duh's 96 Mystic

duh09

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Well, I finally got a score on a Mystic.


#481 came home with me yesterday. I've searched Marketplace off and on for a few years for a decent Mystic, but things never really lined up for me to be able to purchase one when there was one available. I came across this car about 4 hours away on FB, a day after arguing with a guy that Mystic looks better than Mystic Chrome, and I just so happened to have sold my first home last week, so timing seemed right.

The car had right under 91k miles on it and the previous owner was super thorough anytime he had to have any work done. Everything from the flywheel back has been replaced in the drivetrain with a pretty decently driver built trans, aluminum driveshaft, and a fully rebuilt Jasper rearend geared to 3.73 after discovering a bent axle tube and going down the rabbit hole trying to diagnose and solve a vibration. The same level of care was taken in maintenance on the car under the hood as well. Car's lowered on some SVE springs with Koni orange shocks, staggered 17" chrome Cobra R's, nothing really wild, but everything to make a slightly better driver out of the old girl.

The car does have some flaws, the clear on the sideskirts is dead along with the rear spoiler and some areas around the hood are trying to go the same way. Typical scratches here and there for a 26 year old car, but it's a good 20 footer. Driver door jamb switch is busted, passenger door pull handle has decided it doesn't want to hold the switches anymore, driver side door lock cylinder decided to fall out, and the older black housing headlights are straight garbage at this point. The seats are also on the verge of being super ratty so if I can snag some decent Mach 1 or 03/04 Cobra seats, they'll be sliding in.

Plans for this car are pretty simple. I'm hoping to be able to pull the isolators out and get the car a little bit lower, it also needs some C/C plates to get the alignment corrected. Door jamb switch, OE style headlights, and new door pulls are all en route from LMR and should be here at the end of the week. It needs a deep cleaning so that'll come sooner rather than later, although I am really enjoying driving it so it'll probably be pretty dirty pretty soon. The previous owner did include almost everything to swap the front brakes to the ATS Brembo's and I'll probably toss some 18's on it eventually - either Saleens or something a little more unique to a Mustang. I'd like to clean up the engine bay a bit with some nice powdercoating to revitalize everything and maybe a COP conversion if I can convince myself the looks are worth the potential headaches.


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badass98svt

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Mystic = drool
The Mystichrome is too flamboyant for me. Then, they put that same color in the interior too. Honestly, I never understood why grown men like them so much. :p

The Mystic color is somewhat subtle and low-key compared to the look at me of the Mystichrome.

Great score.

The ATS Brembo setup is great, I have all the stuff for it too. But keep in mind, they definitely do not clear all 18s without the use of spacers. That's what is keeping me from installing them. I think I gonna sell my kit and go with another option that will clear my wheels without spacers.
 
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duh09

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Tossed the new headlights in along with the door jamb switch and passenger side door pull.

The radio has a problem where it really likes turning all the way down if I try to turn it up over the sound of the exhaust so a new head unit and couple new speakers for the doors on en route now.

Here’s a few pics in the backyard as the sun started to head down so the Mystic was showing out!

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badass98svt

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Looks great! Need a door lock cylinder? I bought one from Ford, but the quality is shit. Just a heads up.
 
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duh09

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Looks great! Need a door lock cylinder? I bought one from Ford, but the quality is shit. Just a heads up.
I've still got the factory one, but it looks like it fell apart. I haven't taken the door panel off to check it out just yet. I'm planning to have a replacement on standby when I throw my speakers in if it's not something I can repair.
 

badass98svt

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Ford sells a kit where you assemble it yourself so it works with your existing key. Unfortunately, the cap they send with it is shit and just doesn't fit right. When I tried to install mine, it sat about a mm off the door skin, which is a big no bueno.
 
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ttocs

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most of the parts in door locks are easily replaceable by an experienced locksmith. I would pull it out and take it to one for their opinion prior to just swapping it out. If you do swap it you can have the locksmith match your existing key to it but then again if your going to pay a locksmith to key a lock, repairing it probably is not much more than the cost of the parts.
 

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Love the Mystic, and agree it's *much* better than it's successor. And I'd forgotten about the orange component until I saw that last pic.

I looked into a whole new lock set when I thought I'd lost a key but couldn't find one that included the trunk and glove box.
 

badass98svt

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If you do swap it you can have the locksmith match your existing key to it but then again if your going to pay a locksmith to key a lock, repairing it probably is not much more than the cost of the parts.
Lol, which brings you back to my point, the FoMoCo diy replacement locks are crap.
 
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duh09

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Well, forgot to keep this thread updated.

Not much has changed. Right after the last update, I got the new radio in and got a couple new tires tossed on the front. The alignment wasn't far off, so they were able to get it right without ordering C/C plates.

I ended up Long Hauling the car on the Hot Rod Power Tour. It started in Memphis this year and went to Nashville, Birmingham, Pensacola, and ended in Atlanta. I went from there to Chattanooga before driving it across Tennessee backroads back to Memphis.


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I took absolutely 0 pictures of the car for the most part on the trip, but a buddy of mine managed to snag a picture of me on my way out of Atlanta.

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So with all that being said, my time with the Mystic is probably coming to a close. I'm likely going to pull the seats out of my 94, as they're in better shape and get the car detailed and posted on FB Marketplace. I just had materials dropped off yesterday to get my shop built, and selling this car would go a good ways towards getting everything wired up and getting a lift in it. That, and this car isn't something I'd want to slap a blower or something on. I'm not a collector sort of guy, but I can recognize that this isn't a car to beat to hell and slap a bunch of parts on and I'd rather be doing that with the 94. I've got a odd occasional transmission noise to track down and fix and she'll be ready to find a new home.
 
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duh09

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Well, the transmission problem is getting worse - but somehow still impossible for me to recreate on command. I bought fluid, thinking maybe the levels were off or the wrong fluid, but now I'm thinking there may be something else going on. I have receipts were the previous owner had the trans gone through a couple years ago, but it has less than 20k miles on it since then. I've stopped driving it, all my materials have arrived for my shop and once it's up, I'll pull the trans and inspect so I reckon the ole Mystic is going to get to take a break for a few weeks.
 
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duh09

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Well shop finally got a door hung on it right before Christmas and finally took the time to check the fluid today because I'm tired of moving stuff into it.

Fluid level was good, pulled the plug and had a nice little stream of nice bright red fluid so I was looking forward to wasting my time draining - and then I drained it and immediately realized that there's for sure a problem. The fluid immediately had a grey sort of sheen to it and got darker the further we got until the last little stream was almost black. Pretty confident a synchro or 2 has lost the chat. No chunks or bits to be found in the fluid.

The trans was built by Hanlon Motorsports back in 2020 and by the look of the receipts, it likely has less than 10k miles on it and I've put 4k on it myself this year. I've got a 3 page, almost $3k invoice sitting here for everything they replaced and upgraded so I shot them an email and I'm hoping that they might feel froggy and help me out a little on checking it out and getting it fixed but I am not holding my breath.
 

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