90 Coupe build (aka copy birddog)

[samuel642000]

So about 4 years ago I was scrolling through Birddogs build one here and made this comment:

Originally Posted by samuel642000

Very nice man, I'm pretty envious of not having that car.

I followed along for quite sometime and finally decided that it was time for me to have my own coupe. Found one online that seemed about what I wanted, went and looked at it and came home with it the next day.



A little rough on the outside, but minus faded front seats in the interior it was pretty clean.
The first thing I knew I wanted to do was replace the basic stuff, thermostat, new plugs, wires, oil change, etc.. however, on the way home from Autozone the front brakes locked down on the highway causing the snowball effect that has been going on over the past few months.

I bought new calipers and went to bleed the brakes, unfortunately, I learned that working on this car would have two nemesis' 30-year-old parts, and the previous owner worked on it. While bleeding the rear drums I found out the bleed screw was cross threaded and would not go back in correctly and now leaked brake fluid everytime the brakes were pushed. So I decided to start looking for a rear disk setup and stumbled on an IRS that had all poly bushings, 4:10s, MM adjustable tie rods, and the heavy-duty cross member.



Then the fun began on the swap, did a lot of reading and asking birddog for help and got it in. It wasn't too difficult because it damn near bolts right up, but there are a lot of tiny things to knock out during the swap.



Got the old rear out



The front of the subframe bolts right up, and the rear will bolt in but first you have to mount the bracket to the frame of the car, which requires a few new holes to be drilled. I decided to cut a access hole in the trunk pan in order to make a nut plate, which I can weld the nuts to, then weld that to the frame of the car. So I could weld the pan back together and not worry about the nuts turning if I ever had to take the bracket off for some reason.



Which I found the only rust on the car at this time, just a little in the spare tire area also found the original spare and all the jack tools and jack.




Although useless to me now I thought it was pretty cool to find. I believe I am the third owner of the car.
Fixed the rust issue by sanding it down to bare metal spraying rust converter, then hitting it with the rubberized coating spray. The rest will be done in a similar manner in the future, then covered with "dynamat" and the carpet pieces put back in.



While waiting on my shipment from LMR one night I got bored and tried to see what I could do with the old paint, to old me over until I can paint it, or have it painted. Didn't come out terrible, but 30 yr old paint that was left outside for years uncovered will only yield so much in results

[samuel642000]

Finally after about 5 months working on it here and there (we had a newborn a month after I bought the car) I finished the IRS swap.





This last weekend I took it to get the exhaust welded up, and inspected, and yes I realize I need my own trailer.




The reason I need my own trailer exhibit A:



the guy at the Uhaul place never latched down the trailer to the ball, I know I was an idiot for not double checking. The one time I don't double check everything the trailer came loose. Luckily it made it the 2 mile trip home with no problems, but it was a different story when I tried to drive the car up the ramps.


So right now the car has a completely brand new brake system minus the hard lines ( about to do the 5 lug swap up front with cobra brakes and 95 spindles) plan on doing that this weekend after finals, will also be registering it Friday and getting it aligned this weekend when all the work is done.

[KBScobravert]

Cool little project. After front brakes/5 lug swap, what is next?

Keep the updates coming.

[samuel642000]

Originally Posted by KBScobravert

Cool little project. After front brakes/5 lug swap, what is next?

Keep the updates coming.

Thanks man, it's got some wiring gremlins that need to be sorted out. It won't start with the key so I have a bump switch hooked to the solenoid to start it so I'm planning on figuring out that problem, but it works for now. Then there are some interesting things going on with the engine harness, did I mention the previous owner and the hack work he did?

Probably redo everything he did but correctly, and look into doing a wire tuck, but haven't decided on what to do powerplant wise so idk how much I'll put into hiding wires that might not stay.

[KBScobravert]

Originally Posted by samuel642000

Thanks man, it's got some wiring gremlins that need to be sorted out. It won't start with the key so I have a bump switch hooked to the solenoid to start it so I'm planning on figuring out that problem, but it works for now. Then there are some interesting things going on with the engine harness, did I mention the previous owner and the hack work he did?

