1994 Mustang GT money pit I mean project

joe_momma

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So I got to work on the shift knob last night. Confirmed that the shifter and handle are indeed Hurst, but it was 1/2-20 threads rather than 3/8-16. Not sure when that changed, but it did. I stopped by China Freight on the way home and picked up 2 "carbon steel" tap/die sets (SAE/Metric). Dad didn't think much of them until later...more to come on that.

Here you can clearly see the H on the handle, and the threads after some quick work by the bench grinder.
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So, dad pulls out his ancient but hardly used tap/die set. We get to work on the handle, and can't get it to start even with a nice taper on the end of the handle. He suggests we try my new set and wouldn't you know, after some initial fiddling, I finally get it to start. New threads complete, ball and nut mount up perfect. I have to say, I've not had any bad luck with the HF Pittsburg branded tools. Heck, even the 1/4" ratchet I got to replace my Craftsman junked one is nice. A heck of a lot nicer than the Craftsman it replaced.

Back at my house, I set in on replacing the handle. I ended up spending another hour or hour and a half dicking around with the shifter. I adjusted the stops on the base, and had to re-glue the foam/rubber gasket around the lower shift boot to the frame, as it was coming off. Then, one of the clips that hold the bolts broke, and fell out under the car. Of course, it was the last one and I had the other three already in and snug. I had to retrieve that, I just taped it together enough for it to hold on long enough to get the bolt started. I didn't get a pic of the new assembly, it's just a black Hurst ball that we've all seen. I might get one at lunch if I swap out for the car. I was going to drive it this morning but the weather is yucky - it was supposed to be nice today. It might be nice later.
 

joe_momma

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Made some progress on the car this weekend. Got the new speed sensor and gear installed, below you can see why the speedo only worked sometimes.
It was chewed up pretty good.
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I was a bit surprised, as there was no speedo cable. I was expecting a cable, but there wasn't one. I also broke the retaining clip off the plug when I removed it, hopefully it stays on but if not I'll get a new plug ordered. They are only about $10-12, but it would be a huge PITA to try and get it replaced on jackstands.

I also took another stab at the vinyl on the back, and had some pretty good success finally. I watched a few more videos on YT, and discovered the trick is to lay the vinyl at an angle, making sure to cover the entire area. This allows you to lay the vinyl "flat", instead of trying to get it to lay flat across the curve if that makes sense. Luckily, the vinyl I bought was pretty wide (12" I think) so I had enough to cover the whole dox matrix area. I've got a few bubbles in it still and my cut on the passenger side top isn't very clean, but it came out pretty good. I think I can improve on it once I see how this holds up. That, and I need a better squeegie. I was just using an old ID card.

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I'm not sure how well I like it yet, but I think it will grow on me. It certainly looks better from inside, there's no daylight showing at the top of the glass. The wife didn't care for it.

And, here's a side shot from last week just because:
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joe_momma

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Thanks bro!

At lunch it greeted me with a Low Oil light. I checked it when I got home, nothing registered on the dip stick. So, I parked it and will have to investigate that issue when I have the time. I had probably 1/3 of a quart of oil and added that. When I moved it to park it, the light was off. I need to get some oil and a filter and do a change, haven't done that since I got it last fall. It doesn't have any miles to speak of, but I'm not sure how long it has been since the PO changed it. Plus, that will give me an idea of how much oil is actually in it.
 

joe_momma

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Did an oil change this weekend. Picked up a filter and some Pennzoil 10w30 from Amazon. I couldn't find "regular" Pennzoil around here (at least not at Wal-Mart or online at AZone or O'reilly). I went with that because that's what the PO had used apparently, as it is written in Sharpie on the underside of the hood. Who does that? Anyway....It was nasty, glad I did the change. And, I'm sure it was from a quick lube place, but it had some no-name oil filter on it. T1 or someshit. It was a complete different shape (thinner and longer) than the Motorcraft I replaced it with. Plus, the asshole that put it on must have used some sort of impact on it lol. My filter wrench didn't fit it, and it was all I could do to get it off by hand, and I consider myself "above average" in the strength department. Anyway, that's done.
 

joe_momma

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So I finally got both pieces of the Explorer intake. Saturday was nice so I set about cleaning/painting them. The cleaning wasn't too bad, I used Simple Green and a couple of brass brushes. They cleaned up pretty well. Painting was straight-forward, although I probably spent way too much time taping stuff off. I used VHT Engine Enamel in Cast Aluminum.

