Paul's Fox Body Restoration Build (Updated 11.29.14 - We Have Fuel Pressure)

Paul · Dec 3, 2012

Musturd said:
Hell yea interiors going to look so good when done

It should be really nice. The rear seat delete is kicking my ass right now.

BlkoutGT said:
So, when do we get to see those f****** light up? lol

I've been getting that question a lot lately. I'll give you the same answer I give everyone. There is a (remote) chance that I may attempt to at least fire the car before year-end, but I still think even that is unlikely.

g36 monkey said:
Dang Paul good stuff! The original pics of your gauges aren't working =/ I was trying to show someone the other day. It's going to be so awesome!

Here's a pic of them hooked up on my kitchen table!

MustangChris said:
10 hours??? daaaamn!

great progress. love the attention to detail (visors mounts.)

Attention to detail is the name of the game for this car. It's the only way you can really differentiate one mustang from another since pretty much everything has been done.

Steve-Oh said:
Where's the Saleen at Paul? I guess I missed something lol

I took it out in the desert and shot it in the face, then parted it out. Made about sixteen grand in parts I think. Good riddance.

I got my rear seat delete and package tray in the mail from LRS today. Package tray fits like a glove - just have to trim out the hole for the third brake light. The really ****ing annoying part was that I'm retarded and didn't realize that the package tray has to go in before you install the rear quarter panels, sooo I had to pull them all out again.

The fitment of the rear seat delete, on the other hand, is not even close. It's not their fault though, the giant wheel tubs really eff everything up. The fabric is stapled on, which is actually fortunate because you can pull the staples pretty easily. I pulled all the fabric off of the delete, and started the process of measuring and trimming the board down to fit. After several iterations of conservative cuts, the back part of the delete fits pretty well. I stapled the fabric back on, and it looks nice. I still need to cover the wheel tubs in fabric though, and the extra fabric they provided wasn't enough. Fortunately, I bought a huge piece of carpet, so I'll be cutting some pieces off and spray-gluing them in place. Once that's been done, I will re-install the quarter panels. Then the back part of the delete.

I still have to cut down the "bottom" section of the delete, then staple all the fabric back on, and then just screw everything down for final fitment. This is going to take a while...

Paul.

Oh and P.S., I ordered all the air conditioning parts for the car today. New condenser, lines, and such. Also ordered a Ford Contour twin electric fan setup with the pigtail connectors. Hopefully my buddy can wire all that up to my DC Controller sometime in the next few weeks.

g36 monkey · Dec 3, 2012

Thanks for the pics Paul! Those are the one's I was looking for!

And man, it's coming right along. I love this thing!

I too was wondering about the saleen, but just didn't say anything haha. I was like "I thought Paul had a ballin Saleen like a high roller....it just disappeared"

Paul · Dec 4, 2012

Rear seat delete is in!!

It's not perfect, but it looks decent enough. I had to trim and eyeball a lot of stuff to get it to fit over the wheeltubs. Once the harness bar and seats are in, nobody will look back there anyway. All I wanted was a nice "finished" look, and I think I got that.

Now I'll keep working on the getting the gauge wiring situated so I can install the rest of the dash and the center console.

Paul.

whiplash473 · Dec 4, 2012

looks great especially for eye-balling it paul

Musturd · Dec 4, 2012

Nice that turned out pretty clean . Alot nice then you see in most cars

hottwheels04 · Dec 5, 2012

cant wait to see it done full interior and running! videos and pics soon? lol

you going to be tunning it or hitting the dyno with it anytime?

belber095 · Dec 5, 2012

those gauges are sexy as they get man. can't wait to see em put in.

Paul · Dec 5, 2012

Today's shipment came in. New Ford Contour dual electric fan setup. New A/C lines. All new 3G alternator wiring to replace the hack job, and a new starter cable for the mini-starter.

Paul.

MustangChris · Dec 5, 2012

contour fans???

great progress!

Paul · Dec 6, 2012

MustangChris said:
contour fans???

great progress!

Swapping in the twin fan setup from a Ford Contour is a pretty common mod for Mustangs and quite a few other project car genres. According to the internetz lore, they're rumored to flow ~3500 cfm total, which is more than adequate for a crappy old Foxbody. It doesn't flow as much as a Mark VIII fan, but it's cheaper, and has better "packaging" in the engine compartment. In my case, it's a tighter fit against the radiator, which is important since I have a giant electric water pump sticking out the front of the motor. Plus, there is a reasonable likelihood that I'll be putting a centrifugal blower on the car at some point, which will further constrain space in the engine compartment. Ergo, the contour fan setup is a good choice - not to mention, a brand new one is only $120 from Rock Auto. Can't beat it for that price.

