1988 mustang rebuild
 

I'm just using this as my own little diary space for finally getting back to my mustang. I've had this car since 2004 and just this past christmas got it back in my yard to get back to work on it (as a christmas present from my wife after I did several house remodeling projects for her) so maybe I can finally get it on the road again.

if you want to read along, ok, if not, doesnt bother me. most of the old pics I had to use internet archive for to get them off my old geocities webpage...and to rejog my memory of what all I did to it.

I got the 88 mustang on 4/17/04 along with an 86 turbocoupe. mustang started life as a grey exterior and red interior 4-banger 5 speed car as did the turbocoupe.

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If I remember I paid somewhere near $800 for both of them. I sold off the engine from the mustang and scrapped the rearend and kept the mustang t5 as a spare. tossed the turbocoupe engine in the mustang and rewired it for an la3 ecu and big vam, as well as the turbocoupe rearend etc, etc and got it running.

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after this, I just fixed a bunch of broken things using what I could from the turbocoupe and then finally sold it off for a couple hundred bucks and bought a wrecked 88 gt with no drivetrain for the grey interior to swap in. again, fixed a bunch of stuff using parts from the gt while I had the car torn apart and then got to work sanding the car to change the color from grey to a mercedes color. gulf stream aqua metallic. this took me about 8 months because I living in atlanta, ga at the time and the car was at my parents here in charleston, sc.

Re: 1988 mustang rebuild
 

so as i said, I got it painted the color I wanted.

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/honda-t...06cae22ad2.jpg
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after the paint work was done I really got to work putting the interior back together.
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tossed in a new exhaust system as well while I was again swapping out the rearend from the 7.5" turbocoupe one to an 8.8" I got from the u-pull yard.

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/honda-t...1bf586dfaa.jpg

Re: 1988 mustang rebuild
 

at this point it was about mid 2005 and I ended up moving back to charleston, sc with my fiance at the time. I pulled the car to my house and started pulling out the turbocoupe drivetrain as I got a wrecked mark vii for practically free that was rearended and ran great. sold off all the tubocoupe stuff. mind you at this point I think I have driven the car a total of about 3 miles just testing things out. it also had some new bullit style wheels on it. sold off a bunch of stuff from the mark vii and got an 88 5.0 engine harness of ebay as well as a3m1 ecu just to test the engine with. got it dropped in the car in front of the turbocoupe t5 as thats what I had at the time. to be honest I never even got it fired up at this point. it sat in the backyard as I bought and flipped several other mustangs and civics, etc while using the money from them to acquire a bunch of parts for my blue car.

I did get an f303 put in the car along with explorer gt40p heads and intake and bbk headers and some trickflow valve springs and arp head studs. again, never cranked it because I never got the engine harness fully in the car. by this time it was 2008 and my fiance was gone and I just sort of went insane as a single guy and just let the car sit. suddenly I'm with my current wife (at this point girlfriend) and she's now living with me and cant stand all the cars at the house. I moved my blue mustang back to my parents house.

kept flipping other cars until I got worn out on it all but gathered a bunch of parts for the blue car. 01 cobra irs unit, new 5.0 t5, turbo kit with all the fuel and ecu goodies, bunch of the small finishing pieces for the interior and other parts I cant remember right now.

Then in 2012 we got married and in 2014 we moved and I started doing all the renovation work on the house with the promise, since I got rid of all the cars and such, that once all the reno work was done I could get the car back.

Re: 1988 mustang rebuild
 

that finally happened this christmas. got the car back on december 20 and, because we have a 6 month old, I've just sorta been piddling with it. but every piddle gets me a little closer.

I feel like I'm almost starting over with it. the new paint is now sun scorched and the clear is peeling. there's a brand new dent in the front driver side fender from the tow truck as well as scratches all over the paint work from moving it around at my parents house. I have to replace the bumper support as that somehow got cracked.

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/honda-t...7266cdf3ac.jpg

also that new interior I posted a couple pics above? yeah, it is completely wasted. all the new carpet is sun bleached white (older acc carpet was known for this) and looks like rats shit and pissed all over the seats. the sun also started warping some of the interior plastics as well. fun times!

then I popped the hood and while everything was pretty much in place except critters were under there as well. they chewed some of the body harness up, thank god the u-pull yard had an 88 5.0 vert out there for me to get that plug from as different fords in the 80s all had the same plug but the wiring colors were different...and on both sides of that plug, the wiring changes colors so you cant match it up unless you have the proper year and proper body style plug. I did NOT want to buy an underdash harness.

also found bones scattered ALL over the engine bay as well as several nest sites throughout.

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at this point, I've gotten a battery for it and finally hooked the starter wire up and hit it to the battery to confirm the engine still turns over which it does and its still got good compression on all 8. fixed the underhood wiring but cant get it to turn over with the key as the ignition switch fell apart so I've ordered that as well as some other parts I'm waiting to come in so I can hopefully get it turning over on its own. then I can confirm if the fuel pump or the fuel pump relay or the ecu is still good and I can start replacing all the chewed up and bad vacuum hoses and get the fuel hooked up and hopefully finally fire it up.

