85 mustang GT build

[Foureyedjoe]

Hi all,

I joined the group a few months ago after I picked up a Jalapeno Red 85 GT that had been converted from a AOD CFI car to a T5 SFI from a 86 GT donor car. It had a rebuilt T5 and 8.8 rear end in it when I bought it but it had been sitting for a while so there was a lot of parts that were still original but worn out.

I though I would start a thread showing my progress as I went through the build. I dont really know how far I want to go with it yet but so far I just want to get it road worthy and driving/looking nice.

Ill start with the day I picked it up Aug 31 2019 here it is coming home

[Foureyedjoe]

Of course I was already in love with the car so I drove it a little before parking it for the winter and starting to pick away at the items that needed to be fixed before I could drive it more than a few min down the road.

First step was to replace the brakes and shocks, I thought about upgrading everything but due to budget I decided to stay with the stock parts for now and later on when I could afford it I could upgrade.

Here is the old brakes, I purchased rebuilt calipers and painted them. New rotors, brake pads, drums, and rebuilt the rear brakes.

[Foureyedjoe]

after that I moved onto the suspension. Shocks and struts needed replaced, installed Poly bushings in the control arms, new ball joints, new end links with poly bushings, outer tie rod ends, and poly isolaters on the springs. The guy who had it before me had a lot of this stuff and gave it to me with the car so I just had to install it.

[Foureyedjoe]

From there I moved onto the interior. It was in good shape so it only needed a refresh. I pulled the carpet, seats and everything out so I could clean and sound deaden the floor. I was happy to the there was no rust.

[Foureyedjoe]

A picture of the sound deadening done

[Foureyedjoe]

Ahh new carpet

[Foureyedjoe]

All back together

[Foureyedjoe]

[Foureyedjoe]

Time to tackle the engine bay. My goal was to clean it up and fix any leaks I could without having to pull the engine. One day I'll pull it and do a repaint ect.

Before I started

[Foureyedjoe]

Overall it wasn't to bad I had already done some cleaning just wanted to fix the leaks.

Off goes the intake to fix the oil leak at the back

[Foureyedjoe]

Found myself a explore intake at a decent price so I cleaned it up and painted it.

[Foureyedjoe]

The injectors I put in were 19lb ev6 that I cleaned and rebuilt. Replaced the valve cover gaskets and painted the valve covers. Cleaned up the wiring a bit, more of that to do but it's a start. Eventually I'll do a wire tuck and probably delete the salt and pepper shakers.
Last night I put the fan and everything back on. Almost there

[Foureyedjoe]

well this weekend I started the car up and am glad to say everything is good. Being the first time I have ever done a upper and lower intake, injectors, and distributor I was a little stressed that something might leak and I would have to rip it apart again

But I let it run for a good 45 min and kept looking everywhere to check on it and so far it looks good. Only thing that still has a little bit of seeping is the oil pan gasket. That might be a pain to change without pulling the engine so not sure if ill do it just yet.

still need to set my timing and some fine tuning of the idle and TPS. But I have a few more months before I can drive it anyway

[Boomer85gt]

Man, you've done some really nice work there! Love the Jalapeno 85 - 86 cars...mine is an 85 GT with T-Tops...and my name is Joe too.

[Foureyedjoe]

Man, you've done some really nice work there! Love the Jalapeno 85 - 86 cars...mine is an 85 GT with T-Tops...and my name is Joe too.

Haha was are the odds. Thanks its been a lot of fun working on the car, long ways to go but its a great project.

[NAVYCAT]

wow nothing beats a new interior, so did you see a power difference with the intake? Im building the same thing but I have some AFR heads and cam to go on

[Foureyedjoe]

wow nothing beats a new interior, so did you see a power difference with the intake? Im building the same thing but I have some AFR heads and cam to go on

Hey I haven't had a chance to drive it yet so I can't speak to the power increase. I had a vacuum leak somewhere before so it runs nicer now but I'm hoping I gain a bit. I also plan to upsize the throttle body, and EGR spacer to 70 mm. And I found a good price on a A9L so I'll see how it runs on speed density before converting to mass air.

The AFR heads should make some nice power gains. I want to get heads but I didn't have the budget for it. I'll probably do heads and a cam down the road

[erratic50]

Nice car - live to see cars that are brought back.

It should pull to around 5800 if it has good exhaust. You’ll gain more low end torque with those long runners as well.

[Foureyedjoe]

Thanks,

I have aftermarket shorty headers, H-pipe and 2.5" exhaust but not sure as to the brand of it all. It came with the car

The four eyed cars are less common than the aero cars. Makes it a little harder to find aftermarket parts but its worth the hunt in order to restore these cars. This is my first resto but I know it wont be my last. The four eyed cars are my favorite though. One day a saleen or saleen clone would be awesome

[tbirdman]

Looking good on the restoration. When you're ready to help me with mine, let me know!

[99GTMichael]

Looks excellent. Moving right along, keep up the good work. Slick car.

[Foureyedjoe]

Looking good on the restoration. When you're ready to help me with mine, let me know!

Would totally be down to help but might be a bit of a drive lol

[cougman67]

Keep up the great work.

[Foureyedjoe]

On the weekend I finished my MAS air conversion. Finished running the wires from the VSS + and -, Fuel Pump relay, installed the A9L I bought a couple months back and ran my MAF wiring. Changed a few of the pins around for the TAB and TAD and I was very happy to say the car started right up and runs really smooth. The car was running good when it was speed density but now its idle is dead smooth. I did notice that when it was on the speed density system I had the idle set to about 800 RPM and when I did the conversion it is not a little under 750. Probably just the difference between the way the calculation is done between the two different PCMs but it was interesting to see. I am still running the stock MAF sensor, intake elbow, airbox setup along with the stock throttle body but ill upgrade all of that down the road. I just wanted to make sure it ran right with the stock parts. If I change to much at once its more to go through if something is wrong.