89' LX Hatch on the cheap

[LERM]

A good friend of mine had lost interest in this poor ugly mustang. It had sat for a few years after a head and intake swap. He never got it to run after the new parts were on. He mentioned in an unrelated phone conversation that he was letting the autowrecker come get the car at the end of the week.

"CANCEL THEM. I'll be there tomorrow..."

It came to me with welded subframe connectors, turbo coupe disc's, SVO aluminum heads, a Trick Flow manifold, and pretty much every other bolt on offered for a fox 302 motor.

I figured it was worth the purchase in parts alone.


Luckily though, I found the spun balancer in short order. I fixed the timing, and had the car running 30min after it was home. I offered the car back to my buddy for my cash plus beer to clear my conscience. MAN was I excited to hear, "Nope, i'm still over it....keep it."

So, I fixed the other "little" issues the car had. Well... the mechanical ones anyway... It's gunna take a big hammer to knock the ugly off this one... I fixed the Leaking injector o-rings, weak fuel pump, exhaust leaks, loose steering... and started using it as a weekend fun car.

I have a list of things I should be working on besides this thing, so I was content with leaving it alone.... until I went autocrossing for the first time.


DAMN is that fun. The car was on rock hard 225/16's, the suspension was stock aside from some drop springs, at least it had discs in the back, but the brake fade was still quite noticeable... though maybe not as noticeable as my "new guy" driving...



The want list started immediately. I was "responsible" though, and went back a few times to make sure the 225's were good and done for.

In the meantime, I went craigslist'n and junkyard'n.
I collected up:
Cobra 17x8 and 17x9's
Nitto NT05s 255/40 and 275/40
95 Cobra front brakes, and 95 GT rear
Aerostar 5 lug axles
SN95 (94-95) spindles and front control arms (and of course added some urethane)
MM CC Plates and bumpsteer kit.
04' Cobra rack (or so it was labled) and a MM solid steering column
and lastly a used Griggs Torque arm, panhard, rear lower control arms, and a heavier rear sway bar