Truebluedevil02

I was going to wait to start this but I guess there is no time like the present. I have been craving a project car for a long time. While I LOVE my 2013 GT, it is to...controlled, I might say boring:dw: I thought this feeling would go away with the addition of bolt ons and exterior mods, but it didnt. I considered adding a supercharger, but after driving a TVS 2012 Auto coyote and a 2012 Paxton Coyote, both making over 600whp(640whp for the Paxton car), I came to the conclusion that these cars are just to good. Granted they are not Lambo's, or Bugatti's, but they are so controlled, so docile, and even with 600+whp they are, dare I say, anti climactic. They are also ridiculously expensive to mod/repair.

I have come to realize that I missed being a little scared of the car. I wanted something I had to drive, something that was raw, and angry, something that if I wasn't careful, would turn around and rip my head off. Something like my old 408 stroked, 91 coupe I sold a few years back. Manual steering, 408CI stroker, BIG cam, built Auto, ratchet shifter. It would shake, rattle, stink, and sounded like it wanted to kill you when it was just sitting at a light.

So a few weeks back i started searching for something I could stick in the garage and work on whenever I felt like it. Something that doesn't NEED to get done ASAP, something that isn't perfect, that can get scratched without me having a meltdown and ripping someones mirror off and beating them with it. A simple, low key, project car. After about 2 weeks of scouring craigslist and local forums I found a 1997 Mustang, V6, factory auto, completely stock, with a salvage title. It was pretty much exactly what I was looking for. it had 159,000 miles, and runs like a top, starts right up when dead cold, idles and shifts just fine. I went and looked at it and picked it up for $1000. Not the deal of the century, but not to bad either, considering EVERYTHING electronic(minus the horn) works, also, the windows work to

I know some will ask, "why name it JoeDirt". Thats simple.

"Dirt" because its gunna be a heavily budget minded(cheap) build.

And "Joe" because, well its gunna get a Chevy motor put in it. A junkyard 5.3LS with a big turbo and Th400 to be specific.

So without further a due, allow me to introduce, Joe Dirt..

If you look closely(ok, not that close, lol) you can see about 2" of over spray on the windshield, "this is a High quality paint job", said no man EVER.


The night I brought her home. Yes, this is being done in a 1 car garage


Custom tail light paint, all the rage with kids these days






Notice the hood damage, and the AWESOME custom head light paint. Also, those aren't shadows on the hood, the car was purple at one point, but not any more.




Obviously the airbags deployed at some point.


Once I got the car home I figured it would be a good idea to pull the front end apart to check for any damage that was caused by the collision that set off the air bags. Amazingly I got to this point without using a single wrench or socket. Every fastener was only finger tight


The damage is not very hard to spot, lol. The bumper was almost completely broken in half and wasn't even attached to the car on the passenger side.


The headlight bucket was broken and someone tried to silicone it back together


High quality parts were used of course.


This will buff right out.


Luckily for me, the top and bottom of the radiator support are straight and in the proper location. The damage was only to the middle where the bumper support bars are mounted so this radiator support will be staying in the car.




Up next on the list was to fix the god awful headlights and tail lights. Since this is a budget build I wanted to try and fix what I already had rather than spend $300+ on new lights.

With the help of some 400 grit, 800 grit, and Mothers polishing compound the headlights went from this...


After wet sanding, before polish.


Before and After polish...


Now on to the taillights.

Before


Partially polished


After


Once that was done a trip to the local youpullandpay yard netted a plethora of parts that I got for next to nothing. The list included an undamaged Hood, passenger side side skirt, black steering wheel, black passenger side air bag cover, and a few other little odds and ends.

First was the steering wheel.

Before


After.


Now I am waiting for a new headlight bucket, Left hand side marker, splash guards, and a passenger side fender to finish getting the car put back together. Once these parts come in(hopefully this week) the car will probably get another spray paint job, I'm thinking Matte white with black wheels.

More to come.

Truebluedevil02

We'll I finally got some time to work on the car this weekend and managed to get it back together for the most part. After being unable to get the fender and headlights to line up I took some cross measurements of the engine bay and found out the front of the car is 1" out of square, 3/4" from the front of the shock towers forward. Not saying I was surprised, lol. Needless to say, the body lines don't exactly match up properly so I guess a show car this will not be, good thing I wasn't going for show car status. Even so, I will probably take it to a shop and have them see how straight/crooked the chassis is. If the whole chassis is bent then this car will get stuck in DD mode as I don't want to mess with a 700+hp motor in a bent chassis. But until then, here is how she sits right now.











More updates to come after I see what the alignment shop says.

LILHEMI

In for the fun.

stevesfbody

What a turd! I love it

CustomX

iTrader: (1)

I recently picked up a 94 v6 and doing a similar build. Mine had a blown v6 thats ripped apart and the interior needs some work but I couldn't pass it up. Traded a .30-06 rifle I had for the car lol! Ever since my 96 cobra I've been attached to this body style... lot of people don't care for them too much.