Unk's *Bagged* Magnetic Metal 2018 GT Convertible

[Meraki Autoworks]

Nice build!

-Josh

Sponsored

 

[UnkTob]

Nice build!

-Josh

Thanks Josh. Nothing overly special, but it is mine and I'm having a blast!

 

[UnkTob]

Wait... You want me to do WHAT?!?! (Velossa Tech Big Mouth Air Rams) -
Good 'ol Bill! His awesome blog on he and his wife's builds has really taught me a ton and includes lots of cool things I've never heard of. These Velossa Tech Design Big Mouth Ram Air Intakes (Or what I lovingly call V.T.D.B.M.R.A.I.'s for.... er... uh... short (?)), are a prime example! As a kid, and I was learning about cars, I always thought to myself that once I was old enough to have and drive a car, I'd use tubing to direct air into the air filter and create a "poor man's turbo". One I was old enough to drive and bought my first car (a 1968 Mustang, which I bought from my Dad), I finally had the chance to try it out! And... I never did it. LOL Dreams of a young boy shattered by his own laziness.

Velossa Tech Design must have also had those dreams but weren't lazy, (plus they have talent and skills and stuff) and made their dreams a reality! Thanks to the jerk who crammed plastic into his parents' printer heads on their printer, we now have the magic of 3D printing (so not a jerk, but a GENIUS!), and Velossa uses that wizardry to create these very cool looking air intakes! They say on their site that it "This equates to an increase in air flow and as a result, more power", just like I always figured as a kid!! However, once you find the details and read through it, the gains aren't really "poor man's turbo" sort of power... more like 3 to 5 hp, but hey! More Power is More Power!!

Plus... I think they just look cool!

They have lots of colors to choose from, and as an added bonus for me, that red is a pretty close match to the caliper paint. My second accent color is red to give it that "pop of color", which was my plan from that very first time I saw the Magnetic Metal Metallic Grey with black stripes at the dealership. Although, I was thinking blue for the pop, but I wasn't sure about finding paint on, (not spray), caliper paint in blue, plus what kind of pulled me to red was 2 other things- 1. The taillights are awesome looking so I was thinking red to tie into those, and 2. A bit of a homage to my 2014 Ruby Red. The inlet on the passenger side is supposed to help shove air into the radiator area and help with cooling, plus it just balances it out.

The install- PLEASE NOTE: It appears that the's some change in the structure behind the grill on the 2018 (probably the 2019's too) since the passenger side did not fit well at all. I'll describe what I had to do to make them fit below. (Sorry.. I didn't take many photos)

The instruction from Velossa say that the air rams work ok with the stock grill but recommend opening them up. Yeah... that means cutting apart my grill in a pretty major way on my brand new (to me) $30,000 car! Uh.... Yikes! But in Bill's awesome post about his Velossa Big Mouth intakes, Link here, he showed some great photos on how he cut apart his. One of the many lessons I learned from my intimate times with my Dremel and my beautiful grill... I am not as skilled as Bill. LOL But seriously- if you decide to go down this path, I highly recommend checking out his post on this! It will help you a ton! Thanks Bill!

I took a little time with some blue painters tape to make my lines, with that naive happy belief that I'd somehow be able to follow those lines with my Dremel tool. The good news is that if you take your time, even without lots of skill (like me) you should be able to keep it "somewhat straight". I then used a sanding tube thingy for the Dremel to straighten it out and make the edges look better. In hindsight, I'm thinking I might have cut a little bit too much off, but I am not sure if I could have gone a bit deeper and still cut the back of it off. I went thru a good dozen or so of those Dremel cutting discs, and burnt the heck out of the index finger on my right hand when the first one broke and I went to pick it up. (I actually did this before the pony removal and multiple burns, so I wasn't bright enough to think "hey, that might be hot". #stupidlackofcautionHOTlables )

Since you have to have the bumper cover off to do this, after the cutting up of the grill, the actual installation of the Big Mouths was pretty easy... On the driver's side. It literally just slips into place. I believe on earlier years it is a bit tighter, based on the recommendation to use some soap to help lube it up and slide it on in there. The passenger side... not so much. I can't imagine how it could have changed so much with the revamp in 2018, but the structure behind the grill on the passenger side really didn't like the V.T.D.B.M.R.A.I.! (as a reminder- "Velossa Tech Design Big Mouth Ram Air Intake")
There was plastic & rubber rain guard thingy (Sorry... using technical terms here) that was blocking VTDMBRAI from going into its home.

