Hey guys!
I recently “inherited” a fox body from my father in law. He didn’t die or anything, my wife’s family moved out of state and asked to store the car at our house. Since my wife and I have been together it has been apart with the motor on a stand and trans in the hatch/trunk. When we were visiting them for thanksgiving, we inquired when they thought they would be able to come get it. Long story short, my FIL knows he won’t have time for it and said I can have it and do as I please with it. I have a few friends that are into mustangs that have asked about buying parts and such, so I started looking through the car to see what all was there. The more I look, the more I see he put a pretty decent chunk of money into this thing. I could sell it and be rid of it, but I can’t really justify that with the stuff I’m seeing. I have yet to pull the heads and check cylinder walls (on an engine stand with a tarp over it for what I assume was over 10 years) to get an idea of how the internals look and what components were used. But there’s a TKO 600 in the trunk, AFR either 185 or 205 heads, hose clamps in the trunk (wonder what those were holding ), 8.8 rear (LX model which I believe came with a 7.5 originally?), etc.
I’d like to focus on getting the car rewired, tossing the motor and trans back in, and doing a bare bones build (no interior, 2 seats, p/s, a radio, and a motor) to get it off the ground moving under its own power. I’m not new to cars and I’m very mechanically inclined, but I know this will be a fairly large undertaking and am at a loss as to where I should start? All the parts are there, but judging by the splices in the wiring harness in the cab, I think I would be better off getting a custom painless harness and ripping it all out. Start there? Or would I be better off cracking into the motor and getting it re-honed (if necessary but I don’t imagine the cylinders being in great shape) and replacing any parts that are obviously bad and replacing all gaskets and seals?
Where would you start?
I recently “inherited” a fox body from my father in law. He didn’t die or anything, my wife’s family moved out of state and asked to store the car at our house. Since my wife and I have been together it has been apart with the motor on a stand and trans in the hatch/trunk. When we were visiting them for thanksgiving, we inquired when they thought they would be able to come get it. Long story short, my FIL knows he won’t have time for it and said I can have it and do as I please with it. I have a few friends that are into mustangs that have asked about buying parts and such, so I started looking through the car to see what all was there. The more I look, the more I see he put a pretty decent chunk of money into this thing. I could sell it and be rid of it, but I can’t really justify that with the stuff I’m seeing. I have yet to pull the heads and check cylinder walls (on an engine stand with a tarp over it for what I assume was over 10 years) to get an idea of how the internals look and what components were used. But there’s a TKO 600 in the trunk, AFR either 185 or 205 heads, hose clamps in the trunk (wonder what those were holding ), 8.8 rear (LX model which I believe came with a 7.5 originally?), etc.
I’d like to focus on getting the car rewired, tossing the motor and trans back in, and doing a bare bones build (no interior, 2 seats, p/s, a radio, and a motor) to get it off the ground moving under its own power. I’m not new to cars and I’m very mechanically inclined, but I know this will be a fairly large undertaking and am at a loss as to where I should start? All the parts are there, but judging by the splices in the wiring harness in the cab, I think I would be better off getting a custom painless harness and ripping it all out. Start there? Or would I be better off cracking into the motor and getting it re-honed (if necessary but I don’t imagine the cylinders being in great shape) and replacing any parts that are obviously bad and replacing all gaskets and seals?
Where would you start?