JCBeaver's 1993 GT Coyote Swap "The Never-Ending Project"

[JCBeaver]

Hello Mustang brothers!

My name is Jarvis and I have a 93 Mustang GT that I am doing a resto-mod build on. I have been wanting to do this build log for some time now so I can have something on the net I can refer to on the net and I finally am getting to it now! I suppose we could call this some kind of a "mild" build; I will keep this thread updated as we progress forward and I would love to get any pointers/feedback from anybody. Questions are more than welcome. I would like to think I went through a lot with this car.. At times I wanted to burn it down, but right now I am so close to making it 100% road-worthy so I am rather excited!

I am based in San Diego, CA. Just moved here 3 months ago after spending 11 years in the DMV(DC, MD, VA) area. Very very happy to be here. I am a DIYer - I try to do everything myself before I resort to any professional. I think I am quite handy, however, I do not have any welding skills yet. Working on it. I usually leave the engine work to the pro's, and pretty much do everything else myself when possible.

I got my 1993 GT in January 2017 from the second owner in Virginia when I worked and lived in DC. The car was in Hawaii from 94 to 2012 with the first owner who was a military guy. It came back into the CONUS in 2012 and got sold to this 2nd owner. The car is mostly un-molested when I got it - only had the 5 lug upgrade with rear disk brakes done to it along with some random wheels. Everything including smog, A/C, etc were all intact and functioning. Unfortunately, I have pretty much molested the car to death by now. The car was inoperable for most of the time over the past 2.5 years, but I was able to log in a few thousand miles in between the times it was on the jack-stands. I absolutely love this car even though it is not the best car out there. I was born in 1990 and I grew up salivating over those foxes; my cousins had some nice hatchbacks when I was a kid. I was sold. I had a 1988 GT back during my college days(2010-2011), however, my budget was limited so I sold it without doing whole lot to it. I would like to think it got a lot more interesting this time around with this 93 GT.

My ultimate goal is to make this fox a daily cornering beast. Straight line speed is fun, but I enjoy carving up turns more. I plan on taking my fox to some auto-x events to have some fun.

Below is a list of what I have done to the car.

Engine/Drivetrain:
Rebuilt 302 bored .020 over
Edelbrock Performer RPM aluminum heads
Custom Grind Mild Anderson Cam
42# injectors
Snow Performance Meth Kit
1.5L Original Kenne Bell w/ 10 psi pulley
Stock T5 World Class Transmission w/ Pro 5.0 Short Shifter
King Cobra Clutch
Complete MM Clutch Cable set up with Firewall Adjuster
MM Solid Steering Shaft
Aluminum Driveshaft
3.55 Gear Ratio Rear End
Fox Length Rear Axles
PIMPXS ECU


Suspension:
Maximum Motorsports K Member
MMTubular Non Offset Arms (moves my front wheels forward by .75")
SN96 Spindles
MM Bolt Through Bumpsteer Kit
Energy Suspension Poly Engine Mounts
MM Front Coilovers with Bilsteins (300 lbs spring rate)
MM 43TA7 Rear Springs (415-515 lbs spring rate)
MM Adjustable Rear Control Arms
2003 Remanufactured Cobra Steering Rack
MM Solid Steering Rack Bushings
MM Full Subframe Connector
MM Strut Brace
MM Sway Bar Relocation Kit


Brakes:
93 Cobra Master Cylinder
93 Cobra Brake Booster
Swapped out the aftermarket brake reservoir with NOS Explorer/V6 Mustang Reservoir(it sits level rather than slanted and that way I can use Motive bleeder tool)
Brembo M-2300-X Front Brake Kit with 13" Rotors
Wilwood Porportioning Valve
11.65" Rear Cobra Rotors
North Racecar Cobra Rear Brake Caliper Brackets
J&M Product Stainless Brake Lines all around

Interior:
Full Black Interior
Dakota Digital Gauge Cluster
Recaro SE Seats (need to be reupholstered)
Dan Carpenter's center console lid with 2 cupholders (FYI, nothing fits in those cupholders SMH)

Exterior:
Smoked Black Headlights
Rolled Fender Lips
Shaved Antenna
Sunroof/Rocker Panel had rust restoration work done last winter by a local body guy in MD. Paint is not the best but will do for now.
93 Cobra Rear Bumper Cover
Cobra Grille Insert
Needs a full body work done down the road