(RIP poor bug who's splat is visible towards the top right of the triangle.) My fix- I cut the crap out of it. LOL I cut apart the corners of the rain guard thingy, found some plastic from a container I no longer use, and spread the rain guard thing open pretty far, then used the plastic from the container and good ol duct tape to try to re-seal things up after my hack job. I was too shy and didn't take any photos of the hackness. Maybe if I have to take the bumper cover off again, I'll try to come out of my shell and take a photo of all that loveliness.

Putting the car back together, you could say I got a little confused, but due to my frustration levels, mixed with the all the burns, I was working on re-centering my chi (ie: I had a few beers to try to un-piss me off), so I might not have been thinking very clearly at this point-

HAHA! Actually, while in the middle of all this I had to pull it in the garage overnight and the next morning when I opened the garage I thought this looked funny.

Anywho... back to our story...
Eventually, the beautiful hack job did it's thing and I was able to shove like a sumo wrestler to get the grill to hold it in. Once again, NOT easy, but well worth the effort!

It does just look bad arse, doesn't it?

 

[RJ S550 Fan]

What the hell is that thing, Ford?!?! (spoiler install) -
One of the things that made me scratch my head the first time I saw a convertible from this generation of mustang...

... was the "spoiler".

COME ON FORD!!! REALLY?!?! WHAT THE HECK IS THAT THING SUPPOSED TO BE?!?!
I'll tell you what it is... It's a cover for bolt holes for a real spoiler!

That is hilarious! I am in complete agreement with you on that, Unk! Your new one looks much better. The car is looking damn fine, and I always get a laugh or two from your posts.

 

[UnkTob]

That is hilarious! I am in complete agreement with you on that, Unk! Your new one looks much better. The car is looking damn fine, and I always get a laugh or two from your posts.

Thanks! Glad you are finding my stories humorous!

 

[UnkTob]

Time to really add some Horsepower!!! - (Painting the brake calipers red!! )
I know... I'll be at risk of breaking some axle shafts from all the extra power, but I decided to paint the brake calipers red. Yup... call me a rebel.

Really, I have always liked the look of big calipers behind a good looking wheel, so I was once again annoyed by Ford, this time for painting the big nice calipers on the 2018 gray, which makes them just blend in. Those things are pretty ginormous, so why not show them off? In reality, probably so the PP1 cars and their bad ass Brembo's stand out from the standard GT's, but where's the fun in realizing that and not getting to complain about it?

So the options to rectify this are:

1. Buy a big brake kit from Brembo and install it- Would love to, but I need to be able to afford all the other stuff I'm doing to the car, plus I'm a fat guy and like to eat & drink, so I also need to be able to afford beer and food too.
2. Buy some brake caliper covers and install those- Nah. Just Nah. Ok... I realize that's a bit hypocritical, since I won't bolt on brake caliper covers but will 3M some fake scoops to the side of my car. Nothing against those who use the brake caliper covers, but I decided they weren't for me.
3. Slappa slappa some red caliper paint on the big stock brake calipers and call it good- That works for me!

I have to say they look pretty darn alright!... Just don't get too close!

The discovery-
I was at my local Auto Zone to get a couple of things, but of course, felt too odd to only get the couple of things I came for, so I was meandering around. I was looking at the paint rattle cans for some reason that escapes me now, but noticed there were rattle cans for paint calipers! Whaaaaaaat I've seen the results of painting calipers on TV shows and on the YubeyTubey, but for some reason figured that it took a real spray gun and expensive paint. I started thinking about the process and due to "issues" from my past and overspray, I was thinking about how much "fun" (read into that- pain in the rump) taking off the brake calipers, cleaning and painting them, then reinstalling & bleeding the brakes would be (I'm fine with doing lots of stuff to my cars, but me and brake bleeding have a fairly rocky history) and thought... nah. But then... there it was! This beautiful little box-

https://www.autozone.com/paint-and-...icolor-red-caliper-brake-paint-kit/539677_0_0
It actually comes with actual paint on caliper paint, and in the standard red color, which if you read my long ridiculous stories above, then you know that red is my "pop" of color! No removal & reinstall of the calipers! No attempting to mask off the entire car just to have one stupid tape piece lift up and get overspray over a big portion of my beautiful paint! Just some cleaning, light masking, and painting with a brush! My inner Bob Ross was excited with anticipation of painting some beautiful happy little calipers!

The painting process-
My vision of easy Bob Ross like happy painting of my calipers didn't go according to plan, as per what is coming to be tradition.

