1984 Mustang GT 5.0

Alright. Settled on the 1984 Ford Mustang Fox Body GT 5.0. 63k on it. But... it is a rust repair job. Front end needs to be completely redone due to a minor accident; front right fender has already been removed.

I NEED~

-Doors
-BOTH fenders
-Bumper... maybe. It's ripped up on the passenger's corner. Bondo? :x


Rest of the car is solid. Frame is fine, unibody sustained minimal damage and is easily repairable. keep in consideration this is a PROJECT I plan on doing over the next 2 years. Looks like I will be pounding $8k into this car.

Dumped $500 on tools last night and another $150 today. Sick of borrowing my friend's tools. Hahaha.

Will post pictures tonight!

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I don't race. I rally~



Edited 5 time(s). Last edit at 06/18/2011 07:23PM by GuinnessFox.

GT is somewhat unique and a very attractive lost cause...no new windshields available, not much if anything available. Too old, too undesrieable for anyone to manufacture custom parts. Buy every spare shell you can, I had one very nice GT from a collector that we built into a rally car. I had 2 spare shells just because. Up here there were pretty easy to find a couple years ago. You can get the turbo motor put in there and make it somewhat fun to drive...keep a bus pass handy tho.

Sorry, it's not worth it.

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Robert.

"You are way too normal to be on Rally Anarchy." Eddie Fiorelli.

Open Lite it.
20v, lots of comp, some lumpy cams, early 4000 trans with 4.2 ratio,
and have fun.

FWD version: HEAVY, underpowered Golf with none of the advantages of a Golf

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John Vanlandingham
Sleezattle, WA, USA

Vive le Prole-le-ralliat

www.rallyrace.net/jvab
CALL +1 206 431-9696
Remember! Pacific Standard Time
is 3 hours behind Eastern Standard Time.

Dashboard is exactly the same as a 4000 so that should be easy to find. 1985 and later ones will go right into the early cars.

Nose is the same as a 4000 as well. Victor Bartosek made molds of all the fenders for his Ur Quattro rally car so if you wanted to convert it to the Coupe Quattro look you might be able to get him to make some fenders for you. BTW, the sponge wing is stock.

The lifters always make noise on these engines. Try running some Marvel Mystery oil through the engine and then change the oil. Sometimes that quiets them down.

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Rallymech
Sorry, it's not worth it.

It's worth it if he enjoys the car. Actually that begs the question. OP does not make it clear if this is for a street car or if he intends to build it into a rally car. That a whole different story. So which is it?

Yeah, it is the FWD version.

Should I just kick it, or pursue it? From what I've been hearing across the net, they are fun cars but parts are damn near impossible to find if you scrape one up.

Was also considering a VW Corrado if this didn't pan out like I wanted it to.

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Doivi Clarkinen

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Rallymech
Sorry, it's not worth it.

OP does not make it clear if this is for a street car or if he intends to build it into a rally car. That a whole different story. So which is it?

RALLY! Sorry, will edit initial post with that info. I will be looking up some parts here now that I know the 4000 parts fit the Coupe GT. 4000 fenders and dashboards are littering craigslist, junkyards and ebay so I will jump right on that. There is a parts GT here as well, might buy the windsheild off that one. It has the sponge wing as well which is.. gag worthy, at best.

Mine is cracked and has surface rust under it, so I am going to be tossing that in favor of a fiberglass one.

I will try the oil change~ Heard sea foam does these engines good.

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GuinnessFox
Yeah, it is the FWD version.

Should I just kick it, or pursue it? From what I've been hearing across the net, they are fun cars but parts are damn near impossible to find if you scrape one up.

Was also considering a VW Corrado if this didn't pan out like I wanted it to.

What ADVANTAGE does the Audi have?

What advantage does the Corrado have?

Do you like making repairs difficult-er-er for fun?
I mean a Corrado is just a Golf with crappy outward viisiblity, and expensive , hard to find panels, why make keep the car looking like a car harder for ___________________good reason?

---

John Vanlandingham
Sleezattle, WA, USA

Vive le Prole-le-ralliat

www.rallyrace.net/jvab
CALL +1 206 431-9696
Remember! Pacific Standard Time
is 3 hours behind Eastern Standard Time.

