Paul's 2011 Race Red GT Build

[Dalpilot]

Since my car is indeed a daily driver, which includes trips to Home Depot to pick up messy things like potted plants for my girlfriend, I got this handy-dandy trunk mat. I opened the box and it looks like Ford shipped me a Schnauser as well. I guess that's a free gift.


They all come with Schanusers.

 

[Paul.]

I've been in Seattle for a couple of weeks doing some schooling for work. Came back, and had a new box to open.

This is my adjustable panhard bar and relocation bracket from Freedom Racing. I got it so I can center the axle again after I lowered the car. The relocation bracket is so it will clear my '13 GT500 finned aluminum diff cover. Urethane ends instead of heim joints so hopefully I don't get much more noise through the suspension.




I need to tackle my rear brakes tomorrow since they're shot. (which is another issue altogether) Hopefully all goes well and I'll have some pics of the new rear brakes, panhard bar, and diff cover all installed by tomorrow night.

Paul.

 

[Paul.]

I spent the day in the garage today. Nothing like 100+ degree temps and monsoon humidity to make for a great day in the garage. First few hours were aimed at trying to clean up a bit and organize. The last few times I've worked on the notch I've sort of left things in disarray. It's still a mess, but less of a mess.

Around 3 p.m. I started on the brakes, and called it quits around 9 p.m. My girlfriend kept distracting me all day to help her with some yardwork, so I didn't get as much dedicated time as I would've liked. Anyway, here's some progress...


My rear brakes were totally shot. The car only has 16,000 miles on it, so I find this very odd; however, the dealership says "with these new ABS units" this is common. I dunno, but that's for another tech thread. So here's some pics of the OEM rear brakes before I started the tear down. Notice the damage to the rotors.





Here's the OEM panhard bar and diff cover. Since my car is lowered a bit, my axle isn't centered.


Factory 3.73s.


My new adjustable panhard bar from Freedom Racing with urethane bushings to cut down on NVH (versus heim joints).


After some work and a bit of a mess, the axles came out.


Old brakes and axle brackets removed. I pulled the anti-moan brackets after I snapped this picture since they're not used with the new axle brackets.


New, much larger axle brackets installed. Since my car is an '11 GT, I didn't have to remove the calipers. They are the same as the '13 GT500, so I figured there was no point in installing the new ones and having to bleed the brakes for nothing. Now I have an extra set of calipers. I was going to powdercoat the brackets myself, but since I have to drive the car to work on Tuesday, I decided not to go to all the trouble of getting out all my powdercoating stuff and having to beadblast stuff.


Here's the old rotors vs the new hotness. They are huge!


I got the diff buttoned back up, (except one bolt, which I'll explain later) and the axles, rotors, and caliper anchors all installed. Tomorrow I'll run to AutoZone and get some nice quiet new street pads, then finish the calipers, and fill the diff. Once that's done, I'll get the new panhard bar put in, and adjust to get my axle centered in the chassis. If time allows, I'll clean up the wheels a bit, and get a carwash. Overall, the job isn't really that hard, just a bit time consuming. Especially when you're doing it by yourself and have to get up and down from underneath the car a bunch of times. Regardless, new cars are WAY easier to work on than my stupid old notch.

I'll get all the finished install pics up tomorrow hopefully.

Paul.

 

[chon]

Looks good Paul!

 

[Paul.]

All finished up! Here's the pics.

New panhard bar installed, along with the GT500 diff cover. I need to play with it a little more. The wheels are better than they were before, but I still need to pull it right about a 1/8 inch.



New rear brakes all buttoned up.


I've been keeping track of the weight that comes off / goes on so I can see how much total weight got added. The OEM panhard bar weighs 7 pounds. My new one wasn't heavy enough to trigger my cheapo bathroom scale, so I don't know what the difference is there.


The old axle brackets and anti-moan brackets come in at 11 pounds. Since the new anchors are 5 pounds each, the big brackets are actually a pound lighter than the OEM stuff.


The old rotors are 13 pounds each, and the new ones are 15.8 pounds each, for a total of 5.6 pounds of added weight for the rotors. So taking away the pound saved in the axle bracketry, the 13.75" rear brake setup comes in a total of 4.6 pounds heavier than the old stuff. I probably saved most of that with my new panhard bar, so I think this was almost a neutral weight mod, plus it looks great!

I spent some time scrubbing my wheels down before I put 'em back on. Much better now. Still need taller tires though. The new brakes fill up the wheels much better. Looks like they belong there.






All done! The car looks so much more balanced with "matching" brakes front and back. My next project is to paint and install the new 15" 6 piston units, but that's for another day. Overall, a relatively straightforward install.


Paul.

 

[Paul.]