I figured I'd start with the fronts. I got the car up on the jack stands, and the instructions suggest removing the brake pads. Well that's simple enough... I've done that a couple dozen times on other cars. Nope! I couldn't figure out how to get those brake pads out of there! I then turned to The Googles, and found lots of videos when I looked up how to change the brake pads on a 2018 Mustang, but turns out NONE of those videos was actually for a 2018 Mustang. Anyway, so I then decided to just take extra time to carefully mask off more stuff to get ready for paint. That took much longer than I thought, but was alright. Then time for the first coat of paint. The brush they give is a little on the small side, but given some of the areas I was going to be getting the brush into, seemed to make sense. To get to all of the areas that were visible from the side of the car, I ended up crawling, sitting, and contorting my fat self all around the wheel well, trying to get what ever I thought might be visible painted.

The paint covers pretty well, and seems a bit thicker than your standard paint, but the box also says it has some ceramic in it, which could explain it. It was easy to paint, just very time consuming. I ended up doing 2 pretty full coats with the brush and one lighter 3rd coat to try to remove what looked like would be brush marks and get some uniformity. The instructions said to let it dry for 2 hours before putting the wheels back on (I think it said 2 hours.. maybe it was 2-3 hours) so I moved on to another project (which as tradition demands, took much longer than I thought it would) and 3 hours later went to check the paint to make sure it was solid enough to install the wheels. Nope! I then left them for an hour more and the paint was still bit sticky to the touch. By this time I was done. Very hot outside, I'm fat, I was tired, and it was getting to be time for dinner. So I decided to risk it and try to install the wheels. (First I tried putting on the "Mustang" lettering I had made, which was a BAD idea. More on that later!) Sure enough, any slight bumping of the caliper caused a mark. Sigh. Wheels on, car put down on the ground and rolled into the garage. The next day I pulled it out of the garage, and wow! The caliper paint looked much better! There are still smudges and crap from where I bumped them, but overall, once the paint dries it looks much more even, and you can't see brush strokes. I think what also helps is that the calipers themselves have a texture, which helps hide crappola.

I then put the front back on it's jack stands and removed the driver side front wheel so I could add my caliper sticker. I saw from Bill's post on his Double Race Red Journal that he found a place to order custom made caliper lettering. I have a Cricut vinyl cutter/plotter, but when I went to the site Bill mentioned, http://www.vinzdecals.com/createcaliper.html, I saw he has Graphite Metallic as an option for the vinyl, (and being pretty reasonably priced) it seemed like a no-brainer to order from him. They really give the calipers a finished look, in my opinion, and less "hey, he slappa slappa'd some red paint on those calipers!"

A little while later I tackled the rear calipers. Although these still took longer than I originally thought they would, while in my happy Bob Ross frame of mind, these did go much quicker than the fronts... They just didn't turn out as well. I'll explain in a bit.

Getting the brake pads off the rear were pretty easy (Hint... this was the root cause to the problems with how they turned out) so masking the rear brakes up was MUUUUUCH easier than the front.

Painting them took the same amount of fat guy yoga as the front, but since I already painted the fronts and saw how they turned out once dry, I didn't go crazy trying to smooth out the brush strokes and I also had a second brush which was a bit bigger.

I still did the 2 full coats and a lighter 3rd to get better coverage in some areas, but the painting took way less time. (granted there's less surface area, but even less time than just from that.)

Feeling quite pleased with myself and my inner Bob Ross beaming proudly, I moved on to another project to let these dry. I would guess I left these to sit for 3 or 4 hours, in 90+ degrees Fahrenheit temperatures. I then went to go re-assemble the brakes.

That's when the swearing really started! Despite the nice hot day... despite the almost double the recommended dry-time... the paint was still waaaaay too soft. Everywhere I touched while trying to re-assemble the brakes left a fingerprint/smudge. I actually ran out of swear words and starting making up new ones. Unfortunately, once again, not having learned my lesson from the front caliper painting project, I didn't start this early enough in the day and it was now starting to get dark, and was time for dinner. I didn't want to leave my car on jack stands, so I just smudged my way through the re-assembly and then put the wheels back on the car.

The next day, once nice and dry, I took a look. Up close you can see the smudges and crappola from trying to put the brakes back together. Looks ok, but you get too close and not so ok. Good news- who the hell looks really closely at rear brakes? They are diminutive compared to the fronts which have less smudginess.

Lessons learned- Either 1) Plan to have waaaaay more time for drying before reassembling. 2) Maybe use less paint than I did (Although I had lots of paint left after doing all 4, so I don't think I used too much) 3) Maybe use multiples of much lighter coats 4) Minimize how much you disassemble and instead just spend more time and care on masking.

