I'll save some of the front end stuff for later. One thing I will say now though is that if you plan on trying to do this, make sure you're getting a good price. You can get most of this stuff from local parts stores if you look around, and you will need to do some shopping. If you can't get some stuff to use as cores, you might be better off just getting a kit, since the kit will include most of what you need without you having to do so much research or shopping. Just something to note. Till next time! ]]> That89GTGuy http://forums.corral.net/forums/blogs/that89gtguy/257-old-stuff-svo-93-cobra-brake-upgrade-notes-part-1.html http://forums.corral.net/forums/blogs/that89gtguy/249-well-its-dead-jim.html Sun, 29 Jan 2012 05:32:27 GMT Unfortunately, the car is dead. Not sure why it picked now to do it, but it's dead.

So as you might have seen in the previous entry (which yes, I am implying you should read), the inner fender tower and "frame" rail was pretty damned rusty. I took an angle grinder to it, and got some interesting results. Basically, the whole inner fender is just awful rusty swiss cheese. Here is what I was able to find out that might be of interest to someone looking into a Fox at some point:

The K member bolt frame rail clips do not sit totally flush with the inner fender. This is fine and normal. Nothing to worry about.

The strut tower/fender area on the drivers side under the master cylinder is a place where rust LOVES to develop. I assume it is because of dropping brake fluid from sloppy top offs or leaking fittings. Due to this brake fluid, the paint gets worn off, and in the nasty New England road salt/sand, gets eaten away rather quickly. This can cause some pretty extreme damage in a very critical area.

On my car, some previous owner had a metal plate welded to the inside of the fender. I never knew why but we always assumed it was rust. However, I took it to a body shop last year, and the guy thought it was fine. Yeah... right. The metal he had welded the plate to was so thin and weak it's amazing I didn't die at any of the track events I took the car to. After testing spots on the metal of strength just by pushing on them with a screw driver, I've found that most of the metal at the forward corner of the strut tower area, as well as a good chunk of the rest of the inner strut tower was all just rusted through. The metal was either so thin it couldn't resist a light push, or just gave way and crumbled like a water cracker. Horrible...

Because of this, there is not really any metal to weld to in an attempt to fix the area. The whole fender would need to be replaced. Due to the rust on the drivers side flood, the large missing area of the center console, the stress crack, and now this, the car has quite a few serious compromised areas, and just doesn't make a whole lot of sense to try to get functional. If I was just driving it normally, then no problem. However since this is a car I do HPDEs in, I do not want to take chances the front k member will break loose and go it's own way while braking from 120mph on the front straight of Lime Rock.

I've put the car back together enough where one could sit in it and start it up for a bit of a test drive. The car has been sitting for the better part of 4 or so months without being started or anything, yet it fired right up, hit idle after a minute and ran great. Rode it up and down the street... man! The 302 (well, 331 in this case) with an x pipe is just an awesome sounding thing!

I've put in and was approved for a loan on a new car, so I'm going to have to say good bye to this car. And it really sucks, since this thing has been so awesome when it wasn't giving me hell. I've going to miss the sound of that V8 though. You just cannot beat it!

So yeah, nothing really useful in this post, besides if you're looking for a Fox body, be very meticulous, and if it looks a bit rusty, make sure it's just surface stuff, not something more serious. Just put forth the effort before you buy to make sure you're not getting the short end of a very long stick.

Not sure what to post about now... maybe some of the stuff I picked up over the years on this thing... well, that's for later. ]]> That89GTGuy http://forums.corral.net/forums/blogs/that89gtguy/249-well-its-dead-jim.html http://forums.corral.net/forums/blogs/that89gtguy/240-adventures-taking-off-front-fenders-1989-ford-mustang.html Tue, 03 Jan 2012 14:24:30 GMT (If it's not obvious by now, I work slowly and have no idea what I'm doing. Hopefully this info will help someone similar.)

So over the Christmas and New Years vacations we have had at work, I've taken to pulling off the drivers side fender to see what was going on under there. I wanted to check for things like rust, dirt, debris, or even actual damage. I figured "How hard could it be? It's only a few bolts..."

For those who are not aware, the fender on these cars is only apparently held on with a few bolts on the top of the fender, one inside the drivers side door jamb, and one on the bottom. However, I neglected to even think that there might be some along the leading edge of it. Turns out there are a ton on the leading edge, most of them nuts. And (even better) most of those nuts are attached to little studs that are stuck to some thin as skin sheet metal reinforcements in the plastic body panels. Add 23 or so years of rust to the equation and you get a recipe for spinning or broken studs. I got a combo of 2 broken studs and 1 spinner which was kind enough to be so high up IT WASN'T EVEN (reasonably) RUSTY. Mother lover.

