Remembering the Deceased Mustang

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im not posting this as a build/project even though it was my first build, but posting it up as an homage/ out of respect for my first car since it saved my life at the end of the day.

its was a 98 mustang gt that my step dad had bought back in 2004 i think as a project and i think to flip it. we had bought it from the original owner in santa cruz for i think 1500 bucks. definitely not more than 2k. the car had about 50k miles on it or so but the owner had blown the engine. my step dad had bought a 2002 pi engine and transmission with about 30/35k miles on it and it later on was swapped in the 98. at the time my step dads brother was still a tech for ford (now toyota) and they swapped it together. when i got closer to the age of 16 we were deciding what car i wanted to get for my first one and naturally being a huge fan of the fast and furious movies i wanted a gsx eclipse, an evo viii, or even an e46 m3 because of the nfs most wanted game. my step dad said no and that i was going to get the 98 coupe (at this time we still had the svo vert). it wasnt until i reached 16 that i started to love the sn that my step dad had done the swap on. i had always loved the vert but i mean when you grow up with a supercharged saleen s351 replica vert that goes real fast and goes *weeeeee* when you floor it to a completely stock looking sn it kinda is a "what?" moment. but nonetheless when i started to spend time in the car and driving it i feel in love. it wasnt until my junior year that the car was mine and ill never forget the day right before i started my junior year of high school that my step dad sent me these two pictures while i was out with my friends

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i rushed home to my house (in pleasanton) and my step dad and i got to putting the FR500s on.

we had done it at night literally like 10 hour before i started school. i cant ever say my step dad hasnt always ridden in style hahah

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see below for info on that^

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granted some of these pictures are after i had put mods on.

my step dad would drive me to school in the car and one day he told me to start the car up in the morning and i used to for awhile until one day i started it up and i thought i would make things a little easier. so i started the car up and i had put the car in reverse. mind you i hadnt had much experience driving a stick yet (i was 15 when this happened) and i didnt think the car was gonna roll back with the e brake on and the car in the reverse gear. i rolled the car back and caught my left leg in between the door on the mustang and the tire of the expedition we had which is what caused that dent you see on the door and the small crack in the rear bumper. yes, laugh all you want. that happened.
 
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Frank.JD.Perez
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now some more detail about the car.

after i got the car i hadnt done much to it during my junior year.

i had got a new stereo (sony), replaced my head lights with cobra ones, got the blue 9mm frpp plug wires, put on magnaflow mufflers and 3.5 in tips, put in a white face gauge overlay and the hvac overlay, got slow rate sequential tail lights and (i think) my led third brake light

it wasnt until my senior year that i did more to the car. (and when i say more i mean in expenses, lol)

got the frpp lowering c springs, put in the steeda tri ax, gen 1 jlt cold air intake in bright atlantic blue, got a pypes high flow catted x pipe, got chrome locking lug nuts, put in 373s and speedo recal and i painted my calipers.

when i graduated high school i had put on the kaenen s281 spoiler which in my opinion is the best s281 to get and i had changed out my sony deck in favor for a sony deck with bluetooth capatability

here are a couple of pictures of my car and my friend from high schools 76 (i think) firebird that he bought himself from the good-guys show

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and more or less (only like 2 or so more) these are all the pictures i actually have of my first car the Black Stallion in comparison to the Stealh Mare where she has like... a thousand pics... but hey girls take more pictures than guys. the chick above is a girl i went to college with who honestly the only reason i havent deleted the picture is because my car is behind her. but what happened shortly after this picture was taken is where things took a turn...
 