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Taping "important" areas off before painting:
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I didn't paint the bottom, just taped the ports off:
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Painting:
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Finished product:
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I think it turned out pretty good. I did three coats, allowing it to flash off between. It was warm and windy, so I gave it about 10 minutes between coats.


I also bumped the timing up, it was stock. It idled fine, but I didn't have a chance to drive it afterwards. Curious to see how much of a difference it makes. I set it between 12 and 14 degrees, it was hard to tell with the timing light I have (it's possibly as old as I am, or close to it).
 

tjm73

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Pushrod 5.0's respond well to timing advancements. My '90 back in the day was at 14. I was all stock with a B303 and 1.72 roller rockers. Iron heads. Never pinged on 89. I never tried 87 as it was only about 10 cents more a gallon and gas was a lot cheaper then.
 

joe_momma

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Good deal. It should be fine, I run 93 in it anyway.
 

tjm73

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You could run mid-grade. Maybe even 87 swill. Won't hurt to try for a tank.
 

joe_momma

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No more than I drive it, a couple bucks per tank won't break me lol. I'd rather err on the side of caution anyway, it has 156k on the clock and I don't really want to have to rebuild it (yet).
 

joe_momma

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Intake looks great!

Thanks man! I'd love to go ahead and install it, but I don't really want to have to tear into it twice. I'll probably wait until I at least get a cam and possibly heads before I do the install.
 

joe_momma

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Replaced the tensioner pulley on Friday. It was making noise when the AC was running. It was definitely shot, there was something coming out of the back of it.

I also ordered some budget eBay seats, they should be here this week.
 

07gts197

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Good thing you figured out that sound. Eventually it would have driven you crazy lol.

Let us know how the seats are. They look decent but there’s a reason they’re cheaper than name brand seats.


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joe_momma

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Good thing you figured out that sound. Eventually it would have driven you crazy lol.

Let us know how the seats are. They look decent but there’s a reason they’re cheaper than name brand seats.


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Agreed. Noises like that will drive you crazy. Plus, it was all kinds of embarrassing. The seats should be here Friday per tracking, but we all know how shipping has been lately. I'm hoping they are delivered on time, that would allow me to work on mounting/brackets this weekend.
 

golkhl

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Making the brackets is going to be a p.i.t.a, make sure you have some flat stock steel, a good drill motor, and sharp drill bits.
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joe_momma

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Got the seats in, they're actually pretty decent. I noticed a few places that would look "better" on a nicer seat, but for what I paid, these will be dandy. By that, I mean the staples in the underside of the seat back didn't look very professional, but it won't be seen.

Install:

Tackled the passenger seat first, as I figured it would be easiest (and I was right). Essentially, removed the included tracks and just transferred over the factory track from the original seat. I had to drill a new hole in each side of the track to mount to the new seat, but that was pretty straight-forward. The only issue was that in one of the new seat holes, the threads got fouled up somehow. Maybe shavings from drilling or something, I don't know. So, I ended up having to chase the threads with my tap. Finally got that sorted out, and the new seat is in. Looks really good. Their gray is a bit lighter than the factory opal, but it is certainly close enough. The material feels pretty good for "pleather". The seats definitely hold better than the factory. If you're a bigger guy, they will be snug. They're pretty tight across my back. For reference, I have a decent athletic build, 5'11" 230#, 36" waist.

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Seat height is good, based on my limited seat time.

Then, the real struggle began. Started taking out the driver seat, undid the rear bolts and went to the move the seat back so I could get to the front nuts. Well, the seat decided it was done moving. It would not go back (and was all the way forward at this time). Everything else worked - up, down, lumbar, etc....but it wouldn't go back. I even wedged myself in and tried to assist, but the motor just wasn't doing anything in reverse. So, I had to take the front nuts off with an open-end wrench, 1/4 turn at a time. I couldn't get a socket on it or my ratcheting wrench on it because the seat track was in the way. That was fun. Finally got it out.

Of course, the factory power seat track wasn't going to work on the new seat. So, I'm going to have to fab up some way to attach the factory mounting bracket to the new tracks. I think I can take some flat stock and weld the factory brackets to that, then bolt that assembly to the new seat tracks. At least that is the plan. Here's what I'm working with:

New seat tracks:
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Factory bracket:
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The factory mounting bracket is actually two pieces riveted together for each side. One piece is part of the track, the other is the actual mounting bracket portion. I should be able to cut/drill the rivets out and weld that up with the bar stock to make a new seat mounting bracket/frame.
 

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