Dad's last ride

mstinaff

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Hello all,
My dad loved to drive and always had something fun in the driveway. Always used, I think he was allergic to new cars. The last car he had was a black 1995 Mustang GT convertible, a family treasure that is now in my care.

I've recently gotten more time and motivation to restore my dad's last ride and maybe even give it a few upgrades that would make him smile. I've nearly finished replacing the rag-top and next I need to have a new radiator core support welded in. After that I suppose I'll need some input. I've been very lucky and managed to get some parts on the cheap.
What I got:
-GT40 upper and lower intake from a 1997 explorer (with internal egr)
-Whole 302 V8 from a 1998 Mercury Mountaineer. GT40P heads and no internal egr. Currently disassembled, cleaning and inspecting.
-Complete rear axle with lower control arms from a 95 GT that has never seen a grain of road salt.
-Trunk lid (minus spoiler) from the same never salted 95 GT
-A box set of prothane bushings
-and of course Dad's 1995 GT convertible with running stock 302 V8 and a recently rebuilt 4R70W automatic transmission (wish it was manual.)

I'm thinking the first order of business after getting the front put back together is to weld in some full length sub-frame connectors and then torque box reinforcements. If I can get a strut tower brace from a cobra on the cheap I would like to swap on the GT40 intake and maybe a cold air intake to feed it.

Once funds permit I would like to get a different gear set to swap into the spare rear axle. Thoughts on other upgrades to do while it's on the bench? Likewise with the spare motor, it's my first rebuild, learning a lot and pretty excited. But again, funds are the limiting factor. Thoughts on priorities for what to upgrade as I'm rebuilding?

Well that's a lot for now. So I'll close with a picture of me, my brother, our mother and dad's last ride.
DadsMustang.jpg
 

ttocs

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nice! Cobra's didn't have a strut tower brace because of the intake being slightly different. I can't remember who it is that made one to go around it now as its been so long but there was an aftermarket version that worked.
 
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mstinaff

mstinaff

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Oh fudge......

Just discovered super bad front end frame rot

A welder is scheduled to come over on Monday to weld in the new radiator core support. Guess I'll have him give me an estimate on repairing the frame rails instead. Or tell me if it's even possible.

cry

Longshot, any chance it's possible to weld in a tubular front end replacement kit without pulling the whole engine?
 

ttocs

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its not uncommon for rot there to be fairly advanced and I have seen people repair stuff that I thought that there was no way to do it. If you do some searches you can probably find pics of it on other sites. The ones I have seen the welded some pipes inside vertically where the bolts for the K went through to ensure it was strong enough. I think tony did had some done one his maybe but he is not active here now. It is really up to your metal dudes talent.
 

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