As Southern Nude Hamster's leading interweb rally poseur, my take on Coupe GTs, Corrrarrrrrrrrrdddooos, etc. is that they are STYLING EXERCISES based on more practical machinery. For a car you are likely going to wrap around a tree, you want something with the most common $10 fenders, not the one that fanbois are going to spend $500 for a fender.

Audi 4000 is mechanically the same as a Coupe GT. Part the GT and make some money to buy a bunch of 4000s, if you're an Audi perv. A Corrado is a great looking street car, but it's a lot easier to get Golf or Jetta bits.

That Coupe GT needs fender flares and AWD...muhahahhaha.

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john vanlandingham

What ADVANTAGE does the Audi have?

What advantage does the Corrado have?

Do you like making repairs difficult-er-er for fun?
I mean a Corrado is just a Golf with crappy outward viisiblity, and expensive , hard to find panels, why make keep the car looking like a car harder for ___________________good reason?

Good point.

The reason I like the the Audi is because it has the I5 in it with plenty of parts out there (at least for the engine bay) but it has the mileage of a V6 with the power of the 4 (doh). The car itself isn't hard to work on in my honest opinion and definitely has potential if I can put a turbo into it. I talked to my car guy last night and said a body shop or dealership could easily hunt down parts for it as, well, that is all they do. And I DO understand I would have to pay $$$$$$ for those dealer parts.

The VW is just another project I'd like. Just a wet dream. I have heard they are heavy on the pocket book in the long run as well. Only reason I would EVER consider getting one is due to the fact that I have a friend with a few of them and parts (engine, interior, etc) are plentiful due to the fact he has plenty of donors. But because this Audi is... here already, I was just thinking if I should carry through and make it my rally beast or junk it now and move on to something else.

John. Say, I have serious doubts about this project because I can't find parts or blah blah blah and I want to find a new vehicle for my rally project. What would you recommend? I see you are rocking a Saab yourself!

rallycars don't need dashboards. They often do need windshields though.

Coupe GT's are a fun little car. The 10 valve turbo motor will swap in fairly easily and cheap. Windsheilds are an issue. Like someone said above the dash from a 4k will work just fine. Lifters always tick, Leave the lifters you have, Use good oil, frequent changes and a decent additive.

4000 front fenders, hood etc will swap over, most stuff from the doors back will not. The FWD b3 and b4 chassis cars share a lot of similarities suspension wise. Things need some persuasion but they should work back and forth.

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alkun
rallycars don't need dashboards. They often do need windshields though.

Point taken. One less thing to worry about now.

The Audi 4000 windshield fit the Coupe GT by any chance?

Thanks for all the help guys. Your accumulated guru knowledge has helped me a lot. I'm a newb to this field, so your insight has been very helpful. John especially!

I am still determined in my project at this point and time. I have regained confidence in it now that I know what parts I can hunt for (audi 4000 parts) and that I have a fighting chance to find body kits out there.

Will keep you updated with this project... minus the woes now.

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GuinnessFox
Say, I have serious doubts about this project because I can't find parts or blah blah blah and I want to find a new vehicle for my rally project. What would you recommend?

Patrick-

I think most of us on the board are in a little different situation from you - if we're even out on the stages, we've barely got enough time and money to make it happen. With that in mind, many of the cars recommended here are because they can be made very competitive for relatively little $$$, and once built won't require too much time to stay running (assuming you avoid hitting those immovable objects too hard).

With that said, there's two cars that get recommended a lot here: the Volvo 240, and the Merkur XR4Ti (Ford Sierra to the rest of the world).
Folks here seem to build the two cars to a pretty similar spec - T5 gearbox, toyota 8" rear axle/diff. Why those two? One of the T5 gearboxes has a closer gear spacing, and thanks to the off-road guys, short final drives and real LSDs are pretty darn cheap for the Toyota 8". In contrast, for Hondas (what I know, and seems to be on par with, or cheaper than, most modern FWDs), you're looking at $1000+ for a gearset, $500+ for a final drive, $1000+ for a LSD.

So, we've got those key mods, but why into those particular cars?
The Volvo: 15+ years of parts cars available, pedigree from Finnish F-Cup, generally tough cars.
The MerkurFord: run by Ford as a factory car, with publicly available prep manual, independent rear suspension

The Merkur's a little harder to find body parts for, but probably no harder than the Coupe GT.

And in case you need any encouragement: