At the crossroads of the bank and junkyard.

[green5point0]

Ouch.


Hello everyone, I haven’t posted much but have been doing lots of reading on here. I had once made the mistake of calling my car mechanically sound, and the drivetrain is. I knew that there was some body damage and that is was a salvage title, but I didn’t do a thorough enough inspection and likely overpaid for the car. Only after a lot of time and beer and a little bit of money (painting the car, removing the interior and replacing the springs, front control arms, tie rod ends, all fluids, headers, full exhaust, and disassembling the intake manifold and cleaning it), I found out that the car doesn’t track straight due to frame damage. The wheelbase isn’t the same side to side, 9/16 difference. I’m thinking about pulling the driveline and new suspension components and scrapping the car, and do a swap. I have seen some new edges in the right price range, and think it would be less work and money to swap into one of them than to repair what I have.

I am glad that this isn’t my daily and I will be able to financially recover from this, I would appreciate any and all feedback, especially from people who have done the swaps, or repaired similar damages.

If I do scrap the car I’m unsure if I will sell as a roller with the damage advertised, or part it out.

 

[RAU03MACH]

Is that the only places that are bad
Look the whole bottom over and trunk area pillars just look every thing else over
That you are showing dose not look to bad
Rust can be removed reprimerd painted
Grind down popcorn weld and have a good welder hit it

 

[green5point0]

I’m not worried about the rust, I can’t tell if the k member is bent along with the frame rail and body or no. The body near the firewall is caved in a little bit and the bolts for the k member are shifted pretty far back, to a piece that is welded onto the original mounting point on the K. The subframe is bent up A little bit and the rear fenders in the trunk have rust.
I’m trying to figure out if it would be easier swap the motor into a new edge that I could pick up for about $600 or straighten the car. front frame rail is nowhere near the fender under the hood.

I guess it couldn’t hurt too much for me to chain the shock tower to a tree and yank away a little bit, I just don’t know if I could ever get a truly straight car without a frame machine.

One of the pics is of the torque box on the front driver side starting to seperate, the floorboard is pretty well crunched up.

thanks for the reply

 

[RAU03MACH]

He would need to check it really good

 

[Michael Plummer]

Sorry to hear about your troubles. Anything can be repaired, provided qualified professionals do the work. Not sure why it's a badge of honor in the Mustang community to get everything done cheaply, but finding a reputable collision shop to do the work will be your hardest decision. If you decide to repair it, ask for their recommendation and follow it. The shop recommended we replace the entire front-end clip because my damage was extensive, and I'm glad I did because the car drives straight like an arrow.

My rust project :( Not 56k friendly

Hi there, After 13 years and driving it all year long (in New England) and parking it outside (last house had no garage), I guess it was bound to happen....RUST. Was getting ready to install my new Dart 331 w/TFS 185 CNC ported heads and I discovered the following while I was trying to treat it...

www.corral.net

Good luck with your decision
Michael Plummer

 

[98snakehorse]

This may sound crazy but even in todays world of used vehicle prices. You can probably pick up a cheap v6 sn95 body and just swap all your componenets over for less than paying to have the rust and frame damage dealt with.

 

[joe65]

I'm no expert but I've heard often before of fox bodies having the not completely strait issue. As much as we want our cars to be great, i don't think the quality really started getting better on the chassis until the s197s were out when they actually started really looking at making the suspension/chassis working together. Just my 2c. One of the previous New Edges i had i couldn't get a k member brace from MM to bolt in because the bolt holes across from each other on the k member weren't in the same place.

 

[ttocs]

I can say the fit/finish on our 94 when we picked up new could not have been better. You didn't have to slam anything on the car to get it to close easily and it was a step from from the fox body quality IMO. I think the problem is more on the user end that now after 20-30 years on the road of either some punk trying to drive the wheels off of it or it just getting hit by someone texting just enough to knock things out of alignment so they do not close well.

 

[green5point0]

I appreciate all of the replies, I decided to swap the driveline into a v6.

 

[badass98svt]

Yeah 9/16 out is a lot man. That thing is definitely not straight. Wise decision with a new car for sure.

 

[green5point0]

The motor and tranny is out and everything looks good. I broke an Intake bolt in the head, but it should come out easy enough. I plan to check all the clearances and re-ring if necessary, clean everything and try to do a little bit of porting the heads and intake. It is tempting to buy some explorer parts but I like the idea of keeping this build done on a budget, my wife likes that idea a lot more. If the water jacket looks nasty I might do some electrolysis, or get it hot tanked. Other than that it will get painted and dropped into the new edge when it is back together.

 

[green5point0]

Stock and budget went out the window. I ordered afr 185s, with 1.6 roller rockers, i have a trick flow street heat instake and bmr tubular k member. not sure what I will do as far as injectors and ecu. If stock could adapt it would be ideal obviously but I dont want to try and chase a tune and spend more than a mega squirt or similar with no results.

 

[Snorky]

Looking good!!! You will probably love the heads/intake.. what cam will you be running?

 

[green5point0]

Stock HO cam, I figure It will support enough power for a daily driver/ street car. plus i already have it.

 

[Musturd]

Stock HO cam, I figure It will support enough power for a daily driver/ street car. plus i already have it.

Stock cam isn’t terrible but you’d benefit big time with a nice cam .

 

[Daryl]

Outstanding work! And I think both you and Musturd are right. An upgraded cam would compliment the heads and intake nicely, but…. for a daily driver I agree with you that the HO is the way to go. My $.02

 

[green5point0]

Thanks for the feedback everyone, I have been reading away and just ordered a set of 24lb injectors. I haven’t made much progress because I’m working outside and it’s been 110+ for the last 3 weeks or so.

 

[green5point0]

The wife got tired of having car parts everywhere, and I was able to convince her it would go away quicker if I bought it inside.
since taking the picture I got the mains on and torqued, and the pistons, cams and lifters.
next step is to port match the other head and install those. Haven’t decided how much timing I am going to run. Think I might just eyeball it and try to set it to open the intake as close to piston BDC as possible to get the most air in the cylinder.

 

[green5point0]

I am having serious regrets with my decisions. Specificly to pull my engine and tranny from underneath the new edge, with the k member attache, in the parking lot.
Luckily it was a cool 96 today. End result is my Bmr k member is in, control arms are not, my engine is hanging out in the dining room all put together just needs oil. I put the auto trans and six cyl up on marketplace but I will probably end up taking them to a scrap yard because I don’t have the storage for them.

I fell like I will really enjoy the end product, especially since I’m doing it myself and learning as I go. But I don’t think I will undertake something like this without my own shop ever again.

 

[green5point0]