Progress Thread Nicholase "lights out" build-

Newer member here. I've been learning alot from this site and really enjoy reading everyone's build threads. So I thought I'd start one of my own.

I'm pretty far along with it now. So I'll update when I get time to get caught up to current.

When I was younger I worked as a mechanic at a local Ford dealer. I went through a program called the ASSET program. It was at a community college for training and then alternate work at the dealer. This was in 93. So when I was there foxes were still being sold new. I totally remember being infatuated with a red Cobra.

Fast forward a few decades and I had the itch for another fox. They are tough to find here in NY. At least unmolested clean examples. I looked at probably 2 dozen until I found my car two years ago.

I found a 50k mile 1990 GT that was really clean. It had a oil leak from the rear main area, and the original paint was heavily oxidized. I've done several paint restorations but I wasn't sure about this one. Other than that it was original down to the plugs and date stamped plug wires.

So I hauled it home. A perfect project car that no one had ever been into before.



From a distance (and in the rain) it looked pretty decent. But once you got close you could see the oxidation. This picture was after i tried a spot to see how deep it went. It was oxidation along with what looked like heavy acid rain etching.




To restore the paint i needed to wet sand the entire car. The only way to do it right is disassemble. I removed the spoiler, windshield and back glass window trim, mirrors, door windor trim, door lock cylinders cowl vent and pretty much everything I could. I also pulled the rear quarter windows as the trim was showing its age.

Then I wet sanded the entire car with 4 different grits. This took about 30 hours. Afterward I polished it with 3m perfect it machine polish. 3 grits and various pads.

This is the result



I refinished the rear quarter glass molding and all the window trim, mirrors, and antenna cover with SEM trim black.

During the paint restoration stage I also did "phase one", which was get it comfortable to drive and replace the aging consumables.

Engine / trans
-Motorcraft plugs
-Motorcraft wires
-Motorcraft cap and rotor
-Motorcraft coil
-fuel filter
-Steeda triaxis shifter/ white shift ball

Suspension
- 17"×8 Pony wheels w/ Nitto 245/45/17 front
- 17"×9 Pony wheels w/ Nitto 275/40/17
-Ford performance coil springs
-New spring isolators
-Sway bar bushing and links
-Koni STRT struts/ shocks/ quads
-Maximum Motorsports HD LCA's

I pretty much gave it a good look over and did all the basic stuff like brakes, wheel bearings and stuff.

I also found some Ford NOS 5.0 badges to replace the originals which I removed to clean up the paint.

I dove it like this for a summer.

When that first summer was over I planned a little winter project. I needed to address the oil leak which I believe was a rear main. I figured it was a good time to do the clutch if I'm going that deep, and if the exhaust is coming off I may as well do that too right?

So here we go:



I wasn't sure if the pan was leaking too, so I replace the pan gasket as well as rear main.



I installed a Ford Performance disk, pressure plate, flywheel, TO bearing and pilot bearing.




Also replaced a few other things while I was in there.




I installed stainless ceramic coated JBA shorty headers and a Bassani X pipe with cats. In this picture is the original flowmaster exhaust that was on the car when I bought it. I put on a Magnaflow 2 ½ exhaust shortly after I took that pic.







At this point I'm wishing I put on a beefier clutch setup. We'll see how it holds up.

After the winter repairs I drove it for another summer and took the time to map out where I wanted to go with it. I decided I wanted to start with a Vortech entry level kit and some supporting mods. Then as I felt comfortable with that build off that to the HO kit.

During this past winter I stock piled up some parts and began the current phase a few months ago.

I started with the fuel system. I had a couple surprises here. When I dropped the tank the vent line was smashed flat between the tank and body. That would explain all the hissing when I opened up the fuel cap! Lol. Wish I took a picture of that.

The tank was in pretty good shape, but I noticed the baffle around the pump was loose and rattling. One of the spot welds had broken. So I replaced the tank and pad kit. Also the filler neck grommet and body side rubber.



I used a 255lph Walbro GS340 pump. Pretty sure that's the original pump.





I'm not a fan of crimp connectors for anything. So I soldered the leads and shrink wrapped.



While the tank was down I took the time to clean up the chassis real good. I also unplugged every connector I could find, cleaned with contact cleaner, checked the pins, and greased with electrical anti ox.