Above is a listing of most of the parts that I will need to use from the donor Mustang I purchased. The only exception is that I don't need the steering rack or any of the suspension components. Since I purchased my FFR MKIII kit during FFR's "Winter Sale" I got a brand new manual steering rack and suspension components for no extra charge.
I started tearing down the donor 1989 Stang shortly after getting it home. The vehicle already had the transmission removed from the car because they were in the middle of changing the clutch when the decision was made to sell the car at auction. The T-5 transmission was sitting in the trunk of the car, along with a brand new still in the box clutch. The starter was not in the vehicle, so I'll be in the market for a new starter for my FFR Cobra.
The engine was one of the first things I removed from the car. Everything went pretty smooth and uneventful.
My friend Chris was kind enough to lend me his engine hoist so I didn't have to pay to rent or purchase one. The flywheel is pretty rusty because of the car was parked outside for a couple of years with the transmission removed. I'm pretty certain that I'll be able to get it resurfaced and it will be good as new.
The previous owner should have pulled the engine long before now. The photo is the engine mounts. As you can see the rubber is just falling apart.
After getting the engine out, everything else was pretty simple. It just took time to get it all taken apart without breaking things. The wiring harness was especially challenging. Many of the connectors were very brittle and wanted to break. In an attempt to make things easier later, I labeled all of the connectors with tape. The wiring you see in this photo is just the engine/dash harness. There's still a whole lot more wiring to get out of the car after this.
The dash area is getting close to being stripped right here.
Another progress photo..
The interior is now complete! That was FUN!
Although the donor vehicle cost a total of $835.00, to date I have sold a total of $375.00 worth of parts off of the car. Also, I found a total of $3.62 of loose change in all kinds of places inside the car. One of the dimes was Silver, so lets just call it an even $4.00. Also, one of the Mustang turn signal light bulbs was used in Cheryl's Pontiac Grand Am...... value = 49 cents! So currently, the total cost of the donor Mustang sits at $455.51. I still have lots of parts listed for sale on www.dfwstangs.net . Even if I don't sell another part, $455.51 is a DEAL for all of the parts that I will be able to use from the Mustang. A T-5 Transmission at the auto salvage yard easily sells for $400.00.
On April Fools Day 2006 the donor Mustang got rolled out of the garage and into the driveway. I found a wrecker driver that was willing to come to the house and haul the Mustang shell away for FREE. I had hoped to find someone that would be willing to give me some $$$$ for the shell, but after two weeks of hard advertising and writing creative ads I gave up and was ready to get rid of it if someone would just come get it. The wrecker driver was already headed to the salvage yard and said that he would take the Mustang and sell it for scrap. At $66.00 per ton, I figure he probably made about $25.00.
I'm not positive, but I think the Mustang thought it was a sick April Fools Day joke when the wrecker showed up and I told her that she was about to be headed to the salvage yard to get sold for scrap and crushed. At first I felt sort of bad, but the important parts of Mustang will live on in a brand new FFR MKIII Cobra car, so Mustang is actually still alive! Just getting a face lift of sorts.
So, that's it for this entry of Joe's FFR Blog. Coming Soon: Garage Prep Info and Delivery of the Roadster!
