1994-04 Mustang Parts
Follow along as Late Model Restoration restores and updates a 2004 Mustang GT back to its former glory.
Since we have restored our fair share of Fox Body Mustangs in the past, such as the Mercury Rising Project, it was time to take on something a little newer. So when the opportunity came up to purchase an employee's old Competition Orange 2004 Mustang GT, we knew this was the perfect restoration project.
The car was in less-than-desirable condition when LMR bought the car from a local dealership. Since it was sold by the employee, it has gone through some wear and tear over the years and was in need of a good restoration.
The goal of this project is simple, bring it back to its former glory with a touch of OEM+ styling. Follow along as we take this car from faded to fresh!
We are back with episode 4 of Keeping Comp, our 2004 Mustang restoration project, and in today's episode, we are focusing on the engine bay, undercarriage, and wheel wells. In previous episodes, the car got new body panels, new paint, and is ready to be reassembled. While there was plenty to attack, we decided to start with the engine.
Since the point of this project was to restore the car back to its former glory, at this time, we opted to stay with the factory 2v until we decide what the ultimate goal of the car is. With 180,000 miles on it, the old 2v 4.6 engine has seen a lot and has the looks to prove it. While I tried my best to keep the engine bay somewhat clean while I owned it, it looks as if this was an area that went addressed for some time over the past few years. So who better to complete a meticulous detail job than Landan?
To get started, the car was lifted up into the air and put on jack stands to remove the front wheels, upper strut mount plates, and let the suspension hang freely. While we could have used our resources and removed the complete engine and transmission to get a full detail, we wanted to approach this detail how average New Edge owners would, with the engine still in the car.
So Landan started to disassemble some of the easy-to-remove parts of the engine to allow for better access to the engine and to allow for more detailed cleaning. He removed the intake manifold, the radiator, cooling fan, injector harness, and a few other various parts. From here, Landan was able to organize all of the parts and get them ready for cleaning. With the intake ports covered up, Landan went to town degreasing and cleaning the strut towers, engine, and all of the other accessories that were left in the engine bay.
One of the main areas of concern was the battery terminals and battery tray. Aftermarket battery terminals were added at some point on this car and the large amount of battery acid that was leaking out of the battery caused some corrosion on the metal beneath the battery tray. We managed to save it by grinding down all of the corrosion and rust, sealed it up, and shot most of the engine bay with a satin Competition Orange paint. This gave the engine bay a completely new look and was one of the more satisfying parts of the restoration. To finish up the battery portion of the engine bay, new OEM battery terminals were added to complete the OEM look we were chasing.
From here, we addressed all of the wiring harnesses. After visually inspecting all of the wiring harnesses and rewrapping a few, Landan cleaned, dressed, and reinstalled them back into the engine bay. While most people will quickly clean a harness here and there when they detail their engine, this complete cleaning and dressing really made one of the biggest differences on this old 2V.
From there, it was on to blasting and recoating the engine brackets that were originally coated from the factory. We also took this time to respray the factory throttle body and paint a few other engine components for a factory-correct look. All of these components came together to make a nearly 2 decade old engine look like it was brand new. We opted to replace a few things as well such as the radiator, the radiator cover, the cowl panel, and some more misc parts to finish up the restoration.
With the light at the end of the tunnel shining brightly, we are in the home stretch for completing our New Edge restoration project car Keeping Comp. In previous episodes, we stripped down the car, had it repainted, added a few body modifications, restored and cleaned the engine bay, and restored the interior with some Mach 1 upgrades. In today's episode, we are going to finally address finishing up the exterior.
If you have been keeping up with Keeping Comp, you know that the car still lacks some of the essential exterior components such as headlights, taillights, 3rd brake lights, moldings, tailpipes, emblems, and much more. Follow along as we get this New Edge looking brand new again.
We started with the front bumper as the headlight bulb connectors needed some repair. The tabs on the headlight bulb connectors were broken off, a common issue with these cars, so Will Jo got new headlight sockets installed and looking factory again. This allowed us to install some OEM style 2001-2004 Mustang headlights which really completed the look on the front end.
To compliment the new headlights, we added in new OEM style 1999-2004 Mustang fog lights to keep with the OEM/OEM+ theme. We thought about adding ultra clear fog lights, but after putting them in place, it didn't fit our original goal of trying to keep the car looking as OEM as possible.
Lastly, we added a Mach 1 Chin Spoiler and Mach 1 Grille Delete to continue with the Mach 1 theme, and let's face it, these cars just don't look as good without them.
One of my favorite parts of the exterior, and interior, is the new weatherstrip. I know weatherstrip isn't as exciting as a new exhaust or wheels, but it can make a world of a difference. Not only does it replace your faded and sun-baked exterior seals, but it also helps to reduce wind noise and road noise when driving. Let me tell you, if you have never closed an older Mustang with a new weatherstrip, it is one of the sweetest sounds. Driving the car before and after replacing the door to body weatherstrips was like driving a brand new car.
