Ruining a good car--my "build " thread

C.Love

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So why not I will do a build thread. It will be slow as this car is close to where it needs to be for now . However, we all know things tend to escalate and take a "wrong" turn. Eventually I am sure this car will see that wrong turn. Also this story is long and convoluted so if you don't want to read this crap just look at the pictures and make off kilter comments :boobies:

So the story. I am not a mustang lover but bang for the buck on the new chassis is stellar and what Japan has to offer here is crap so mustang it is. I had a pretty rad s13 which, I had it for like 12 years and built it specifically to drift. About a year ago I started to get pissy cause I live in BFE, our events are small (and the drivers are not progressing to push me) and traveling is so cost prohibitive at this moment in life. I then decided I needed a car with AC, a decent ride, more "Adult" in nature, something I could take the kiddies for a ride in, and the list goes on. i basically wanted a daily I could drift not a drift car I could daily.

So I sold the 240 found this 11 5.0. I picked it up for a good price because it had a trans replaced by Ford under a lemon clause (which is good but also bad). Well the WTF!!!HAVE I DONE idea set in this year. I miss my drift car and my 5.0 is to nice to make into a dedicated drift ride.


Going back to the trans thing to date the car is A-ok but after thinking of building a soarer (1JZ in a SC300) basically looking at trade in on my 5.0 I decided I would loose to much to give the dealer the glory of ripping me off and selling out right hasn't turned out. So keep this car I will.

Well in the middle of all the crap above I acquired a 14 ford fiesta ST from Fords Octane academy--BOOM nice daily that is fun. Bad ideas from here on out.

So mustang wont pull enough on trade in, no one is biting on private sale, what to do? Enjoy it and in a year cage the thing and throw down thats what!!

I decided to put some miles on it use my missile (a really crappy 89 325i) during the interim then eventually make a rad mustang drift car.


So I bought this car on Dec 20 12.

Some of my 240 monies went to down payment and some went immediately into this

RTR Front fascia, side splitter and Rear Fasica
19 inch Forgestar F14 (These wheel were a mistake )
BC coilovers with 1 Kg/MM heavier springs
some flowmaster 40series muffler (shoulda got better ones)
Roof wing ALA China
window tint

Car looked like this :



Even with these items it drifted like a wobbly bag of D

Added White line sway bars front and rear and a J &M sway bar. Also added a BBK x-pipe

Did some of this in Denver



Also did some of this locally--car was getting 1.5mpgs on the track FUUUUU!!! I also added a steeda upper link and bracket and rousch lower control arms with a hard end on the axle side and poly on the chassis side



I also feel I should post my old 13 cause I talked about it a billion times



 
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C.Love

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This last Sept we have a local Mustang rally. I decided to have some fun with a buddy of mine and well we tapped. He was a novice, the pavement was slick and I was being too aggressive. He spun and I applied brakes but to no avail. Not much happened to my car his needed a new coilover and fender. I needed to repaint my front bumper and get a steering wheel air bag...whoops.





 
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C.Love

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So about this time I decided I needed the car to be better yet.
Added:
BBK cat deletes
BBR tune
JLT air intake
had green wheels powder coated a deep brown


 

C.Love

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Winter came i got board--time to repowder wheels AGAIN!! went for chrome orange and well it didnt turn out. F-It!!! do them black!!

I also got :
GT/CS front bumper
some canards for a FRS I modified to fit
a GT500 wing
a Cobra R hood (maybe shoulda done Reghan I think)
made a Aluminum front splitter (i wanted bigger than the leguna seca by alot but its about 1 inch bigger)
also fixed front bumper from mishap and deleted the holes some jack ass put in the front bumper to hold the plate
Also added a Rousch Grill
Added Lower control arm relocation brackets-forgot brand but its a major one that is adjustable
Decided tint was too dark tore it off, also removed roof wing, added stickers to make people throw up in their mouths








Went and did some street style just cause. lol Soon as the weather stops sucking here me and a few buddies will rent out our drift lot and have some fun. Stay tuned.

Also sitting here are some new seats waiting on brackets.

i am also sure i will do something STUPID soon AKA a giant ass wing.

Before that though knuckles will be ordered
 
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JEWC_Motorsports

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Cool stuff, but why a BBR tune. lol you dont have to answer that.
 

C.Love

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Cool stuff, but why a BBR tune. lol you dont have to answer that.



