2000 GT Convertible cleanup

[Mustang5L5]

Decided to start this thread here, as I have one going in another forum but not much attention. Going to copy/paste a few things over I picked this car up in July, so as of this post it's been in my possession a few months.

I’ve had a thing for 99-04 cars ever since (regretfully) selling my 2003 GT. Always said I would get back into one of the price is right.

Well, neighbor had once sitting in his driveway for 9 months. Finally I asked him about it back in July. Was a family members who passed away and was looking to just get rid of it.

Long story short, $1k later and it’s in my driveway.

2000 GT premium vert. 68k miles. Runs and drives but has a few issues I can sort through:

-AC clutch failing and rattling hard
-brakes spongy (prob need to be bled)
- mystery current draw drains battery fast.
- needs tires. Front drivers is bald on outside while others are ok. Might need to check for play on that tie rod.


Other than that, needs a good buff and interior cleaning. It’s sat for 9 months and is dirty. Seats are ripped and a few misc weatherstrip broken. All minor stuff.

Anyway, here’s the car

 

[Mustang5L5]

More pics. Haven’t touched a thing yet. Just assessing.

Here's my list of mechanical/electrical issues so far:
A/C clutch (bushings gone in this one)
A/C recharge (need to see if it works after clutch change. There is some refrigerant but i haven't checked pressure yet)
Something drains the battery (needs to be jumped each time)
Mach 460 won't turn on
needs tires (going to put a set on my bullitt wheels)


Asthetic stuff:
Paint correction and overall exterior cleaning
clean the top
interior detailing.
Front seats are torn
drivers seat track is messed up (i have a spare in my parts pile)

Strut towers are pristine, which was the first thing I looked at. This car really wasn't driven at all in the winter.


Overall, i'm still happy with it for $1K. Engine and trans and everything felt great. It's been a while since i drove a stock Mustang so not sure if the shocks are gone, or the ride has always been so soft. My fox with Max Motorsports suspension parts is not a good reference. For a cruiser, it's comfortable though.

Possible mods:
Mach 1 lip (already have it)
03/04 bullitt wheels (already have)
01+ smoked headlights
01+ hood scoop
I hate the 99/00 rear spoiler. I'd like to see if i can find an entire 01+ trunk locally with the newer spoiler.
Cobra front brakes (already have them)
MGW shifter...because you need a shifter\

Mechanically, i plan to leave the car pretty close to stock. No performance mods. I like the 3.27's. I even like the growl of the stock exhaust. i'm not touching a thing other than maintenance and repairs. I'll change the shifter, but that's about it.

I might tint the windows to help with the sun beating up the interior. I also might ditch the tan top. I can live with tan interior, but not a fan of the tan top.

 

[Mustang5L5]

Pulled the battery. It’s dead. Dead as a door nail. I’ll need to grab a new one before I can proceed.

Tested the ac pressure and it’s full of refrigerant. So I’ll address the clutch and then try to troubleshoot why it doesn’t turn on.

Did some quick vacuum and started pulling interior parts out to clean up.

Picked up the loose dirt.

 

[Mustang5L5]

Ok. Dig around a bit.

Bought a new battery. Hooked it up and measured a 0.35amp draw on it.

Traced it to fuse #6 which apparently is very common. Haven’t dug into it much more yet. Gonna do some reading.

Started pulling interior out.





unplugged drivers side mach amp. Current draw went from .35a to .16a.

No change if I unplug the other side. So add an amp to the list of parts to track down on eBay.

Also, found the 10a fuse for the radio was blown. I plugged the head unit into my test stand and found it would work for 5-10 seconds and then all audio would cut out. So head unit is bad. Fortunately I have another in my parts pile.

.16amps is 160 milliamps. The GEM is active for 40 min until dropping current, so I need to rig it up to have my meter hooked up for 40 mins to see what it drops to.


Pretty much this thread sums up my issue. One of the Mach amps was the cause. Found this in 10 mins of troubleshooting.

https://www.moddedmustangs.com/threads/parasitic-battery-drain-mach-460-amplifier.266108/

 

[Mustang5L5]

figured out the draw issue.

0.35amp draw when sitting. I went right to common source and pulled the Mach 460 amps and one dropped the current to 0.16 amps.