So after digging out a 15-20 year old hacksaw and just cutting that bitch right off, finding the last hidden bolt behind the washer fluid reservoir, I finally have a removed fender. Cue the victory music.

The fender is rusty as hell. I knew this already. Some of the paint is bubbling and getting the inner fender out was an excersize in how much stronger I was then the sheet metal screws that had fused to the thing. I'm missing a lot of attachment points due to all the rust around the edges. Lovely. Looking at it from the back, I've no idea how I can repair this. I do not have a welder yet, and to make this look good would require a lot of butted together metal. I'm thinking new fender or just ghettoing the eff out of it. I don't have the money nor the want to make the car nice enough to buy a fender. Ghettoing it is the way to go for now. More at 11.

So moving onto the fender/frame section, which is a lovely good mess. Lots of cancer everywhere. It seems like someone POR15ed it at some point, and did not do a good job (or the rust was just that bad). However, I had taken the fender off to look at some of the vacuum lines on the cruise control module, and they look great. I'd replace them but they just look that good so I don't see the point. The module is still shiny too! Just a bit of surface rust at the bottom of it. Not too shabby. After that, I got out my wire brush and started working away at the rust. Most of it came off fine with plenty of metal underneath the rust. However, then I got to the k member bolt area on the strut tower. This was bad.

The metal around the edges looks like delaminated paper for some reason. There seems to be a great deal of metal missing from around where the nuts hook on (maybe 1/16 of an inch). I think the crush sleeves might just be sitting there. I'm going to post about it later once I get some pictures and see if that it how it is supposed to look like, or if this is a sign of significant metal loss. So I'm taking a scrapper (for lack of a better term, its not a putty knife and its not a flat blade screwdriver, it's some kind of hybrid...) and trying to get the big flakes off, and then I punch a hole in the frame rail! Oh boy. It's right above the k member, a bit ahead of the forward kmember/frame bolt. I figure I'm effed now anyways so I might as see how far the rabbit hole goes, and I keep poking to see what easily gives way. I didn't get the hole to open up much, but it appears someone might have tried to weld it up at one point. After getting some of the metal out of the way, I notice that dirt keeps falling on the floor when I scrap at it. I get a can of air, blow it in the hole made by the rust, and POOF, dirt everywhere. I kept digging it out and there was little shovels of dirt in there. Awful, just awful. Sure the crush sleeves and such are still there, but man that's worrisome.

So yeah, some pictures are in order to check to see how bad the damage is. I get the feeling I'm going to get a mix of "get rid of it it's rusty as hell and needs to die" and "oh it's fine I've delt with worse". I know it can be worse from seeing what that other guy had, but I think this project might be getting over my head!

Ahh well, let us see how this goes. ]]> That89GTGuy http://forums.corral.net/forums/blogs/that89gtguy/240-adventures-taking-off-front-fenders-1989-ford-mustang.html http://forums.corral.net/forums/blogs/that89gtguy/239-funny-thing-happened-when-i-followed-instructions.html Tue, 27 Dec 2011 14:34:14 GMT So a while (like 2 years ago), I bought a K-member brace from Maximum Motorsports that was on sale as a returned/scratch and dent model. I figured it was 80 bucks, what the hell? It's only 4 bolts, even if it's just extra weight, it's not hard to install at least.

So I get the item a week or so later, and it's wonderful looking. I'm not sure what about it made it considered a sale item, but it looked perfect. Nice, sturdy construction, intact paint, new bolts... no problem. It then sat around for a while as I just never got the motivation to put it on the car. I have a dirt driveway, it was cold and damp outside, and I didn't have a garage. I was in no rush anyways since the season was over.

A while later, I go to my friend Ray's house to work on the car since he has a garage, and we try to put on the brace... oye.

So we get the car in the air, and take a look. The brace is a 4 point, so 2 rear bolts go into the nut plates at the rear of the k member, and 2 go through holes further forward in the k member stamping. Seems easy enough, but then we try to get the rear k member bolts off. On there like a son of a gun. Had to let an impact driver (didn't have one at the time) chew on it for a while before it finally came loose. Did this on both sides, bring the brace up aaaannnnddd...

... Doesn't fit. Well fudge. The forward bolts are almost where they need to be, but the rears do not fit at all. totally wrong. Supposedly loosening the nut plate would let you line it up, but it looked like the k member holes themselves where wrong, not just the plate positioning. I knew the car had been in an accident at one point, I guess it bent the k member? I had no idea but it made sense. I gave up on the idea for about a year.