Although... as is the norm for all my projects on this car, this took much longer than I thought, but overall, I really like how it looks and am glad I went through it. Worth it!

 

[2017GBGTPP]

It looks like you ran into the same issues I did with it not drying properly. This seems to confirm that it's the quality of paint and not anything you or I did wrong. I thought maybe it was the extreme heat here, but I can't imagine the heat in Idaho is anything that paint shouldn't be able to handle. Once it cools off I plan to take some sandpaper to them and hopefully that will fix them up, I hope yours keep looking good!

 

[RJ S550 Fan]

My inner Bob Ross was excited with anticipation of painting some beautiful happy little calipers!

ROFL! Instant classic! That made my day! Thanks buddy!

 

[UnkTob]

A little real extra HP! - (Roush Cold Air Intake)
I installed a "cold air" intake on my 2014, and I use the quotation marks, since as I was installing the CAI, I was looking at it wondering how it was supposed to be pulling in cold air. Sure enough, I noticed my air intake temperature actually went up compared to before I installed it. *Sigh* So once I saw the 2018 engine layout, and that it actually has a vent connected to the front grill that feeds the standard airbox, I was thinking to myself, "Is there really any point in upgrading the intake on this?” I saw some Cold Air Intakes which used the same method as the brand I used in my 2014 where it has some weather stripping across the top of the air box to try to create a seal with the hood, and I thought, "Meh. Not impressed". My wallet was over-joyed that it was going to get to retain some of its cash!

Then I saw the Roush. All nice and enclosed, and logical! My wallet weeped, realizing its precious cash would soon be leaving.
https://www.americanmuscle.com/roush-cold-airtake-2018-gt.html

By itself, how much gain really are you getting? But, add a tune maybe a bigger throttle body, etc., maybe... Plus, I feel like I need to do something to try to improve the performance, so that the mods aren't all show and no go. lol

The Install:
I feel terrible about this, but I broke tradition with the install of this! It was just as easy as advertised. Well, I guess that's not 100% true, since the install guide tells you to do something which looked ugly in all of the photos I saw of the "Customer Pics". Not my photos so I won't share but just take a look around at some of the customer pics on the site, and you can see the end results of Roush suggesting that you cut a corner off of the engine cover. My wallet smiled meekly as it was given a tiny glimmer of hope. I was thinking that since the clearance was so close, it seems like there should be a work around, and sure enough, their customer "Ivan P." posted a photo with a description saying he added 3/8" spacers and kept the engine cover intact. Sure, you can pull off the engine cover, but it isn't the neatest looking engine under there. I know what would look GREAT as a replacement to that engine cover- A SUPER CHARGER! lol Don't worry wallet, there's pretty much zero way you'll be shelling out that kind of money, unless I win the lottery. In which case, it won't matter to you, wallet... Since I'd probably buy a much nicer wallet.

Really, once I had some plans in my head for the spacers, (and found the pieces for these options), I was good to go on the install. I didn't recall how to remove some of the clips on the hoses, and despite being pretty cautious while trying a couple of things, one of the gray clips snapped in half on one of the hoses. Doh. Other than that, follow the instructions Roush provides, and it really is super easy. For my spacers, I used one M8 washer and nut, which left just enough threads to put the engine cover back and tighten down with the stock nuts. Easy! Plus no hacky hacky job on the engine cover. Looks pretty dang good!

The CAI looks really good overall! The little window is pretty cool, and also useful. Looking closely, the texture of the CAI really doesn't match very well, but really... doesn't matter much. Looks great, in my opinion! I saw photos where people put the Roush sticker that it comes with at the top of the CAI cover, which I really like! I somehow have 3 or 4 of them from my CAI and H-pipe, but all in white. I don't have anything white in my theme, so I asked Roush if they sell the sticker in red, or if they will send me the file so I can cut my own. <insert sounds of crickets here, as I wait for a response> All else fails I'll try my hand at scanning in the logo into my computer and try cutting it out of red vinyl on my Circuit cutter/plotter.

Other thoughts- I might try getting a rattle can made of my J7 and paint the inlet tube and/or the top plate of the CAI. Then put the red logo on it. That would look sweet!

The Feel of the Extra Power!!-
Uh... it's more of a warm fuzzy that I added a little more power. lol Without a tune, I don't think the gains are much, and since this one is sealed more than what I had in my 2014, I don't really hear the intake noise as much as I did in my 2014 (it was a V6, so... there's that. lol). However, the inlet temperature seems to stay at what ever the ambient temperature is outside, which seems good!

