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FoxBody 1987 GT Track Car Rebuild Build Thread Profile - Fox Body Mustangs

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Welcome to TMO I’ve only been on this site a short while but it has given me great info and helped me out a ton. I’m also a fellow Wisconsinite hope to see you at some track days this summer going to try and do some of the Milwaukee track day events as well as some Shelby club events hope to see you there!
 
39
62
Exp. Type
HPDE
Exp. Level
10-20 Years
West Allis, WI
Welcome to TMO I’ve only been on this site a short while but it has given me great info and helped me out a ton. I’m also a fellow Wisconsinite hope to see you at some track days this summer going to try and do some of the Milwaukee track day events as well as some Shelby club events hope to see you there!

Good to hear from another person from WI. I'm hoping to get this car back on the track this spring, at least that's my goal. I'm only a mile from State Fair Park, so that is why getting a title and plates for this car was so important. I really didn't want to load it on the trailer for such a short drive. Looking forward to spring.

Justin
 
Lol I used to work at yard racing back in the day (which was located on 92nd and schlinger) and we used to drive our Lola and gt350s down the street to the mile for test days it was quit the site and Awsome lol
 
39
62
Exp. Type
HPDE
Exp. Level
10-20 Years
West Allis, WI
Well since it's been over 10 Months since I even posted a update, I'm getting to the point where I'm just waiting on parts. I have been working on it and taking pictures along the way. I'll tart updating this rebuild as much as I can so I can get caught up.

The first thing to do is try to figure out what I exactly purchased. It is a very well used car that has been sitting for around 3 years, but the bones are good. It had most of the parts I was going to purchase for a new build already on a rust free shell. Electrically though, it was a mess. Everything will be torn out and replaced with new.

Before I could start any work though, I had to figure the registration out first. This car has been off the road for a long time, passed through multiple owners across the country and came with the original CA title. All the prior owners only used it as a track car, so no registration was needed. I sent the original title into our WI DMV with hopes I would get a title in my name and plates for it back. After 2 Months, I actually did. Time for the work to begin.
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39
62
Exp. Type
HPDE
Exp. Level
10-20 Years
West Allis, WI
Now that the car is legally mine, it was time to get to work. The 2 front fenders are still steel, while the front bumper cover is a fiberglass unit that from what I was told, was made by Team Weinerdog in Northern CA. The bumper cover is molded into the fenders, so it comes off as one piece. Unfortunately that makes it very difficult to store in a 2 1/2 car garage. Especially when you wife still parks in it. I was thinking about putting a factory front end back on the car, but I really like to P/S and oil Coolers where they are. Plus it does give it a Function over form look, and that's what this car is going to be all about.

The car still has its entire factory harness in the car, along with alot of additions. The more I tore into it, the worse it got. I'm really surprised this thing didn't go up in flames.
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39
62
Exp. Type
HPDE
Exp. Level
10-20 Years
West Allis, WI
I purchased the car knowing the engine was hurt. Both of the prior owner and myself agreed it was probably a cracked block. (Engine in the car was a stock block 347) Material in the oil filter and the low oil pressure pointed towards that. Removing the intake confirmed that, but I was still not sure what parts I could reuse. Time to remove the short block to inspect the rotating assembly and to see what parts are actually inside the engine. At this time I dropped the heads off at my engine builder to check their condition.
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39
62
Exp. Type
HPDE
Exp. Level
10-20 Years
West Allis, WI
With the short block pulled and disassembled, I was very surprised the rotating assembly was basically undamaged with the amount of damage to the block. The only issue I found was the cam bearings walked their way out of their bores due to the split block. I actually had to cut those to remove them to reduce the chance of damaging the cam.

Unfortunately it did have a cast crank and rods. Since the plan was to do a build with a Dart block, I now needed to source a new Forged crank and a good set of rods for the power levels I will be going for in the future.