Over the recent Christmas vacation, I figured since I now had a garage and some spare time after work, I would try again. I remove the rear bolts that I needed to remove, put up the brace, and bolted up the front bolts. Seemed to line up easily! Great! I then bolted up one of the rear bolts, went in! Also great! Then I tried the last rear bolt, and it's waaaay off. I had not torqued anything down yet so it was still loose, and even with that extra play I was still 1/2'' off at least. It was like the car was bent in somehow. The brace was too long or the k member was too short or something.

I remember I had emailed MM some time ago regarding this and they recommended I loosen the nut plates on the k member even after I had explained the situation to then. So I did so. Suddenly, everything fits like a glove. It's as if the k member suddenly became the right length. Weird...

So I guess the moral of the story is that while Fords build tolerances where measured in miles, I should probably just RTFM next time and instead of disregarding it, actually try what it says.

But where's the fun in that!?

Next job: Removing the fender for some futile rust prevention and inspection of the cruise control module. I was going to replace some vacuum lines and I figured such a pain in the ass place would be a good place to start while I still have 4 months to work on it. Would be a good time to bend some of the dings on the edge of the door back as well. ]]> That89GTGuy http://forums.corral.net/forums/blogs/that89gtguy/239-funny-thing-happened-when-i-followed-instructions.html http://forums.corral.net/forums/blogs/that89gtguy/238-sometimes-you-need-see-what-others-deal-realize-how-good-you-have.html Fri, 09 Dec 2011 21:12:06 GMT The title of this entry requires explanation, I know. So here is an explanation: Sometimes, just when you think your on the bottom rung, you realize someone else is not even on the ladder anymore. I went to look at a car up on craigslist. Roller, no engine or transmission or engine wiring... The title of this entry requires explanation, I know. So here is an explanation:

Sometimes, just when you think your on the bottom rung, you realize someone else is not even on the ladder anymore.

I went to look at a car up on craigslist. Roller, no engine or transmission or engine wiring harness. It was almost PERFECT for what I needed. Same model year and everything! Just swap my stuff over and job done. Should have been cake. The paint was a ton better too! "My god it's going to be awesome" I thought, so I get ahold of the guy and go to see it a few days later.

I get there, he opens the door to the garage, and there it sits. Wonderful black paint, hardtop with no stupid window holes in the roof, and no broken glass. I was pretty pumped. So he opens the door, and the interior is at least as good as the one I have in my car, maybe better! Still pumped. Get on the ground and.... oh dear.

Floor = garbage. Rust EVERYWHERE and not that light surface stuff. It's cancer and it's in deep. Even the rockers look rusty. Torque boxes? Meh they're okay, but also really rusty. And where they connect to the floor pan? Ultra rusty. Oh god. This isn't going well. Things that I didn't even know COULD rust where rusted. But then, we moved to the engine bay...

For some reference, picture this: In my car, the drivers side "frame rail" where it connects to the strut tower has a reenforcement plate due to rust. It's quite thick. Looks like a caveman welded it but it's solid. The passenger side has some light surface rust in the same spot.

This car though... it didn't even HAVE the frame rails anymore. Just straight up air where they should have been. I had to call it a night shortly after. The car looked so nice, but considering the amount of work it needed, it was not worth it. Sad, but probably for the best.

At this point, I'm going to finish removing that tar from my car, see how many more holes I can dig up, and then get a welder at some point. I think MIG welding would be a good skill to pick up, though I don't plan to become proficient I'd at least like to become functional at it. The only REAL "issue" is the small stress crack on the driveshaft tunnel and that should be a 5 minute fix once I have the welder. Everything else will be for fun. Maybe I'll try some seam welding to fix the holes and strengthen the car, or maybe I won't. I just want to get on the track and enjoy the car. The expectation that this car will someday be ultra nice seems unrealistic at this point, so I'm just going to keep trying to learn what I can on it and enjoy as much as possible for what it's worth.

