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The Evolution/Future Build of My Car (Tons of Pics and Vids)

13K views 90 replies 33 participants last post by  DutchManDann 
#1 · (Edited)
I posted this on another Mustang forum and I thought I would post it here as well. Like it says in here, I hope this can be sort of a "technical" post where I can help anyone with any problems they have doing similar mods to their cars.

If you have a 98 GT and you are having a problem, I have probably had that same problem. So ask me!




I have been working on this write up for quite a long time now, almost two months (finding all of the pictures I wanted has been a royal pain). And it is pretty good timing because it seems everyone is posting one of these up right now. This is meant to timeline my car, and includes everything I have done to the car, not just performance/visual mods.

I kind of invision this as a thread that people can look at, and ask for any help with similar mods or problems they have with their car. So I am hoping that people will ask for help!

Also note, that when I use the first person (I, me, myself, etc.), I am really referring to myself and my dad. Without his help, none of this would be possible. I cannot express enough how much I have enjoyed working on the car with him. For the simplicity of the post, I use "I", but my dad was just as much a part of this as I was. We have bonded so much over this car and I love him to death.

The Car

I call her Roxanne. The car is a 1998 Mustang GT Convertible with a 5-speed. It is Silver with a black top, black interior. I bought it when I was 15 years old, in the summer of 2010. The car seemed to be good at the time of purchase, but ended up having a lot more wrong with it than i expected (which i will detail here).

Here's the first couple shots I took after the first clean.




and the engine bay:


First Impressions

My first impressions, the sound was nice, but the wheels looked pretty bad (i mean, deep dishes on the front? just wrong).

I learned to drive stick on the car, but the clutch was pretty much garbage, had to push it to the floor to disengage and it made a ton of racket. The synchros was also pretty far gone, but it was drivable. Also, the car seemed to spew blue smoke on startup. The top would not go up/down automatically either, such a buzzkill.

I liked the exhaust because it had a catless H-pipe, a good choice in my opinion. It was using the stock tubing with an aftermarket muffler behind that ("XLerator Turbo Muffler" was the brand). I am very glad that it came with the light bar on it already, as that was one of the things that completed the look of the vert to me. Also, it had FRPP Lowering Springs on it which have the perfect amount of drop for me.


Fall 2010

So initially, there were problems that needed immediate fixing. First up, the latch that attaches to the trunk lid was broken off entirely. My guess is that the car got broken into or hit in the back. All I had to do was weld it back on.
(it still doesn't look too good, you can also see the rust in that picture. New trunk lid will come once money permits).



I sprayed the bottom of the car for rust. Here's a picture of the before, not too bad, but it is worse in some other spots.



Next I sprayed tinted the headlights and tailights. It turned out nicely but ended up fading (so the taillights need to be redone as well).




I changed the rear struts and the fuel filter. I dont have pics of this, but who cares nobody wants to see that anyways. The rear struts were so bad I couldn't even drive the car basically...so those needed to be changed.

So now for the worst part of the car- the engine ticking. Some of you may remember me trying to narrow down what the tick was. The ticking wasn't there when I bought the car...but about two weeks later it showed up.

[98 Mustang GT]: Engine Tick - YouTube

For now I had to live with the ticking though, the engine ran fine.

Winter 2010

Winter 2010 was a pretty low-mod time for me. The car was driveable and I didn't want to work on anything in the cold. I was also doing Varsity Swimming which took up all of my time.

I did two major things to the car though.

First off, I replaced the headunit from some old/low end unit to a nice new shiny one. I put a Kenwood KIV-700 in. Looks really clean and the controls are extremely simple. It is one of the best aftermarket headunits I have ever used.

I wired the iPod connector into the center compartment to keep it all clean and to give me access to the iPod. The new headunit did a good job of tuning out the tick as well lol.



Now for the sad part. Somebody decided that they were jealous of my car...or something. They slashed a tire, cut the top, and keyed the side. I don't understand how somebody can do this to a car, especially mine (which wasn't even that nice). But such is life.

