HCF Project Section - Reaper's Twin Turbo Mustang Project

So I decided it was time for a little re-design of my thread's front page.

Anyway, I started the project with a bone-stock 2001 Mustang, equipped with a 3.8L V6 and a T-5 manual transmission. The car, in stock form, produces 193hp and 225ft*lbs of torque at the flywheel. By the time I'm done with the car, I'll hopefully be sitting at 750-800RWHP. The car won't be seeing track time, but will be more or less a dedicated highway cruiser.

But anyway, on to the modifications!

Completed Modifications:
Appearance
-Mach 1 grille delete
-Mach 1 chin spoiler
-Blacked-out tail lights
-Smoked HID projector headlights (8000K)
-OEM 2001-2004 Mustang GT side scoops


Aerodynamics
-Vortekz vortex generators


Suspension/brakes
-OEM gt rear sway bar (23mm)


Performance
-AEM dry-flow filter
-MAC Long-tube headers
-Magnaflow high-flow catalytic converters
-(Modified) MAC off-road H-pipe (2.5" tubing)
-Summit Racing dual exhaust (2.5" tubing)
-SCT X3 flash tuner (custom tune)


Drivetrain
-American Muscle short-throw shifter
-Ford Racing Performance Parts limited-slip differential
-Motive 3.73 rear end gear


Misc.
-Tenzo R Rally seats
-Magnaflow 3.5" outlet exhaust tips
-OEM 2001 Saleen S281 mustang shift knob
-Custom Italian leather shift boot, e-brake boot, and armrest cover
-LED dome light conversion & courtesy lights




Planned mods
-'99-'04 OEM Mustang GT 8.8" Solid Rear Axle swap
-MMR tubular K-member
-MMR tubular front LCAs
-MMR front coilover conversion kit
-MMR rear coilover conversion kit
-Maximum Motorsports camber/caster adjuster plates
-Reinforced frame rails and pinch welds, bracing between them
-Rota P-45R wheels (17x9, +25mm offset up front, 18x9.5, +25mm offset out back)
-BF Goodrich g-Force Sport (245/40-17 up front, 275/35-18 out back)
-Cobra front brake swap
-OEM 2003/2004 SVT Cobra front bumper
-Steeda 2001 Mustang Cobra R style front splitter
-OEM 2003/2004 SVT Cobra side skirts
-OEM 2003/2004 SVT Cobra side mirrors (painted red to match)
-Cervini's 2000 Mustang Cobra R spoiler (fiberglass)
-Maximum Motorsports 6-point roll bar
-Corbeau 3" 5-point harnesses (black)
-Corbeau FX-1 Pro fixed-back racing seats (black microsuede)
-Custom black microsuede headliner, sunvisors, & door panel inserts
-Rear seat delete wrapped in black microsuede
-Spec Stage 3 clutch (6-puck)
-Spec aluminum flywheel
-Full re-spray with factory Performance Red paint, gold flake in the clear
-Boxed-in radiator
-Lowered/reinforced frame rails and pinch welds
-Ford Essex v6 long block
-SuperSix Motorsports 4.2L stroker kit (new crank, forged rods, new pistons and rings)
-CompCams turbo cam (218/218 duration, .55/.55 lift, 114 LSA)
-SuperSix Motorsports valve springs/retainers
-SuperSix Motorsports stud-mount roller rockers
-SuperSix Motorsports hardened pushrods
-Autometer GS gauges (2x Wideband O2, 2x EGT, 0-30 In Hg/0-30psi vac/boost)
-Nordskog digital speedometer
-Shaved engine bay, mild wire tuck, entire engine bay sprayed with truck-bed lining
-Custom turbo manifolds/downpipes
-(2x) Garrett GT3076R hybrid turbos
-(2x) TiAL 44mm wastegates (1bar springs)
-TiAL 50mm BOV
-K2Motor FMIC (12"x32"x3")
-Full belly pan
-Rear diffuser (V1 will be ABS plastic. I might make a V2 out of carbon fiber depending on how much of a PITA I think it'll be.)
-Custom dual center-outlet exhaust
-Wastegates dumped to atmosphere out the sides of the fenders
-Custom carbon fiber rear centerpiece (making room for the center exhaust and differential airflow venting)



And finally, pictures of the car when I first bought it in the spring of '07:
http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s258/rakusi/4-3.jpg
literally the day I bought it


http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s258/rakusi/5-5.jpg
Nothing too special, right?


http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s258/rakusi/2-7.jpg
A nice clean interior


http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s258/rakusi/6-6.jpg


http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s258/rakusi/siggyv2-1.jpg
and the whole family... I miss the civic, and I miss the CBR even more :(


And after a month or so of modifying (before the project officially started):


http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s258/rakusi/finishedtrunkbumper.jpg
Some fresh paint work


http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s258/rakusi/hood4.jpg
More fresh paint up front


http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s258/rakusi/grilleandchin.jpg
Chin spoiler and grille delete


http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s258/rakusi/mustangrear.jpg
"Mustang" lettering vinyl


And that pretty much brings us to where the project begins...

oh goodness f the 240sx apparently? hahah lot of good improvements altough the seats im kindof iffy on. but looks good I cant wait to see some beast v6power

i heard a lot of the new muscle cars are going to only be v6 in the near future since car companies have the tech to crank out my hp from them and get better mpg. What are you going to do with that turbo?????

yeah, I figured I'll just keep the stable down to one car; what's the use in having two insurance bills? But trust me, the seats are a lot nicer/more at home in person. They look bada**, especially compared to the old ones.

And yeah, I've been reading about ford's new eco-boost... a twin-turbo v6. I guess they're still leaving the v8 as an option, but they're focusing on v6's now.

And the turbo has a potential buyer, same as my old 17's. Tattoo/project funding ftw :D

you're gonna cut the OEM springs??

Should be sick though!

ahaha reaper tell me your making money on the turbo?

^ I wish.... I'm selling it for $380 shipped... I just want my money back... and the wheels, I'll be lucky if I'm walking away with $300 after shipping them... I paid $600 for 'em. But still, $650 would pay for the tattoo I have in mind and still leave me with $350-$450 to throw at the car if I wanted to.

you're gonna cut the OEM springs??

Should be sick though!

Yeah, I've done a ton of research, and taking about a coil and a half off brings the springrates to about the perfect level for autocross (and lowers the car 1.25"-1.75"). The springrates aren't progressive, so you can actually calculate your new spring rate if you wanted to.

But I'm excited for tomorrow... the HID projectors go on :D

you shoulda put it on h-t for like $425 shipped and just wait it out. im sure someone woulda gone for it

i think it's a badass project and you've done a great job so far ;)

honestly, the extra $40 or so isn't worth the hassle of 20 or so flakers. I hate selling crap, honestly, I do.

But thanks PB.. I'm honestly considering pulling the stock exhaust, putting the o/r h-pipe on, and running open h-pipe for a week lol. I drive maybe 5 miles a day on average, except fridays and sundays when I'm driving home and back. I'm thinking I might just be able to get away with it for a week lol... I just have to figure out how to hang the h-pipe.

Well, I managed to get the headlights installed after a bit of modification.. due to the fact that they were HID-retrofitted projectors, they didn't want to fit, or else I'd have had them in last night. Pics:

http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s258/rakusi/HID1.jpg
From the front


http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s258/rakusi/HID2.jpg
Passenger-side ballast (by the air filter)


http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s258/rakusi/HID3.jpg
Driver-side ballast (between the battery and frame, beside the radiatior)


And also, I finally have a picture of the tuner (and short-throw shifter)
http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s258/rakusi/tunerandshifter.jpg
The tuner doesn't need to really be in the car still, but it looks so damn cool... besides, if something happens that I can only get 87 octane gas, I need to have it to reinstall the factory tune anyway.

^ that does look cool haha i'd prolly leave it in there as well

Nighttime HID pics, more in about 5 minutes:
http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s258/rakusi/HIDS1.jpg


http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s258/rakusi/HIDS2.jpg

Well worth $500 :D


Here's some more pics after it got darker:

http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s258/rakusi/HIDS3.jpg


http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s258/rakusi/HIDS4.jpg

just curious, why with the mustang build on a civic foum?

because its reaper's build LOL

just curious, why with the mustang build on a civic foum?

You'll find that several of the more senior members have moved on to other cars, but they still stick around to help other members. In return, we support their new projects.

You'll find that several of the more senior members have moved on to other cars, but they still stick around to help other members. In return, we support their new projects.

Blah...stop it with the "senior member" BS...

Blah...stop it with the "senior member" BS...

Fine, how about the "MAC-DADDY MEMBERS"?

lol gene gets so offended at the term senior member

but anyway, as soon as I get my wheels shipped out (probably next week), I think I'll be ordering a rear seat delete and a FRPP aluminum driveshaft.

Also, one night this week I'll hopefully remember to go get the exhaust hangars for the dual exhaust, and hopefully by next weekend I'll have the 3.73 rear end gear so I can have that and the LSD installed.

nice project car Chris! that exhaust shouldsound pretty good on the car and the wheels sound pretty nice as well. I guess the 240 will have to wait until next time lol :P look forward to following your project along

woo woo!! More pics or BAN!!

Thanks, drew... I still really want a project 240, but I just kind of realized I can't afford a dd and a project car while at school, so the two project cars I want (a 240 and an eg/ek hatch/coupe) will have to wait. (but me getting an audi tt (hardtop... not one of those sissy verts lol) or a bmw m3 takes precedence over the project cars lmao)

So what kind of pics do you want, dan? :D

*edit: Searching craigslist, I found a set of Cobra front brakes (if you haven't seen them, they're f**king huge); rotors, lines, and calipers for $300. As soon as the good folks at MustangForums let me know if they'll clear the stock wheels, I'll decide if I'm getting them or not. I'd love to get them, but if they won't fit (the earliest I'll be able to afford those wheels I want will be when my tax return comes), I'll probably go ahead and buy the aluminum driveshaft and rear seat delete.

*'nother edit: Well, the stock wheels won't clear the brakes, but I'm still considering getting them and waiting until I get those 17's to put them on. $300 is one helluva deal for cobra brakes (to put it into perspective, the kit new from ford is around $700). Decisions, decisions...

just do it. If you don't you will regret it later.

yeah, after talking it over with some of the guys on MustangForums, I think I'll just go with the driveshaft and rear seat delete. I still really want the cobra brakes, but I found a place with basically the same thing (New brembo blanks, cobra calipers, SS brake lines) for $439 brand new, and I also found out I can piece together the swap for $150 or so; oem replacement rotors, rebuilt calipers, and SS lines.

But the cobra brakes will have to wait until I get my 17's.

*edit: and this thread may very well take a different direction from here on out. I think (since drag racing is overrated) I might look more into focusing less on power and more on suspension, aero, etc. I'm currently doing research on diffusers, under-body trays, vortex generators, etc. I'm thinking of running a splitter (aerotabs at the least), under-body panels, a custom rear lower diffuser, vortex generators, and either a Steeda or a Mustang Cobra R wing (whichever actually performs better... it's looking like the Steeda). Also, instead of 17x9's in front and 17x10.5's in back, I'll probably go with 17x9's all around (save some money/weight). Of course, the LSD, rear gear, duals, etc. are still going on, but I'm going to do some more research and most likely focus primarily on the aero and handling aspects for the time being.

Also, instead of cutting stock springs, I might do something a little different. Adjustable camber/caster plates, 1.5" lowering springs, with 1-2 coils cut (I'm going to research/calculate the spring rates, not just cut where it looks good), and hopefully (if I can find one), an independent rear suspension.

At any rate, I'm off to do more research! (and I'm probably going to learn a helluva lot about aerodynamics lmao)

double post... I've sort of finalized my new project direction (I'll update the front page to reflect the changes in a minute). Basically, I'm going (almost) all-out with suspension and aero mods; wheels, engine parts, and pure cosmetic parts will have to wait.

But the real reason I'm posting again is to let you guys know that I've started framing the rear diffuser; I'm making a skeleton out of plywood and then I'm going to fiberglass it; the fiberglass is going to take forever just for the fact that I refuse to use body filler, so I'm going to be sanding quite a lot, and laying quite a few layers of fiberglass. I'll have pictures of my progress in the morning; I didn't make much headway today short of measuring, figuring out angles, making a few cuts, and seeing how things are working out. Hopefully I'll have it done soon (it probably won't be on the car for a week or two, but hopefully I'll have started laying the fiberglass by the time I go back to school sunday).

Build look solid man. I am not a big fan of mustangs, looks or mechanical, but that just personal preference.

...well I guess I would say not a fan of stock mustangs. My cousin works for Rouch, and I got to drive a 2009 427r Mustang last year (holy crap O_O) and he has a 1999 SVT cobra with something like.....500+ whp. Anyway he wouldn't let me drive that one.

As far as YOUR car goes. 10.5 in the back may add a few pounds but it will give you better traction in the corners , so I think its worth it.

ive liked mustangs, since i was about 15, of course could never afford the insurance.

i remember reading 5.0 litre mag, dont even know if its still there, maybe changed to 4.6 litre. there was one guy the did a write up on. who put all his money into suspension installs. and was running a stock engine. been a long time but the write up was showing how fast you could run in the quarter, just by getting the stock engines power to the pavement.

lol, i have a hard enough time putting gas in my car.:D

^^ same as me man, I read 5.0 still! :P (lol guilty pleasure) the mag is still around here anyways. Hey Chris a bit off topic but I forget what you are going to school for is it a tech of some sort? This project looks like alot of fun plus it is a newer stang so it should be somewhat pain free for reliability when compared to the old 5.0's or older mustangs. It would be nice to have a really good handling mustang with a bit of extra kick to it! You could lose the heavier cars in the turns and v6 would be a killer mix with handling in my opinion. I always felt fords v6 are a bit more responsive then the v8 or mabey Ive never driven a modified stang lol

thanks guys... tiran, I'm still considering the 10.5 rear wheels... the biggest problem I can see (aside from cost and weight) would be that I won't be able to rotate tires if I go with 10.5's in the rear.

But anyway, it's kind of a s**tty day out right now (rainy, cold, miserable), so the rear diffuser probably won't get much work done; I'll probably finish cutting out the fins and glue them in place (remember, I'm just making the skeleton right now; it'll get fiberglassed when I'm done, so it'll be much stronger).

I'm thinking about pulling the exhaust off today and just running open h-pipe for a week or so until I can get the exhaust hangars. It'll give me something to do today anyway.

And drew, I'm going to Wyotech right now; it's an automotive tech school. Also, good-handling mustangs ftw! :D


EDIT: Motherf**ker. I was cutting the tailpipe at the muffler (since it's the only way to pull the tailpipe over the rear axle if you don't have a shop lift) and it turns out the geniuses at Ford decided half an inch away from the exhaust pipe would be a great place to throw a metal brake line. Yup, sliced right through the b***h. Luckily, I have insanely good luck; went to the local dealership and talked to one of the techs (can't say the dealership and I can't give the tech's name lol). He told me he legally couldn't tell me what to do for a quick fix, and then he told me what to do for a quick fix; I asked him if he had the part I needed, and he went back and got one... gave it to me free of charge :D. So now as soon as I manage to get the cat-back off, I'm going to put it on (it's one of those deals with the two nuts, center section, and you put it over a line to bridge the gap, I can't think of the name offhand), and we'll see how well it fixes the problem. He said to fix it would be around $30 + labor, so if it comes down to it, I can go to a dealership to have it fixed. But anyway, I should be able to get the duals on today. Pics later, and I officially hate the mustang... seems like nothing gets done on the car without a MAJOR complication. Well, I'm off to bridge the new gap in my brake line...

lol cool sounds like fun and I was thinking since I lost my good job as a millwright apprentice I am going to go back to a tech school and get the same type of training either to begin as a motorcycle/atv/skidoo mechanic or auto tech and then just go that way because finding another apprentice job is super hard, anyways off topic lol good luck on the brakes:P

thanks... the brake line is fixed, now I'm just trying to figure out how the f**k I'm going to get the h-pipe on... ford put the bolts on the bottom of the headers in the hardest to get to places imaginable. I'm doing research right now to try to find out the easiest way... I might have to take the headers completely off and drop everything out the bottom.

