2016 Projects Thread!

so did you make the wood part for the steering wheel, or di you purchase it? it looks nice..

Yes I replaced the old rubber grip with wood and restored the spokes with a brushed metal look.

well; you did a great job.

Yeah, really sweet.

I'm putting a leather wrap on my steering wheel this year to make it fatter. The wife actually said she would do it. So that's cool. That way she can say she's worked on it too. She's done other stuff too, but this will just add to it.

I saw a guy the other day with an 05/06 mustang, it’s probably one of the cleaner mustangs of that era that I’ve seen in a long time. Head had done loads of subtle mods, a bit here and a bit there, but all in good taste and he did it all himself. I like to see people do the kind of things we do to our cars. Sometimes the simplest mods yield the best results. He had wrapped all the wiring under the hood with corrugated tubing, it looked pretty good, but it needed the tape finishing on the ends to keep it in place and tidy, so I showed him how to do the tape-tips, I know it sounds lame, but he even had the blue tape that pretty well matched the tubing. He seems to be a perfectionist, so it will probably look better than the factory.
When I see the mods you do, they are thought out well and actually do justice to the car, not just chrome screw-on skull or dice tire valve caps. Kinda like when you did the electric cooling fan controller, already thinking ahead about the A/C system….your bud did a nice job on the steering wheel, I’ve worked with wood before, but I don’t think I’d attempt to shape a steering wheel myself, but he did a great job on it.
I’m just driving mine now and starting to lose interest again, I think it’s a normal cycle, so I got to come up with some new ideas that are cheap and effective when I get some time and cash.
you may want to get another one of those wraps for the Montego.........

Yeah, I was absolutely blown away by Stymee's steering wheel. And all the final shaping was carved & sanded by HAND! WOW!

Very kind words though, thank you! That Mustang sounds cool. I tried to do subtle mods that suited the car on my '02 GT too. It was probably my first car-as-canvass project, haha.







I bought it before the '03 Mach 1 came out. It was sort of a Mach 1 tribute (I didn't want to wait for or pay for a Mach 1, haha). On the front, I added the Mach 1 chin spoiler (which later became practically a requirement on New Edge cars), the CDC shaker scoop kit, and the horse corral from a Bullitt Mustang. I liked it better than the Mach 1 grille delete because it kept the honeycomb design that carried through on the side scoops and rear. I changed the GT emblems on the fenders for the running horse and bars (Mach 1s had that, and it just looked cleaner to me), and then on the rear, I added the CDC honeycomb trim between the taillights the factory Mach 1 was sorely lacking. I kept the GT emblem there because the car wasn't trying to be something it wasn't. On the inside, I did a cool T-handle shift knob (although it wasn't as comfortable as the factory knob), and silver trim by the gauges. All stuff that you'd never notice unless you knew to look for it, but the car was probably fairly unique among that body style.

I always make a point to take pictures of the dash/interior of my cars. It's what takes me back to actually sitting in the cars and driving them. As soon as I opened that pic of this car, I missed it.

Oh, and I'm guessing the factory steering wheel on the Montego will be toothpick thin, so we'll see what sort of aftermarket wheel I'm willing to pay for when that time comes, haha. If it's not leather wrapped, you can bet it'll get a Wheelskin though!

Well I made a decision on the taillights, and bought a pair of NOS '85 Marquis lenses. They look like this.



I'll have to cut off the portion that wraps around the side, and I think trim them for height too. But once that is all done, I plan to add tape stripes to make them look like '93 Cobra taillight.



Should be cool!

My alternator/A/C project hit a bit of a snag. I lost contact with the guy that was going to give me everything I needed to install them like the stock acceccory drive brackets. we had been emailing back and forth through the craigslist email system. we never exchanged real email addresses and there must be a point where Craigslist no longer forwards your messages for you. So, I messaged a guy over at FEP I knew had a decent stash of Fox parts. Turned out he has everything I need, but i'll have to wait a week.

Fortunately the weather's FINALLY warm enough to paint my calipers, so I can start my brakes project. I actually have some time to work on it this weekend too!

Awesome Brad!Yes craigslist does expire the post after like 45 days of when it was originally posted and if he does not repost it is done. He can repost it at any time tho....I know that does not help you.

Funny, I happen to be on Facebook this morning got a notice for a posting in one of them garage sale listing kinda pages.....well I believe the notice I got today was of a truck that fits exactly the description of the SOB who hit my Mustang and another car this past winter! He has fixed the damage on the truck but there a piers to be a red paint scuff on the bumper....right perfect matching my cars color. Its the same f'n truck ....same blacked out wheels.....same decals on the side windows...
So asked him a couple questions.....yep new grill and needs radiator...etc
Now I am waiting for the St Patrol officer to call me back.
Hope I am right on this!!

Oh yea, I also get to replace the heater core in my Fairmont!

The stuff from the FEP guy is on its way, so I'm excited. I got my stock pulleys all painted, so they're ready to go on. And I got the wiring done for the 3G alternator.

That would be great though, if you can get some justice. Hopefully the police do more than just call a few times and give up if he doesn't answer. Quite a stroke of luck for you though!

Ugh, heater core, huh? Well if you're car wasn't originally an A/C car, I've heard they're not as bad.

I also got my new calipers all painted and ready to go on. Now I just have to tear into the old brakes and get them out of the way so I can put the new ones on. I think I might want to move where my soft line brackets are on the fronts. my current soft lines seem pulled really tight and I'd rather that not be the case, obviously. But, at the same time, I REALLY hate bending and flaring new fluid lines.

I want to do the 3G swap too. I hope this job I am working to get comes through...been laid off for about 3 months. If it does I will be working on the 3G swap, door panels, and some details.
I did get the blank out for the gear selector in the dash gauge cluster in place....after I lost it for several months...or year...and I changed the steering column plastic cover to one to eliminate the column shifter.
Yes....my car is an original AC car. So I get to pull the dash.

What's wrong with your door panels?

it's cool that you were able to get the stuff to complete the floor shift conversion.

I hope the heater core goes well for you.

I'm more excited about the 3G swap than I probably have reason to be, haha. it'll be nice not to be killing my battery all the time though. I'm also happy to finally be getting my accessory drive to where I want it to be, stock length belt and all.

The door panels are fine.....just boring! I want add some changes for a little more spice and I also need to change how the speakers sit. They are so deep they interfere with the window cranks. If I inset the speakers more then they interfere with the glass when I roll the windows down. Also I want speaker covers. Somethings I always needed to do.

I just ordered the heater core....so we will see how it goes. I need to replace a half shaft in the truck first.

I want the 3g bad. I need to figure out what want to do about the belt.....V belt or serp. belt ? It will depend on the cash flow.