Probably redo everything he did but correctly, and look into doing a wire tuck, but haven't decided on what to do powerplant wise so idk how much I'll put into hiding wires that might not stay.

Do yourself a favor and just find good harnesses on Ebay, classifieds, Facebook pages. For 94-95s I've got 2 or 3 body harnesses, a few EFI and ECU harnesses and a couple if dash harnesses. Just in case I need to either trace something or make a new harness I have spares.


Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

[bird_dog0347]

Cool project man! Make sure to put on some SFC's soon too if it doesn't already have them.

[samuel642000]

Originally Posted by KBScobravert

Do yourself a favor and just find good harnesses on Ebay, classifieds, Facebook pages. For 94-95s I've got 2 or 3 body harnesses, a few EFI and ECU harnesses and a couple if dash harnesses. Just in case I need to either trace something or make a new harness I have spares.


Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

I started looking around for one and found a couple, my main dilemma is I'm considering an ls swap in this car and don't want to put too much into a motor I might get rid of. However, the swap would be far down the road so immediate thinking is getting it reliable and drive it a bunch.

Originally Posted by bird_dog0347

Cool project man! Make sure to put on some SFC's soon too if it doesn't already have them.

That is already on the LMR wishlist, will be ordered very soon.

[bird_dog0347]

Originally Posted by samuel642000

I started looking around for one and found a couple, my main dilemma is I'm considering an ls swap in this car and don't want to put too much into a motor I might get rid of. However, the swap would be far down the road so immediate thinking is getting it reliable and drive it a bunch.



That is already on the LMR wishlist, will be ordered very soon.

I was sorta in the same boat... I eventually plan to put a coyote in it so I haven't bought a K member yet as I only want to do that once. Everything I've done to the current 5.0 is with the idea that I won't lose much if any money on it and can make it more like a savings account for the coyote.

Have them installed... doing it in the garage sucks.

[samuel642000]

Got a little more work done on the fox,
The starter was having a hard time firing up the car when cold, and would not start it after it got hot, so threw a new one on.



Then the parts for the five lug swap started showing up, didn't take near as many pictures as I thought I did. Prretty much 95 spindles with Steeda ball joints for the SN95, 04 cobra 13 in front brakes with the matching calipers, and new hub assemblies.

Orginal vs. New:



The ball joints lower the car about a half inch, which is too low for me to drive it, fenders aren't rolled and the tire hits pretty bad. However, the BJ's do come with spacers to raise the car back up the half inch that I plan to install. Adding to the fender rub, the inside of the wheels hit the lower a-arm, so going to get a small (1/8'') spacer and maybe steering limiters to see if that cures my problem. Also, plan to roll the fenders if I can find a roller decently priced.



Bought an MSD Street Fire setup, distributor, plug wires, new plugs, cap and rotor, and ignition box, and got those installed. Set timing to 10*BTC and seems to be running like a champ haven't got to really drive it, due to the horrendous rubbing issue up front, but hopefully, the spacers will come in this week and I'll throw them on get it aligned and be able to actually drive this thing.

[samuel642000]

Originally Posted by samuel642000

The ball joints lower the car about a half inch, which is too low for me to drive it, fenders aren't rolled and the tire hits pretty bad. However, the BJ's do come with spacers to raise the car back up the half inch that I plan to install. Adding to the fender rub, the inside of the wheels hit the lower a-arm, so going to get a small (1/8'') spacer and maybe steering limiters to see if that cures my problem. Also, plan to roll the fenders if I can find a roller decently priced.

Scratch that, just went to check, this bitch hits the frame rail, the fender liner and the a-arm, don't know how I am going to correct that, minus different wheels. Tire is a 245/45R17, Figured it would work but I assume these wheels have too much BS, sucks was my favorite part of the swap was using these wheels.

[samuel642000]

Originally Posted by bird_dog0347

Have them installed... doing it in the garage sucks.

I remember you saying that in your thread, I'll ask the exhaust guy if he can bang it out.

