The Albuquerque Stripper - Who says a Mustang can't land a kickflip?

[PaddyPrix]

Should have grabbed some flex tape and slapped it on there.

Yeah, next time, if there ever is one. I hope not. Problem is, I'm that type of person who will now, unfortunately, bring it up for pretty much every situation whether it's needed or not.

x: I just heard from Amy that Lisa and Bill are expecting their fourth child.
me: Uh, well, did they check her tank for leaks?
x:

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[PaddyPrix]

Happy Presidents' Day Mustang fam.

On second thought, I might try flex tape, because flex spray was worthless. Looks like it's about $900 for a new fuel tank, but there are some on ebay for around $350. Not yet ready to make the switch to something like a fuel safe racing tank that's easily going for triple the price. Also, been a while since I've used the Ford parts sites, which is greatly improved with all of the diagrams, part numbers, and all that, even whole assemblies. Much nicer than the guy at your local service department flubbing around for 30 minutes.

I can't be all that angry to run into my first roadblock, other than my time, I've put in just two fuses ($11), and we'll add a few hundred for takeoff rims and tires, as I used a set I already had. With that, my investment is just over $10k, so I can't complain, a 2018 Mustang GT with17k miles is worth way more than that.

Still, need to start finding some other parts like the intake and MAF, and a little googling found out Holman Moody, yes, that Holman Moody, sells takeoffs, so it looks like $100 for an airbox assembly. Much nicer than the greedy people trying to give me their garbage CAI. I'll have to start looking for the front chin and tray shortly, and duh, a hood.

Not feeling the greatest today, so I might gulp down a few gallons of coffee and try to remove and re-install the rear bumper, the side skirts, and then figure out what was making that chinging noise from the front while I was driving. First guess is there's something trapped between the dust shield and the rotor, as it's increasing with speed, not RPM.

 

[antatman]

Awesome thread - I’m following!

 

[BeastAR]

Any updates?

 

[Whitedevil95]

Cool Project!

 

[PaddyPrix]

Not much going on lately with the ride, been sick, family came into town, work and whatnot.

Will have some fancy pictures and parts coming in shortly.

Stopped by a Carmax on the way back from Harbor Freight with the passenger seat out, rubber all up and down the side panels, local track outline stickers on the window, and even the tow hook on, and they offered me 24k for the 2019 GT, which was surprising. They'd give me another $3k if I put in the passenger seat back in, which also resolves the airbag light, their primary reason for being so low. At $27k, I'm strongly considering that, as I owe about half of that on the 2019, so if I sell it for that, and subtract out how much I spent to get my beloved Albuquerque stripper, the remaining will cover the race rims and likely a set of tires, which is a huge win, which was my main reason for undertaking this in the first place. Paid off race car saves me on the payments and car insurance, and if I got used to budgeting that amount every month, that might cover things like track fees, tires, gas, etc. As much as I love having 3 white Mustangs, I can only really race one of them at a time.

I also have the FRPP Track Pack on the 2019 GT, which I'll try to find time this weekend to remove in pieces. Not sure how much of a pain it will be on jack stands from one car to switch the stock components back on, but definitely want to switch in the 6 Piston Brembos, since the stripper makes a lot of noise. I also kept the stock front rotors and inverted hat, so I don't know if I'll switch on the yellow spray painted calipers onto the 2019 GT as I trade it in, or be the respectful guy my parents raised and put the stock ones back on, and just toss the yellows onto the shelf for who knows when, if ever.

Have
- 2m Fabrication 1 7/8" Longtubes - Ordered a while back for the 2019, but now that I'm going to build up the 2018 in it's place, well, c'mon over.

Coming
- Apex EC-7 18x11 ET52 from the big group purchase - because, racecar!

Need
- Caster-Camber plates, because I know better, and can't afford to keep killing the shoulder of a perfectly good tire in less than 500 miles.
- Fuel Tank, pencil sized hole covered in flex seal doesn't hold up. New assemblies look to be about $950-1100, but I'm going to try my luck waiting on an e-bayer to ship me a fuel tank shell for $350.
- Slot MAF / Intake - rewiring harness into wiring that was cut. Have the factory replacement harness, but the cables are like 6 inches long, whereas the CAI wiring was cut almost to where it mounts by the driver headlight, so I'll likely have to get some other wiring to extend it. Not sure of the gauge (14? 16?)
- Hood. Thought about buying a CF, but thought more about making my own using my 2019 as the mold. Anybody have experience? Looks easy enough, and I'm not concerned about quality as much as I am covering the engine and basic aero.
- Tires for the 18x11, very open to suggestions for track/race.
BFG Rival S 1.5? 315/30/18
Bridgestone RE71? 285/30/18 seems too small, I tend to believe they're more AutoX than race.
Nitto NT01? 305/35/18
Toyo Proxes R888R? 305/35/18
Yokohama Advan A052? 295/30/18 - 295/35/18 - 315/30/18

Future
- Weight savings
- Suspension work
- Aero
- Power adder

 

[Jay-rod427]

Loving this resurrection!

