1985 Mustang LX Coupe Project - Update
 

In the last 4-5 weeks a lot of work has been done. I disassembled everything off of the engine, bagged, boxed up, labeled and stored all the parts away until it's time to put the motor back in. Once I had the engine out, I also pulled the tranny, headers, and h-pipe. The early to mid 80's Mustangs are a breeze to work on especially cars with no A/C or any of the smog stuff is on it like mine.
With the help of my buddy John (who is also a Ford tech - great to have when I get to the stuff I'm not comfortable with doing by myself) we disassembled the motor down to the shortblock. I stripped all the old paint off, cleaned and prepped the front cover, block and intake manifold. The valve covers and heads will remain aluminum finish. Other polished aluminum parts such as the pulleys, pulley brackets, electric fuel pump, etc will keep their natural finish. Next I primed and painted the block. I went with graphite gray metallic on the block, front cover, and intake manifold. The polished stainless ARP engine bolt kit is beautiful and contrasts nicely off the dark gray metallic. Tomorrow I will be ordering my Canton oil pan kit and then I can paint it to match the block. The carb should be rebuilt and done soon - I'll leave that up to John since he's really good on carbs and settin' those up. The Tremek TKO should be OK but I will inspect it for any issues.
I still have to order the electric water pump, aluminum radiator, electric fan, and polished aluminum brackets for the alternator and steering pump. The rest is little odds and ends.

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This pick shows the headers mocked up on the motor. We needed to do this to measure for clearance for the Canton oil pan. The headers are going to be sent over to Jet Hot for cleaning and a new polished coating.

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I'm sure others have said it also but there's nothing more rewarding than getting down and dirty and doing the work yourself. I have absolutely had a ton of fun working on this with a little help from my buddy John. I can't wait until we can fire it up.

John, that looks sweet with the block and intake painted black. :thumbsup: When do you think it's going to make noise?

Looks awesome John, congrats on being able get the time to work on your own car too!!! Beautiful AFR heads BTW!!!:thumbsup:

the engine paint looks real good. :thumbsup:

Very nice! What other plans are in the works?

Shiny Side Up!
Bill
'72 442 "Inamorata"
'89 ASC/McLaren
www.FQuick.com/ProTouring442

I love the colors on the engine!:thumbsup:

Cant wait to see more.

LOL! The engine is Graphite gray! It looks dark in the pics. A few other people said black too. If you look at the pics with the rocker arms - the intake has a pretty good hot spot on it. The block, front cover, and intake are all the same gray metallic.
Once the drivetrain is in I need to get it ready for dyno testing and tuning. I may be doing an intake shootout on my engine for Muscle Mustangs and Fast Fords mag.
Other plans are 18x8 front and 18x9 rear. I have 2-3 I'm trying to decide between. Coilovers at all 4 corners is on the future mods list, along with either Bear brakes track kit or SSBC kit. I also wanted to do a K-member while I had the motor out but as most of you know especially the married-with-kids guys - money is already prioritized for many other things before it can trickle down to the project car LOL!

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Oops, lol. Now that you say that, it's obviously dark grey. Not very observant, am I. :_paranoid :lol: Anyways, looks great!

Looks Great John !
The stainless ARP hardware really "pops" off that color.
Glad it worked out.

Are you running SN95 spindles on the front, stock rear trac witdth?

I've got an '89 coupe. I'm running some hand me down '98 GT split spoke wheels right now, but wheels have to be the next thing for the car. I was also thinking that 18X8 and 18X9 would be the best combo.

Engine looks great. I'm subscribing to keep up with the updates.

The front spindles are the 96-98 spindles (specifically I think mine are off of a 1996). The 94-95 spindles supposedly bring the wheels in about 5/16" more. This would help if you had a wider wheel or less backspacing but if you run the bullitts like a I have currently with the factory 5.72" backspace - the 96-up spindles are a perfect fit. As flush as you wanna go without bulging out and I have no clearance issues.
For the rear, I will be probably going with the custom caliper brackets from www.northracecars.com which helps to keep the stock fox-body length axles so you can get more offset choices for the rear wheels. Check out their brakes section and the owner is very knowledgable.

See how well the fronts fit with the wheels straight - just inside. The rears go in even more. I've already test fit a 17x9 bullitt I borrowed in the rear. They come with an offset of 5.97" and will just fit with a 275/40/17. When I say just fit I mean just fit without rollign the lip. They easily fit with the lip rolled. As a matter of fact I'm looking at maybe trying to get a 285 out back. That may happen when I order my custom offset wheels.

