My ride - finally

Heres the deal with both the bumpers, and it taking 11 months...

I've owned the car since June of '03. It was jacked up when I bought it. Rebuilt the motor, interior,brakes, suspension, etc but the last step was a new paint job.

The car used to be a Stock GT, Metallic blue with white racing stripes. This paint scheme was a Maaco paint job. I didn't have Maaco paint the car, this was before I got it. The previous owner only owned it for 3 months, but the guy he bought it from told him about the Maaco deal, and how he layed the racing stripes himself. The car was black from the factory, and Maaco just painted right over the top of the stock black paint and clear coat. Needless to say, the paint was flaking off from everywhere, especially the roof. The right rear had been hit a long long time ago, and bondo was flaking off worse than the paint. Horrible rust on the right rear and rockers, under the ground effects.

THe bodyshop that I took it to was a friend of a friend. He is the sole owner, and has only one high school kid working for him. He ended up sandblasting all the bondo and rust away, then welded in new metal (on the rockers) and pulled the big dents from the right rear with stud gun.

I know how to do pretty much anything to my stang except for bodywork, that I had no clue about. So he let me come out to the shop and help. Wednesday nights, once a week. Was like going to school once a week. Anyway he taught me a LOT of stuff, and am confident I could do bodywork/paint next time if the need arrises. But really, we only worked on the car on Wednesday nights.

More importantly, once we became friends, we would knock off a case of beer every Wednesday while working on the car, and there were some nights we didn't do anything but drink beer, talk about cars, and make pork chop sandwhiches on the grill - So thats why it took 11 months... was well worth 11 months now that I look back on the whole ordeal...

Now the bumpers and ground effects - All pieces are from ABC Exclusive (Front bumper, and Cobra Side Skirts and rear bumper. The front "stalker" rip off from Cerviinis they sell and the back bumper didn't fit right at all. Not even close...

I'm not going to say anything bad about ABC Exclusive however. The parts are "trim to fit" or "modifying may be necessary" type parts. Not even pre-drilled holes.

Here's why I don't blame ABC Exclusive for the fitting issues - After the initial test fitment of the front bumper, we noticed something was really not right. I immediately blamed the fitment problems on ABC exclusive's aftermarket bumper, but my body guy told me to take the car to a frame machine, and sure engough - the car was crooked. The front clip was moved to the drivers side by 13mm. The frame shop said that isn't enought to worry about on a "car like this" so I didn't pay to have it straightened.

So, no, its not perfect, and I can live with it, and I'm happy.

oh, I got he headlights of off Ebay, but they aren't made by APC (but made in Taiwan none the less )