Hello SVT,
I have decided to start a build thread of my 1988 SSP Coupe. I have been a member on this forum since I was a teenager mostly reading or buying and selling a few things here and there. The time has come to share a little bit of my build as I have enjoyed checking out so many others on this site. This first post is a little wordy but the following posts will be more build oriented.
History/Back Story:
I bought this car in 2013 off craigslist after being out of the mustang world for several years. I grew up around mustangs my whole life, my dad had a 428 cobra jet, a drag car, and a terminator at one point and he bought me a 04 Gt as my first car which I later totaled after a few years. I moved out at 18 and got away from mustangs doing assembly at a nearby factory and later fabrication for a couple years.
I decided to go back to school for engineering back in 2013 and wanted back in the mustang game, something simple. That was fast, easy to work on, etc, etc. Everything that is a foxbody. So I found the Coupe somewhat local and it was the right color with the right rims and had a “Fresh 306”. Looking back now I wouldn’t have bought the car because of all the mickey mouse stuff to it that I have had to undo over the years. But if I hadn’t I wouldn’t have learned as much as I have. Either way the car was a perfect platform. It had less than 90k original miles with zero rust.
I drove it for about a year then purchased a supercharger for it off craigslist. Ready to slap in on in a weekend. My father introduced me to a buddy of his who was a retired Ford mechanic for well longer than I have been alive. He owned a Dart Block Turbo Hatch at the time. He would later go on to be my “mentor” over the next 4 years building the car. I’m sure he would like to remain anonymous, so I will refer to him as Bill in this thread.
So I was ready to slap on the supercharger kit and started trying to fit it on and Bill walks in and the first thing he says was pull the motor. To which of course I objected because I know it all. That was the beginning of the learning curve which I am still riding graciously.
To fast forward, we finally got the motor installed and were going to take it to Blankenship for tuning and thought it would be a good idea to check the compression before making the trip. Motor had low compression on two cylinders.
Bill had an old 306 shortblock he pulled from where he went with a dart iron eagle he made me a deal on and I had to purchase some twisted wedge heads. Motor goes back in and we finally make it up to Blankenship.
We got the car tuned and it put down 400/400 at 6 lbs which is the goal that I had in mind when I went up there. I drove it like that for about 6 months. During this time Bill decided to swap all of his drivetrain out of his hatch into a 30k original mile 93 coupe. I sold my PITA daily driven Lincoln LS, purchased his hatch, and we swapped all the 93 coupe drivetrain into the hatch which is now my DD. I wasn’t very satisfied with the drivability of the coupe after the tune, nothing against Blankenship, but after riding in Bills coupe with the Haltech Standalone system and all the options and just everything about it is exactly where I wanted to head.
The car got parked October 2016, I purchased Bills AEM standalone that he ditched when he bought his new coupe and went with Haltech. My original intentions we to hook up the AEM over the winter and get her back on the road by the end of Decemberish
So to fast forward to today have a few semesters left to finish my EE degree. I have had less and less time to work on the car and started to loose interest this semester with my work load and only being able to maybe work on the car once a week for a few hours. This week is my spring break so I have really gotten back into the car and have made a tremendous amount of progress. So this thread is starting in the middle of this progress. Where I originally intended to hook up the AEM and be done, I have opened up and nearly finished multiple cans of worms.
Bill talked me into the GM coils. A lot of consideration went into where they would be mounted. Valvecovers was my original choice, but I like the OEM covers and don’t want to run a box-r or comparable intake for them to clear, because I wanted to run a stock hood. So we settled on the shock towers. Bill did all the wiring for these babies. I tried to watch and soak in as much as I could. He also suggest fire core wires, which one I will have to redo because it is a little to short. Excuse the intake, it is the last remaining junker on the car and will be getting replaced soon enough. SMH.
The cowl of the car is the only part of the body that is in rough shape. My plan was to remove the entire section and weld in a new one. That was the original plan for this winter before I decided to go stand alone. So instead I opted for a quicker temporary fix. I grinded as deep as a 1 ½ inches of bondo out of this thing. There were multiple layers. We bent and pried it up the best we could. I am going to satin black until I am ready to completely swap it with a new unit.
I got a Aeromotive fuel system in the deal when I purchased bills old black hatch. I don’t remember why now but I decided to go ahead and put that on the car as well. Which meant new fuel rails, new lines, new tank, and pumps.
The American Muscle Saleen wheels I so loved when I first bought the car ended up being one of the biggest POS on the car next to the intake which will also be replaced soon. I will never purchase cheap aftermarket wheels. The holes for the lugs are nearly impossible to get a socket in and the castings are garbage. The wheels run true on the inside but wobble on the outside if that makes sense as a result of cheap casting. It is the wildest thing. Needless to say I have been in the market for a set of 03/04 cobra wheels since this past summer. A nice set is fairly elusive. Well, I found some local last night on craigslist. The center caps will be replaced with OEM SVT, but I got a killer deal on all 4 for $400. Now this was somewhat unexpected and unlocked the next stage of modifications, brembo brakes, 94/95 spindles, etc etc.
I went to hook up the wideband gauge this week and found a mess. Previous owners sourced ignition switch power and something else from the fuse panel which I did not discover until after wiring it twice. Bill did not appreciate that. So I ended up rewiring the gauges a few times and hooking into the correct wires. I also deleted the huge tach. This is how I left it last night to go get the wheels.
Finished for this stage anyways. I plan to run race pak in the near future as soon as I get out of school and can afford it.
