You Know What They Say About a Man With a Large Carbon Footprint....

[twovalveterror]

I haven't made a whole lot of progress on the car. I'm hoping this thread will make me start spending some time on it, instead of just stockpiling parts!

a little history on the car. I got it when I was 15. it didn't run, and was generally a mess. I spent most of the money I made in highschool getting it driveable, and was even able to drive it the spring of my senior year! Since then, I haven't done much, mainly because of school. I bought the Cobra R's in the pictures, and that's about the only mod since then.

one intention of doing this build is to show you folks how much I've spent on everything. I'm trying to do a somewhat budget minded build, my original goal was to be under ten grand, I can see now that probably won't happen, but I want to stay as close as I can to it.

The car is a 1998 GT convertible. the current mod list is short. pro 5.0 shifter, bbk ceramic shorty headers, flowmaster cat-back, and a ford racing clutch. that's it.

The plans are to finish the IRS swap that is currently in progress. Get some coil-overs this summer or in the fall, and finish piecing my engine together over the winter and hopefully be back on the road in early spring. Visual mods will be done sporadically throughout the rest of the build. Hopefully culminating in a fresh coat of paint, but I just can't bring myself to spend that much money on something that won't make me go faster!

here is a list of the parts I have lying in wait, or are already on the car, and all of their prices as best I can remember them. (prices will be rounded, and will not include misc. things such as bolts, etc.) for those still reading, pictures are coming up soon.

car (came with short throw shifter, flowmaster car back, borla side exhaust, and svo side skirts)- 1500
replacement engine- 750
bbk shorties- 350
ford racing clutch-200
optima battery-50
96 shortblock (forged rods, pistons, ARP hardware, valve notches)-600
Livernois Stage III heads- 900
K&N CAI- 20
01 IRS (bushing kit, cat-back, 3.73 gear)-500
jet hot coated hooker headers and a matching x pipe (not coated)- 700
billet flow IRS brace- 160
oem cobra bumper, hood, headlights, fog lights- 350
chrome cobra r wheels- 600
mm c/c plates- 120

total- 6800

I'll add more as I remember things, and adjust prices if I got any wrong. if any seem way too high or way too low, let me know.

my main problem now is that almost everything else I need will have to be bought new!

my goal for the car is to have a realistic street cruiser that I can take to a road course or the drag strip and have fun with. and to have a high revving n/a 2v that can surprise a couple people every once in a while!

pics of parts. I may add captions later, but this post is already way too long!

that will be it for now, I'm headed to the gym!

 

[Slykin]

No pics of the SVO skirts on the car? Color me disappointed. Nice work anyhow lol.

 

[tnmloudenuf]

i like to see when people do things right! looks like a really nice car in the making.

 

[95riosnake]

Some pretty cool parts going into this car, I'm gonna keep an eye on this one!

Does the IRS have the FTBR bushing kit? If so, you stole that thing for $500.

 

[ttocs]

a flowmaster cat-back exhaust followed with a borla side exhaust system must look and sound perty interesting.

 

[Ferocious]

That side exhaust is gonna look sweet!
Look like you have this build going in the right direction. I cant wait to see the finished product.

 

[ttocs]

I think the side exhaust was the single best thing I ever put on my car. Totally changed it from a stock stang to something not seen so much.

 

[twovalveterror]

No pics of the SVO skirts on the car? Color me disappointed. Nice work anyhow lol.

they have never been mounted. I might sell them.

Some pretty cool parts going into this car, I'm gonna keep an eye on this one!

Does the IRS have the FTBR bushing kit? If so, you stole that thing for $500.

yes it does! I believe it's an older version, but a local shop owner took it in as partial payment, and was asking such a low price I didn't even barter. I told him I'd be there that weekend!

a flowmaster cat-back exhaust followed with a borla side exhaust system must look and sound perty interesting.

not sure if this is sarcasm, but the flowmaster was mounted, the borla just came with it unmounted.

thanks everyone!

 

[twovalveterror]

only took me a couple hours to get the car stripped down. this is how it sits now. I need to finish cleaning up the IRS, install the billet flow brace, and get some bolts from the hardware store.

I also need a couple flanges for the ball and socket connectors on the side exhaust, and figure out how I'm going to mount them...

hopefully this will all be done this weekend. too bad my sub frame connector money is going to the insurance company, because they're next on the list!

 

[Dalamar]

Looking good man! Good amount of time and money sitting there. Fun stuff

 

[twovalveterror]

thanks dal!

for you guys that have already completed the IRS swap. how did you mount the upper subframe mounts? the two lower bolts that need holes drilled, I have seen in a couple places where people will just tap the hole and bolt it up. that seems more than a little weak to me. the frame rail isn't thick enough to provide enough strength in my eyes. I have a couple ideas in the works, but I'd appreciate if you guys could share what you did.

 

[twovalveterror]

man this swap has taken a lot longer than I would have liked! I'm in that sweet spot where I work just enough to not have time to work on my car, yet still not be able to buy any parts for it!

the IRS is in, and has taken a couple laps around the block on some old wheels and tires. everything seems good, I need to fix my speedo now, and I have a slight squeak from on of the shocks that needs to be dealt with, but all in all I'm pretty happy with it. I had to order some spacers and low profile sub frame bolts because my wheels wouldn't fit, it's raining here now, so I'll have to wait until monday to see if they'll do the trick or not.

I also realized that my borla kit wouldn't work with the IRS, which I was not pleased about, but more upset that I didn't see it coming than anything else. I made some turndowns out of scrap from an old cat back and 15 dollars in parts from auto zone. I have not heard it yet, since my battery gave out on me....just one more thing, lol. but when I took it for it's test drive it only had the h-pipe (stock) and it sounded really good. not too loud, and not rough at all. I guess I have retaining the six cats to thank for that. it sounds way too nice for a car that is so slow!

I took the gas tank out and did a lot of minor rust repair while I had the chance. along with replacing the fuel filter. still have a little bit more to take care of near the floor pan. I didn't take pictures of the rest of the swap since I was just picking at it when I got a spare hour here and there. but here is the last picture of the IRS cleaned up before it took its place under the car. I scrubbed the diff cover for way too long and have nothing to show for it! but I think the rest looks pretty decent.

I'm sure I'm forgetting some small bits. if I remember and it's important or relevant, I'll post it up.

 

[Gallows]

You are making some decent progress. Did you take pics of how you mounted the upper subframe bolts?

 

[CoD_50callongshotz]

looks good. my IRS swap is in progress. just waiting for my FTBR bushings!

 

[lilj4u2njoy]

Glad to see your documenting all this unlike me... This is gonna be one sick car when ur done bro...

Sent from my EVO 3D using tapatalk

 

[forcefedhatch]

Guys on his way for sure, I've seen most of this stuff personally, he's got a lot of neat goodies in that long ass garage of his lol..


Sent from my iPhone

 

[twovalveterror]

You are making some decent progress. Did you take pics of how you mounted the upper subframe bolts?

I'll take some pics of that for you. and give you a list of the hardware I used. I'm out of town this weekend, but I'll try to post it up by monday.

looks good. my IRS swap is in progress. just waiting for my FTBR bushings!

you'll love the FTBR kit! from my short test drive, the car is much more planted!

Glad to see your documenting all this unlike me... This is gonna be one sick car when ur done bro...

Sent from my EVO 3D using tapatalk

thanks man, done is a long ways away though!

Guys on his way for sure, I've seen most of this stuff personally, he's got a lot of neat goodies in that long ass garage of his lol..


Sent from my iPhone

and now that some of those parts are on the car, an engine build can begin!



thanks everyone! I will have another update when I get back from pittsburg on monday, some things I forgot that I'll include pictures of.

 

[twovalveterror]

well the swap is completely finished. I also cut my front springs because the IRS came with eibach lowering springs. I really like the look of the car, it still seems pretty plain, but a bit more mean. it is very dirty in all of the pictures from sitting in the garage all winter, haven't felt the need to clean it yet. lol. I'll give some final impressions of the IRS with FTBR kit by the end of the week. I haven't beat on it a whole lot yet, mainly because I still hadn't mounted support plates in the trunk (bought some metal today). anyway, here are some pictures.

one inch spacers.

comparison of the original and low profile bolt from mm. I forgot the washer on the mm piece, but it is still a decent difference.

upper subframe mount bolts for gallows. again, they do not have the support plates on yet, and were not even completely tightened when this was taken. the bolts are 1/2" by 5" grade 8 in the order of bolt, washer, bracket, support plate, washer, lock washer, nut. I'll be cutting my 16 gauge sheet metal to 5" by 7" roughly, and stacking them two high on each side to make it 1/8" thick.

swap finished, and when I decided the springs absolutely needed cut.

spring out.

cut spring next to full length. I measured 24" around the circumference of the spring to mark off where I would cut each.

my dad came up with the idea to use inner tubes from bike tires as spring isolaters. worked like a charm, not a peep from the front end since.

and about an hour later, the final outcome.

you can see my father and a buddy who sat and watched me do the spring swap while he ate noodles. lol.

here you can see a small detail I did. I painted the gas straps with a metallic silver with a little bit of flake. I think it looks pretty nice. also, you may notice a project about to happen in the form of my trunk and tail lights not lining up for shit!

not sure what I'll do next. I might install the k&n if I get some time. haven't been motivated to since this car is and will continue to be a turd until the motor swap. I have been tossing around the idea of making my own sub frame connectors. and coil overs are still a priority. I'm done for a while at least!

thanks for looking!

 

[twovalveterror]

also, I forgot to mention that I bought some 5/16" spacers for the front from pshull on here. my tires would rub way before full lock, and these fixed the problem! not to mention they put the wheel right where I wanted it. another thing is that my c/c plates will be installed whenever I get a chance to make sure my front end geometry will be reasonable. I've heard the install is quite easy, so maybe sometime this week.

 

[Gallows]

I took my last ride with the SRA an hour ago.

You must be happy to finally get the IRS under the car. Did you try your wheels without the spacers or just put them on? I have a set on the SRA but I can't remember if they are 1/2" or 1" and I figured I could get away without them with the IRS and thank you for the trunk pics Jake