Restomod / Pro-touring Supercoupe Ideas

jjklongisland

Registered User
So I am real into resto mods and pro touring type of classics. Do you think the "restomod" concept can be applied to our generation of vehicles. There are alot of restomods from the 60's and 70's... Could the 80's and early 90's cars be turned into restomods? I mean typically a restomod or pro touring is a classic car that normally possesses suspension and tire/wheel upgrades to alter its factory appearance as well as updated its power train to a more current power plant. I know alot of supercoupes are heavily modified but when would you consider it a resto-mod. Just curious. I would love to take my SC and one day put a nice set of staggered wheels on it, custom suspension and a new coyote 5.0 in it... Just curious of some of your thoughts on restomods...

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http://www.lateral-g.net/members/musto/
 
A coyote 5.0 would be cool in one of these cars :D. Idk if a sc could be a restomod though because the bodylines are kinda too modern. Dont get me wrong a SC on 18s with a nice motor and suspension is nice but restomod?..not sure about that lol. I guess if someone put a newer interior in one and did the motor, appearance and suspension i might consider it one. Would any other interiors fit nicely in a sc? Ive seen the mark viii interiors in them before but a newer mustang interior would be cool!
 
I think several of the current membership fall closely to this category...The turbo, Twin Screw, Vortech guys...recently the SC w/ the '03-'04 drivetrain swap aswell. A couple of guys have went solid axel here recently also. Cobra Brake swaps...4.3L engines...just naming some off the top of my head. Keeping in mind we have one of the more limited aftermarket selections available...everything is trial and error or customized.

Interior wise, options are rather limited besides the 94+ swap on the early models and the mark VIII swap. I have a full mustang interior from a '06...might see about swapping that at somepoint...however the Mustang is 5inches skinnier if memory serves, so lots of fab work would be needed for it to even come together. I'd like to swap over the mytouch mycolor features that interior offerered, probably easier said than done.

Any SC that came factory 210hp and is make 400hp+ in my eyes is a sign of progression. The earlier members who have been here since the SC launched can probably tell you how far the SC platform has come over the years.

-Tim
 
I guess the perception is that the styling in the late 80's early 90's isn't far from what is being built today but when comparing the cars from the 60's and 70's to our SC's generation they are quite different. Maybe in another 10 years our cars will be considered restomods... Muscle cars i guess had more of a small wheel and high ride height vs todays cars. I guess they are easy to distinguish as a restomod vs. comparing a stock SC vs a modded SC. I still like the idea of a current OBDII Motor in place of the 3.8. It would have to be supercharged ofcoarse:D
 
Ive seen a foxbody with a 32v dohc motor and an sn95 interior swap and that was the closest 80s car i would be able to call a restomod. My 80 trans am im building is going to be a restomod and thats on the border age wise. Im sure within 10 years or so the sc's would be able to be restomods and by then i can only imagine what crazy things people will do to them :D
 
Ive seen a foxbody with a 32v dohc motor and an sn95 interior swap and that was the closest 80s car i would be able to call a restomod. My 80 trans am im building is going to be a restomod and thats on the border age wise. Im sure within 10 years or so the sc's would be able to be restomods and by then i can only imagine what crazy things people will do to them :D

An 80 TA still has that old school look. They make sick restomods! I am a huge TA fan of the late 70's
 
I understand what you're saying...I saw a ton of LS swapped 50s /60s /70s model GMs when I visited the power tour...that motor was literally in everything with a bow tie...and well anything it would fit for that matter. Saw a Mazda RX-8 with the Corvette drivetrain and some other 1 offs that made me say, damn that's a true sleeper. Guess that's more of where the SC platform is at this point, it's a sleeper if anything. Many people are just now learning about these cars and the fact they were factory supercharged. My car has no problem beating up on newer mustangs...think this has been outlined by others also.

I have seen the 3.8 SC drivetrain in a '70s Bronco, 55 T-bird and with then the 55 Truck who posts on here "Angry Bird". Suppose in a way the SC has provided them "newer technology".