I have decided to start a build thread of my 1988 SSP Coupe. I have been a member on this forum since I was a teenager mostly reading or buying and selling a few things here and there. The time has come to share a little bit of my build as I have enjoyed checking out so many others on this site. This first post is a little wordy but the following posts will be more build oriented.
History/Back Story:
I bought this car in 2013 off craigslist after being out of the mustang world for several years. I grew up around mustangs my whole life, my dad had a 428 cobra jet, a drag car, and a terminator at one point and he bought me a 04 Gt as my first car which I later totaled after a few years. I moved out at 18 and got away from mustangs doing assembly at a nearby factory and later fabrication for a couple years.
I decided to go back to school for engineering back in 2013 and wanted back in the mustang game, something simple. That was fast, easy to work on, etc, etc. Everything that is a foxbody. So I found the Coupe somewhat local and it was the right color with the right rims and had a “Fresh 306”. Looking back now I wouldn’t have bought the car because of all the mickey mouse stuff to it that I have had to undo over the years. But if I hadn’t I wouldn’t have learned as much as I have. Either way the car was a perfect platform. It had less than 90k original miles with zero rust.
I drove it for about a year then purchased a supercharger for it off craigslist. Ready to slap in on in a weekend. My father introduced me to a buddy of his who was a retired Ford mechanic for well longer than I have been alive. He owned a Dart Block Turbo Hatch at the time. He would later go on to be my “mentor” over the next 4 years building the car. I’m sure he would like to remain anonymous, so I will refer to him as Bill in this thread.
So I was ready to slap on the supercharger kit and started trying to fit it on and Bill walks in and the first thing he says was pull the motor. To which of course I objected because I know it all. That was the beginning of the learning curve which I am still riding graciously.
To fast forward, we finally got the motor installed and were going to take it to Blankenship for tuning and thought it would be a good idea to check the compression before making the trip. Motor had low compression on two cylinders.
Bill had an old 306 shortblock he pulled from where he went with a dart iron eagle he made me a deal on and I had to purchase some twisted wedge heads. Motor goes back in and we finally make it up to Blankenship.
We got the car tuned and it put down 400/400 at 6 lbs which is the goal that I had in mind when I went up there. I drove it like that for about 6 months. During this time Bill decided to swap all of his drivetrain out of his hatch into a 30k original mile 93 coupe. I sold my PITA daily driven Lincoln LS, purchased his hatch, and we swapped all the 93 coupe drivetrain into the hatch which is now my DD. I wasn’t very satisfied with the drivability of the coupe after the tune, nothing against Blankenship, but after riding in Bills coupe with the Haltech Standalone system and all the options and just everything about it is exactly where I wanted to head.
The car got parked October 2016, I purchased Bills AEM standalone that he ditched when he bought his new coupe and went with Haltech. My original intentions we to hook up the AEM over the winter and get her back on the road by the end of Decemberish
So to fast forward to today have a few semesters left to finish my EE degree. I have had less and less time to work on the car and started to loose interest this semester with my work load and only being able to maybe work on the car once a week for a few hours. This week is my spring break so I have really gotten back into the car and have made a tremendous amount of progress. So this thread is starting in the middle of this progress. Where I originally intended to hook up the AEM and be done, I have opened up and nearly finished multiple cans of worms.
Bill talked me into the GM coils. A lot of consideration went into where they would be mounted. Valvecovers was my original choice, but I like the OEM covers and don’t want to run a box-r or comparable intake for them to clear, because I wanted to run a stock hood. So we settled on the shock towers. Bill did all the wiring for these babies. I tried to watch and soak in as much as I could. He also suggest fire core wires, which one I will have to redo because it is a little to short. Excuse the intake, it is the last remaining junker on the car and will be getting replaced soon enough. SMH.
The cowl of the car is the only part of the body that is in rough shape. My plan was to remove the entire section and weld in a new one. That was the original plan for this winter before I decided to go stand alone. So instead I opted for a quicker temporary fix. I grinded as deep as a 1 ½ inches of bondo out of this thing. There were multiple layers. We bent and pried it up the best we could. I am going to satin black until I am ready to completely swap it with a new unit.
I got a Aeromotive fuel system in the deal when I purchased bills old black hatch. I don’t remember why now but I decided to go ahead and put that on the car as well. Which meant new fuel rails, new lines, new tank, and pumps.
The American Muscle Saleen wheels I so loved when I first bought the car ended up being one of the biggest POS on the car next to the intake which will also be replaced soon. I will never purchase cheap aftermarket wheels. The holes for the lugs are nearly impossible to get a socket in and the castings are garbage. The wheels run true on the inside but wobble on the outside if that makes sense as a result of cheap casting. It is the wildest thing. Needless to say I have been in the market for a set of 03/04 cobra wheels since this past summer. A nice set is fairly elusive. Well, I found some local last night on craigslist. The center caps will be replaced with OEM SVT, but I got a killer deal on all 4 for $400. Now this was somewhat unexpected and unlocked the next stage of modifications, brembo brakes, 94/95 spindles, etc etc.
I went to hook up the wideband gauge this week and found a mess. Previous owners sourced ignition switch power and something else from the fuse panel which I did not discover until after wiring it twice. Bill did not appreciate that. So I ended up rewiring the gauges a few times and hooking into the correct wires. I also deleted the huge tach. This is how I left it last night to go get the wheels.
Finished for this stage anyways. I plan to run race pak in the near future as soon as I get out of school and can afford it.
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