*edit: forget about pulling the headers... apparently you have to lift the engine a little to unbolt the headers. F**king ford... I'm almost ready to sell it and buy another honda... my civic was so easy to work on.

thanks... the brake line is fixed, now I'm just trying to figure out how the f**k I'm going to get the h-pipe on... ford put the bolts on the bottom of the headers in the hardest to get to places imaginable. I'm doing research right now to try to find out the easiest way... I might have to take the headers completely off and drop everything out the bottom.

*edit: forget about pulling the headers... apparently you have to lift the engine a little to unbolt the headers. F**king ford... I'm almost ready to sell it and buy another honda... my civic was so easy to work on.

lol I was about to say I bet you were wishing you had a civic right now

Tell me about it... the worst thing that happened when working on my civic was when I installed the coilovers and the rear LCA bolts were seized in the bushings, and that was an easy (but expensive... $60 worth of poly bushings and new bolts) fix.

Anyway, after searching for a deep socket and a 10" extension, I managed to get the y-pipe off. The duals are on (after a little fabricating of exhaust/tailpipe hangars); pics of the install and a teaser pic in about 20 minutes after I get the garage cleaned up. I'll get the "after" exhaust clip tomorrow and post both the before and after clips. Let me just say, it sounds slightly raspy (no cats and an h-pipe will do that), but it sounds so absolutely bada** it isn't funny. Unfortunately, I get to deal with an exhaust leak at the left header/downpipe connection until I feel up to crawling around under the car again; I'm so sore from crawling around under there for the last 10 hours that I really don't want to get under the car for a few days.

More Picy, Less Talky...

Jeez... so impatient :D

Here's the pics from today (at least the interesting ones). I'll get more pics tomorrow, it's dark and cold out, and I'm sore, have a headache, and I'm very, very hungry.

Anyway, here it goes:

The stock Y-Pipe (still on the car, duh :D)
http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s258/rakusi/StockY-Pipe.jpg



And the sexy new off-road H-pipe (complete with "Off-Road Use Only" plate welded on :D):
http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s258/rakusi/offroadh-pipe2.jpg



From the front of the car:
http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s258/rakusi/offroadH-pipe.jpg



Why spend $30 for a Mustang GT muffler hangar at a dealership when you can make one?:
http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s258/rakusi/exhausthangars.jpg



And why spend money on tailpipe hangars when you can make your own (with no rattling so far :D)
http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s258/rakusi/tailpipehangars.jpg



One of the hangars in place (lol @ my brake line... you can see my fix if you look close):
http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s258/rakusi/brakelineXD.jpg



The new exhaust in place (more pics tomorrow):
http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s258/rakusi/teaserpic.jpg



And a little comparison here; this is what I had on the car:
http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s258/rakusi/stockexhaust.jpg
2.25" tubing, not one, but four cats, and a sound only grandmas would enjoy



Compared to this:
http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s258/rakusi/duals.jpg
2.5" mandrel-bent tubing, no cats, and that deep "I'm going to beat the s**t out of you with a baseball bat" sound :D

More pics tomorrow, don't worry ;)

Nice picks coming along nicely there

thanks :D

More pitchers!

'Nother rear shot:
http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s258/rakusi/rearshot.jpg



One from the ground:
http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s258/rakusi/rearshot2.jpg



And none of that ricer "tips hanging an inch past the bumper" s**t here:
http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s258/rakusi/rearshot3.jpg



And unfortunately, thanks to mother nature and her constant 10mph breeze, I can't get a good exhaust video today... I'm starting to wish I'd have taken a video last night in the garage. But hopefully there won't be as much wind tomorrow, so I can get a decent exhaust video.

Nice! Yeah, hopefully that wind dies downs soon.

Okay, I managed to get a half-decent (read: minimum wind noise) video. It's still not the best (the mic on my camera isn't the best), but you can sort of hear the deep, lopping idle. Doesn't sound too bad for a v6 IMO.

http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s258/rakusi/th_exhaustclip.jpg (http://s154.photobucket.com/albums/s258/rakusi/?action=view&current=exhaustclip.flv)

yea doesnt sound too bad for a v6, also once you get some headers and supercharge it, that baby will sound bad ass

thanks :D

More pitchers!

'Nother rear shot:
http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s258/rakusi/rearshot.jpg



One from the ground:
http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s258/rakusi/rearshot2.jpg



And none of that ricer "tips hanging an inch past the bumper" s**t here:
http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s258/rakusi/rearshot3.jpg



And unfortunately, thanks to mother nature and her constant 10mph breeze, I can't get a good exhaust video today... I'm starting to wish I'd have taken a video last night in the garage. But hopefully there won't be as much wind tomorrow, so I can get a decent exhaust video.

man that is a major improvement over the stock exhaust system, will flow much better. Also it seems these automakers have to make the simplest task the hardest like the headers you mentioned and the bolts, this reminds me exactly of the turbo elbow on my old 180sx, you must remove half of the motors parts or lift it slightly to tighten the inside bolts on it. Are they trying to prevent us backyard mechanics from doing our own work? Looking good though really inspiring to start my own build. I am actually thinking of buying some old honda hatches/coupes that need a little work here and there and then turning around and selling them for profit lol! That would be super fun and if I can make some coin on it well damn.

good job bro its coming along.... way to fast! my project is too slow you have too much money/time

thanks guys :D

And Drew, I understand exactly why they make things so hard to work on. The manufacturers place everything so it's easy to drop in at the factory; they want things to move as quick as possible while manufacturing so they can increase production. Unfortunately, 95% of the time it makes anythign a pain in the a** to work on. But yeah, definitely get that project going lol. And I've already thought about buying a few cars, fixing them up and modding them, and selling them; I know I could probably make a decent bit of money (buy for $1000 spend $300-$500 fixing things, have a friend paint for $50 + the cost of paint, spend $1,000 on mods (used parts), sell for $3500-$4k), but the initial cost is a bit high for me right now.

And john, the only reason it's moving so fast at this point is because I sold my bike when I went to college, so I went on a little shopping spree with the money from selling it. After the LSD and rear-end gear are installed, things are going to slow down a bit here (except for the cheap/free mods).

The rear diffuser (my current cheap/free mod lol) is still in the works; I'll probably finish framing everything up this weekend and start fiberglassing it. I think I'm going to go to a few local hardware stores and see if I can't find anything to use to mount it. Hopefully by Thanksgiving weekend I'll be able to at least get most of the sanding/shaping done, and I'm hoping to have the diffuser on the car by the week after at the latest.

cool I never thought of that as the reason for making the parts hard to get to afterwards and it makes complete sense. I am looking for a project car right now something to work on threw the winter :) Initial cost for buying/fixing cars and then reselling is a bit high for me to right now. cant wait to see the diffuser on the car should fill in that extra space :P and be useful

well, probably not be useful :D

The air going under the car won't really be controlled just, and there's lot of pockets for the air to get caught up in, so the effect of the diffuser will be minimal at best... but it'll look really cool :D

But seriously, I'd like to eventually do the front splitter (probably next spring... no point in making my bumper closer to the ground just in time for winter) and full under-body panels. After that, the diffuser might have a little more of an effect if I can get the angles right. But even if it doesn't, it'll still look cool lol

(and I didn't think about the whole parts being hard to get to either... my dad pointed it out when I was b***hing about getting to the downpipe bolts)

And w00t, I might have $3xx to play with in a few days here :D... what to buy, what to buy...

*edit: and I was sitting in class today thinking... and for the hood, I think I have an idea. I'm going to make the heat extractor on the hood a few (2-5") deeper, and add louvers along the length of the vent to aid in the cooling process. The problem is I'll either have to literally work nonstop for a full weekend to have it at least fiberglassed and sanded (probably not painted) to drive it monday morning, get a spare hood to use while I'm working on the 40th ann. hood, or I'd have to drive around without a hood for a while. Either way, it'll look bada** and hopefully actually be able to extract hot air from the engine bay.

oh ya i remember your bike, and my jealousy for it. Until this point I had always thought of orange mustangs as kinda bitchy cars but with the black yours looks sick, I'm excited for the power this will produce!

:D

It's red. In direct sunlight it looks orange. Well, at least it's red according to my paint code. But if you put a Competition Orange stang and a Performance Red stang next to each other, you'll see the difference.

But yeah, I'm looking forward to the power, too... but it's not going to come for quite a while. Well, the "real" power (4.2l swap and m112 conversion) anyway. But as for the little mods, they seem to add up. Since the tuner and full exhaust, you can feel the car has a little bit more power (somewhere between 10-20hp... but that's with an intake, no cats, 2.5" header-back exhaust, and tuned for 91 octane). Since putting the exhaust on, I've noticed it seems to have a little more torque; not much, but you can tell it's there. The car actually pulls a little more in 5th now.

But I'm thinking the money from the turbo is probably going to go towards suspension.

oh sorry the pics make it look orange. It must be nice when you do I/H/E to actually fell a difference haha

lol it's cool... it took me a few weeks to decide it was red (I'm still not 100% convinced, but I looked up the paint code and it says red... but it's orange at the same time).

But yeah... I'm thinking the tuner has more to do with the power gain than the i/h/e.... well, technically, i/h-pipe/e lol... still rocking the stock headers :D Either that or it's one of those nice little butt-dyno proven gains lol... I'm not saying it's definitely not just in my head... but I swear there's a little more torque lol

The car looks great man! Nice progress.

Im looking for a Mustang right now. All the ones for sale around here right now are pretty sh!tty, and high though. But Im keeping an eye out.

I noticed the color of yours being brought up. My family had a 1994 Mustang GT 5.0 and it was Performance Red. That is an awesome color, and you didnt see that many Mustangs that color around town. Didnt they plan/do away with that color? then they brought it back in like 2000 something?

thanks... I'm definitely happy with how things are going with the car (except for the little... umm... complications that seem to arise every time I do something lol). And yeah, I love the color... I'm not sure which I like more; performance red or competition orange. But I've seen maybe three other performance red mustangs since I got mine. And I think they did away with it after the 04 model year. At least I don't think the s197's came in performance red anyway. But more often than not I see the torch red (that crimson color) or whatever New Edges.

a guy lives in my apartment complx. has a stang with the comp orange paint, looks pretty baller imo.

yeah, the competition orange is a bada** color. It's definitely one of my favorite stock paint colors ever.

But anyway, I finally got off my lazy arse to work on the diffuser a bit... I have the skeleton mostly done (there's still going to be a large section that covers the rear of the gas tank, but that's later). Right now I'm waiting for the wood glue to dry so I can start the fiberglassing.

Pics:
http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s258/rakusi/framing.jpg


http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s258/rakusi/framing2.jpg


http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s258/rakusi/framing3.jpg

Nice job, that looks like a pretty good template. definitely make sure they're straight..that would be a great surprise when you're almost done fiberglassing to find out one of the fins are off center.

teach me to fiberglass :( i really want to learn so that I can make a custom center console in the ef for gauges and ****.

^ DIY's all over the net. just research and keep reading for tips and tricks. It's all about hands on experience and mixtures.

Yeah, I took forever to glue everything and tape it, just because I wanted to make sure everything was perfectly straight and square.

But yeah, john, it's all about hands-on experience. The hardest part about fiberglassing is getting the right ratio of hardener to resin. If you want, I can write up a little how-to tomorrow when I start fiberglassing it.

if you had some extra time and could do one that would be amazing! thanks bro

Okay, I got some of the fiberglassing done. Unfortunately, I didn't have enough supplies (resin and fiberglass mat), so I didn't get it completely fiberglassed, but I got a good bit of it done. I still have to fiberglass the fins, but I have most of the diffuser itself done.

Anyway, here's the write-up I promised.

First off, you'll need a few things:
1) fiberglass resin & hardener (the hardener will come with the resin)
2) fiberglass mat
3) latex gloves or (the name escapes me at the moment; they're the thicker disposable gloves)
4) a paint brush; get something cheap, you won't be able to re-use it. I found the $.97 2" brushes at wal-mart are perfect
5) a container to mix the resin in
6) flexible sanding block
7) sandpaper (I usually start at 120 grit and work my way up), 3M wetordry preferably
8) technically, you should have a dust mask
http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s258/rakusi/fiberglassingsupplies.jpg


Now, for my mixing container, I used a gallon jug, and cut it like so:
http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s258/rakusi/fiberglassingsupplies2.jpg

Step 1
Okay, now before you start anything, get your fiberglass mat. Take a pair of scissors, and cut all the pieces out to fit what you're fiberglassing. You want everything to be cut out before you start fiberglassing; trust me on this. Also, if what you're fiberglassing needs to have a decent amount of strength, plan on using at least two layers of mat.
http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s258/rakusi/fiberglassing.jpg


Step 2
Okay, now it's time to mix the resin. Make sure you put a pair of gloves on before handling the resin. This s**t is wicked and will stick to anything, and it takes about two weeks to get it off your skin. Also, if you have a dust mask, it's time to put it on. Pour some of the resin in your mixing container. Now, take the included liquid hardener and squirt some in. I believe the ratio is 100:1, but it's really all feel. Also, if it's warmer out, you'll need less hardener, and if it's colder, you'll need more. Take your paintbrush and mix the hardener/resin up nice and good.
http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s258/rakusi/fiberglassing2.jpg
I feel i should note that it's better not to mix all the resin you'll need right away. It really sucks when your resin starts setting up while you're halfway through laying the fiberglass. I'm speaking from experience on this.


Step 3
So now it's time to actually fiberglass. Remove the fiberglass mat if it's laying in place. Take your paintbrush and "paint" some of the resin over whatever you're going to be fiberglassing; this will help the mat adhere properly, not to mention it holds it in place if you're going to be fiberglassing on a vertical surface.
http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s258/rakusi/fiberglassing3.jpg


step 4
Now you're ready to lay the fiberglass mat. After spreading some resin, lay the fiberglass mat in place. Take the paintbrush, and spread more resin on the mat. Until the mat gets fairly soaked with resin, it's going to be a PITA to spread the resin without pulling apart the fiberglass. I find it's easiest to sort of dab the resin on with the paintbrush, then once the mat is soaked, you can use side to side strokes. Also, avoid air bubbles, just like you would with body filler.
http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s258/rakusi/fiberglassing4.jpg

Keep repeating steps 3 & 4 over the full surface of what you're fiberglassing.
http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s258/rakusi/fiberglassing5.jpg

Step 5
After the fiberglass is set up (it shouldn't be tacky whatsoever), it's time to start sanding. You definitely want to wet-sand; dry-sanding will make a rediculous amount of dust, not to mention it'll clog up sandpaper faster than you can say "this sandpaper blows". If you don't know how to wet-sand, it's exactly what it sounds like. It's easiest to have a bucket of warm water nearby. All you do is keep the sandpaper soaked with water. It helps you sand smoother, and it keeps down the dust.*

That's more or less it. If you want, you can use body filler to give you a smooth finish, or you can spend 6 or 7 hours sanding the fiberglass to a perfect finish. For my rear diffuser, I'd rather not use body filler, so I'm going to go with the second option.

