Sorry you have to go through that. There are few owners of used homes who don't question the sanity and intelligence of the previous owners. I think that's especially true of cool cars like Mustangs.
I installed BBK shorties a few years ago. I was able to reuse some of the fasteners.
I will say this - use 6-point sockets only! Those little studs will round off in a heartbeat with 12pt sockets.
So I tried a 7/32" wrench on the piston rod on my rear shocks. The weirdo wrench shattered before I could torque down the shocks upper nuts. An adjustable wrench didn't work so great, and vise grips were about to tear it up. Turned out what I needed was
Used that and a torque wrench on a...
I look back at the bolt ons I installed on my foxbodies: bigger MAS, 65mm tb, ported intake, GT40 heads, 1.72 roller rockers, headers, etc. It took a lot of time and money. I probably could have had more power at less cost and time if i had installed a vortec.
Biggest bang for the buck was underdrive pulleys.
You have a lot of easy options for brake upgrades. Braided stainless steels hoses are easy & inexpensive. Upgrading to 2011 rotors is pretty easy, and there are other options.
My car has about 160k miles, and I've changed all the control arms...
I had the feeling I waited way too long to replace them. I saw some people replace shocks/struts at 50k, and I was three times that.
I was just unrealistic. I would push down on the rear, and the car would operate normally. I thought I was ok. It was only when I hopped up and used my fully...
I finally changed the rear shocks on my 08 GT. My baby only had 160k miles.
I noticed that the motor would redline whenever it was pulling hard and I hit a bump in Michigan's wonderful roads.
I installed some Monroe OESpectrum shocks today. I don't race my car, and it's my daily driver...