It all begins with finding this GT. It has been in my home town since new as far as I can trace it. I will be restoring the car totally with a few added features.

It was entirely stock when I bought it, with an amazingly decent body as a foundation which is why I chose to invest the next couple years rebuilding it to the way I wanted it.

Got a lot of pictures so far of the process I have been going through with this car. Just need to find them and sort them out.

My plans for this car were and still are

5.0 EFI with HP turbo kit Stage I
4R70W transmission with Baumann controller
EBoost2 controller
5 bolt conversion with upgraded brake system and 18" wheels
Full Bassani exhaust

 

cool! a electronic control transmission swap, a couple of my lightning friends are using Baumann for theirs an love it!

Danny

 

Once I got the car home I began the task of stripping the whole car down to just a shell. This took a fair bit of time because I had to catalogue all the pieces, nuts, bolts, screws so I knew where they came from.

I wasn't planning on keeping any of the original wiring or engine/drive train so I had to just be concerned with interior stuff as well as how all the t-top pieces would go back on. For anyone who hasn't experienced all the pieces to a t-top car.....its crazy how many pieces make up this unit. Luckily I managed to find a parts supplier that had a manual on how to reassemble all the t-top components. This will come in handy in about a year when I can't remember where most of the stuff goes.

 

The car was really sound for its age and although there was only a handful of very small rust pit holes on the rear fenderlips, which I could have very easily repaired, I chose to cut the entire quarters off the car and replace them with a couple mint quarters I had saved from another project of mine.

I have a couple of very good friends that own a body shop. They told me I could use the shop to get the car done. Over the last few years they have shown me most of the skills which I was going to need to tackle this big of a job.
I wanted to do all the body work myself. And aside from some very minor blending and the paint job I did all the fabricating and body prep to this car.

Probably about 400 hours into this car. Its not show quality by any means, but I am pretty happy with what I managed to do,not being a autobody guy whatsoever.

 

After sandblasting and stripping the entire car with aircraft stripper, I had one other small repair to do. I wanted to add a little strength back into the front engine compartment as well as clean up some of the 1 million hole that Ford decided these cars needed.

I found a soft spot on the drivers front rail. It ended up being a rather large cancer hole.

So I purchased some sheet metal and made some new rails.

 

Original car had manual doors and windows. Wanted to go with electric so I converted a pair of non t-top doors over. Just had to measure and cut the door frames off. Only other modification to do will be to remove the glass from the original doors and install into these doors. T-top glass is longer of course.

 

Quarter panels welded in place. All surfaces primed and sanded for paint.

 

Had decided after looking at a lot of colors to go with Tungsten Silver with a black stripe. Tungsten Silver is the color Ford used on the Ford GT. Paint has a fair amount of pearl in it.

Lighting in the shop doesn't help show what the color looks like really.

Painted the engine bay and T-top first. Then masked off those parts and did the body. All doors, hatch, hood and bumpers were painted off the car.

 

Took a couple days to get all the parts fastened on and sort of aligned to get the car ready for the trip home. Now the fun part begins.

 

Great build !! I'm subscribing

 

One hard lesson I learned about this project so far is that when you decide to sandblast a whole car...........DON'T.

It takes forever and you really never ever get rid of all the sand. I spent so long with a vacuum and air hose blowing out every nook and cranny. And to this date I am still seeing a little sand show up. Probably a better way to do it would be a media blast or something. I hadn't budgeted for "dip" either. It was going to cost me around $3000 to have the whole car sodium dipped. And the process was going to take about 6 months to complete. So I opted for the cheap way.

So after getting all the inside floor area completely clean I installed sound deadening. For anyone looking to do this I found a very reasonable alternative to the very expensive dynomat. If you interested in any of the stuff I used just send me a PM and I will try to help ya out with contact info.

Needless to say I was able to do the whole inside of the car with this stuff for $80.

http://www.b-quiet.com/

 

The drive train was my first area of business. I planned on doing a 5 bolt conversion as well as changing out the posi to an Eaton unit. I purchased Moser 31 spline axles as well. I will be starting out running 373's to see how they are. A lot of people I have seen seem to be running 355 gears with a turbo car. I guess I will find out. Not a real big deal to swap em out.

Had a buddy weld up my axle tubes and mounts on the diff, before getting the whole thing powder coated.

 

Thanks. You can send money too if ya like

-Tim

 

I managed to buy some used SN95 rear brake calipers and also front spindles. Had to order up some North Racecar brackets to compensate for the 3/4" difference in track width.

Purchased new Baer Decelarotors for front and back.
Found some used PBR front calipers off a 2003 stang. Man are they ever light compared to the stock SN single piston calipers. Rebuilt them and hit them with a little high heat paint. Look brand new. Should hopefully have a little better stopping power with them.
Using HAWK pads both front and back. Hopefully they don't chew up my rotors too soon.

Installed Tokico shock front and back. All new urethane bushings, bearings.

 

Wanted to get away from the familiar sight of Cobra wheels on mustangs. Did a fair bit of looking around and decided to buy a set of TSW's. For tires I went with Dunlop Direzza DZ101's....255/35/18 on all corners.

Haven't got any good pictures of the car with the tires and wheels. Haven't quite got to the stage where the car will leave my garage under its own steam.

 

Your doing what i wanted to do to my 84gt , I think the early foxs look Badass done up right. I ended getting rid of it becuase i did'nt have the space time or cash to doit right , So I'm gonna Live it through your build.

 

I wanted to have a different look as well on the headlights. To give it a more modern look I chose some Hella halogen lights. These lights are originally designed for two headlight system because they are dual beam. I figured if I wire them up properly I should have some kickass high beams.

 

Thanks DD. This project has definitely been one I will enjoy once its complete.

 

This car is going to be one sweet ride ! I already want to buy it,lol

 

Relocating the battery to the hatch. Will post a picture with all the trim in place soon. Just having the carpet modified a bit.