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PaddyPrix

If breakin' parts is cool, consider me Miles Davis
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PaddyPrix

If breakin' parts is cool, consider me Miles Davis
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TL;DR : Doc, I think I've got a problem with 2018 Mustang GT's.


Peter Russell said:
Every great story begins with a core wound.


... and what a core wound it was, and what a story it will be. I've had a stupid ear to ear grin for the last 24 hours, and can't wait to start writing its story for and with all of you. Let's friggin' go!
 

Dave_W

Cones - not just for ice cream
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Connecticut
Reminds me of the 1970's BMW 2002 colors that I like. As Garp would say, "It's been pre-disastered." Looking forward to updates.
 

PaddyPrix

If breakin' parts is cool, consider me Miles Davis
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Stoked to see this Patrick! Hope your back is healing up well too.

Suede inside, my engine roarin'
It’s the big boy, you know what I paid for it

The suede might be tough to pull off.

$6900 is what I paid for it, which from what I know currently, I believe to be a steal.

6900 well spent? 6900 well spent.
Accomplishment: Found a clean body/frame/roller to start over with.

1666810472482.png

First, let's go over what we know, or what we believe we know to be objectively true. At a glance, the body and fenders appear to mostly be straight. While the front-end isn't entirely perfect, it does appear to be in a good condition. Looking down the passenger side, the fender to door gap looks good, the door to rear quarter looks good, and the side skirt to door looks good. Passenger door looks like it's sealing fine. Rear wheel is sucked in a touch, but I think that's mainly because of the skinny stock wheel. Doesn't appear to have tail whipped a curb or something. Looking at down the driver side looks to be about the same story, nothing yet arising concern. Coming around to the back, we don't yet see any exhaust tips, but we do see a little tire buildup after the wheel which shows that they were doing donuts, drag racing, or potentially some drifting. Nothing too bad here, and as we go back to the rear passenger side, we see the bumper shows a little sign of abuse, no biggie, probably loose, but not feeling as if it's just tossed on the rear, would expect to see plenty more damage or forcing it, looks more loose than anything.

Looking inside the car, we see the driver wheel airbag has likely gone off, but the A and C pillars are still good, as are the seats. There is a shifter knob there, but it's an automatic with the top trigger, not the squeeze collar for the reverse lockout as seen in a manual. It has the flip switches and fancy LCD screen, so I'm going to guess this is the 400A package, as it doesn't have the digital dash. It does not appear to be a performance pack, as it has 3 A/C guages, and not the 2 A/C and vacuum/fuel pressure gauges. The door skins are off, but look to be included with the car in a later shot, but as I'm stripping the car, I don't really care either way, and looking at the back seat, it looks like they just tossed the bottom piece back in. I'm going to guess that they were drag racing, and tossed some of the easy weight savings back in after their incident. Coming back around to the front, we see the striker in the hood latch, so with the windshield damaged as it is, and now seeing the hood hinge/latch pushing the tips of the fenders up on the top side, it would appear that the hood flew up. Looking at the intake manifold, we can see that the metal tab of the passenger side fuel rail is exposed, which would normally go to the high pressure fuel pump, and looking to the driver side, we actually see it exposed as well, but the black hose with the bright green tab is there. Looking at the front of it, we see the stock airbox, no MAF, no EGR, PCV, crossovers, or any of that hooked up. I guess that explains at least why the car couldn't run and drive, or even engine start program. Here's hoping they didn't run it a few times and soak the dang engine in gas. Fuse box has them all exposed, but I don't have a good quality picture enough to see if they're all there.

The ad states missing transmission and cat, so I'm going to guess that the exhaust is either fully missing, or dump/straight piped, and if the auto transmission is truly gone, perhaps that's how the previous crew got the car to loss figure enough for it to be considered salvage, because if it is just a windshield and dented roof, that's far, far away from a total. Looking at the stickers still on it, I've got something to go check on Social Media, and sure enough, after a few clicks, I find it, some videos of some street and drag racing, and a big beefy Whipple.

1666811862501.png

I have yet to see under the car and validate these claims, but with the engine there, I don't yet have any reason to suspect that it's been fouled up. This is where I start assuming, but I'm guessing if somebody had a scary incident like that and wanted out of it, last thing they'd do is get back in it again and do some crazy destructive stuff like blow up a motor. Hearing and seeing it in other places, the motor had previously done 1000hp+, so not sure how hurt it is, but assuming the worst, nothing that we can't fix by a cleaning bore and some new pistons and rods built for serious abuse. It looks like it will at least roll, and whatever, if any, pieces are missing from the driveline, I've got a hopefully pretty decent copy of it from the Albuquerque Stripper, ready for a new home.
 
