August '08-'09 Buildoff 2007 Ford Mustang GT

[TheB1GDude]

OK so most of you by now will recognize my 07 GT, I figured that I'd do something more productive than waste all my cash on XMODS, so I'm going to take a shot at competing in the build off.

So first of all lets go over the specs for my ride:

• 2007 Ford Mustang GT
• 4.6L, V8, 300hp engine
• Rear Wheel Drive
• 17" alloy wheels
• 6-disc CD player with changer
• 8 speakers
• MP3 audio input.
• Five speed manual transmission
• Driver/passenger airbags
• Anti-trunk trap
• 4 wheel ABS brakes
• Tire detail
• Anti-theft
• Power accessories
• Intermittent wipers
• Tinted glass
• Power adjustable exterior mirror
• Rear defogger
• Air conditioning
• Cruise control
• Steering wheel mounted controls
• Tire pressure monitor
• Tilt steering
• Multi-adjustable powered driver's seat
• Front bucket seats
• Power lumbar support
• Halogen headlights
• Fog lights
• Leather interior
• Rear spoiler
• Traction control

Now lets have a few stock photo shots:







Now let me talk about the plans:

Remove dealership badge
Swap front upper grill
Swap front lower grill
Paint and Install Window Louvres
Paint and Install rear quarter vents
Buy black racing stripes
Have black racing stripes fitted
Buy and install black rims (20 x 8.5 front / 20 x 10.5 rear)
Buy and install Borla Exhaust System - Cat Back (Aggressive Sounding)
Make interior more appealing
Buy and install halo fog lights
Buy and install Halo Projector LED Headlights
Color code wing mirrors
Buy and install new rear lights
Buy and install air intake system
Reprogram ECU
Buy and install trunk badge:
Long term goal is a Turbonetics intercooled turbo charger......

Items marked in italic have been completed and a few parts photos are shown below:







Now for progress pictures:

Dealership badge is gone!



Install new upper grill:

Decided to go with a replacement Shelby GT500 Eleanor front grill:

Reasons:- allows me to keep with my blue / black color scheme rather than bringing aluminum in as a material / color on the outside of the car and I rather like it!

1. Take old grill out:



2. Swap fog lights:



3. Fit extended wiring harnesses:



4. Install new grill:



Final product:



What I will say about the Mustang front grill is that it is a nightmare! It took about an hour to swap this out and I had to wait for the hottest point of the day so the bumper plastic was softer and easier to work with, my recommendations would be that if you want to do this to your Mustang get someone else to do it!

Painted Window Louvres:



Installed Window Louvres:



Cold Air Intake (CAI) System ordered:

S&B Filters Performance Intake Kit (no tuning required)



S&B are a great name in the aftermarket filters business also this one is highly recommended by 5.0 Mustangs and Super Fords magazine, oh and the price kicked ***!! Should be here in a few days so will post photos of the part and its installation.

Cold Air Intake (CAI) System arrived:

So the kit arrived last Wednesday:



As of yet I have not been able to do anything more than take it out of the box and put it together:



Reason behind this was that I did not bring my ratchet set with me when I moved from the UK, so last Saturday I treated myself to a nice shinny new $5 kit and some $5 extension bars.... no point in wasting money on tools !!!



My girlfriends little brother wants to help me so will probably wait until Saturday before installing this bad boy..... got bored of waiting for my girlfriends brother so installed the CAI today....







It sounds really good, gives me a lot more bubbling from the exhaust on downshift and seems to have improved my acceleration, now for the bad news - when I reconnected the battery and started the car I got a Tire Pressure Monitor Failure error on the display - **** - now this isn't the first CAI I've installed (although it will probably be the last) and this was a direct replacement so did not require any splicing of wires, I didn't remove anything other than the MAF wire and sensor but the stock wire and sensor both went back on so I'm at a total loss and really don't know what could have gone wrong, I'm hoping that its pure coincidence so I went ahead and booked it into the dealership for Monday to try and get the issue sorted.

Tided up the wiring for my fog lots so that the extension wires no longer rub on the radiator as I was a little worried that the radiator might melt the wires.

Ordered 18" single center stripe with 1/4" pin stripe surround



Racing Stripe arrived - but its not the right one so am having to return it.

Ordered, received and installed new interior LED lights - cabin is now illuminated blue when the interior lights come on





Ordered Aggressive Axle Back Borla Stinger - currently back ordered so 1 week wait until shipping, can't wait to get these the sound is meant to be amazing!!

