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    1. #1
      Join Date
      Jul 2014
      Location
      orlando FL where the hot panties are
      Posts
      102
      Country Flag: United States

      95 OCD Mustang Cobra #1 Contender

      BACK IN JANUARY 2012
      I decided to make a project log to show my progress since it's coming up to
      almost a year since i took ownership of my first mustang, V8 car and RWD
      car.



      I'll just post some before pics and give a description of how I got
      the car, the condition I got the car in and what I had to do to get it to the
      point in the after pics.

      I found my 95 mustang GT in a NY craigslist ad
      while visiting my family for the 4th of July. the guy wanted $2000 for it, so I
      contacted him and asked if he was interested in a straight up vehicle trade, his
      stang for my 2000 Volvo C70 which I had customized. I directed him to my Orlando
      craigslist ad and without even seeing the car in person he said that he wanted
      it!

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      I drove to the Bronx, checked the stang out and it was in very bad
      shape.
      it wouldn't stay running (later found that the PIP was
      broken and bouncing around int he dizzy)
      ignition module smoking and sparking
      spark plugs weren't gapped
      the passenger side door window didn't roll up or down
      the headlights worked sometimes
      both door panels were busted and wood-screwed together
      the oil dip stick and tube was broken so the oil couldn't be checked
      the A/C didn't work
      the HAVC vent doors didn't switch positions
      the windshield was cracked
      the front and D/S rear parking brake cables were broken both
      both air bags were blown
      the key only worked in the ignition and for no other locks
      the D/S headlight was glued in with roofing tar
      grill running horse was missing
      2 radiator deflectors on the front bumper were missing
      the pics will explain why there was so many electrical issues.
      later found out the engine wasn't bolted in and resting on the P/S header.
      tranny loosely bolted in
      MAF sensor was dirty
      throttle body was caked with dirt and oil
      IAC was dirty
      TPS not properly calibrated
      2" exhaust tubes hacked
      into the 2.25" factory exhaust and rotting cherry bomb vortex mufflers

      it was my will to drive this car 1100 miles from NY to FL and make it so
      I can nurse it back to health cause It was 4 wheels in the grave. I made it to FL
      2 towns away from home before both front wheels blew out since the previous
      owner didn't get an alignment. 2 days later the T5 locked up and only would go
      into 3rd gear since the previous owner used gear oil instead of dextron. I
      swapped in a T5 from a V6 mustang and within 2 weeks I had the stang running like a champ.Name:  95 mustang 010.jpg
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      The Enemy of my Enemy is my Friend...

      MY BUILD https://www.pro-touring.com/threads/...ra-1-Contender


    2. #2
      Join Date
      Jul 2014
      Location
      orlando FL where the hot panties are
      Posts
      102
      Country Flag: United States
      here are some after pics with the wires correctly repaired, and some small painting done and repairs to most of the damaged equipment.

      my ultimate goal is to restore this car that i have been lusting for since i was 16 yrs old back to factory 1995 specs and then convert it into a white S351 saleen clone.

      i will be adding more pics to this log as my progress moves on, so look out for my updates. it took me 17 years to finally get this car and i'm gonna work my magic on it like only i can

      thanks for looking
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      The Enemy of my Enemy is my Friend...

      MY BUILD https://www.pro-touring.com/threads/...ra-1-Contender

    3. #3
      Join Date
      Jul 2014
      Location
      orlando FL where the hot panties are
      Posts
      102
      Country Flag: United States
      well i have the exhaust system in and the car is running....barely.

      first off let me say that the install of long tube headers is a nightmare! you have to unbolt the motor mounts, take the starter off, take the steering shaft apart at the rag joint, remove the smog thermactors, the intake, raise each side of the engine to snake the long tubes in, get the gaskets to stay put while you tey to bolt them in with the ver short BBK header bolts.

      then to make matters worst i had a weird H-pipe for long tube headers that had hangers in the wrong place and 2 bungs for O2 sensors. the H-pipe lined up with the mufflers, but not with the headers, so some cutting and welding was needed. i have questions for a few things now that the exhaust is in which i will make a new thread for. i will post pics like monday....
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      MY BUILD https://www.pro-touring.com/threads/...ra-1-Contender

    4. #4
      Join Date
      Jul 2014
      Location
      orlando FL where the hot panties are
      Posts
      102
      Country Flag: United States
      well lets start with today, since thats still fresh in my mind.

      i just did a 95 cobra front brake swap and i was pretty professional at it too. i bought