*Fun fact #372: fiberglass dust is extremely flammable. Believe me; throw a handful of fiberglass dust into a fire and you'll have one helluva fireball :D

dude awesome write up! save the post and put it in the diy! this is a greatone.

I might make a better-structured version and put it in the DIY. I seem to be having trouble concentrating at the moment (d**m ADD is in full effect right now), so I'm sure I'll read back through that post in a few hours and think of changes to make it more user-friendly. But rest assured I'll throw something in the DIY forum for fiberglassing.

awesome, I can't wait to see the final product, hella godlike.

Update: I have my 3.73 rear end gear, so I'm going to make an appointment to have the rear end gear and limited slip differential next friday; that way, even if it's not done friday, it should be done saturday, meaning I should have the car ready to go back to blairsville sunday evening.

Also, I doubt I'll get much work on the diffuser done this weekend... maybe a little sanding, but I doubt I'll get a chance to get more fiberglassing done. I'll probably put a lot of work in on it next weekend.

*update as of 11/22: I finally got off my lazy arse and fixed the exhaust leak... made an exhaust gasket out of cork gasket material (since ford is too cheap to actually use exhaust gaskets), and angled the left downpipe a little less... took it out for a test drift (6" of snow :D) and no exhaust leak whatsoever... not to mention the exhaust is about twice as loud at idle :D

Okay, I'm going to post whore for this update since it bears no real relation to the previous posts lol

Anyway, I think I might sell the mustang this spring. It seems like no matter what I do to the mustang, several complications arise. For example, the seats; I get the seats, modify the stock rails. They sat too high. So I spent $200 on new brackets. I still had to modify the seat brackets to make everything play nice. I try to do the exhaust, cut a brake line, and end up spending literally over 9 hours under the car that day. It's taken over two weeks to freaking fix the exhaust leak. The car basically just flat-out p**es me off.

So anyway, I'm thinking about trying to get $5500 for it this spring, then using that and the money I have in the bank, getting another sportbike and either a 5g civic or a 2g integra (or maybe even a crx). This obviously isn't final, but I'm going to give it serious thought... after all, right now i'm just doing little mods. What will happen when I move on to bigger mods? What'll happen when I try to install a blower? What complications are going to arise? What's going to happen if i keep it long enough to throw a 6-speed in it? How many problems will arise? What about an independent rear suspension install? That's not exactly an easy swap in the first place. Basically, nothing is easy to work on with this car... I want a bike and an easy-to-work on car.

Oh jesus! here we go again! haha dude you really need to get your **** figured out before you buy anything else. Seriously If you keep putting money in just to sell it your going to lose shi t loads of cash.

But I will support you getting a new civic or integra, that will make me happy.

It'll be alright. Once you get everything under control, you'll be glad you have it, over a Civic. RWD.....im jealous.

I don't know, the more I think about it, the better selling it's sounding. I'm starting to love the car, but I really really miss being on two wheels. That and this car seems to initiate murphy's law every time I try to work on it (like I said, I'd hate to see what happens when I try to do a big install given the problems I have with little installs). Right now I'm about 75% sure I'm selling it.

Right now I'm looking at either a:
-Honda CBR600rr
-Honda CBR600f4i (I'd prefer an rr)
-Yamaha R6
-Suzuki gsx-r 600
-Kawi zx6-r
-Honda RC-51

I'd prefer an RC-51 (1000cc v-twin sportbike, but they're uber-rare lol), but I'd be happy with any of the other choices.

And for my "winter beater" (which I'm going on record as saying it'll remain stock, but we all know how that goes :D), I'm thinking:
-EF hatch
-crx
-EG hatch/coupe
-integra

I'd prefer the eg or teggie, but once again, it comes down to availability and price.

But this is just what I'm thinking at the moment; we'll see if I still feel like selling the mustang this spring lol

(and yeah, john... I know, I know :D)

I don't know, the more I think about it, the better selling it's sounding. I'm starting to love the car, but I really really miss being on two wheels. That and this car seems to initiate murphy's law every time I try to work on it (like I said, I'd hate to see what happens when I try to do a big install given the problems I have with little installs). Right now I'm about 75% sure I'm selling it.

Right now I'm looking at either a:
-Honda CBR600rr
-Honda CBR600f4i (I'd prefer an rr)
-Yamaha R6
-Suzuki gsx-r 600
-Kawi zx6-r
-Honda RC-51

I'd prefer an RC-51 (1000cc v-twin sportbike, but they're uber-rare lol), but I'd be happy with any of the other choices.

And for my "winter beater" (which I'm going on record as saying it'll remain stock, but we all know how that goes :D), I'm thinking:
-EF hatch
-crx
-EG hatch/coupe
-integra

I'd prefer the eg or teggie, but once again, it comes down to availability and price.

But this is just what I'm thinking at the moment; we'll see if I still feel like selling the mustang this spring lol

(and yeah, john... I know, I know :D)

haha Damn crazyness! Get a bike and an ef, thats my plan at least :D

As much as this is going to surprise john, now I'm starting to think about whether or not it's a good idea financially to sell the stang and get a bike and beater... I've spent over $7k on the mustang, including the purchase price, and I'll be lucky if I can get $5k for it. I hate when this happens (me not being able to decide). Now I'm wondering if it's a better idea to keep the stang and get a bank loan/finance the bike this spring and just leave it at that. I'm looking, on average, at a ~$15/hr wage when I get out of wyotech this summer, so payments shouldn't be a huge deal (I don't plan on getting a great apartment... the bare necessities will do). If I get a bike, there's no ifs ands or buts, I'm not going to do anything else to the mustang. Actually, when I get a bike, I might just drop insurance on the stang and park it while I save up money, that way I don't have to worry about keeping gas in two vehicles and paying insurance on both.

Any advice? I really want a bike, but I'm starting to wonder if selling the mustang is a good idea. Should I sell the stang, buy a bike, then look for a fwd beater next fall? Should I keep the stang and take out a loan to buy a bike? I'd really hate to go without a bike this summer... and if it helps, I'm thinking I'll have $2,000 of expendable income (but then I'd need to budget hardcore to pay for insurance/rent/etc... like literally eating ramen for every meal).

Imo keep the mustang, slow down on modding it and save up for a bike. Buy a harley. no but really thats what I want hella bad haha. Enjoy the mustang and just wait to get your bike, you don't need to rush in right now, save for the next 4 months while it rains then get your bike.

yeah, I've been thinking a lot about it tonight, and I think I'll most likely end up keeping the stang. Actually, it just occurred to me about a half hour ago that my parents may or may not give me a graduation present, which (of course) will probably be in the form of some nice cold, hard cash. I'm going to talk to them when I get home for thanksgiving break wednesday (because good ol' wyotech only gives us a two day + the weekend vacation) about it... hopefully they'll be giving me a grad. present... and if they do, I'll just save up, keep the mustang, and wait patiently for graduation, and then buy a bike. But I'm not 100% sure I'm getting a grad. present, I'll have to talk to my parents lol

*fingers crossed* lol

*edit: if I did the math right, I have just over $1100 of absolutely disposable income to play with (but that's also going towards gas money, so let's say $750)... once the turbo and wheels are sold, there's an extra $600. Right there's over a quarter of the bike's cost... hopefully I can come across a bit more money (hooray for Christmas lol). I'm figuring on spending $4k-$4500 for a bike, and I already have gear, so basically, I need another $3k. I'm hoping for at least a $2k graduation present (hell, I got that for graduating high school), but again, my graduation present isn't concrete; and I honestly won't hold it against my parents if I don't get one at all... that's a lot of money to just give away. But worst case scenario: I don't get a grad present, I still have $1500 cash, I take a loan out/finance the rest. Now it's basically a matter of when I get the bike lol

HAHAHA your gonna try and talk them into a graduation present, lol. good work dude.

lol hey, do you blame me? :D

But seriously, I'm not really going to try to talk them into giving me one... I'm just going to ask if they plan on doing it... if they do, I'll ask how much and problem solved, if not, it didn't hurt to ask. I'm just hoping they decide to give me one, but they've already given me a high school graduation present, and they've helped pay for the mustang, so I honestly don't really feel I deserve one, nor am I really expecting one. But if they decide to give me one, let's just say "grateful" doesn't describe what I'll be feeling :D

Haha nice, imo I wouldn't expect one either especially if your parents have alot of money invested. The market is fuccked up, so hopefully their moneys in gold lol. good luck dude

okay, update:

today I stopped by advance auto parts and picked up some ultra copper RTV sealant and pulled the downpipe off again... no wonder it was leaking; the gasket I made had shrunk to about half its size... it took about one turn with the wrench before I could twist the nuts off by hand. Hopefully the rtv does its job. Also, while I was at it with the rtv, I pulled my short-shifter off and put some rtv on, since I was too lazy to earlier. hopefully that quiets down the transmission a little (I noticed right after installing the short shifter in the first place that the transmission was singing while cruising at zero throttle... I figured it was just because I didnt have the rtv in place. We'll find out :D)

Also, I was thinking the other day... if I'm not getting a graduation present, I might just talk to my parents about flat-out borrowing $2k from them, and paying them back when I have money, with interest if they want. I figure even if I pay them back with interest, it'll still be cheaper than taking out a bank loan. Also, I figure they'll probably be pretty lenient with when I pay them back, so if I don't have the money one month, I doubt they'll really care too much. I figure at this point, worst case scenario is I have to take out a bank loan :D

*edit: took the stang out for a 20 minute test drive... no more exhaust leak :D... I can actually hear the exhaust now (and the exhaust note is about perfect... deep, throaty, but nice and tame while cruising). Let's just hope things stay this way :D

double post for an update... I have some good news, some bad news, and some more bad news.

The worse news is while you were passed out, I was scoping out some of the street signs in the area, and I think that cheetah took us completely in the wrong direction. The bad news is your laptop's busted.

Err... I mean,

The first bit of bad news is that from the looks of it, I'm not getting a sportbike for a while. Two reasons for this: 1) my parents don't feel I need a bike while I'm at wyotech, so they refuse to give me a loan, and 2) refer to the good news :D

The second bit of bad news is after the rear gear/diff install, the Mustang Project is going to end; that'll be the last bit of money I put into the Mustang. Once again, refer to the good news.

The good news is that I'm going to be getting a BMW E36 M3 this spring/summer. I'm planning on trading in the Mustang for one and financing the rest of it, which is the reason I'm not going to be spending more money on the Mustang (but I kind of need an LSD for this winter, so I'll be spending $300 to have it and the rear end gear installed). Obviously, I'm not going to go out and spend $4k on a sportbike if I'm going to have a $10-$15k car to pay off.

fun fun, is that just a general BWM that you want, or is it waiting for you?

double post for an update... I have some good news, some bad news, and some more bad news.

The worse news is while you were passed out, I was scoping out some of the street signs in the area, and I think that cheetah took us completely in the wrong direction. The bad news is your laptop's busted.

Err... I mean,

The first bit of bad news is that from the looks of it, I'm not getting a sportbike for a while. Two reasons for this: 1) my parents don't feel I need a bike while I'm at wyotech, so they refuse to give me a loan, and 2) refer to the good news :D

The second bit of bad news is after the rear gear/diff install, the Mustang Project is going to end; that'll be the last bit of money I put into the Mustang. Once again, refer to the good news.

The good news is that I'm going to be getting a BMW E36 M3 this spring/summer. I'm planning on trading in the Mustang for one and financing the rest of it, which is the reason I'm not going to be spending more money on the Mustang (but I kind of need an LSD for this winter, so I'll be spending $300 to have it and the rear end gear installed). Obviously, I'm not going to go out and spend $4k on a sportbike if I'm going to have a $10-$15k car to pay off.
WOWOWOWOWOW

Reaper:
I want a 240
I want a sport bike
I want a eg
I want a loan
I want a turbo mustang
I want an m3.....

WTF? Im so lost

Dan, it's just the make/model/generation I'm looking at; I don't have one reserved or anything like that. This spring when the snow melts, I'm going to start looking... I'm not exactly going to go with the first one I see, I figure I have time to shop around. Basically, it needs to be an E36 M3 (not a 328i, not a 325, not a 330, it will be a true M3), coupe (no verts here), 5-speed manual, under 100,000 miles, no rust, etc.

And it's never going to know what snow looks like... it'll be in a garage, freshly washed and waxed, freshly changed oil, under a car cover every winter. If I need to, I'll rent a storage bay every winter to store the car.

WOWOWOWOWOW

Reaper:
I want a 240
I want a sport bike
I want a eg
I want a loan
I want a turbo mustang
I want an m3.....

WTF? Im so lost

Let me 'splain :D

240 - Parents wouldn't let me get one when I wanted one. Now that I'm out on my own, I'm more or less over the 240 obsession (weird how that works lol)... it kind of occurred to me that (no matter what potential they have) they will always be "okay" cars with the intended audience of middle-aged secretaries (and I'm quoting NICO members on that one).

sportbike - still plan on getting another one... The M3 just takes precedence over it; do you blame me? :D

eg - I'm probably still going to get either an eg or an ek, but just to use as a slightly modified winter car (right now I'm thinking i/h/e/slight drop/gsr blades)

loan - needed it for the sportbike, parents shut me down on it :(

turbo mustang - Bada**, but lacking the class and sophistication of the m3 and doesn't command nearly as much respect (or hate, depending on the audience)

M3 - 300hp stock, luxury-sport car, amazing potential. Not to mention the e36 reminds me of an eg civic (look at both cars from a side profile and tell me they don't have some striking similarities) :D

Nice. I know someone on another forum thats into BMWs. He got in a wreck, and messed his up, but this weekend he's picking up his new one. He is designing all of his own suspension components, and then he will be making them. His designs look sick so far. He even designed his own ITBs.

his old one:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v328/prephater/mikesold.jpg
http://ml-works.com/

He's a really cool guy.

^ that's freaking sexy.

Anyway, I've decided I have two courses of action for this summer.

1) Keep the mustang, buy a bike, give the m3 another year (prices would go down, my insurance would be lower, etc)
2) Trade the mustang, get an m3, give the bike another year (insurance would be higher, initial cost would be higher, no bike for summer =[ )

And john, no indecisiveness comments ;) I've stated I have full intention of getting an m3 and a bike, right now I'm just deciding what I should get now and what can wait another year. Actually, I'd really like to find out what kind of wages I'm going to be pulling in as well as expenses. If it's do-able, I'd love to have a bike, mustang, and an m3 (in that case, the m3 would be insured as a leisure car, lowering the insurance cost). We'll see what I get paid on start-up though. The average wages coming out of wyotech vary from $12/hr to $18/hr (with the exceptions of the top-of-the-class guys making $25/hr starting, and not including the folks that decide McDonalds is good enough and make minimum wage).

^ that's freaking sexy.

Anyway, I've decided I have two courses of action for this summer.