I'm I Happy I added this Roush CAI?:
YES!! Sure, by itself, I don't really feel much (if any) difference, but this is a good starting point. Other performance mods are possible, plus if I get a Tuner (leaning towards the Lund, and putting it in one of the AC vents) then I can take the sleeve out and get the tune to take advantage of it. Great product overall, just seems odd they couldn't size/shape it a bit different to provide 3/8" more room so we wouldn't have to do the spacer trick, but that's a pretty minor item.

 

[UnkTob]

My Neighbors Like Me Less Now- (Roush H-Pipe Install)
I installed Magnaflow axel backs on my 2014 V6, and even though it was a V6, my neighbors weren't nun too happy about me starting my car to head into the office at 6:00 am every morning! . So they really weren't very pleased the next morning after I brought the GT home. Good news is that I work from home most days, so I usually don't cold start her up every morning. (I do go get coffee at about 7:00 am 2 to 3 times a week, which I'm sure is nice trip down memory lane for my neighbors).

I remember thinking, when I first test drove my 2018 GT, "Wow! This sounds like what a Mustang should sound like! I don't think I'll ever have to upgrade from stock!" Fast forward 2 months....

The first step in upgrading the exhaust has happened! LOL

Researching the differences between X & H pipes, the consensus seems to be that X-pipes are a bit raspier, H-pipes have less rasp but are deeper, more classic muscle car sounding. H-Pipes seemed more my speed. My "go-to" for exhaust has been Magnaflow. As a fan of the show Overhauling, I also became a fan of Magnaflow. Alas, I couldn't find an H-Pipe from them, so I started looking at my other options. I knew that I liked the design of the Roush Cold Air Intake, and of course, I trust the Roush brand, so I decided to go with their H-Pipe.

https://www.americanmuscle.com/roush-cut-and-clamp-hpipe-1518-gt.html

The Install:
So I installed my axel back on my 2014 myself, and had every intention of doing this myself. Then, while doing some of the other stuff in my driveway that you've already seen, I started thinking about how high up on jack stands I would need to get my car so I could fit my fat self underneath and still be able to work on it. With my sloped driveway, and not enough room in my garage to do work, I essentially chickened out.

I called around to get pricing on install (Figured with a lift, I could probably knock it out in 30 minutes, give or take 10) and HOLLY CRAP the prices were ridiculous! $250-ish. One place said they'd like to look at it and put my car up on the lift, but maybe around $150. So I packed up and headed there. Once the car was up on the lift, they looked at the Roush h-pipe, he said $125-150, and would take about an hour. Uh... well... ok. Seemed a bit high, and an hour seemed long, but, hey.... what's $125 to $150 to potentially avoid death. Seemed like a pretty good deal from that perspective.

I was very happy to have another thing done, and no frustrations with the install! (and lack of dying as a bonus!)

But...


No.

The shop will remain un-named, but unfortunately, I noticed some small puddles in my garage. Next morning I laid down on the ground while cold starting it to confirm my suspicions. Yep. Some bad welds. In their defense, it is a Father and Son team and the son normally does most of the welding, but was injured so the dad was helping out. I guess he was a bit out of practice. They have been great and fit me in right away when I took it back. Still a tiny bit of a leak, so I'll have to take it to them again. (Waiting for abit until the son is hopefully healed up.)

Few things when modding a car every go smoothly.

Anywho... here's a comparison video I made of the Roush H-Pipe vs the stock resonator on some nice cold starts. There's 2 comparisons- The first clips are longer, showing the different stages in sound on the start and warm up stages. About 1:08 into it, I do the comparisons again, but quick back to back clips of just the cold starts. (after the first attempt to fix the leaks, so there's very little leakage)


The Verdict-
Funny how even though the rest of the exhaust is stock, the resonator delete H-Pipe really does make a difference! It is much more "violent" sounding at cold start! That’s the description my neighbor provided, meant to show his displeasure, but actually made me smile. Turns out... smiling doesn’t help all conversations.

It has a little more rasp than I was expecting. There are times I like it, other times it seems a bit odd coming from a V8. Overall, since my gas millage has gone down pretty dramatically, I must really like it! LOL It is so much more tempting to jump on it a bit to hear it!

Great way to save money on stereo upgrades, since I hardly ever have music playing... I'd rather listen to that kick ass and "violent" engine!

 

[UnkTob]

Let there be LIGHT!- (Underhood LED Lights Install)
This again is an idea I never thought of until I saw Bill's (bjstang) Double Race Red Journal. His build blog has a great walkthrough on how to do this. I did a couple of things a bit differently, which I'll highlight.