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J

Thanks - I was just curious what setup you were running. I'm running '95 front spindles with Mach 1 13" front setup (same as cobra but grey calipers). I'm also running the North Race Cars rear brackets with the 11.65" vented Cobra rear discs. I used a '93 cobra master cylinder and an SSBC adj. prop. valve.

I'm pretty happy with the setup so far. I basically tried to recreate the M2300K kit from Ford, but for less money. I also agree that the guy from North Race Cars was great to deal with. I just finished installing Air Ride on my car. I like it so far, but I haven't had a chance to drive it much. I'd like to get your opinion of your coilover setup when you get it finished. My car is mostly street driven and I could barely stand driving it with the Eibach springs (it road like a log wagon!). The Air Ride has a much better ride and it also looks pretty cool slammed (at least I think so).

Here's some links to a few pics of mine - if you care

http://wiedos.com/
http://wiedos.com/89_Mustang/AirRide/index.htm
http://wiedos.com/89_Mustang/89_Mustang.htm
http://wiedos.com/89_Mustang/Mustang...lery/index.htm
http://wiedos.com/89_Mustang/89_Mustang_RTH2.html


I'm glad to see another Fox body being built. The four eye models are really starting to grow on me too!

Later,

Brandon

Oh - one more thing - are you running Quad Shocks in the rear? I've still got mine on there. I have brand new FMS upper control arms and Maximum Motorsports lowers and without the Quads I get some pretty nasty wheel hop.

Just curious - cuz I know this has an impact on the rear tire fitment.

Thanks again,

Brandon

Man! That air ride notch looks great tuckin' tire! Looks clean! Good to see you "use" your car too. I'm not necessarily expecting super comfortable ride quality when I dod the coil overs. I really wanna make that mustang handle. It's a once a week take it out and flog it, take it to events and to the track. I have my 88 GT that I will keep a nice driver. I even have plans for a 3rd fox body - possible SEMA car and if it gets enough interest I'm gonna build it.
Part of me wants it to go back to stock but in the end I might as well admit it - the blue 85 coupe will become an all out street fighter eventually.

I do not run the quad shocks. I have the catapult upper and lower control arms in for now. I have a brand new set of FMS Cobra upper control arms (probably the exact ones you have with the stiffer rubber bushings?) that I'll box in and powder coat to go onto the 85. I will be going with Global West Lower Control arms and then maybe a panhard bar. The quads will never go back in. I'm looking into a mini tub right now to see if I can get 10" wheels to fit properly and tuck in the fender just right. We'll see.

J

My hope is to buy some good double adjustable shocks and make my car really handle with the Air Ride. You might be surprised with the ride of your coilovers they can't be worse than lowering springs!

I think Fox Mustangs are really going to be a hot item as time goes on. They've always been pretty popular and affordable, but I think their value will start to climb soon.

I'll stay posted for updates on your car.

Actually I was quite suprised at what the NADA value was on my car. A few years ago it was holding at right around $4700 for an LX Notchback??? I figured why would the LXs hold value. The GT wasn't worth more than a couple hundred bucks more. Well recently I checked it out and it's darn near $9K!!! I was like WHAAAAT???!!! Now I understand that the NADA book value isn't the be-all-end-all of what cars are worth but hey there's indicators out there showing that a demand for these modern day classiscs exist. Notchbacks are almost as desirable as 1993 Cobras for crying out loud. Everyone wants a 5.0 coupe. The 4-eye mustangs specifically the 85-86s are showing promise of be desirable. A stock 1989 Mustang GT 5 speed white with scarlet red interior, 1000 original miles - never titled went for $20,500 at West Palm Beach Barrett Jackson! I was there and talked to the seller. He's a fox Mustang collector. It may take a while but there's still a lot of demand for the 5.0s and a lot of people "get it" when the 5.0 Mustangs are mentioned as the "55 chevy of today."

On another note, My Canton oil pan should be here tomorrow or wednesday and I bought some more paint to finish it up. Now we just have to finish up the carb and the motor is done and ready to go in.

i love the stangs like yours. i still want a blue ex CHP car. i like the headlights on the years like yours.
good luck.:thumbsup:

Thanks, if you're looking for something like this, check out www.foureyedpride.com

My Canton #15-640 Oil pan came in yesterday. I also ordered it with the matching pickup and dipstick. I highly recommend measuring before ordering a custom pan especially this wider rear sump type if you have longtube headers. Although Canton advises on their site that this pan may require some modifications with longtube headers - there's a ton of clearance between my BBK 1 5/8" longtube headers. Rouhgly 1" each side. Since I will be lowering my 85 considerably I needed the 7 qt. pan that was stock depth but wider for ground clearance rather than the narrower deeper pan. This pan is real nice and keeps the stock pan depth.

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