Ford Mustang Forums banner

Newbie's 95 Resto Mod

7K views 51 replies 8 participants last post by  BoostOrBust 
#1 · (Edited)
Newbie's 95 GT40 Restoration

I started a build about 2 month's ago. I've been using some tech from this site, so I thought I would start a build thread.

I'm starting with a mostly stock 95 GT . It's a black on black 5 speed, with 112k miles. It was in a light collision 4 years ago, and the front end was replaced with a Cobra front end. It was lowered 1.75", and 18" staggered Bullit style wheels were put on. I'm running 245/45 in the front, and 285/35 in the rear. It also came with an original Flowmaster 40 series stainless cat back. The SMOG pump was removed, and an idler pulley was put in but it was not properly deleted. Those were the only mods at the time of purchase.

When I first got it I did a full tune up, Accel coil, and a SR Performance CAI. I cleaned the MAF, and we hooked it up to the scanner. Everything was checking out okay. Not a single code outside the airbag system from the accident. It's running great, but the throttle response, and acceleration is what you would expect out of a stock, high mile engine. Less than spectacular.

The first modding I did was address the front end situation. The car was lowered improperly, and the bumpsteer was fairly scary. We installed SR Performance caster/camber plates, a Steeda bumpsteer kit, Steeda X2 balljoint's, Steeda off-set rack bushings, Energy suspension control arm bushings, Prothane end links, and sway bar bushings, SR spring isolators, and a reman rack unit. Did an alignment. Once the new bushings settle, and the rear suspension goes in we will tweak it a bit. I also went with cheap Monroe struts for now. I will eventually upgrade these to Tokico blue's. The rear passenger caliper was shot, so we replaced both rear calipers. All 4 corners have drilled, and slotted rotors with ceramic pads. A cheap SR Performance shifter was put in. This will be replaced this winter with a Steeda Tri-Ax. The SR is sloppy, and poorly made. That's what I get for trying to save money on a vital part.

I installed 96-98 tail light harnesses, and Raxiom smoked 96-98 tail light's. I tinted out the third brake light, and got smoked side marker reflectors for the rear bumper. I also installed an LED license plate light kit. I know some people would say stick with the 5.0 style lights, but I prefer the vertical light's. I also have a set of Maximum Motorsports full length subframe connector's that are going in next weekend.

I have quite a few part's waiting to go on the car from my original part's order's. The part's pile consist's of a set of SVE tubular upper, and lower control arms, Prothane poly axel bushings, SR spring isolators, 3.73 rear gears with full bearing, and seal kit, GT500 carbon fiber Trac-Loc clutches, shift light, reverse glow gauge kit & full LED kit (can't decide which to use), EGR delete mil eliminator, and plate, a tubular GT40 upper intake, with a 94 Cobra lower, aluminum BBK underdrive pulley's, and new front hubs. I might be forgetting a few things.

I'm pretty sure the only thing that will get done before I take it off the road for the year is the subframe connectors. I need those in for sure, as I plan to fully strip and refinish the underside of the car this winter. The full length's are great for jack stands, and this way they get painted/undercoated with the rest of the vehicle. I'm doing a lot of restoration on this build. I'm after somewhat of a show quality car when I'm done. Not a trophy winner, but something that is clean, and I can be proud of. I have very little rust to deal with, and absolutely no rot so it should be an easy 2-3 week process on the underbody, and engine bay. The whole car will be stripped of it's mechanical's for repair, and modification anyway. While the car is down I will also be rolling the whole interior out with FatMat sound deadening material & spraying the inside of the doors, and anywhere else I can't roll out with boom mat spray

My future plans for the car are as follows. My hp goal is 290-320 rwhp out of a GT40 based build up. I know it's not easy, and some say 300 isn't possible. Well, we will see where I end up eventually.

