This page is dedicated to my baby, my '92 Mustang. It may not be much, but it's mine, and I like it. :)
I bought it in February 2002 for $1400, bone stock with 143K miles. Here it is the day after I bought it - even still has the previous owner's tags on it, lol.
As you can see, it wasn't anything special. SLOOOOOOOW n/a 2.3, 4-lug ten-hole wheels, stock ride height, single exhaust, and an automatic tranny. None of those things remain on the car.
I drove the car mostly as it sits there for almost a year, doing nothing but basic maintenance and the odd wash and wax. In January '03 I got front and rear swaybars from an '88 GT and installed them *all by myself*. Yeah, I was still pretty much an automotive virgin at the time. The swaybars tightened up the handling a fair amount, just enough to feel a difference, and got me started on the modding bug. The next mod was a set of pony rims that came off a buddy's blown '90 GT. They had decent tires on them, which I ran until summer '04, when I got Kumho 712s.
Up next was dual exhaust, to complete my ideal stock LX look. I scored LX tailpipes and two Dynomax mufflers off eBay, and got them welded in behind the cat at a local shop. The whole exhaust, including labor, cost me $185, and IMO was well worth it. The Super Turbo mufflers are pretty quiet at idle, but they have a definite tone to them in the upper ranges.
The car was still bone-stock as far as the drivetrain went. I took it to the High School Drags in May '02 and ran a smoking 22.16 @ 64 mph. Ungodly slow.
It was around August '03 that I decided I wanted to change the car from an automatic to a manual tranny, and began hunting down parts online and in the local junkyard. By December, I had obtained all the parts necessary, piece by piece, for about $300. My good buddy Kyle lent me the use of his time and his space at work and we swapped the car over in a week's worth of Saturdays and weeknights. WOW! What a difference! It felt like a whole new car! It was still ridiculously underpowered, but at least it was more fun and controllable to drive.
However, it still rode like a 4x4 (stock Mustang ride height). I got an incredible deal ($25) on a used Eibach Pro-Kit for the Fox 4-cyl and SN95 V6 cars and installed it. I think it ended up dropping the car about an inch and a half all around, which improved the look and handling immensely. The progressive-rate springs of the Pro-Kit also maintained a near-stock ride quality, which is nice for a daily driver.
Soon, I realized how dangerous the stock 4-cyl Fox brakes are and decided to upgrade them to '87-'93 V8 specs. This required new spindles, calipers, rotors and lines, which I got a smokin' deal on through my local Mustang club. I also ran across a good deal on a set of low-mile Bilstein shocks and struts from a guy on Stangnet/Corral/Turboford. On Labor Day '04, Kyle and I went through my whole front suspension and upgraded it all. I used Hawk HPS brake pads for less fade and more grip. Again, WOW! I felt like I could actually stop if I needed to! Even downhill bombing runs through the mountains were great, due to the increased braking power and the fade resistance of the Hawk pads. I've since upgraded again, this time to 2004 GT-spec 5-lug 4-wheel discs. That writeup is on page 4.
Also in the summer of '04, I had subframe connectors welded in. This is an amazing mod for a Mustang. The unibody construction of these cars doesn't lend itself to great structural stiffness, so the subframe connectors help stiffen the chassis. I got UPR SFC's, which I would not buy again (they screwed me on shipping and the connectors required "clearancing" [read BFH] to fit correctly), but they did the job pretty well. The car doesn't squeak or rattle as much as it did before, and it just feels tighter overall.
MOD LIST
'88 GT swaybars (front and rear)
dual exhaust with Dynomax Super Turbo mufflers
converted from auto to five-speed
Eibach Pro-Kit
Bilstein shocks and struts
2004 GT brakes on '94-'95 spindles and '95 axles
Hawk pads
'02 GT Bullitt rims with 245/45/ZR17 Kumho Ecsta ASX's
weld-in UPR subframe connectors
Steeda Tri-Ax shifter
Old pics with the pony rims:
Page 1: Overview
Page 2: Engine building
Page 3: Turboswap
Page 4: SN95 brake upgrade
