First off I'd like to introduce myself, I am Greasmonkey2000 aka Chad to those that know me a little better than just a name on a forum and I had a three year build that I unfortunately had to part out and sell mostly stock, far too soon. Some of you may be familiar with the Warbird and if not that is ok too but feel free to check out Warbird's build thread at your leisure.
This is my non-Miata build thread for my newly acquired 2003 Ford Mustang GT that I have decided to call Shelby. Why Shelby? In honor of Carroll Shelby of course. The reason is because I plan to do a sort of homage to the Mustang GT350.
The build is going to be more fluid than set in stone but I already have some ideas. The basic idea is to take ideas from the earlier GT350 and later/modern GT350 cars. The three main areas will be 1)suspension, 2)power and finally 3)cosmetics, with the former two being the most important ones and where part of Carroll Shelby's 'winning formula'.
Let's get right to it. The project is one 2003 Ford Mustang GT wearing Dark Shadow Gray(Ford paint code CX) exterior paint and Dark Charcoal leather interior(interior code XW) with 93,211 miles upon purchase. Here are some interior/exterior pics:
It came equipped with a 4.6L over head cam motor....as seen here....
...rated at 260hp/305tq with a 5 spd Tremec manual transmission(TR-3650 rated for 360 lbs/tq) and a 8.8" live axle rear differential with 3.27 gear ratio. It already had a few mods and they are as follows:
Engine/Drivetrain-
-SR Performance 70mm (?) throttle body
-SR Performance(?) cold air intake
-unknown aftermarket clutch
-unknown short throw shifter
-Flowmaster exhaust
-BAMA performance tune(these cars REALLY respond and need a tune ASAP)
Suspension/wheels & tires-
-Eibach lowering springs
-American Muscle anthracite grey Bullitt style wheels in 18x9(F) and 18x10(R) with 245/40/18 Sumitomo HTRZ II(160AA tread wear) in the front and 285/35/18 in the rear
Exterior-
-Front Mach 1 style chin spoiler
-front Mach 1 style grille delete
-Raxiom smoked projector headlights w/ 'halos'
I could have done with out the aftermarket headlights but the factory headlights aren't great an at least these seem to be aimed well and have pretty good light output. They may end up getting replaced with OEM style lights.
It did have a few issues that the previous owner made me aware of. The first and biggest being some underbody rust....this is usually a deal breaker and the conversation usually stops there but after some pics(and verification in person) that showed what seem to only be surface rust on replaceable parts like control arms, etc. I decided I would live with it...see for yourself...
...it actually looks worse in pics believe it or not and given the fact it had been up north, Pennsylvania iirc, its whole life up until a few years ago I think it is very minimal.
The next came about as a result of the previous owner installing some gauge overlay's and in the process made the tachometer get stuck and now the back lighting for the instrument cluster not light up but he thought it was just a connector came loose. I'm sure it will be a fairly easy fix.
Another issue that he said occurred on occasion was the fan would sound like it was hitting the shroud but upon hearing it myself I think the fan itself is going out, again not a big and relatively inexpensive repair.
The last one that he brought to my attention was the battery light coming on occasionally but never staying on very long and the car had never failed to start or exhibit charging issues.
One that I found was what sounded like the bearing on the auto tensioner going out, he made no mention of this but I think he was mistaking two different sounds as one in the same for the 'fan shroud' issue.
The drive home was uneventful, thankfully, but the sound of the Flowmaster exhaust and the added power from added parts made it very enjoyable. Will try to get some quality pics ASAP as these are all from the seller. Hope you check back in from time to time and participate when you feel the need!
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