1) Keep the mustang, buy a bike, give the m3 another year (prices would go down, my insurance would be lower, etc)
2) Trade the mustang, get an m3, give the bike another year (insurance would be higher, initial cost would be higher, no bike for summer =[ )

And john, no indecisiveness comments ;) I've stated I have full intention of getting an m3 and a bike, right now I'm just deciding what I should get now and what can wait another year. Actually, I'd really like to find out what kind of wages I'm going to be pulling in as well as expenses. If it's do-able, I'd love to have a bike, mustang, and an m3 (in that case, the m3 would be insured as a leisure car, lowering the insurance cost). We'll see what I get paid on start-up though. The average wages coming out of wyotech vary from $12/hr to $18/hr (with the exceptions of the top-of-the-class guys making $25/hr starting, and not including the folks that decide McDonalds is good enough and make minimum wage).


It was nice as hell...but totalled now. He got another one this past weekend. He pulled off all his old parts from the red one, and they will be put on his new one, and he has a full Moton suspension. Since Ive saw his work and stuff on his, Ive started looking to buying one lol. I looked at one about 2 weeks ago, but it needed too much work.

lol dude
make up your mind about what you want
lol

lol you and john don't read between the lines, do you? :D Either way, I'm getting an m3 and another bike... I'm just deciding which one comes first. Right now, it's looking like the bike (the bike's cheaper, and if I wait another year for the m3, my insurance will be a little lower considering I'll be older). Also, I figure I already have a rwd car to keep me happy, and bikes are way more fun than cars anyway (not to mention I've been going into hardcore riding withdraw lol). Also, depending on how much I end up making coming out of WyoTech, I just might be able to keep the mustang, get a bike, and get an m3 if I wait another year.

Anyway, I have a little progress to report with the mustang... I called and made an appointment to have the ring/pinion gears and limited-slip differential installed on the 29th. The guy doing it is basically a backyard mechanic; he's pretty cheap, but he knows his stuff... I'm just hoping I don't get stuck going up his driveway... it's pretty steep and I'm still rocking the peg leg... so I'm hoping there's no snow or he salts/antiskids his driveway.

(and PB, I'm jealous of your friend lol... but anyway, when I get my m3, the first thing I'm going to do is full Ground Contol suspension (their m3 kit comes with their sleeves, koni shocks/struts, camber/caster plates, and something else (can't think of it off-hand)... also, I plan on getting GC's swaybars. I figure the E36 m3 was voted "Best Handling car at any price 1997", so $2k worth of suspension work should make it handle like it's on rails :D )

Double post... I'm 100% sure I'm going to get a bike this summer (assuming I have the money), and the M3 will wait until the following summer (2010). That way, I'll have a bike sooner, and my insurance will probably go down a little bit, and E36 prices will drop at least a grand by then (meaning I can probably pick one up between $5-10K).

Anyway, in order to keep up my reputation of wasting money, the mustang project is back on! This sunday I'm dropping Epona (Yes, Epona as in the horse from LoZ: Ocarina of Time lol) off to have the 3.73 ring/pinion gears and Limited-Slip diff. installed on Monday.

As soon as I find a place that carries VHT Niteshades (the local Advance Auto Parts and Autozone don't carry it :( ) I'll be smoking the headlights and tails. I'm thinking after that I'll probably try to get my hands on a Windstar intake manifold. It's a composite manifold (that weighs half what my metal one weighs) with longer runners than my stock mani; apparently it's been dyno-tested for around 10rwhp/10ft*lbs gain. The only problem is that it probably won't fit under my hood, so I'll probably have to jack the back of the hood up with washers lol

*edit: also, when I stop being so lazy, I'm going to be ordering a custom leather shift boot, e-brake boot, and padded armrest cover; all black leather with a charcoal stripe (where the threads are) with red stitching. I'm trying to keep the interior plain and simple, but with nice at the same time. Of course, not having a rear seat will certainly help with the plain and simple thing... maybe I'll order a rear seat delete soon, too :D

**second edit: The car is now in the shop having the rear end worked on; I talked to the mechanic this morning (dropped it off last night), and he said it should be done sometime tomorrow. So w00t for dropping my 0-60 time by at least a second and w00t for two-wheel burnouts :D (too bad I need to break in the rear end before beating on it, so no burnouts for a few hundred miles lol)

God f**king d**mmit... Just got a call from the mechanic... he f**ked up my ABS sensors putting the rear axles in, so I got two choices... pay $120 for the sensors, give him another $500 for labor and maybe have my car sometime next week or not have ABS... looks like I won't have ABS.

And now I don't even get my car back until tomorrow... I f**king hate this car... apparently it doesn't even like professional mechanics working on it; every time any work is done to it, there's problems. I'm thinking about selling it this spring/summer just out of frustration.

Well, if he broke it, shouldn't he be responsible for replacing it? I mean, that's why you're having him do it instead of yourself, right?

yeah, that's what I thought... I don't understand it, but let's just say this is the last time he's going to see one of my cars for a very long time. And by that, I mean he's never getting work from me again. What sucks is he's the one I had do all the work I was too lazy to do on the civic (wheel bearings, brake installs, etc), and he never f**ked any of that up... I don't know if it's just the car or if his work is slipping.

What's annoying me is the car is now going to be done "sometime tomorrow" instead of "sometime today"... and correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't carry-over work get priority in shops? He said if he replaced the sensors, he couldn't guarantee the car would be ready by sunday (which I need the car sunday to go back to school)... how does it take 6 days to replace two sensors?!?! I understand he has to pull the rear seat and everything but still... a week at minimum to get the car fixed? And I'd be paying for it? Yeah, that doesn't sound like a good deal on my part. This is the last time a private mechanic is doing any work for me... I'll just pay the $60/hr dealership labor rate from now on or go to a performance shop.

Okay, I'm probably not going to do much about the ABS sensors... especially considering he's only charging $225 for the work (usually ring/pinion gears and differential installs are around $300). I'll just buy the ABS sensors and install them myself when I have a chance.

Anyway, the work got done just in time... I woke up this morning to snow, and I got a call around 10 this morning from the mechanic saying everything's done. So LSD in the snow ftw :D

*edit: Okay, I picked up the car... I should've thought about it, but it turns out that I now don't have traction control either, since I don't have rear wheel speed sensors anymore. I found out that RR'ing both rear sensors is listed as 0.8hrs in the shop book, so it can't be that hard, so I'll probably get on that soon. Anyway, the car is definitely more peppy now, and let's just say it likes getting sideways :D

haha, triple post ftw!

Anyway, I updated the front page to reflect my new goals. I'm not going to swap out the rear end, and I don't plan on blowing the car anymore (well, I might in a few years if I manage to keep the car). Basically, now I'm going to finish up the appearance (interior and exterior), re-do a few things (re-hanging the exhaust comes to mind), get wheels, and do a suspension overhaul (and slam it).

Next week I'm going to order a custom leather shift boot, e-brake boot, and arm-rest cover; all black leather with a charcoal stripe where the threads are with red stitching. Also, I'll probably order new exhaust hangars, tips, and a rear seat delete. (the downside is that I won't be buying a new tv since I'll be spending all this money on my car :( lol)

wow if a shop broke a sensor on my car id at least make him pay for the good sensors!!! that or id take his @ss to court and get the dealership price to replace what he broke and get paid!!!!!!!!!
it would be different if it was a friend helping you out. but if it was done by a real shop with a real invoice then id threaten to take him to court if he at least doesnt pay for the new sensors!!!!!

well, like I said before, it wasn't a shop, it was more of one of those back-yard mechanic deals; he has a small garage, air tools, a lift, etc, and he's been working on cars for... well... a long-a** time. But I was doing research on it since I got the call saying he had to break the sensors to get them out, and I guess sometimes the sensors get so corroded that they get in the way of the axles, and you can't push the axles in to get the c-clips out without removing the sensors... on a 7-year old car, it doesn't surprise me that the sensors were corroded. I'm not that mad about it anymore; I found out the book time for RR'ing both sensors is 0.8 hours, so it shouldn't be too hard to do myself.

Okay, little update. As soon as my turbo sale goes through I'll be ordering the boots/armrest cover, a rear seat delete kit, and new exhaust hangers.

The boots are to pretty much pretty-fy my interior, the rear seat delete kit basically replaces the rear seat-back/bench with carpet (saving something like 40lbs, but keeping the interior looking clean at the same time), and I need real exhaust hangers to replace the ghetto ones I had to fabricate. These will probably be the last big mods for a while until I get the money for my suspension setup. The suspension alone (not including the sway bars) is going to be somewhere around $1200, so me being a broke college student, it's going to be a while before I can afford it.

trade you cars reaper... do you want a 96 civic that needs a valve adjustment, new radiator, new alternator, 163,000 miles on it.

I'll pass... I've put enough time and money into the mustang that I don't feel like getting rid of it for a few years ;)

yea i wouldnt want my car either

what's wrong with your car that you don't like? Valve adjustment isn't too expensive, a new radiator is a good excuse to go to an aluminum radiator, a new alternator shouldn't be too expensive, and 163k miles isn't much.

Isn't it an automatic? Why not swap to a 5-speed if you don't like it? It's not hard or expensive (~$1000, depending on what deals you find and what brands you get)

how much is a valve adjustment, radiator, and alternator

how much is a valve adjustment, radiator, and alternator
valve adjustment - free, it's very easy, just can take some time

radiator - $100 from the auto parts store

alternator - ~$165 from the auto parts store... remanufactured, does not include core charge. Probably ~$200 and you bring back your old alt. afterwards and get ~$30 back

i dont have $170

i dont have $170

i'm replying to this on your thread.
no more threadjacking reaper's

BUT IM going TO mWAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAhA

http://www.justanothertube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=17e56e07902b254dfad1

I are a sad panda (http://www.hondacivicforum.com/forum/showthread.php?p=616310#post616310) =[

Looks like the project's going to come to a screeching halt for a while.

*edit: my friend knows of a 240sx for sale in OH for like $600... if it's still for sale, I might end up buying it and dealing with the mustang's damage in the summer when I get out of Wyotech, get a job, and have money.

hahaha man the 240sx is still on your mind huh? :P it makes a fun car on boost.........
mustangs looking good though chris.

haha, yeah... well the guy never got back to me about the 240, so I'm assuming he sold it or something. But anyway, I decided when I get my tax return I'm going to buy a 240. So, basically the mustang project's going to end here (call me superstitious, but the mustang's been in at least 2 or 3 accidents in its life so far; seems like an unlucky car if you ask me)... I'll be replacing the strut and hoping for the best this friday (I'm hoping the strut is the only thing that is bent). Next weekend I'll probably get it aligned, and this spring I still plan on cutting the springs to lower it 1.5" or so.

And yes, I'm already coming up with plans for the 240. It'll be nice to be modifying a sport compact again :D

yeah the 240 is such a bad ass car.
sr or rb swap? or are you gonna beef up and turbo the ka for the price of a swap?
coupe or hatch? if its a coupe are you doing a silvia front end?
silvia verts look bad ass though. throw in a lil negative camber and its rediculous
so many possibilities lol
here are a few pics but imo they need a more aggressive wheel setup
http://i39.tinypic.com/dm9w9f.jpg




http://i42.tinypic.com/2i9t20x.jpg

http://i40.tinypic.com/21bpy8g.jpg


http://i42.tinypic.com/20rl749.jpg



http://i39.tinypic.com/2zxqmhl.jpg


aggressive wheel fitment ftw
http://i43.tinypic.com/esucux.jpg


but if you get a hatch just make it nice and clean.
i regret selling mines.. clean 240's are hard to come by lol

I'm leaning towards an s13 hatch. Basically, I'm going to keep it stock-bodied (assuming I get a chuki... pignose ftl IMO)... I'm thinking do some suspension work (slam it, and I have swaybars sitting in my basement already), custom ITBs, header, exhaust, possibly a cam, mildly stripped interior (no rear seat, but carpet where the seat was for a clean look), maybe a mild wire tuck. I'll probably throw on some low offset wheels (deep lip ftw).

yes pig nose ftl. definitely lol
sounds like a pretty good plan for a nice 240
im interested in seeing your build when you get your shell.
no lsd or turbo set up?

It depends... I was talking to my friend Jaydon and he said if I ever decided to sell the mustang, he'd take it... so I might give it to him for $4500 or something this spring when I buy the 240. If that's the case, I'm thinking maybe a ca18det swap (sr20's are overrated, and I can't afford a vq/rb swap). I completely forgot about the lsd, but I'll probably be getting one fairly early in the build since it's a pretty important supporting mod.

I'm thinking if I do end up selling it, I'll probably get an EG for use as a winter car (knowing me, I'll probably still modify it, but probably nothing major).

First I have to decide if I'm going to actually sell it though... I probably will if Jaydon's willing to give me $4500 for it, but I'm not sure I'll be willing to part with it for much less; I know I won't see the $3k I have in mods done to it when I sell it, but if I can't get ~$4500, I'll probably just hang on to the car for a while and get my money's worth :D

man you got me all crazy thinking again about picking up another 180sx or 240sx and doing the swap (sr20 redtop for me) now I just got to get a decent paying job lol. I like your plans Chris keep us updated later on if things work out

Ca isnt very much different from sticking to your ka
Imo im a ka person lol
And sr is overated for the fact that you could get a nicely built ka or ca for the price of the swap. But if you did want the potential to see high hp numbers you might want to just save up for that or the rb. Another cheap alternative is 1jz I don't know if you were considering that but they have strong internals and can handle some serious boost and it bolts right in you would need to change the drivetrain and get the mounts of course but if you shop around you could get the swap done for 2k or less.if you do the work yourself. if you get one with stock twins all you would have to do is upgrade the turbos. And it has a lot of potential for more hp because I know you'll want more hp sooner or later
The 2jz also fits buts cost almost the same as the rb swap.
Imo 1jz ftw it has a lot of benefits.


Hondacivicforum 240sx club haha

I know people say sr are overrated, but that is just simply because everyone with a 240 has one, in my case I recieved my 180sx stock with an sr and I think it is a really solid motor that can handle alot of boost with stock internals that really gets me when people brush of the sr for a rb or ka build but I see why if you are swapping then you might as well. I wouldn't want an 1jz motor unless its in a supra ;P haha enough stealing of chris' thread tho ahaha

Stock for stock yeah the sr is better then the ka but not by much also 240s don't come with them stock which is the reason people build what they have instead of saving money to swap and then saving more cash to build the stock motor they swapped in.
Out of all the motors available for 240sx to swap the 1jz is best cheapest option for the money spent to hp ratio unless you can get your hands on a 2jz for a decent price.
Sr and rbs don't even compare.
Not tryin to get off topic just givin him some options for motors with power.

Personally, I compare the sr20 with the b16. Are they both good motors? Yeah. Are they both capable of putting down some seriously high numbers? Of course. But everyone and their grandma has one, and everyone acts like it's the baddest engine money can buy. I'd just like to stay away from that lol

I'm leaning towards the ca for two reasons: 1) It's just as good an engine as the sr is IMO and 2) they're dirt cheap. $1800 + shipping for a full swap package? Yes, please :D. Of course, that's assuming I have the money to spend on it (meaning my friend actually buys the mustang). I really need to stop planning to spend money that I might not have lol... But anyway, I'm definitely (assuming I don't run into unforeseen problems) getting an s13 when I get my tax return. And yeah, it'll get it's own project thread, too... hopefully I can actually finish the project before my vehicle ADD kicks in again :D

*edit: also, the ca18det in an s13 is almost literally a drop in swap... you can't say the same for a 1jz (and I like doing my own work) :D

Thats very true lol. Ca is not bad at all i wanna see how your build turns out and i admire your originality since everyones leaning toward sr's and rb's lately and no ones building ca's or ka's. what are your power goals?

dam reap... IMO you need to make up your dam mind and stick with a vehicle. LMFAO
what the longest youve owned one vehicle? ;)

lol, hey, I had my civic for 3 years :D

But assuming I even end up swapping to a ca, I'll probably shoot for 250-350rwhp. If I keep the ka (meaning I don't sell the mustang), I'll probably settle for 150-160rwhp, since the handling is more important to me than the actual power (after all, if I keep the ka, I'll still have the mustang lol). Also, I don't want to spend too much money on the car since I still have full intention of buying an m3 in the summer of 2010.

