I bought a 91 Mustang GT the other night. Needs paint, and some interior work. I know there are a few other guys here who own these, so I thought I would share.




When I bought it, it had a god awful 4" cowl induction hood on it, which annoyed the hell out of me for a few reasons. First of all, it was for cosmetic purposes only, since the car doesn't have a conventional intake, and I hate "performance" parts that don't actually do anything. Secondly, it's a god damned 4" cowl hood, and that **** is hard to see around. So I removed that hood and put the factory hood back on.

For some reason the previous owner shaved the door handles and installed poppers, which isn't something I would do, but I can't deny the fact that it's kind of cool to push a button and have the door open up without touching the car.

The engine and suspension have had some work done. The engine has an MSD ignition system and expensive friggin Accel plug wires. It's also got a remote dual oil filter system and an aluminum radiator. It's also nice that it has an actual legitimate cold air intake. You can see how he installed a strut tower brace, and if you look closely you can see that it has adjustable struts in the front end (they're in the back, too). The suspension has been beefed up like crazy on this thing. It rides pretty rough, but it's pretty much impossible to get the ass end to kick out in a turn, which is nice. It hooks up really well.

Oh yeah, it also has a ridiculous two stage clutch and a short throw shifter, which took some getting used to on the ride home. It takes some serious oomph to push the clutch in. And for some reason it's got a massive Auto Meter tachometer on the dash. I'm not really into that sort of thing, but it's still a $500 tach, so I guess I'll hang onto it.

It's got a Borla exhaust, which I am not really sure about at the moment. It has chambered mufflers, so it's real quiet at idle, but screams pretty good when you open it up. It's not quite aggressive enough for me.

There are a few missing parts in the interior, and the speedometer is screwed up. It bounces around all over the place, so I'm gonna have to fix that stuff. Few dings here and there on the body, which I'm gonna fill in this weekend.

The car has literally zero rust. There was some surface rust here and there, but it's been removed. No rust anywhere on the underside, or inside the doors or hatch.

So, overall, it's a pretty solid start. The guy did a lot of things that I probably wouldn't have worried about, but I'll be happy that they're there when I start dumping money into the engine.

Give me your thoughts, fox body owners...

I don't know anything about cars which I know is a serious fault, but I am very excited you found a project that you're really passionate about, it'll help you keep your mind off things

Good god, I hate those hoods too. Glad you ditched it.

I'm a big fan of Borla exhausts. They're not as loud as others, but I love their good clean sound. I'll admit though, I don't know that I'm familiar with how they sound on a Fox. Your description sounds much like mine though, really quiet at idle and low RPMs, but it's got some teeth when you get on the gas. I like that since it helps to not piss off neighbors.

Yeah, I like that it isn't super obnoxious at low rpm, I just want it to be more obnoxious when you get into it. Headers will help in this regard.

I'd also be curious to see where those fall in Borla's spectrum of models. It looks like they only have one exhaust kit for older Fox bodies. For newer Mustangs like mine, they have 3 different sets. One is basically slightly louder than stock, one is kind of mid-range with still a pretty good aggressive note when you give it gas (that's what I have), and then a more aggressive set.

Bouncing speedometer could be a binding speedometer cable.

Congrats.

I personally prefer the four-eyed Foxes ('Stang and Capri) over the later eighties/early nineties ones, but it sounds like you've got a fun performer/project there. I'm still trying to get my project running without exploding -- one of the previous owners had more money than brains, it would seem.

I've been having some problems with the rear hatch staying closed. Apparently the plastic bushing can get pretty worn out, and if it gets a little loose, it can work its way down too low to latch. I pulled off the bushing and replaced it with some half inch pvc pipe, then when I put the whole assembly back on, I moved it up a bit. Hatch latches perfectly now, but I'm not sure if it'll fly open when I hit bumps anymore. We'll see. I may need a new latch assembly.

Spent the rest of the evening wetsanding. I'm gonna try to have it prepped for a quickie paint job on Monday just to get it all one color.