Also found the head unit had issues. I tested out of car and it would turn on for 5 seconds and then cut out. Also, the 10a fuse was blown.

So with the amp removed, and head unit removed, I set up my meter to see current at rest.

160 milliamps, which is about what the GeM pulls at rest.



Set a timer for 40 min and walked away. When I came back I was glad to see the GeM in standby.

19 milliamps, without a radio. That should go up a tad when I put a good radio back in.

 

[Mustang5L5]

Pulled some more out. Need to stop here



Cleaning what I can off the car. I intend to pull the carpet out.

But soap and scrub brush and hot water is just more effective than wipes


Need to find something for this. Gonna take a little work to get this clean. (EDIT: Mold Armor did a fantastic job)

 

[Mustang5L5]

Stripping out more parts for cleaning





Carpet out. No real surprises. Looks clean




Started to go to town on the carpet with a power washer and Bissel. Didn't catch any before pics, but the water coming off this was essentially chocolate milk

 

[Mustang5L5]

More work on the carpet

 

[Mustang5L5]

So i was curious as to the Mach amp that was causing my power draw, so I opened it up for a peek and found the problem

 

[Mustang5L5]

Door panels off to clean. Carpet back in. Gonna toss some Kilmat under the carpet as I have some I’d like to get rid of .

This carpet, while sunfaded, cleaned up much nicer than i thought it would.

 

[Mustang5L5]

A little more back together as I clean parts up. I might revisit some of this later with some fresh SEM dye. At least now it's starting to look like a 68k mile car again.

 

[Mustang5L5]

Time to focus on the outside. I put 18" wheels on my fox, so i moved the old 17" wheels over to this car. Also gave it a wash. Paint is wet, so when it dries it doesn't look as nice as this.

I junked the headlights as they were crappy aftermarkets and faded badly

 

[Mustang5L5]

Some pics of my progress


Dash and door panels back in. Threw in a spare dark charcoal seat just to see how I feel about this. I have a MINT pair in my basement but not sure they would look good in this car



Wanted to test the sound system, so threw in a spare CD player I have. System works, but since I pulled the left rear amp, the door big speakers don’t work yet. Amps should be here Monday. That’s why the back seat is not in yet.

I have parts to rebuild the tape deck. I’d rather use that because I have a Bluetooth tape I can use. One day I’ll adapt bluetooth to my oem radios.





I did have a casualty in pulling the interior apart.

Finding a replacement is tough. This color was 99-00 only with the rear defrost. 01+ moves defrost to center console.

Replacements I’m finding are $150+

 

[Mustang5L5]

More reassembly. Not sure how i feel about DC seats in the tan interior, so i likely won;'t use my mint set and will recover the originals

 

[Mustang5L5]

More work done

Ac clutch changed out. Notice the old one is in more pieces than it should be.



Upon trying the ac, discovered it would click for a second and then go out. So needs a charge. Given the end of season, I’ll just add some r-134a and then find the leak and fix later.


Took two cans of r134a, but I have AC again. The guage set I purchased on Amazon sucked. All the fittings leaked. Definitely spend the money on a good set. My R12 set is quite nice, but this cheapo set sucked.

But I have AC.


This was just idling. Having had a chance to drive and see it it hits 40 degrees even. I expect it to.

Found the system does have green dye, so someone was trying to find the leak. I’ll have to keep an eye on it. As long as it lasts me the rest of the summer I’ll be happy.

 

[Mustang5L5]

New pair of Mach 460 amps. $10 plus shipping. Swapped them in and the radio is functional again with no power drain!




Put the rear seat back. Topped off the convertible top fluid before that. Need to address that grungy seatbelt at a future date.

 

[Mustang5L5]

Front seats back in. I'm going to recover these, but for now i cleaned them up

 

[Mustang5L5]

Old headlights


Swapped for a set of 01+ lights

 

[Mustang5L5]

Swapped out the tiny headrests for a set of 03/04 IUP headrests. Im a big fan of the interior upgrade package for 2003-2004 as my GT had it, so i'll likely replicate it. I have the silver door lock posts as well

 

[Mustang5L5]

Mach 1 grill installed. Chin spoiler install pending