But remember, I don't really want to say my plans are set in stone until I actually get the 240 and start modding it.

BMW M3? them things are really nice, not sure but i think they have 400+ hp stock

BMW M3? them things are really nice, not sure but i think they have 400+ hp stock
lol no.
older ones have mid 200s I think the super new ones may have 350

ahh okay. Definitely stick with the Ka or Ca then imo a rb,sr, or 1jz swap would be a waste of money now that i know your power goals.
160rwhp can be achieved easily with the ka.
Rebuild and slap on a turbo which would leave alot of extra money for parts
Takata racing seatbelts and bride seats ftw.

Yeah, the E36 M3 has 240hp... I'll probably be aiming somewhere in the 600-700rwhp area when I actually start modifying mine (keep in mind I'll hopefully have a decent-paying job, so it won't be like it is now where I have to put my project on hold for months at a time until I get money)

And yeah, the 240 I'm not worried about putting down insane numbers; I'd rather have a "powerful enough" car that handles like it's on rails than something that can blow the tires off in 4 gears but can't make a turn to save its life. Hell, even on my m3 the first thing I'm going to do is full Ground Control suspension (KONI shocks/struts, GC coilovers, GC camber plates, GC rear upper shock mounts, GC front/rear sway bars). After that, I'll probably get wheels/tires, a good alarm (or two), a radar detector, and then either a single giant-a** turbo or a twin turbo kit. (in that order)

M3s Turbo'd are sick..... that's if you can afford the turbo kit.....

http://www.horsepowerfreaks.com/performanceparts/BMW/M3/Turbos/Turbo_Kits

Stage1 Kit: * 91 Octane (518hp)
* 110 Octane (731hp)
* Multiply by 0.82 for rwhp
* Factory Internals

Stage2 Kit:
* 91 Octane (518hp)
* 91 Oct + Alc (670hp)
* 110 Octane (731hp)
* 110 Oct + Alc (762hp)
* Multiply by 0.82 for rwhp
* 60-130mph in 6.86 sec
* Factory Internals

Stage3 kit: * 91 Octane (746hp)
* 91 Oct + Alc (914hp)
* 110 Octane (930hp)
* 110 Oct + Alc (951hp)
* Multiply by 0.82 for rwhp
* Built Internals
* HPF Install Only

Jeez, $10k for the stage III... that's about how much I'm going to be spending on the car itself lol... I'm thinking piecing together my own setup (the hardest part is going to be finding someone to fab up a manifold/DP). Especially since I really want twins (I'm a ricer... I just want to be able to say I have a TT m3 lol). I'm thinking something along the lines of two .60 trim t3/t4's would be pretty sick, but I don't know; I need to research TT's a little more before actually deciding on a setup, but I have over a year to do so, so I'm sure I'll be fairly well educated on the subject when the time comes :D

dam reap... IMO you need to make up your dam mind and stick with a vehicle. LMFAO
what the longest youve owned one vehicle? ;)

We've got the same problem haha damn all these nice cars/build possibilities out there. You know chris having a bmw would be badass I really would like to own a quick turbo Honda though :) Im even thinking I might just this summer get into the off-road scene with a jeep cherokee classic and make a monster out of it I dont know

Isn't that the truth, Drew? :D There's too many d**m possibilities lol

I pretty much have my heart set on the m3 (considering my friend Ryan has me obsessed with them), and I'm something along the lines of 97% sure I'm getting the 240. I still want to own another EG/EK in the future, but it's not looking like it'll be in the next year or two (but who knows... maybe I'll end up selling the mustang later this summer and picking one up if only for a winter car). And I'd love to build a turbo honda, but at the same time, wheel hop and torque steer probably get old fast... I'm thinking I'll stick to my rwd :D

And I don't think I'll ever really get into the off-roading scene... I wouldn't be able to put parts on a vehicle knowing I'd end up damaging them over the course of normal use... well, that and I can't really drive to save my life (hey, I'll be honest lol) :D

Update that actually pertains to my project... I might be buying a set of '02 mustang GT wheels; someone posted some for sale on CL for $200 OBO, so I'm going to see if he'll take $150. if that's the case, I'll snatch them up... I'm thinking black-painted GT wheels are better than stock sixxer wheels, right? :D Unfortunately, I don't think they have tires on them (which is a good and bad thing)... I'm waiting on an email back from the guy (I just emailed him a minute ago, so it'll probably be tonight/tomorrow before he gets back to me). The bad thing about that is I obviously need to buy tires. The good thing is it'll be a lot easier to paint them black if they don't have tires :D

see there ya go again.LOL taking about selling our car but your still modding it wasting money on it.LOL stick with the plan.LOL

lol I said I might sell it... but my friend who said he'd buy it is mostly talk, so I'm about 95% sure he won't actually come up with the money. And if I don't sell it this spring/summer, I'll probably end up hanging on to the car for a while, so I might as well throw some decent looking wheels on it to get that out of the way :D

*edit: I talked to Jaydon about the mustang... he's actually serious about buying it. He mentioned taking a bank loan out, so I'm pretty sure he's not just bulls**tting me lol. If he actually buys it, I'll be getting a 240 and possibly another EJ1. I don't really know why I want two old cars, it's just how I roll :P

any update on if he is buying the car?

HPF turbo M3 are insane. they sound amazing too

Not yet, Last time I talked to him he was waiting on a call from his aunt. From my understanding, he has an inheritance of something like $150k, but he can't touch it until he's 25, but he can borrow money from his aunt.

And yes, turbo m3's in general are insane :D

HPF turbo M3 are insane. they sound amazing too

psh there slow i run them in my auto non vtec single cam all day long.

All right, Jaydon still hasn't talked to his aunt; I'm now fairly sure he's more or less all talk. That being the case, I'll probably end up keeping the mustang. Actually, I've been thinking about it for the last few days, and selling the mustang for a 240 isn't the wisest idea anyway; I'd be trading a relatively new, relatively low-mileage (65k) mustang with a few quirks, but otherwise in perfect condition for a high-mileage 20-year old car that's most likely to have problems. The 240 would probably be more fun to drive, but I'm unsure about the reliability.

And also, John, Marcus... I know I'm indecisive. Honestly, it gets tiresome hearing about it constantly, so don't bother saying anything about it.

Anyway, I'll probably end up finishing the project to some degree; I probably won't do everything I had planned, but we'll see. To be honest, I'm actually starting to get a little attached to the stang (it's about effin' time lol), and I'm not sure I want to part with it for a while. Maybe if I keep it long enough, it just might see that m112 blower and independent rear suspension swap I had planned on doing originally. Anyway, I've noticed a squeak coming from the front suspension when the wheel is turned or I hit a bump, and I'm thinking it's probably the front left ball joint (I'm going to read up a little to be sure before I just throw parts at the car). Also, since I replaced the front right shock after getting hit, I'm probably going to replace the front left one soon just to even things out. I figure since I already need an alignment, I'll probably just end up cutting the springs when I replace the strut/ball joint since the suspension will be apart anyway. Afterwards, I'll get it aligned, and after that (later this spring) I'll replace the brake rotors (which are warped as h**l anyway) and probably do the Windstar upper intake mani swap.

*ninja edit: also, sort of project related... I did perhaps the smallest mod I've ever done to any car. I pulled the center caps off the stock wheels. Since it's dark, I won't have pictures until tomorrow, but I was looking at pictures on the internet and I came across a lowered red new edge stang with the stock wheels/no centercaps, and to be honest, it looked so bada** it isn't funny. I'll see if I can find that picture and post it here. It's basically the stance I want my mustang to have when I lower it.

*edit: found the picture :D

http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j77/Yofavcracka/CIMG0293.jpg

good choice, I really do like the mustang. are those just your stock alloys without center caps? because I think they look better like that than with center caps.

LOL.... i didnt say a think ;)

im just so happy its tax time. today was a dam good day for me!
1 its payday from work.
2 tax refund check was deposited
3 sold my 17inch rims today (ya i know i miss them already BUT ive decided to downgrade rim size and EVENTUALY get some oem SI 15inch wheels.
4 FINALLY got my tono cover for my truck


needless to say im happy i got some money in the bank... for now.LOL i get to order my flip out dvd radio for my truck just as soon as my credit card payment goes thru to try and help my credit a bit.

Lucky, I wish I filed for my returns with direct deposit; it'll probably be april or may before I see my tax return (which just puts me on a tight budget until I get it... college sucks). But the EM1 wheels should look sick.

And john, the picture isn't actually my car; but they're the same wheels (stock 01-04 v6 wheels minus the centercaps). When I saw the picture, my jaw dropped; I didn't realize just how aggressive the stock wheels could look lol. I'll have a picture of mine up sunday; I just realized I don't have my transfer card for my phone's memory card, and my digital camera is in my apartment, and I won't be there again until sunday afternoon. But rest assured, I'll have pics.

Also, regarding the project, I decided if I'm going to replace the ball joints, why not just upgrade while I'm at it? So I plan on getting Steeda X2 ball joints. They're taller than the stock ball joints, so they help retain what little suspension geometry mustangs actually have when you lower it. When I order the ball joints, I'll order an exhaust hangar kit, and re-hang my exhaust (and tuck the mufflers a little). Hopefully it'll cure the annoying rattle my exhaust has developed, so hopefully I can get a few things (ball joints, replace the strut, cut the springs, and re-hang the exhaust) done in one sitting... after that, it'll be time for an alignment; I'll hopefully get my tint done sometime this spring, and then the project will have to take a little hiatus until I get my tax return (when I'll most likely do the intake mani swap, rear seat delete, shift/e-brake boots & armrest covers, and I'll probably throw on a new set of tires).

Ya it looks really nice, I love the front lip. Super clean, and damn that sucks about lowering it sounds like its a ton of work :( love the stang you should black out the windows imo.

Okay, today has been pretty nice so far (50*), so I figured I might as well give the mustang a little TLC. I used my parents' digi camera (since mine's in my apartment) and snapped a few quick pics of the car without the centercaps. Anyway, here they are:

http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s258/rakusi/1-9.jpg


http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s258/rakusi/2-10.jpg


http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s258/rakusi/3-11.jpg


http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s258/rakusi/4-7.jpg


And for anyone wondering what the "X" is on my fender... :D
http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s258/rakusi/5-8.jpg
That's right... f**king Hello Kitty band-aids... they fix everything :D

Anyway, as far as the lowering, it shouldn't be too much work. The suspension on this car is ridiculously simple to tear down... the ball joint replacement is going to be the biggest PITA. For the windows, I'm probably going to do 20% tint... it's dark enough that you can't really see into the car from 10' away, but it's light enough that I don't think I'll get hassled for it too much. The car attracts a lot of unwanted attention as it is, I don't need limo tint to attract even more attention lol.

I'm thinking if I get bored today, I might go out with a hair dryer and peel off the mustang vinyl on the doors... the cars look a lot cleaner without it anyway. If I do it, yeah... you guys will get pics :D

*edit: also, when it gets warmer I'm going to strip down the wheels and refinish them; if you didn't notice, look back up at the pictures; there's a lot of corrosion where the centercaps go, so I plan on sanding it all down. I'm trying to decide between three colors. I can either just refinish them in silver, I can do them in flat black (and, unfortunately, look like I'm running steelies), or I can do them in bronze. I'm leaning towards the bronze, but I'm going to do a few quick photoshops to see how the colors would look.

Bronze dad!

I'm actually leaning towards bronze. As much as I want black, I don't want the car to look like I'm running steelies all the time. And well, the car has had silver wheels since it came off the production line in 2000.

Good way to go on keeping the mustang.
The money it takes to swap and all the parts youd need to bring back most of the beaten up 240 shells would probably be equal to the price of a blower kit.
Blown mustang>240sx ca swap.
Best decision imo.

Idk if you stated this somewhere in the thread before but what year m3 are you getting?

I'm not sure on the exact year; I just know I plan on getting an e36. I'd like to get a 96-99 because of the extra 0.2 liters of displacement, but if I end up with a 92-95 with the 3.0l I'll be just as happy. Basically my criteria are it has to be an e36 M3 (Need the M lol) with under 100,000 miles and in at least half-decent shape. The dealership I want to work at when I graduate (Enthusiast Auto Group) actually has quite a few e36's in pristine condition (we're talking cars like this (http://enthusiastauto.com/qsearch/?id=326&form_display=51)), so hopefully I get the job there (they're adding 6 bays this summer (I graduate wyotech in june), so they'll be hiring techs; my friend ryan talked to the owner last time he was in Cinci and apparently they're looking for people that either just have experience with BMWs or people fresh out of tech school that just want to work on BMWs, and it's apparently hard to find that, so hopefully I'll have a good chance to be hired :D

definitely bronze.

Yeah, like I said, I'm leaning towards bronze. Dupli-Color even makes bronze wheel-specific paint, so it works out :D

Also, project-related... I got bored, but instead of peeling the side vinyls (the stripes going down the doors that say "Mustang"), I decided to play around with my flash tuner. I mean, I paid $400 for the thing and I've only played with it once or twice, and even then I never really messed around with it. I changed the rear axle ratio to 3.73:1 to match my rear end gear (so the speedo/odo are now accurate again... I took it for a test drive to confirm), the two-step limiter was dropped to 2500rpm, the idle is now 700rpm, the rev-limiter was raised to 6k rpm (as opposed to the factory 5600), and that's about all I played with. There's still a few settings (spark across various rpm ranges as well as A/F ratio at WOT), but I don't feel safe messing with those until I've done some research to find out exactly what I'm doing lol

As for the side stripes, they'll come off on a warmer day. I'm thinking it'll be easier to peel them off when it's 60-70* as opposed to high 40's/low 50's lol

Will the e36 m3 be a cabriolet? is it going to see any dd time or is it just a garage queen?

Nah, I love me a hardtop coupe :D... and it's going to be close to DD'd... I'll probably still have the mustang, and hopefully a fwd/awd winter DD, so I'll probably just end up sort of rotating cars every day. Funny you mention the garage queen thing... that's one of my pet peeves... why buy a car if you don't intend to drive it? If I had a Lotus Elise, you can bet I'd be in that thing as often as possible.

bronze? on an orange mustang??? Iino about that, it seems like it would look kinda funny, but maybe the photo shopped pics will sway me to your side lol

lol my mustang's red. It only looks orange in direct sunlight; and for some reason, I can never get a picture of the car when it's not sunny out lol. If you sit an actual orange mustang (paint code is competition orange) next to my (performance red, according to the paint code) mustang, you'll see the difference.

here's what the car looks like 90% of the time (indirect light):
http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s258/rakusi/1-5.jpg
(that picture's actually of the car the day I brought it home)

Anyway, I'll do a quick half-a**ed chop (since I suck at photo editing programs lol) and post it up in a few.

*edit: here's that crappy chop I promised. See? It's horrible. It's like I didn't even try :D
http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s258/rakusi/crappychop.jpg
when I actually paint them, it's going to be darker than that, but I didn't feel like spending a half hour getting the color just right.

i tried u know about my deficiency =\

That is GOLD, josh. Bronze is a darker color than gold.