I pretty much did every upgrade myself besides welding the subframe and rebuilding the motor. I had a failed attempt at painting the engine bay. I took up the idea of painting for the first time on my engine bay which was a bad idea considering I did not do a good job. I will live and learn I tried to paint the engine bay with hot rod satin black paint from Eastwood. It is an urethane based paint and I did not lay the paint properly, I think I had too much air coming out of the gun so the paint never was lay down properly - I was doomed from the start. I wanted smooth satin black engine bay, but in the end I got a poorly painted matte satin black. It was a huge learning curve for me doing the paint work all by myself trying to learn how to paint by reading/watching the internet, but it was a good learning experience. I need to practice painting alongside a professional and I need to practice on more minor projects than an engine bay project haha! Nonetheless, it looks good for now, but I am slowly chipping the paint away here and there as I work on the car. I probably will get back to it eventually with smoothed out fenders once I pick up welding skills. Making the car perfect in paint/body work is not my goal for now.

Currently, I am working on getting the tune perfect on the PIMPXS ECU with Tunerstudio. I might call up some help around here with this stuff to get it dialed in 100%. I also recently finished up the MM bumpsteer kit install and now I need to get it aligned then I should be rolling around on the streets again. BTW, I had Eibach Sportline springs before the MM coilovers and their rear springs. If you have sportlines then do me a favor, ditch them as soon as possible. My ride was ty without me realizing it until I had those MM stuff on my car, it drives like a dream! I drove the fox around for some bit last weekend before I tore into it again and wow I sure miss this car!

In some pictures you may see I used to have some old aftermarket parts. Regretfully, I keep upgrading until I create a hole in my wallet.

This is what I have on top of my head for now. I will keep updating this thread as I go along. Hopefully I wont bore you guys!

The day I got her home:

 

[Decipha]

shes a beaut

 

[JCBeaver]

Those projects were completed a few months ago before I moved to San Diego.

 

[JCBeaver]

Painted the engine and installed new sunroof headliner right before I moved out to the west ($100 headliner by smsheadliner on eBay) - One of the best bargains out there

Right before I shipped the car out to CA (May 2019) - did not have the MM K member/Arms and Coil-overs on at the time.

 

[General karthief]

Looking pretty good so far.

 

[JCBeaver]

Short story to my own seats drama:
I originally went with black leather Corbeau seats which I picked up in PA for $900 cash, which was a good deal or so I thought. They retail at $1200 everywhere. I also ordered the Corbeau seat brackets from CJPP. To my horror, I couldn't fit into my fox after I installed them. It was pretty comical, I am only 6'0" with an athletic build, not tall by any means. My knees pressed into the steering wheel before I could even reach the pedals. Naturally, I was disappointed considering I shelled out about $1100 for the set up, but I was fortunate to be able to sell them off within a week. I sold them to a Camaro guy for a $100 profit and shipped the brackets back to CJPP at my cost so it all worked out.

The damned Corbeau Seats:

I did some homework and determined that the old school semi-rare recaro seats were the best bet. Shortly after I sold the Corbeaus, I came across those two Recaro seats for $200 locally. Score? I absolutely love the Recaro SE which is in pretty good shape while the other one will need work.

I needed seat brackets to mate those seats to my fox. I went with Wedge seat brackets and I am quite happy with them so far. Beware, their "lowered" seat brackets will not fit without massaging the transmission tunnel, which I did not want to do. +1 for their customer service: They happily covered the return shipping so they can send me the correct standard brackets. The goal was to clear my knees under the steering wheel - the lowered version sounded nice, but too good to be true. Now with the standard brackets, my right knee barely touches the steering wheel when I switch around between the brake and accelerator pedals - I can work with it for now. Might look into tilt steering wheel in the future if it is not ill-advised. Not too concerned about this for now...

lowered version pictured versus the recaro's seat brackets which still does need the mounting base. They were unbelievably low and got me excited for a bit until they wouldn't clear my transmission tunnel. I was very impressed, but not desperate enough to massage my trans tunnel. If you are taller than I am and desperatey need more height space then I would do it. I dont have pictures of the Wedge's standard brackets. they are very similar to the ones Corbeau's brackets. The seat bracket design is mostly universal.

