2007 The Accident and The Aftermath.
As I mentioned earlier Oct. 2006 I decided to experiment with my Explorer GT-40 intake. The ACT sensor was not hooked up properly and even though it ran well at first it eventually started loosing power and gas mileage. The after a very disappointing evening at the track I decided it would be best to put the factory intake back on.
Before I did, I decided to port match the intake from 60mm to 70mm so I could use my BBK 70mm EGR spacer and 65mm Explorer throttle body I had modified to work with the Mustang setup. I also port matched the upper to the lower intake as well.
The first picture shows how the finished ported intake (top of picture) compares to the GT-40 intake(bottom of picture).
The second picture is a comparison between my ported intake and a stock non-ported factory 5.0 intake.
While I didn't get to take the car back to the track and test this new setup, just by seat of the pants daily driving, the car once more had the ole snap it use to have and of course the gas mileage was back up to normal.
Other things I changed during this time where the addition of Eibach lowering springs to the front and installing the older "onion head" strut mounts.
This one piece style mount was used on early fox body cars and was later changed to a rubber 3 piece design. Road Racers discovered early on that the older "onion head" was stiffer and provided better handling characteristics than the newer design and was used as a low cost improvement on later model Mustangs.
One last "comfort" change I did was to add the optional tilt-wheel column to the car.
This was all that was done to the car before June 1st when my wife at the time and I moved into our new place. June 13th we where still getting settled in and decided to go get dinner when disaster struck!
While passing the entrance to a truck stop approaching the interstate, the driver of a Chevy HHR got too impatient leaving the truck stop. Turning out to go the same direction I was, I had no warning before he broadsided my car striking it in the drivers fender and door.
At first when I called his insurance company it sounded as if they would be totaling my car. While the damage is hard to judge in these photos it was enough on a 20 year old car with 300,000 miles on it to write it off. They set me up with a rental and arranged for an adjuster to come look at my car to determine the value. The Kelly Blue Book value for my car was only about $1000
When the adjuster looked at the car he could see and realized that there had been a lot of work done to the car. So he wrote down all the options that the car had plus the long list of upgrades, and listed all the items that would have to be repaired. I was still thinking the car would be totaled, so I would have to see how much I would get to try and buy it back for the parts and replace it.
When I finaly got the call from the insurance company they informed me the damages came out to just under $1400, then I got a real surprise, they said my car's value had come out to just short of $4000, and they would be sending me a check for the estimated repair cost.
The Aftermath
I now had a decision to make. This was the only vehicle I had running at the time and I would have to return the provided rental with in a couple weeks. Trying to modify/restore a car you needed on a daily driver basis was not going to work very well when I knew the high mileage motor and home built transmission where both on borrowed time. The amount of money available at this time was not enough to rebuild or replace both in the short time required.
So time for Plan B or in this case Plan Aerostar. The van we had purchased for her was in great shape and ran well except for the transmission. So with the money and time working against me on the car it was however sufficient to have the Aerostar repaired.
The "Ponystar" as I call it when it became the recipient of my old 16" Pony Wheels. She named it "Tink" because of the Disney Tinkerbell seat, steering wheel covers and floor mats I bought for her.(Didn't that make me feel "Manley" when I had to drive it! LOL!)
Doing this would give us a reliable mode of transportation, and allow me to park the Mustang and work on it properly as funds and time provided.