It was between him and Beefcake (who uses Lund). Beefcake wouldn't really give me clear straight answers and BBR would. In addition to that I had a buddy who had 5.0 at the time with a BBR and he seemed to really like it and ran it for 6 months or so and had 0 issues. Lastly, looking at whats out there BBR didnt have many complaints. So those things combined had me getting a BBR.

I find there are a TON of tuners out there all that have love or hate from one person or another. If I ever decide to go forced induction I will probably have a custom dyno tune done for me. With all these boxed/canned tunes they are so close that unless you get them all, test all on the same car and check everything its hard to truly argue for or against one tuner or another. BAMA blows motors, Lund cam tune dont run right, BBR (insert whatever here), Brenspeed this or that. i can probably also add accolades as well. So yeah. Thats all. i assume you have a negative experience?

I will have to say the tune, intake and deletes had me liking this car alot more
 
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C.Love

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Also on the list of to do's sometime soon

Larger radiator
Oil Cooler
Better brake pads and lines (thinking of EBC yellow pads as Ive had good luck with EBC)
 

TGR96

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Cool thread! Call me crazy, but I kinda dig the green wheels!

A few of questions...

Why did you say the Forgestars were a mistake?

How do you like the BC racing coilovers for DDing?

And can you post some pics of the Fiesta ST? I love those cars!
 

C.Love

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yeah man I kinda miss the green. I cant seem to get rid of these wheels, unless I basically give them away of course. So I am guessing they will be re-colored probably in..yup you guessed it green again lol. This time though it will be a slightly darker green. The green from forgestar was super slimy neon green. I thought they looked best when they has some brake dust on them

Why were forgestars a mistake? lots of factors: was kinda pissed it took 17 weeks to get them, I am not a huge fan of the design, they look like so many other wheels out there, and I wanted a TE-37 or atleast a replica of one. I shoulda stuck with that plan. I got them cause they were light and a fitment was kinda known. I also got impatient cause the wheels i had intended on were on backorder. Had i known ?i was in for a 17 week ride I woulda just waited on the backordered wheels

BC for daily is ok. I guess I don't really daily the car persay (I have a Ranger for that) but if it were maybe 1/4 higher it would be better. The reason I say that is on large bumps the rear axle slams into the exhaust which kinda sucks. Ride wise I am playing around with the settings. I have been driving the car alot lately (Thanks God the snow is gone..for now) and set them very soft which improved the ride but the slamming axle issue was present. I have also tried mid-level and it wasn't too bad but a bit stiff. For drifting the front needs to be at full stiff and the rear 3-4 clicks softer than the front.


I really hope the 2015 has IRS that bolts into these cars. I also hope guys want straight axles for drag racing. I hope to scoop an IRS up if bolting one up is the case
 
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C.Love

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here is the fiesta. I think with in a few days of getting it I rented the lot we drift in to see what kinda skillz this car has. Octane academy wanted to get a few photos too so I had some of my buddies who do photos come out and shoot for me











 

C.Love

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Dont know if I mentioned I got some seats at a steal of a deal for this car.

00961%20Black-black.jpg


Still waiting on brackets to come in. I also need to sell some old parts so i can buy new ones.

I have been thinking of some nitrous with a progressive controller to add some power. I also like the nitrous idea as I can put it on my BMW when it needs some extra ommph!!
 

ranger2339

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Dirty Love! My boys..

Dig your car bro. Super rad. Looking at 11+ GTs myself. Same boat, want a street/drift car and I am defiantly sick of a gutted caged shit box thats hot, loud and annoying on the street.

What are guys doing for for angle on these?
 
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Bullitt 3309

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Nice build, those brutal SD winters make you do some silly stuff in the off season... Me and the UPS guy where BFF's when I was stationed there... I had the Bullitt then and it never saw snow...
 

C.Love

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Dirty Love! My boys..

Dig your car bro. Super rad. Looking at 11+ GTs myself. Same boat, want a street/drift car and I am defiantly sick of a gutted caged shit box thats hot, loud and annoying on the street.

What are guys doing for for angle on these?

Thanks. I recognize your name from somewhere. ziptied maybe?? I also used to frequent the Mn drift forums long ago. I am also trying to think of the car you had. Blue S13?

One of my friends, Chase, is from MN and had one of the Dirty Love stickers and I said I need one!! Gotta have them stickers

I am always at odds with the race car vs street car thing, I loved my S13 at the same time events here are few and traveling out of state is not in the cards for me any more. So having an obnoxious car is a waste. On the flip side the mustang although having some very nice amenities just feels fat and slow and I am very afraid of screwing it up. It also needs to be gutted to feel nimble. Can't have it all i guess

Angle wise you can buy knuckles which range from 200 bucks on up. One place in TX modifies them for 200, saw another place that does the same thing but they want 450 and ASD told me, about a year ago, they had some billet ones in the works.