Crazy how bright these lights are, by the way!
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B071PFC1H2/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

The Install-
As is a rare thing to say, this was fairly straightforward. In all fairness, I used to install car alarms, stereos and stuff, so a little more familiar territory. (It has been YEARS, so I was a little out of practice)

The Prep- I figured out where I was going to install my lights. There's a little ridge with a flat area just behind it. Took off the under hood liner/dirt collector thingy, and took a look at the actual hood. The lights fit there pretty dang well! Let's do it! So I figured out where on the hood liner/home for dirt thingy I needed to make my cuts.

It wanted to tear and crease, so it took some patience. However, it is kind of an ugly thing anyway, so once done, I don't think it looked bad! (Well, it didn't look any worse, in my opinion)

Then time to break out the old soldering tools!

Next, time to mount the lights and start running the wires!

I used some 3M I had lying around (I usually have 3 different sizes of the stuff in my toolbox at any given moment. lol) and got them up on the hood. *Note- once I cut the holes out in the hood liner/resort for dirt, I remounted it back up on the hood then made some light "scribes" to show the locations needed to mount said lights. (ie: I used a metal pointy thing and scratched the outline of the cuts in the hood liner/Pig Pen's Cousin onto the underside of the hood.)

I had twisted the wires a bit (secure one end to something, put the other end in a cordless drill, and you'll make quick work of it), and ran them down to the wiper fluid lines. (I purposely left the wires a bit loose between the first zip and the lights, as to not cause pressure on the wire connections. These will be covered by the hood liner/dirt magnet anyway.)

I then ran the wires down from the hood to the inner fender, again following along the washer fluid lines.

Here I deviated a bit from Bill's walkthrough and tucked my wires in between the inner and outer fender.

I also used an inline blade fuse holder and tapped right into the battery for power. For the negative side, since I wasn't sure where the stock hood switch was, and I had some of these laying around, I found a great spot to install a hood pin switch.

I actually tried the oblong hole to the 4-5 o'clock position from where you see it in the photo, but there was not enough room there, and when I first test fitted it and closed the hood, it shattered the original hood pin. (I did mention I'm a bit out of practice, yeah? )

I like how it turned out. Maybe I'll dig around these forums and find out where that stock hood pin is at, and if it is a positive or negative switch and maybe tap into that instead. But if this holds up, I'm fine with how it looks.

Here is it all finished up!

Only sight downside- The LED lights are embedded in some yellow strip thingy (Sorry... using technical electrical terminology here!), which does show up at extreme side angles, which in this application is whenever you open the hood. LOL It is somewhat noticeable, but doesn't bother me too much.

Really... I think it looks like it belongs. I was at a club event and a guy with a 2017 was looking at my engine compartment and he mentioned that he wishes Ford would have started installing those engine compartment lights a year earlier. Sweet! I guess I did a pretty alrighty job making it look like it should have come this way. (*Hint hint, Ford!)

At some point I'll have to take my "fat guy yoga" to new levels and see if I can add a couple of these to the trunk light system.




Yeah... that will hurt! LOL

 

[UnkTob]

Yes, Bigger is Better!- (New wheels and tires)
It seems that no matter the size or style, I always want to change out the factory wheels and tires! lol When I saw the Magnetic Metal Metallic Grey in the showroom, with the gloss black PP1 wheels and it's gloss black stripe, I knew I'd want all black wheels, and that I'd want them in gloss. When I originally saw the photos of the 2018 I thought that gloss black front grill looked out of place and cheesy. However, in my opinion, after it sunk in a bit, I actually started to like the gloss black grill. Each to their own, but to me the gloss black ties in to that gloss black rear deck lid panel (You know... the one with all the scratches on it! ) and the gloss black wheels tie into both really well. The one thing out of place to me... the lower front grill being matte black. **Really Ford?!?! Really?!?!**

Anywho... My main go to for Mustang parts has always been American Muscle, and since I knew that I always want to upgrade the wheels and tires, I realized I had to be able to budget buying the wheels and tires at the same time (or very close to the same time) as when I bought the car. So the wheels and tires (plus some budget for a few other mods) played an important role in the "go or no go" decision to get the car.

I saw these RTR wheels on AM's site and really liked their aggressive look. Same general design as the PP1's, but less "forks". Actually... kind of the "Goldilocks Syndrome" The PP1's have a little too many spokes (Cool looking, but been told a bit hard to clean, plus I don't want my car to look like a PP1 "poser". lol), and the Tech 5 from RTR doesn't have enough, and to me looks too "stock". (Again, just my opinion for my car) These Tech 7's seemed "just right".

https://www.americanmuscle.com/rtr-tech7-black-19x105-1516.html

I looked in the forums and found some other wheels I liked, but for the price, these always kept winning out. As I was deciding to get the car, AM announced their sale for the 4th of July holiday and sure enough, these wheels and the tires I wanted, were going to be on sale. About an hour later (no joke!) the car lot with the 2018 GT convertible I was leaning towards called to let me know they were going to be running a sale for the 4th of July and made me a deal I couldn't pass up.

