New Member $900 Auction buy & build

[scca vette]

First off, I am new to the Forum and this will be the first Mustang we have ever owned. I figured I would share the project car we purchased and hopefully get some good information from the forum members and their knowledge on these cars.

A couple years ago we adopted a kid that was worked for me that was not in the best home situation. We never wanted kids however he is a really good kid and is really into cars and motorsports. We are in the process of building him a Corvette to do some track days and auto-X with however he has a 2021 Silverado with a Diesel in it as a daily driver that we use to pull the trailer. With the price of Diesel he decided to buy an inexpensive gas daily driver so he would not have to feed the hungry diesel. Most people would buy a 4 cyl econobox in this situation however he decided to go a different route and wanted a "fun" manual V8 car.

We got on IAAI and he found a 1996 GT 5 speed. The car looked to be in decent shape and had a video of it running. We was able to get it for $900 and it was located in Orlando (1.5 HRS away) we pulled the trailer over there and picked it up.

So here is what the kid was able to buy for $900 (minus the overkill rear wing)


After doing an evaluation of the car after we got it home, this is what we found that needed to be addressed.
1. Factory rear wing was broken in half (DONE)
2. There was NO exhaust after the manifolds (DONE)
3. Body was in good shape except a dent across the roof that will have to be beat out and fixed (DONE)
4. one side skirt missing (passenger side) (DONE)
5. All 4 tires are slicks
6. Interior was a mess and top of door panels coming apart and drivers seat has a couple tears.
7. Hood only has safety latch, main latch broken (DONE)
8. Suspension is worn out and has some China springs and shocks (DONE)
9. both window regulators bad (DONE)
10. Engine has a miss like it is dropping a cylinder.
11. 3rd Gear is a little rough getting into if trying to shift it quick.
12. Battery was dead (DONE)
13. Fog lights do not work (DONE)
14. Windshield has crack
15. Car has decent paint but color is ugly and hood was never painted. (DONE)
16. Cold air intake was half falling off of it and filter had never been cleaned. (DONE)
17. Aftermarket stereo that sounds like crap. (DONE)
18. Steering wheel air bag cover has cracks (DONE)
19. No keyless entry and ignition key does not open doors.

 

[scca vette]

First thing we did was address the broken wing due to it was about to fall off the car. The kid found this "thing" on Facebook for sale for $100. The guy said it was a Saleen wing however I have no idea. It was in good shape and bolted right on. I guess it does not look too bad however I did tell him his ricer status went up a notch. We are now $1000 into this project.

 

[RAU03MACH]

900 hunded not bad

Welcome to the forums
If you have any questions feel to ask
Browse the forums
Most of the people here are very helpful

Not a bad looking car at all

 

[scca vette]

The next thing to address was the exhaust. Being this is a low buck build and that the kid is a certified welder and has a new welder at the house that cost god knows how much I came up with a cost effective alternative for an exhaust system. We found a used exhaust off a 2011 Mustang that was basically new for $80. We put the car up on blocks like the neighborhood rednecks and I gave him the pile of parts and told him to get to work. He did a decent job and just ended up putting turndowns at the axle. With some additional bolts hangers and gaskets we are $1200 into this project.

 

[scca vette]

900 hunded not bad

Welcome to the forums
If you have any questions feel to ask
Browse the forums
Most of the people here are very helpful

Not a bad looking car at all

Thank You! I am sure we will have a ton of questions.

 

[OpalFrostGT]

This promises to be more than interesting! Your list of imperfections indicates to me that your investment may crowd $8,000 before you reach your first "happy goal"!
#10...Engine has miss, like dropping a cylinder...may be the elephant in the room.
But, it will provide you with many hours of personal growth and pain. Good fortune to all involved. Please keep us posted!

 

[scca vette]

After the exhaust was completed, we decided to address the interior. This ended up being more difficult that I had suspected. Though there is a ton of these cars in the scrap yards there seems to be none with good parts and the ones I found online seems to be bringing good money. We pulled all the seats out and gave the interior a good clean and remove all the damn drug paraphernalia. I was unable to find a decent set of door panels so I removed all the upper material and sanded and just panted the upper section until we can find a set. We went to the scrap yard and found some seat belts (they were crazy dirty), a couple dash trim pieces that were cracked, the trim panels that go around the window switches in the doors, and found a complete Mach 460 sound system I grabbed out of a car. I'm sure it is not the best system in the world however it was cheap and will be better than what was in it. We spent $75 at the scrap yard. We are now $1275 into this project.

This promises to be more than interesting! Your list of imperfections indicates to me that your investment may crowd $8,000 before you reach your first "happy goal"!
#10...Engine has miss, like dropping a cylinder...may be the elephant in the room.
But, it will provide you with many hours of personal growth and pain. Good fortune to all involved. Please keep us posted!

You very well could be correct, by the time this project is done I might have been better off to just go buy a nice one and been done. If it does end up costing more than it is worth it will have been worth it for him to learn and have to work for it plus it is a nice project for us to do together and keep him off the streets. I will post up what we spend as we go until it is done and we can all together see how this turns out. lol

 

[PinkieT]

Great what you are doing with the kid.

 

[scca vette]

The next project was to replace the old worn-out clunking brick hard suspension. I have to admit this is an area where we cheated on this build a little. The kid works at the suspension company soooo he was able to get some parts from work at employee price. Had this not been the case we would have just gone to the scrap yard and bought some factory stuff except for the wearable items. We ended up replacing upper (adjustable) and lower rear control arms, springs, swat bar bushings, and shocks. Front we replaced lower control arms, shocks, shock mount bushings, springs, and all sway bar bushings. While it was apart, we replaced all 4 rotors and pads. I also disassembled all the calipers and rebuilt them after he powder coated them along with all the other brackets that were removed. He has built himself a powder coat oven and bought the gun to do parts on the Track Car he is building so he used it to do the parts on this car. When we reassembled the car I flushed the complete system and made sure it had high temp fluid. I would like to replace the lines with some good braded lines however that's a project for another day. Suspension and brakes we had $600 in it. Had another $20 in powder coat and blasting, cleaning materials. We are now $1895 into the project.






Here is the old suspension that was removed.

 

[scca vette]

The next thing we did was start to look at the Engine running like crap and the cold air intake falling off. This is where I have 0 knowledge when it comes to these MOD motors. I started with the basic stuff and replaced all the plugs, replaced the thermostat and gasket, replaced a couple plug wires that did not check out good, replaced broken PVC hoses, cleaned TB, removed and cleaned air filter and installed correctly.

Pulled the codes and found O2 code and temp sensor code. Replaced both pre O2 sensors and temp sensor (post car O2 codes still there due to no cats and no rear o2 sensors).

After all this the car still ran like crap under load and acted like it was dropping a Cyl. I started pulling injector connectors and found #6 CYL was doing nothing. I pulled the plug and verified there was spark. After messing with the injector connector it came back to life. It seems to be running good now but time will tell.

Changed the oil and filter! We had another $120 in doing all this. We are $2015 into this project now.

 

[ttocs]

you don't see the double stack saleen wings all that often anymore and I like them if nothing else just for the story of them being banned in that one race style they were in. Can't remember the details now.

 

[scca vette]

The next thing we addressed was a few minor items but still things that had to be fixed and still cost some money.

1. Replace missing side skirt = Found one at salvage yard in same color for $10

2. Replaced both window motors and regulators = Amazon $70

3. Replaced Fog Light bulbs = Autozone $20

4. Charged AC = low on freon $30

5. Hood latch broken = Added hood pins $15

Total for all these repairs = $145. We are now $2160 into this project.

 

[scca vette]

Great what you are doing with the kid.

Thank you i appreciate it. He is a good kid and a hard worker. Here is the other project that he is working on. I use to run SCCA and NCCC and he has decided he wants to get into some track racing so I am helping him build a SAFE car for the track.

 

[scca vette]

This is pretty much where we are at this time with the build. I am working on getting some new tires here. When I use to run SCCA i had the hookup on Toyo tires to race on, so I called my contact and trying to get some decent 200 ish tread ware tires for it.

I think the next things we will be working on will be the keyless entry (add on) and a new steering wheel.

We are also starting to look at what colors to paint it. Though it is not horrible, i am not a fan of the color and i think it would be a good opportunity for the kid to learn how to spray a car. As of now he is wanting a medium gray on the car with gloss black hood, wing and wheels. We will see if that sticks, or he changes his mind again. He started with wanting to paint it Rapid Blue that is on the C8.

 

[Frank.JD.Perez]

thats a good buy for 900. looks like everyone is coming across good finds

 

[Frank.JD.Perez]

also, on the expensive gas prices note... unless youre paying more than 6.50 a gallon, i dont wanna hear it cause thats my life every day here in shitty california... id love to be paying just 4.50 a gallon again

 

[scca vette]

also, on the expensive gas prices note... unless youre paying more than 6.50 a gallon, i dont wanna hear it cause thats my life every day here in shitty california... id love to be paying just 4.50 a gallon again

I don't know if I could live in Cali, the gas prices is just one of the many things that are way more expensive than here.

 

[Frank.JD.Perez]

if my fiance was on board, we would be out of here, but thats not happening any time soon it seems...

but yeah, the SR saleen style wing is pretty cool. especially if its a real one

 

[RAU03MACH]

i had to get out
i needed some peace of mind

 

[RAU03MACH]

did you manage to find door panels , i have a set there a little rough but will work