Re: 1988 mustang rebuild
 

FML, I knew the fuel pump was bad after doing some testing on everything so I pulled the tank yesterday. the entire thing is garbage. fuel filler rusted, 10 gallons of 15year old gas (I swear I drained it before storing it ugh), all the seals are gone, fuel level sender is froze up.

this will be spendy.

Re: 1988 mustang rebuild
 

Any update?

Re: 1988 mustang rebuild
 

at this point, I've got the front wheels off the car as the front brakes were locked up and I have a complete new gas tank with sending unit and gaskets, grabbed a tank filler neck from the u-pull and I put together a good fuel pump hanger from 2 that I had laying around with a 255lph pump.

that is all sitting in my garage waiting on the evenings to get a little longer as my 10 month old doesnt go to sleep until 7pm and then its dark out...I need summer badly lol.

I've also ordered everything for the doors and stereo (new electrical door lock actuators, door speakers, window motors...everything was bad). Then as I was going to get started with it, realized all the door weather stripping was hard as a rock so I have to order that as well...

long story short, dont leave a car sitting in the middle of a wide open field for 8 years when it gets to be 110+ degrees out lol.

Re: 1988 mustang rebuild
 

started replacing the front suspension this week upgrading to sn95 hubs and 99 dual piston calipers. realizing I need to pretty much replace all the bushings sigh. no pics.

Re: 1988 mustang rebuild
 

hoping to gear up now that daylight savings are in effect so it doesnt get dark at 5pm when my 20 month old goes to bed at 6:30...well that and when I'm not on the road for work. hoping to finish the gas tank and front brakes so I get back to the engine bay and see about cranking it up! we shall see

Re: 1988 mustang rebuild
 

Re: 1988 mustang rebuild
 

Keep at it and don't scrap it. In for future progress.

Re: 1988 mustang rebuild
 

oh its not getting scrapped. I'll post a couple pics of my "parts pile" very soon just to add to that. I've got a 99 cobra IRS setup ready for it. a complete known good harness (the one in it is hacked up), at work I've got a brand new t5 (I traded a major t5 dealer out of atlanta 5 4-banger t5s I had and one busted v8 t5 so he'd build me one good one...he wanted the cases for dog bone builds), and an on3 turbo kit thats going on this bitch. I didnt buy the parts for no reason. just life got in the damn way for a itty bitty bit. damn you life. damn you.

Re: 1988 mustang rebuild
 

Are you still working on this Mustang? I think it's nice to see some old cars passing by the street nowadays. They're classy. :bump:

Re: 1988 mustang rebuild
 

Didn't know IFS was that swappable to fox body.

I ran 400ftlbs through a WC/T5 for a few years with no breakage but that was in a 2700 lb car

Re: 1988 mustang rebuild
 

did you mean the IRS. its from a 99 cobra. same platform. you just have to weld in the rear plates is all and bolts in.

its been sitting under a tarp past couple months. been having blood pressure issues and with it being a heat index of 110 and 100% humidity, I'm trying not to stroke out. I dont cut my grass until after dark as it is. sigh. I hate getting old.

Re: 1988 mustang rebuild
 

ok, got off my butt and started one of the mustang projects I've just been putting off and putting off. I have a passenger seat as my driver seat right now. the seat set in my car is the rarer gray high back setup from the highly optioned GTs of the day with red plaid stitching in it. I have two driver seats to build one good one out of. both have issues on the seat bottom (one has the bolsters torn and the other has the middle torn). the bottoms are already being combined at a local upholstery shop. past two days I've been using rustoleum rust dissolver to fix the seat tracks as both sets were frozen solid with rust. one set is completely free and works perfectly while I'm working on the second set..which the springs decided to rust apart. sorry. no pics. trying to keep my HT albums completely full. I will post a progress and completed pic once done.

Re: 1988 mustang rebuild
 

How cool is That? Same 8.8 lsd I imagine? IRS is the main reason I got into motor swapping old Datsun Zs back in the day.

Re: 1988 mustang rebuild
 

Yeah 8.8" 31 spline unit. I actually have to swap the pumpkin out as it's cracked on the right bearing retainer (PO launched too hard). Helped me get the unit wayyy cheap and I'm using a housing out of a Lincoln mark 8. Same aluminum housing dirt cheap compared to a real Cobra unit.

Re: 1988 mustang rebuild
 

Looking good man!

Any updates?

I just built a 1993 SSP.

Re: 1988 mustang rebuild
 

In! I didn't know you were rebuilding a Foxbody. Noice!

Re: 1988 mustang rebuild
 

Very nice. The fox body is one of the best looking cars..