Hello everyone, I have this cool car that not many people have ever seen. It's a 1982 Mustang GT. The first year of the High Output 5.0 V8. A whopping 157 HP and 240 TQ!!

This sounds like garbage compared to the cars of today, but we must all remember the oil crisis of the 70s. The government really hit the manufacturers hard. This was the first year ford jumped back into the performance market with the mustang. "The Boss is back!" It was the fastest car in it's class. It had the killer looks of the 79 mustang pacecar, and a suspension package that put it above the rest!



Fast forward 24 years, I bought the 82 GT from Rochester, WA. A gentleman who specializes in restoring classic era mustangs. He bought this to part out, but his son "smacked the shit out of him," so he told me. So he put it up for sale and I bought it within 3 hours, including the 2 hour drive to get there. The trip back was VERY eventful, nearly overheating 5 times. The radiator had a hole in it so I could only get so far before having to refill.

It has a really strait body, and I am the 2nd owner, if you dont count the 1 week the guy had it for.




It had over 100k on the car, but it was a woman's car from Bellevue, and she didnt change the oil often.

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After giving it the standard engine tuneup and a newer radiator, my 3 other mustang roommates and I decided to go for a road trip to blue lake in eastern Washington.

The mustang was underpowered compared to the later 89's (all three were 89, a lx, a lx convert and a gt). However it was much lighter, and it was able to hang pretty well for not having the 80 or so more horsepower. We brought it up to the top of 4th gear a couple of times, and I thought the TRX wheels were going to explode. Here's a random picture of the convertible. It needs to be lowered more. Oh, I'm 6 feet tall to give you an idea.

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A few weeks later, I ended up blowing BOTH headgaskets, while a cop was right next to me. He saw it happend and laughed and drove away. Dont you hate them? They hate us so you might as well.

Funny enough, I had been talking about doing a motor swap in the GT, and found a 351w out of a bronco from '90. It had 69k original miles, and the bronco was totalled giving me a good reliable strong running engine.

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I gathered the parts to convert the 351 to carb, and towed the mustang from my house to my dad's house up in Whidbey Island. Well, it wasnt a house yet, we were still building it. But the garage was finished, so we got to work!

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No, I didnt have an engine stand.

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But I did have a cherry picker!

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The demon carb I bought was riddled with problems, due to some crap assembly at factory, and with this being my first carb car I would rather take it to a professional. Aparently this was their first carbed car also, they told me the 17:1 lean spike (lack of accelorator pump tuning) was normal for a carb car. I gave my $600 they charged, and said screw it, I'd do it myself.

Here's how the car looked whenever I drove it. Yes, it was always dark. Even during the daytime.



Here's a slightly cleaned up engine bay. I really hate the spaghetti mess of all the vacuum lines and such, and have a great plan for the next go around.

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I eventually got into a lot of trouble with the law, and pulled the motor to stop driving it. Then the money crunch came with the court and lawyer fees. Now, with all of my trouble of the law finally being finished up, I can take the NEXT $20,000 that I wont be spending on the government donut funding, and put it into my car.

So here's what it looks like now.



My next post on this topic, will be my plans for the car, and yes they are damn rediculous! Good thing I'll be doing all the work myself otherwise I wouldnt have anyone else to blame when I die in a blaze of fury!


---Thanks for reading---
      ---H8MY408---