Rustoration of 1991 FOXBODY Mustang GT as a Cobra Clone

I just ordered a some of the last items for the project. New  aluminum blockplate  cause the old one has a chunk missing ebay $43 shipped loctite roofing cement for the metal floor pan plugs amazon prime $7 shipped KBS dark ford blue engine enamel  amazon prime $26 shipped Nice weather will be here this weekend, so i hope to get some time to clean the transmission and the intake and finish cleaning the engine block for paint. Transmission will go into a plastic wheel barrow and get scraped, de-greased and scrubbed. Intake will make friends with the garden hose. The bell housing will probably just get a once over and a clear sealer to help keep the dirt out. The engine needs some time with the 3 inch scuff pads.

It's always the little details that go the slowest. Basically I am hanging all the accessories near the motor so I can drape the harnesses while I'm finalizing the wiring.   The charcoal canister isn't super important but it get the hose out of my way.  The wiper motor body turned out good and the hood hinges went on to although I am missing a u clip and the bolts seem a odd size. I order a few different sizes and I may tap it to the right size.  Bit of a rats nest but I will get it sorted and neat. I hate that everything hangs off the ignition solenoid so I added a marine bus bar to the left and that's where the 0 gauge wire from the battery goes for now. I need to make up a 4 gauge jumper wire to the left post. I installed the plastic floor pan plugs with some black silicone. Placed the interior harness roughly where it lives. I need to redo some grounds and wrap it up a little better. Part of me really wants to rewrap the whole thing but I think i...

Cleaned and installed the power steering cooler. Drilled some holes and mounted the ignition solenoid on the drivers side upper frame rail.  I finished scrapping the wiper motor and hit it with the acid and then cleaned it and painted it. Probably the fastest way without a blast cabinet to go from rust to paint. I do not know the durability of the process but redoing it would be a simple process since it's right on the firewall. After its dry the whole cowl can go back together.

So I started the day with the big job, filling the differential with gear oil and 4 oz of friction modifier. I thought 2 liters would be enough but it didn't drip out so another liter it is. I stuck a wire in and its close to the top. The fluid pump made it super clean although the cold hoses only wanted to loop. I use an electric heater to straighten them out but that didn't last. I used a spring clamp to hold the hose onto the diff so I don't make a huge mess. To get the 4 oz of friction modifier I cut a water bottle and poured 4 oz of water and marked a line and used that to measure and poured it into the half empty liter bottle. The pump was full of oil at the end and only the center can be separated and not the hoses.  I also installed the painted crash absorbers. I installed the heater box check valve The MAP sensor and the vacuum tree. Actually the MAP sensor has a big crack in the front. I may replace it but for now a dab of liquid electrical tape s...

The fluid was a nice honey color with no water. I totally expect black and burnt. After the cover was first opened and the gear look sharp and new. The lid as expected was dirty and had a paper and fiber gasket. Looks like some tried to reuse it. Covered the gears to clean the mating surface. Cleaning the cover took the longest. Basically used half a large can of brake clean and even melted my plastic scraper. You can just see the 273 above the ford logo so I was correct with my wheel to pinion rotation guess. The cover finally clean and ready to go back. I used a plastic razor to get all the gasket off and clean it but I had to use some scotchbrite to finish it. All hand tight ready to torque I gave it 15 min to setup before torquing it down. I sprayed the engine mounts with high heat paint and the absorbers with vht epoxy paint. I know the single stage isn't real epoxy but it was that or rustoleum and I wanted it dry by the even...

So I finished wrapping the crash sensors and the negative battery ground. I cleaned up the crash sensor brackets and decided I can always pop them out at a later time to strip and paint. Installed all 3 sensors and the horns. You can see the green brackets I didn't paint. I can do it another day and I had already pulled the hardware  I'll route the wires nicely when everything is on the frame. You can see the fairly rusty horn bracket but it's not hard to get to and I can pull it and do that later. I used the excel file and numbered nails to find my first set of bagged parts and it makes a huge difference. Tomorrow I really want to tackle the differential. LMR has the guy spraying the gears with brake clean before cleaning out the bottom of the diff. An f150 forum says don't touch them other then to cover while cleaning the mating surface. Also I read somewhere to finger tighten all bolts and let the rtv tack before torquing the cover bolts in a star p...

Did some clean up on the crash absorbers and engine mounts.  I removed rust with a flap disc because a wire wheel wasn't enough.  Cleaning up the fiberglass absorber mounting hardware with a wire wheel Motor mounts will eventually get replaced but removing the surface rust and painting will make me feel better about putting them back. I'll paint it all tomorrow when. The weather finally breaks 60. Pretty much every bracket will need attention but I am only painting the ones I can not access to paint later.

Sometimes you get more done then you thought. To aide in the reassembly I decided I needed a better organization system then an old toolbox. I had some 8 footer 1x3s I keep in Stock for around the house carpentry needs. I used a length of paper packing tape and some finishing nails and made myself 2 lengths with 31 nails and numbers to hang my baggies on the wall with bull clips. As I hung them I entered them into excel so now I can search and find the number. I decided to tackle the brake porportioning valve. It came out super easy but it shot across the room. I was prepared for it to drip. Also a blue anodized plunger came out and I doubt that was original ford so will have to look it up. Now i just have to give it all a good bleed. I have some 1 man techniques to try. Of course I have new pads and rotors waiting but I want to hold off until last to install. I may use the new pads because there is 0 meat on the back pads and need to make sure the calipers are heal...

I finished the alternator and starter harrness and it's on to the headlight harness. After I unwrapped it I found 6 twist and tape connections to be fixed before rewrapping.  This is the harrness nice and neat with zip ties that get cut off during the wrap process.  Said goodbye to all the jankey wires and made nice neat heat shrunk connections. I still have the 3 crash sensors to do but those should go pretty quick.  This is all 3 of the engine harnesses wrapped with Tesa tape I also recieved the last piece of the brake system from LMR. The porportioning valve block off plug. I am using a rear brake porportioning valve at the coupler on the firewall. So I need to disable the factory porportioning valve. I will take thread measurements because I could not find any online. I had an idea because it's almost time to get into hardcore reassembly. I have roughly 60 plastic bags of hardware and I want an easy way to find stuff. I am going to take 2 1x2 8 footer...

I have all the plugs for the floor pan. The 2 metal ones look like galvanized steel and I will probably just paint and seal with gasket sealer when installing. I could use roofing cement but I just can't get any from a store with the quarantine. Gasket sealer should be fine and the paint should stop any rust. I also have the 4x 1 inch round plugs and the 6x 3/4 inch rounds. Also in the works is i am re-wrapping the entire wire harness, both engine and headlight, along with the smaller sub harnesses like the O2, Crash Sensors, fan relay and the transmission. I have all the stuff to flush and reseal the rear end as well. 2 qts of 75w-90 gear oil, friction modifier for track-loc and a fluid pump.