1994 Mustang GT Pro-Touring

[Peter R]

New project build from west Michigan. I love this site, from the great detailed builds and friendly helpful people. I have spent many late nights going through the forums here. I thought since it has been too cold to work on the car, I would start my build thread and maybe get some motivation with spring coming soon. I love the old muscle cars, but I didn't want to deal with a lot of rust and can't afford a rust free muscle car. So I found a mostly rust free 1994 Mustang for a price I could afford. Getting a rust free car of any year is hard in Michigan so I was pretty pleased with this one. I don't see too many people do much with these cars so I'm hoping I can do something a little different. I love the wide rear tires but only when they are inside the fenders. I also like the SVO side exhaust idea, but I want to bring it through the rear quarters, in front of the back tires. Time and money are always limited so I will update when I can.
Here is what I'm starting with.

[Peter R]

I bought the tires before I bought the car so I wouldn't take the easy road and buy smaller tires to fit the car. They were even bigger than I thought they would be.



Hoosier 345/35ZR18



18 x 12" wheels don't come cheap so I ended up buying some Saleen replicas and had them widened 2"





Here they are next to some 225/60-16 tires for comparison.

[Z06killinSBF]

Nice color choice! (although mine looks black it's actually green). Good thing parts for these are crazy cheap and very plentiful. Tuned in.

[BMR Sales]

Welcome! Is that a "Bullit"?

[Peter R]

Z06killinSBF,

Your car sits low in the front, how does it ride? What did you do to the front suspension?

[Peter R]

Welcome! Is that a "Bullit"?

I don't think it is a bullet. I really don't know a lot about fords, I have always had GM stuff. I like a little bit of everything though. It has a fiberglass cobra hood, I'm not sure if it came like that or if someone added it. The guy I bought it from made it sound like it came from the factory with that hood.

[Peter R]

The carpet and front seats were trashed when I got it.



The guy included extra seats and some black carpet, so I tossed the seats and carpet. I am pretty happy with how solid the floor is.





Ford even left a cubby hole under the rear seat for the side exhaust. I think it is going to work out pretty good. I plan to even keep the rear seat (in one form or another).

[Matman3]

Looking forward to updates!

[Z06killinSBF]

Z06killinSBF,

Your car sits low in the front, how does it ride? What did you do to the front suspension?

That picture is with overly cut Ford Racing springs, it now has Sportlines on the front with a slightly higher ride height. It rode like crap with the cut spring but is nice with the sportlines.

[twistedstang]

Nice start! I'll be watching this one.

[wiedemab]

It would not have been a Bullit model in '94 and I'm pretty sure it would not have had a Cobra hood from the factory unless it was the SVT Cobra model. If it did, it would have the badges and the "Cobra" intake. I think the interior even had Cobra specific items (dash, seats etc..)

Cool project though. There is a ton of stuff available for these cars, which is good - - the challenge is to choose your parts wisely and to not buy twice from having made a poor decision initially.

Just my $.02 - - I'd throw all Maximum Motorsports stuff at it and some ridetech shocks and struts.

Good luck!

[Peter R]

It would not have been a Bullit model in '94 and I'm pretty sure it would not have had a Cobra hood from the factory unless it was the SVT Cobra model. If it did, it would have the badges and the "Cobra" intake. I think the interior even had Cobra specific items (dash, seats etc..)

Cool project though. There is a ton of stuff available for these cars, which is good - - the challenge is to choose your parts wisely and to not buy twice from having made a poor decision initially.

Just my $.02 - - I'd throw all Maximum Motorsports stuff at it and some ridetech shocks and struts.

Good luck!

Brandon,

Thanks for the input. I know what you mean about buying stuff twice, I have made that mistake more than once. Thats part of learning I guess.
I thought hard about the Maximum Motorsports torque arm or building one myself. I couldn't come up with a front mount that I liked, and the MM arm isn't cheap, so at this point the plan is to use the stock 4 link and add a panhard pan.
I have been looking at Vikiking coilovers for the rear. They are about $500 for double adjustable coilovers. Coilovers are my next big purchase and I'm at the point where I need them to get the mounts mocked up.

[Peter R]

Needed to make room for the tires, so out came the wheel well.

[Z06killinSBF]

FYI, I don't think anyone makes a useable coilover (except MM) that will work with a panhard bar. The coilovers use a drop down bracket where the shocks mount to the rearend. The panhard bar uses that same mount as a pick up and removes the option of running coil overs. I am currently running the MM panhard on my 95.

You need to check out sn95forums.com that site has a ton of experience if you haven't checked it out yet.

[Josh@Ridetech]

Welcome! Is that a "Bullit"?

I don't think it is a bullet. I really don't know a lot about fords, I have always had GM stuff. I like a little bit of everything though. It has a fiberglass cobra hood, I'm not sure if it came like that or if someone added it. The guy I bought it from made it sound like it came from the factory with that hood.

Not a bullitt, but a GT with bullitt wheels! . It should've came with a different hood from the factory on that one but I would've switched over to that one probably too!

Good looking project, I'm a big fan of the SN95 cars, I can't wait to see this one come along!

[Justin@EntropyRad]

Josh is right again...Ford never did a Bullitt in an SN95..but the wheels look good on just about anything!

This will no doubt make me miss my SN95's, and I'm sure I'll have another one day!

Glad to see you are running MM stuff...their stuff basically can't be beat.

[gmcconn1]

Looking forward to this build. I have a 1997 Cobra that I will be starting a build thread for. Good luck....

[Peter R]

FYI, I don't think anyone makes a useable coilover (except MM) that will work with a panhard bar. The coilovers use a drop down bracket where the shocks mount to the rearend. The panhard bar uses that same mount as a pick up and removes the option of running coil overs. I am currently running the MM panhard on my 95.

You need to check out sn95forums.com that site has a ton of experience if you haven't checked it out yet.

I cut out the upper shock mount to make room for the mini tubs. So I will have to fab up mounts for the coilovers and have to use universal ones. I plan to make my own panhard bar and mounts, the shocks don't have much room with those wheels so they will dictate where they can be mounted and I will build the panhard mount after getting the coilovers on. I have been on sn95fourums a little bit, mostly looking at pictures and getting ideas. Thanks for the idea and the pics.

[Peter R]

Sorry to disappoint you guys, but the bullet wheels were already sold. They were beat up and not even the same color, must have been off different year cars. After looking a a bunch of pictures, I still love the Saleen wheels on these cars, so thats what I went with. Of course there are better wheels, but not in my price range. I took them to my brothers shop to get the tires mounted. I didn't think about valve stems until the day of and after stopping at 3 places for some bolt in chrome stems (with no luck) I used the rubber ones. I will change them at some point.
Here is the first check on the balancer. I thought this was a lot of weight but considering these are heavy wheels that have been modified and used tires he thought it was pretty good.



And it balanced out OK.

[Peter R]

My first attempt at rolling the fender lip did not go well. The inner fender lip meets up with the quarter panel so once "rolled" up (it was more like beat up, with a large hammer) it was 4 layers of sheet metal with seam sealer in the middle. It looked terrible and was still to wide and rubbed the tire.
Here is the first "rolled" attempt.





I put the tape on after to act as a guideline for cutting the lip off. I bent it back down 1st then cut away.
Here you can see the inner fender after the quarter was cut off. More spot welds to grind off.





Then I cut the inner lip off.



I cleaned up the rough cut to check fitment.