I claimed insurance on it and got a nice chunk of change. Putting new 18x10.5" tires on the stock rims would have been way too much money, and so I used the opportunity to buy a new set of rims.

They are off of a 2001 Cobra, and I think they match perfectly with the car.




That's it for Winter 2010.

Spring 2011

For Spring 2011, the first thing I did was a K&N Air Filter and I shortened the antenna. I don't have any pics but we've all done these two mods. The car actually came with a K&N filter...but it was the wrong size. It was way too small and a lot wider than the correct size.

Next, I put in sequential tail lights. These are a feature of mustangs that I absolutely love and I had to have them on my car.

[98 Mustang GT]: Sequential Taillights - YouTube

Next I put that insurance money to good use and I got myself a trans out of a wrecked car (had ~17k on it at the time) and a new clutch. The clutch was nothing special, better than stock though. Money was tight to cover it all with the insurance money.

This tick haunted my dreams for too long. No matter what I tried...it ticked. I tried all sorts of magical oil additives, with no luck (no surprise lol). So I had to crack open the engine. What I ended up doing is replacing the lash adjusters, rocker arms, and valve seals.

As a side note, let me just mention that replacing the valve seals may easily be the scariest thing you can do to your engine. you have to remove the retaining clips off the valve, and the only thing keeping the valve from falling into your engine is air pressure...





Those are all the old parts. The valve seals were totally shot. The rubber is probably just as hard as the metal part. This soved the blue smoke issue. The lash adjusters and rocker arms did next to nothing, the tick was a strong as ever. I decided to seafoam it just to see what would happen lol...

[98 Mustang GT]: Seafoaming the Mustang - YouTube

And once again the tick never stopped. I had to live with the ticking for the time being. So on to the other stuff...

One last little fix, the parking brake light wouldnt come on when I pulled the e-brake. So I just removed the switch and sanded all the connections. Fixed the problem.

Summer 2011

The Summer of 2011 was all restoration. No pics of any of this, but this was all the grimey, greasy work that is pretty unsatisfying. It is unsatisfying because you're working on your car to fix someone elses abuse, and it wont make the car any faster.

First, before the heat kicked in, I put a new A/C Compressor and Condenser on. The first compressor ended up blowing up, it was a made in china piece. I got a rebuilt Ford compressor and it has been good since.

I put Tie-Rod Ends, Front Struts, and new Rotors/Pads on the front brakes, and pads on the back. No pictures, but nothing too special here. I discovered that all the calipers need to be rebuilt or replaced, but it isn't too bad. Also take note that my ABS had been acting up big time, it tripped way too soon. So my Dad broke the sensor entirely, rendering the whole system useless (ABS shuts off completely in the case of a broken sensor). I like it better without ABS anyways.

Next I put new top cylinders on the convertible top, and filled it up with Dextron. The top works beautifully now, the top cylinder was just leaking.

The hood latch cable busted (the handle just pulled right out with a bunch of frayed wires on the end. I hated my car this day lol. So I put a replacement on, was an easy fix.

Lastly, I put some black "Mustang GT" lettering on the bumper, which you can see in this video:

[98 Mustang GT]: 0-50 MPH Pull - YouTube


Fall/Winter 2011

I bought some parts off a parts car, I got all of the trunk interior pieces and put them into my car. I also got the strut tower brace off the car (which wouldnt go on until later).

The engine catastrophically failed sometime in the fall. I was cruising at ~20 mph down a side street and I heard one of the worst noises in my life. It was a metal-on-metal shrieking noise. The gauges on the dash went insane and flickered all over and the engine died. The engine would still run...but it continued to make that god awful noise. I drove it home and parked it, and the hunt for an engine started.

I was really hoping to find a DOHC to drop in there. I looked at a few but the deal never went through on any of them. One guy couldn't get his to run...and another just wanted too much for his. I ended up settling on a dusty SOHC out of a 2001. It had been pulled from the car 2-3 years prior and the guy needed it out of his garage. I paid $400 for it.