Today I tackled the very tough job of installed in my GT500 interior bits and a few other things. This included my new '13 GT500 steering wheel, shifter boot, and parking brake boot, along with my rubber trunk mat and license plate frame. This install is worth approximately a thousand horsepowers and eight hundred torques.


So anyway, the new stuff is really nice, and fits well with the rest of my ultra-deluxe interior. I love it. Plus, this whole job takes a whopping half hour to do. Can't beat it, especially for the small amount of money it costs to buy all this crap.

OEM shifter boot from a 401A car:


OEM parking brake boot:


OEM steering wheel:


The center console simply unsnaps and pops out. Then unhook a couple electrical connections. I used a strap wrench to loosen the shifter ball.


The parking brake boot is easy too. Feel around the bottom where it snaps into the center console, and push the little retaining clips in while pulling up on the boot with your other hand. Take 10 seconds. Then it has a little elastic stretchy thing on the end of it that you need to open up a bit to slide it over the parking brake handle.


I did ream out the little plastic ring in the shifter boot a little so the shifter ball would counter sink into it. Not sure if I actually had to, but it seemed like a good idea. Here's some pics of everything installed. I really like it. It's got Alcantara. Say it to yourself... "All-can-tair-ahhhh." Yep, it's that good.




Just to make everyone jelly, here's the view out the roof. I love it.


New trunk mat. Should help everything stay clean. Neato.


Brushed stainless license plate cover. Serious business.



Running out of easy stuff to do to the car. I still need to paint and install my huge front brakes. However, it's still hot out. Maybe in the next few weeks. I want to tint the front headlights too. And buy taller back tires. After that, I'm running out of ideas. I still want to do a blower - I'm considering the Roush TVS instead of the Paxton. No messing with my GT/CS foglights to make the intercooler work, and it would make retarded insta-torque. Plus, I could save a little cash by not buying the inevitable Boss manifold and matching strut tower brace that I'd do with the Paxton.

So what do you guys think of the interior stuff? Anything I'm missing? Any other tasteful mods I can do to the car?

Paul.

 

[UltraKla$$ic]

Easily pushing 900+hp with all that!

 

[GrnBullitt08]

Looks good. I'm about ready to tear down my rear brakes again due to the squeaking I can't seem to rid them of.

 

[Digital_Synapse]

So nice.

 

[cmrad]

car looks great paul!

 

[Paul.]

Came across a '13 decklid panel for cheap to replace the one that came on my car. I like the '13 ones much better, and may end up converting to '13 taillights at some point anyway. (except they're almost a grand )



Here's my existing one.


Paul.

 

[swedensky]

Came across a '13 decklid panel for cheap to replace the one that came on my car. I like the '13 ones much better, and may end up converting to '13 taillights at some point anyway. (except they're almost a grand )

You just missed a set of 13-14 tail lights on SVTP for $450..maybe they're still available?

Also you'll have to keep us updated on the deck lid, since they have all those clips on the back.
I'm Getting my panel replaced free because it turned like green =/

 

[Paul.]

I've never had an account on SVTP due to the reputation of that place being chock full o' fucktards. I just registered, and it appears that new members cannot view the classifieds, so it looks like I can't look for them. Thank you for the heads up though. If you see them, I'd be interested in 'em.

I'm going to cut the clips off and attach it with 3m tape.

Paul.

 

[swedensky]

There's a few people calling dibs but here's the link for when you can open it:

http://www.svtperformance.com/forum...arts-393/971130-feeler-13-14-tail-lights.html

 

[Paul.]

Yep, I can open it. It looks like a stupid feeler ad, plus people already have dibs. I'd want to see pics and make sure everything is working anyway.

Thank you for the link.

Paul.

 

[Paul.]

Yesterday I dyno'd and weighed the car for fun.

The car is totally mechanically stock, and made more power than I thought it would. The cold, dry air was being good to me I guess. I predicted it would make somewhere around 365 rwhp.

Run conditions were:
- 63 degrees Fahrenheit
- 28.90 in-Hg
- 18% Humidity
- SAE 1.00 Corrected

Best numbers after some cool down were 375 rwhp and 364 rwtq.







After the dyno, went to a buddy's house to weigh the car on some fancy road race scales. The car weighs 3616 pounds the way it sits with about four gallons of gas. That was a little less than I expected since my car is definitely a heavyweight with all the options, especially the glass roof.






Still need to paint and install my '13 GT500 front brakes. I'm lazy and have been procrastinating.

Paul.

 

[mattadams6552]

Great thread, Love the car! Im anxious to see how the new decklid panel looks. I probably hate that most about my car now. My car is also RaceRed, and im scared if i take the ugly thing off, that there will be to much red on the back of it.

 

[arabbit]

Your car looks great!

 

[mustang0672]

Awesome Build. Just read the whole thread. I just picked up a 2014 5.0 so it should be fun.

 

[SonicBlur]

Killer!! I wish I bought a Red Mustang!