Restoring my '88 5.0 Mustang LX
Discussion
Good evening and welcome to what I hope to be the first in a short series of updates detailing the process of restoring my 1988 Mustang LX.
Last December I was idly browsing ebay looking at mustangs (as you do) when I came across a little gem, the current bidding was £750 and it had a day to run. The advert was poorly worded and made the car out to be in a very bad state, but what the hell £750 right? So I bid.
Now I need to clarify that, I bid a max bid of £850, without asking the wife's permission, and then the inevitable happened. I f
king won.
I spent a day agonising over what I should do, do I tell the wife, do I tell the seller I've suddenly fallen on hard time, or it was a joke bid. No what I did, was panic, for 3 days I neither checked my emails nor discussed anything financial with the wife. But one tuesday evening I decided this charade could continue no longer, so I manned up, and very sheepishly told her what I'd done. to my amazement she didn't kick off, she didn't throw a wobbly, she quite simply said "If you have the money in your account, you can buy it, but you're not touching the savings", luckily I had not far off the required ammount in my account, so I nabbed some of my savings and on a thursday evening in mid December off I went to london, by train (a story for another thread), to pick up my "new" car.
It was dark by the time I got there, so when I first saw her I thought, fk me it's an absolute nail! Then when the lights went on I thought fk me I was right! but sitting in that drivers seat I knew it was meant to be, this is the third mustang I've owned and by far the one in worst condition, but there was something else, something said to me, "this is the car you're meant to drive", and when I fired it up for the first time and heard the 5.0 rumble, I knew I would never let this car go.
So now you're up to date on the how I got it, here it is in late december (we had some snow, you might have noticed) hiding under a blanket of snow, and then after I'd driven it to work testing the roof off in snow theory (the theory which states the ammount of awesome you have is equal to the roof offiness of the vehicle multiplied by the snow oniness of the roads, so I was pretty fking awesome):
And here's my mate Asif and I heading to the ph Sunday service at the mini factory in Oxford in -5 weather (fking let down really it was a regular size factory):
The interior is due to be touched up as soon as the new glove box door and latch arrive:
But now on to business, Wednesday she went away for an MOT and to fit a new roof I'd had shipped in from Bill Hirsch Auto in the states, Trevor from Surrey Mustang tends to do all my mustang work as he is reasonably priced and an all round good egg (there I've plugged it now I want a discount on the body work)
So I present to you spanky, in all his watertight new roofedness:
The big save has now started to get the body work done. I'm around half way there so I'm hoping that around June spanky will go in for bodywork and paint. I'll document that as it happens.
Last December I was idly browsing ebay looking at mustangs (as you do) when I came across a little gem, the current bidding was £750 and it had a day to run. The advert was poorly worded and made the car out to be in a very bad state, but what the hell £750 right? So I bid.
Now I need to clarify that, I bid a max bid of £850, without asking the wife's permission, and then the inevitable happened. I f
king won.I spent a day agonising over what I should do, do I tell the wife, do I tell the seller I've suddenly fallen on hard time, or it was a joke bid. No what I did, was panic, for 3 days I neither checked my emails nor discussed anything financial with the wife. But one tuesday evening I decided this charade could continue no longer, so I manned up, and very sheepishly told her what I'd done. to my amazement she didn't kick off, she didn't throw a wobbly, she quite simply said "If you have the money in your account, you can buy it, but you're not touching the savings", luckily I had not far off the required ammount in my account, so I nabbed some of my savings and on a thursday evening in mid December off I went to london, by train (a story for another thread), to pick up my "new" car.
It was dark by the time I got there, so when I first saw her I thought, f
k me it's an absolute nail! Then when the lights went on I thought fk me I was right! but sitting in that drivers seat I knew it was meant to be, this is the third mustang I've owned and by far the one in worst condition, but there was something else, something said to me, "this is the car you're meant to drive", and when I fired it up for the first time and heard the 5.0 rumble, I knew I would never let this car go.So now you're up to date on the how I got it, here it is in late december (we had some snow, you might have noticed) hiding under a blanket of snow, and then after I'd driven it to work testing the roof off in snow theory (the theory which states the ammount of awesome you have is equal to the roof offiness of the vehicle multiplied by the snow oniness of the roads, so I was pretty f
king awesome):And here's my mate Asif and I heading to the ph Sunday service at the mini factory in Oxford in -5 weather (f
king let down really it was a regular size factory):The interior is due to be touched up as soon as the new glove box door and latch arrive:
But now on to business, Wednesday she went away for an MOT and to fit a new roof I'd had shipped in from Bill Hirsch Auto in the states, Trevor from Surrey Mustang tends to do all my mustang work as he is reasonably priced and an all round good egg (there I've plugged it now I want a discount on the body work)
So I present to you spanky, in all his watertight new roofedness:
The big save has now started to get the body work done. I'm around half way there so I'm hoping that around June spanky will go in for bodywork and paint. I'll document that as it happens.
Sushi said:
...after I'd driven it to work testing the roof off in snow theory (the theory which states the ammount of awesome you have is equal to the roof offiness of the vehicle multiplied by the snow oniness of the roads, so I was pretty fking awesome)
king awesome)
Looks great for an old nail, will watch with interest.