Paul.

g36 monkey · Dec 6, 2012

lol. and the plan for the boost is revealed

Paul · Dec 6, 2012

That is only an idea, not a plan. Even if it becomes a plan, it will be a distant plan. Lots of stuff to get done between now and then.

Oh, and the S-trim just works because I'm lazy and I can install it in an afternoon.

Paul.

g36 monkey · Dec 6, 2012

I wasn't expecting it to be done in the next week or anything

Still excited to see this just running! I still say this is one car I need to make a road trip to meet ;p

Paul · Dec 16, 2012

I've been slacking and not working on the car like I should. I blame shitty weather, cold, rain, and Black Ops 2.

Today I did a little though. I got the rest of the wiring for the gauges cleaned up, loomed, and zip tied. I got the gauge cluster attached loosely in it's place. It will need to come back out I'm sure once or twice so Croke can hook up the LED indicators for the electric fan and water pump. I relocated the "brain" for the gauges to behind the center stack in the center console, instead of the glove box where I had it. That gave me a little more reach in the engine compartment for some of the wires for the sending units, which was helpful. It also puts the brain totally out of the way and protected from damage.

I started the install of the center console. I had to clearance some of the plastic so the three gauges would fit in their plate. The rest of the console should go pretty easily. Once that's done, I'll work on the steering column trim, the harness bar, and maybe the seats once that's all said and done.

I'll try to work on it during the evenings a little bit this week.

Paul.

g36 monkey · Dec 17, 2012

I cannot wait to see this interior come together!

MustangChris · Dec 17, 2012

Is this the same notch that you started with years back? (not being a prick. legit question. lol) that you were selling the lemans wheels off of?

Paul · Dec 19, 2012

This is the same notch I've been working on since 2007. My LeMans wheels came off of my Unicorn, which was a '94 GT Convertible.

Anyway, on with it...

So Latemodel Restoration sent me their "master catalog." This thing is a gold mine. There were some parts that I've been searching junkyards for with no success, and it turns out they had them!

So I just ordered:
- door lock rod pin plastic thingies (mine are all worn out)
- license plate LEDs, plastic lenses, and hardware, nice and new and shiny
- brake light switch plastic bushings and hardware, mine are absent and I've been searching everywhere for these
- side of radiator air deflectors, mine are absent (these are either beat to shit, not there in the junkyards)
- little plastic trim pieces around the seatbelts where they go through the rear quarter panel, I broke mine

- cowl vent install hardware
- plastic clutch pedal plastic bushings (another one I've been looking everywhere for)
- rubber radiator insulators, mine are gone or trashed

This stuff is supposed to arrive Christmas Eve. I'm going to take a few weeks off at Christmas so it will give me some more time to work on the car.

Does anyone know where I can get a working trunk pop solenoid? Mine is dead and I really want it to work. Details details.

Paul.

Paul · Dec 26, 2012

I wanna ****ing scream right now.

I've been working on trying to get one goddamn door panel installed today. I removed all the old nasty grease from the window slide assemblies, and put in new lithium grease. I oiled up the door lock mechanisms so they move freely now. I put some more sound deadener on the inner door skin for good measure. I searched everywhere to find some correct fasteners and retainer clips for all the door screws. I fought endlessly with the shitty armrest assemblies, trying to get the new pads to seat correctly on the armrest frames, and it still looks like shit, but I decided to proceed with installing the door panel anyway because it was as good as it's gonna get.

The door panels (which are $350 from LRS) come with no holes in them for things like armrests, inner door handles, etc. You have to cut those yourself. After hours of careful measuring, cutting, and pre-fitting, I was ready to install the panels. I realized that I forgot to cut the rectangle out for the inner door handles. I flipped the panel over, and it has markings on the back for where you cut.

So I cut it.

Then when I flipped it back over, I immediately realized the holes were way too ****ing big to be covered by the door handle bezels. So I just ruined the whole mother****ing door panel. God dammit **** **** ****. *****.

I'm so pissed. Of course, you can't buy the door panels one at a time - they're sold in sets. So one cut that I made in haste after hours and hours of being careful cost me $350.

**** this mother****ing money pit car.

Paul.