[bird_dog0347]

Originally Posted by samuel642000

Scratch that, just went to check, this bitch hits the frame rail, the fender liner and the a-arm, don't know how I am going to correct that, minus different wheels. Tire is a 245/45R17, Figured it would work but I assume these wheels have too much BS, sucks was my favorite part of the swap was using these wheels.

What are the specs on the wheels? My front ones are 18x8 with a 245/40/18 and way too much offset so I had to put a 1" spacer to move them back out. I get no rubbing now and I think I'm even lower than you. That said the alignment will help with that too with the added camber. My main problem with the setup was rubbing in the rear, not the front but the stiffer springs, proper wheels, and alignment took care of that too. Keep in mind I've got fairly stiff coilovers all around which helps too.

You can talk to Doug (bluecouperedvert on here) and he will roll your fenders with the proper tool.

Front


Rear


Overall

[samuel642000]

Originally Posted by bird_dog0347

What are the specs on the wheels? My front ones are 18x8 with a 245/40/18 and way too much offset so I had to put a 1" spacer to move them back out. I get no rubbing now and I think I'm even lower than you. That said the alignment will help with that too with the added camber. My main problem with the setup was rubbing in the rear, not the front but the stiffer springs, proper wheels, and alignment took care of that too. Keep in mind I've got fairly stiff coilovers all around which helps too.

You can talk to Doug (bluecouperedvert on here) and he will roll your fenders with the proper tool.

They are just factory bullitt wheels 17x9 and don't know the BSing, but I think I did stumble on the problem, while turning the wheel back and forth to check clearance all over i heard a loud popping/bang noise. Turns out the C/C plates were pretty loose and shifting back and forth under the load. Moved them out and it seems to have clearance all the way around minus the lower rear side of the a-arm. should be able to get a spacer to cover that.

Was it a typo or do you really have a 1'' spacer on your car? Thought it was a 1/8'' ?

I have no clearance issues currently on the rear, but also have 245/45's back there also. Have some wider ones waiting to go on after the alignment.

We are pretty close in height

[bird_dog0347]

Used to be a 1/8 but when I got these wheels I went to a 1" spacer so yes... that's correct. I think an alignment will go a long way to helping here.

[samuel642000]

Originally Posted by bird_dog0347

Used to be a 1/8 but when I got these wheels I went to a 1" spacer so yes... that's correct. I think an alignment will go a long way to helping here.

I agree with ya, happen to still have the old spacer? Did you have your car set to 03 cobra specs? Front and rear? One or the other? Or did you have numbers in mind you wanted?

[bird_dog0347]

Originally Posted by samuel642000

I agree with ya, happen to still have the old spacer? Did you have your car set to 03 cobra specs? Front and rear? One or the other? Or did you have numbers in mind you wanted?

When I got my coil over kit from MM, I spent a few hours on the phone with Jack and used his recommendations (or as close as the shop could get them) for the alignment based on the kit I bought and the setup I have. Some of the specs were stock, others weren't. I've got it in an email if you want me to dig it up but it was supposedly specific to my setup based on all the info I gave Jack.

[samuel642000]

Originally Posted by bird_dog0347

When I got my coil over kit from MM, I spent a few hours on the phone with Jack and used his recommendations (or as close as the shop could get them) for the alignment based on the kit I bought and the setup I have. Some of the specs were stock, others weren't. I've got it in an email if you want me to dig it up but it was supposedly specific to my setup based on all the info I gave Jack.

No need just had them set it to 04 cobra specs.



Finally a little payoff, been working on the car almost since I bought it and never had driven it more than about 5 miles. Ventured to the alignment shop saturday morning, got it all aligned.




On to the next problem, it has a dead spot where the car falls flat onto its face at 3000rpms under WOT. Pulls good down low, doesn't spit and sputter, just feels like it hits a very faint rev limiter, or at the top of the power band. Cleaned the maf, throttle body, put new plugs wires and distributer on it, and in the process found part of my problem





Going to pick up a fuel pressure gauge on the way home tomorrow and see if it is running out of fuel and go from there.