Induction - Updated 4-25-2016
Polished Tubular upper intake, w/ bore ported to 75mm
Fully ported non EGR Explorer Lower
Stack Racing Polished 75mm Throttle body
Trick Flow 75mm intake adapter elbow
C&L 73mm MAF (calibrated @ 24# with CAI)
Bosch 4 hole 24# injectors
Walbro 190 lph fuel pump kit
BBK fuel pressure regulator w/ gauge
New IAC, PCV, ACT, TPS, coolant sensor, coolant sender, and oil sender.

Heads - Updated 4-25-2016
Flo-Tek 5.0X Aluminum Head 180cc 1.94 & 1.54 valves 58cc Ported & polished with polished chambers.
Trick Flow Stage 1 Cam
Comp High Energy 1.6 roller rockers in 3/8 stud mount
Ford Racing Lifters
Comp Cams Magnum Timing Chain
Trick Flow Valve Covers
Trick Flow 6.100 pushrods

Misc.

BBK Unequal Shorty Headers
Mac Pro Chamber mid pipe
Water pump, oil pump & ARP drive shaft, new distributor
MSD 6AL-2 Ignition box
Moates Quarter Horse
Steeda strut tower brace (going to need intake clearance)
Maximum Motorsports 4 point k member brace
Stage 1 clutch & new OEM Flywheel
New OEM Harmonic Balancer
New HD Motor Mounts
MGW Shifter
Steeda adjustable clutch cable with firewall adjuster
Steeda aluminum clutch quadrant
Lakewood U-joints
Steeda Functional Tail Fin
Roush Heat Extractor Hood
Misc. ARP studs/bolts for assembly
AC Delete running a short belt, no idler in place of the smog or ac
Steeda front sway bar
Steeda adjustable rear sway bar



So that's the build. As soon as the car comes off the road and I can further inspect it I will be ordering more part's, and doing all the disassembly. Once it is taken apart I will start the restoration on the chassis. I'll try to take pic's, and keep posting them as I progress.
 

Attachments

See less See more
4
#2 ·
Not much interest in this thread, but I seen that coming. Another GT40 build, I know....... When it all started I was just going to buy an Exploder motor, and use the intake/heads. Somewhere along the way I decided to find a Tubular GT40 upper. I started working on sanding out all the scratches, and manufacturing flaw's and decided this thing need's to be fully polished. The intake I started out with was rough, but I sniped it off e-bay for $370 shipped with 5 second's left on the auction and it came with the 94 Cobra lower. I also had a friend install the sub-frame connectors last weekend. Here are some progress pics. The intake isn't even close to ready for polishing, but it's looking better already.
 

Attachments

#5 ·
No, unfortunately I haven't had time to install anything yet. Tons of work to be done before I'm there, but my goal is to be done in early May. I'll be working on re-finishing the underside of the car, and the engine bay after Christmas. Once the car is done I will move on to the port work, and building the engine.. We just have too much family stuff going on right now. I've never polished an intake before, but this thing has been a ton of work so far. The one I started with was a bit rough, but it's the manufacturing flaw's on this tubular that are killing me. The main tube where the throttle body connects had a ton of deep scratches in it from being rolled to shape. I also removed the tabs for mounting a cover. I've got around 20 hour's into wet sanding it and I'm just now around 2/3 the way done with the sanding.

On a side note we bought my wife a Mustang on black Friday. I search on Craigslist every single morning out of habit because I'm still looking for that rust free 82 T-Top GT I want eventually. Out of luck I found 2001 Bullitt #4408 in Dark Highland Green a few hour's after it was posted for sale, and snached it up. It had 33,600 original miles when it was parked for winter (sadly the day after I bought it). It has a spoiler on it that HAS to go, and the original wheels need to be put back on it. It also has a tune, but other than that it's all stock which is exactly how we plan to keep it. Now she has no problem with me spending money on my car. I win!!!
 

Attachments

#9 ·
Sweet score on the Bullitt. They are great cars and your wife (or at least you) will love it! But definitely help save that car and please do at least remove those wheels like you said. Those are atrocious on an otherwise nice looking B.
 
