Mustang Project

winter is near...

2011-11-05T20:34:00.001-05:00

Put the mustang into storage today.....

Midway Ford Show

2011-09-18T20:17:00.001-05:00

Yesterday I went to the second car show of the year, cold and cloudy. Had fun hanging out with the guys, overall a pretty good day. Not much to report on the car, she still looks great, havent done anything new to her this year.

Spring Cruise!

2010-04-18T12:52:00.000-05:00

Headed out from Porky's to a restaurant/bar just out side of Hudson Wisconsin yesterday. Had a great time.

Spring has sprung!

2010-03-27T19:04:00.000-05:00

Finally! I picked up the car from storage this morning, even made it over to Norms tire to do the tire swap. Ran into a bit of rain on the way home, so needless to say dirty water spots everywhere!. Whats a guy to do.... well wash it of course! With the weather warming up all week, its going to be fun to get out on the road again!

2010-03-13T09:12:00.000-06:00

Weather is getting warmer, rains washing the winter crud away. Cant wait to get the stang out of storage!

2009-10-24T16:13:00.000-05:00

After a rather quiet summer, we drove out to a farm and stored the mustang for the season. A little early for me but the weather has been rainy and cold. Well until spring, thats all for now.

2009-09-03T20:30:00.001-05:00

With the birth of my son early in may I havent been to more than 1 show this year. hopefully ill have more pics to add by this fall.

Midway Ford Sept. '08

2008-09-14T18:45:00.003-05:00

Front Turn Signals!

2008-05-12T20:13:00.003-05:00

Installed the new turn signal lenses this past week end. Car looks great!

valve covers installed!

2008-03-30T17:12:00.006-05:00

Finished painting the bolts and prepared to remove the shaker air intake. Which kinda sucked because I didnt install it. But after a few curse words, we removed it and started removing the factory valve covers. Phil and Steve where nice enough to give me a hand with everything and they got a sweet steak dinner for helping out. Take a look at all the pics and let me know what you think!
The last two pics are the before and after shots.

valve covers

2008-03-28T17:22:00.002-05:00

Picked up my valve covers today, had them powder coated!

Great near spring day!!!

2008-03-13T18:56:00.006-05:00

51 degrees! WooHoo! Got home from work and I had to start up the stang! Pulled out of the garage and installed the hood struts. Also threw on the shorty antenna, not sure if I like yet, but we will see. I also added a pic of my new gt 500 pedals.

March Update!

2008-03-05T18:44:00.002-06:00

In preparation for the coming of spring, I have ordered some parts and dropped off my valve covers to be painted. I'm going with the body color with a silver ghost flame, hopefully, theres some question about the paint that is being looked into at the moment. As for the parts, here is what i ordered:

GT500 pedals - clutch, brake and gas
Hood Struts- yes finally
Shorty Antenna
Louver Prop Rods

Roush VS. Saleen

2008-02-23T18:43:00.004-06:00

New year

2008-01-07T06:28:00.000-06:00

Well another new year is upon us and I am waiting patiently for spring to arrive. I finally found the magnum 500 wheels I wanted for the car, for a much more reasonable $600.00 for a set, as apposed to those $2300.00 wheels.

Sunday September 23rd - SVTOATC Fall Show

2007-09-23T17:53:00.000-05:00

Woo Hoo! I took home a third place trophy! Thanks to everyone who voted for my car!

Alot of sweet cars came out to the show in lakeville today.

Sunday July 29th - The slice of Shoreview

2007-07-29T18:18:00.000-05:00

Headed over to Island Lake park this morning for the taste of Shoreview car show. A lot of nice cars came out today and three of us went home with the peoples choice awards. The item I am holding is actually a glass cutting board with the 50th anniversary theme painted on it, its pretty cool looking.

Also wanted to thank steve for bringing his '05 yellow GT mustang down to the show. Its always cool to hang with other mustang guys.

Saturday July 28th - North Country Ford

2007-07-28T19:39:00.000-05:00

Well, it was a beautiful day for a car show as we met up at North Country Ford. I ended up leaving a bit early, but it was great hanging out with everyone that came out. One more show tomorrow then I'm taking a break for a couple weekends.

July 22nd - Car Craft day Finale

2007-07-22T17:15:00.000-05:00

It was a good last day at car craft. I spent a good part of the morning talking with the guys from Toyo and picked up a few goodies. Also hung around for the miss car craft contest, and last years winner kept her crown. But she did pose next to my car on saturday! Adrian from Toyo is going to email me the pics so I will post them when I get them.
Heres the sweet mustang drift car!

July 21st - Car Craft day 2

2007-07-21T20:34:00.001-05:00

Day 2 was pretty sweet, a lot of cars and great weather. My car spent the day under the Toyo Tires canopy and drew a lot of attention.

Friday July 20th - Car Craft Day 1

2007-07-20T19:47:00.000-05:00

Well it was a beautiful friday at the fair grounds. The day started a little slow but picked up just after lunch. Ran into a couple guys I met at the mnfocus show and hung out with the svt crew.
Also got invited to show case my car at the TOYO Tire trailer on machinery hill, or to be exact, showcase there tires on my car. Thats it for now, more tomorrow.

Saturday July 7th - MNFOCUS car show

2007-07-07T16:21:00.001-05:00

Well I think I finally cooled down after a pavement melting day at Tousley Ford. I joined a friend of mine at the mnfocus car show today and ended up winning in the Non-focus category!
Spent most of the day chatting with a couple other mustang guys, sounds like i'll be seeing them again at Car Craft in a couple weeks.

Sunday July 1st

2007-07-01T09:02:00.001-05:00

I took the stang out for a quick run this morning. Cruised through New Brighton and Shoreview to a couple of parks I hadnt been to in a couple years. It was a beautiful cool morning, couldn't ask for a better morning for a drive.

Saturday June 23rd

2007-06-23T20:47:00.000-05:00

Well its been a long day, I cruised over to Norms Tire in Little canada this morning and had my new Torquethrust M's put on the car - Heres the specs:
Front: 18x9 with a Toyo p255 / 45ZR18
Rear: 18x10 with a Toyo p285 / 40ZR18
Even though they arent Magnum 500's they look pretty sweet.

Wednesday June 20

2007-06-20T18:03:00.000-05:00

Well about 2 weeks ago my sequential taillights finally arrived. took about 20 mins to install and they turned out great! I'll add some pics this weekend, along with my new wheels! Unfortunetly american racing has canceled all orders for there magnum 500 wheels until next fall at the earliest!!!! That made me really mad, but I went with my second choice. 18" tourqe thrust M series with the toyo tires.

Wednesday May 30th - Car shows

2007-05-30T18:48:00.000-05:00

As we whine down to the end of may, I just wanted to mention a couple of car shows i will be attending in June and July. First off the Apple Valley Ford show june 3rd, Car Craft Nationals July 20-22, and the slice of shoreview July 29th.

Friday May 25th

2007-05-25T06:20:00.000-05:00

Not much going on right now. Just looking forward to next weekend, the All Ford show at AVF and some drag racing at Rock Falls. Not sure if i'm going to Rock Falls yet but I'll be at the ford show. Here are a couple pics from Porky's and the TGI Fridays Wednesday nite cruise in.

Saturday May 5th - Dyno at HiTech

2007-05-05T17:19:00.000-05:00

I had alot of fun this morning over at HiTech in ElkRiver. The SVTOA Club of the Twin Cities sponsered a Dyno day for club members. It was alot of fun meeting some of the SVT forum members and drooling over thier mustangs.

For the first dyno of my car I was really happy to see the results. With two runs at 136 mph
this was the best result of the two: 264.06 horse power at 269.57 torque

Below is the print out of the Dyno, Time to start saving some money to do the Dyno Tune up.

Tuesday May 1st - First car show

2007-05-01T06:54:00.000-05:00

Well I got to go to my first car show last weekend. Headed out to Anoka for the MDRA car show at the Anoka county fair grounds. I meet several mustang / ford fanatics and had a good time(minus the sun burn).
Looks like a couple more weeks until my new wheels show up. I ordered 18x8 (fronts) and 18x10(rear) American Racing AR500's. They look like the old Magnum 500's from back in the day.
I'm going to try and get the car Dyno'd this saturday, if it happends I'll post the results here.

Friday April 20th

2007-04-21T08:41:00.000-05:00

Finally picked up the car today! It turned out better than I had expected. After getting the Cobra Jet badges lined up on the shaker, we brought her out side for a quick photo op. I still have to get the emblems for the fenders put on and of course I've found another version I like.
I'll keep that one a secret for now, enjoy!

Wednesday April 18th

2007-04-19T06:04:00.000-05:00

Project Mach 1 is nearing completion, with the installation of the chin spoiler, quarter window louvers and hood. Check out the shaker system, painted body color and ready to go on the engine.

Here is a brief look at the chin spoiler.

Tuesday April 17th

2007-04-17T19:12:00.000-05:00

Well, we enter another week but at least the Mach 1 project is starting to take form. Yesterday the installation of the rear window louver and the duck tail spoiler was completed.

Click on any of the images to see them full size.

Check out the detail on the trunk lid, Chris's hand painted mustang logo really brings out the classic design I wanted for this car.

So heres the pictures of the interior, I finally remembered to take a couple pictures.

Tuesday April 10th

2007-04-10T19:18:00.000-05:00

As I walked in to the shop today, I got to watch Chris Finish painting the hood. The beautiful gloss black slowly turns to a matte finish as it dries. I cant wait to see the hood back on the car .

Here's the finished duck tail spoiler, we tried to get this as close to the original as possible. The only problem we ran into was that the 69's body lines allowed the stripe to extend further down the back of the car. So the only option was to extend the stripe on the duck tail spoiler. I think it turned out really nice.

You might not recognize the middle image above, but it started out as the GT badge from the trunk lid. Chris and I shot around a couple options before he suggested the pony logo. My wife told me from the start that I should change the GT to the pony logo when I first brought the car in to be painted, well I forgot, and she continually reminds me of that fact when ever I talk about it. Any way back to the story, Chris ground down the GT logo and HAND painted the pony logo! The last image is a breif look at the engine compartment, all of the painted parts still need to be wet sanded and cleaned up.

Monday April 9th - part 2

2007-04-09T21:51:00.000-05:00

After work I headed back over to Leroy's and chris and I started to layout the pin stripe and the over all paint on the hood. And I got to see the hood with the shaker cut out for the first time. WOW! I love this car! Tommorrow the paint goes on the hood, that is of coarse if they can find my hood pins, which need to be drilled before the hood is painted.

Chris and I also finished aligning the Mach 1 stripe on the duck tail, along with out lining the pony logo which will replace the GT badge on the trunk lid.

Monday April 9th - part 1

2007-04-09T21:20:00.000-05:00

So , it was another great day at Leroys, Chris had finished up the engine conpartment parts.
The Fuse box cover is going to make a sweet addition under the hood.

The metallic translucent mustang on the air filter cover turned out even better than I had expected.

With the three engine pieces painted, they are sent off to get wet sanded for the final polished finish. The ducktail spoiler will soon be bolted onto the trunk lid.

Friday April 6th part 2

2007-04-07T11:44:00.000-05:00

So Friday evening came around and I headed back to meet up with chris. I wont go into to much detail, I think the images speak for them selves.

The Mach 1 stripe was just painted and hasnt been clear coated yet. I'm so impressed with how Chris did these stripes. They where all laid out by hand and the Mach 1 logo had to be cut out with an exacto knife to make the template.

The image above is part of the duck tail spoiler: Below we have the 1/4 window louvers on the right and the Saleen tail light peice in the center; Third image up is the chin spoiler.

Friday April 6th part 1

2007-04-07T11:13:00.000-05:00

Friday I continued my daily visits to Leroy's and was excited to see the car prepped for paint! Chris had justed finished up prepping the duck tail, fuse box cover, shaker assembly and air cleaner cover. and was getting ready to paint the Mach 1 stripe. I was already to head out the door when chris pointed out that the Saleen part for the tail lights had a liscense plate bracket on it. Now, the car already has one on the bumper, so the peice couldnt be used. Chris suggested using the existing part that came with the car, the GT badge. This part kind of looks like the old Gas caps but with a GT logo in the center. Chris suggested smoothing out the GT logo and painting on the horse emblem. Once again chris has helped make this car what I envisioned it to be. He asked me to stop back later in the day to look at the stripes.

Thursday April 5th

2007-04-07T10:26:00.000-05:00

Thursday I headed back to Leroy's to meet up with chris and to see what progress he had made. The rear bumper and tail lights where back on and the hood was removed. The hood was set aside and the template for the shaker cut out was taped on. Chris showed me his initial layout of the Mach 1 stripes and suggested painting a couple of items in the engine compartment. After some discussion we decided to paint the fuse box cover, with a Mach 1 logo, the shaker intake assembly and the air cleaner cover. Cost me a bit extra but I think it will be worth it. As I looked over the car I realized I needed to remove the GT badges.
Once again the unexpected came about, I thought(or hoped) the badges wouldnt have any posts that attach into the fender. After removing the badge there was a couple holes in the fender, we looked at a couple ideas to fix the problem including welding and repainting the fenders. Unfortunately that wasnt in the budget, so I decided to go with the classic pony emblems. We had thought about moving the Mach 1 stripe up to the middle of the door but it just didnt look right to me.