      -the 95 cobra master cylinder
      -the maximum motorsports cobra install kit ( hard lines to the cobra M/C)
      -front cobra brakes and carrier
      -all new pins, E-clips and hardware
      -cobra caliper re-build kit
      -BAER decell front rotors
      -hawk pads (blue ones)
      -all painted in high temp new ford blue
      -russells stainless steel braided lines (3 lines)

      the swap was straight forward and everything actually went great. a very nice swap and the brakes feel like all you need to use is 1/2 pedal.

      my next upgrade was some subframe connectors that i welded in, but i have no pics cause i didn't paint them new ford blue i also added a bourges soild steering shaft to replace the factoryu shaft and rag joint and what a HUGE IMPROVEMENT!!!! the car goes exactly where you tell it to, just as fast as you tell it! NICE!

      then i bought some 2" drop lowering springs from a dude in daytona that were rusted pretty bad and the yellow powdercoat was flaking off, so i took them to the coaters and yes had them coated new ford blue. when i installed them i bought all new urethane isolators and everything. the install was a pain in the a$$, but i got it done and i won't do another one!

      with that 2" drop i needed an alighnment bad! since the factory steeing was too far out to fix, i had to get some camber plates. i had them coated new ford blue and gloss black for a color contrast. i think they turned out nice.

      now i turned my attention to my smoking, ticking, clacking, thumping, tapping long in the tooth 5.0 engine. i wanted to just get a swap in motor and be done with it, so i bought a $300, 1986 5.0 motor off craigslist that had a custom ground .500 lift cam, comp cams 1.6 roller tip rockers, springs and retainers all in a lightly ported E7 heads......i decided to install some crane full roller rockers that are 1.7s and that messed everything up since the stock forged pistons have NO VALVE RELIEFS, leaving me with no piston-to-valve clearance!

      i took the whole motor apart and i'm starting from the begining and learning as i go and getting familiar with my first 5.0....the block and heads are now be-burred, so no cut hands and i opened up the oil drain that goes to the timing set. i alos found some $600 SVO aluminum heads and i ARP the rod and crank bolts. i'm currently waiting for some .30 probe forged pistons to come so i can start the machining.

      i also put new doorpanels in since the ones that came with the car had wood screws drilled in by the previous owner cause they broke everything not knowing how to get them off the right way... pics will be taken and added soon...

      i replaced the "beat up by NY streets" 2004 cobra wheels with some 2000 saleen knock-offs, soon to be painted white. i also added window tint which is a nice upgrade for florida weather....

      i have a bunch of other stuff to put on the car, so i'll try to update as the upgrades happen
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    5. #5
      Join Date
      Jul 2014
      Location
      orlando FL where the hot panties are
      Posts
      102
      Country Flag: United States
      i finally got my engine and parts out of machine shop hell yesterday and i started cleaning and assembling. i would have pics for you guys, but i had a brain fart and forgot the camera at home.

      i will take pics and post them. i am building a 306 with 10:1 compression.
      well my 306 build starts life as a 1987 block that originally had 1986 internals which i'm told are factory forged pistons and maybe rods as well. i broke the engine down cause the 1986 pistons had no valve reliefs in them which left me with zero piston-valve clearance using 1.7 roller rockers and E7 ported heads.

      i was very frustrated with everybody here locally being an expert, telling me what would work and what wouldn't, so i said ***** it!* i'm doing this MY WAY! and to hell with what anybody thought about it, so here we are.

      the block was bored out 4.030 to fit my pro power pistons with 10:1 compression and valve reliefs. the rings i chose to use are the total seal MAX SEAL rings, which i had to file fit. i also chose some clievite H main and rod bearings. then i installed ARP main and rod bolts. there will be a moroso 7qt oil pan going on, that i will modify to accept the factory low oil sensor cause i would like to keep it working on my dash.

      the cam is "supposedly" a .500 lift that can't be identified by any cam manufacturer. a machinist friend of mine did a measurment and said that it is a .500 lift cam, so that with some 1.7 roller rockers should have a nice thump. there is a torington cam bearing cap installed and clievite H cam bearings.

      the block is painted new ford blue and new brass freeze plugs are in. nice and colorful....too bad you won't see much of it once it's all in the car. the oil pump is a HV unit and i still ahve to put the rockwell hardened oil pump driveshaft in. i also used lucas oil treatment as an assembly lube, that stuff is sticky and gets everywhere, but it's good stuff.
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    6. #6
      Join Date
      Jul 2014
      Location
      orlando FL where the hot panties are
      Posts
      102
      Country Flag: United States
      i'm gonna start off with the hard coolant pipes i got from american muscle. it's a very nice kit, nicer than i expected actually. but i wanted to do something a little different with it.

      since the upper radiator pipe is the highest point in the system and it is hard to burp, i welded in a 1/8 bung flush at it's higest point for easy air bleeding. then i wanted the pipes to "look" like regular rubber radiator hoses at first glance, so i scuffed them and painted them flat black. the cool radiator clamps i took apart, bead blasted and painted the the springs new ford blue. fancy huh?

      i had the SVO heads cleaned and checked for flatness and they needed to be decked .004 and man they looked like mirrors! then i installed the timing set and roller rockers and thats where i'm at so far.

      today i'll be doing some mods to my moroso 7qt pan, so it will accept the "low oil" sensor, moding the coolant pipes cause they are just right for the factory radiator, but not so much for my 4 core radiator

      the oil pump is a HV unit and the previous owner had just installed it and used it for 12,000 miles before sitting for a year. but no i didn't blueprint it like i wanted to.... but i do have a bad a$$ rockwell hardened oil pump shaft though
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      The Enemy of my Enemy is my Friend...

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    7. #7
      Join Date
      Jul 2014
      Location
      orlando FL where the hot panties are
      Posts
      102
      Country Flag: United States
      kinda a small update, but kinda big update, today I started my engine swap. it only took me like 4 - 4.5 hours. tomorrow I will start transferring the accessories from the old engine to the new and fixing some really bad rust and I mean BAD rust! enjoy these few pics and I'll have more as the days go on...
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    8. #8
      Join Date
      Jul 2014
      Location
      orlando FL where the hot panties are
      Posts
      102
      Country Flag: United States
      DAMN! hot rodding is a cold game man! I ran into clearance issues with the clutch cable and this moroso oil pan. the pan's kick-outs didn't leave any room for the cable to enter the bellhousing, so I had to fix that with some cutting and TIG welding.


      my control arms have been treated to some urethane bushings and steeda x2 ball joints

      the accessory brackets and aluminum pieces have been massaged to delete the stuff not needed like the SMOG pump mounts and all the casting lines. then the pieces were bead-blasted then put on the engine...

      then I installed the billet distributor, coil, ford racing plug wires and brackets. I then cleaned and painted the pulleys flat black. the timing is set to TDC and ready to go
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      The Enemy of my Enemy is my Friend...

      MY BUILD https://www.pro-touring.com/threads/...ra-1-Contender

    9. #9
      Join Date
      Jul 2014
      Location
      orlando FL where the hot panties are
      Posts
      102
      Country Flag: United States
      today I worked on the stock strut tower brace. instead of buying one for $160+ I just had to modify the stock one a little bit to work. the major interference was in the upper D/S corner. once you get around that there is a very small point where the bar that crosses from the P/S to the D/S that actually sits on top of the manifold which needs to be flattened a little bit. naturally if you have a intake manifold spacer this will be more drastic.
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      The Enemy of my Enemy is my Friend...

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    10. #10
      Join Date
      Jul 2014
      Location
      orlando FL where the hot panties are
      Posts
      102
      Country Flag: United States
      my friend Tom Miller that works at Spike Tactical that's customized the hell out of his 2003 twin turbo, Accufab built cobra motor equipped GT and her removed allot of stuff from it when it had 30k miles on it and just put them in the attic. well, his wife wanted the stuff gone and guess who he DONATED the stuff to, yea me. check him out on the cover of August 2014 "Muscle Mustangs & Fast Fords".

      I have the floor pan carpet, mats, both front seats and a bunch of interior plastics like the radio bezel, all in pristine condition. I took my old driver's seat powered components and installed them in the new passenger seat, so now I have both seats powered with air lumbar SWEET!

      I installed everything yesterday, enjoy the pics
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    11. #11
      Join Date
      Jul 2014
      Location
      orlando FL where the hot panties are
      Posts
      102
      Country Flag: United States
      I love the phantom II series. I did make one mistake when installing these gauges though. I didn't look for the 12v power source that dims with the cluster, so they are on with the parking lights.

      also, I compared the coolant temp readings on my scan tool to the mechanical gauge and the mech. gauge is 2-4 degrees hotter than what the scan tool is seeing. I thought the thermostat housing would be the best and most accurate location for a temperature reading, so that's where I put it. I have a 180 thermostat installed. could the mech. gauge line be getting heat soak from the engine heat?

      the mech gauge reads 220* and the scan tool reads 215* but under that, the two readings are 2-4 degrees off.

