gamecock257's 2006 Mustang GT

gamecock257

Skid Plates
Location
Clinton, SC
I'm going to tell what will inevitably turn into a super long story about how I got to this point in my car enthusiast life, plus I kind of liked to write when I was in highschool lol. So if you are only interested in the actual build of this Mustang skip to the next post.

I started getting into cars when I was about 15 or so. Over the last 10 years it has become an obsession. I love going to car shows, drag races, I like watching autocross, I love reading motor trend or hot rod occasionally, I've been a huge Top Gear fan for years etc. Now that Top Gear is gone I have discovered Roadkill on youtube, and thats really cool. Basically anything to do with cars and the automotive industry, I'm kind of into it.

I guess I was about 17 when my cousin bought a 1998 Mustang GT convertible. Not what I would call a fast car by any means, especially by todays standards. Looking back it wasn't even the nicest car. It was fairly clean for its age, about 10 years old at the time, but it had high mileage and needed a few things cosmetically. But I really liked that car. He is older than me, and is fairly mechanically inclined, so he modded the crap out of it. I was new to the idea of modding a car, since my first car was a 1996 Grand Am. I was totally mesmerized by the sheer amount of things you could do to make a Mustang your own. I'm pretty sure that thing ended up getting heads, cams, full exhaust, basically everything except forced induction. It never got dyno tuned, but it would put a hurting on stock 99-04 GTs, and that is impressive considering his car came with 225hp or so stock.

Anyways, after being around and getting to drive that car several times I knew I had to have a mustang one day. At 17 I had my heart set on a new edge (99-04) GT convertible. Obviously I didnt have the money for it since I was just going into my senior year of highschool. But by the time I was 19 I had gotten a full time job and was making decent money for someone my age. I shopped for a GT convertible for a while after saving up a few grand for a downpayment. I never found the right one. I was actually hanging out with my cousin one day when my mom called and said there was a nice red mustang at a local car lot and she had stopped to look at it for me. She said it wasn't a convertible, but kept saying it was super clean and very nice. So after getting her to describe it to me, I realized she had come across a 2004 Mach 1.

So I get home the next day, which was a Saturday and it also happened to be the 4th of July. Luckily my step dad is friends with one of the guys that works at the lot, and that guy happened to be running a fireworks stand in town. So he called me told me to come sign a few papers and I could get the keys and test drive it for the weekend. Man that car was sweet. It had 52000 miles on it and was in great shape. It had a set of FR500 style wheels on it that I liked but planned to get powdercoated black. It had slp mufflers which I found odd because I associate those with f body gm cars, but they sounded great. It also had 4.10 gears so it pulled like a train. I knew within the first 10 minutes that I was going to buy the car. I mean I had to. It was everything I wanted except it was a hardtop. But I mean come on, it was a Mach 1! To this day the 03-04 Mach 1 is still one of my favorite looking Mustangs. Plus it had a 300+ horsepower dual overhead cam, four valve per cylinder, 4.6. Suddenly the convertible didn't matter anymore.

I had to get my step dad to cosign for me, and I still got a horrible interest rate, but I bought the car the following Monday. My payment was about 260 a month which was a lot for me at the time, but still living with my parents and having very few bills I was perfectly happy. It also drank 93 octane like it was going out of style, and you don't want to know what it cost me to insure it. But I loved that car. I will admit I got to a point where I wanted a truck or something else in addition to the Mustang, becasue I was tired of it dragging the chin spoilers and mufflers everywhere. But other than that, the car was perfect to me.


The car and a 19year old version of myself (dates on these pics are wrong)


Unfortunately I wrecked it trying to dodge a deer one night. It was really wet out because it had been raining all day, and I had summer tires. I swerved hard and missed the deer completely but the car ended up spinning and I hit an embankment, which totaled it. It crushed me. I wanted another Mustang, but using what was probably better judgement at that time, I decided to get an SUV, which is how I got into Xterras.

So from 2010 until May 26th 2015, I have exclusively owned and driven 4wd suvs and trucks. Xterra, Jeep, Xterra, Xterra, and the Toyota pickup that I have now.

