Here's how it looked when I brought it home...



Here's how it looked a few weeks ago...



It's an original '87 GT with 105k on (interior I would agree has 105, inside of the old engine looked more like 205)

Will update with more info as I go through the pictures so far.

 

Nice. Auto or manual?

 

Looks good so far. The black terminator wheels look great on there! Any plans to change that porno red interior?

 

Make that red strip grey. My dad did that on his and really set it apart looks really good!!!!

 

Where's the ranger?

 

I think he sold it a while ago

 

Thats what I thought after I posted that but didn't feel like editing lol.

 

Looks good, any plans for a ranger anytime soon? Or are you sticking with that?

 

Nice! my dad had a custom blue '87.
I don't care much for the rims, i liked the stock ones from '88.
Whatchya gonna do under the hood?

 

Nice Jey!

Cant wait to see what you do to it

 

Thanks.

It's a 5-speed, 105k on the car. Interior is very nice minus a tear in the drivers seat (have a new seat lined up already). Exterior is slightly above average. Paint needs to be wet-sanded/buffed/waxed etc. The front and rear bumper covers are sagging with age (common on a fox).

Test drove the car and it ran and drove good (minus worn out rear shocks) but it had a coolant leak around the passenger rear of the engine that I could not see. No coolant in the oil, no oil in the coolant, and it wasn't burning any coolant, so I figured it was a head gasket or one of the outside headbolts leaking. No big deal, I didn't have a problem pulling the heads.

So, the price was right and I went ahead and picked it up.

Fast forward a week later, in the process of pulling the heads, the aforementioned head bolt broke off in the block. Tried drilling and extracting and the extractor broke. After many hours with a punch and a small carbide bit on a die-grinder, I got the broken extractor out of the bolt. Drilled the bolt out to the next size extractor. Rinse and repeat. Extractor broke, could not get this one out.

So now I'm at the point where I say **** it, and pull the engine out. Don't want to get too long winded, but long story short, engine had a whole lot of stop leak, said head bolt was leaking, bolt was for the most part bonded to the block from all the stop-leak and in finally removing the broken bolt, the cast boss the bolt threads into broke halfway down the hole inside the water jacket. Also, the passenger head's rear freeze plug had been installed while the heads were still in the car. Lip on freeze plug had been cut off, and installed with silicone, lol.

Had a new short block built with new valve-relieved flat top pistons, new timing set, new lifters, and my old crank and cam. Had the heads decked and a valve job done. Finally got the new short block assembled, installed, and running great.

 

Here's a shot of the interior.



Painted the engine compartment while I had the drivetrain out.



Got the shortblock back and began to paint/assemble the engine.



Engine block/pan/lower and upper intake manifold are semi-gloss black, and the valve covers are flat blue.





Got the engine back in.



Stabbed the distributor and got the BBK shorty heads on



All assembled, back in the car.



Here's a better picture of the wheels.



I still need to take some final-complete pictures of the car and the engine in the car, and upload the before pictures of the engine compartment.

I have also installed: new rear shocks, fuel filter, slotted front rotors/new pads/wheel bearings, starter solenoid, trans cross-member bushings, MAC pro-dump mufflers, smog pump delete. Once I pass emissions (only have to once, next year it will be antique in GA and it won't be required to test) I'll put an off-road x pipe on it, and re-gear the rear end to 3.73. Stock is 2.73

This will be my daily driver for a while (only have a 5 mile commute) so I'm not going to do anything crazy to the engine just yet. It's still speed density and I want to convert it to mass-air before I do anything internal anyways.

The red interior; I'm going to leave it. I want to keep the body and interior original to this car. There are too many fox's rolling around that have interiors changed, body parts changed to look like a gt, or alot of aftermarket body parts etc.

As far as the ranger, I sold the engine/trans/t-case, both axles, wheels and tires, and I took what was left of the body and frame (cab forward) to the scrap yard.

 

It looks awesome! :O I want one :(

 

Any updates jey?

 

Bought a house, changed jobs, got a nice commute and sold it and bought a focus. 35 mpg beats 18.

Heres what it looked like right before I sold it.

 

It looked nice!

Lets see what you sold it to buy.

 

Looks absolutely great! I used to really dislike those fox body Mustangs, but they've really grown on me over the past few years. Also, I love red interiors in Mustangs. I guess that makes me the minority.

 

What's your job field these days?

 

Still fabrication. Working at an LSX speed shop building ALOT of turbo/forced induction cars. Just finished a 457 twin turbo '07 Z06

 

Long time no see Jey, glad to see you lerkng around. I was in Powder springs a few weeks ago headed to Huntsville and thought about you. Glad to see all is well.

 

Sweet the shop out of Acworth?

 

It's in Cumming

 

That's what I was figuring! Ven..... Racing huh? That's right by one of our fire stations. Yall put out some sick cars. Never been into the shop but I watch the videos they post up, some truly sick rides!!