#10 ·
I couldn't agree more about the wheel's. The guy I got the Bullitt from had the factory wheel's sitting behind his garage in the dirt, it was a sad sight. They were just caked with brake dust. I'm not even sure why so much would build up on them. The car has never seen rain since new, but I would think just washing the car would keep them cleaner than this with only 33k miles. I used a few can's of brake clean but I got them to near mint condition. The first thing I'm doing when it come's out of storage is swap out the wheel's, remove the spoiler, put in some good rotor's and pads, and do an alignment. I know it's not the holy grail of rare Mustang's, but we figure with this low of mile's, and this close to stock........ put it back to factory spec's, and only drive it a few thousand mile's per year. Some car's you modify, other's you just enjoy for what they are.


Just a few more day's until Christmas. I can't wait till I can get back out into the garage and get this project rolling.
 

Attachments

#11 ·
Just a quick update. Progress has been somewhat slow lately, but next weekend the motor, trans, rear end, and k member are coming out so I can start stripping the bottom of the car. I got the tubular intake just about ready to polish. Only thing that is left is hitting it with some 3000 grit before I start the polishing process. planning on going with black rouge, then white for polishing. After all this work I really hope it work's out.
 

Attachments

#12 ·
On the advice from somebody on a SN95 Facebook page I tried White Diamond Metal Polish instead of rouge and wheel's to do the polishing. Stuff work's like a fuggin champ!! I'll have to go over it twice to get the shine I want, but these pics are after the first round was 90% done. All by hand. Just one bottom tube, and the fins are not done. I'll finish it tomorrow night.

I'll be shopping around the next few day's at the local scrap yard's for some GT40 head's to start porting. Until I have them I'll be porting/gasket matching the lower to a FelPro 1250 gasket, and using the same on the intake side of the head's when I do those. Everything is still looking good for pulling the car apart this weekend. Time to start hitting it hard!!
 

Attachments

#13 ·
Everything went well this weekend. Within 5 1/2 hour's we had the drivetrain out, towed the car and component's to storage, and had the mess cleaned up. I usually end up adding thing's to the to do list at this point. There always seems to be a few surprises, but so far it's looking pretty good.
 

Attachments

#15 ·
I pulled the front bumper, fenders, wire harness, and everything else on the fender wells/frame rail so I could inspect the repair's that were done before I bought the car. The brake like's from the proportioning valve to the ABS box were crushed in the accident where they run next to the frame. When it was reassembled they left the crushed metal bumper in, and didn't replace the foam which explains why my front end was sagging on one side. The driver's frame rail is a bit wrinkled, but it's in front of the K member. I should be able to straiten it out with a slide hammer.

Since the car is apart this far I'm adding a wire tuck/re-wrap, and battery relocation to the build. I'm also going to replace all the rubber vacuum hose's with silicone since a lot of them are in pretty rough shape and I hate dealing with vacuum leaks. I was seriously considering a Cobra brake swap since I'm in the brake system now but I don't think I need to go that far. In the interest of keeping it simple I'm just going to do the 99-04 dual piston front caliper's since I already have brand new rotors. Might as well throw in a Cobra master cylinder, and new hoses as well.

I decided to go with VHT Roll Bar & Chassis in Satin Black for the underside of the car, and engine bay. I'm going to use their Nu-Cast Iron, Nu-Cast Aluminum, and Metallic Black Pearl on the engine. I'm also going to polish a lot of the visible aluminum part's like the master cylinder, brake proportioning valve, distributor, water neck, and thing's like that before assembly.

I just finished porting the lower intake tonight. I think it turned out okay for my first one. I still need to smooth it out with cartridge rolls, but the carbide work is done. It only has to flow as good as the head's I'll be porting next. I've been doing a ton of reading, and measuring everything out over and over so I'm fairly confident in my port work.

Over the next week or so I'll work on pulling the brake system, dropping the k member, gas tank, and rear end.
 

Attachments

#16 ·
The lower is complete. Pic's of the most restrictive runners. I ran through it with 120 grit cartridge rolls, and then 220 abrasive buffs. The upper and lower are both being dropped off at the machine shop to have the gasket surfaces freshened up. It's pretty rough around the water port's.

