Progress Thread 2001 Bullitt #265 - Build Thread (LOTS OF PICS)

[MineralMan]

Awesome work so far, I'm liking what you've done to date!
I have a quick question that I'm hoping you or someone else here on the forum can answer. Do you know if the catalytic converter mid pipe you bought from RockAuto would fit a 1996 4V Cobra? RockAuto only has one listing for my car, and it's been out of stock forever. I would like to run cats on my car, but they're hard to find here. I've read that the mid pipes are interchangeable between the V8 SN95s, but I'd like to get some confirmation of that.
Again, looking great!

Steve

Honestly, I do not know for sure if it would be compatible. I'm guessing not, since most places that sell cats for the Stang show a difference between the 96-98 4V and the 99-04 2V/4V engines.

Are you in California or a state that requires California emissions? If you are in CA, you'll need 50-state legal and those have seriously jumped in price:

https://lmr.com/item/MPE-441112/mustang-cobra-magnaflow-catted-x-pipe-50-state-legal-96-98

If you are not in california, and just want to have cats on your car, there are a few options here:

https://lmr.com/products/94-04-Mustang-H-Pipes-X-Pipes

 

[MineralMan]

Sound System Updates

Well, I got an little unexpected bonus at work for completion of a project. I decided to splurge and throw a few upgrades in the sound department. From the factory, it has the non-Mach 460 AM/FM/CD/Cassette head unit. The door speakers had been replaced at some point with Pioneer speakers, but the rear shelf speakers were the original factory speakers.

Original

Upgrades

I went with an ATOTO A6 Performance head unit from Amazon. It's a simple Android based head unit. I've got an ATOTO in my Magnum SRT8. I primarily want it for Apple Car Play. This dual DIN head unit is very compact in depth compared to the factory head unit.

For speakers, I went with Kenwood 6x9 speakers all around.

Installed

I ended up having to try two different install kits. The first one wouldn't fit around the screen size, and the second one did only after some modifications. But now it's installed looks pretty decent. The sound is pretty good. I'm not trying to build a huge system, just wanted some upgrades for Apple Car Play and some decent speakers. Its clear that the older speakers had deteriorated. Sounds better now.

There are also USB ports that hook into the back to allow me to hook up a USB drive for music. The kit I got came with a rear view camera. I plugged everything into the back, but haven't run the wires or installed the camera on the back yet.

 

[MineralMan]

SVE FR500 Steering Wheel

I've had this sitting around in the garage for about a year, and finally decided to get around to installing it. It's the SVE FR500 Steering wheel from LMR. The old wheel held up surprisingly well. Based on what I've seen of some Mustang wheels in the junkyards, you'd be hard pressed to guess this steering wheel has 189K miles on it.

Here are some side by side comparisons of the wheel diameters. The wheel I got was the Dark Charcoal wheel. The color match is pretty close, I think the FR500 wheel may be just a tad darker than the stock wheel.

Using a steering wheel puller I rented from O'Reilly's made getting the wheel off a breeze.

Swapping over everything from the old wheel to the new one was pretty simple. I did have to slightly elongate the lower holes in each of the cruise control buttons to get them to line up with the new wheel's frame.

As the book always says, "installation is reverse of removal".

The new wheel feels really great. I love the added thickness of the new wheel. Definitely a worthy upgrade.

 

[PULMEOVR]

This was awesome to follow!

Are you going to eventually paint the entire car?

 

[MineralMan]

This was awesome to follow!

Are you going to eventually paint the entire car?

Yeah, eventually the exterior will be updated. I'm starting on the body work now, with a few custom touches that i want to add.

 

[MineralMan]

Custom BULLITT CONCEPT Rear Bumper - Part 1

I know it's been a while for updates, but I have been slowly working on a project that I had been contemplating for a while. When I saw photos of the Bullitt Concept car (that previewed the 2001 Bullitt), I noticed that the rear bumper also previewed the overall shape of the 03/04 Cobra rear bumpers. The main differences being that the lower portion is body color and it had MUSTANG embossed into it instead of COBRA.

Since I pulled the shaved 03/04 bumper from the GT to put on the Bullitt, I decided I wanted to try and replicate this concept bumper. I've never seen another New Edge with that done before.

Fabrication

I started by removing the embossed MUSTANG from the factory Bullitt bumper. My first mockup had the MUSTANG centered left/right as well as top/bottom. But that didn't look quite right compared to the concept, so I moved it upwards a bit.

I then cut out the center of the bumper and then plastic welded parts of the removed section to provide support and stability on the backside.

The insert was hot stapled in, and then the edges were reinforced with wire mesh and plastic welded together.

Here you can see that the final placement is about 1" higher than originally planned. All the joining and support from the backside is now done, now on to filling and smoothing.

 

[MineralMan]

Custom BULLITT CONCEPT Rear Bumper - Part 2

Filling & Smoothing

The bulk of the filling and contouring was done with SEM Plastic Repair. It took a few passes with this step to really get the contours right, especially at the bottom. The stock Bullitt bumper has slightly more curve to it at the bottom of the letters compared to the Cobra bumper.

The rough filling is now completed.

At this point there was still lots of waviness to the joined areas. I wasn't sure if it was gonna turn out the way I was hoping. But, trust in the process. Next up came more refined filling & smoothing with Eastwood Flexible Body Filler. I masked off the embossed letters as I didn't want to get any of this within those recesses.

