Fivespeedsteed's Build Thread

fivespeedsteed

Dirt-Old 20+Year Member
Oct 17, 2003
747
18
69
Richmond, VA
so i finally decided id make one of these. its going to be slow, but steady work from here out. im getting ready to do my 5 lug this summer, and next summer i plan on redoing the motor. i bought this car with 82k on it in 2005 on july 4th. it had sat in a garage for 10 years and had 1000 miles put on it during that time.

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i fixed a bunch of random things, and got it painted the original light titanium frost without the titanium lower accent, and got lx tails.

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thats about how its looked for the past while. nothings really changed. ive got a bunch of billet stuff in the interior (shifter bezel, window/dl switches, coat hangers, door handle bezels, ac knobs) mgw short throw shifter, griggs full length subframe connectors, flow master force 2 catback ( 3 chamber) K&N air filter, tokico blue shocks and struts, FRPP c springs, 76mm c&l mass air meter and inlet tube, and new headlights now with the american muscle 9004 dual beam hid kit.

over winter break at school i was visiting my girl friend in northern va and i rearended a dude. he swore to me he wasnt going to make a claim, because his bumper was only scuffed, and he somehow got a 1300 dollar claim. this is the damage from that, with the new headlights in.

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camera makes them look green

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i just finished painting this sucker last night ( tihs is before paint)

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armor all ultra is great

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so this summer i plan on pulling the front bumper off, getting it repainted, and i cant decide if i want to do the rear one or not. its cracked in the bottom right hand corner

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and has 2 small liscence plate bolt scratches
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and im getting ready to paint the trim. should i do the quarter window molding too?

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and this is my 5 lug stuff i have acquired so far.

my friend gave me 2 bullits (oem 17x8) with 2 bfg gforce kdws on them for free and i bought another 2 offline from a guy on corral for 160 shipped i believe, one of them is a lighter color however, so one day i think im just going to sell mine and get 17x9 ones.

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moog balljoints and gear oil (other quart is in the jeep) where do you find friction modifier?

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95 calipers ( 22 dollars)

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95 spindles and hubs (50 or so dollars) and new wearever rotors, and gold pads for now.

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and i just ordered my control arm bushings with shells (prothane) and the passenger side brake line adapter off latemodel, so once they get here i have everything i need to complete the front, 2 of those bullits have tires, then i have the rest for doing the front. heading back to the junkyard to get ranger / aerostar rear stuff , and then gotta get 2 more tires.

so thats all she wrote for now, i cant wait to get this car 5 lugged. the most annoying thing i need to fix is the dash board gauge pod tabs that are broken. i plan on emplpying 94gtho to help me

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thanks for your help in this swap in advance matt.

anyone else who sees soimething im missing give me a holler. comments are welcome.

i came up with the idea for the thread of everyones build thread, im glad i finally have smoe work ahead of me to justify my own.
 
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car looks great, its coming along nicely, i think the single tone color is much better than the original, however one recommendation would be a spell check... lol :nice:

Firefox spell checks as you go. :nice:


The one tone looks so much better; my car is a paint clone of yours, but it's still two tone. Don't get me wrong, I love the two tone GT's, but two shades of silver looks dumb to me.

You might as well get a new rear bumper while you're at it, well the crack isn't too bad... I wonder if stuff like that can be repaired?
 
Firefox spell checks as you go. :nice:


The one tone looks so much better; my car is a paint clone of yours, but it's still two tone. Don't get me wrong, I love the two tone GT's, but two shades of silver looks dumb to me.