Wednesday April 4th

2007-04-07T09:41:00.000-05:00

To start out the week I had dropped off the car on monday at Leroys Customs in Coon Rapids, MN. I had recieved a call from Jason asking me to stop by to go over some details about the car. Well, when I got there this is what I saw, the car was missing the front and rear bumpers and rear tail light assemblies! Chris, the guy who is doing all the painting, thought I was getting the rally stripes painted across the car! Luckily he hadnt started the prep work on anything yet.
We sat down and went over a few pictures of a 69' Mach 1 that I wanted to use as a reference point. Chris asked me to stop by the next day so he could run some ideas past me and in the mean time he put the Stang back togather and started preping the duck tail for paint.

Getting caught up to date

2007-04-07T07:47:00.000-05:00

Lets see now... I think it was March 5th I got a call from Dave, my sales guy at North Country Ford, "Hey Rod, just wanted to let you know that theres a blue mustang on the lot with your name on it!"(at least thats how I remember the conversation). hehe At any rate the car came in a month early. Thinking back on that day its a bit surreal, still cant really believe my car was sitting before me. Anyway the next day Dave ordered the aftermarket parts and we scheduled the installation of the interior.
The following week I dropped the car off to get the interior installed. Now for some reason after I picked up the car I didnt take any pictures of the new interior. Those pics will be coming when i get the car back from the painters. From this point I had fun driving the car and my brother and I put on a the Flow Master "american thunder" exhaust. Which I picked up from John over at TNT Race Shop in Blaine, MN.(www.tntraceshop.com).

Aftermarket parts and paint - Design Phase

2007-04-06T20:07:00.000-05:00

So I guess I will start at the beginning, which takes place last August (06'), As my wife can verify for you, my obsession with this car exploded! I stopped by North Country Ford in Coon rapids MN., and started the process of pre-ordering my car. Luckily for me the guys at the Ford dealership understood my obsession and helped me out with options on the car and what aftermarket items I could get.
At this point I think I spent two or three days trying to decide which Mach 1 design I liked best. I went with the simple yet strikingly stylized 1969 Mach 1. Here's a list of options I wanted to go with.

Exterior Parts -

Shaker Air Intake System: A must have fully functional air intake system
Aggressive Classic Chin Spoiler: Designed after the classic mustang chin spoilers
Duck Tail Spoiler: ... its a spoiler very sleek
1/4 Window Louvers: Pre-Painted louvers from Rousch
Rear Window Louver: This item is an exact replica of the 69'-70' rear window louvers
Remove Badges: Removal of all GT badges
Hood Pins: Fully functional hood pins, none of the stick on crap
Rear Tail light Assembly: A Saleen product designed to fit on the trunk lid between the tail lights
Wheels: 18" Magnum 500's

Exterior Paint -

Flat Black Hood: I decided to keep the factory hood and paint it Matte-Black
Mach 1 Logo Stripes: Painted on the rocker panels and on the trunk lid duck tail

Interior -

Custom Leather: Black with Dark Blue inlay

With the plan in place I sat back and waited... and waited... then finally January 07' came around. The order was placed with an expected delivery date of mid April.

Initial Car photos

2007-04-06T19:50:00.000-05:00

07' Mach 1 Project

2007-04-05T17:36:00.000-05:00

Welcome to my mustang chronicle, the following posts will cover the progress of transforming my 07' mustang GT into a Mach 1. Now I know any mustang fan will tell you that there wasn't a Mach 1 built for the 07' model year.
This car is my way of paying homage to the 69' Mach 1. Plus its going to be kick ass! So here's where it starts, a brand new 2007 mustang GT, deluxe interior with the interior upgrade package. Also I ordered the car with out the trunk spoiler.

Vehicle Description:
2007 GT Coupe Deluxe
4-Passenger Sports Car
4.6L 3V OHC V8 Engine
5-Speed Manual Transmission
Exterior:
Vista Blue
Interior:
Dark Charcoal Cloth
Optional Equipment:
Interior Upgrade Package
Satin Aluminum Panel
Rear Spoiler Delete
3.55 Ratio Limited Slip Axle

Final Assembly Point:
Flat Rock, Michigan, U.S.