Anyway, just ordered the Steeda X2 ball joints and new exhaust hangars. Like I said, this weekend I'll throw both parts on, as well as cutting the springs (I might cheap out and not replace the other strut. I know I'll blow the new struts within a few months anyway, so I'll probably say f**k it and just get an upgraded set after I get my tax returns). I drove a slammed civic for how long, I'm used to bouncing (and yes, it's possible to lower a car enough that you can't avoid the bouncing, I've been there. That level also blows out brand new heavy duty shocks in a few months too... you gotta be willing to pay if you want to be a lowrider :D)

there we go, after color assistance from chris (damn genes)

http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q98/jprommel/Chop.jpg

lol w00t for a non half-a**ed chop! Yeah, I'm definitely going bronze :D

well ****, nevermind
http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i303/trustdestruction/Untitled-1-1.jpg

lol just a tiny bit too late

wow that looks really clean. Just wondering though on the side stripe where it says mustang did it used to go up the fender or just end on the door?

from the factory, it goes up on the fender, but my car was r-titled when I bought it; both the front end and rear end were replaced, so I'm assuming whoever did it was just too cheap/lazy to order a new vinyl. Like I said, when it gets warmer out, the vinyl's coming off.

Also, I got bored in class and made a more in-depth project plan for the car since I'm keeping it; assuming I keep the car for a while, I'm aiming for 500+ rwhp from a built/blown 4.2l engine. I'm guessing the build is going to take 2-3 years (that's how expensive everything's going to be) before it's actually finished. Anyway, I'm on lunch break right now, so when I get home again after class, I'll change the front-page to reflect the new project. The smaller things I've come up with (finishing the suspension, flywheel/clutch, etc) should be done later this spring/early summer, but other than that the build's going to take forever lol... I'll probably look into getting another Honda as a DD this summer after I find a decent job lol

Also, my ball joints and exhaust hangers still haven't shipped... if they don't ship out later today or tomorrow, I doubt they'll be here by the weekend, so I might be waiting another week to do all that fun crap.

*edit: Frontpage's been updated with the new project list.

Blown Mustang and tt M3 ouch ....Gas mileage is gonna be like owning a hummer lol.
which one will be the daily or will you be gettting a Honda for that?
in that case Insurance on 3 cars Ftl.

I'll probably end up getting a 5th/6th gen civic this summer for a winter car/DD... but I intend to drive the m3 and stang on a regular basis; I'm pretty much hoping gas doesn't skyrocket again :D

but I figure I'll probably be getting in the 17-22mpg range in the stang and probably 20-25mpg in the m3; keeping gas in them shouldn't be too bad... then again, I plan on buying another sportbike in the next year or so, so there's another vehicle, but with their whopping 4gal tanks, a bike is a $10 fill up (and that was with my f4i when gas was $3/gal for regular).

w00t!!! I got a call from American Muscle yesterday saying the exhaust hangers were on order, and they'd be in within 1-2 weeks; I had them hold the ball joints until the hangers were in and ship them together. Well, guess what I come home to find on the porch today. That's right, a box containing a set of Steeda X-2 ball joints and my dual exhaust hangers :D

The Steeda X2's:
http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s258/rakusi/balljoints.jpg


The exhaust hangers:
http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s258/rakusi/exhausthangers.jpg

And what's better is I was reading the install instructions for the ball joints; they come with metal spring spacers that are completely optional. Install the spacers on top the OEM springs and use the ball joints, and the ride height stays the same. Ignore the spacers, and the ball joints alone lower the front of the car 1/2"... so I'll probably end up cutting 1 coil off the front and rear springs when I cut them, and I'll still get a slightly raked stance :D


*edit: Also, the ball joints, and hangers will probably be installed either next weekend or the weekend after it; I still plan on picking up my Energy Suspension swaybar endlinks/bushings and some bronze wheel paint (probably won't paint the wheels just yet, but I plan on painting my front swaybar (and maybe springs), and I want the paint to match the wheels. Also, I'll probably end up painting the valve covers the same color.

cutting coils...we all knew you were untrue to good ways.

i tried u know about my deficiency =\

thats the color of my wheels.

Figures you would complain about it :rolleyes:

Actually, when I get back to my apartment sunday, I'll give you the title/author and page numbers of two books covering cutting springs, both saying it's a legitimate method of lowering a car when it's done right. But until then, I leave you with this (http://mustangforums.com/forum/6-cyl-v6-applications/303544-lowering-your-stang.html). Look towards the bottom.

But then again, I'm sure you know way more about mustang suspension than the guys at MF (and one of the advocates of coil cutting is the builder of one of the most wicked v6 mustangs I've ever seen, not to mention the man who designed an built the first setup to allow an m112 blower to be mounted on a 3.8l... I'm pretty sure he knows what he's talking about) and two separate authors :rolleyes:

*edit: correction, I actually have the page #'s and everything written down.

Try reading Chassis Engineering by Herb Adams, taking note of pages 33 and 35; pg33 covers the pros of cutting springs, and pg35 covers actually how to cut springs correctly.

Also, look into 1,001 High Performance Tech Tips by Wayne Scraba. Specifically, take a look at page 86, tech tip #510, which also goes to state (in a few more words) that cutting coils is okay provided you don't use heat to cut them, which will lower the tensile strength of the spring.

Hey Chris this mustang project is sounding excellent with everything you plan on doing to it, even if it does take a couple years to completely finish your young!. The gold wheels look really good to. And you would be smart to grab a cheaper dd civic as the gas milage would be great. this sounds like a sweet project though and a fun one at that. When you get out of training do you plan on finding a job in the auto industry right away?

Yeah, there's a BMW shop I'm looking into down in Cincinnati, Ohio; they're adding 6 maintenance bays this summer (when I graduate). My friend went down there (he grew up like a half hour from Cinci) last time he went home and talked to the owner; the owner was complaining that it's hard to find guys that want to work on only BMW's. The shop itself is a dealership, but they specialize is performance. I'm going to be going down to Kentucky with my friend at the end of the month, so we're probably going to end up stopping in at the shop, and I'll probably end up filling out an application lol

*edit: I'm also probably going to end up installing the exhaust hangers tomorrow... hopefully it clears up the annoying rattle I have at 60-70mph and occasionally idle. Also, it'll give me an opportunity to tuck the mufflers up a little bit for more ground clearance when i lower the car.

Okay, as it turns out, I can't re-hang the exhaust (which works out for me anyway, I'll explain in a little bit) today. We own two jacks (a 2-ton and a 3-ton) and 6 jack stands. The 2-ton jack leaks fluid and doesn't lift worth a d**m, and the 3-ton jack and 2 stands are currently being used on my parents' Expedition 20 miles away. The other 4 stands? Holding up my '78 Fiat X-1/9 lol (I really need to get that thing running lol).

Anyway, I took a look under the car today... I know for a fact what's causing the exhaust rattle. The hanger I rigged up is holding the driver's side muffler about 1/4" from part of the frame, so when the exhaust hits the right frequency, it taps up against the frame; the new exhaust hangers should take car of the problem.

Now anyway, I noticed a few things with the car. First off, the exhaust clamps are rusty. I'm going to see what I can find at Autozone/Advance as far as rust prevention (I'm thinking truck bed lining should do the trick lol), sand down the clamps, and use some of whatever I find on the clamps. Next, with how close the tailpipes are to the gas tank and brake lines, I think I'm going to get some exhaust wrap and sealant and wrap the section after the mufflers that goes up and over the rear axles. Another thing I noticed; where I managed to slice my brake line is leaking again, so I'm going to need to tighten down the fittings when I go to re-hang the exhaust. Also, because of the leak, I'm starting to get low on brake fluid (which is no problem; I happen to have some fluid sitting in my garage anyway), and while I was checking fluid, I noticed I was low on power steering fluid.

So basically, here's what I need to do to it in the next month:
-Oil change (I'm slightly overdue)
-Re-hang the exhaust
-Wrap the exhaust tailpipes
-Take care of the surface rust on the clamps
-Replace my ball joints
-Replace my front swaybar endlinks/bushings
-Paint my front swaybar
-Cut my springs
-Get the car aligned
-Add power steering fluid

... it's going to be a fun month...

if you dont like rusty clamps then go to your local napa autoparts and buy some band clamps.

i believe those are stainless steel and the seal great!

Ehh, not too worried about it, I just don't want them getting worse; besides, 4 of the 6 clamps have the pieces where they mount to the hangers welded to them, and I don't really feel like welding lol

Anyway, I decided to put the stock headlights back on for now... I got tired of how the projectors look, so I decided to take them off until I can find some VHT NiteShades to smoke them with.

All right, anybody remember this?

http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s258/rakusi/21409.jpg

Yup, haven't given up on it... actually, to be honest, I forgot about it until today. Right now I'd say it's about 50% done; I have most of the actual diffuser fiberglassed, but I still need to glass the dive planes. Also, it's going to need about 6-10 hours of heavy sanding, paint prep, and the final painting before it's going to be done. At any rate, I started sanding a little bit, but gave up maybe a half hour later, since the coarsest sandpaper I had on hand was 220 grit, which was taking forever. I'll probably pick up some coarser paper this week and start wetsanding with 60 grit and work my way up to about 1000 grit before painting it. Like I said originally, no body filler will touch this part, so the fiberglass itself is going to have to be perfect before I spray it.

*edit: All right, I've been thinking... I'm probably going to finish up the rear diffuser and throw it on, not worrying about function too much. However, this summer I'll probably make a new one from ABS plastic that actually covers the gas tank completely, from the front of the tank all the way to the rear bumper. If that doesn't decrease drag/turbulence a little bit, I don't know what will. I might bump the design down to a 6-plane design (down from the 8-plane I have now), but I'm not sure. Also, I'll probably block off the rear of the wheel wells and make the side planes taller than the center planes, basically to protect the diffuser from the pressure wash of the rear wheels.

And yes, I've been doing research on mustang diffusers/aero :D

man you have alot of talent when it comes to all this working on your car (I remember back when you were painting sanding body pieces for your car back before you sold the civic I think?) and I was impressed then. If you could land a job in that BMW dealer that would be great for yourself and should be alot of experience to gain from it. That diffuser looks pretty good already is it fairly functional? and "'78 Fiat X-1/9" sounds interesting. jeeze.......you might own more cars at one time then I have lol :P

Are you thinking of the body kit I modified for that kid? Good times... nothing like sitting in a shop for like 6 hours a night nothing but sanding... it's pretty peaceful :D

But the diffuser I'm making now will be just barely functional; the only thing it's going to really be good for is to seal off the rear bumper. With the stock body, there's a gap between the gas tank and the rear bumper, and it creates a good bit of drag from air getting trapped. The next diffuser I design (this summer) is going to have a little more thought going into it than this one, and it's going to be much longer (more or less from the rear axle to about an inch past the bumper), to actually direct the air a little bit. Also, having it that long should allow me to lower the angle of attack; to get the most from a diffuser, the angle of attack should be no more than 8-12* from the ground. Also, the next diffuser is going to be made from ABS plastic, not fiberglass, which should lower the weight considerably compared to the fiberglass/plywood one.

Eventually I think I might do full under-body panels to actually direct the air to the diffuser, as well as a front splitter (actually the splitter's going to come before the under-body panels) to further increase aerodynamics. Also, eventually, I plan on throwing a 2000 Cobra R spoiler in place, as well as a 99-2001 SVT Cobra front bumper and 2000 Cobra R front splitter. The spoiler's huge, but it is functional. For those of you that don't know what the Cobra R looks like, here's a picture:

http://memimage.cardomain.com/member_images/4/web/2416000-2416999/2416491_881_full.jpg

Basically, that's the front bumper, splitter, hood, and spoiler I plan on getting, though I might skip the splitter in favor of the chin spoiler I have now and a custom diffuser.

thats rice.LOL

In the same way this is rice:

http://www.zercustoms.com/car-show/albums/userpics/10001/1995-McLaren-F1-LM-2.jpg

Functionality =/= rice
Things that look functional but aren't = rice

Believe it or not, all the add-ons for the 00R are wind-tunnel tested to increase downforce. And by the way, the wing creates a fairly low amount of drag; the 00R has a top speed of just 5mph less than the 2000 SVT Cobra (170 compared to 175)

*edit: actually, read up a bit here (http://www.svtperformance.com/forums/open-track-racing-203/477275-search-more-aero.html)... they go into detail about the functionality of diffusers (yes, I know the one I'm making won't really do much, but the one I'm going to make this summer will be more performance-oriented) and various spoilers for the mustang... guess what conclusion they've reached... the Cobra R and "rice" wings (like from APR) are functional, whereas most of the ones you guys would consider "clean" do nothing. And you need to remember that I have a rwd car; I can actually do something with downforce on the rear end (provided I need it to be balanced out, but that's where the front splitter's going to come into play). This ain't a civic ;)

and this isnt the autobahn ;)
IMO its still ugly... the rear diffuser your building thats ok... but the large wing and massive front valance is definatly not my style... but then again.... its your ride your call...

True, it's not the Autobahn, but I have full intention of tracking this car when I'm done, so the more downforce the better. And with the 500-600rwhp I plan on pushing, I'm going to be able to hit speeds where downforce matters on the track without trying.

And remember: Form < Function

You like LEDs, I like aero modifications; to each his own ;)

*edit: Okay, it's not raining or snowing, so I'm going to be re-hanging the exhaust in maybe a half hour here. The exhaust wrap and everything will have to wait a few months; as it is, I don't really have $100 for exhaust wrap right now.

Also, I've been talking to someone on 3.8Mustang about having a custom Punisher badge to replace the pony up front. I know I'll catch a ton of s**t for it from the mustang guys, but I love the Punisher and think it'll be a little more unique than the standard running pony; after all, I'll be one of two people with the badge on earth :D

Here's what the badge looks like (as of right now, it's the only one like it):
http://i518.photobucket.com/albums/u349/punisherstang/DSC00181.jpg

All right, the exhaust was re-hung with proper hangers... the tips are now where they should be (like 1/2" or so under the cutouts instead of <1/8")... pics tomorrow, it's too dark right now.

Next up for the exhaust will be new clamps, tips, and exhaust wrap (I don't like having something that hot that close to my gas tank). I decided the clamps are beyond saving (taking half the clamps are seized to the point where taking them completely off will snap the thread and/or bolt). The new clamps will have rubberized undercoating and anti-seize on them.

*edit: also, I'm toying with the idea of yellow lens paint for the projectors instead of smoking them. I know the mustang crowd (and probably half the people here) will probably hate it, but I'm still deciding on it. It's more unique than smoking the headlights (let's face it... smoking mustang headlights isn't exactly a new idea), not to mention it'll let more light through than headlight tint would.

here's a quick chop (I'll probably wait until after I paint the wheels to get a more accurate feel for what shade the wheels will look... there's too many shades of bronze/gold lol):
http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s258/rakusi/headlightwheelchop.jpg

I say keep the wheels oem color without the center caps and keep the pony emblem.

I don't know, I'll see how the wheels look when I lower the car. And I'm definitely liking the punisher badge, especially considering I'll be 1 of 2 people with the badge on earth :D... but it's not like I'm just going to throw the pony away; if I get tired of the badge, I can always throw the pony back on.

just make your own punisher badge ;) some simple billet and a dremel and a file and some drills... you can make your own ;)


making badges isnt really hard just takes some time to get the fine touches filed out smoothly. a belt sander also works great for making angles and curves even smoother.

