My 88 Mustang GT project thread

JamesB88 · Feb 11, 2011

Ive been a member on here for a long time, finally started to tear my car down to fully redo it. Ive owned the car since I was 16, It has been my primary daily driver for the last 7 years up until about 4 months ago I finally took it off the road. Plans are 388w, tko, sonic blue cobra clone...
Here is the car when I first bought it in 2004, was pretty rough gave 1k for it from money I made working at Pizza hut.

I used to have tons of pictures of the small things I did but lost them on a old computer.
Here is the car around 2006, with new front bumper, cobra rear bumper put on it, pony wheels.

Car was looking presentable then (well without paint.. lol), had a stock 302 with long tubes and exhuast, and a brand new T-5.
Didnt change a whole lot on the car, painted bumpers black, put a mach 1 hood on it, Converted it over to 5 lug, put nitrous kit on it and ran the crap out of it for awhile (180 bottles threw stock 302!!)
These pictures where around summer 2009

I bought a house, spent alot of money on upgrades. Got married, had a kid, slowly been working on a few things here and there.

JamesB88 · Feb 11, 2011

Here is where I put the 306 I built for the car in and the TKO600 in it.
I built the motor over 2 years and finally put it in the car at the begining of this last summer.

It ran decent with the 306, It went 12.70s on motor but I wanted more so now im building a windsor for the car.
Here is the car this last summer, daily driving it over the years in missouri took it tole, the 1/4s and floors have rust in them.

This winter I took the car apart for some much needed attention

Mocking up hidding some wires.

Removed sound deading in the interior.

Next the 306 and tko come back out to start work on the bay. I'm probly going to send the car out to have the 1/4s replaced once I get it back from the chassis shop that is putting through the floor sub frames in it.. one of these years I might have it looking decent...

S&B · Feb 11, 2011

wow big project looks like its been very good to you so far

JamesB88 · Feb 21, 2011

Very big project, I got all the interior minus the dash out now, Cleaning up the wiring from messy stereo and alarm installs. Waiting on chassis shop to get it in to do through the floor sub frames on it.

Cobra912 · Feb 21, 2011

hahah that is awesome. The pic with your little guy holding the ratchet is hilarious! I've never seen a k-member and rack attached to a motor on an engine stand! And that isn't rust - you should try living here where they use salt on the roads all winter, everyone's car looks like swiss cheese from rust by the end of spring.

Looks like it's gonna be a fun project, great to see you have your little one helping you out for some fun time with dad.

Mustang5L5 · Feb 21, 2011

Cobra912 said:
hahah that is awesome. The pic with your little guy holding the ratchet is hilarious! .

Lol +1

Cute kid.

JamesB88 · Mar 11, 2011

Thanks for the comments, he is almost 3 now already calls it his car.. lol..

It was a nice day out so figured Id put the car back on the ground and roll it out to clean up the garage some and orginize the 100000 parts i have laying around (8 fenders, 3 hatches, 21 wheels/tires, windsor stuff.. ITs a mess!)

I got a few more things pulled off the car, also got the new hatch test fitted so I have something to line the new 1/4 panels up with when I put them on.

Can see the factory color under the 1/4 windows, not really sure what It was called though. Still need to pick up a set of 1/4s off a parts car and a drivers door and get them all lined up, finish body work then blow it all back apart to paint it... oh yea still have to get 306 out of it to start the engine bay and finsih building the 351w for it.. I've got some work ahead of me..

5psdV6 · Mar 14, 2011

hey i was wondering how a fox would look with mach 1s on them and searched google and i came across this picture. I know you said that you lost a lot of pics maybe this is one cuz it wasnt in your thread. but figured it would be worth returning to you.

JamesB88 · Mar 14, 2011

Thanks, Still have that one, I don't have many of when I first bought the car, first couple years.. I didn't do to much to it then but seat covers anyways.. lol

Update on the car, tko and 306 are coming out today, got alot of the 306 parts already spoken for. hopefullying buying a set of trick flow 205cnc heads for new motor.

tannerc91gt · Mar 14, 2011

you're short...

jgarrard · Mar 15, 2011

Good job!!

NIKwoaC · Mar 15, 2011

You've got your work cut out for you with that rust... But you should be fine since you have that little professional mechanic working with you! Looks like the kid knows his way around a stick shift!

So, why a 388? Why not just go all the way to a 408?

JamesB88 · Mar 16, 2011

NikwoaC said:
You've got your work cut out for you with that rust... But you should be fine since you have that little professional mechanic working with you! Looks like the kid knows his way around a stick shift!

So, why a 388? Why not just go all the way to a 408?

Car definatly needs alot of work, everyone keeps asking me why I don't just buy a nice roller with the amount of cash I'm putting into this one, guess it has some sentamental value to me since I bought it back when I was 16.

I had to mount the drivers seat back into the car so my son could act like he is driving it. I pulled the motor and trans today and when he and my wife got home he said "oh no, where my shifter go?" lol...

Reason for a 388 is I got a good deal on a set of std bore DSS 302 pistons with a -13cc dish. Block I bought still has cross hatching and is standard bore. I was going to use stock rods but now i think I'm going to order some eagle I beams along with the eagle crank. I know a 408 would of been better off but manly did it for cost reasons.

JamesB88 · Mar 25, 2011

I've been working on the engine bay alittle, used parts of old smashed up fender to make plates.. lol..

Desided I'm going to wait on bay till I get doors back on so I can test fit the fenders, may end up having to replace core support and drivers side appron if I cant get the fender to line up right.

I did get the pillar/rocker rust fixed and painted it all with Por-15, plan to do whole underside of car with it.

Heads also came in for new motor, just mocked up on block, no rotating assembly in it yet. Excuse my mess of a basement, to many parts to have laying around in the garage and be able to walk in there.. lol

Supposed to go pick up a new drivers door and drivers 1/4 panel on saturday so hopefully start getting the body work done..

JamesB88 · Apr 2, 2011

new motor mocked up, got to get crank, rods and have them balanced then start putting it together..

Got a coupe new body panels on, front fender is a sortafit not oem.. it needs some more work to make it fit.

Picked up a big chunk of a wreck mustang to fix my drivers 1/4 panel.

maybe I'll have it painted by the end of summer..

JamesB88 · Jun 20, 2011

Got some work done, drivers 1/4 panel cut off, wheel well patched, new 1/4 getting close to being put on.

This is when I was figureing out where to cut the factory 1/4 to match up to the new one..

Also cut fender apron out for 4" AFM N/a power pipe..

Still a big mess, got tons more work to do...

mob · Jun 20, 2011

Damn man cutting and welding that 1/4 panel is something I would NEVER attempt to do my self. Good work.

JamesB88 · Jun 21, 2011

The 1/4 has been a ton of work, and a good learning experiance.. Not something I want to do again though, till I relized I've got some patch work to do on the passenger, I'm not replacing the full 1/4 on it though..

Mintsick · Jun 21, 2011

Wow very nice project, have you done bodywork that extensive before? I guess I got lucky with my car, it has lived in the Northeast however the only real rust it has is the hatch and 1 door which can just be replaced without any cutting. Keep up the good work you are making some nice progress!

JamesB88 · Jun 21, 2011

I have replaced the cab corners and floors in my old 78 F150 back when I was 18, other then that nothing this major. Just learning from looking around online and just doing it.. some things I've done I could of saved time doing it differnt, going to take me alot longer to do then some one who knows what their doing thats for sure.. lol..

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