 

[JCBeaver]

Completed those stuff a couple of months ago a little after the move (June 2019):

Re-painted a few things last weekend:

FYI, I get a lot better results out of $8 "Duplicolor Trim and Bumper Paint" over $15 "SEM 39143 Trim Black". The SEM paint is too matte for my taste. I even tried to lightly sand between coats and they still come out matte/faded to me. I decided to try Duplicolor and wow I wish I did that the first time around. Duplicolor cans gave me nice satin black finish like how factory trim black came out.

The Flickr website compresses the picture so it is hard to tell, but the top trim piece in the picture below is done with Duplicolor while the trim piece on the bottom of the picture is done with SEM. Call me anal if you like haha.

 

[JCBeaver]

Also got the Brembo brake kit and the SS lines installed last weekend:

Brembos will clear 17" 2003 Cobra wheels despite what the description shows everywhere on the net. This has been proven true by a few others already, but just wanted to throw that out there once again.

I bought this Motive one man brake bleeder tool but it sat for like 2 years collecting dust because it does not work on aftermarket reservoirs. I did a wild guess by looking at images all over the internet and got myself a NOS Explorer reservoir (Part #F5TZ-2K478-A) - So stoked to report that it fits on 93 Cobra Master Cylinder! and it barely clears the brake booster. Whoo! Now, I can leave my wife alone in the kitchen HA!

Bonus: The reservoir now sits level with the car while the supplied 93 Cobra reservoir is significantly slanted down. Looks just right now while it looked funny with Cobra Reservoir. I was not able to fill up to the line properly on the cobra one. I guess there are boosters that will angle it upwards but not applicable for mine. Hope this info helps someone else down the road.

NOS Explorer Reservoir:

Old Cobra Reservoir that came with 93 Cobra MC bought from American Muscle (too much angle in it and the Motive bleeder tool wont fit into the neck):

 

[JCBeaver]

Christmas came early for me today

I jumped on TPS Motorsports' reproduction agreement with KB on those 2.1L Blowzilla units. I was told they are going to make only 40 and at the time I ordered, a month ago, they said only 3 units left. I guess they did a successful reproduction considering they started shipping the units late May 2019 and probably is all sold out by now.

I did not get the Flowzilla inlet like I would have loved to, but it is not CARB legal in California. I want to keep this car street legal so I kept with the standard Blowzilla inlet.

Waiting on the lower intake arrival from TMoss Porting then I will put them on the car!

 

[JCBeaver]

That's all folks! for now....

I need to fatten up my wallet some bit and install this bad boy 2.1L KB on the car/tune it then go have fun.

Plan on reupholstering the recaro seats and rear seats at this shop in Seal Beach, which sells recaro kits on eBay. His eBay ID is zoomzoomzoom and everyone seems to have great results with this seller and I happen to be an hour away from him in CA. I have gotten into touch with him and will have him do my seats when time is right.

edit: now that I started this log so of course i will be sure to chime back in with the tid bits I do to the car just for f**k's sake :lcoff:

 

[TOOLOW91]

Beautiful car. I have been preaching about the dupli color trim paint over the sem for years now . Lays out so much nicer and has a more oem sheen to it . All the trim on my car even pieces I bought new were done in it

 

[stanglx2002]

Very beautiful car that you have there. It seems that you have been very busy doing some tasteful and done right mods. Good to see someone doing there homework.

How do you like the Dakota Digital Dash?

 

[Reddevil91]

Christmas came early for me today

I jumped on TPS Motorsports' reproduction agreement with KB on those 2.1L Blowzilla units. I was told they are going to make only 40 and at the time I ordered, a month ago, they said only 3 units left. I guess they did a successful reproduction considering they started shipping the units late May 2019 and probably is all sold out by now.

I did not get the Flowzilla inlet like I would have loved to, but it is not CARB legal in California. I want to keep this car street legal so I kept with the standard Blowzilla inlet.

Waiting on the lower intake arrival from TMoss Porting then I will put them on the car!