Machine shop called at this time and just recommended a simple valve job and a new set of springs for the heads. Time to start shopping so the engine build can happen while I work on the rest of the car.
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39
62
Exp. Type
HPDE
Exp. Level
10-20 Years
West Allis, WI
Took a overnight drive to CNC Motorsports, but they were able to put a 363 package together for me. I usually build my own engines, but with the break-in and dyno time I wanted for this build, I felt it was better to have my engine guy do this.

Shout out to CNC Motorsports for the great price on the components and AMS in West Allis for the machine work, engine assembly and dyno time.
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39
62
Exp. Type
HPDE
Exp. Level
10-20 Years
West Allis, WI
While the engine parts were dropped off at AMS, it was time to see how bad the engine compartment was. The plan was to fill the unnecessary holes and clean things up a bunch, but I wasn't expecting the damage to the core support and the LF. Core support was just bugger welded in and things just weren't square. Not that these cars were ever totally square, but this was pretty far off. With this being a race car in it's past, I was kinda expecting this.

Good news is these are just made out of stamped sheet metal, so all can be fixed. It's good the engine is at the builder since there is going to be a fair amount of metal shavings from grinding and drilling to make this right.
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39
62
Exp. Type
HPDE
Exp. Level
10-20 Years
West Allis, WI
I'll save everyone the details about drilling the spot weld out since we have all seen that. Upon further inspection, the LF apron was damaged along with the core support. The LF rail will need a few pulls on the rack, but it savable. Like I said, this is all just sheet metal.

My goal is to this right so it will be a fun car. I'll be replacing both aprons along with the core support. Everything will be welded in properly this time.
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39
62
Exp. Type
HPDE
Exp. Level
10-20 Years
West Allis, WI
Just a little test fit, trimming and filling of some unneeded holes. After some careful measuring on a known good car, I just duplicated those measurements and tacked everything into place. It wasn't too far off in the first place, but bad enough to justify the replacement of these parts. Plus I wanted to clean everything up.

I used the LMR hole less aprons vs the Scott Rod due to the damage on the top of the aprons where the fender attaches. Plus I like the additional room where I plan on mounting a few expansion tanks for the PS and Coolant.
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39
62
Exp. Type
HPDE
Exp. Level
10-20 Years
West Allis, WI
I'll save everyone the welding, grinding, filling and sanding pictures since we have all seen that. If not, I would be more than happy to show them. All unnecessary holes are filled and somewhat smoothed. It was at this time I noticed prior cowl damage that was repaired, but not really as good as I would want it. Good guess is the hood flew up at one time. It looks really good, but there a lot of filler on the top.

It was at this time I decided since future work will be an entire strip of the car to do a full repaint, I didn't go much further with the final smoothing of the engine compartment. I didn't want to waste much more time with things that will be stripped and redone in the future. So I just did a few more coats of primer and some final sanding.

And since It will be stripped in the future, I did not want to spend too much money on the paint. It's crazy how expensive automotive paint has gotten. So I experimented with some cheap single stage enamel that should work well in the engine compartment and wheel wells.

I also started to seal all of the seams since I do not run a inner liner, I really don't want water getting in between the panels. So everything was sealed inside and outside.


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39
62
Exp. Type
HPDE
Exp. Level
10-20 Years
West Allis, WI
Sorry about all of the posts guys, but I'm just trying to get caught up to where I'm at now.

Once again, snap your fingers and you have a Dart based 363. They broke it in on the dyno and did a few light pulls with a old distributor and a carb. This will remain FI, so there should be much more in it. We didn't tune it or spend any time tuning it since it will be tuned on a chassis dyno.

Initial #s were 499hp, (so close) and 464 lb ft. It sounded great though. There is more in it, but that's for the future. I only wanted to break it in and make sure everything was good since there was going to be some time before dropping it in and actually running it.
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39
62
Exp. Type
HPDE
Exp. Level
10-20 Years
West Allis, WI
Time for some reassembly! I did drill some alignment holes, but since there was some pulling on the rails, I needed to make sure things were where they needed to be. I'm glad I checked. Either things weren't in their correct places from the start, or things moved around. K member is in the correct place now.
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