FF58's Mod Swap - Step by Step 5.0 to Modular Engine Mustang Conversion

1988 5.0 Coupe to 2003 Cobra Conversion Info Site/Blog

November 25 2008

Wait, can it be? A real, tangible update?

Why yes.

The car has been in the body shop for some time and it's time to get finished. The deadline set for project completion is May 9th/09 and that is absolute. From here on out expect fairly regular updates. Most will be in picture form as I am now hands off for the most part.

Keep in mind most of what follows are progress pics so some of the work is in its rough stages.

First I will touch on the door panel construction. I did the rough up for the door panels myself as I had a certain vision for how the interior had to flow. With some tools and some resin and fibreglass mat, I was able to get them to a point where I could hand them to the guys at the shop for finishing.

The plan has changed a bit from these mock ups. I was going re-stretch the vinyl over the tops of the doors but have decided to smooth/paint/airbrush them to match the exterior. The bottoms of the doors will remain stock.





You have to make some carefully measured holes for the door pegs.



I used pipe strapping and hardwood to brace everything in place so I can resin and then fibreglass everything.



Top before resin and glass.



This is what the finished panel looked like, but it didn't turn out the way I wanted it too. It was passable, but not good enough. Plan change incoming.



On to the quarter plastics. I had to use the 2003 cobra lower and the fox upper plastic to get it to match in the car. Here is the mock up.



I had the door handles shaved. I won't post pics of those, but I do want to post pics of the Cobra fuel door in the car. It was cut and butt-welded into the car to look factory. It turned out great.







I debated long and hard on whether or not to run an aftermarket stereo system. I'm not much of a stereo guy to begin with. I decided to have a box built in the trunk and that it had to look like a trim piece. It also had to keep the trunk fairly accessible.  Here it is as a work in progress.







Clearshot Customs are doing all of the body, paint and custom fabrication on the car. I will be doing the airbrushing. They have built several award winning cars and some of the most recognizable in the city.

Lastly, I know a lot of people have problems with the wiper motors fitting with the full swap as the hydroboost hardlines tend to interfere with it. We mounted it to the fox bracket and trimmed it down to fit properly. It connects to the arms as stock would and works like a champ.





That is it for this update.

May 06 2009.

This is several updates rolled into one. I have been updating periodically here: Modular Fords

The car has gone through a bit of a transformation in the past four weeks.First off, the cowl has been squared away. If you remember, I cut the old one out. Another was welded in its place. It was cut precisely and butt welded in so minimal body filler was used. It turned out great.



Some of the door body work. The car has been panel-matched so the body line would appear sharper and straighter than they would from factory.





The quarter panel plastics and door panels have been resin'd, glassed and primered. Here is what the finished panels look like (unpainted).





As you can see, they turned out really good. They almost look factory. I opted to paint them the same colour as the exterior of the car with some accents in them. I could have vinyl'd them to match, but I want a little flash in the interior.

After several hours, the car was ready for primer. These short updates really don't do justice to the amount of time that goes into this stuff. Here are some primer pics.







Now step into my time machine. Another several hours later, the car is silver.



But that is just the first step in the painting process. The silver acts as a base for the House Of Kolor Candy Pagan Gold.



Once the gold is applied, a good heavy coat of clear is sprayed on it. That way I can begin sanding and prepping to lay the airbrush work.







This paint design took over 14 hours of masking alone.

A little history on the paint scheme: The first mustang I ever owned was a 70's Citroen yellow with a flag airbrushed on the front. I worked on that car for the better part of 2 years. It was destroyed 2 weeks after I finished it by a red light runner. That happened almost 8 years ago now.

The original "Flag Car", as it has been dubbed, was a paint job concepted by a man named Tim Lavergne. It was painted by Clearshot when they were still in their infancy and relatively unknown compared to today. The original flag was painted by Don Nunns.

Tim was a great guy and though I had only met him a couple of time when I bought the original car, I ended up having the pleasure of working with him for a period of about 9 months up until the car was wrecked.

Unfortunately, Tim was killed while riding his motorcycle when a car pulled out in front of him a couple of years back. There was no tom foolery going on, it was just a wrong place wrong time incident.

The original car, more than any other Mustang here in town, has a history and a reputation that has gone down in legend. For me, it was my first Mustang and the car that gave me the bug. To this day, out of all the Mustangs I have owned, I still haven't got the same feeling I had with that car.

I have owned many Mustangs since then, but it was with this ar that I decided to resurrect the "Flag Car". It had to be bigger, better looking and improved in every way over the original. I picked up airbrushing just to prep for this car because I wanted the flag to my specs.

I think I am very close to the goal I set out for myself and the car. The completion marks a complete revolution on a period of my life.

Enough blabber, more pics, right?

Here is the trunk mostly completed. You can see the vinyl on the back panels. I will be switching the red top battery out for a yellow one.





I switched out the stock expansion tanks with some Canton pieces. They add some shine under the hood. I'm not crazy for super detailed engine bays because I drive the cars I own like they are supposed to be driven.



Basically at this point it is just detail work and getting everything put back together.





I am using all new rubbers and trim pieces.

These are the wheels I am going with. They are the 07 GT500 Style from the new Shelbys. I went with a 1998-2004 17x9 on the front and a 2005+ 18x9.5 on the back. The fronts are tight, but they fit. The backs have a ton of room. I could have gone with a 10" wheel pretty easily.



That's it for now.