If you haven’t seen part 1, click here for the backstory and how I ended up with the car in the first place.
Welcome to part II of the mustang build. Here is where the car went from a bone stock GT, to what I envisioned the day I drove the car home. I ended up driving the car roughly 1,000 miles before putting it away for winter, and the mods went on right after the start of the new year. Over the winter I had gathered all of the parts, and planned on installing over the course of a few weekends with the help of some friends. While a lift would have been nice, I was jackstand ballin’ in, my own garage. I knew the headers would be a PITA, but everything else was an easy bolt on or could be completed by a friends house with a paint gun and a welder.
Unfortunately I made the mistake of losing the photos from the DSLR of the build. Installing lowering springs, some of the lighting, and exhaust were all on that memory card and somehow vanished. I blame a ghost, but I’m more inclined to say it was accidentally formatting the card before I uploaded them. Suffice to say, there will be a ton of iPhone photos in this article.
The project started with a few interior bits being swapped out for GT350 items. I’m not trying to convince anyone that it is a Shelby, but the touch points on the GT350 just feel better. For daily driving I can see the GT350 steering wheel wearing out a little quicker, but with the limited amount of miles that this sees it is worth it. Besides the exhaust, and the wheel/suspension combo, the steering wheel was the best modification to the car.
Top: Stock Start Button
Bottom: GT350 Start Button
The red GT350 button just really spoke to me, and for a few bucks it was worth the change.
Left: Stock
Right: OEM GT350 shift knob tapped and threaded for use on a GT.
As mentioned, the suede GT350 steering wheel was one of my favorite modifications to the car.
First pic after the car was lowered. I get questions all of the time on the stock wheels. As opposed to most performance pack cars that came with black wheels, this did come with a set of silver mesh style wheels. I am very happy with the all black look of the car on the new wheels, but these silver mesh wheels really make the car a bit classier. Now that the silver 5.0 badge and the GT emblem on the back are gone however, it loses a bit of that class, but I still like the wheels and they will become my burner wheels for drifting events.
Stock Performance Pack suspension with H&R Super Sport Springs.
1.6″ Front
1.75″ Rear
Diode Dynamics 4th Brake Light and Tail Light Sequencers installed.
After the few interior items and lowering springs were installed on the car, I went ahead and began the install of the Cervini Upper and Lower grille. After I decided to not go with a GT350 front bumper, it came down to two choices, RTR (Non LED) and the Cervini. I liked the aggressiveness of the Cervini and the extra depth that the “fangs” provided. They come further out of the grille opening (towards the front of the car) to make it a bit more aggressive. I currently think the front end needs a splitter/lip to finish off the look, but overall I am happy with my choice in the Cervini grille.
The mesh didn’t line up perfectly, but it was close enough that you can’t tell when viewing it from the front side. A small nitpick, but with the price of the grille I would have liked to see it align perfectly with the pre-drilled holes.
Grille all finished up. Many people just cut out the stock mesh on the stock grille, but I think this looks 10x better. I would happily do this Cervini grille again, although the new GT500 style bumpers for GT’s do look pretty good.
After installing the grille came the best part of the car, the wheels. Before I bought the car, I had a clear idea of the style that I wanted. I was not going to go with the typical +50 offset rear, I wanted a JDM style wheel and flush fitment. Coming from the DSM world, my early years in the automotive culture consisted of JDM cars and styling. After browsing the Mustang6g forums, I came across a s550 on a set of Work wheels. Finally I had seen another Mustang with the style that I envisioned, and I began searching for a specific type and size/offest of wheel. After browsing hundreds of wheels, I decided on a set of Bronze Work Emotion D9R. Unfortunately three weeks after ordering, I was informed that the bronze was not available and that it would be an indefinite wait. I was given a choice and I decided to switch to a black set in the same size and offset. Even after the first year, I do wonder what the bronze would have looked like, but I am ultra happy with the black.
Tires selected were the tried and true Firestone Firehawk Indy 500 in a 285/35/19 size. Wheels are a square 19×10.5 +30 setup.
After ceramic coating the wheels, we applied the Work Emotion decals.
First install of the wheels. Rear is absolutely perfect, front could use another 4-5mm worth of offset, but I couldn’t be any happier with the result.
Got the blank decklid installed and pulled it out of the garage for a quick wash.
I then pulled off the stock rear diffuser, and installed the MP Concepts GT350 style rear diffuser in preparation for the quad tip Corsa catback.
This is the part where I am most disappointed in myself. I had some photos during a weekend garage session in which we installed the Corsa Headers, Corsa Sport quad tip catback, JLT Intake, and nGuage with Lund Racing tune but I accidentally deleted the photos from the memory card.
After the install of the headers and the catback, it was time to modify the quad tips to fit the GT350 style rear diffuser. For those who are not aware, the Corsa Quad tip setup is designed to work on a 15-17 Mustang with the “Roush” rear diffuser. I am not a fan of that diffuser, and wanted the GT350 style. As you will see in the photos below, you have to modify the tips from an “h” shape to a “Y” shape. Luckily I have a guy who can weld, so I headed over to his house to get them finished up.
After the exhaust install, I had the windows tinted at 20% all around. In my opinion, the perfect balance of darkness, vision at night, and hassle from police.
It was time for the last step, painting the Track Pack spoiler and installing the ZL1 Addons Wickerbill. There are times that I do miss the wingless look, but I am absolutely thrilled with with this spoiler setup. I constantly get questions about it, and always am happy to share a bit of info about it.
I will admit, this car was my first car worth more than $10,000 and I was terrified at the thought of drilling into the trunk. It obviously all turned out fine, but I do remember that feeling of “Am I really about to do this?”.
Spoiler mounted, and test fitting the wickerbill before drilling into the spoiler.
Completed. The car went from completely stock, to this build, from January to April. The car came together exactly as I envisioned. From day one of buying the s550 to filling it up with gas for the first time after the build, I couldn’t have been happier. No issues, no broken bolts, no ill-fitting knock off parts, no tuning issues. Without trying to upset anyone, modifying a new car with quality name brand parts is so much easier than grinding away rust, broken bolts, and having parts that just dont fit quite right. This was definitely my easiest “build”, and the first time I have ever had a car that I saw through the complete build.
This car has been everything I envisioned and more. I will call this stage 1, and it is complete. I am considering adding a slightly larger front lip and a set of side splitters, along with a shifter assembly to firm up the slop, but short of that this is how it will remain for the foreseeable future. I want to enjoy the hell out of it and experience my first RWD V8 powered car. There will be a few drifting skid pad events to begin to learn some car control, maybe an auto-x event or two, and hopefully some track day events. And lots of small weekend roadtrips with the wife to explore the midwest.
I could not have wished for a better end result, and now it is time to enjoy.
– Andrew
