New 2017 GT350.... finally....

[50 Deep]

It's sunny today. Get that bad boy on the road!

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[straightliner1]

An easy spot to find your build date is the underside of the trunklid on the LH edge. Snazzy looking car BTW. Can't wait to see it in person!

 

[unixadm]

Congrats!. Quick question, how did you check the vin?

I used this site:

https://owner.ford.com/tools/account/maintenance/recalls.html

Obtained the VIN from the dealer's website.

 

[unixadm]

It was a nice day to cruise the car around, though I didn't have much time to do so. I had to get it emissions tested and the VIN verified so that I could get the rest of the paperwork back to the selling dealership in Texas. I love this blue in the sun - looks awesome. I'm not 100% sold on the white accents on the black stripes either as someone mentioned earlier in this thread. I may look at a red pinstripe at some point.

Scraped the front splitter today going into a parking lot. I've never had a car this low, so I'm definitely going to need to be more aware.

I ordered up the Steeda front cross brace and jacking rails today. I received my FRP oil separators and will install those this weekend, along with the Steeda clutch assist spring. I also ordered some Husky Liners that Amazon promptly lost in transit, so I may have to reorder those.

After a quick wash:

 

[straightliner1]

How does the paint look? Any halos or swirls that need attention?

 

[Mspeedster]

An easy spot to find your build date is the underside of the trunklid on the LH edge. Snazzy looking car BTW. Can't wait to see it in person!

Are you sure that's not just the date the trunk lid was made? On my car the trunk has 05 26 2016 stamped in. But on my driver's door jam sticker it lists the manufacture date as 6/16. So I believe my car was built in June, rather than May, according to door jam sticker.

 

[straightliner1]

Good catch Mspeedster. I was going off of info I was given but your perspective makes sense...

 

[unixadm]

How does the paint look? Any halos or swirls that need attention?

Yesterday was the first day I could really get a good look at the paint since it had been dark and raining every day since I got the car. I found two little rock chips from my first drive, some scratches in the vinyl stripes and some paint defects in various parts of the body. My car has the rear bumper sag (I could probably insert a quarter pretty easily into the gap by the tail lights). Overall, about what I was expecting. The paint is fairly clean of swirls but I think it could still use a correction.

I'm going to take it for it's first drive to an appointment I have in Carmichael this afternoon. When I was driving it yesterday, I noticed kids really love this thing. Adults thus far, not so much except for the work peeps! haha.

I can't wait to scrape the front splitter some more going into parking lots. It's like nails on a chalkboard for me.

Also in terms of build date, 08/29/16 was reported on the window sticker. 09/02/16 was on the floor-mat and license plate frame kit in the trunk. The oil cooler recall was ~09/01/16, but somehow this car was free of the recall.

 

[straightliner1]

Unixadm, I sent you a direct message

 

[unixadm]

Unixadm, I sent you a direct message

I'll review and get back to you ASAP.

Thanks

 

[unixadm]

I'm going to take the car out this afternoon when I go to an appointment. I figured that I'd try to install the Steeda clutch assist spring before heading out. Well that was easy, no tools required except for a flashlight. I just reached up and removed the spring assembly after depressing the clutch pedal with my left hand. I removed the small secondary spring and the secondary white spring perch, and reassembled the spring assist assembly with the new Steeda spring. Putting it back in was slightly more tricky, since I had to aim a flashlight up under the dash so that I could see, depress the clutch with my left hand and reinstall the assist assembly with my right hand. Start to finish it took me about three minutes.

The clutch is firmer and when driving the car for a quick trip "around the block", I felt I was able to drive it a bit more smoothly. I still just need seat time and practice. My last manual was a 2000 Tacoma V6 4x4, though I've had a 2005 Mustang GT manual and a 1999 Trans Am WS6 manual in the past as well. It's just been a while but it enjoyable.

 

[unixadm]

Took my real first drive without it raining today. Total of about 65 miles and I love this car!

I was driving through the Fair Oaks area of Sacramento (big homes, peeps with money) and a C7 Corvette in nearly the same color with black stripes is driving towards me. He gave me a big Thumbs Up! I gave him a wave back.

Later on Watt Avenue, I saw a Black S550 GT that was super clean with some nice mods drove by me when I saw the driver do a double take. He rolled his window down and I caught up to him to say nice car, gave him a thumbs up and he seemed to be digging my ride. We indulged ourselves for a moment and then he tore ass down the road. His car sounded awesome. RECLUSE was the license plate - maybe he's on here.

I took the highway going to my appointment and the car was getting close to 25 MPG - crazy. It's such a great highway cruiser, way better than I expected. On the way home, I took surface streets so I could test out the new Steeda clutch spring. I definitely like the clutch much better after doing that mod. It's nice and consistent feeling now and easy to modulate. Great mod for $15.

I've had other fast cars like SRT Chargers and AMG's, like a C63. I think I got one wave in the Charger and the C63 might as well been invisible. The Mustang draws people's attention and that's cool.

Time to put her away for the next week since the weather here is going to be GARBAGE. I have mods to install, like the FRP oil separators, foam inserts for the side skirts and if Amazon gets their shit together, my Huskyliners. They lost the first set, so I had to flame them up to get a refund. I ordered a replacement set from them and then told them to give me 20% off for my trouble, which they did. haha. I guess when you spend a lot with them, you do have a little leverage but not much. My other Steeda parts also shipped, as did the GT350R steering wheel I bought. Next weekend should be fun!

 

[unixadm]

FRP Oil Separators Installed

I installed a few mods today. The FRP left and right oil separators and the JLT lower skirt foam inserts. Nothing too crazy but fun none the less.

Before:

Passenger Side:

The passenger side went on very easily and fit well with one exception. The coolant tank hose was rubbing on one of the bolts holding the oil separator together. I applied some protective tape around the hose to insulate it from this which you can see just behind the coolant tank hose clamp.

Drivers Side:

This side is a bit more involved with the install simply because you need to use some basic tools. I only found one issue and one thing in the instructions which did not match my car. The first is the push pin that attaches to the strut tower assembly just behind the air filter box. The pin would not work because the FRP plastic arm was too thick. I tried forcing it, using gloves, using a small hammer to tap the end of the push pin, but nothing would get it to go in. I ended up going into my toolbox and finding a trim retainer that does not have a center push pin. That worked perfectly and looks OEM. The error I found was the instructions stating I'd have to cut insulation on the strut tower for non GT350R's. Mine did not have any insulation or sound deadener there, so no modifications were required.

After:

In the pics when I have the parts on the bench, the left most hose in both pictures is the stock piece which I had already removed. The parts on the right are the new FRP pieces. Everything fit like factory. I think the only thing worth looking into is putting a little drain valve on each of them to allow draining them without needing to remove the assemblies. The fact they look 100% OEM and don't stand out is a plus to me.

JLT Foam Inserts:

 

[unixadm]

I also installed a front license plate bracket yesterday. I don't need any more fixit tickets!

 

[montreal ponies]

^^^^^ now all that's left to do is replace that cheap paper filter with a nice blue Airaid dry filter and some blue Boss 302 valve covers.

You will find those foam insert very practical, just wouldn't leave home without it.

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