The flip side here, with the SC is that the majority of the group is purist and beleive the key componet to a SC is the Supercharger (makes sense). So newer technology supercharged engine componets, comes with a price point thats higher than what most of these cars are worth...so that makes the crowd very limited.

I'm sure as the market gets flooded with the Coyote Platform and EcoBoost the swaps will be found in the MN12/FN10 bodies.

-Tim
 
Perhaps our cars are too modern for that resto mod look. But updates with rims suspension an dbrakes give it that more modern resto look...Add a coyote and a later model auto......And a few turbos..:O)
 
A coyote 5.0 would be cool in one of these cars :D. Idk if a sc could be a restomod though because the bodylines are kinda too modern. Dont get me wrong a SC on 18s with a nice motor and suspension is nice but restomod?..not sure about that lol. I guess if someone put a newer interior in one and did the motor, appearance and suspension i might consider it one. Would any other interiors fit nicely in a sc? Ive seen the mark viii interiors in them before but a newer mustang interior would be cool!

The Mark VIII interiors look kind of neat in SC's. Not to threadjack this too much, but this had got me to thinking about what was the weirdest interior or ill advised one that i've ever seen swapped into a car.....it would have to be a 2000-ish Cavalier Z24 interior in a 60's Skylark that i'd seen at a car show, replete with the stock Cavalier wheels.

I agree with you on that the bodylines on the SC's are still very modern. As far as pro touring, i'm not an expert on it, but I do know that for me, there's a fine line between pro touring, and ricer. I've seen some pretty ricey SC's.
 
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Not to threadjack this too much, but this had got me to thinking about what was the weirdest interior that i've ever seen swapped into a car.....it would have to be a 2000-ish Cavalier Z24 interior in a 60's Skylark that i'd seen at a car show, replete with the stock Cavalier wheels.

I agree with you on that the bodylines on the SC's are still very modern.

lol... My buddy had a Grand National drive train, center console and dash in his 69 Chevelle when he bought it... Sold the drive train for $5000 and put in a Big Block:D
 
lol... My buddy had a Grand National drive train, center console and dash in his 69 Chevelle when he bought it... Sold the drive train for $5000 and put in a Big Block:D

Wow, that's pretty awesome! A GN engine in a '69 Chevelle is a pretty unique thing. I'm not really sure exactly where I draw the line on really heavy customizations, in general, because i've seen some poor ones, and I think that there gets to be a point where the car totally loses the spirit of the original factory car. I'm usually more of a fan of honoring factory things, or super stock type things.

One of the best restorations that i've ever personally seen is a '55 or so Chrysler 300 that has a modern hemi in it, and new Mopar themed interior......the exterior of the car is stock for that year, but everything else looks like they probably would have done it in 1955, had they had the styling and technology of today. Never seen anything quite like it.

Now, if someone had the time and the money to do an SC with an early to mid 60's T-Bird interior, they would be pretty awesome.......
 
IMO, a restomod is to address the problems the original had (bad suspension and a powertrain that doesn't hold a candle any more). The SC only problem is the 89-93 DIS system, 89-92ABS and parts availability. Now powertrain is being matched by the OEMs now for most of us, not top line vehicles but we are still respectable.
 
I would love to have the cash and an extra t-bird on hand to drop a 3.5L Ecoboost into. I honestly think that would probably be as close to an evolution of the SC as Ford has. Drop a well built manual from a 3.7L mustang behind it and it could be a fun combo. The bonus of the entire thing would be the ~440lb engine weight. Right now it isn't economical to use any of the new Ford power plants, give it a few years when there are more F-150's and SHO's sitting in junkyards. Thats my blue sky idea for the day.
 
when I think restomod I think a old car with the new tech (motor, suspension and interior comforts) and we have most of that so I think our car is to new to be a resto but in some ways makes it a good donor for a resto
 
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