Maximum95's GT

[Maximum95]

December 2019. The oil pan gasket replacement took place. Along with that was timing cover, water pump, k-member, control arms, motor mounts, and the complete air conditioning system minus the evaporator. I never liked how tight the fins were on the factory condenser, so I went with a more modern one to allow more air flow over the radiator. The compressor leaked and so did the suction line. It's cheap enough to do the whole system.

I would never recommend a Four Seasons brand compressor though. It ended up leaking oil from the first time I charged it.

So I placed the rear wheels on ramps, jackstands under the front subframe connectors and hoisted the engine. I dropped the k-member with some help from Charlie and placed jackstands under the smog pump and compressor brackets. Worked out just fine. I had the oil pan out for a day so I could take it to my shop and stick it in the parts washer.

 

[Maximum95]

December 2019. Timing cover, water pump, oil pan and motor mounts installed. The old oil pan gasket was so thin and mushy. I can't believe it didn't leak more.

 

[Maximum95]

December 2019. K-member comparison.



The QA1 k-member moved the engine back quite a bit. The oil fill cap was now directly under the strut tower brace. I'd say it was 1" or so.



Also, I'm not sure where the EVAP solenoid was supposed to be mounted, so I came up with this contraption.

 

[Maximum95]

January 2020. Here is the finished product. The wheel moved about 1" forward as well. The k-member transformed the handling characteristics of the car. Everything felt better. Better ride quality, more responsive on turning, more controlled while cornering, what a result! When installing the k-member, Charlie and I squared it by measuring from the k-member to the rear lower control arm mounting bolts. When I got the car aligned, it ended up with a 0.03° thrust angle. I won't complain about that!!!

 

[Maximum95]

January 2020. I scored a warehouse closing deal on the BBK 15190 1-5/8" long tube headers. $350 shipped! I then found the BBK 1671 x-pipe to match.

 

[Maximum95]

January 2020. I took a President's Day drive, and snapped some pics. This is the last time the car was at this ride height.

 

[Maximum95]

January 2020. I installed the new BBK headers and x-pipe. The install wasn't too bad with the aftermarket k-member. I pulled the steering shaft and the driver side header went right in. I had to unbolt the passenger side motor mount and jack the motor up to get the passenger side header installed. I had to put an indentation in one of the passenger side primaries where it would have contacted the k-member. I'm not sure this would be the case with all brands of k-member but that's how it is with the QA1.

Also, the air conditioning liquid line is incredibly close to the passenger side header. I took a '96 GT liquid line which has a longer section of rubber hose, and took it to a local hose and hydraulic vendor. They grafted the evaporator connection from my original liquid line to the '96 one. This allowed me to move the line up 2" or so from the factory location with some clamps mounted to the strut tower. The line fits much better.

 

[Maximum95]

February 2020. I had to raise the ride height with the long tube headers. I had already scraped the UPR x-pipe several times at high speed, and even shot sparks once lol. But, I really didn't want to destroy my nice new headers! With the raised ride height, I could now fit a full height Ford Ranger air deflector. The one I installed originally was some eBay reproduction, so I went and got a real one at the junkyard.

 

[Maximum95]

February 2020. After having so much fun ripping the car in the middle of the night, I wanted to create a decal to go with my new found pastime. I wanted something motorsport inspired, and I really like the look of windshield visor decals. So I came up with my own thing, "StarDust". I created the design in Photoshop, and had it printed by one of our emergency vehicle upfitters. Idk why but they printed two! The other one ended up on my toolbox at work. Sometimes people ask me where I got my "StarDust" toolbox lmao. I was so pumped to see the design go from my computer screen to being printed on vinyl.

 

[Maximum95]

February 2020. I wanted some help installing my windshield decal. Thankfully Josh had installed several on his cars, so he came to help me out. I was stoked with the result! After looking at it for a while, I realized the red wasn't correct. I later learned from a friend that when creating decal designs, they should be exported in a CMY color format, instead of RGB like most photos. But besides that, I was happy to see my own design on the car. Also, I practically never use the sun visors in the car.

 

[Maximum95]

February 2020. I took the Mustang for a weekend trip to Las Cruces, NM. 500mi round trip. The car felt great. And of course I had to stop for a soak at my favorite hot spring hotel in Truth or Consequences, NM.

 

[Maximum95]

February 2020. I took another weekend trip to Phoenix, AZ. 850mi round trip. I left my house at 3:00am so I was able to blast down the highway. What a great time. I did the same thing on the way back and encountered some interesting fog. Here's the Chevron on Holbrook, AZ and some fog photos.

 

[Maximum95]

April 2020. The jackrabbit incident. I was doing my early morning drive, on a rough road so I just had the cruise set at 85mph. This massive jackrabbit suddenly comes out of the brush and I took it out. Here's the aftermath. The bumper was broken and the condenser was bent. Really not a whole lot of damage but thankfully I wasn't going that fast.

 

[Maximum95]

April 2020, some more aftermath.

 

[Maximum95]

April 2020. After thoroughly washing the underside of the car, engine bay, and behind the bumper, I fixed the bumper with some fiberglass repair.

 

[Maximum95]

April 2020. After the rabbit incident, I realized how insane it was that I'm out here trying to top out my '95 Mustang with halogen bulbs. So I found some LED headlight and foglight bulbs to try out. What a difference!

 

[ttocs]

I hate to say it but there is a very good chance that the windshield banner could be illegal. A quick search for "how far down the windshield can tint be in new mexico?" comes up with an answer of 5" which is pretty standard. It is one of those laws that they will not give a damn about till they are either bored enough or want a reason to pull you over.

 

[white95]

I hate to say it but there is a very good chance that the windshield banner could be illegal.

$5 says he doesn’t care The only thing dangerous about that windshield banner is not seeing the red light turn green without cocking your head to the side. Ask me how I know?

 

[ttocs]

I didn't even think about the fun it will be at lights . I have known people that have had similar and never had a problem but on the other hand I know a buddy that did a light tint on the windshield and didn't make it 2 weeks before he got a ticket, and then the next day got pulled over for it again and got a warning since he was able to show the ticket from the day before.

 

[Maximum95]

I hate to say it but there is a very good chance that the windshield banner could be illegal. A quick search for "how far down the windshield can tint be in new mexico?" comes up with an answer of 5" which is pretty standard. It is one of those laws that they will not give a damn about till they are either bored enough or want a reason to pull you over.

Oh yeah, it's 10/10 illegal and I'm fully aware. I have one on my Mark VIII too. Even my wife's 2013 GT has an 8" tint strip at the top of the windshield. It's not a major concern around here. There are so many vehicles running around Albuquerque, and New Mexico for that matter, with 20% or even 5% tint on the whole windshield.