Hello all, Ive had my foxbody for about 2 years now and it happens to be my first car. When I purchased it it was basically stock except for headers and exhaust and an msd distributor. Once I got some stuff handled for it to pass inspection (cats, tailpipes, new tires, new battery, new windsheild) I took my drivers test and I havent lifted since.
Obviously one of the first things I did with the car was to take it to the track and get a good baseline number so I knew where the stock mustang was starting. The first pass I didnt build any revs of the line and I let the old AOD do its thing and it went 15.4 @91 which was better than I was expecting. The second pass I could only hold it at 1500rpm before the rear brakes started slipping and I manually shifted the trans doing the AOD shuffle which gave me my best time of 14.8 @92.
So I live in South Jersey and alot of my buddies are into mudding so naturally the fox has ended up off road on more than one occasion. With the stock ride height it handles whoops and deep sand surprisingly good as long as you keep your speed up. Taking this thing whizzing through tight trails at 40-50 with trees within a few feet from the fenders really sparked my passion for rallying.
For those familiar with Jersey this is apple pie hill in Wharton State forest
This car got me through my senior year in highschool with no problems whatsoever. The summer before my freshman year of college I was driving a friend home from a party and the trans started to slip really bad. When we got to his house I pulled in the driveway, he got out, I went to leave and the car wouldnt go in reverse. The first thing i thought to do was put it in neutral but it wouldnt disengage from park unless i put it in drive and this was an issue because it was a one car driveway with a fence on oneside and a tree on the other so I couldnt do a u-turn in the yard. I really didnt want to have to spend the money on a tow truck and I figured if I could get it out of the driveway i could drive it home so naturally I disconnected the driveshaft. After about an hour of wrestling with rusty ass bolts it came off and I rolled it into the street, bolted it back on and drove 10 miles home stuck in first gear. The next day I pulled my first trans and sent it off to be rebuilt.
Once the trans was sorted I started making small improvements to the car and fixing some of the things that annoyed me. The first thing was the nasty steering wheel shake and really bad NVH. I kind of figured the rear shocks were blown from all the off-roading and drifting and such so I started there. I picked up some Koni ST.RT shocks and struts. I expected the ride quality to be a little better and maybe it would handle a little better but holy . Going from stock struts with the rears blown out to a decent set made this thing hook and ride so much smoother and I didnt know how bad I was really torturing myself with the stock set. This got rid of about 80% of the NVH. I then got a set of solid steering rack bushings which got rid of alot of the steering shake. After I save up some more Im going to replace the steering shaft with a MM one to eliminate the rag joint and Im going to replace the ball joints and all the control arm bushings front and rear when I go for lowering springs. This should get the car riding really well and I can focus on the body work and building a motor to throw in it.
These are some sketches for what I want the car to look like. I really like foxes with fender flares and I want a wide square stance so itll make fitting wide tires much easier. As for wheels I want at least a 9-10" wide rim so I can have a nice wide tire and Im leaning towards Weld Draglites or an 03-04 black Cobra rim. This is going to be a street car so Im going to build it that way. No coilovers or converting it to a three link or LS swapping it because its just not necessary for what Id use the car for. A clean simple foxbody that can keep up with 90% of the cars on the street is all I want out of this thing. So thats the story of my fox and my plans for it. Thanks for reading all the way through if you even got this far lol
Obviously one of the first things I did with the car was to take it to the track and get a good baseline number so I knew where the stock mustang was starting. The first pass I didnt build any revs of the line and I let the old AOD do its thing and it went 15.4 @91 which was better than I was expecting. The second pass I could only hold it at 1500rpm before the rear brakes started slipping and I manually shifted the trans doing the AOD shuffle which gave me my best time of 14.8 @92.
So I live in South Jersey and alot of my buddies are into mudding so naturally the fox has ended up off road on more than one occasion. With the stock ride height it handles whoops and deep sand surprisingly good as long as you keep your speed up. Taking this thing whizzing through tight trails at 40-50 with trees within a few feet from the fenders really sparked my passion for rallying.
For those familiar with Jersey this is apple pie hill in Wharton State forest
This car got me through my senior year in highschool with no problems whatsoever. The summer before my freshman year of college I was driving a friend home from a party and the trans started to slip really bad. When we got to his house I pulled in the driveway, he got out, I went to leave and the car wouldnt go in reverse. The first thing i thought to do was put it in neutral but it wouldnt disengage from park unless i put it in drive and this was an issue because it was a one car driveway with a fence on oneside and a tree on the other so I couldnt do a u-turn in the yard. I really didnt want to have to spend the money on a tow truck and I figured if I could get it out of the driveway i could drive it home so naturally I disconnected the driveshaft. After about an hour of wrestling with rusty ass bolts it came off and I rolled it into the street, bolted it back on and drove 10 miles home stuck in first gear. The next day I pulled my first trans and sent it off to be rebuilt.
Once the trans was sorted I started making small improvements to the car and fixing some of the things that annoyed me. The first thing was the nasty steering wheel shake and really bad NVH. I kind of figured the rear shocks were blown from all the off-roading and drifting and such so I started there. I picked up some Koni ST.RT shocks and struts. I expected the ride quality to be a little better and maybe it would handle a little better but holy . Going from stock struts with the rears blown out to a decent set made this thing hook and ride so much smoother and I didnt know how bad I was really torturing myself with the stock set. This got rid of about 80% of the NVH. I then got a set of solid steering rack bushings which got rid of alot of the steering shake. After I save up some more Im going to replace the steering shaft with a MM one to eliminate the rag joint and Im going to replace the ball joints and all the control arm bushings front and rear when I go for lowering springs. This should get the car riding really well and I can focus on the body work and building a motor to throw in it.
These are some sketches for what I want the car to look like. I really like foxes with fender flares and I want a wide square stance so itll make fitting wide tires much easier. As for wheels I want at least a 9-10" wide rim so I can have a nice wide tire and Im leaning towards Weld Draglites or an 03-04 black Cobra rim. This is going to be a street car so Im going to build it that way. No coilovers or converting it to a three link or LS swapping it because its just not necessary for what Id use the car for. A clean simple foxbody that can keep up with 90% of the cars on the street is all I want out of this thing. So thats the story of my fox and my plans for it. Thanks for reading all the way through if you even got this far lol