I've been tossing around the idea lately of ditching the GT40 head's, and going aluminum. I ran into a few old MM&FF article's on Flo-Tek head's they did back in the day. They are a GT40X knock off more/less. 180cc intake runners, 58cc compression chamber, 1.94 & 1.54 swirl polished valves, and they come with 3/8'' studs and plates. You can get them now day's for $369.99 each shipped. I'm still trying to save as much money as I can on this build so I can still afford to do a Fox Body Restoration in the near future. Out of all the research I did on the Flo-Tek's I couldn't really find anyone who had a bad experience with them. It's agreed by all that they need to be cleaned up, but it's a cast head so...... Not enough to deter me. I planned on porting whatever head I got to the lower anyway. I really want to do a GT40 build to see if I can break the 300 rwhp mark, but by the time I get the heads, buy the spring kit, and have them machined I could own aluminum. Having 3/8" stud mount is really nice too over the 7/16" pedestal. I'm going to think on it for a week or so while I prep the car for paint. It's pretty much completely stripped except for the interior. I have to pull the vacuum booster, clutch cable, and steering shaft still, but that's it. Kind of suck's doing all this in a storage unit next door to a nice shop with floor heat and lift's, but it's worth it.

Progress has been steady but slightly slower than I'd like to see. I've been putting a lot of time into my brother's Fox Body on the weekends, and picking away at mine on odd hours during the week. It shouldn't take me long to get this thing painted if the weather cooperates. I can't get it warm enough to paint if it dip's below 20 outside. Either way I have plenty of other stuff to do. I'll update again once the paint is done.
 

Attachments

#18 ·
Had a week and a half of cold weather move in and set me back some. I also found some light sheet metal work that needed to be done, and I ran over several spots in the engine bay with body filler, and glaze. Everything that needed rust convertor was done a week ago, and I've started painting in sections. I found that between the heater, and the paint fumes I am only able to spray about 4 can's at a time even though I'm wearing a respirator. It just get's too cloudy, and it make's me nervous since I'm running a torpedo heater between coat's to keep the temp up. So far I have the entire engine bay, fender aprons, cowl, k-member, front control arms, spindles, rear wheel wells, the area behind rear bumper, and rear bumper support's done. By Saturday afternoon the underneath will be done, and I'll start working on it again once it has a week to cure.

I have to say I'm really impressed with the VHT paint product's so far. It spray's out in a fairly thin consistency that is a lot more fine, and easy to control than your average spray bomb. The finish is outstanding! Very nice coverage, and it has a rock hard, almost powder coat like durability after a few day's cure. You cant scratch it very easily at all. I tried with a nail, and even with a decent amount of pressure I didn't get more than half way through the paint. I guess on a side note I should mention that everything is getting 3 coat's of paint, and I've been rubbing the surfaces down with lacquer thinner just before I spray.

First pic shows the front end mostly done with fully cured paint. Only posting to show the quality of the finish. The fender apron's, and strut towers were not done yet. I forgot to snap pics before I left today. I will have finished pic's after this weekend. I also found out from a local frame shop I was sent to that my frame has already been straitened, and aligned so any repairs at this point would be purely cosmetic. He turned away business I was willing to give him, and that's a good enough indicator to me that all is well frame wise.
 

Attachments

#20 ·
I got my master cylinder in a few weeks ago, and decided not to polish it. I'd love to, but it's going to be really hard to keep up on the polish job once it's installed. I smoothed out all the casting flash, and removed the time stamp, and part number embossing. Painted it with Nu-Cast Aluminum, which is another really awesome product. Very highly metallic, I love the finish. I still plan on polishing other part's, I just want to be able to maintain everything I do for year's to come. I ordered up some more paint to finish thing's off. All the paint product's I am using on this build are VHT. I used to be more of an Eastwood guy to be honest, but I can't argue with slightly lower prices ($9 per can vs. $14), and in my honest opinion better results.

Pics of the Master cylinder before, and after smoothing, and painting.
 