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PaddyPrix

If breakin' parts is cool, consider me Miles Davis
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What are you using from the other chassis?
Perfect timing :D

So looking through some pictures that @67GTA was kind enough to take, it looks like the driveline is needed at a minimum. There's no differential, driveshaft, or transmission.

d4646c903eeb3b306b2b27d512f36c08a1e68146-3.jpeg

From this, we can see the stock GT swaybar, stock springs, the IRS looks like it'll need a the Torsen coming from the stripper, driveshaft, and CV axles. Since it's standing fine, going to assume the rest of the rear is there like the brakes, etc. If you look carefully down the trans tunnel, you'll see no transmission, flywheel/trans, and a good squint we can see the engine block and the crank appears to be in there.


d4646c903eeb3b306b2b27d512f36c08a1e68146-2.jpeg

Looking at this picture, we have an engine, that's not plugged in, but no crank snout, something that I've seen/heard happening a few times with the big blower crowd. So, now we need at least the motor, which the Stripper should still be fine. Since this engine is somewhat goofed, it'd make sense for it to come out, and then probably do an auto to manual swap, trans harnesses, computers, and the 3rd pedal.


d4646c903eeb3b306b2b27d512f36c08a1e68146-1.jpeg
From the front, we see that the frame is nice and straight, oil pan isn't busted, a tire went flat.
 

Fabman

Dances with Racecars
6,518
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Pleasanton: 1/2 way between Sonoma and Laguna Seca
**In for updates.
 
98
113
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So cal
Why is there a ratchet strap around the oil pan? Im also gonna guess that's a junk motor in there looks like he snagged the entire drivetrain and just threw some junker in the engine bay.
 

PaddyPrix

If breakin' parts is cool, consider me Miles Davis
725
1,081
Exp. Type
Time Attack
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San Diego
Why is there a ratchet strap around the oil pan? Im also gonna guess that's a junk motor in there looks like he snagged the entire drivetrain and just threw some junker in the engine bay.
I think you're right. Let's suppose dude was a total dingus and somehow snapped the crank snout in doing so. I really doubt that they'd then go to the trouble of disconnecting all the harnesses and everything on the motor. Other than the snout though, wonder if the block and the rest of it is workable, if so, that becomes the big boy engine while the 470ish rwhp motor from the Stripper goes in. The computer is going to be a mess though, not sure what tune is currently on that, I'm guessing it's setup to do what the Whipple or aftermarket tuner wanted it to do, and I'm going to assume the tuning device isn't there, so I'll have to see if I can't bother somebody I know with an automatic 2018 Mustang GT. That, or I can try to overwrite things via Forscan using the Ford Mastercraft AsBuilt data, but I don't know if that'll work, yet.
 
98
113
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Time Attack
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Under 3 Years
So cal
I think you're right. Let's suppose dude was a total dingus and somehow snapped the crank snout in doing so. I really doubt that they'd then go to the trouble of disconnecting all the harnesses and everything on the motor. Other than the snout though, wonder if the block and the rest of it is workable, if so, that becomes the big boy engine while the 470ish rwhp motor from the Stripper goes in. The computer is going to be a mess though, not sure what tune is currently on that, I'm guessing it's setup to do what the Whipple or aftermarket tuner wanted it to do, and I'm going to assume the tuning device isn't there, so I'll have to see if I can't bother somebody I know with an automatic 2018 Mustang GT. That, or I can try to overwrite things via Forscan using the Ford Mastercraft AsBuilt data, but I don't know if that'll work, yet.
Well it has the ngauge tuner in it, and i know from my car in my ngauge i have my tune from palm beach dyno along with the factory tune so hopefully its the same, but if not no biggie there are ways around it or just slap your pcm in also. My dyno tuner is near by as well and im sure he could get it squared away worse case.
 

PaddyPrix

If breakin' parts is cool, consider me Miles Davis
725
1,081
Exp. Type
Time Attack
Exp. Level
Under 3 Years
San Diego
Patrick, Dealing with a yellow car is an iffy proposition to start with.............all tho my yellow '68 Olds 442 was a feather in my cap........:hellyeah:
Thankfully it's a wrap, with what might be a halfway decent red too. After it's up and running, might do something with the red and yellow that will irritate everybody's eyeballs. Got a soft spot for the 442, neighbor had one when I was growing up and always loved its sound. If you were rocking that Olds 20-25 years ago, I might have caught you at some events way back when, ran a hangout in Fairfield down by the Black Rock Home Depot.

Well it has the ngauge tuner in it, and i know from my car in my ngauge i have my tune from palm beach dyno along with the factory tune so hopefully its the same, but if not no biggie there are ways around it or just slap your pcm in also. My dyno tuner is near by as well and im sure he could get it squared away worse case.
Ah, well that's great news, and thanks for having better eyes than I. If that nGauge is there, then I should be able to at least flash it back to stock for the next device or tuner incoming, and that reminds me that I might as well try to return the Stripper back to stock too. Not sure what we'll be doing with all these transmissions, or if I'm going to give the auto a go, trying to gauge what it'll entail, but thankfully we've got just about everything we're going to need with two 2018 GT's and trying to Frankenstein them together. I was pretty happy with the 470rwhp pep from the Stripper, and it's about as far as you can get a Gen3 Coyote without doing cams and intake. Stock Gen3 is around 410-420rwhp and that math at the current NASA rules/specs works out perfectly if I run it stock and get it down to a s197ish 3400 minimum race weight, and losing ACS has me thinking I've got to go lighter for the smaller turny courses.
 

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