Rustoration of 1991 FOXBODY Mustang GT as a Cobra Clone

So I cut the pieces of steel pipe to length to replace the sleeves for the steering rack. The I sliced an 1/8 out of the length of the tube. Then I crushed it in the vise until it was closed. Then I hit it with a hammer to bring it back to round. A little bit of fine tunning and it fit perfectly into the K member and the rack bushings slide on. I will paint and coat them with antiseize for rust prevention. So $9 for pipe and and hour with a grinder and vise is certainly better then $45 shipped for sleeves.

No pictures but I spent a good 5 hours under the car doing probably the worst job yet. Finished straightening the drivers side pinch weld /lower fender mount. Basically beat it into submission. Wire wheeled from the back of the floor pan to mid seat and halfway up the tunnel. Scuffed the new pan, the pinch weld, the outter rockers, the passenger side door hinge area and up over the top to the cowl and some of the tunnel with a scotch pad. Cleaned everything with brake clean and rags. Sprayed rustoleum rust converter over half the underside of the pan, half the tunnel, half the pinch weld and half the rockers. I also started scrapping and stripping the blue paint and surface rust off the outside of the motor. I am going to navel jelly it in sections. I am covered in grime but I got a lot done

05/16/2019 Water pump in, and not without it's hiccups. 3 of the autozone bolts were to long or to short. 1 had a seriously galled thread. I wire wheeled, anti seized and thread sealed all the rusty bolts that i reused so hopefully that will slow any more degradation. I am glad I got the $40 harbor freight tap and die kit for the galled bolt. The pulley did not want to come off the old pump. The heater hoses basically disintegrated on removal. You can see the flat thread on the 3rd 4th and 5th row.

05/162019 Ages ago I picked up a set of aluminum valve covers at a swap meet for $50. At one point i cleaned them up with scotch brite wet sanded them with a cross hatch pattern. Coated them with clear VHT satin and pulled the old nasty ones off the motor to change the gaskets to felpro blue silicones and changes the 10 bolts. The old covers are pretty rusty stamped steel with the numbers 333 in white stencil. The only ones i have seen like them are on the 94-95 cobra motor.

05/14/2019 Timing cover, balancer and oil pan all reinstalled. Used grey cooling system rtv for the water passages and ultra black for the rest. Just waiting on the new water pump. I used the crank pulley bolts and a piece of angle iron to torque the balancer bolt to 100 ft lbs. I should probably replace the balancer because the rubber insert is pushing out but with the tool it's like a 2 hour job so I will do it after its on the road.

05/13/2019 New thermostat installed.

05/11/2019 Replaced the tensioner pulley. Yes its plastic, but I have a 98 with plastic pullys and they have not failed so I can not complain. The metal ones bearings were terrible. Was going to turn down the dust shield to fit in the new style pulley but it got lumpy since i would need a drill that can hold the 5/8 bolt or a lathe. Just replaced it with a grade 8 lock washer that I opened up to fit around the pulley post. A dab of red thread locker and torque as hard as I can. Since the assembly is off the engine, I at least got it to 20 ft. lbs.  

05/10/2019 Rant time. Well the backing plate for the water pump is pretty pitted. I decided to replace it because that's a pita to do in the car. Trying to get the plate by itself costs the same as a whole new pump, plate and gasket shipped which I find annoying. It's a piece of metal stamped into a shape so it should not cost that much.   Rant done. I went for the new airtex pump which gets great reviews online. I need to clean the timing cover and mounting surfaces and the thermostat area so I can reassemble. I am also vinegar treating the hardware and timing pointer. I borrowed the balancer puller and removed the balancer from the motor but I also have a second block in storage that I pulled the balancer from. The bores are lightly rusted but not bad. It could be honed and be fine. The crank and cam are pretty past gone but I doubt I'd use them if I was building from scratch. Stroker kit costs 200 more than a replacement stock sized crank. There's also ma...

05/07/2019 The case of the mystery steering rack bushings has been solved. The rack the car came with apparently had single 1 piece bushings with a steel insert. This is stock on the mustang ii setup, not the fox. The original foxbody setup should include 2 sleeves (red arrow) that went through the k member but are missing. Guess they were seized onto the bolts, because the 8mm bolt tips are mushroomed and won't fit a socket. In order the use new bushings or even the mustang ii setup I need the sleeve or there is a 1/4 of play in the rack when tight. I can totally fab a tube with a slit in it to be .75" od .5" id, or spend $40 and get re-pops. Balancer removed. Timing cover bolts all broken loose. Timing cover off but I tore my nice new 1 piece pan gasket. :( I was lazy and should have pulled the pan instead of just loosening it because I wanted to save that gasket.