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Frank.JD.Perez
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on thursday september 6th 2012 i was coming home late night after work. i had moved back to my house in hayward since i was driving my car to school and its about 20 miles less going from hayward to sf than pleasanton to sf, but that night i had stopped by my parents house in pleasanton. before i left i had taken one last picture of my car next to my step dads 98 and was on my way. i was planning on meeting up with my cousin on friday in the city to hang out with him because his father had just passed away so i wanted to go have fun with him. i was, and am still today, very fond of the back roads here in pleasanton that lead into sunol and i had gotten my front tires pretty bald over the course of a few years. (i forgot the mention i had 245s up front and 265s in back). but i was driving home through sunol and i was stuck behind someone who was going uber slow which i didnt mind because i had just filled up my tank earlier that day so i was like cool i get to save gas. it wasnt until about halfway though the canyon that i had some little ricer come up behind me who was uber annoying and on my ass, like really dude? come on cant you see im stuck behind this guy? so he kept on annoying me and eventually i had it. i knew there was a straight away coming up where i could pass, so i was gonna pass up the guy in front (road rage?). so i did, but theres a sharp curve thats right after that straight away. but i have driven the canyon so often and knew it so well i was confident i didnt need to worry. hahah, you know where this is going right?

so not touching my brakes i went through the corner and i had made it through! but right after i got through the "S" i noticed my car start to come out from behind me. so i counter steered. and then it was facing the other direction towards the cliff. i counter steered again, but with no luck it was too late and i drove off the cliff. how much time passed between me crashing and knowing i had crashed idk. i may have blacked out for a second, but im not too sure. i found myself rammed into a tree and the funny part was i immediately turned on my hazards, grabbed my phone, took out the keys and Dukes of Hazard'd my way out of the car and climbed back up to the road. luckily enough for me there was a guy who saw me go off and stopped. he asked if i was ok and i had told him yeah. i called my house and told my parents what happened and they were on their way. i called AAA too so i could get my car out. after doing so i crawled down to get back in my car and grab something, but i noticed my window was up and it threw me off because i normally always drove with my windows down. it wasnt untill later that i realized i had hit 2 trees. one head on and one on the side right behind my seat which was what was keeping the car and myself from rolling down into the water.

i know for certain that my grand father was watching over me and protecting me especially since i walked away from that with only a couple lacerations and some cuts on my left forearm from the glass. the medics had commented saying i was remarkable for the accident and the damage and multiple officers when they arrived had commented that this area was where they had their first fatal. for months i wasnt confident and going through any corner shook me up. even seeing tires marks on the ground that go off still get to me to this day. i had stayed away from the canyon until i bought my 97 in february of 13. that was an interesting day. but back to the story when i got out of the hospital (they checked me and also took out a huge piece of glass from my wrist) it was about 4 in the morning and i had school at 9 so i had to leave at 7. and to make things worse my step dad told me to drive his car. like are you crazy?! yours is way faster and not a coupe! i didnt want to, but i had to. so for the next 5 or so months the vert had become my car until i bought the 97 and maybe 3 or 4 months after that the 98 was sold (insert sad face with snot coming down), but alas i do see it here in pleasanton pretty frequently so its ok to my heart. but it looks nowhere near as nice as it did in our hands.

every time i drive the canyon going into hayward and i pass through the s i always say in my head "and here is where i died" like someone commenting on a safari trip. my confidence is back to normal and it doesnt bother me anymore but it was big for me back then. i was only 18.

not many parts were salvageable from the 98, i took my tail lights and led, took off the saleen spoiler (but i sold it later) took out my stereo my speedo calibration tool from the 373s and that was kinda it. so some parts on my 97 are from the 98 and i tried to closly resemble the 97 to the 98. all i wanted to do to the 98 was get a cobra hood and front bumper and i was done with mods for it. but that obviously didn't happen hahah. it had about 87k miles when i crashed it and about 65 on the motor.


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oddly enough the rims hadnt gotten messed up when i went off but the locking tool i had for the lugs was misplaced so we werent able to take them off...kevin wasnt very happy about that...
 

JerZeyStangz

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Most important your alive and you get to see another day, and have future family if that is what you want. Tires are the biggest safety issue with older cars. I had a couple buddies lose control in there stangs over years because there tires weren't up for the task. Never skip out on tires! Anyways, glad you recovered and got back into the saddle.
 

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