You might as well get a new rear bumper while you're at it, well the crack isn't too bad... I wonder if stuff like that can be repaired?

sounds like a good excuse for a cobra bumper
 
so today my friend and i pulled the control arms off and gave them to my friend. hes finishing up putting the moog bj's and prothane bushings in now, im gonna wake up around 10 i guess and go get them and start reassembly of the front. anyone know how to put control arms in? with nothing but the 2 big bolts in it is kinda spring loaded to go up, do you tighten the ca bolts down with it horizontal? do i need to get a torque wrench and torque them or just tighten them?
 
so today my friend and i pulled the control arms off and gave them to my friend. hes finishing up putting the moog bj's and prothane bushings in now, im gonna wake up around 10 i guess and go get them and start reassembly of the front. anyone know how to put control arms in? with nothing but the 2 big bolts in it is kinda spring loaded to go up, do you tighten the ca bolts down with it horizontal? do i need to get a torque wrench and torque them or just tighten them?

just make sure the bolts are tightened at where the control arms would sit at ride height, i would torque the bolts but thats just me
 
over on corral someone told me i could use the fox lines for the 95 calipers, but that wasnt right. i had to run to the junkyard after a quick call to cauley set me straight. everything in the front is together, all i have to do is get a ride to the shop i was working on it at, grease the bj's put the tires on and go. brakes are bled and all. woo. pics later maybe, might just wait till im all done. friday ill be ordering my tires i hope.
 
oh is that the difference? i didnt know that. yeah one of them is lighter for sure, its got a bodyshop sticker on it. oh well im using these to get me through an inspection, then im gonna try to get 17x9's and nice tires.
 
are you using that one 03-04? we could swap and id give in some money too. that way youd have 3 matching instead of 2 and 1, and id have 4 instead of 3. food for thought. PM me


okay so i got the front 5 lug all finished up today, took a few days of working. only thing i didnt have off the bat were the 95 soft lines. had everything else. im not sure how i like the 95 calipers on the stock master cyl. and brake booster, but it stopped just fine on the way home, with allot of pedal play. i mean i can push the pedal down to about an inch and a half off the floor. when i bled them we only filled up half a water bottle with junk fluid so im probably going to bleed the hell out of them later on. do i need to do the back ones too?

now for the confusing stuff, when it was done with the steering wheel straight the passenger side was dead on looking, then the driver one was pointed way in. so today i spun the driver side tie rod out probably about 3/4 inches and its eyeball straight, it drove home fine, just with the wheel off center.
but when you look at it the driver one is cambered in, and lower ride height than the passenger side,
DRIVER:
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PASSENGER:
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which is cambered about perfect but has a higher ride height. im not sure if the spring ever settled down into the perch in the control arm, i cant tell with it all assembled. the camber plate on the strut towers has always been different,

DRIVER:
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see how the metal thing is in the middle hole?

PASSENGER:
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that ones in the far right hole.

im just going to wait to get an alignment i guess.
would it be okay to do it now with the back still a 4 lug, then do the 5 lug in the rear (ranger/aerostar axles and drums) or should i get all 4 corners 5 lugged then take it?

totally worth it:
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i need to decide if i should track down a 03-04 or just get crap tires for now and then get 17x9s all the way around.

thanks guys. keith you have been a huge help, and i really appreciate it. you have driven around plenty on a 95 caliper and line car with the v8 fox master cyl and booster? that makes me feel better about it.

25th i knew you would chime in about you not liking 17 inch bullits, im glad you think mine look decent. right now my goal is to get through inspection and be able to drive it, then ill worry about changing up wheels and such
 
so today i picked up a set of 04 bullitts off a guy on corral. 200 bucks for 4 03-04 wheels, one doesent have clear on it, he sold them to his friend and he started to strip them to paint em black before he bought them back, ones got some curbage, and they all 4 have htrz II's on them with less than 10k miles and they'll pass inspection. so im gonna use the best 4 of the eight i have, and ill either sell the other 4 mixmatched ones i have (1 01-02 wheel, one without clear, and one with curbage) one by one or just strip them all and get them polished and keep track tires on them. but id prolly want 17x9s for that. heres all my bullitts and a picture of my familys 8 month old 80 pound lab, and the dash i just fixed the broken tabs for finally.

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hey man u said that ur gauge cluster is broken? Well actually the left hand mounting tab on my dash is broken, wher the housing screws in, so I cant tighten down that
screw=-(. Im talking about the two top screws that secure the cluster housing to the dash. ANY idea how I could go bout fixing the broken part on the dash?
 
Make a L bracket from some metal and secure it to a non broken part of the dash. Once its secured, drill the appropriate holes and use some u nuts with the original screws.

I plan on doing this when I put my new cluster in.