Re-Construction 2007 - ?
With the money spent on the Ponystar, re-construction is at a slow pace. Body wise I was lucky the only 2 major parts damaged where the front driverside fender and door. There was no damage to the firewall, cowl or post where the door hinges are located. So after removing the damaged fender new doors where the first things I obtained.
One thing I never liked about the fox body Mustangs are the window frames on the doors. I understand that they do add strength for thinner, lighter glass. They provide a better weather seal, less window rattle and a bit of security. But my 1969 and my 1973 Mustangs had frameless windows, as do all the 1994 and newer Mustangs.
Two exceptions to the Fox chassis are the T-top Mustangs & Capris built from 1981 - 1987/88 and the convertible Mustangs built from 1983 - 1993. One other thing I personally like about the 1988 - 93 convertibles are the body mounted "stalk" mirrors. Something I had considered back when I had my 80 Capri was putting vert doors on it for frameless glass and give it a more original look. Then even later with this car I had considered the ideal. Since I now needed to replace a door I decided now would be the time I give this a try.
It took some hunting to find and then convincing the person to part with them, but I did locate 2 later model convertible doors with the style of mirrors I wanted, all I needed for them was the drivers door wiring harness & switches for a hardtop.
One of the issues I had to deal with was the change from non-power windows to power windows. I had to get new door panels, and arm rest. There is a big difference between them other than just a hole for the manual window cranks.
You can see from the pictures the arm rest are different sizes even though they mount to the door in the same locations. In both pictures the top is the manual window part and the bottom is the power window part. The wires on the manual arm rest are the ones that go to the power door lock option that I added to my car early on. For a more in-depth look at this check out my page on converting from manual to power doors options.
As I mentioned earlier I had to get the proper wiring harness for the full power doors. Being from a convertible the harness and switch set was designed for 4 power windows plus door locks. I had to get a full door harness for a hardtop because even the door lock part of the harness I had was different from a full power plug even though both where from the same model year.
Luckily the under dash harness for the full power doors and the power mirror/lock only is the same harness. So with both doors plugged into the jumper harness both widows where now functional as where the mirrors and door locks. Easily the wiring issues where out of the way.
The next thing I am still in the process of working out is the weather stripping. I made some adjustments to the glass to level it and raise it up. If you look at the pictures here you can see how much the window was raised from the gap in the window tint. You can see from these photos there is still a considerable gap between the glass and the original weather stripping across the top and back edge of the window.
One thing I will be doing is getting the weather stripping kit for a T-top car to see if this will help. I have the 4 spacers that are added to T-top cars to push out the weather stripping to the window. These only take care of the leading edge and back edge of the glass. For the top of the glass I will have to make up my own spacer to bring it down to the window.
As I make more progress I will add more here or maybe even move this information to a "How To" page for anyone who may be considering this modification to their car.
One item that was a freebie that is being added is this very nice stainless steel adapter that my boss made for me to put my 70mm MAF sensor on the car.
I had bought this on E-Bay and it was suppose to be a 70mm MAF calibrated for 24# injectors. When comparing it recently to my stock MAF, I notice the only difference in the part numbers where the revision date.
After doing a search on the part number I came across this web page which it seams is gone now at Walbro - Mass Air Flow Sensors - Ford. From the charts that where there I determined that while it is a 70mm the sensor module was actually for 19# injectors.
So for now I can use it when I need to drive the car to move it around, but for the final motor I will need to get the 24# sensor for it if I need to use the 24# injectors I have.
Not much else has been done but there are a few other things in progress that as they are completed I will add here. In the mean time I will now part with a shot of the dirty collection of parts that will become the future motor for my car - 5.0L (306 cid.) with a goal of 300 - 325 h.p. naturally aspirated.
If I need more power, my philosophy is "Injection is nice but I'd rather be blown!" Besides bottles are for babies.
-Ghostwolf