Progress Thread My 88 Gt Rebuild(slow Progress Content)

This is the starting point , its a 50 footer. Ive got 30+ hrs of paint correction to get it in the shape you see in the pics and I had to replace the headlights,tires,shocks and exhaust.







Pics of engine before
Original had a hard life from previous owner with lots of "patch work" to fix things. he ended up snapping oil pump rod and parking it under a pine tree for 2yrs.







Phase 1
I originally wanted to go back to the factory gray but started noticing alot of others with close to the same color



Stock block .30 over
Stock new internals and the balanced
Stock ported E7 heads
Edelbrock performer II intake
70mm TB and spacer
A/c delete
Aluminum Jegs radiator and Jegs electric fan

Next thing I did was a wire tuck and used a 89 harness and computer to do a mass air swap. I went with a 76mm meter and 24lb injectors. Seemed to run good so I left it alone in that part until phase 2.

I wanted to clean the inside real good , well that turned into repainting it also.

Somehow I ended up taking the dash out also......






Some idiot decide to drill holes in the dash to mount there tach, so I fixed it while I was there.






Might aswell redo the hole dash



the little pieces




Now its back in, notice the dash compared to the speaker grill.

Started on the rear disc conversion and I think it will turn out pretty good. Im really picky so I ended up tearing it all the way down and repainting everything, all new Stainless steel hardware,new sperical bushing's, will be ordering SS flex lines and making my own SS hard lines. While I got the rear out I might aswell put new axle seals in ( I think one is leaking) and replace the leaky pinion seal. All the parts a from a T/C and I had to modify and flip the caliper mounting brackets so I could use the fox axles.




^^^ when I realized that something had to change

After driving it and having constant eletrical problems and the apperance just not up to par Ive decided to gut it pretty much and start over. Im staying with the current motor and just going to do some deleting and a cam for now, interior needs a headliner,seats, and few small pieces and it will be new. I finshed the brake conversion ( finally),rebuilt the rear end, new uppers and lowers, and all stainless hardware. So now on to the new stage of its life.


Im going to strip the car down to metal and start from scratch. I did find out that it had been painted atlest 4 different colors which is why im stripping it down and there is what rust spot on the left rear 1/4. I also want to use the 93 fenders cause I going to run a 9" wide front rim and the fact that I have a near perfect set.

After a day of tearing it down





Started stripping it down






The car has been striped now and did most of the body work until I get my welder going. Now Im at phase 1 of prime and blocking. Still need to find a Cobra rear bumper and either fix my fiberglass hood and make it fit like it should or Im going to build a new cowl hood using a OE one.







Antenna hole in fender



the holes in the jambs from the seat belt retractor mechanism



and the key hole on passenger side.




The build of the hood




Finally finished molding in the Cobra grill...





Shaved the "Mustang GT" from the side skirts



All mocked up and ready to be torn apart one more time.



Drivers body line shot



Pass side body line



And were the roof was caved in. I had to cut it out and reskin it, what a pain in the *** I wish I had just replaced the whole roof with a non sunroof one!

Now Phase 2

Well I started to make my filler pieces for the engine bay and I got one side done mostly. I also started cleaning up the injector harness and what not since I have the upper intake off for the injector problem which is now mostly fixed so now all the wire hiding is done.
To me this stuff is easy compared to doing a cam swap or assy. a motor!



Well ive been doing some work to the car, its to damn cold out there so not much motivation really. Ive got all my patch panels cut and fit for the engine bay. About a yr ago I sold my nice welder so Im going to borrow one from a buddy since I have a 3 day weekend next week, and burn everything in. i decided to move the 6al to the inner fenderwell and I think Im going to fab. a bracket to mount the coil up like the SN95's, I think it will look much cleaner.



I decided to cover my sway bar mount brackets and welded the mount nuts so it can still be removed if needed



Engine bay, and core support





I went ahead and capped off the sway bar mount area,shave all the not used holes except for 2 in the back of the strut towers(might need t run a future wire or something) upper firewall holes also. Ive also started doing my own powder coating so it didnt help with the build process either since of course I had to do all my stuff aswell. Im still up in the air on a color and it will probally be the last minute till I decide but on with the pics. I finally found a belt set up I liked and started fitting that aswell. It helps to take a break from sanding once in a while.

Well I finally got some paint on it this weekend. Started the slow process of cutting in everything, heres a few so far.










Finally finished "Jamming" everything




And we finally have some color to look at!!!!!!!!!!!!!






Still got alot of pieces to do and then on to cut/buff the whole car.

Now your up to date on everything just need to assemble a few parts and paint the door moldings

Repainted the hood and bumper due to a few spots I didnt like on the bumper and a I had to dings in the hood from acorns(crap) just need to sand and buff.

madmike1157 said:

Looks much better than the "Artist formally known as Prince Purple" from before. How long did this project take you?

Click to expand...

Yea wasnt a fan of the purple at all. I guess technically Im still working on it, due to no garage and just a car port Im at the weathers merse when working on it. hoping to have a a super nice weekend driver by late winter early spring. I still need to drop the K member and clean/powder coat it as well as get some misc pieces through out.