Definitely get the aluminum radiator. I would rather spend $9k on my own one-of-a-kind ride, then $9k on a used Honda. LOL!

I can't wait to see it finished.

Ya i would use the aluminum rad also....and it wont rust in the long run, because everything rust's!

Well I bought a book that tells me how to stiffen the chassis on my car, it has diagram and blueprints how to make subframe connectors, so next week I get to start chopping the body and welding it all together.

Also I got my heads back from the machine...holy shit they where fucked! One of the valves was really wore...the valve stem height was too high...and whoever owned the heads last took a belt sander to shave them.....they machined them down for me so now the a guarenteed to be a no hassles bolt on. I have a total of $280 into the heads...which isn't to bad I guess...

Good thing they got them fixed, because a new set would have put you back some big dollars, if you went Performance and brand new!

Why not just go AFR? Its only an extra grand plus a bit. lol Hey, it's what my cousin did.....

Must be nice to have your cusin's kinda money!

Yes it would! I just scrimped and saved to get my Centerforce clutch/flywheel in my car. But, he is looking at high 11's hopefully. I am only goin 12's. So, I guess its just how fast you want to go.

Nice job on the project merker. I love rebuilding cars. Good luck.

Ya I guess you will get nothing you want if you don't put the money forward

I feel like this is one of those discovery channel documentaries! this is so col! thanks for taking the time to show this to us :-D

I'm happy more progress today, I got my engine moved into the garage and then I put my camshaft in. I also bought a bunch of studs so that putting the timing chaing cover on without ruining the gasket will be a piece of cake.

Boy, did I find this late in the game. Sure is interesting though. I like your parts choices and how the project is going together. Like everyone else, I like the pics. It sure pays to cover all the details doesn't it? I have about 600 miles on my bike rebuild and it runs like a Swiss watch and I get compliments every where I go. Looks like yours will be the same kind of project.

Oh yes it pays for the details.

Well last night I tried fitting my windage tray....it didn't fit! I found out their are specific windage trays for 5.0 mustangs...so I made it fit. This week I should have my pistons, rods, and crank installed. Hopefully this week i'll order my alternator, the first thing I do when I buy my new alternator and gut it so I can get it powdercoated.

Here is a pic of my windage tray after I modified it. Notice how I studded the timing chain cover to make it a breeze to put the cover and waterpump on.
http://www.frontiernet.net/~funkyb/M...indagetray.jpg

Looking good:thumbsup:

Well, 5 months later now, and STILL working on the engine...man are you slow;) jk

Looks like a fun project you got going there. Keep those pics coming!

Wee got the pistons and crank in....what a pain in the ass...lol

http://www.airstreamcomm.net/~southpark/shiny.jpg

Grrr...it seems some of my webhosting went down.....if you want I put all my pics on my ftp server...lots and lots of pics...

ftp:\\64.33.169.68 username: mustang password: all

ftp:\\mustang:all@64.33.169.68

It just warms the cockles of my heart to see a nice clean job like that. I also checked out your ftp site. Nice to see it all coming together.

Hopefully today i will get my timing chain cover all ready and get my oil pump and pickup tube mounted.....little by little but done right. Also today I found out one of my customers works at the local drag strip and he gave me an NHRA rule book and will help me get my car fully NHRA approved.

Cool thread you have going on here Merk. I was just wondering what is the reason for the blue powder coat on the engine?

The typical ford color is blue....I would of gone red to match the car but then it would look like a chevy engine....and red painted engines are way too common. Plus with the light blue color I can spot potential leaks easily. Also if I ever wreck that car (god I hope I don't) I can transplant it into another older ford.

Well I got my oil pump mounted, I need to pickup some bolts for the pickup tube tomorrow, and tomorrow i'll sandblast my timing chain cover. Also tomorrow i'll order some studs for the oil pan to make that simple to install. I might order some for the intake manifold to make that an idiot proof installation.

Well the bottom end is 100% complete now. I sandblasted and clear coated my timing chain cover and damn does it look nice. I just have to repaint my water pump and order some flange nuts so I can get the front end of the engine assemble. I'll order some head studs and alignment dowels for the heads so I can get that assemble next week also. My 140amp powermaster alternator should be in this week sometime. I also pulled my car out from the weeds so now I can start working on getting my wiring straightened out and reinforcing the body so it can actually handle the abuse the engine will put out.

This rocks, keep up the log entries. I can't wait to see the final product and its timestrips.

be sure to post pics of the old wiring and the new wiring...I want to see how bad and rotted the old stuff looks.

Well I ordered my head stud kit and the dowels for aligning the head to the block. By the end of this week I'll order the rest of my miscellenous nuts and bolts for the front of the engine. Hopefully I will get to start to work on my engine compartment since that takes a bunch work and I have barely started on it.

trust me the engine compartment is much easier to work on without the engine in the way...with out the engine you can just sit down in there.

Talking out loud here, but I was wondering if you could help me get some idea of cost / worth of a project. I was thinking of starting my own thread, but when it comes down to it, merkerguitars has the most experience with this.