Been wondering about these kits from TPS, bc I haven’t seen anyone with a kit actually in hand. He is always all over FB pages pushing this product and how they are or will be gone and if you want one do it now. Still finding it hard to drop 4500 for the kit with flowzilla inlet, but it’s tempting. The hard part is then I’ll want to fab it for a cooler and next thing I know I’ll have a very expensive blower. Look forward to seeing it installed and hearing it.

 

[a91what]

Nice, I may know a guy who is very familiar with the Pimpxs system and has alot of experience tuning sbf blower cars.

excellent looking build so far.

 

[JCBeaver]

Beautiful car. I have been preaching about the dupli color trim paint over the sem for years now . Lays out so much nicer and has a more oem sheen to it . All the trim on my car even pieces I bought new were done in it

I think I probably have read one of your posts. I was one of those doubters who thought Dupli Color cant be any better than SEM. Boy I was wrong!

 

[JCBeaver]

Very beautiful car that you have there. It seems that you have been very busy doing some tasteful and done right mods. Good to see someone doing there homework.

How do you like the Dakota Digital Dash?

I absolutely love the dash! It is such an amazing upgrade! And expensive too... LOL

Blows the stock cluster out of water and it was pretty easy to install IMO.

 

[JCBeaver]

Been wondering about these kits from TPS, bc I haven’t seen anyone with a kit actually in hand. He is always all over FB pages pushing this product and how they are or will be gone and if you want one do it now. Still finding it hard to drop 4500 for the kit with flowzilla inlet, but it’s tempting. The hard part is then I’ll want to fab it for a cooler and next thing I know I’ll have a very expensive blower. Look forward to seeing it installed and hearing it.

Yeah I was told only 3 units left when I ordered, but I do see them still pushing the product on the facebook so I am not sure if that is even true haha. I agree it was hard to drop $4K+tax on this, but I felt that it is a great blower for a daily-street use. Instant boost and TQ for plenty of fun on the street. Will go to some Auto X's here and there but nothing serious. It would be great if I could get this fabbed up for a cooler, but I will stick with what I have for now and use Meth to alleviate the temps a bit.

 

[JCBeaver]

Nice, I may know a guy who is very familiar with the Pimpxs system and has alot of experience tuning sbf blower cars.

excellent looking build so far.

Can you refer me to him? I have one tuner who is about to help me out this weekend on this ECU. My set up keep wanting to idle-hunt every single time and as soon as I start up. I am chasing something here, hopefully all is in the tune. I am hoping this guy will solve it this weekend. He actually tried to send me a few different tune files via email to see if it helped any but it didnt.

I m dying to drive this bad boy!

Your engine bay looks cool! Looks like a custom set up u got there

EDIT: Welp I got played! Reading your profile, you are the tuner hahaaa.. I suppose maybe I can hit you up if this guy isnt able to dial it in for me this Saturday. So you have plenty of knowledge in PIMPXS system? The PIMPXS support folks are pretty stoic/unfriendly. I end up giving up on the idea of trying to tune it entirely by myself.

 

[a91what]

Can you refer me to him? I have one tuner who is about to help me out this weekend on this ECU. My set up keep wanting to idle-hunt every single time and as soon as I start up. I am chasing something here, hopefully all is in the tune. I am hoping this guy will solve it this weekend. He actually tried to send me a few different tune files via email to see if it helped any but it didnt.

I m dying to drive this bad boy!

Your engine bay looks cool! Looks like a custom set up u got there

EDIT: Welp I got played! Reading your profile, you are the tuner hahaaa.. I suppose maybe I can hit you up if this guy isnt able to dial it in for me this Saturday. So you have plenty of knowledge in PIMPXS system? The PIMPXS support folks are pretty stoic/unfriendly. I end up giving up on the idea of trying to tune it entirely by myself.

I do classes with people to get them up to speed on the tuning, I can also do full tunes. I have lots of happy customers and most of the guys on this forum have used my services at some point. I just dont like to be pushy about anything.... I have a link in my signature to my tuning services page.

 

[JCBeaver]

I do classes with people to get them up to speed on the tuning, I can also do full tunes. I have lots of happy customers and most of the guys on this forum have used my services at some point. I just dont like to be pushy about anything.... I have a link in my signature to my tuning services page.

Thanks! I gave your link a look and I sent you a PM as well. I am glad to know I have someone else to fall back on if my local guy does not work out good. Sounds like he should get me squared away anyway.