      I'm thinking a 4 core aluminum radiator wasn't a good idea. maybe there's just too much coolant to keep cool. a 2 core might be better. I also have been playing with the radiator caps 16 and 18 lbs and neither offers any difference. it could also be that I'm running 18 degrees of timing too...
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      The Enemy of my Enemy is my Friend...

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    12. #12
      Join Date
      Jul 2014
      Location
      orlando FL where the hot panties are
      Posts
      102
      Country Flag: United States
      heres my next upgrade...i'm just waiting for my easy MSD ignition harness from late model to come in and a new ignition coil plug since the previous owner never replaced the missing one.

      NEW FORD BLUE!!!!
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    13. #13
      Join Date
      Jul 2014
      Location
      orlando FL where the hot panties are
      Posts
      102
      Country Flag: United States
      ok I'm out of picture space on here, I've reached the 30.00MB limit, so how do I add more pics cause I do have allot more to add...

      thanks
      The Enemy of my Enemy is my Friend...

      MY BUILD https://www.pro-touring.com/threads/...ra-1-Contender

    14. #14
      Join Date
      Mar 2013
      Location
      Beaufort,SC
      Posts
      329
      Country Flag: United States
      Nice project and mods glad your doing it yourself.

    15. #15
      Join Date
      Jul 2014
      Location
      orlando FL where the hot panties are
      Posts
      102
      Country Flag: United States
      no go nova, thanks for the kind words and thanks for being my first reply to my thread. if it seems hard to understand that because I have this project log on another mustang forum and I'm trying to transfer it over the best I can. some things I left in, some things that really didn't matter I left out, but I can furnish the link to my original thread where the timeline, set-backs and victories are all in proper time order.

      I have allot more to add, but I have reached my 30MB picture limit, so what do I do?
      The Enemy of my Enemy is my Friend...

      MY BUILD https://www.pro-touring.com/threads/...ra-1-Contender

    16. #16
      Join Date
      Sep 2012
      Location
      London, Ontario
      Posts
      293
      Wow, you've done a lot to your car. You started with a pretty ragged out Mustang, I'm sure the guy you traded didn't have to think about it much. Nice work!

      73 Maverick Grabber Project

      My never ending project:
      https://www.pro-touring.com/threads/...hlight=grabber

    17. #17
      Join Date
      Jun 2013
      Location
      San Diego
      Posts
      275
      Country Flag: United States
      Nice work. You started with a pretty beat up mustang.

      For the photos, you'll need to switch to a photo host site like photobucket or something.

      Can't want to see the finished product.

    18. #18
      Join Date
      Jul 2014
      Location
      orlando FL where the hot panties are
      Posts
      102
      Country Flag: United States
      thanks guys and yes this thing was beat to hell! 3 wheels in the grave and the body is a rusted mess, but I'll be getting rid of this body for a whole new body. you'll see that with the other pics. I have photo bucket, so I'll use that to get them on here.
      The Enemy of my Enemy is my Friend...

      MY BUILD https://www.pro-touring.com/threads/...ra-1-Contender

    19. #19
      Join Date
      Jul 2014
      Location
      orlando FL where the hot panties are
      Posts
      102
      Country Flag: United States
      today I had a little spare time, so I took apart my old engine to see why it was in such bad shape. it looks to have had a serious coolant leak in the cylinders and not just #3, but ALL of them! the coolant left a pile of deposits in #3 cylinder the size of an ant hill.

      the bearings were down to the copper and so were the mains. I haven't taken the old oil pump apart, but I'm sure it's ugly inside. the stock rocker arms used to have an oil groove in them, but the groove is completely worn out. the crank and cam look to be fine, but i'm still not sure why cylinder #3 was burning oil.

      I also looked at the head gasket and the water ports are open in the back and "FRONT" is marked in front. now I know I put my head gaskets on the same way, but the gasket isn't visible at the corners of the lower intake manifold, so I'm still not sure. I'm gonna clean this stuff up and put it on craigslist

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      The Enemy of my Enemy is my Friend...

      MY BUILD https://www.pro-touring.com/threads/...ra-1-Contender

    20. #20
      Join Date
      Sep 2012
      Location
      London, Ontario
      Posts
      293
      That thing is pooched!

      73 Maverick Grabber Project

      My never ending project:
      https://www.pro-touring.com/threads/...hlight=grabber

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