The Nitto's. I have heard of Nitto's, of course, but didn't really know much about them, until I started looking into options for my (at this point) potential 2018 GT. I was impressed with the reviews I saw on AM and started asking around with my local club and on these forums. Overwhelmingly the responses where to go with Nitto over the other brands I was looking at. (really... wasn't even close!!)

https://www.americanmuscle.com/nitto-nt555-g2amm.html

So I put the deposit down on the car, took some time off around the 4th so I could take a road trip up to Washington to look at and hopefully get the 2018 GT Convertible. I headed up there in my 2014 V6 Convertible, gave the GT a very thorough test drive and checked out everything I could think of, then closed the deal. As soon as I drove my new to me 2018 GT, I started looking for a place with free WiFi so I could get online with my iPad and get the wheels and tires on order. (BTW- 30 minutes after I drove the car off of the lot I got pulled over for speeding! LOL That's a whole other story!) I literally ordered these wheels and tires just a couple of hours after driving the car off the lot.

For the first time ever- American Muscle disappointed me. Wheels & tire package wasn't listed as limited to stock on hand, or clearance, but took a very long time to get. To make a long story short, I ordered on the 4th of July but didn't get the wheels and tires until August 23rd after lots and lots of back and forth and getting more frustrated at AM then I have gotten at any company in a very very long time. Eventually they made it right, and I've purchased other stuff from them because of them making it right.

Turns out- all that frustration and delays actually had a couple of benefits!
1. Everyone recommended the Nitto NT555 G2's, but the sale was actually on the Nitto INVO. (I was okay with this change, but would have been nice to get the G2's) Due to the delays, eventually we ended up switching to the G2's since they were back in stock at a similar price.
2. The original order for the wheels were supposed to be 8.5" for the front and 10" for the rear, but due to availability, we ended up agreeing upon switching out to 9.5" and 10.5" for just a bit of a difference in price. (People that say bigger isn't better just have small wheels and tires. )

Here's a shot of the new wheels and tires side by side with the stock, showing the differences in width and height-

You can see the new wheel & tire are definitely wider, but I thought it was interesting that they were shorter than the stock ones.

The Install-
This, I figured, would be a piece of cake! As history has proven with this project, things usually do not go as easily as you'd think they should. The install itself was easy as expected (everything fit perfectly) but 2 of the boxes had wheel weights that I'm assuming came off of the wheels in transit. You'd think if they are supposed to be able to handle the forces of being spun around at ridiculous speeds while driving that a few jostles during shipping wouldn't be an issue. So one of the first things I did once installed was to take the car to a local tire shop and pay them to re-balance the wheels and tires. AM was cool about reimbursing me. Thanks AM!

The Results-
Here's a comparison of the side shots-

Sorry I didn't do a good job of getting the same angle, and the lighting was way different, but still if you look at the edge of the wheel & tire compared to the lip on the wheel well, you can see that the new wider tires really do a great job of filling out the wheel well and getting pretty close to flush. I was originally figuring I'd need spacers, but at this point I don't think I do.

Man... I really love the look of these wheels & tires and the aggressiveness they provide to the overall look of the car. Only thing I'd like to change- I wish I could get that RTR logo in Red. I don't have any chrome or silver left on the outside of my car. But that's being a bit picky. These things look great!! Also, those Nitto's really grip well! I haven't gone too nuts around corners yet, but I'm impressed with the feel of these tires as I'm mashing down the loud pedal.

 

[UnkTob]

The Way It Should Be!- (Hood struts)
Really Ford?!?! REALLY We can easily configure a GT at $50,000 and higher but you still include a stupid hood prop? REALLY (are you guys purposely supporting aftermarket? lol)

Anyway... I knew that no matter which Mustang I ended up with, I was going to put in hood struts, so even before I officially purchased the car, I ordered a set of hood struts. lol


https://www.americanmuscle.com/redline-tuning-hood-quicklift-plus-system-2018-gt-ecoboost.html