Ben3883 said:
Sushi said:
...after I'd driven it to work testing the roof off in snow theory (the theory which states the ammount of awesome you have is equal to the roof offiness of the vehicle multiplied by the snow oniness of the roads, so I was pretty fking awesome)
king awesome)
soad said:
Good write up, big thumbs up. I assume engine and running gear is in good shape on the mechanical side of things?
Do know i will enjoy readin further updates :-)
Hi SoadDo know i will enjoy readin further updates :-)
Yeah the running gear and engine are solid, I was really concerned that it was a death trap, but on closer inspection all issues appear to be cosmetic. I had to get some holes patched in the exhaust and the headlamps need tape over them to pass MOT (dazzle oncoming vehicles otherwise, although no mustang I've ever been in, old or new, has lights bright enough to cause alarm, let alone dazzle), also the MOT tester said the front reg plate couldn't be fixed on with tape as it wasn't secure (that's the f
king point!) so I've had to fix that bracket on permanently.So yeah it's had little niggles, but nothing wrong with the majorly expensive bits which is what I Was really worried about. I spent most of yesterday cleaning the engines bay as it's got 23 years of oil and grease build up everywhere, I'll post up some pictures of the during and after cleaning, but so far I've gone through 3 pot scourers, 4 buckets of water, 3 clean rags, and 2 cans of gibbs brand (look it up this stuff is f
king amazing) and I'm about 50% there, a lot of components and wiring actually have markings and writing on them which was a surprise, as I'd assumed they were black.
jimmyjam said:
Saw this at SS. Good buy. Love it looking scruffy, keep the rat look I say!
This was my gut feeling to, but the laquer is peeling real bad, the paint has cracked where the doors are dented and it's starting to rust up, so I've got to at the very least get it resprayed and the bodywork tidied up. 
Well a slight issue has been discovered recently, but I'll need to give you some background so if anyone needs to go to the toilet go now, I don't want you getting up mid way through the story.
Anyways, the other day I was on a private test track which was empty and three lanes wide so I decided to open spanky up a bit and see what this mouthbreathing hillybilly could muster....107. That's right 107mph red line...wtf?!
So I pulled up, started again and yet again I could only get to 107mph before red line, although something else was bothering me, the auto box had only changed twice, meaning I was in 3rd, why no 4th gear (OD)?
So he's booked in to get his knobbly bits sorted out at the end of the month, I hope it's not to costly as along with that he's getting lower intake ported, cats removed, h pipe removed and straight pipes welded in, smog removed, timing adjusted, and some new glasspack mufflers fitted.
So there goes the paint and bodywork for another couple of months, I'm not really worried about that though, as the current state of him just adds to his charm.
Anyways, the other day I was on a private test track which was empty and three lanes wide so I decided to open spanky up a bit and see what this mouthbreathing hillybilly could muster....107. That's right 107mph red line...wtf?!
So I pulled up, started again and yet again I could only get to 107mph before red line, although something else was bothering me, the auto box had only changed twice, meaning I was in 3rd, why no 4th gear (OD)?
So he's booked in to get his knobbly bits sorted out at the end of the month, I hope it's not to costly as along with that he's getting lower intake ported, cats removed, h pipe removed and straight pipes welded in, smog removed, timing adjusted, and some new glasspack mufflers fitted.
So there goes the paint and bodywork for another couple of months, I'm not really worried about that though, as the current state of him just adds to his charm.
Brilliant - for the money it doesn't seem like you have a lot to lose - but I guess that depends on how much you need to spend on maintenance to keep it going..
I just had my own American car experience... http://www.pistonheads.co.uk/xforums/topic.asp?h=0...
I just had my own American car experience... http://www.pistonheads.co.uk/xforums/topic.asp?h=0...
The end of the road for spanky:
Well if you've read the "show us your crash" thread you'll have seen this by now:
Last night I spoke to the insurance evaluator who has told me spanky is a cat B write off, so I will not be allowed to buy back the salvage. He will go to a salvage specialist stripped of what's usable and the chasis crushed.
Thankfully due to the enormous ammount of work I put into Spanky over the 9 months I have recieved a fair offer for settlement (I naturally rejected the first offer) and am now looking for something else to satisfy my V8 cravings.
Thanks to everyone for your comments on here, the next two weeks will see my 1979 pace car build completed so I'll be updating that thread shortly, and I'll doubtless post in here when I replace (not that he will ever be forgotten) Spanky.
Well if you've read the "show us your crash" thread you'll have seen this by now:
Last night I spoke to the insurance evaluator who has told me spanky is a cat B write off, so I will not be allowed to buy back the salvage. He will go to a salvage specialist stripped of what's usable and the chasis crushed.
Thankfully due to the enormous ammount of work I put into Spanky over the 9 months I have recieved a fair offer for settlement (I naturally rejected the first offer) and am now looking for something else to satisfy my V8 cravings.
Thanks to everyone for your comments on here, the next two weeks will see my 1979 pace car build completed so I'll be updating that thread shortly, and I'll doubtless post in here when I replace (not that he will ever be forgotten) Spanky.
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