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So about 2 years ago I got my current 92 Coupe 5.0/5spd in a trade from a guy in East Texas, I gave him a dirtbike and $1k for the car. My plan was to have a fun weekend car that I may some day do a
little auto x or an open track day in it. I don't really have an interest in drag racing so it needed to handle as well as possible. It was originally a 4 cylinder conversion, bright red with black
interior. It had weld Pro Star drag wheels on it, unkown crap ass springs, terrible suspension all the way around, disk rear, cowl hood, pretty stock motor that sounded like it had a cam in it (more on
that later), a 5 lug conversion, dumped flows, and a breathalyzer. So after I drove it home from East Tx I ended up driving it back the next weekend to get the breathalyzer pulled out of it as the ass-
hat lied and said it could be done in Dallas.
when it came home
Here's the list of problems it had that I immediately knew about.
No keys, ignition or doors (clean title though)
brakes were spongy as hell and I had to pump them to stop every time
it was eating serpantine belts
broken fan blades
terrible suspension
needed alignment
blinkers didn't work
paint is terrible
no e-brake
Anyways, the first order of business was to get an ignition key for it, the guy said his kid lost the keys... all of them. When he tried to replace the ignition key cylinder he pulled too much of it out
and lost the gear that goes behind the cylinder, so it had to be started with a flat head screw driver and could not be locked as there was no door key.
Then I wanted to be rid of those drag wheels so I swapped DJ for his FR500's but quickly realized they wouldn't work with the crappy 5 lug conversion that was done on the car. It had Lincoln Mk VII
rotors on the front and a 2000-ish disk rear end which made the wheels stick way too far out. Once I swapped the wheels I was pretty much commited to doing a proper 5 lug conversion so I found a used
set of SN95 brakes/spindles and tried that but the calipers were sooo bad that I decided to stop and go with Cobra brakes on the front. So, I got new rotors and bought the caplipers and brackets off
Corral. I also got new Tokico blue struts. I figured while I have it apart I might as well do the control arm bushings and sway bushings, and got MM solid steering rack bushings too. I also discovered
the reason the brakes SUCKED was due to the stock master cylinder and the disk rear end... so I got the proper master cylinder, new booster, prop valve, SVE lowering springs etc. and fixed it. I went
cheap on the springs since I knew I needed something for now but had to wait till I can afford it to get a full coil over set.
Before and after:
little auto x or an open track day in it. I don't really have an interest in drag racing so it needed to handle as well as possible. It was originally a 4 cylinder conversion, bright red with black
interior. It had weld Pro Star drag wheels on it, unkown crap ass springs, terrible suspension all the way around, disk rear, cowl hood, pretty stock motor that sounded like it had a cam in it (more on
that later), a 5 lug conversion, dumped flows, and a breathalyzer. So after I drove it home from East Tx I ended up driving it back the next weekend to get the breathalyzer pulled out of it as the ass-
hat lied and said it could be done in Dallas.
when it came home
Here's the list of problems it had that I immediately knew about.
No keys, ignition or doors (clean title though)
brakes were spongy as hell and I had to pump them to stop every time
it was eating serpantine belts
broken fan blades
terrible suspension
needed alignment
blinkers didn't work
paint is terrible
no e-brake
Anyways, the first order of business was to get an ignition key for it, the guy said his kid lost the keys... all of them. When he tried to replace the ignition key cylinder he pulled too much of it out
and lost the gear that goes behind the cylinder, so it had to be started with a flat head screw driver and could not be locked as there was no door key.
Then I wanted to be rid of those drag wheels so I swapped DJ for his FR500's but quickly realized they wouldn't work with the crappy 5 lug conversion that was done on the car. It had Lincoln Mk VII
rotors on the front and a 2000-ish disk rear end which made the wheels stick way too far out. Once I swapped the wheels I was pretty much commited to doing a proper 5 lug conversion so I found a used
set of SN95 brakes/spindles and tried that but the calipers were sooo bad that I decided to stop and go with Cobra brakes on the front. So, I got new rotors and bought the caplipers and brackets off
Corral. I also got new Tokico blue struts. I figured while I have it apart I might as well do the control arm bushings and sway bushings, and got MM solid steering rack bushings too. I also discovered
the reason the brakes SUCKED was due to the stock master cylinder and the disk rear end... so I got the proper master cylinder, new booster, prop valve, SVE lowering springs etc. and fixed it. I went
cheap on the springs since I knew I needed something for now but had to wait till I can afford it to get a full coil over set.
Before and after:
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