Well, here it is, our new project car, and as you can see I use the term new very loosely,
you Fox body folks have been asking for it, so we're going to give you a build unlike
anything we've ever done before, we're going to do a complete restoration on our 93 GT
convertible, and you guys are going to be with us every step of the way.
So what are our plans?
Well, to say this thing is a little rough, would be the understatement of the century,
we need to tackle just about everything there is on this car, I'm talking bodywork, paint,
interior, headlights, and what's left of our top just to name a few.
Obviously we're fans of just about every Mustang under the sun however there are a few that
really get us going.
One of these is the 93 Mustang Cobra, this was one of the first cars offered by Ford's
SVT division, and really set the tone as far as factory performance tuning is concerned
however there was one problem, it was never offered in a convertible so we're going to
actually have a little fun with this build and make something we wish Ford had offered
from the factory, we're going to make our very own Mustang 93 Cobra convertible, which
should really turn our tired old Fox into one bad little street machine.
Before we get into the fun stuff, we need to take care of some much needed maintenance
here on our 93, mainly the worn out and the 100000 plus drive train and body.
So that's the goal with this first step, we're going to get our GT running like new again,
and get the car ready for paint, because...yeah, we got a lot of work to do, so let's get to
it.
Alright, 100000 miles of burnouts and hard launces has not been nice to our factory clutch,
because it's absolutely shot, so this is one of those areas where we're not only going
to freshen up, but we're also going to upgrade, now our upgrade comes in the form of this
Exedy Mach 350 stage 1 clutch, and the SR Performance clutch adjuster kit.
This kit will replace our old, worn out, gummed up factory cable with this brand new adjustable
cable as well as strengthen the weak plastic factory clutch quadrant with this brand new
Billet piece.
Basically we're strengthening our overall shifting experience.
Besides our beat clutch, our 302 motor is running extremely rough, we're misfiring all
over the place, and the power just isn't there like it should be, so we're going to give
our motor a serious tuneup.
Ryan and I are in the process of installing these iridium plugs as well as a new set of
wires as well, on top of that we're also doing a brand new distributor cap and rotor, and
finally a brand new serpentine belt.
All these parts should really get our 5.0 firing on all 8 cylinders again.
As a little pointer for you whenever you're doing a tuneup, we recommend using a little
anti-seize on all your threads, just because you don't want a stuck spark plug in your
block.
In addition, go ahead and throw a little dielectric grease on all your contacts, it'll just help
keep any excess moisture out.
Unfortunately our slipping clutch and misfires are only part of the problem, when we were
on the way back to the shop we noticed are car was running a little hot so we decided
to overhaul our entire cooling system just to be safe.
We're ditching our factory radiator and mechanical fan in favor of this aluminum performance
unit from Mishimoto, along with one of their electrical fans.
This electrical fan will not only keep things cool, but by ditching that mechanical fan,
we're also going to free up some drag on our accessory belt, which in turn should free
up some extra horsepower.
To wrap up our entire cooling package we're going with a brand new thermostat from Mishimoto,
along with a new set of hoses from Ford Racing.
Of course we have some performance stuff lined up after we get the car back from paint, but
in the meantime we have to address this Frankenstein intake we found on the car, we're going to
replace it with this brand new SR Performance cold air intake which, besides giving us a
nice little bump in power and sound, will more importantly get rid of this eyesore underneath
the hood.
Before we get out of the hood completely, we wanted to further reduce the parasitic
drag on our accessory belt, so we decided to install this SR Performance smog pump delete
kit.
Could we run a smaller belt and eliminate the pump completely?
Probably, but we wanted to do it right the first time, and clean up the engine bay in
the process.
Now that we've taken care of some necessary maintenance, let's get to the next big part
of the first stage of our resto.
The only thing worse than the actual running condition of our GT is the physical condition,
I'm not going to lie, this thing is pretty rough in just about every way, but that's
about to change, we're going to send our GT off for some serious bodywork that includes
a brand new paint job, but first, we need to take care of some problem areas.
Some of these problem areas include a brand new set of smoked, one piece headlights, a
new fender and a rear deck lid panel just to name a few but that's not all that exciting,
this is what's going to turn our dream build into a reality, we're going to outfit our
93 GT with a complete Cobra style body kit, along with this Cobra style wing, which when
we're done with our build, should turn our stock 93 vert, into one of the baddest, and
possible one of the only, Fox Body convertible Cobras around.
Well, that wraps up the first stage of the restoration here on our 93 GT, we took care
of some much needed maintenance and got the car ready for the body shop, when we get the
car back from paint, we're really going to start having some fun with the interior and
exterior styling, and of course give the car some much needed performance to back up that
Cobra appearance, but in the meantime, I'm on my way to paint.