Ordered and received tri-bar Pony grille emblem:



Borla Stingers have arrived





Borla Stingers have been installed:

Old:

"Old Exhaust System Video" via YouTube

New:

"New Exhaust System Video" via YouTube

B1G size and noise difference

Ordered, received and installed CDC Billet Shorty Antenna:

Old vs. New:



Installed Tri-Bar Pony logo on front grille:





Ordered 3d Carbon Boy Racer Wing - it was only sale.... $110 off and pre-painted to factory color so figured can't really go wrong with it!



Boy Racer Wing has arrived, paint job is flawless.... photos coming soon! Once I get this suck installed that is!!

Ordered black hood pins.... took me a while to track these down in anything other than chrome.... but they are on the way!!

Ordered Steeda Strut Brace.... another great deal that I couldn't pass up $50 off store price with free shipping....



I have to admit that I don't really notice any difference but I like the way it looks so whatever.....

STRIPE ISSUES CRAP!!!







Stripe looks amazing but it doesn't fit quite right.... body shop isn't sure why so trying to get hold of the manufacturer.

Ordered Brenspeed Sequential Tail Light kit:



Excellent Turkey Day sale made it totally worth it!!

When oh when will it be done!!!!



Ordered K&N High Flow Oil Filter, never know when I might more oil....

Secret Piece:-



This is a custom built one of a kind (well actually 2 because the of prototype) piece designed especially for my car, I worked with a designed who used rapid prototyping to build me what I was looking for out of ABS plastic... it needs to be sprayed and then will fit straight on.... any ideas what it is??

FINALLY.... check it:



Problem now is that the wing makes the stock rims look really small So gonna have to get some new ones now!!!

Well guess I wont be doing any work this weekend:



So the snow cleared for a day and I was able to get the Mustang to the car wash for a well deserved clean, here's a few updates:





Magnetic Black Out Panel:

Also got a new piece but it needs warm weather to be fitted so for the moment its acting as a big fridge magnet:



As it stands the snow has returned so no updates other than this I'm afraid......

UPDATES 05/18/2009

Nothing major to report.... but I'll give you a few

1. Got the go ahead from the wife to get boosted via a Turbo Charger but unfortunately the complete kit offer I thought I had found wasn't quite as good when I read the fine print for the second time, so that's on hold for moment.
2. Weather finally warmed up enough to fit the black out panel (seen above on my fridge) it looks bad *** but I haven't yet taken any photos.
3. Still haven't fitted the sequential tail lights.
4. Ordered some smoked light pieces that should be here in the next day or two.
5. Ordered new cold air intake kit:



This is the mighty C&L Racer Cold Air Intake kit, this thing is a beast it sucks in a HUGH 1,070 CFM worth of air vs. the tiny 374 cfm taken in by my current S&B Filters CAI and with the right tune boost your BHP by 25-30 extra horses, problem is it can't be run without a tune due to the amount of air it sucks in and I currently don't have a tuner as you can see from the photo there is one in the background but last Friday I got caught speeding (86 in a 65) and as such the money that the day before was going towards that tuner is now paying the great state of PA so it will be a few months longer before I'm able to fit this and tune the car into 93 Octane Race mode....

Once I finally get around to fitting it the S&B Filter kit will be cleaned and put up for sale, so if anyone has a V6 or GT and is looking for a no-tune required CAI kit that is a decent starting point let me know....

6. Need to go back to the body shop to get my stripes looked at, winter didn't work out to well for them and I'm ****ed!! Grr!!
7. Looked at wheels but bought a new gas grill for the house instead...

Think that's about it for the moment.

UPDATES 05/23/2009

1. A photo of the new blackout panel....



Its not at matte as the stripe so I just leave the car dirty and it looks fine

2. The CAI arrived and its HUGH I'll do some comparison shots between the current and new when I swap them out.
3. Ordered a new stubby antenna as my shorty one was just to long for my liking.
4. FINALLY ordered the tuner... should be here next week then I just need to order the tunes... going to go with a 93 Octane Race tune as my daily driver that will give me the most power out of the lot especially when combined with the intake....

UPDATES 06/11/2009

1. Finally got the sequential tail light harnesses installed... check them out:

YouTube Video

Sequential Tail Light Video

2. Got some blackout panels for the quarter windows... supposed to make the interior a little more attractive, i.e. you don't have to look at the unpainted vents but now I don't like the way the outside looks so I'm gonna have to rethink them....

Update 07/03/2009

Time is quickly running out so I'm trying to get my last few odd jobs taken care of.

1. Now have smoked rear running lights and smoked front indicators installed, car is dirty as can be so haven't taken any photos but they look pretty cool.
2. Have SCT X3 Flash tunner:



Still need to order the tune files for it but waiting to service car first so its all nice and fresh for when I flash the ECU.