My wife has a 5.0 1995 Mustang Convertable. It is a green / Blue with a camel top and interior. It has 104k miles on it, but Chasey (wife) drives it like a grandma and we really take good care to maintain it. Other than the fact that it burns oil pretty well and DEMANDS 91 octane (pings like shit at anything else) it is a very reliable car. The top is showing some wear and although it looks great (we just had it waxed) it has the normal tiny dings that any close to 10y/o car would have. Also, the seats are a little worn. No holes mind you / just worn from sun and use. We live on the beach in San Diego so it is a killer car to have.

The thing is that we are going to start a family soon and I know there is no way she will be able to reach the clutch with a belly. Plus it is not the best for toting around a kid.

She wants to sell it and buy something else. I can't realisticly switch vehicles with her I don't think since I use my Jeep Grand Cherokee for skiing which I take a major trip once a month at least. The problem I have is that selling this car does not get what it is "worth". What I mean is that we can get like $4000 or so for this thing which I think is a sin for what this car is.

I want to keep the car and just pay for the new one with other money we scrape together. Then put a cover on the car, leave it in the driveway and drive it from time to time / or give it to a friend to use if they come out for a weekend. As we get some spare money, maybe make some improvments. An overview of things over the next few years I would try to do.

1. New Top
2. Interior (I can send it to Mexico for a couple weeks and have it done over reliably and with very good craftsmanship)
3. Paintjob (Like a patriot blue / metalic)
4. Engine - What can be done here / should be done to a 10year old engine?

Finally - any strategies to convince her that this is not just the money pit that it looks like?

So far I have the "Where are we going to be able to get a powerful convertable that we can trust when we ever do decide to get one again? " and "This thing is not going to keep going down in value all that fast so if we need the money, it has already lost most of the value it is going to lose."

Thanks for the help.

1. New Top not sure about cost......

2. Interior
Thats the thing you have to love about living close to the border in mexico...you can get a new interior for cheap that is pretty high quality. I know a few people that have bought older muscle cars from arizona that have had mexican interiors....wow the quality and the price.

3. Paintjob (Like a patriot blue / metalic) That you will have to talk to you local body shop....repainting a car can be a little pricey...but will make it stand out from the crowd.

4. Engine - What can be done here / should be done to a 10year old engine? For the engine...the sky is the limit you could get a compression check at the local mechanics and that would give you an indicator how worn out the engine is...also is the 91 octane fuel you put in have ethanol in it? That might cause some troubles with knocking and pinging. The only problem with building an engine where you live is emissions. But pretty much every company that makes parts for a 5.0L mustang makes ones that are legal in all 50 states. So far I have about $2k into my engine so far but i'll have a really strong nice engine. Also you have to remember a car from California is easily worth dumping some money into than a car from Wisconsin since the cars over there don't rust as fast :) The only thing I can say to convince your wife to keep the car is you'll probably miss it. Plus also the value of your car from a local dealership around my area in wisconsin is about $7500.....it may not be worth putting engine parts and other guts in it...but it will be unique.

Well Mondak I don't see why your wife could use your Cherokee most of the time then when you go skiing swutch cars with you....and when I have gone skiing in the past I don't stay over a week, I think you wife could last a week with the Tang. If not rent a car or Mini-van! She will probably not be doing a lot of driving so it shouldn't be a big bill at all!

But thats just what I have done in the past.....She had the SUV I had the sport car I would go away for a weekend (4 days) of Skiing in B.C. most of the time she would use my car but when we had my daughter she couldn't drive the 5-spd so I rented her a mini-van:thumbsup:

Well next week I should have the engine fully assembled...the only things I have to do are the following:

Put on water pump and timing chain cover after I torque the camshaft sprocket.

Put on oil pan

Clean up gasket surfaces on heads and put on.

Assemble valvetrain

Put on valve covers

Prime it..

Once I get my car ready I can drop it in.

The best sound is when that baby roars to life!

Well after awhile of no updates i'm ready to post my progress.

First I did was install my head studs and then my heads. using the head studs where a breeze....Then I installed my valve train to make sure no collided with each other. Then I installed my water pump and timing chain cover...the studs made it such a breeze, then I temporarily installed the headers for looks.

http://www.oldweakandpathetic.com/me...y/engine11.JPG

*Copy weed pickup scene from Half Baked of orgasming wildly after seeing that picture*

That engine is looking sexy merkerguitars:thumbsup:

Sweet! When you first start it up, you're gonna do it with open headers, right? RIGHT? :D

Looks great!

Well eventually I want to get some electronic exhaust cutouts so when i'm driving in the country I can have the loud raspy sound.

Monday i'm ordering the rest of my parts to get my oil pan on so i can finally get some oil in the thing. Hopefully by the engine of the week the engine will be fully assembled :)

That engine really looks great!

Well after a long time of not reply I actually did get most stuff done to it. I bought an oil pan stud kit and installed my oil pan. I found out my stock valve cover do not fit over my roller rockers:( I picked up a newer style tensioner from the junkyard for $7. I'm hoping to have it done soon...i just keep on running into snags.

To bad your rockers didn't fit, they looked nice!

Damnit I meant stock valve covers...lol

Well thats what I meant to....rocker covers are the same as valve covers right?