1994 Saleen S351 coupe in purple?

1320stang

Founding Member
Nov 13, 1998
4,329
22
89
Edmond, Oklahoma
A friend has offered me a rolling shell of what is supposed to be a purple S351. The insides of the doors are teal, but the rest of the car initially looks to be purple. Trying to figure out if its a repaint. And no, I didn't take pictures as my phone was in the truck. It does not appear to be wrecked, it was a manual car and it has all the windows and no rust. He got it for the hood, bumpers and ground effects. I now find out they only made 46 cars in '94, the build date on the car is 10/93. I just did some research online but didn't find any breakdowns of colors and transmissions offered. It may just be a regular Mustang with the Saleen stuff on it The fenders are some weird fiberglass units.
 
  • Sponsors (?)


@95steedamustang may be able to help, do you have the vin number? With that low a number produced, if it is accurate, there has to be a registry or some way to verify.
There is one and only one s-351 in Sapphire purple. It is a N/A 351 car located in TX. This one would be a fake most likely but yes. Consult the Saleen book. But I have the vin number on the Sapphire 95 when I passed on buying
 
  • Useful
Reactions: 1 user
Well this car is in Oklahoma, and definitely a 1994 model based on the 10/93 Ford sticker. So I'll try and get the VIN next time I'm out there. I looked for a number on the bumper but it was pretty rough and although the frame looked great and non crashed, the bumper may have seen some low impact damage. Where is the interior badge with the Saleen number located? I was always a fan of the Fox bodied cars but when Team RRR came out, I liked those too. I just looked for replacement parts, whooo-wheee, they're pricey. The inner fenders in front of the strut towers have silver sharpie marks like someone was going to cut them out for some twins. It didn't have a wing, but I forgot to check the decklid for holes. I was originally kicking around the idea of a drag car, but was thinking of maybe trying to bring it back. Do you know if the '94 cars had cloth or leather interior? Or could it be either? The front swaybar seemed pretty beefy, was it larger diameter than a regular Mustang?
 
Saw the firewall tag, but it didn't have a serial number. It looked a bit like the '89-'90 dash tag in that it was squarish and had the stylized S logo and I think Saleen on the bottom. It appeared aluminum with the black silkscreen logo. Didn't see one on the console but I don't remember if the console was in it or not. He took the picture and sent it to me, he's an old....

Looks to be 1FALP42T5RF113773, 1FA = Ford USA, L = Active Safety Belts, 1st gen airbags, P42 2 door coupe, GT, T = 5.0 HO, if a S351 they would have replaced the engine anyways, trans too? 5 = Vin check, R = 1994, F = Dearborn, 113773 = 13773rd car from Dearborn.

I think the color is NA which would be Deep Forest Green Metallic. JA is Sapphire Blue, JU is Deep Violet Metallic, no code for Sapphire Purple, could NA mean not applicable in this case? The inside of the doors were Teal which is RD.

DSO is 52, Dallas. Body is GT2 or GTZ? Interior Trim looks like 24 or 26? R looks like H or M? Axle is Z = 3.08 Limited Slip. Trans appears to be 5 = T5OD, the only other thing close is K = TR-3650, but I think its 5. Not sure what the JH55 after it is, but come to think of it, those 5's don't look like the other 5, maybe it is a K?

If they replaced the engine (some reference the S351's being built from V6 or V8 cars) its possible the trans was replaced too, would they also repaint cars?

To be clear, I'm not trying to prove its a Saleen, I think its a Faleen, I just want to be sure.
saleen.jpeg
 
Well I was told to provide the VIN and that someone had access to the VIN numbers that were Saleen's.

I told my friend to hold up on taking the Saleen parts off the car until I can get it confirmed it is, or isn't one.
Just trying to preserve the heritage of the car if it is. I don't think he'd want to restore it, but someone else may.
I have no idea what its worth, usually with Mustang's I see what a restored example is collectively going for, pick
a spot in the middle and back out the costs of parts, materials and labor. That gets into the ballpark.

If its not one, I plan on taking the rolling shell for a future project, maybe even a Faleen.
 
If nothing else, I was hoping some of the details I recall would trigger someone (that knew) to say, nope, not real (obviously, everyone is triggered by something these days, lol). I'm leaning towards it being fake, someone got parts off a wrecked '94-'98 and put them on this car. A buddy has a yellow '95GT that he hit a gator that a truck in front of him tossed up on an interstate, got it rolling and it slapped his front bumper and hood, cracking both (car was pretty new at the time). He worked at a Ford dealership and ended up getting a Cobra front bumper and hood for the car, eventually getting a rear bumper as well. The car has bigs and little Pro Stars on it. It looks cool, but he doesn't pretend its a Cobra.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
Actually we do in far SE Oklahoma, but tractor trailer treads are referred to in passing as "Gators". In his case, it was a tread with no sidewalls, the tractor trailer in front of him ran over it at night, flipped it up and got it rolling. He saw something, but couldn't tell until it was too late and there was another vehicle next to him so he couldn't swap lanes.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user