Wanted to finally post some details out into one of these.. both chronicling the journey of how things go to where they are today and hopefully into the future!
Bought a 91 Fox back in 2005/2006 - had roughly 100k miles on it then. It was lowered with Eibach progressive rate springs (it was super low), had a 4" cowl hood that was unpainted, cold air intake, full bassani exhaust. I dont seem to have any original pictures of it anymore from back then when it had the OG pony wheels, but I do have this picture from a few months later with some crappy cobra R replicas and ford racing 'C' springs to help raise the car back up:
Over the next year or two I continued to undue some of the silly mods and 'clean' up the car overall - all while mostly daily driving it.
I removed the cold air intake and switched back to a stock airbox setup, painted the intake and added steeda 'CC' plates. I also got a stock hood from a junkyard and sold off the 4" cowl:
I cleaned up the interior, fixing some small broken parts and cleaning/painting everything - along with installing a florida 5.0 gauge cluster. This was after my original speedometer broke, then the replacement broke and the speedo cable broke
Because of all that I no longer have a accurate total on the number of miles on the car, but it was probably around 130k now:
Shortly after all that the original T5 started to have issues with holding in gear - it would pop out of 1st and 2nd gear. I managed to get a reasonable deal on a T5z and swapped that in - learning the hard way about not using the bolts to seat the transmission
. After pulling it back out and replacing the pilot bearing again everything was smooth.
From here I mainly drove the car and started to slowly build up parts for a 5 lug swap. During that winter I swapped to 03-04 cobra brakes up front and back, cobra booster and master cylinder etc, and 99 cobra wheels, which I was really happy with:
From there I started work on the final step (or so I stupidly thought back then) which was paint. The car had its fog lights removed for some stupid reason so I had to replace all of those parts, along with the front bumper which had falled apart from a lack of support. But after all that and getting it painted - it finally looked like I had wanted:
At this point I figured I could continue to drive and enjoy the car.. but it had other plans for me... I had probably close to 180k on the car at this point (best guess anymore), and the NJ winters were starting to take a toll on the frame rails. After realizing how bad they were, I tore the car down to nothing and was pretty sure it was game over at this point:
Parts of the subframe underneath and the torque boxes were not in much better shape as well. It sat this way for a 3-4 years.. I couldnt weld/patch those kinds of areas myself and was struggling to find a local shop that I felt I could trust that would repair it in a way that would hold up for years to come. I got really close to selling the car and being done with it, especially after finding this when tearing down the engine as well:
But eventually I did find a shop to help with the frame... and that part ill type up in the next post along with how the car sits now...
Bought a 91 Fox back in 2005/2006 - had roughly 100k miles on it then. It was lowered with Eibach progressive rate springs (it was super low), had a 4" cowl hood that was unpainted, cold air intake, full bassani exhaust. I dont seem to have any original pictures of it anymore from back then when it had the OG pony wheels, but I do have this picture from a few months later with some crappy cobra R replicas and ford racing 'C' springs to help raise the car back up:
Over the next year or two I continued to undue some of the silly mods and 'clean' up the car overall - all while mostly daily driving it.
I removed the cold air intake and switched back to a stock airbox setup, painted the intake and added steeda 'CC' plates. I also got a stock hood from a junkyard and sold off the 4" cowl:
I cleaned up the interior, fixing some small broken parts and cleaning/painting everything - along with installing a florida 5.0 gauge cluster. This was after my original speedometer broke, then the replacement broke and the speedo cable broke
Shortly after all that the original T5 started to have issues with holding in gear - it would pop out of 1st and 2nd gear. I managed to get a reasonable deal on a T5z and swapped that in - learning the hard way about not using the bolts to seat the transmission
. After pulling it back out and replacing the pilot bearing again everything was smooth.From here I mainly drove the car and started to slowly build up parts for a 5 lug swap. During that winter I swapped to 03-04 cobra brakes up front and back, cobra booster and master cylinder etc, and 99 cobra wheels, which I was really happy with:
From there I started work on the final step (or so I stupidly thought back then) which was paint. The car had its fog lights removed for some stupid reason so I had to replace all of those parts, along with the front bumper which had falled apart from a lack of support. But after all that and getting it painted - it finally looked like I had wanted:
At this point I figured I could continue to drive and enjoy the car.. but it had other plans for me... I had probably close to 180k on the car at this point (best guess anymore), and the NJ winters were starting to take a toll on the frame rails. After realizing how bad they were, I tore the car down to nothing and was pretty sure it was game over at this point:
Parts of the subframe underneath and the torque boxes were not in much better shape as well. It sat this way for a 3-4 years.. I couldnt weld/patch those kinds of areas myself and was struggling to find a local shop that I felt I could trust that would repair it in a way that would hold up for years to come. I got really close to selling the car and being done with it, especially after finding this when tearing down the engine as well:
But eventually I did find a shop to help with the frame... and that part ill type up in the next post along with how the car sits now...
...
) It came right out with an easyout so it wasnt frozen in the block or anything, but need to get a replacement one somehow....
but I will update this once its all back together and I can test it fully, but so far all the basic sensor tests I have done all look correct.
. Hopefully i can get that sorted soonish or figure out some temporary solution so i can test-fire the car.