The Install-
So this was somewhat straight forward. Somewhat. The instructions were fine, and the user submitted install walkthrough was okay on AM's site, but the anchor points you install in the fender opening were kind of odd to me. I'm not sure if I missed something but no matter what we did, the anchor rotated a little bit after tightening, even really cranking down on them first.
**Top Tip**- When installing struts on my 2014, I went about attaching the struts to the ball studs all wrong! lol I made it muuuuch more difficult and frustrating than it should have been! Do not try to remove or partially remove the c-clip! Have someone old the hood up (or use that stupid hood prop for its last moment of glory before it gets relocated to the trash can), and then apply some light pressure pushing the strut cup on to the ball stud, then rock the strut back and forth while keeping the pressure on it. This actually wiggles the c-clip open and after a few back and forths the c-clip opens up enough for the strut cup to snap right into place on the ball stud. It was crazy how easily it went on! It also doesn't feel at all like it wants to come off. Nice!

I actually cut out a little more of the battery cover to make it easier to remove and put back on. I used a sanding attachment on my Dremel to smooth it out. So it doesn't look too hack joby.

The Results-

They look fine (I mean, as fine as hood struts can look, I guess), but more importantly they allowed me to remove the stupid hood prop and burn it in effigy! (Actually... since it is metal, it wasn't a very good effigy burn. LOL) They also open the hood up a bit wider than with just the hood prop, which goes give a tad bit more room when working under the hood. Plus I no longer have the potential of accidentally bumping the hood prop or the hood and having the hood come crashing down on the back of my neck. (True story with another car years ago)

In Summary-
Thanks Ford for taking another $100 out of my pocket by leaving out something that you should have started to include YEARS ago.

But hey... on the bright side- RedLine Tuning made a little bit more money, as did American Muscle, and I got to spend a little more time with my friend who helped me install them. Plus, it was a relatively low "swear word expenditure" install... which if you've been reading all these, you know is a fairly un-common install for me.
.
.
.
also
.
.
.
Thanks!!
If you have been reading through all of my long arse posts, THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR READING ALL OF THESE!! I hope you are enjoying them!

 

[UnkTob]

That's a lot of Plastic!- (Engine vinyl dress-up)
One of the best things about our Mustang GT's of course is that kick a$& 5.0 Coyote Engine! It also is one of the of the most underwhelming experiences when opening up the hood (in my opinion) due to how little engine you can see, and instead how much "Big Plastic Engine Cover" you see.

Best solution- replace the Big Plastic Engine Cover with a Supercharger! Solution that doesn't hurt the wallet as much- try to dress up that engine cover.

I saw some things people have done on this forum, including breaking out the model paint and brushes and going to town. For me, I'm thinking I'd have a heck of a time painting by hand and not getting paint all over the place. I saw on bjstang's build that he found a company with some useful vinyl applications- for instance, a couple of black vinyls that are cut so they hide those stupid warnings on the sun visors that are an eye-sore and nobody ever reads. (Thanks lawyers for uglying up our cars! ) The visors aren't vinyl so the rectangle areas do still stand out, but at least they blend in better. Any-who... I was looking around their site and noticed that they had quite a few categories and lots of items for Mustangs! http://www.anchor-room.com/index.php?route=product/category&path=72

I went a bit nuts and bought a few items from their "Under the Hood" filter of decals, keying in on my color scheme- metallic grey with black and red highlights.

The Install-
Looking at this, I was thinking, easily should only take 20-30 minutes. HAHA! Apparently I do not learn! Very rarely are things as easy as they seem!

Cleaning was more involved than I thought. There was lots of engine dress up (Armor All type of stuff) and it took lots of cleaning & scrubbing followed up by lots of rubbing alcohol. In hindsight, I probably should have spent even more time on this, since some of the vinyl pieces are already lifting up.

The "test" to see if the panel is clean enough is to use a piece of masking tape to check and see if it sticks. However, it is the corners in the recessed areas that are the toughest to clean and to also test.

The vinyl seems to be good quality, however one surprising thing (ie: read into this "Frustration level high") is that when applying the lettering, despite they must have scanned to get the exact size and outline of the raised lettering, the spacing between the lettering was not correct, so you couldn't just use some application tape and set all the letters down at once. (Like I tried to do in this photo)

Instead I had to pull off each letter with some vinyl application tweezers and place each one manually. Very annoying.

I had a couple of other things come up not related to the install that created delays, but I'd guess it took about 1 to 1.5 hours. There are some minor issues when looking very closely at it, but overall, I like how it turned out.

Here's a before and after of the engine compartment.

Adds a little more zing to the engine compartment, until I win the lottery and tear that stupid Big Plastic Engine Cover and replace it properly with a Supercharger.

 

[DFB5.0]

Great work! How it should come from the factory.

Sponsored