Sanded down with a DA sander 150 grit.

More filling and lots of sanding by hand.

Another coat of primer and things are starting to look good. The bulk of the work is done, just need to do some minor finishing work on the rest of the bumper before the entire thing will be primed. Then comes the rest of the body work now.

 

[MineralMan]

Time for another 6 month update on the Bullitt work.

Vinyl Wrap vs. Paint Job

Now that I've started some of the body mods, I was mulling over whether to do a full paint job on it or do a vinyl wrap on it. I have wrapped my Magnum in the past, and have done several stripes over many of my cars. With the Bullitt, I would want to keep it as close to the Dark Highland green as possible. I ordered up a few samples, and I was able to find a color that to me was really close to the DHG of the Bullitt so when it is ready, I will be doing a wrap on the car.

The color I chose is Orafol Gloss Fir Green Metallic. When looking at these photos, it's the rear most sample towards the door. The matte color (KPMF Matte Platinum Dark Sage) also looked good, but maybe slightly too dark and I don't want to have to deal with the care and maintenance of a matte finish (at least not now).

Body Work

As you can see from all the photos, the exterior paint is really rough. All of those problems will show through the vinyl wrap, so I still have to prep the car for a smooth finish. So far I've tacked the trunk, the rear quarter panels, and I've started on the hood.

 

[MineralMan]

New Fender And De-Badging

The left front fender had been in a previous accident, and was banged out pretty good by my dad to fix it, but it had never been fully repainted. I wanted to have a clean OEM fender with no dents, so I went to the junkyard and found a decent fender.

After a good cleaning, it had some serious swirl marks and an extra Ford oval badge. Both the badges were removed.

Going for an subtle OEM+ look for mods, I wanted to smooth the front fenders of the badges. I secured a piece of metal mesh behind the holes for the fender badges, and using some bondo smoothed over the holes.

I also did the same to the trunk lid where the Ford oval mounted.

I also removed the front fender splash shields and gave them a good cleaning a coat of bumper/trim paint to freshen them up.

 

[MineralMan]

10-14 S197 Mirrors

Another subtle OEM+ mod is with the side mirrors. The New Edge mirrors are kinda meh with their black housing, and I didn't want to pay the $600+ for Terminator/40th Ann. side mirrors with their ability to fold and the body colored mirror caps. I saw a post on FB in one of the New Edge groups someone had installed S197 mirrors on their car, specifically from the 10-14 year models. Figured I could give that a try.

The angle of the mirror housing is damn close to the New Edge. I just had to modify the mirror mounting on the door slightly (elongated a couple holes, drilled in a new one, and then had to clip off the guide pins from the new mirror. Bolts up and holds to the door nicely. Right now they are unpowered, I haven't yet made the wiring connections to make them power.

Comparison of the mounts:

Made a template for the door to mark where I needed to drill and modify.

After lots of fiddling and minor adjustments, the final hacks of the mirror mounting base

After final assmebly

Comparison of the S197 (driver's side) and the New Edge (pass. side)

Passenger Side completed

 

[gkomo]

Solid project, nice work!

 

[MineralMan]

Wrapping

I had some time off from work during the holidays, so while battling a cold I also was able to make some good progress on wrapping the Bullitt. The color I chose is Orafol Gloss Fir Tree Green metallic. This was the closest that I could find to the Dark Highland Green. It is a little lighter than the factory color, but really close. In the pics below you will be able to see the color difference. Keep in mind that my original paint is faded, sunburnt, clearcoat burnt, etc.

This is a good comparison shot of the wrap vs. the faded paint. The roof is done, but the A-pillar is still unwrapped.

The trunk was done in 6 separate pieces. This shows three of them (behind the plate, and each side). Not shown is underneath the trunk lip where the lights are.

5th piece...

And 6th piece, fully wrapped.

The next few show the progression from just a big sheet of vinyl....

... to initially removing the backing paper...

... to the front of the quarter panel done....

... to fully completed.

Another color comparison

 

[MineralMan]

Had to pull her out of the garage for a progress check in the daylight. She looks really good. Not perfect (i have a few little dust spots underneath), but she looks way better than she did when I first got her.

These shots show off the S197 color matched mirrors and the shaved fender emblems (no more GT badges)

All that's left to do are the bumpers, rocker panels, and the hood scoop. I hope to get those done this weekend.

 

[MineralMan]

Wrap Completed

I've finally finished the wrapping of the car, and started reassembly. Took her out to take a few photos. There are still some details left to do. I still need to install the Bullitt badge on the trunk and reinstall the Bullitt gas cap. The interior still needs reassembly as well.

I installed new OEM-style headlights, and new LED fog lights from an S550 Mustang GT (installed with brackets from Venom Prototyping).

 

[gkomo]

Looks like it turned out great!

 

[RussGT01]

Bummer! I'd put in a ACT flywheel and good clutch. I also like the MGW shifter (multiple adjustments). jmo

I love my MGW shifter as well! I think it's one of the best ones on the market, I like how it's spring loaded for 3rd gear you just push straight forward and hit it every time!!

 

[gkomo]

I’ve only ever used MGW shifters and love them.