On the flip side, I CANNOT wait until the track day season. I've been wanting to test out the brake system I put on this April for ever now! ]]> That89GTGuy http://forums.corral.net/forums/blogs/that89gtguy/238-sometimes-you-need-see-what-others-deal-realize-how-good-you-have.html http://forums.corral.net/forums/blogs/that89gtguy/232-further-floor-destruction-now-structural-failures.html Tue, 22 Nov 2011 14:10:48 GMT So I've continued to take apart the interior of my car, and have moved on to removing sound deadening in the car. I continued to attempt to use a hammer and... well... kind of a chisel (I think its more like a rounded pry bar, but whatever), but I wasn't getting anywhere. I've read about using dry ice (frozen CO2) to cause the sound deadening to freeze and shatter, so I have it a shot. Got some notes for anyone trying to do it further:

1: Buy quite a bit. I got a 20lb block of the stuff for next to nothing and had it cut into 3rds. I didn't come close to finishing my interior with it. I'd recommend at least 40lbs if you want to try to bang the job mostly out in the day.

2: Work fast. Even if you leave the stuff in a cooler with extra insulation around it, it will evaporate overnight and you'll loose quite a bit. I was working in ambient temps no higher than 50 and it was almost freezing overnight, yet it still evaporated easily.

3: Use a lot and apply DIRECTLY to the surface. I tried to be skimpy at first and was wondering why it wasn't working. Then I went to town with the stuff and it worked like a charm. So take a brick, smash it into small chunks and powder, then spread over the area to be worked on. Putting a blanket over the area and letting it sit for a bit is another handy trick. Do this and let it sit for about 5-10 minutes and that stuff will shatter pretty easily. Very handy.

4: It's effing cold (obviously), so don't get it on your skin, it can burn. Also, make sure the area is vented. Don't want to suffocate after all.

So yeah, after that public service announcement, back to the action.

I managed to get quite a bit of the stuff out, and found a few... issues. Time for yet another list!

1: The rust around the center console is limited to the passenger side. However, it seems to be limited to the entire side of the passenger center console. It's just totally gone. It seems like the water wicked itself around the whole thing, an it's basicly detatched at this point. In case you're wondering, the area around the shift lever is one peice of metal that gets spot welded to the floor pan and overlaps it signifcantly. I guess the spot welds broke or the seem sealer gave way to water. Either way, it's nasty.

2: Looked at the driveshaft hump going throught the car, I found a nasty stress crack at where it diverges to the left and right sides towards the rocker panels. It seems like the car twisted at one point and this gave way. I knew the car was, to some degree, drag raced at one point. Maybe this is one of the reasons they ditched it. I've come to find that this spot is usually where the car lets go when it was twisted, so that's just wonderful, and quite disheartening.

3: The drivers side floor near where it meets the cowl was always pretty worn looking from under the car. Rust was plentiful. I had no idea how plentiful until I tried chiseling up the area around that seam and my chisel went through the floor. Yup, another gaping hole. Greaaat.

4: Another spot I attacked is the passenger side rear floor board under where the rear seats go. Another rust hole, this time above where the rear frame rail is. Dang.

So it seems like this car is not as clean as I had hoped at first when I bought it. I suppose I should have done some more research on points to look at on these guys, but live and learn I suppose.

Honestly, I do not care about the center console area. The rusted area is basically flat and I could probably just cut it out and weld in some plate steel there as a first welding project. However, the naaaasty hole in the drivers side floor is worrisome, since it's at a corner and might be structural. The stress crack is also worrisome too. Combined with the rust hole at the top of the frame rail, and the other problems I know the car has, I think it might be time to move on.

I'm currently looking around for a roller with a good chassis. I've got at everything else I really need at this point, I just need a good chassis. Sadly, living in New England means that anything I look at is going to be either rusted, twisted, or expensive it seems. Ah well. Winter is a long period of time, so hopefully I can get something worked out before the racing season starts again! ]]> That89GTGuy http://forums.corral.net/forums/blogs/that89gtguy/232-further-floor-destruction-now-structural-failures.html http://forums.corral.net/forums/blogs/that89gtguy/228-removing-interior-my-car-age-assesment.html Fri, 04 Nov 2011 14:37:30 GMT So, I'm going to try out the blog functionality on this page to see how it goes. First up here is the removal of the interior from the car!

DSC09408.JPG - File Shared from Box - Free Online File Storage
DSC09407.JPG - File Shared from Box - Free Online File Storage
DSC09406.JPG - File Shared from Box - Free Online File Storage
DSC09405.JPG - File Shared from Box - Free Online File Storage
DSC09404.JPG - File Shared from Box - Free Online File Storage
DSC09403.JPG - File Shared from Box - Free Online File Storage
DSC09402.JPG - File Shared from Box - Free Online File Storage

Basically, I pulled the interior of my car because I wanted to give it a through cleaning and see if I could maybe fix up the carpet a bit, clean up the broken glass, and a bunch of other stuff like rust proofing.

