I figured some of you would get a kick out of this, so I wanted to start a build thread/blog.
In the summer of 2005 I lived in FL for the summer where I was offered a free '88 Notchback roller on the grounds that I picked it up from Chicago. When I returned home to Toledo from my internship I planned to get ask the old lady to get hitched at some point. I thought it would be a cool idea to build her a car as an engagement present. Since I already owned a '94 v6 Mustang as a daily driver and an '89 Mustang GT with a whole slew of parts (heads, turbocharged, C4 and so on) building up the coupe for her would be pretty cool since she followed along in my enthusiasm.
Unfortunately, through our summer apart, she thought differentally about our relationship and I have since left the '88 Coupe sit in a back garage for a few years as any type of work done to it was pulling on my heart strings. I slowly stripped some of the performance parts from the car (control arms, pony rims, new headlights) for my '89 GT since it was my toy. The '88 was destined for the yard basically, otherwise to be sold.
Fastforeward to this past fall. My daily driver v6 stang started having problems like any 200k domestic would. In the slew of broken brake lines and blown ball joints, I decided to look for a reliable winter beater while getting the v6 stang up to par. $350 later; enter the '91 Supercoupe. That's right, I'm up to 4 cars at this point, 3 of which are parked in front of my house.
Once again misfortune struck as the Supercoupe needed some mechanical work in order to get running. My financial situation took nose dive from the roof top of a 15 floor apartment building into a shallow swimming pool of sharks, broken glass and baby vomit.... ok, you get the point.
As a result, I assessed that the v6 Mustang was more financially reliable and a wiser investment not knowing what other problems may lay in the depths of the Supercoupes engine bay.
Fastforeward again to last Friday. I have a small talk with a very untimely police officer that isn't fond of my ever growing stash of non-running cars (reed: Turbo Mustang). In addition, I live with my brother who is also a car enthusiast who has multiple vehicles. Between his Eagle Talon (jackstand queen), BMW and S15, we are up to 6 cars all vieing for a single car garage.
With some encouragement and a $15 fine, I decided to take the first steps toward a project I'd considered for some time.
Ladies and Gents, I am proud to introduce to you: Project Snotch
That's right, I'm building what many of you have said you've always wanted to do. The '91 Supercoupe has been completely gutted over the past 24 hours and will be rolling to the crusher tomorrow. The engine, transmission, wiring harness, computer, power steering, fuel lines, blower, intercooler, radiator... you name it, it's out.
Although the previous owner claimed to have rebuilt the 3.8L and AOD only 12k ago, I plan to do a quick refresh and plop some studs in the block for reliability. My findings of a frehsly painted block with new rear main seal along with a nearly spottless torque converter, front pump cover and new front pump seal lead me to believe that this grimey pig may have actually been gone through... alas, some degreesing, paint and reassurance are required before transplanting everything to the '88 Notch.
It will be an interesting project and I'm sure I'll have questions along the way. In the mean time, enjoy the pics and I'll try to keep this updated with any information I can find for any future swappers.
Enjoy!
This is a side project for that I'm taking on as a budget build. Should be interesting. Got the '88 for free as a ex-5.0 roller. My DD was going down hill, so I bought the Supercoupe for $350 and realized the body was rotted completely out.
So, I had a doaner car that needed an engine, and an engine that was in a junk body. Sure, it won't be as simple as a 2.3T or a SBF, but I have $350 invested into all of it, and will be shipping the doaner to the scrap yard soon to recouperate more funding.
Anyhow, here we go with the project from last night....aka, strip the car of everything including engine, transmission, fuel system, power steering, all the engine wiring... you name it, its been yanked.
In the summer of 2005 I lived in FL for the summer where I was offered a free '88 Notchback roller on the grounds that I picked it up from Chicago. When I returned home to Toledo from my internship I planned to get ask the old lady to get hitched at some point. I thought it would be a cool idea to build her a car as an engagement present. Since I already owned a '94 v6 Mustang as a daily driver and an '89 Mustang GT with a whole slew of parts (heads, turbocharged, C4 and so on) building up the coupe for her would be pretty cool since she followed along in my enthusiasm.
Unfortunately, through our summer apart, she thought differentally about our relationship and I have since left the '88 Coupe sit in a back garage for a few years as any type of work done to it was pulling on my heart strings. I slowly stripped some of the performance parts from the car (control arms, pony rims, new headlights) for my '89 GT since it was my toy. The '88 was destined for the yard basically, otherwise to be sold.
Fastforeward to this past fall. My daily driver v6 stang started having problems like any 200k domestic would. In the slew of broken brake lines and blown ball joints, I decided to look for a reliable winter beater while getting the v6 stang up to par. $350 later; enter the '91 Supercoupe. That's right, I'm up to 4 cars at this point, 3 of which are parked in front of my house.
Once again misfortune struck as the Supercoupe needed some mechanical work in order to get running. My financial situation took nose dive from the roof top of a 15 floor apartment building into a shallow swimming pool of sharks, broken glass and baby vomit.... ok, you get the point.
As a result, I assessed that the v6 Mustang was more financially reliable and a wiser investment not knowing what other problems may lay in the depths of the Supercoupes engine bay.
Fastforeward again to last Friday. I have a small talk with a very untimely police officer that isn't fond of my ever growing stash of non-running cars (reed: Turbo Mustang). In addition, I live with my brother who is also a car enthusiast who has multiple vehicles. Between his Eagle Talon (jackstand queen), BMW and S15, we are up to 6 cars all vieing for a single car garage.
With some encouragement and a $15 fine, I decided to take the first steps toward a project I'd considered for some time.
Ladies and Gents, I am proud to introduce to you: Project Snotch
That's right, I'm building what many of you have said you've always wanted to do. The '91 Supercoupe has been completely gutted over the past 24 hours and will be rolling to the crusher tomorrow. The engine, transmission, wiring harness, computer, power steering, fuel lines, blower, intercooler, radiator... you name it, it's out.
Although the previous owner claimed to have rebuilt the 3.8L and AOD only 12k ago, I plan to do a quick refresh and plop some studs in the block for reliability. My findings of a frehsly painted block with new rear main seal along with a nearly spottless torque converter, front pump cover and new front pump seal lead me to believe that this grimey pig may have actually been gone through... alas, some degreesing, paint and reassurance are required before transplanting everything to the '88 Notch.
It will be an interesting project and I'm sure I'll have questions along the way. In the mean time, enjoy the pics and I'll try to keep this updated with any information I can find for any future swappers.
Enjoy!
This is a side project for that I'm taking on as a budget build. Should be interesting. Got the '88 for free as a ex-5.0 roller. My DD was going down hill, so I bought the Supercoupe for $350 and realized the body was rotted completely out.
So, I had a doaner car that needed an engine, and an engine that was in a junk body. Sure, it won't be as simple as a 2.3T or a SBF, but I have $350 invested into all of it, and will be shipping the doaner to the scrap yard soon to recouperate more funding.
Anyhow, here we go with the project from last night....aka, strip the car of everything including engine, transmission, fuel system, power steering, all the engine wiring... you name it, its been yanked.
