Tom W’s Build Thread - 211180

[twatson799]

Hello. Starting a thread since my MK4 kit is soon to be delivered. I will try to stay up to date, but writing threads is not my forte. I have read a lot of threads and have spent the last 9 months watching YouTube videos in the mornings while I workout in our home gym. This will be my first build. I am quite familiar with all the systems in the vehicle since I work in the auto industry and I have done a frame off restoration of a 1956 Thunderbird. Going back in time, my cousin and I used to drag race in the 80s. I placed my order soon after the $1000 sale started in mid-February and they threw in free powder coating of the frame for being one of the first 10 orders with the sale.

So here is what is known for my plans so far:
- Base kit (ordered 2-14-24, build scheduled for 3-30-24) - 6 weeks!
- 4.6L 4V (97 Cobra SVT)
- mid-shifted TKO w/ hydraulic clutch
- IRS w/ 3.31 ratio (2015 Mustang GT)
- Mustang Cobra brakes
- rear battery box with Optima 12V lithium ion battery
- tunnel top mounted e-brake
- heater/defroster
- glovebox
- leather seats
- twin chrome roll bars
- Gas-N sidepipes
- powder coated frame
- tires/wheels TBD
- gauges TBD
- Ron Frances body and chassis harnesses
- Mustang Cobra engine harness and computer

I have read the pros and cons of a base kit versus a complete kit. I chose the base kit because, for me, restoring parts is part of the journey. I have been rebuilding engines since the 70s and I would like to think I have a handle on which components are durable and which aren’t worth restoring. Being in SE Michigan, the auto capital, we have a lot of Mustangs and a lot of salvage yards in the area. It is not too hard to find multiple Mustangs for which to choose from when heading out on a Sunday morning to harvest parts. I started with the engine, T45 trans and limited slip rear end from a 97 Mustang Cobra SVT in June of 2023. Over time, I replace the T45 with a TKO and the rear axle with an IRS. I have spent the winter rebuilding the engine keeping it at factory specs. Who knows, maybe some HP upgrades in the future. All of my other harvested parts are from various SN95 vehicles.

As I am waiting for delivery, I spent the last couple of weekends building a chassis dolly and body buck. Both are on casters. The chassis dolly plans came from a forum member and the body buck is custom but inspired by different bucks people on the forum have built. I built a 7’ x 8’ platform on the bottom of the body buck to hold boxes and aluminum panels. I built it wide enough such that I could roll it over the chassis if I need space in my garage. The platform is attached to the buck with lag bolts that are easy to remove.

I am looking forward to this journey and continuing to learn from others.

[BUDFIVE]

Twatson799,
Welcome to the forum. Looks like a fun build. Best of luck.

[twatson799]

First update. Kit was completed on March 30 and delivered 7 days later on April 6. Driver had to back down our quarter mile street since it dead ends and the turn around is too small. Inventory only took about 3 hours with the help of my wife. Managed to get the body off the chassis myself. I am lucky that I have 2 I-beams in my garage that are spaced just a little wider than the wheelbase of the car. So a pair of block and tackles that I use to suspend the removable hardtop from my Tbird made taking the body removal doable. I am now 3 weeks in and progress has been slow - primarily due to travel for work. The weekend it arrived, I managed to get the IRS diff in. Kind of out of order, but I wanted to get this big task out of the way. I tried some of the methods described on the forum and I was getting frustrated. At one point, it was kind of cockeyed. To straighten it out, i put bolts in the threaded bosses protruding forward. The heads of the bolts were about 4 inches forward of the bosses. I wrapped a strap around those bolts and attached it to my cherry picker. When I began lifting, I realized that I had found the center of gravity of the diff. After that, moving it forward or back and rotating it to get it into position was fairly easy. I wish I had taken pictures, but I am not going to take it apart just to do that.

Weekend 2 - I was out of town. Great trip to Boston to watch my nephew run the marathon.
Weekend 3 - left out of the country on Saturday for a week
Weekend 4 - first chance to get to work on the car.

Rear suspension all together. Ready to put on the 2015 GT brakes soon. Found out that 2 different driveshaft adapters are available depending on whether your diff came from a manual or automatic Mustang. The parts store doesn’t appear to have the one I need. I have an email in to FFR to see if they will do a swap to the correct one. Not sure why this isn’t on the order form.

This weekend, I am in the process of fitting and drilling the F panels and the 2 footbox panels so I can send them to the powder coater. The Clecos work amazing. Tedious work but it needs to be done. I did a test fit of the engine before I disassembled the driver footbox to get an idea of clearance to the engine. Wow. Only 1/2” between the corner of the head of my 4.6L-4V and the aluminum. Plenty of room behind the engine even with the FFMetals dash forward panel that arrived while I was out of town. I have read of some people making an access hole on the side of the footbox just in case they ever need to remove the exhaust manifold bolts. I am considering this.

[twatson799]

Second update. 15 months have flown by since update 1, but there has been progress. Had my first engine start less than a week ago so that shows a lot has happened between then and now. Looking back at my original plan, I can say I have stuck to my plan with additional scope creep along the way. I added 7 additional electrical circuits to the original RF harness (Painless Performance 70207) to power my extras. That is mounted in the trunk. My extras include wipers, seat heaters (probably overkill when coupled with the heater), backup camera, trunk lighting, footbox cooling fans, and multiple USB charger ports. AutoMeter gauges.


Many thanks to posters on this and other forums. Incredible amount of knowledge and lessons learned from those before us going through this process now. Shout out to wirediet.com and Art Cuesta for the high quality work on my Mustang donor engine harness. Everything was labeled for easy connections - especially marrying together the engine harness with the RF chassis harness. PCM reprogramming was done by Drag Radial Performance in Ocala, FL. Again, excellent work. I went with a new MN12 (Tbird/Cougar) cooling fan/shroud and a FFR radiator versus donor. I must admit I used less donor parts than originally planned. 2017 IRS differential, PS rack, pedals, Hydroboost, fuel tank, engine, engine harness, engine PCM are about it. While I tried to harvest a lot of parts from salvage yards, they turned out not to be usable for a car I want to last for several years without maintenance. From the beginning, my motto has been that the journey is as exciting as the destination. So no regrets about not buying a complete kit.


One challenge I have is all the congestion near the passenger side A-pillar. Wiper, heater, and glovebox. My overzealous attitude to prove everybody wrong that it is difficult to package all of this in one area is catching up with me. Running the engine harness through the same area has made it impossible to install the windshield bolts when I get to that stage. The ffmetal firewall forward kit allowed the glovebox and heater to work together. I did cut 1/2” of depth out of the heater box to make it fit. I think if I find a different routing for the engine harness and make the wiper motor easily installed after the body and windshield are on, I will be ok. The 97 PCM is not waterproof, so I still need the PCM inside where water can’t get to it. To reroute the engine harness, I am considering cutting a hole in the top of the passenger foot box. Not sure if anyone else has done this, but I still need to think about the negative consequences of this.


All in all, I am happy with my progress. Ok, more on the first start. I was surprised how quick it fired up after cranking the engine. One suggestion for those about to do your first start. If you have a fuel injection system and have access to a fuel rail pressure gauge with a bleed button, bleed off all the air in the fuel lines. I have seen some videos of builders crank their engine for 30-45 seconds before it would fire. Trust me, bleeding the air makes it so much easier.