The floor seems to be OVERALL in decent shape. The paint is still on it, the wires seem to be in good shape, and there are not glaring holes around. However at some point significant water got into the carpet so it was pretty gnarly taking it out. Smelt like old, wet, dog. When I got the carpet out I also found a few rust spots.

Around the floor drain plugs there is some rust, probably creeping up from around the sides of the holes not being water proof. I'm okay with that for now. Doesn't seem too bad. However what I did not expect was the rust on the rear passenger side of the floor pan. It's pretty obvious water has been there for a while now. I'm not sure how so much could have gotten in there but it seems to have anyways. It's not through the floor so it seems, but it's definitely rusting under the paint, so I'm going to have to grind all that down. Joy. It is able to support most of my not insignificant weight though, so that does bode well for it being it good shape still.

I also found about a windows worth of broken glass too. I know the car has had a good number of owners but man alive you'd imagine they should have vacuumed the bad glass up instead of just letting it settle under the seats. That's going to take a while to get rid of it all. I should be grateful that the fact it was broken means that the car came with a new window on that side, but the fact it wasn't installed properly is pretty annoying. That's another thing I've got to do with the interior out.

I would really like to stitch weld the car with the interior out so I could say there was definite performance reason to be doing all this work besides just removing future issues. I know that is something worth doing, but I'd like it if I could say I did something a bit more spectacular. Oh well. While I do have the car apart I plan to lay on some extra sound deadening to hopefully quite it down in there. The car drones pretty loudly so anything to reduce the noise is appreciated. I've been using edead on recommendation of a friend. I've used it on the drivers side door and it seems effective, but most of the noise is from the floor, so that is what I'm going to hit with the rest I have. Hopefully it makes it a bit more livable without blocking out all that lovely exhaust noise.

And that's just stage one... hopefully I can get to de-rusting the outside of the car soon too! ]]> That89GTGuy http://forums.corral.net/forums/blogs/that89gtguy/228-removing-interior-my-car-age-assesment.html http://forums.corral.net/forums/blogs/95die/211-95-t5-tranmission-bushing-seal.html Tue, 06 Sep 2011 20:00:50 GMT I have a 95 5.0 and I was trying to find a bushing removal tool...if anyone has one that they are willing to rent please contact me I have a 95 5.0 and I was trying to find a bushing removal tool...if anyone has one that they are willing to rent please contact me ]]> 95die http://forums.corral.net/forums/blogs/95die/211-95-t5-tranmission-bushing-seal.html http://forums.corral.net/forums/blogs/jvander21/141-high-idle-promlem-99-mustang-gt.html Tue, 22 Mar 2011 20:03:22 GMT Im lost on what to do, my rpms get hang at 1400 when im at a stop light in neutral. I replaced the iac valve like the code said to do. And still the same thing. It has a iac restrictor plate on it. Any help on what else I could check would be great thanks. Im lost on what to do, my rpms get hang at 1400 when im at a stop light in neutral. I replaced the iac valve like the code said to do. And still the same thing. It has a iac restrictor plate on it. Any help on what else I could check would be great thanks. ]]> JVander21 http://forums.corral.net/forums/blogs/jvander21/141-high-idle-promlem-99-mustang-gt.html http://forums.corral.net/forums/blogs/johncina36/140-save-tiger.html Tue, 22 Mar 2011 19:32:56 GMT Hi this is johncina im here to provide you some awareness about a unique species(tigers) actually I don’t have any idea how to create impressive article to attract you. My concern is not attracting you basically I want request to please awake and save tiger species because day by day the numbers... Hi this is johncina im here to provide you some awareness about a unique species(tigers) actually I don’t have any idea how to create impressive article to attract you. My concern is not attracting you basically I want request to please awake and save tiger species because day by day the numbers of tigers in world are decreeing we are human so it's our special duty toward them (tigers, animals) to save their species. Please share your great idea's in the favor to save them.

It’s very painful we have lost lots of animals species God made us human to protect them but we are so busy in our personal life and we forget our all this kind of responsibility they are helpless to protect their own species but are not, we can save them so please give your contribution from your to save them because they need our help.
=========
johncina
auto auctions ]]> johncina36 http://forums.corral.net/forums/blogs/johncina36/140-save-tiger.html http://forums.corral.net/forums/blogs/peglegpete/139-msd-placement.html Sun, 20 Mar 2011 21:43:46 GMT have 6al msd for my 93lx with 5.0. Where can I put it? Already have k&n on passenger side and am looking for suggestions-thanks

















w ]]> peglegpete http://forums.corral.net/forums/blogs/peglegpete/139-msd-placement.html