Progress Thread “Rising from Ashes 2” 95 Saleen S-351 build

95steedamustang

I tend to be on the ocd side…
SN Certified Technician
Apr 22, 2009
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East TN
Well, many on here are familiar with my 94 Cobra build thread which started off with my original car burning to the ground and rebuild has been ongoing.
This car has quiet a different story. It’s had a rough life as well and will be getting the whole package rebuild by my shop.
The car is a 95 Saleen S-351 #85. It was a T-code package car and was 1 of 1 from Saleen...but there are a lot of 1 of 1 cars lol! The car came up for sale in 2016 and was just outside Nashville TN. I had quiet a few people ask me about it and I advised them to stay away for it because it was a basket case of parts and I knew it was going to be an extensive project. Against my better judgement a customer of mine bought the car and asked me to pick it up. Which I did... he asked me what I would do and I came up with a plan and have been building it since. No surprise the project ran out of money and so I ended up just buying it last month and will be continuing the build as one of my personal cars. Below are some pics from before I picked up the car.
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Wow. Duct tape on the roof is the icing on the cake. That poor car has lived a very unloved life.

Will this be a restoration, or will you be going more custom on this one as well?
 
Wow. Duct tape on the roof is the icing on the cake. That poor car has lived a very unloved life.

Will this be a restoration, or will you be going more custom on this one as well?
Thanks! Yea. The duct tape is only the beginning of crazy stuff.
This will be more of a mix of restoration and build. My goal is to build a modern day S-351 that’s slicker, handles better and has more power than the original
 
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This S-351 will be getting all the Saleen options it started life with and then some. However some of the options/parts have disappeared or been replaced with dumb stuff. So these two items will be a guide thru this build
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I'm a big s351 fan having owned a black saleen xp8.
Not sure for me it gets any better for the 94-98 range than a black s351 vert.
Some serious neglect on this car, which I just don't understand but glad someone is going to fix it.
 
I'm a big s351 fan having owned a black saleen xp8.
Not sure for me it gets any better for the 94-98 range than a black s351 vert.
Some serious neglect on this car, which I just don't understand but glad someone is going to fix it.
Same here. Big Saleen fan. I own a model
From every body style.
This car was owned by a true enthusiast to start with but when a shop that I won’t name blew the car up, it started a downhill slide from there until I got it when it had reached rock bottom. But it’s a 2 owner car and had 52,xxx original miles and had never been wrecked or repainted.