05/01/2019 Seriously that steering shaft is not a cheap part. Used i am seeing them around $40 to $60 but everyone who changes them uses 2 u joint design and gets rid of the rubber rag joint. After shopping around the cheapest i can find it is $178 shipped on amazon. https://www.amazon.com/Borgeson-000656-Steel-Power-St.. Borgeson seems to be the cheapest but still crazy pricey for what it is. The high end brand Flaming River is charging $250. I did find a video where a guy just modded his current steering shaft with a $20 U-joint https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWEXox8x6cY But prices have gone up since then and I need 2 joints because my upper joint is cracked. Could also be they tack on the shipping nowadays. The expensive one amazon, there is even a complaint it's a few inches short for my application and they had to go out and get DD rod to make it longer for $40. That got me thinking, why don't i just check to see if i can find the pieces and put it togethe...

04/30/2019 Good news and bad. Oil is drained from the motor, water pump mating surface is clean. Bad is the water pump backing plate was a steel one and has some pitting which would rust and cause a leak. Need a new aluminum backing plate. $40 The water pump bolts are pretty rusted and should be changed for $18 The steering rack is finally out and measured and the bushings and rod ends are off. The steering shaft was a pain in the butt to get off even after I dropped the rack by disconnecting it at the firewall. I had to drift it off with chisels.   Now that everything is off I can clearly see a crack in the u joint on the steering shaft. It's split on both sides so it's gotta be changed. $180 is the cheapest I can find which annoys me cause that's more than I paid for the rack. The tie rods needed new dust covers and a new hit of grease in them. $6 I guess I gotta just work on the body until I save enough.

04/23/2019 Went and rented a pickle fork and then I saw the damage free tie rod remover. Tried it and with-in 3 turns of the ratchet the tie rod popped right off. Other then 1 cracked dust boot the ends are in good shape after a thorough cleaning and grease replacement. I also decided to pull the water pump. Reasoning is it was seeping around the timing cover and it is a pita to do in the car. Besides some seriously rusted bolts it nearly fell off. Ordered the gasket set and a new thermostat but the full timing cover and water pump bolt kit online is $50, I found there is a kit of 3 water pump only bolts at autozone for $9 ea. Need 2  so $18 total. Wire wheeled everything, scotch padded the rest, vacuumed and wiped it all down with acetone. Sprayed a whole can of Rustoleum rust converter paint. I will use primer sealer in 24 hours. I wanted to do the under carriage and the trunk but I ran out of time.

04/18/2019 Finished, but not. While I was making the last welds on the floor brace, the ground which i stupidly attached to a seat "mount nut and stud" slipped. Well when the ground slipped it discharged and welded the nut to the stud. I went to remove it and the whole stud started flexing bad, you could see the metal around the whole stud was weak. Just a poor design from the factory. Pain in the butt. Long story short I cut out the stud pulled the nut off in the vice, fabbed a new baseplate and welded the theaded bung to the plate and welded the plate to the seat brace. Now I need to cut the threads with a tap and die to be totally done. Next is cleaning and painting.             

04/16/2019 The torque box brace is complete, and I have most of the passenger side seat brace in. I think I can finish the last of the welding on Thursday! I am doing my homework on rust prevention and paints and hopefully it will be finalized soon.  

04/08/2019 I finished the rear floorpan, at least to primer. I ground down all the welds from the rear kick lip to the seat brace. I flapdisc'ed the pan surface rust. Then I used a stiff wire cup brush to knock off any other oxidation and buildup and to scuff the edp. I hit it twice with acetone although I should have paid more attention to the area where the floor pan parts sticker was. Then I used plastic sheeting and taped an overspray shield around my work area. There was definitely some fibers and junk in my paint but I will be using por15 or even strip it all back and do epoxy but that I doubt. I did work on the floor brace but I need to fill welds on the underside and grind it all back so there is still a lot of work.

03/30/2019 I removed the cruise control unit cleaned up the area with Flap discs and a wire wheel and hit it with some primer sealer. I think I need to go around the areas that are finished and do that, cause I am getting some surface rust on finished areas. The cruise unit was kinda a pain to get the controller down from the fire wall to pop the plug off. There was also a rubber grommet that had the wires and a vacuum line through it. I squeezed some gasket sealer in the remaining holes after I pulled the wires and line out of the grommet and put it back. I am still welding so no surfaces will be finalized until that's done I should be able to put 1 good day in and finish all the welding.