If I had a dremel I'd probably try... if the price for the badge is rediculous, I'll probably see if I can't find a dremel to use (one of my friends has to have one lol) and try to see if I can make one.

First I need to get a price on the badge. I'm assuming I'll more or less just get charged for the billet itself and shipping, so it shouldn't be too expensive. Also, the badge will probably look better on my car since I'm lowering the front of the hood an inch or so into the stock grille location, it'll look a little more centered instead of having a huge gap above the badge.

you can always practice with some wood..... if ya try to make your own make a test one first with cheap material. it doesnt have to be billet on your first attempt. but hell a dremel works for alot.... try to get one they are cheap!
i use mine alot... as well as my hot glue gun. i also use that alot!

i started modifying my skull hitch cover just the other day
i got me some prewired leds from oznium and bought some extra resistors and diodes and started making mine lite up :)
ill post a video in a min. i gotta upload it. ;) tho i do want a few more leds... my holes i drilled into the sockets are not quite even. so a few more leds and ill be able to just open up the hole to one large one and put all the leds in evenly from side to side.

you could even slap some leds on the badge ;) make it blink at people with your turn signals, just be sure to use yellow or white leds. dont want any cops to get ya.

^^^DOTDOTDOT!!!!! 404 Funny Not Found

your humor is your and mine is mine ;) plus i smile alot. and im not ashamed of it.
i like my skull i think its pretty funny.... hes got the WAZ UP tongue hangen out.hahaha
ok video finally finished up loading.
and i had the mouth leds also dimming but i desided it looked better to just lite them up fully since it is pointed down and i already had 3 diodes and wires on the mouth to keep it lite up at all times with the parking lights and brake/turn signal lights.
http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e250/addiction2bass/97%20C1500/th_skull002.jpg (http://s40.photobucket.com/albums/e250/addiction2bass/97%20C1500/?action=view&current=skull002.flv)

before the leds. i might try using some of my niteshade tint over the leds to make them blend in with the black for during the day.
http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e250/addiction2bass/97%20C1500/DSC00351.jpg

i wasnt talkin about your skull thinger...i meant LEDZZZZZZZ in the badge

w00t, finally found a store with VHT Niteshades :D The tails have been completely smoked; all the lights (tail, brake, reverse) still shine through just fine. Pics probably tomorrow, both night pictures from tonight and day pictures from tomorrow (and I'm warning you ahead of time, the car is dirty, so the tails look funny being solid black... give it a few days of driving and they'll be nice and covered in salt so they match the rest of the car lol).

*edit: Also, I'm thinking I'm going to smoke the headlights instead of going Euro yellow with them; I catch enough s**t having non-oem headlights on a mustang as it is, I'll never hear the end of it with yellow projectors lol. I'll get that done this weekend (probably friday night, pictures saturday or sunday). Also, we smoked the corners on my friend's EG; I got him to sign up here but he's been too busy to post. I'll throw up the pics of his car in his intro thread when he finally posts lol.

ricer

^^ haha

I'm not the one that needs forced induction to get to 200whp ;)


Pics:

http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s258/rakusi/1-10.jpg


http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s258/rakusi/2-11.jpg


And some of the crew :D
http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s258/rakusi/Thecars.jpg
(left to right: Jack's EG, Derek's S13, my stang)


http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s258/rakusi/Thecars2.jpg
(left to right: Barney's Maxima, my stang, Derek's S13, Jack's EG)

i like the tint. looks clean.

I say get some foose nitrous' with a gloss interior

Not a huge fan of the Nitrous... I'm still kind of holding out for 10th Anniversary Cobra wheels; I'm expecting to buy a set in 2010, but we'll see where I am financially.


Anyway, I tinted the projectors today. Before the comments start, they're plenty bright (8000k HIDs), and they're not completely blacked out. Also, I plan on getting some OEM fogs sometime (probably when I get my tax returns), so that'll help with night driving. Anyway, here's the pics:

http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s258/rakusi/1-11.jpg


http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s258/rakusi/2-12.jpg


http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s258/rakusi/3-12.jpg


http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s258/rakusi/4-8.jpg


http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s258/rakusi/5-9.jpg


http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s258/rakusi/6-9.jpg

looks good.
i thought about tinting the headlights on my truck BUT i always scrap the headlights when they have ice on them so thats no good for me. :(

Yeah, I definitely like the projectors better now that they're smoked. Usually, I just wipe the snow off the headlights and let the lights melt the ice; the low beams being HIDs, the lenses get warm enough to take car of any ice that might accumulate.

Right now, I'm just worried about exactly how bright they're going to be at night, but I guess I'll find out tonight lol. Worst case scenario is they're dim as h**l and I throw my OEM headlights back on until I can get my hands on a set of fog lights.

*edit: I'm thinking I'm going to go with flat black for my wheels; the swaybars will still be bronze, but I'm thinking the stock wheels will probably look better in flat black.

Here's a quick chop I did:


http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s258/rakusi/wheelchop.jpg



They actually look like flat black Rota Slips :D


*edit #2: Okay, well I'll know for sure in an hour or so, but at this point it's looking like nighttime visibility shouldn't be much of a problem:

http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s258/rakusi/7-8.jpg


*edit #3: Well, the visibility at night has been confirmed; there's literally almost no change in light output... and she looks sexy as h**l at night:

http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s258/rakusi/nighttime.jpg

The more i look at thouse headlights, the more im starting to like them.

The more i look at thouse headlights, the more im starting to like them.

Thanks... personally, I think it's a huge improvement over the plain projectors. To be honest, I hated how the things looked, but I wanted them for the HIDs.

Anyway, I went on a nighttime photoshoot today (errr, tonight). Here's my favorite pics from it:

http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s258/rakusi/1-12.jpg


http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s258/rakusi/4-9.jpg


http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s258/rakusi/8-6.jpg


The rest of the photos can be found here (http://www.hondacivicforum.com/forum/showthread.php?p=625824#post625824)

Nice effort on the tint. I give them a solid 7.5 out of 10.





j/k, looks GOOD. The only thing messing up your clean look is that ford emblem on the back. The Mustang letters can stay, but toss the oval. Everyone knows its a Ford. And OEM fogs would add so much.

There's two holes where the oval mounts up or else the badge would be gone. Maybe when I get some time over a weekend I'll take the trunk lid completely off and re-do it (shaving the badge holes), but until then the badge is staying. And yeah, fogs are on my "to do" list :D

Reaper, you may have your heart set on black rims but...I am not feeling it. I also was not feeling the gold either.

Your rims are silver now, what if you went for a gunmetal? It woudl not be as a big a contrast and may flow better.

Just my $0.02.

Otherwise its coming along nicely. Great pics.

Agreed thats too much black, it doesnt really flow all that well but its your choice.

I don't know about gunmetal; I think it'd kind of throw off the red/black thing I have going... maybe like a steel gray though, I'll do a quick chop and see how it looks... I'll post the chop up in a bit.

*edit:

Not too bad... I kind of like it; at least they won't look like steelies from more than 10' away lol

http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s258/rakusi/steelgraywheels.jpg

Im not digging the black rims in your pictures, you would definitly need a drop or some 18's or 19's to make it look good. Otherwise the stang is looking good. I'm a huge fan of mustangs so I want to see yours look sexy lol

Like I said, as soon as I get money for new shocks/struts, I'm dropping it so it's at that fine line where there's no wheel gap, but it's not tucking either. And as far as wheels, I'll get some when I have an extra $1,000 laying around (probably sometime next year); I'm between charcoal 17x9" and 17x10.5" 10th Anniversary Cobra (http://images.latemodelrestoration.com/large/M1007A179.jpg) wheels or anthracite 17x9" and 18x10" FR500 (http://us.st12.yimg.com/us.st.yimg.com/I/mustangtuning_2043_202530659) wheels.

steel gray ftw
they looked great in the chop

That's actually what I'm leaning towards at the moment; they're not too dark, but they're not light enough to clutter up my color scheme with extra tones. Now I just need to find paint that matches the gray :D

Yeah the steel grey looks the best.

Yeah, my only concern with the steel gray is what someone pointed out on 3.8mustang... Steel gray makes the wheels look dirty; it looks like I had silver wheels and they got thoroughly coated in brake dust. Still, I'm probably going with steel gray.

SWEET RIDE YO, get more piccors!!!11!!!eleven

more pics.....no c's not 2 c's dammit<<<<<inside joke

More pics tomorrow... actually, probably wednesday since it's going to be cold until then and I'm lazy and don't like taking pictures in the cold :D

do it.....do it now!!!! lol

w00t... so my friend Barney is getting money from an accident he was in; when he gets the money (I believe May), he said he'd give me $1,000 just for being his friend (I believe he's getting over $100k, so no big deal to him I guess). If he actually carries through, I may get everything I plan on doing to the mustang this year done pretty early.

I'm thinking if I get the $1k, here's what I'll get knocked off the "to-do" list:
-Maximum Motorsports camber/caster plates
-Exhaust tips
-Exhaust wrap on the tailpipes (I really don't like having the exhaust that close to the gas tank)
-Custom leather shift & e-brake boots and matching armrest cover (black leather, charcoal stripe where the stitching is, and red stitching)
-Summit Racing cross-drilled & slotted rotors
-OEM Fog lights

And that actually accounts for like 90% of what I plan on getting done this year (besides the shocks/struts, but those are getting replaced no matter what) that I can actually buy... what's left is mostly custom things like my rear diffuser and modified hood.

nice
does Barney need any more friends?
I have an opening for one more friend.

Nice friend.

Deff. a nice friend and i thought i had nice friends...

*off topic reaper are you still looking at getting an m3? Have you seen the used c5 zo6 prices lately? Thats cheap easy power and the prices should be really low by the time you wanna buy a car. There in the low 20s- high teens right now.

Yeah, I'm still planning on getting a bmw... I've actually started thinking about it and I might end up getting an E46 328i next summer for a few reasons: I really want an E46, the 328's are (relatively) inexpensive, and the insurance cost for an E46 328i would probably be about the same as an E36 m3. Honestly, performance is actually the second reason I want a bmw, m3 in particular; the biggest reason is the luxury side of the cars.

Anyway, since I'm bumping the thread anyway, I very well could be calling it quits on the mustang project. I've been thinking about it, and I might just end up finding someone willing to trade a sportbike (preferably a 600) for the 'stang. I'm going to be changing out the other front strut since it's starting to squeak, replacing the brake rotors, and replacing the rear wheel speed sensors this month, then get it aligned at the end of the month. Next month I'll probably be looking for trades. Here's my justification for getting rid of the mustang in favor of a bike:
-insurance is cheaper (actually about half the price; I paid $6xx/yr for my cbr600 whereas I'm paying $1168/yr for the mustang, same coverage).
-literally over double the fuel economy the lowest mileage I ever got on my cbr was 32mpg... that's more than I've ever gotten in the stang)
-maintenance is cheaper... a $25 oil change is way better than a $50 oil change

Also, one of my friends just got an r6, one of my instructors rides a zx-14, and another friend is planning on getting a 600 and learning to ride this spring, so I'll have people to ride with.

And as for the $1000 I'm probably getting from my friend? Winter beater. I'll probably look into getting something along the lines of a 5g civic or a 240sx (I know the 240 won't make a good winter car, but I've wanted an s13 for how long now lol).


And marcus, john... I know I change my mind a lot... if it makes a difference, I've been suffering hardcore riding withdraw since I sold my cbr last year and have wanted another bike since (quite literally) the day I sold it :D

I hope everything works out for you, looks good so far. Keep it up.

Wonderful... so I was attempting to fix the exhaust leaks I have and managed to strip the threads off one of the headers where the h-pipe bolts up. Anyway, now I'm looking into getting a set of Long-tube headers, and I'll probably just have my friend modify my h-pipe to fit the headers. Also, I'll probably get a set of cats to keep things legal (right now I'd have to have one of my friends inspect it if I wanted it to pass the visual inspection). Other than that, I'll probably get the brakes replaced, rear wheel speed sensors replaced, get a GT rear sway bar, and then decide if I want to get rid of the car or not. I'd still like to trade for a bike, but depending on how much I get from my tax return, I might just outright buy a bike.

Sorry to hear that I know the feeling though, building my motor ive stripped more screws than in my life :( but hopefully whatever happens with the mustang works out for the best sorry to see it go it looks so nice.

haha, the worst part is that the exhaust leak is about 10x worse now since only one of the bolts attaching the header to the h-pipe is holding it on. I kind of want to keep the mustang (I hate to admit it, but I've actually grown fond of it lol), but I want another bike more, so we'll see.

o just keep the stang... a bike will just get ya killed acting a fool on it... but you can act a fool in the stang all the time and at least live. ;)

i just got my exhaust swaped over slightly... nothing huge just chopped off stock muffler and strapped on dual bullets and yesterday i got the pipes welded on puting them out the back.. still thinking about geting a crossover welded in but not to sure yet... there isnt that much cracking... camera just picks it up really easy and doesnt pickup the deep throaty sound much :( i dont know why but my camera does not like picking up low sounds :(
http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e250/addiction2bass/97%20C1500/dual%20bullets/th_exhaust008.jpg (http://s40.photobucket.com/albums/e250/addiction2bass/97%20C1500/dual%20bullets/?action=view&current=exhaust008.flv)

tho it sounded meaner without the rear pipes.LOL but with the pipes out the back it doesnt drone as much on the highway. i defiantly like em!
http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e250/addiction2bass/97%20C1500/dual%20bullets/th_bullets009.jpg (http://s40.photobucket.com/albums/e250/addiction2bass/97%20C1500/dual%20bullets/?action=view&current=bullets009.flv)



i thought about making a truck project thread but in the rules it says...
Rules:

1. This section is intended for ongoing large-scale builds pertaining to Civics ONLY.


LOL dont know how you got away with it ;)

I'm not sure how I got away with it either... I wasn't a mod at the time and I believe the thread was originally created in one of the off-topic sections and then got moved here by one of the staff members :D

At any rate, I'm now thinking I should just wait until I graduate to get the bike... I'm just thinking that I've spent (including the initial cost of buying the car) over $8k on the mustang, and I'd be lucky to see half of that if I sold it or traded it for something "of equal value". So I figure I'll wait until I graduate, save up for a month or two (I have a 6 month grace period after graduation before my first loan payment is due), put a down payment on a new-ish ('04 or so) bike, and finance the rest... my student loan payments are going to be low (~$300/mo), so financing a bike at the same time shouldn't be terribly difficult (assuming I can get a decent starting wage, but we'll cross that bridge when we get there).