Moving to the rear of the car, we addressed the trunk first. While at the body shop, we had them fill the holes for a Bullitt-style look, and frankly, I am just a fan of a spoiler-less New Edge. To finish up the trunk, we added an OEM Ford third brake light, new trunk springs, and new trunk struts. For those who have been KO'd by a trunk due to old shocks, you can appreciate this part of the restoration. Lastly, LED license plate lights and new housings, and new emblems were added to complete the trunk.
New factory style taillights were added and this is where the whole rear end really came together. While New Edge taillights don't take the same abuse as the headlights do, replacing them really makes you realize how bad yours were. In our case, they were a huge upgrade from the tinted taillights that the car came with.
To wrap up the rear, we replaced the tailpipes that were on the car when we picked it up. When I first purchased the car years ago, the car came with a very nice Borla exhaust kit which sounds amazing. You can check out the dyno video to hear it for yourself. The Borla kit and tips were still on the car when we purchased it back, but it looked to have some plastidip caked on the tips which had worn down over the years. In order to keep the same great sound and get a new look for the rear, we had Bret, or Birdman as we like to call him, weld on some new Magnaflow exhaust tips to give us a new look while retaining that Borla exhaust sound.
Finishing up the exterior, we added the small details such as new wiper arms, a shorty antenna, emblems, a new cowl panel, and a few more components. Adding the emblems back to the car was the perfect finishing touch of the car. While I did not have a huge hand in the full restoration, adding the emblems back was really sentimental to me and a great way to finish off the exterior.
Up to this point, it's been a long journey for everyone involved with this project. In previous episodes, we stripped down the car, had it repainted, added a few body modifications, restored and cleaned the engine bay, and restored the interior with some Mach 1 upgrades. Along with updating and addressing all of the exterior parts, we can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel.
The wheels and braking system were our next primary focus for this project. With TONS of aftermarket options between the two, we had hours and hours of decision-making ahead of us. For the front and rear brakes, we chose a few kits from our friends over at Ford Performance.
On the front end of the GT, we wound up using the M-2300-X kit that was featured on the 2000 Cobra R. Thi kit features 13" rotors, braided stainless lines, and a massive 4-piston Brembo Caliper. Since this kit was a direct bolt-on kit to our factory spindle, this honestly was a no-brainer!
On the rear head of the car, we chose another popular kit from Ford Performance, the M-2300-M brake kit. This is the same rear brake setup found on all factory SN95/New Edge 1994-2004 Cobra Mustangs. This kit features OEM rotors, caliper brackets, and dust shields.
To match the brakes upfront, we chose to upgrade a few other components here. We used a loaded SVE black Cobra caliper set to match the Brembo's upfront, braided stainless lines, and a slotted rotor to add to the overall performance and aesthetics.
Now we have come to the wheels for this build. We went back and forth numerous times before we all could agree on the perfect setup. We wound up choosing the SVE Series 2 Gun Metal Wheels. This combination used was a 18X9" in the front and 18X10" on the rear of the car. We paired this with a set of 265/35/18 and 285/35/18 Nitto NT555 G2 tires. This provided us with perfect handling for any type of driving
Up to this point, it's been a long journey for everyone involved with this project. If you have followed along on this build, we have started from a rough high mileage worn-out GT and are now to the finished product you see today. Ultimately, this project did take us a fair amount of time to complete, but we did go through this car thoroughly to ensure that the end result was great and that our customers also reaped the benefits from this project.
Through this build, the LMR team has developed many new unique fixes and restoration parts for the SN95/New Edge platform that otherwise may have gone overlooked. These fixes and new products allow our customers to make their project cars shine just like this one.
As any Mustang owner knows, we are never really done with a build. Even the cars we have fully restored can be upgraded from time to time. That was exactly the case with this car. At the time of this restoration, we went with a GT/V6 front bumper as the only other option was an 03-04 Cobra bumper. Since then, we released the LMR 99-01 Cobra Bumper and thought "what better car to put this on than Keeping Comp?". So that is exactly what we did and it really gave this car the upgrade it needed.
While the high-mileage 4.6L engine was still putting down decent numbers on the dyno, there were some signs of age, including blue smoke on startup, various leaks, and a few other nuances that come with high-mileage engines. So when we were debating on what this car needed in the engine department, we went back and forth on building a max-effort 2V vs the ease of driveability with a Coyote Swap. Since we have been researching and developing a wide variety of Coyote Swap parts and having done a Fox Body Coyote Swap and New Edge Coyote Swap before, this was the route we needed to go.
We opted for a used Gen 2 Coyote Engine and mated it up to our factory 3650 transmission for a budget-friendly option. We also used our SVE Coyote Swap shorty headers to allow us to use our factory K-member, saving us even more money.
Exterior Parts:
Engine Bay:
2V
Coyote
Interior Parts:
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