1996 Mustang GT Build (Ew to New)

[Levi.Productions]

Figured I should start a thread for my mustang project. We start our adventure last summer, when I had gotten my licence a few months ago. I had been given my grandpas old honda pilot (mainly for insurance purposes I normally drive my dad's truck) and was given the ok from my parents to sell the pilot and buy a project or different car. A week later, the car was sold and I had $1600 CAD to work with. Browsing local listings I came across this GT for 2100 dollars. In my area, it was the cheapest GT, probably the cheapest V8 overall. My dad and I went to take a look at it. She was in much worse condition than the single picture made it look in the listing, but ended up talking the seller down to $1850. The experience of taking that good ol' mustang down the road with my dad and laughing our butts off as we listened to the obnoxious bass thump from the SUB in the back is something I will remember for the rest of my life.

To list some of the immediate issues of the car:
The roof and hood had damage, flew off on the highway and damaged both. They were poorly bondoed and repaired
Tires are basically bare, one is leaking and the cobra emblem of one rim is cracked
Door panels were not on, but they had them (rough condition)
one window will not roll down
AC blows but does not blow cold or out of the vents
paint is rough in many places, some cracking bondo too
"aftermarket" exhaust was leaking
pedal covers missing
front seats mismatched

and a bunch more small things that I could list.
HOWEVER I saw the potential, not to mention my desire to learn how to repair and work on cars. So we bought the car

July 25, My first car became a 1996 Mustang GT

 

[Levi.Productions]

First few pictures of the car once I got it cleaned up a bit. Looks pretty good from a distance!

 

[Levi.Productions]

Once i got the car home I drove it around town for most of the summer just enjoying the car as it was. Once fall set in I began prepping for my first mod; exhaust. I decided to hit us Tdot performance as they are based in Canada (horrible mistake by the way) With the exhaust ordered I started removing the exhaust system as it was still leaking. Welp, the header bolts snapped. turns out the PREVIOUS owner had snapped the bolts when he deleted the cats, then WELDED threads back onto the studs. Needless to say, this is what was causing the leak and the bolts snapped with hardly any force. I got the old exhaust pulled off but had no luck getting what was left of the studs out. The plan is to do new headers anyways (maybe longtubes) so the bolts are not a worry. Car is currently in the garage with no exhaust, I have the exhaust system but no X pipe. TDOT took over three months with no updates on the xpipe I bough so I ended up getting a refund. Gonna be getting an X pipe here soon I'm just still on the fence on whether to go with LongTube headers seeing as the stock ones are getting replaced.