As for the mustang, like I said, I now have a huge unrepairable exhaust leak thanks to a seized bolt... so I'm thinking I'll get long-tube (full-length) headers to replace the stockers... the MAC LT's are (literally) dyno-proven for something like a 7-15rwhp gain on a stock engine over the inefficient stock "shorty" style headers... in addition, I'll probably throw a pair of high-flow cats on the modified h-pipe I'll have so I don't have to worry about it passing emissions. Also, since I'm going to be spending almost $700 on the mustang out of necessity, I figure a $35 OEM rear swaybar won't hurt either :D


Also, now I'm debating on whether I should go with the M112 blower or twin turbos. The twins are literally twice as expensive, but with those I think I'd easily be able to put myself in the 600-700rwhp range as opposed to the 500-600rwhp range with the blower. I mean, the M112 has a sexy whine to it, but the sound of two 57-trim T3/T4's spooling up to be met with the sound of two open Tial 38mm wastegates, only to be overcome by the sound of a nice crisp BOV is a very, very attractive thought. :D

*edit: also with twin turbos, having two wideband A/F guages and two boost gauges would make a sexy addition to the interior... I'm thinking put both widebands in a guage bezel pod, both boost guages in a center dash pod (if anybody's seen a saleen mustang they'll probably know what I'm talking about), as well as a pyrometer and vacuum gauge on the pillar :D


*edit #2 for car pr0n:
http://www.tmaturbo.com/products/twinturbokit/twin3.jpg

*edit #3:
Okay, I'm officially now receiving rent & living checks monthly from Wyotech (as opposed to paying my expenses out of pocket like I've been doing), so I now have money to play around with, so I'll probably end up ordering the headers & cats tonight or tomorrow... and it feels great to not have to worry about how much money I have to pay my rent... the only expense I'll really be paying out of pocket right now will be car insurance... the R&L checks are adding something like $2800 to my student loans, but it's better than stressing out over whether I'll have enough money to last me until I graduate :D

Twin Turbos, do it!

I realize that a super will get you instant power on demand when you need it, but a turbo is using otherwise wasted energy to create power. And like you said, you will get more HP.

As far as the bike thing goes, yes they are fun, BUT look at your road rash thread, that is just a taste of what COULD happen. Do what I did, buy a dirtbike (ground is soft =P) and save the asphalt for a car.

Also, make up your damn mind for once :D

pshh... dirt bikes. I'm not new to sportbikes if you didn't already know... I sold my cbr600 f4i last autumn to help pay for stuff for college ;)

And I'm leaning heavily towards twin turbo (I'm studying Automotive Technology at Wyotech, you don't have to tell me that turbos are more efficient than superchargers... h**l, in some applications, a roots supercharger can use up to 30% of an engine's power just to spin), but the fact that it's literally double the price is the only thing keeping me from saying I'm going to do it for sure. But 600-700rwhp will be easier to attain with two snails than it would be with a roots blower.

I'm thinking if I twin turbo, I'm going to dump the wastegates to the atmosphere, with the dump tubes most likely leading right out the sides of the front bumper (I've seen a civic with that, it looks awesome)... for gauges, I'm probably doing two wideband O2's (one for each cylinder bank), two boost gauges (one for each turbo), and two EGT gauges (one for each bank). I'm leaning towards AutoMeter GS gauges (black face, green backlit, just like my OEM cluster), but if I go with GS gauges I'll be spending $1,300 on gauges alone =[

modding aint cheap...... ;)

hell i just wanna bag my truck... but thats alot of cash as well :(

pshh... dirt bikes. I'm not new to sportbikes if you didn't already know... I sold my cbr600 f4i last autumn to help pay for stuff for college ;)

And I'm leaning heavily towards twin turbo (I'm studying Automotive Technology at Wyotech, you don't have to tell me that turbos are more efficient than superchargers... h**l, in some applications, a roots supercharger can use up to 30% of an engine's power just to spin), but the fact that it's literally double the price is the only thing keeping me from saying I'm going to do it for sure. But 600-700rwhp will be easier to attain with two snails than it would be with a roots blower.

I'm thinking if I twin turbo, I'm going to dump the wastegates to the atmosphere, with the dump tubes most likely leading right out the sides of the front bumper (I've seen a civic with that, it looks awesome)... for gauges, I'm probably doing two wideband O2's (one for each cylinder bank), two boost gauges (one for each turbo), and two EGT gauges (one for each bank). I'm leaning towards AutoMeter GS gauges (black face, green backlit, just like my OEM cluster), but if I go with GS gauges I'll be spending $1,300 on gauges alone =[

Lol, I have been on this forum for like 6 months, I know a fair bit. I am just saying, I have driven both types of bikes and as fun as sport bikes are, I feel a lot better riding on mud/soil. I don't intend to crash, but if I do, its nice to know my skin is there.

And yeah, I also say turbos because of that exact fact. Look at the Mercedes SLR, 617 and something like 100 or so just to spin its super. Bleh.

Also I have driven a Supercharged mustang (Rouch 427r). Its nice but you always have that super whine there giving you away. If you use a turbo setup you could run prob sub 2500 RPM and have no boost(depending on your tune), just sound like you have a aftermarket exhaust. Sneak up on some tard in a corvette and blow him away.

My dad and I sneak up on Harley guys on jap bikes all all the time, its much more fun when they don't hear you coming ;) Especially cause my dad's is a 2stroke so he smokes them good :D

I'm a fan of street riding :D

And to be honest, when I laid the bike down last week, it was literally the first time I'd been on a bike without my riding jacket and gloves in over a year... figures that the one time I don't have my usual gear on I lowside.

As for the turbo/supercharger stealth thing, I honestly don't care if people have an idea of what's under my hood; if they find out it's only a six, they'll underestimate it no matter what (which will be good when I'm pushing 6-700rwhp :D). If you've never heard the m112 blower on a 3.8l, it's a sexy whine (and it completely drowns out the exhaust lol)... I'm not sure the whine is sexier than two t3/t4's spooling up with the sound of twin Tial 38mm wastegates dumped to the atmosphere though :D

And addiction... you know my history, especially with my ej1... buying parts only to take them off a month later... I know how expensive modding cars is :D

As a side note, if I ever get an extra $2k... the mustang's getting Air Ride (I priced it out... it's $2k even for a true Air Ride base kit)... I'd love to be able to get on a smooth highway and drop the car to the ground, then raise it back up when I get on an exit ramp... not to mention laying frame when I park :D

Bump, ordering the MAC longtubes tomorrow, as well as a set of Magnaflow high-flow cats. I'll probably order the vortex generators as well. I Ordered the L4te Night Kr3w vinyl wednesday, it should be here sometime early next week... and if Daryl ever gets around to making new RTFO Kr3w stickers I'll get it on my car :D

I think next month I'll either order a chase taillight module (if you don't know what chase taillights are, check them out (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yu_moia-oVI)) or the custom leather shift boot, e-brake boot, and armrest cover. I'm leaning towards the chase tails, but I'm not sure just yet. Hell, maybe I'll be mature with my money and not buy anything lol... Or maybe I'll buy lowering springs XD


*coincidentally, what with all the vinyl and all, I think this may be the point where I don't post pictures of the mustang on 3.8mustang's forum anymore... The car's going to have club stickers as well as humorous stickers on the windshields, and be slammed to the ground. That's right, I'm bringing Honda trends to the Mustang world lol

*Edit #2: Also, I'll probably paint the wheels sometime soon (steel gray)... before the end of the month, anyway.

ninja edit! i caught it! Geez you are a master of the ninja edit

haha, yeah I'm pretty much an e-ninja :D

Anyway, I was going to add edit #3, but I'll just throw it here... I'm thinking I'll order the LT's, cats, and vortex generators this month (as well as buy the supplies to paint my wheels), and then save up for a month or so to buy KYB shocks & struts... then I'll (z0mg!) cut my stock springs enough to almost eliminate the fender gap. Eventually, I'll get H&R Race Springs and (z0mg!) cut 'em to slam the thing to the ground... the Race springs are standard-rate coil, so other than raising the spring rate slightly, I won't be fux0ring up the spring rate.

Okay, I ordered the vortex generators, MAC LongTubes, and Magnaflow high-flow cats. Chances are it'll be the last thing I get for the car this month, but who knows?

*edit: And while reviewing my mods to come list, I realized I'm basically making a 4.2L TT cobra... The hood I have was used on the 99-01 cobras as well as 40th anniversary sixxers, I'm getting a 99-01 cobra front bumper, cobra mirrors, cobra brakes (all around), cobra rear suspension, and a cobra transmission.

^^^^ricer

Coming from someone with a N/A 1.6l civic... how's that 128hp/105ft*lbs at the crank workin' for ya?

^Coming from someone with a Ford. GL getting past 100,000 miles.

BOOM HEADSHOT

Coming from someone with a N/A 1.6l civic... how's that 128hp/105ft*lbs at the crank workin' for ya?

thats all.... ;)

its not the car you drive its the mentality :-P who has more stickerzzzz!!!! lulz <3

^Coming from someone with a Ford. GL getting past 100,000 miles.

BOOM HEADSHOT

Except it's fact that josh's y8 produces 128hp/105ft*lbs at the crank. It's hearsay that fords don't last. Why don't you go on 3.8mustang or mustangforum and see how many members have mustangs with 100k, 150k, or 200k+ miles on the clock. It's like a civic... it's all in maintenance. If you maintain a civic, it's not going to last, "indestructable" stereotype or not.

That's not fact either. It's possible that he makes more or less.

Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sure he has a freak d16 with 200whp and 300ht*lbs of torque, right? With wear and tear the factory number of (I was actually wrong with my first estimate) 127bhp isn't exactly going to go up.

Source 1 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honda_D_engine#D16Y8)
Source 2 (http://www.superhonda.com/tech/honda_engine_codes.html)
Source 3 (http://consumerguideauto.howstuffworks.com/1996-to-2000-honda-civic.htm)
Source 4 (http://www.knology.net/~jediklc/specs.htm)
Source 5 (http://www.honda-tech.com/showthread.php?t=385741)
Source 6 (http://www.automotivehelper.com/topic46404.htm)
Source 7 (http://www.clubcivic.com/board/showthread.php?t=32305)
Source 8 (http://www.superhonda.com/forum/f49/getting-d16y8-power-97322/)
Source 9 (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=D16y8+power&start=10&sa=N)
Source 10 (http://www.automotivehelper.com/topic193659.htm)

Again, it's fact that the y8 makes 127bhp from the factory. Saying that a ford won't hit 100k is an opinion. Stu, are you having as much fun with this argument as I am?

*edit: I'll even concede to you the fact that there's slight room for error in the power number from the factory. I'd give it +/-1hp. So now he's at 126-128bhp. Figure in the 15% (and that's a best-case scenario), he's putting down 108.8whp, and that's using the higher number of 128bhp. My CBR put down ~93hp to the rear wheel with less than half the displacement. 109whp is nothing.

Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sure he has a freak d16 with 200whp and 300ht*lbs of torque, right? With wear and tear the factory number of (I was actually wrong with my first estimate) 127bhp isn't exactly going to go up.

Source 1 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honda_D_engine#D16Y8)
Source 2 (http://www.superhonda.com/tech/honda_engine_codes.html)
Source 3 (http://consumerguideauto.howstuffworks.com/1996-to-2000-honda-civic.htm)
Source 4 (http://www.knology.net/~jediklc/specs.htm)
Source 5 (http://www.honda-tech.com/showthread.php?t=385741)
Source 6 (http://www.automotivehelper.com/topic46404.htm)
Source 7 (http://www.clubcivic.com/board/showthread.php?t=32305)
Source 8 (http://www.superhonda.com/forum/f49/getting-d16y8-power-97322/)
Source 9 (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=D16y8+power&start=10&sa=N)
Source 10 (http://www.automotivehelper.com/topic193659.htm)

Again, it's fact that the y8 makes 127bhp from the factory. Saying that a ford won't hit 100k is an opinion. Stu, are you having as much fun with this argument as I am?

I said "more or less."
I didn't say it would go up, I am saying it's probably not at 127bhp. And, doesn't have have exhaust or intake or something? That would probably bump up his bhp a little bit.

Yes, I am having fun.

wow guise really...

CHEVY IS BETTER.......... ;)
http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e250/addiction2bass/97 C1500/truckpics004.jpg

Stu, read the edit; I apparently got done typing it right as you posted.

So let's say his engine has no wear and tear. That puts him at 108.8whp as a high number. So let's say he has full i/h/e. I'm sure you know that those gains aren't as easy as saying "oh, well an intake is 3-5hp, a header is ~5hp, and a cat-back is ~5hp.... that means my total gain is 13-15hp!", and that the average gain from i/h/e on an otherwise stock engine would be around 10-12whp. So let's add that to the earlier number of 109whp. 119-121whp, which is less than the number of 127 I was originally saying was too low to be making "ricer" comments. Hell, just for s**ts and giggles we'll throw in a stage II cam and upgraded valvetrain. So now he's at 130-135whp. Let's throw on an intake manifold; since it's already cammed, the gains will be around 10whp for the mani. 140-145whp. That's still lower than what I'm putting down, which means he still has no room to be making ricer comments (yes, josh, I know you were joking. I'm arguing principles here, not literal meanings of posts).

And josh, marcus... y so srs? Stu and I are having fun :D

So let's add that to the earlier number of 109whp. 119-121whp, which is less than the number of 127 I was originally saying was too low to be making "ricer" comments. Hell, just for s**ts and giggles we'll throw in a stage II cam and upgraded valvetrain. So now he's at 130-135whp. Let's throw on an intake manifold; since it's already cammed, the gains will be around 10whp for the mani. 140-145whp. That's still lower than what I'm putting down, which means he still has no room to be making ricer comments

Yea but your car is a brick, so...

It might be a brick, but it can go faster than the ~120mph governer on a 6th gen civic... but for legal reasons I feel the need to say I don't know how I know my mustang can get up to speeds in excess of 120mph. I'd also like to go on record as saying I never drive above the speed limit.








My mustang doesn't have a governer

I don't have a governor either. lol

But I bet josh does though. And why are we bringing you into this? Do you want me to start on your z6? It came out of the factory with even less power than josh's y8... mods or not, I still put down more power :D

If we want to get into it, I've had three true kills in the last month:
1) Nissan Maxima GLE (222bhp stock)
2) Nissan 240sx (155bhp stock)
3) Honda civic ex (6th gen) (as we've already covered, 127bhp stock)

In order of who lost by the least:
240sx, maxima, civic

Since we did a break-down (and imaginary mods) to josh's car, let's do the same to mine. 193bhp stock. Figuring in the same 15% drivetrain loss, that's 165rwhp. Add an intake (~5rwhp on the 3.8), off-road h-pipe and 2.5" duals (~12rwhp), and tuner (~10rwhp gain using my 91 octane tune). That puts me around 192rwhp as an estimate. Also, I have a LSD and a 3.73 rear end gear; they don't add power, but they help with my launch, as well as the all-around acceleration ;)

I'll bring me into this if I want. lol

oh yea, 2bhp less... big whoop.
i gotz better oil pump though :D

lol d16z6 ftmfw? (if you don't mind being slow)

I keed I keed :D


Anyway, I just remembered I did s**t today... i'll have pics in a few.

lol d16z6 ftmfw?

exactly

Here's what I accomplished today... I cut down the tall factory antenna and made it into a 13" shorty antenna... I also whipped out the VHT NiteShades and smoked out the running pony in the grille :D

http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s258/rakusi/1-13.jpg

http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s258/rakusi/2-14.jpg

http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s258/rakusi/4-10.jpg

http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s258/rakusi/3-14.jpg


The next batch of pictures will probably be tuesday or wednesday, depending on when I get my club vinyls. The next one after that will be friday, and hopefully another one sunday when I (hopefully) get the longtube headers and high-flow cats installed and my H-pipe modified to fit. I also may or may not have a set of GT exhaust tips on the way (still working out a deal), as well as the workings of a pieced together fog light kit and some GT side scoops.

*edit: I'm also probably going to work on modifying my hood at the end of the month (I have a down week where I don't have class between semesters)... the only thing I don't like about it is I'll have to have hood pins to keep things nice and safe (I'm not about to cut apart a hood and trust it to stay together by itself lol)