 

[PaddyPrix]

Quick update before the rest of the afternoon is spent in meetings.
Thanks to the latest Apex group buy, as of yesterday, I've now got a set of these 18x11 sexy beasts stacked up in the garage. Most of the packages we've gotten lately I've let sit outside, but when I heard the truck coming down the street, I ran outside in my PJ's screaming and yelling as if it was the Ice Cream man. I went with black instead of gunmetal or bronze because, well, I kinda like this black on white combo, it's kinda growing on me. My 98 Cobra is from an earlier era when it was all about chrome Cobras, and the only real color you had outside of satin was white, which I felt was reserved only for the Saleen kit, and with all the dust and smoke, I couldn't be bothered to wipe them down at every stoplight. I kinda made a face when I got the 19 with the black rims and chrome lugs, but with the HRE FF15's and these Apex EC-7's, maaaaan, sexytime.

We're almost under $3/gallon out west, which is a big deal since It was closer and over $4 for 91. Not having to commute to work saving a few tanks here and there, and missing out on track days/weekends with lots of maintenance work at work has saved me a bucks here and there, and with a birthday coming up, talked Tim and Terry's ears off for a bit and welp, now have some Motion Control double adjustables, Vorshlag CC plates, and some high rate springs coming as well. It's been raining every other day out here, which is strange, but this weekend looks to be a sunny enough, so I'll get back to putting some work in. Right now, the 19 has a FRPP Track Pack and the Performance Pack Brembos on it, and so my switching that back to stock frees up those parts to go right back onto the 18, or at least the Brakes and perhaps the Swaybars. I'm still missing the hood and CAI/MAF, but it's still operational when I take a lil' stroll through the neighborhood, but there's a lot of scratching as I roll on the right side, which I'll get to the bottom of when I'm putting the brakes and suspension pieces in.

Before this Covid-19 outbreak, I had a pretty good attendance at the track days, if it wasn't every weekend, it was definitely every other weekend, but looking at the calendar, the last one I did was the end of January at Willow Springs. I'm really starting to miss it, and my friends are giving me shit aren't really helping matters along either. I'm usually beating the best times that their Camaros and s197's can do by a second or so in the 2019, and here's hoping that the 18 will do just as good, and here's hoping that I can get this dialed in and further extend them ass-whuppins. On the old, best full-weight Willow was 1:34:7 and Auto Club was 1:56.1 on Cup 2's, but here's hoping I can get it on the track before the end of April, but honest, who knows what will happen in a month with all the craziness going on.

I'll end my update with a double entendre, stay safe out there.

 

[PaddyPrix]

Two more late nights at work had me sleeping in, but despite the Nittos being slated for an April 14th delivery, I got them first thing Saturday. Unexpectedly, but totally fine, I filled my Hyundai Kona to its limits and took them down to get them mounted up. Some friends pointed out that somebody nearby was selling some of their go-fast goodies, and so after hitting up the ATM, I took a nice trip up to LA and grabbed a Sparco Evo that is in great condition. I started late Sunday on the stripping, breaking down the passenger side, removing the seat, the seatbelts, rear seat upper and lowers, and worked carefully around the side airbags. Noticed that the rear mounted speakers were also stolen which round out the items stolen in the theft to rear speakers, CAI + MAF, hood, rims, spoiler, and the shifter knob.

 

[PaddyPrix]

Did a little more today, enjoyed all that rub and tug to get things down to pretty much he doors, the dash, the carpet, scraping all that stuff out, and ugh, that wiring, there's plenty of that still in there too.

 

[PaddyPrix]

The doors, the dash, and all that gunk remain. Astute will notice the fuel tank in the trunk, which I hope to get in this morning as I go by a friend's shop where we can drop it and the driveshaft on a lift, much easier and cleaner than me doing so in my driveway. Thinking about how to get it to start without the dash and the keyfob, but I've got a lot of stuff to do before this becomes a full racecar and redoing wiring harnesses and whatnot.

 

[PaddyPrix]

A few more recent updates, at a decent stopping point for the interior, mounted the driver's seat, figured out the PATS/KV no key detected issue doesn't have a real workaround, and took it down to my bud's to get it up in the air. Since I'm only able to piece things together and what it's history is/was and go by some facts to support my story, it'd seem like I lucked out, with the undercarriage being so clean and without any major damage. We dropped the exhaust and driveshaft to get to the fuel tank, which had a suspicious hole on it from earlier. I had guessed it was some pinhole leak or something, but gee, that hole looks like a drill or a screw went through enough to puncture it. Slight change on the tank, where earlier years had a nipple in the plastic, and it's integrated in the 18+, and wrestled that goofy clamp off.

Started going through all these other things, and figured I'd give a run-through of where the 18 and 19 menus are different, and while in the area, decided to check up and see how my bests stacked up to theirs... 0-60 in 7 seconds? Bruh.

