Since i'm not doing a lot of r/c and probably most of us r/c guys are also car guys and a few of you guys said you wanna see it,here is my Mustang GT project thread.
How it came to be:
I have been wanting to get a project car for years,the lack there-of is why I got into r/c. The problem has been getting my wife to approve Now my son is getting older,13,and he wants to get involved with cars so he has been bugging me and my wife to get something we can work on together. Of course my wife has a harder time saying no to him so she finally caved and said we could get something but it had to be something my son likes and not just my kind of car.
I confess,I'm a craigslist addict! I search craigslist all the time and for the last few months my son and I have looked at cars,cars and more cars. The Ford Mustang is one that always seems to come up as something my son likes and although not my favorite car,it is a tolerable choice. Plus they are everywhere so parts should be reasonable and easy to find. A week before Thanksgiving I saw the add for this car - 1995 Mustand GT 5.0, Runs and drives but need some work. Lost interest and need to sell,too many other projects $1000 firm. I didn't call the day I saw it but the next day I decided I was going to. I checked back and the ad was updated. Now says - It would not start today,not sure why $1000 OBO. My first thought was they went out for a "last" ride and blew it up but I called anyways and got all the info I could on it. After digesting it all I decided to let it go.
During the next week while surfing craigslist I kept checking back on that car. i had found a couple of 5.0 engines cheap and was thinking if I could get the price down to $750 - $800,the car might still be worth having. On Black Friday the ad was still active so I decided I wanted to go look the car over in person. I called and the car was indeed still there so I arranged to go check it out. My son,brother and I drove down to Tulsa to see if it was worth having and possibly try to buy it if it was in our opinion.
Here's what we saw when we arrived(Finally some Pics!):
I messaged the guy when I was leaving Joplin and again when I was 15-20min away to let him know I was actually going to show up. But no,he waits until I drive up then comes out and says the keys are at his brother's house and his buddy is just now going to leave and go get them but it'll "only take 10 minutes". So we start checking over everything we can see from the outside. Then 45 minutes later we finally have keys. The car definitely needs some TLC but there are a lot of good things I like too. I asked about the engine and why it wouldn't start and he assured me it wasn't blown but didn't know why it would not start. I asked if I could try anyway to start it and with approval I stuck the key in and turned it. Low and behold it came to life. He did tell me the automatic trans was probably bad but it did go into gear when I shifted the lever. I could not drive it due to a flat tire and no spare. After thoroughly checking it out here's what we found:
Good:
Bottom end of engine sounded tight - no rattles/smoke
Aftermarket Cold Air Intake
BBK shorty headers
Aftermarket strut tower brace
Aftermarket suspension parts - struts,springs,sway bars
Flowmaster mufflers and off-road x-pipe
"Bullitt" rims
Aftermarket fiberglass 3 scoop hood
HID headlights
Complete Car
Clear Title
Cheap Price
Bad:
A lifter was rattling - #5 according to a mechanic
Stripped fitting on EGR tube
Big header gasket leaks
Bad transmission
Radiator way low and water only in it
Mis-matched tires - one sidewall torn
No tailpipes
Poor paint job/needs a bit of body work
Front seats ripped/torn
I saw enough potential in the the car and I know how to fix about everything it needs so I decided I was going to try to buy it. For me,I had already determined my price but after it started I wasn't sure they would negotiate much on their price. For what I wanted to give I thought the car had enough potential plus enough extra parts if I changed my mind I wouldn't have any problem recovering my investment. Time to negotiate. I hit them with all the bad items I saw then asked what his bottom dollar was. He conferred with his buddies then hit me at $800. My brain was going BINGO! that was my max price but I didn't want to show it. I always try to go as low as I can. I glanced at a couple of things on the car and looked at my brother and asked what he thought. After little head shaking and making a few faces of thought,I told them the most I would pay is $750 and we'd haul it home. He looked at his buddies again,they shook there head then told me ok if you have the cash on you. Done Deal!
