Matt's Humble Fox

[HumbleFox'86GT]

Hello everybody! I have read a few threads here and there trying to get my project together over the past year, y'know issue by issue, more specific as time goes, finding solutions to the mess of a hack four eye t-top that i semi- naively bought a year ago. lol anyway here she is, i call it humble fox cause she has been through the ringer. Here is what i have been able to accomplish thus far. Btw i am a nooob at posting threads and so on , so i intend to show the process i have been through, pic by pic with a caption to describe if i do it wrong sorry ...my bad.

glory. pure glory, you know the moment when it sits on your land for the first time, safe secure...possibilities.

let's take a closer look at what i got myself into lol.

So obviously what we have here is...a mess, but to those who know more, bbk 75mm tb bbk fpr and auto meter guage, gt-40 upper and lower, gt-40 heads, 306. no a/c, electric fan, shortys, taylor 8mm to msd 6al.

looks to me it has been in a soft front end collision of some sort, the rad supposrt also shows a major impact of some kind, like a curb mounting or something... not sure yet, may never know...

Did come with some nice weld racing rims though, rubber was no good but the dude threw in an extra 2 with new mickey thompson sportsman rubber, can't complain about that. shouda took a picture lol.

the interior is all original, and a little more thrashed than i had realized but pretty much complete!

Someone had painted her flat black , and poorly i might add, but i still liked the look of the 3" magnaflow poking out. From here i decided to tear into it for phase one, clean up the engine bay and see what i'm working with.

What a mess of electrical madness , frikin' lucky she didn't burn at some point yeesh! my apologies for the poor iphone pics its all i have for reference. tbc......

 

[General karthief]

Nice mess you got there, it's got lots of promise, extra points for the intake and center lines! I'll move this to the fox talk forums so you can get the attention that will spur you on.
Keep this thread going with your progress.
I gave it a catchy title too!

 

[billison]

The engine bay is a great place to start. Once cleaned up and painted it’ll look like a million bucks

 

[Davedacarpainter]

Welcome to Stangnet.

A 4i t-top is a good thing.

Do you intend to pull the engine?

It’s a little “rustic” right now, but it’ll get better.

How deep do you want to go into restoring it?

I remember you now, you commented on Scott's thread. I'm glad you're starting your own, looking forward to the progress.

 

[95BlueStallion]

Thats a good start. T tops, fuel injection, mass air, some good parts. Lots of TLC and you have yourself a sweet ride.

 

[HumbleFox'86GT]

Nice mess you got there, it's got lots of promise, extra points for the intake and center lines! I'll move this to the fox talk forums so you can get the attention that will spur you on.
Keep this thread going with your progress.
I gave it a catchy title too!

Thanks! Appreciate the help, especially with the title idea
Yeah, when i first saw her and heard her running i just kept thinking....gotta save her. too many hands beat on and passed through, the tales she could tell...

 

[HumbleFox'86GT]

The engine bay is a great place to start. Once cleaned up and painted it’ll look like a million bucks

Those were my exact thoughts! i had to get in there and see what was what first off then, tidy it up and check all the rats nest out and then hose it down and organize it a bit.

 

[HumbleFox'86GT]

Welcome to Stangnet.

A 4i t-top is a good thing.

Do you intend to pull the engine?

It’s a little “rustic” right now, but it’ll get better.

How deep do you want to go into restoring it?

I remember you now, you commented on Scott's thread. I'm glad you're starting your own, looking forward to the progress.

Yeah Scott's thread was super inspiring to me, yours too man!

I'd like to pull the motor and t-5 out of it after this upcoming season when hopefully budget allows me to actually shave the engine bay,
fix/replace the rad support and give the motor a more thorough analysis/cleanup too!

lol the car and i are the same age and i thought " its a little rough i'm a little rough.... i like rustic better

I could only dream of going to Scott's level with this car, and i could never budget a build like that...and stay married
but for now i definitely want to shine up what i have, push my limits and learn new skills while keeping the number closer to 10k or so for baseline finished 5-8ft car, if i can pull that off
so i don't think i am going to worry about show quality, just a nice tight, semi-stock fox for starters, and see where the road takes it from there

 

[HumbleFox'86GT]

Thats a good start. T tops, fuel injection, mass air, some good parts. Lots of TLC and you have yourself a sweet ride.

Thanks man, when i bought it i could see the tlc and elbow grease, and i thought "those are things i can actually afford right now" lol

 

[HumbleFox'86GT]

So began the rattle can hose down for now...

Started to get into the drivers side next...

Tons of grime and layers of flaking spray bomb paint and overspray everywhere grr...

notice the awesome lack of proper masking technique, the semi clean blanket and the strange sheep and fox? print lol I do hope to one day strip the bay, do a weld up/shave and proper ss paint job but not for now its $10 and some tlc.

wtf? this is what i un wrapped under some sketchy elec. tape that was running from the relay to the top of my little moroso blaster coil

So this is after kinda bolting things back into their general spaces, i did tidy up the harness a bit too since it was all looped over itself and mushed in by the frame rail and jammed between the strut tower and close to the headers in spots, like the melted speedo cable i found lol So much much more to clean but i decided to wait on that and concentrate elsewhere

 

[General karthief]

Gettin after it!
Now would be a good time to do the 3g alt update.

 

[Noobz347]

This is right up @Davedacarpainter 's alley.

 

[Davedacarpainter]

Got to admit, that rattle can paint job really helped.

The wiring is hilarious! Some people just shouldn’t be allowed to open the hoods of their cars.....

 

[HumbleFox'86GT]

Gettin after it!
Now would be a good time to do the 3g alt update.

Y'now what I hadn't even thought about that, that is probably why i'm having low idle voltage...dim lights and so forth, would you go with an lmr kit? getting stuff north of the border is a pain sometimes but they seem pretty ok compared to guys up here...

 

[HumbleFox'86GT]

Got to admit, that rattle can paint job really helped.

The wiring is hilarious! Some people just shouldn’t be allowed to open the hoods of their cars.....

tell me about it man, speaking of which....no hood release cable on zis baby either
just a piece of wire tucked on the latch in the nose!

 

[Noobz347]

Some new wire nuts and electrical tape and you'll be all set.

 

[General karthief]

They make wire nut in assorted colors
Here is a link to the 3g upgrade, the budget version.
http://www.stangnet.com/mustang-forums/resources/3g-alternator-fox-upgrade.18/
Take some time and cruze through the how to/tech threads, lots of good stuff in there, low buck too.

 

[HumbleFox'86GT]

Cool that looks real straightforward to me thanks for the link...adding to list...

 

[Mstng93SSP]

Where are you north of the border?

 

[HumbleFox'86GT]

I'm Hailing from close to Barrie, Ontario