The engine has a little Ford Rebuild plate on it, so my dad called up Ford and had them run the code. Ford said it was out of an 01 Mustang GT, and estimated the mileage to be ~40k (which is what the seller said). It was still a huge risk though because we didn't know if the engine ran.



After I cleaned the engine up, turned out to be quite a good looking piece



The process began of the engine swap! It ended up taking me ~4 monthes to do. I kept the 98's return fuel system, and I kept the COPs on the new engine (it looks much cleaner). I had to make my own wiring harness to accomodate the COPs. I also opted to drill/tap a hole for the 98's second temperature sensor. I got the 8-bolt flywheel that came on the 2001 engine resurfaced (the only work I didn't do myself).

I also cleaned the crap out of all the coolant parts and everything I was going to reuse. I didn't want any of the old 98 engine grime in the new one.

Engine is out!


And the new one's in!


I also put a new pinion seal on my differential, as the stock one was leaking (as you can sort of see in the picture).



The engine did not start right up though. I had a minuscule short in the wiring harness I made, and it was driving the PATS insane. I guess the car thought I was trying to steal it. I managed to bipass the PATS system and get the engine to crank. It started up, but ran very rough. It was pretty disappointing.

I got the car put back together and got it on the ground. I decided to drive it home even when it was running rough. I put some good gas into the fuel tank and drove it home. On the way home, something sort of...popped. I can't describe it, but the engine just started to run like it was brand new. My guess is the injectors were clogged from sitting so long. This was one of the most amazing moments of my life, the engine has so much more power than the old one.

I threw on a FRPP Shift knob that I got for christmas as a mini-celebration for having my car running:

 
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#75 ·
Just read your entire thread. You have really put a lot of work into the car. I think every person should have some of these experiences you have had. Builds character. To often you see kids getting brand new cars from mommy and daddy. But what do they learn from that? Nothing. Good on you for sticking with it. I'm glad your almost back together this go around.


IG @Oxford5pointoh
 
#77 · (Edited)
Thanks! I couldn't agree more. I have so many experiences and stories that I will remember for the rest of my life because of this car. Kids nowadays don't get that same bond with their cars. And the experience and knowledge gained from working on it myself has opened a lot of doors for me in engineering too. Not a lot of engineers have ever touched a car which is a bit worrisome but also explains a lot lol

The first test drive will be coming up very soon and we'll see if she still drives right. Really crossing my fingers because if the car doesn't drive straight I'm gonna have to figure that out lol.




I just read through the whole thread. Sorry about your accident but I'm glad you're getting her back together! I like that body style of Mustang and it seems like I never see a nice one, I wouldn't mind finding a "cheap" one to play with.

The black paint on the Trick Flow was awesome. I've had my eye on that plenum and figured I'd go with the natural one but now I think I'll spend the extra $10(?) and get black and do your paint trick as well.
When I got the car it was my least favorite body style and now its actually one of my favorites. I agree you just don't see clean SN95s. That's one of the main reasons I can't let go of my car...its one of the few decent looking ones out there!

It would be fun to get a cheap rust free V6 and do a V8 swap (5.4 probably lol) The V6 has the same bumpers/hood as the GT so you just throw better wheels and lower it and it'll look just as good.

The blacked out one matches the engine bay much better in my opinion. The polished chrome ones stick out to me. Filling the trickflow emblem in was a simple way to make it look much better. I'm not sure why they don't just do that from the factory lol.


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#76 ·
I just read through the whole thread. Sorry about your accident but I'm glad you're getting her back together! I like that body style of Mustang and it seems like I never see a nice one, I wouldn't mind finding a "cheap" one to play with.

The black paint on the Trick Flow was awesome. I've had my eye on that plenum and figured I'd go with the natural one but now I think I'll spend the extra $10(?) and get black and do your paint trick as well.
 
#79 · (Edited)
I've had a very busy couple of weeks. After welding the core support on and painting it, I started putting it all back together. A lot of brackets and hoses needed either replacing or bending to fit properly.

After hooking everything up, I took the car for a test drive to see if it ran okay and still drove straight. It drove perfect, the only issue I noticed was the convertible top seems to be a bit tight when latching it.

The next step was to get the body parts ready for mounting. I was originally going to just mount them with the black primer, but my Dad had some single stage paint that was nearly identical in color to my body color, so we decided to paint both sides (inside and out) rather than just the outside. The whole car is going to get a proper respray once I get a better gun and have the time to do it.

On the new passanger fender, I spent some time welding a patch into the antenna hole and filled it with bondo. It turned out very nicely and seems to be very secure and strong. I love the streamlined look of the car without the antenna.

I installed a new airbag module, clock spring, and airbags that I grabbed off Ebay. They match the interior well, although the brackets that hold the drivers side airbag are a bit broken so that airbag seems to sit a bit too high. Nothing noticeable though.

Now the hood and fenders are mounted and fit pretty dang well considering they are aftermarket and this car has been hit twice. The bumper will go on soon and she will be ready to drive.

One last note, I plan to paint the rear wing a satin black (same black as a Mach 1 spoiler). I think it will look really aggressive and look awesome with the convertible top which is also satin black. I have two spoilers so I am going to do one black and one silver to see which I like more.

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#80 ·
Looking good man. A ton of progress since the accident and your learning all sorts of new skills along the way. Im sure it will be worth it once your back to driving it again.

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#81 ·
The car is back on the road driving. Interestingly enough, the color I painted the front end parts was just a random cheap single stage silver from Napa that looked close to my color, and you cant even tell its a different color. Of course in the near future it is going to be completely repainted, but I just didn't want to be driving around with half my car just primed.

It drives straight and feels just as solid as it did before, there's a few little noises it makes here and there that annoy me but nothing serious.

The aftermarket body parts line up surprisingly well. Of course the fenders needed some convincing to get them to line up right, but overall they are pretty good. Most of the panel gaps are better than they were before. The car had been in a front end collision previously and whoever did the body work did poor quality work so I did it right this time and everything is nice and even and lining up right. Also, I have pretty much fallen in love with the Cobra R hood.

And the pics are my car and my friend's '99 Cobra.

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#85 · (Edited)
First off, I would like to say it's a shame that Photobucket has essentially destroyed any value this thread has with their P500 error thing and removing all my pictures.

But the main reason for this reply is that I have an update on the car. And it's a big update- the car is finally cammed! My "dream mods" in the original post I listed cams as a dream mod and it's finally done.

I went with a CMS Stage 2 N/A cam with Ford GT rockers. Put CMS stage 2 springs and new valve seals in with it. I degreed it and have no issues so far other than a leaking valve cover gasket (no surprise here, those gaskets are nearly impossible to get on).

Here's a video of her idling, let me know what you think!
CMS Stage 2 Cams
 
#87 ·
It probably is, I set it to some arbitrary higher RPM (I think 900) to keep it idling. Still waiting on an updated tune from Bama. Eventually it will be dyno tuned as well.

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#88 ·
Sounds good! I am sure it is exciting to have accomplished a mod you never thought you would actually get done! Also very satisfying...

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#90 ·
Car PI swapped? I hope so, I know some companies don't even want to make the cams for the NPI cars even though they sell them. As MHS.

And the valve cover gaskets are simple to put on. Stick them in the freezer for a hour or two. Your welcome.

Car does sound good though


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#91 ·
Thanks everyone, glad you guys like how she sounds!




Yeah it's got an early '01 PI engine swapped in. I definitely wouldn't have bothered doing the cams on a non-PI engine.

And I never thought of that before with the gaskets, I'll have to try that next time! I ended up being able to fix the leak pretty easily.

And thanks! I need to get the car tuned so it idles right though.



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