Now for the adventure of getting it home. They knew a notary so the title was no problem. I wasn't sure on buying it before I came down to look it over so I didn't rent a trailer. I figured as big as Tulsa is,one of the U-haul places would have one. Wrong! All I could find was a tow dolly. So we drove across town to pick it up. Of course they ask all kinds of questions about what I'm towing and then they tell me on this car I have to remove the driveshaft. Putting it in neutral was not good enough. I did a Google search on my phone to find out that indeed the overdrive would be damaged if I did not remove the drive shaft. The trans may not be good but I don't want to make it worse if I am going to rebuild it. Great,drive back to the car with the dolly.
I figured it would be no problem to fire up the car and drive in on after fixing the flat. I had my air compressor and a lot of tools with me and tried to air up the tire. This is when I found out it was more than flat,the inner sidewall was ripped on the tire. Plan B,put the spare donut tire on. It's flat too but luckily it holds air. Changing it isn't as simple as it should be,the car has lowering springs on it so it hard to get the jack under it. With the tire finally changed,now to get the car on the dolly. Ummmm.... another problem. The lowering springs strike again. The chain anchors on the dolly stick up higher than the platform the tires will sit on so the front bumper will be damaged if we just drive up the ramps. After some thought I notice the driveway is raised up from the street so if I can back the car up on the top of the driveway then back the the dolly up to edge we can make it a level drive onto the dolly. That works well and the car is quickly on,tied down ready to go. But wait,still gotta get the driveshaft out. I thought the way it was setting on the dolly hanging out over the slope of the driveway I could get under and remove it but I was wrong. My belly is too big. My brother noticed a set of car ramps in back of the yard of the sellers who had long since left us to go to ball game. So we helped ourselves and borrowed them. There was enough room to set them on the slope of the driveway and pull the car forward onto them. Now I can get under the car no problem. I have the right wrench - fits perfect but the darn bolts are so tight I can't budge them. I ask my son for the hammer but he says it's not in the case. and my brother concurs. No hammer. So I have my son find a rock to use as a hammer and I'm able to break the bolts loose. After I finally get the shaft loose,I use a ratchet tie strap and strap it on top of the muffler. Finally,we can take the car home!
Wow,that made for a long day,we got home around 10pm. Now we have a project to play with and I can't wait to dig in on it. Sorry for such a long post,but I thought someone my get a chuckle over all the hassles. The rest of my updates should be mostly pictures,the way we all like it
How it came to be:
I have been wanting to get a project car for years,the lack there-of is why I got into r/c. The problem has been getting my wife to approve Now my son is getting older,13,and he wants to get involved with cars so he has been bugging me and my wife to get something we can work on together. Of course my wife has a harder time saying no to him so she finally caved and said we could get something but it had to be something my son likes and not just my kind of car.
I confess,I'm a craigslist addict! I search craigslist all the time and for the last few months my son and I have looked at cars,cars and more cars. The Ford Mustang is one that always seems to come up as something my son likes and although not my favorite car,it is a tolerable choice. Plus they are everywhere so parts should be reasonable and easy to find. A week before Thanksgiving I saw the add for this car - 1995 Mustand GT 5.0, Runs and drives but need some work. Lost interest and need to sell,too many other projects $1000 firm. I didn't call the day I saw it but the next day I decided I was going to. I checked back and the ad was updated. Now says - It would not start today,not sure why $1000 OBO. My first thought was they went out for a "last" ride and blew it up but I called anyways and got all the info I could on it. After digesting it all I decided to let it go.
During the next week while surfing craigslist I kept checking back on that car. i had found a couple of 5.0 engines cheap and was thinking if I could get the price down to $750 - $800,the car might still be worth having. On Black Friday the ad was still active so I decided I wanted to go look the car over in person. I called and the car was indeed still there so I arranged to go check it out. My son,brother and I drove down to Tulsa to see if it was worth having and possibly try to buy it if it was in our opinion.