I have always had cars and the Mustang in my blood. I could never shake the thought of owning another car, and thats why I sold my blue Xterra. I actually thought I wanted a 5th gen camaro. But the headroom is non existent for me, and they are really claustrophobic feeling with the low roofline and high doors. I drove a 370z and a g37. I seriously considered a 370. I like the cars a lot, but the main reason I passed is the fact that I wanted another v8. I considered newer 5.0 coyote Mustangs. Even thought about another new edge like my old Mach 1, but they are getting up in age and its hard to find one for a decent price in good shape. That led me to consider 2005-2010 cars and that...

Leads me to the current Mustang...
 
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gamecock257

Skid Plates
Location
Clinton, SC
On May 26th 2015 I got my car.

It's a 2006 Mustang GT convertible. 5 speed manual. Tungsten gray, black soft top, black leather interior. Actually the exact color combo that I wanted most. It had just under 36k miles when I bought it, and had been in Florida its whole life until now.

e9dec61ccff7dc5ee599e041aca95952.jpg

I actually have a spreadsheet full of each mod that I have planned for this car. The S197 Mustang is one of the most customizable cars around, and has a great aftermarket.

The truck I bought a few weeks back is the first manual I have ever owned, and I'm fairly proficient with it now, but I'm still getting better with the Mustang. It has a heavy clutch, and is a lot more finicky than the old truck. So I don't plan on any performance related mods until I feel I am competent with the car. Going from basically no experience with a manual to owning 2 vehicles both with 5 speeds in the span of a few weeks has been a shock lol.

So my first mods are going to be:

Tinted windows
A styling bar (a must for convertibles in my opinion)
2013-2014 style tail lights (with the sequential turn signals)
Wheels and tires (Tires are in good shape, but I am not a fan of these factory wheels at all)
And a whole host of other cosmetic upgrades

Perfromance wise, I will realistically be sticking to basic bolt ons until I pay this car off, which I plan to do early. But you guys know how the mod bug gets.

Axle back exhaust (Thinking bassani or borla)
Cold air intake
Handheld tuner for a 93 octance performance tune
Shifter
Maybe a bit lower with new coil spring and shocks/struts front and rear
Rear control arms, panhard bar, and maybe bigger swaybars

Long term I want this car to have

Long tube headers
X pipe with high flow cats
Cams

And I'm a fan of high compression naturally aspirated engines. But since I'm not willing to fork out the money for a 5.0 coyote aluminator crate engine or a C6 z06 corvette with an LS7, I'm thinking I will add a centrifigual supercharger if I decide I want a lot more power out of this car in the long run. The 4.6 modular engines just don't make n/a power like an LS or an old Ford 302 can. A Procharger or Vortec/Paxton would help there. But I would probably not want to boost it more than 8psi or so to keep the stock internals as happy as I could. But we are talking way down the road here.

Anyways, I have huge dreams for this car. It helps a lot that I have the truck to DD/be a parts getter/etc. and I have a garage now to keep the Mustang in. I'm not going to let it sit all the time just for the sake of keeping the miles low though, Cars are meant to be driven and enjoyed. And enjoying this Mustang is exactly what I plan to do...
 
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Prime

Shut up Baby, I know it!
Admin
Location
Denver Adjacent
Awesome story. I know those wrecked Mustang feels all too well.

I like the S197 cars. I'll be. Interested to see what you do with it.
 

caseycamby

Suspension Lift
Location
Marion, NC
My brother had one similar.. only it was V6 :tears2:


Not too much on Fords or Mustangs but that one does look pretty sharp. Especially with a little work done to it. We can't leave them alone! haha ;)
 

gamecock257

Skid Plates
Location
Clinton, SC
I've been enjoying the mustang a lot since I bought it. Made a few trips to cars and coffee here locally, ran a few 1/8 mile passes at the drag strip, cruised some mountain roads with friends, and went to mustang week, which was really fun.

Mods so far:

stubby antenna
2013 style taillights
Jlt cold air intake
Bama 93 octane tune

I'd say my taillights are my favorite mod so far. I've liked the sequential turn signals since they started putting them in mustangs in 2010 or 2011, so I had to have that on my car.

Next on the list:

Mufflers (Corsa probably, maybe Borla)
Wheels and tires
 
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