Attachments

#22 ·
Ran out of paint tonight after doing the back 1/2 of the underside. You can really burn through the paint when you start hitting inside all the odd area's in the very back. Shopped around tonight, and nobody around here stock's the paint I'm using except for the Gloss version. I'm ordering more paint tonight and I'll have to wait to finish the main floor pan, and trans tunnel. It set's me back a bit on the chassis itself, but it give's me time to prep other thing's. I might try to get to the fuel tank this weekend, and just grab a few can's of the gloss for it. It's under the plastic cover anyway, so it shouldn't look bad.

A few pics of the finished engine bay.
 

Attachments

#23 ·
Finally pulled the trigger on the head set up I'm running tonight. I put it on the back burner, but I'm getting close to the engine work. I decided to give the Flo-Tek Aluminum Heads a try. I'll be matching them to the FelPro 1250, and doing light port work. I paid $739.98 from Speedway Motor's shipped, so I expect they will need a little work. I'm much lighter, and worlds ahead of the GT40's I planned on using this way. Between the head's, smog delete, ac delete, and battery relocation the front end will be much lighter.

I also decided against the lightweight flywheel, and stage 2 clutch. For my application I just don't think it's the right choice. I ordered a new stock replacement flywheel, and a stage 1 organic disk clutch from grip force. Since I was at it I got the Steeda clutch cable, firewall adjuster, and quadrant. Head stud kit, with step washers. Lower intake stud kit, and a few other things. More decisions need to be made before I order the cam, and roller rocker's. I'll post some pics, and my first impression of the head's once they get here.
 
#24 ·
My first impression of the Flo-Tek head's is pretty good. I'm very pleased with the casting's over all. There are a few places that need to be cleaned up, and they need a port match on the intake side for sure. One odd thing is that I expected them to be a bit older. They have a casting date on them of 05-08-2015, and they were assembled 02-2016.
I noticed a few subtle changes between the one's I've seen in various magazine articles, and the one's I have. The embossing on the end of the head is different, and the valve guides don't need to be cut down like I have read the earlier Flo-Tek's needed. The bowl's also look much better in these castings. All tapped holes look great. I'm hard pressed to find any major complaint's. I'll be tearing them down in the next few days to do the port work. I'll snap a few pics of the worst area's I can find.
I went ahead and ordered some Comp 1.6 aluminum roller rockers. Whatever I end up running I want to stay with the stock ratio. I'm leaning really heavily towards the Anderson N-412 cam right now. It seems to fit the bill better than the Steeda #19 at this point.
 

Attachments

#25 ·
I finished the underbody paint late last week. I'm pretty close to the point where I want to put the vacuum booster, master cylinder, proportioning valve, steel lines, and ABS box back in. The next time I'm at storage the metal bumper cores will get bolted back on so they are out of my way. I will probably go ahead and put the rear bumper cover, and tail light's back on as well. I'm going to set the engine back in temporarily before I tear it down. I want to get the front suspension back in, and I need the weight there so I can floor jack the control arm to compress the spring. I have the Maximum Motorsport's spring install tool, so it'll go quick once I'm able to put the time into it. While the engine is there I'm going to make some decisions on how I want to route everything when I do the wire tuck, and battery relocation. I can also figure out the location and wire the MSD box in. Once the front suspension is back in, and I have all the wiring figured out the engine will go back on the stand and get torn down. I still haven't broke the head's down so I can port them, but I'll also be doing that soon. Right now I'm focused on all the little thing's to get the chassis back together.
 

Attachments

#26 ·
Under the hood and the undercarriage looks good, wish I could take mine off the road long enough to do stuff like that.

But then I'd try to justify doing a MM k member while it was apart, and then coilovers, and control arms, and maybe try to find a blower, and before I knew it I'd have a 5 year project. I'm limited to weekend jobs.

Also impressed by the Flo-Tek heads. By your description I was expecting fly-by-night Taiwan castings from the early 90s that may or may not be straight. If looks are anything to go by they should work great for you. Them still making heads today is a good sign too
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top