Here's what we saw when we arrived(Finally some Pics!):
I messaged the guy when I was leaving Joplin and again when I was 15-20min away to let him know I was actually going to show up. But no,he waits until I drive up then comes out and says the keys are at his brother's house and his buddy is just now going to leave and go get them but it'll "only take 10 minutes". So we start checking over everything we can see from the outside. Then 45 minutes later we finally have keys. The car definitely needs some TLC but there are a lot of good things I like too. I asked about the engine and why it wouldn't start and he assured me it wasn't blown but didn't know why it would not start. I asked if I could try anyway to start it and with approval I stuck the key in and turned it. Low and behold it came to life. He did tell me the automatic trans was probably bad but it did go into gear when I shifted the lever. I could not drive it due to a flat tire and no spare. After thoroughly checking it out here's what we found:
Good:
Bottom end of engine sounded tight - no rattles/smoke
Aftermarket Cold Air Intake
BBK shorty headers
Aftermarket strut tower brace
Aftermarket suspension parts - struts,springs,sway bars
Flowmaster mufflers and off-road x-pipe
"Bullitt" rims
Aftermarket fiberglass 3 scoop hood
HID headlights
Complete Car
Clear Title
Cheap Price
Bad:
A lifter was rattling - #5 according to a mechanic
Stripped fitting on EGR tube
Big header gasket leaks
Bad transmission
Radiator way low and water only in it
Mis-matched tires - one sidewall torn
No tailpipes
Poor paint job/needs a bit of body work
Front seats ripped/torn
I saw enough potential in the the car and I know how to fix about everything it needs so I decided I was going to try to buy it. For me,I had already determined my price but after it started I wasn't sure they would negotiate much on their price. For what I wanted to give I thought the car had enough potential plus enough extra parts if I changed my mind I wouldn't have any problem recovering my investment. Time to negotiate. I hit them with all the bad items I saw then asked what his bottom dollar was. He conferred with his buddies then hit me at $800. My brain was going BINGO! that was my max price but I didn't want to show it. I always try to go as low as I can. I glanced at a couple of things on the car and looked at my brother and asked what he thought. After little head shaking and making a few faces of thought,I told them the most I would pay is $750 and we'd haul it home. He looked at his buddies again,they shook there head then told me ok if you have the cash on you. Done Deal!
Now for the adventure of getting it home. They knew a notary so the title was no problem. I wasn't sure on buying it before I came down to look it over so I didn't rent a trailer. I figured as big as Tulsa is,one of the U-haul places would have one. Wrong! All I could find was a tow dolly. So we drove across town to pick it up. Of course they ask all kinds of questions about what I'm towing and then they tell me on this car I have to remove the driveshaft. Putting it in neutral was not good enough. I did a Google search on my phone to find out that indeed the overdrive would be damaged if I did not remove the drive shaft. The trans may not be good but I don't want to make it worse if I am going to rebuild it. Great,drive back to the car with the dolly.
I figured it would be no problem to fire up the car and drive in on after fixing the flat. I had my air compressor and a lot of tools with me and tried to air up the tire. This is when I found out it was more than flat,the inner sidewall was ripped on the tire. Plan B,put the spare donut tire on. It's flat too but luckily it holds air. Changing it isn't as simple as it should be,the car has lowering springs on it so it hard to get the jack under it. With the tire finally changed,now to get the car on the dolly. Ummmm.... another problem. The lowering springs strike again. The chain anchors on the dolly stick up higher than the platform the tires will sit on so the front bumper will be damaged if we just drive up the ramps. After some thought I notice the driveway is raised up from the street so if I can back the car up on the top of the driveway then back the the dolly up to edge we can make it a level drive onto the dolly. That works well and the car is quickly on,tied down ready to go. But wait,still gotta get the driveshaft out. I thought the way it was setting on the dolly hanging out over the slope of the driveway I could get under and remove it but I was wrong. My belly is too big. My brother noticed a set of car ramps in back of the yard of the sellers who had long since left us to go to ball game. So we helped ourselves and borrowed them. There was enough room to set them on the slope of the driveway and pull the car forward onto them. Now I can get under the car no problem. I have the right wrench - fits perfect but the darn bolts are so tight I can't budge them. I ask my son for the hammer but he says it's not in the case. and my brother concurs. No hammer. So I have my son find a rock to use as a hammer and I'm able to break the bolts loose. After I finally get the shaft loose,I use a ratchet tie strap and strap it on top of the muffler. Finally,we can take the car home!
Wow,that made for a long day,we got home around 10pm. Now we have a project to play with and I can't wait to dig in on it. Sorry for such a long post,but I thought someone my get a chuckle over all the hassles. The rest of my updates should be mostly pictures,the way we all like it