3. Have the Air Intake sitting in a box waiting for the service and tune:



In case anyone is wondering that big metal tube is a 94MM MAF housing... 10MM bigger than the stock one.....

4. Sprayed my antenna cover flat black needs probably one more coat before fitment.

Hope to get all this done for August then take some decent photos.

Final Product - what I'd like the Mustang to look like by August 09:



Well hopefully something like that!!!

Thanks for looking and I'll add more as I go....

B1G.

[GearHeadV8]

that is nice as hell. What do you mean by color code wing mirrors

[HUMMER H4]

Yay u took my advice of taking of the dealer badge,Also ur Mustang looks like its smiling or its happy,Now all u need to do is cut the exaust.

[TheB1GDude]

Originally Posted by crazyxmoder

that is nice as hell. What do you mean by color code wing mirrors

Paint them the same as the body rather than ugly black!

Originally Posted by HUMMER H4

Yay u took my advice of taking of the dealer badge,Also ur Mustang looks like its smiling or its happy,Now all u need to do is cut the exaust.

Hopefully a whole new exhaust system will be coming and I want to get the aggressive one to annoy all those vette drivers!!

[GearHeadV8]

ohhh i get it now thanks. may i suggest going with led rear tail lights

1.They look really nice

2.They last along time

3.They dont use that much power

[HUMMER H4]

May i suggest those H I D headlights,u know the blue ones,we have those on our car and we see the road better.

[TheB1GDude]

Originally Posted by HUMMER H4

May i suggest those H I D headlights,u know the blue ones,we have those on our car and we see the road better.

There OK but LED halo projector headlights are much cooler.

[texan_idiot25]

Did you try and not break those plastic clips? Tell you what, to do the grille on the CTS means breaking the clips off (just gotta do it, they break easily even when you try not to), and pulling off the bumper/grille, busting off more clips, and replacing it all with new body clips when everything goes back on.

Takes them less then minutes too, you slow-poke

[GearHeadV8]

are you gonna do any side pin striping

[TheB1GDude]

Originally Posted by texan_idiot25

Did you try and not break those plastic clips? Tell you what, to do the grille on the CTS means breaking the clips off (just gotta do it, they break easily even when you try not to), and pulling off the bumper/grille, busting off more clips, and replacing it all with new body clips when everything goes back on.

Takes them less then minutes too, you slow-poke

Haha on the stang you have to:

1. Pull out pins out the radiator cover - 5 minutes
2. Undo 8 clips using 2 screwdrivers - 20 minutes
3. Swap the lights - 10 minutes
4. Connect the harnesses - 2 minutes
5. Refit the grill - 2 minutes
6. Refit the radiator cover - 5 minutes

and yes I managed to take the stock grill off without breaking any of the clips, main reason being I want to resell it on eBay.....

[GearHeadV8]

are you gonna get a hood scoope at all

[TheB1GDude]

Originally Posted by crazyxmoder

are you gonna get a hood scoope at all

Its got one

[HUMMER H4]

I think he means like cowl enduction.

[texan_idiot25]

Originally Posted by TheB1GDude

and yes I managed to take the stock grill off without breaking any of the clips, main reason being I want to resell it on eBay.....

Ohh, I see. For the most part the clips are so sucky it's easiest to break them off and replace them, and the new ones hold better then a used clip.

What would also look nice, debadge/dewing the rest of the car (including, if possible the GT deal on the trunk) similar to the Bullitt, and just clean up the look of it a bit. Another nead little thing would be to grab one of those low-profile antenna's off another car, and get rid of the one on the fender. Subtle differences to put your GT apart from others.

[TheB1GDude]

Originally Posted by HUMMER H4

I think he means like cowl enduction.

I know - I was just messing with him, I want to get a supercharger (if anyone wants to buy my entire xmod collection off me for 8 grand they are more than welcome ) if I ever do then I'll get a hole new hood and put a blower on the supercharger.

Going to get a low profile antenna for it in next few days, don't think I'll to crazy with it just get a stubby one and leave it in the same place, will probably get the antenna base painted to match the car so just the antenna itself would be black.

[Tmaxxn3]

nice stange dude..lol

[SUPERSHELBY]

awesome install! looks alot more shelby-ish kinda (not the GT500)

[WhiteMKIV]

Atleast its a 5spd.....i swear to who ever you beleive in noone down here has nothing but automatics I like the color to

[scoter]

looks great

[TheB1GDude]

Ordered my Roush style window louvres today.

Need to them painted, so hopefully they will be ready for installation within two weeks.....

Next will come the rear quarter vents!

Still got lots of stuff for sale guys So how about taking some of it off my hands!