 

[PaddyPrix]

It's been raining for most of last week, so yesterday finally allowed me to spend some time with her. Started the morning off by driving up and back to Long Beach to pick up a hood for the 2019, because, well, I screwed up the last time out. I swapped the 2019's hood to the 2018 so I could roll through town without raising too much suspicion (Ridin' Dirty a la Chamillionaire?) and yeah, did a rush job and didn't latch it so well and kinda bent that up. So, now the 2019 is made whole, and when this Covid-19 stuff cools down, probably going to say goodbye to the 2019, now with like, no miles on it.

So got home, and started disassembling the front trying to save some more weight, removed some things like the windshield wiper fluid reservoir, and didn't notice this until now, but the bottom of the frame is totally bent in the middle, and all that rust tells me that it's not by design, at some point the previous owner or thieves decided to jack it up from that point. That'll have to be replaced with the links that go underneath the main bumper.

I pulled the inner fender liners off so that I can quicker get to the coilovers and hopefully swap out brake pads at the track, and noticed this fella hiding in there on the driver side fender. I guess I know what that random metal clanking noise was coming from.

I'm so blessed that the auction photos didn't find that, because had they known they were bidding on a 2018 Mustang GT AND A SCREWDRIVER, who knows how much higher the bidding would have gone. I got a text right around then from somebody who was selling something, so I stopped what I was doing and hopped into the EV to again drive back to Long Beach, like, a mile from where I was earlier that morning, but made this pickup.

Which I think looks great in that test fit. I wanted to de-Roush the original bumper, but found there were slits and holes everywhere, and with this pretty much being a dedicated track vehicle, I'd have to figure out where to put oil, tranny, and diff coolers, perhaps the bigger openings in the lower corners might be the spot for them. If not, that's cool, I can close them off. Not concerned with being one of those Fobra guys because I'm not even trying to represent this as a GT350, and actually planning on adding the GT350 side fenders in hopes of letting these big brakes cool down some when we can next get to the track. But we're getting closer to that day, this week should be a fun one.

 

[PaddyPrix]

This weekend was a fun one, finished returning the 2019 back to stock, which means I'm pretty close to saying goodbye to it. I think I'll keep it for another week or two just to have as a reference while I'm still figuring things out. Got the stripper into the garage and started on the longtubes on Sunday afternoon, and determined to do it.

Started by loosening up the stock exhaust, and then going for the passenger side header to midpipe flange, and the bottom came off easy enough, little bit rusted together, but the upper bolt was a real pain. Finally got it off with my 15mm impact socket, a 5" extension, a 3" extension, a flex joint, then a 10" extension, and a 6" extension to a breaker bar, and used the hollow jack lever tube on the end of it as a cheater bar to get that off. I spent too long trying to get it with a flex head wrench underneath but there wasn't much room from the car side, and the engine side would bang against the starter motor, even if I did, depending on your wrench, you might only get a click or two, and doubtful you'd have enough leverage with that angle. The flex joint I used wasn't very forgiving either, so I had to keep going up top and back to the crawler to put the socket on just perfectly. Now having done it, I'd say just for that, have a friend just to hold things and feed pieces to you for a few minutes to expedite that process greatly, sucks doing it on your own. After finally busting that one off, then went to the starter motor, which I read in places was 2 bolts on the transmission, which is not entirely correct, it's 2 on the bell housing side of the transmission, and another 10mm tucked high and away on the engine side. Started running out of time because my neighbors don't seem to appreciate my cursewords and grunting, but with those pieces out, hopefully can pop the header off after work. Thinking I'll use the jack to hold the motor around the bellhousing and then remove the motor mount plate and raise it slightly to get better access to the studs. Hopefully there's enough room with the jack that I can shimmy next to it and get the bolts needed from underneath.

 

[PaddyPrix]

So yeah, the 2018 GT starter has 3 bolts, two from the tranny side, 1 from the engine side high up and tucked away.

Then had to loosen the passenger side engine mount plate, the farthest bolt is hard to reach and a tight fit. I started on that one first and worked my way back. Before I did the final bolt, I used my jack to lift the engine and found that my lightweight racing jack only goes up 18" inches, and had to do some creative works to find old books and reams of paper because I don't have 2x4's that I could use. Stacked a bunch of hardcovers up and then from the top of the engine bay, removed the nuts from both sides that were holding the engine to the engine mounts, and lifted it up enough to clear, and then some.

With the passenger side motor mount plate removed, I have a much cleaner view of the passenger header, and took all the bottom and the middle two upper nuts off. the upper closest to the transmission might be a pain, and I'll get to that and the upper closest to the radiator as well. Looks like I'll have to grab some of those torx e-star sockets to remove the studs, because I don't think I'll be able to jack the engine high enough to cleanly slide the header off. I could try with pliers, but I'm fearful of stripping them off and having to do something even dumber. I see why shops charge like $600 to do this stuff, and while it's probably slightly easier with access to better lifts, tools, etc, it's still a pain. For those of you at home, a creeper will save your sanity, and constant lifting of your arms and yourself up is a great upper ab workout. Don't let chicks know that the secret to great abs is longtube header installs.

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