I have been tossing around knuckles but I don't want to ruin anything. I have had good knuckles and bad ones, I don't want to get stuck with some that make the car handle like crap. The knuckles I have found are basically cut and they relocate the tie rod connection point (same as many used on S-chassis cars) pretty simple. The down fall is you need to relocate the harnesses that run in the fender wells and you need to use a pretty aggressive offset wheel (9.0 -20ish) to take full advantage of the angle.


Right now all i have done is removed the steering rack stops which is good for a few degrees. Also depending on the wheel width and offset you have to do something to the fender well harness so the tire doesn't chew through them
 
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ranger2339

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Yea, I am on ZT, have not been on there in a long time. I have been out of the drifting thing for a while, have two kids and a career now days, so not much time available to build. Hence wanting something I could drive on the street 90% of the time and take it to an event like 10% of the time, wont compete in it.

Yea, Chase has or had the VQ in the S13 right?

I do have a decent 02 GT with IRS, Coils, Varrstoens, DVB arms and cut knuckles, its ok, but I really have a hard on for the 2011+ GTs because of the Coyote and how it looks.

I am actually the guy who bedlinered his S13 a long time ago lol. Was a rad car with a LS1/T56, gutted, caged, Equips, etc. built like it should be, minus the paint job. Had kids and parted it out.

I'm on the fence about either looking for a crashed up 05-10 S197 to gut and build over time, or just buy a nice 11+ GT and just lightly mod it as I go. My inner drift nerd wants gutted and caged, but my sensible adult side wants comfort, AC, radio, interior, etc.
 
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C.Love

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Nice build, those brutal SD winters make you do some silly stuff in the off season... Me and the UPS guy where BFF's when I was stationed there... I had the Bullitt then and it never saw snow...


My car doesn't see much snow either. Then again the winters on my side of the state aren't usually that bad, so i can drive it if need be. Even with our mild, compared to the other side of the state, winter i still hate cold and snow
 

C.Love

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Thats the Chase.

Seems we aren't so different. I sold my car for several reasons one of which was kids and another was no time due to family and a career. I remember that car, people on ZT still poke fun at the paint from time to time. ha ha. I don't know why the paint really matters honestly.

The s197 chassis is so much better than the other versions. More balanced, handle better with less effort and then the fact they have some steering angle and getting more isn't that hard. I also hope the 15+ rear IRS setup can be adapted to it. I personally hate the straight axle.

If you visit copart you can find crashed cars for cheap. Heck I've seen some 05 v6's go for 500 bucks. I think 11's go for 9k + depending on the damage. If you want a racecar go that route for a nice daily I would get a nice one.

If you want decent suspension out of the box and want power with little effort the 5.0 is the way to go. Intake, tune, headers, cat delete, mufflers, boss intake manifold, and tune you can get 430 ish wheel. Add in suspension and some good seats the cars can be alot of fun. I also have to say coilovers helped a ton too.


I feel the drift nerd part as I want to do the same. I had a ton of fun at the track days I was able to go to. I am sure in due time this car will be gutted and caged.

if you get a 2013(maybe a 12) you can find Recaro seat option ones which are the best thing to get in my opinion. However, you can find 11's for alot cheaper. I also prefer the 2013 front ends more. Either way the s197 5.0 is a pretty good car for the price you pay. Also amenities wise the premium package interior seems alot better than the cloth interior IMO
 

C.Love

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I finally got my seats installed. Took a few months to set the seat brackets. The Corbeau brackets mated with Sparco seats took some doing but it all works. I had to relocate the sliders and drill a few new holes. Weight savings was about 33lbs a side. I also feel more connected to the car. With no suspension settings changes the car feels more controllable and more stable. I figured sliding around in the stock leather things was bad but didn't expect my perception of the cars handling to change. So in short seats are a huge bonus



After this i don't know where to go next. As I mentioned knuckles are a thought and so is saving my pennies for long tubes and a boss intake mani or option three leave the damn thing alone.

I also need to rent out the lot we drift in to do some testing as a bit of street style here and there makes it hard to evaluate whats needed next.
 
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GallopingFord

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Very nice seats.

I'm with you on the IRS as well. I would swap it into my GT500 (as long as it could hold the power relatively well).

Also I may be stealing that color you have on your F14's I love it.
 
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