MN12, The car few love.

Saturday is COLD.

Friday I went for a test drive and had really bad clunking from the rear of the car.  I know it's an item to attack but I'm probably going to save up and buy parts here/there and do it at once. 

So I knew I needed a few more parts and a neighbor had invited me to a mustang swap meet locally today. I scored Cobra Bilstein rear shocks, and lowering springs for $100.  total score as the used shocks go for 100 on ebay all day everyday.  

I installed the struts today, the springs will wait until I can complete the bushings list ordered. 

Turns out 90% of the clunking was loose rear struts.  The old struts were beyond blown.  (I had no resistance to moving it.) 

So I went for another test drive, the car does slow down but I'm smelling brakes.  

one rear disc brake temp:

the other:

so I know that I have some work to do.  The fronts were 240*f each.  Only blueing on the outside of the disc. I need to look into this more as the inner inch or so of the rotor is getting no temp/pressure at all apparently.  Not sure if that's normal on sn95 mustangs. 

Mustang shop also had the cobra hubs I need to swap the rear.  He'll have to press them out of the spindles they are in, press them in and new bearings into my spindles.  for $50 bucks.  Woot. 

So, I bought some rustoleum yesterday.

Hunter green and an unlabled grey green 8oz can from lowes. (it just had a green cap, no color noted).

Hunter green is tooo green, the grey green is very similar to the stock color, just not IT...

I also realized too late that the trunk might have been salvageable.  When wet it looks like stock paint... but I used 220 grit so it's stock paint with metal showing underneath... Hood and roof are completely non-salvageable. 

going to let the 2 coats I put on last night cure a full 48 hours then see how I like it. 

Further news, I'll be driving to Chattanooga next week if I can organize it with fellow MN12 car guy.  That'll save me 170 dollars in shipping for the budget for some upgrades for the car.  

Pictures to come, visited Will yesterday. Very awesome drive through the backroads of nc/georgia/sc and tennesee. 

I'd have liked to have talked for more than the hour we had. I got home and realized he'd mentioned that he had some seats he might be interested in selling. ugh.

Out of town for the week like most other's are.  I'm now at the point where the rear needs to come out, spindles to getting the "new" hubs pressed in with the new bearings, to put in the lowering springs and the new lower control arms. 

I'm waiting on some bits for the front and then I'll swap out the front springs/shocks as well.  

A question, I bought the car knowing certain things like the rear shocks were blown and that he'd hit a hell of a pothole so I'd have to replace the wheels.  

I did not know that the bushings (moog) that I put in 3 years ago were shot.  Do I need to account for them in my challenge budget? (Any that get upgraded to say delrin would have to be is how I read it.) 

good progress Mad Ratel.

Rustoleum also has a dark hunter green looks less JohnDeer-ish

Better still -get a quart of single stage urethane in your color and spray it on with Preval sprayers or roll it/wet sand/polish. No more expensive than Rustoleum

Agent98,

The color I like is the Dark Hunter. 

Where could I get a single stage urethane? (In my stock color?)

Saw Eastwood has a Jaded green that has a good metallic to it. (stock had some metallic flecs to it)

tcpglobal is online, or look for a local place that supplies "auto body supplies"...they'll mix you a qt of your exact color. Factory was base coat/clear coat but you can use single stage for repaints.

Just spent the most I have on the project.

Bilstein inserts are on their way, as are rear spring isolators (mine are shot), as are rear rotors. 

Friday the rear gets blown apart to get the hubs swapped over, then rotors, then brake caliper adapter I have to make. 

If I have time, the front will get dissassembled too.  Friday after it'll get reassembled and the car should be drivable. 

Where did you get the insert and how much?

Dusterbd13 said:

Where did you get the insert and how much?

So someone did research on tccoa and found that the B6 Bilstein insert for a Mitsubishi 300gt vr4 would fit after being pressed into a cut off shock from the mn12.  I found them for the best price/delivery at Tirerack for 144 each. (ouch). There is very very little option when it comes to something that will fit since the car does not have macpherson but rather an oddball shock design up front. 

Ah. Ok. Too rich for me. 

Great to see progress on your car thiugh!

Let me know about the damaged wheel please. Want to make it right.

I need to mention that I could have gotten the replacement monroe shocks for 20 bucks, but the ones I put on it last time are blow and are barely adequate stock, the lowering springs I got from Will are the stiffest available so I'd be bouncing down the road with the monroes. 

So This will be a massive update of the fun, and not so much fun I’ve had with the car over the last month or so.

Paint:

I decided to tackle painting the car, after doing a test on the trunk, Dark Hunter Rustoleum looked the best/closest to the stock color without being metallic or having the blue to it.

Several coats and days of priming, sanding, painting with a spray can later it looked like this:

Pretty good, but I decided to go down the rabbit trail.  Too much orange peel for me to accept.

Wet sanding.

More wet sanding.

More.

I started with 400 grit, which was a huge fail.  Then to 600 orthognal to the orignal sanding direction, to orthogonal to the 600 direction 800 to 1500.  The first time I buffed it. ALL of the 400 grit sand marks were in the paint still. So I have spent weeks sanding with 1500.  I’ve got 90% of the 400 grit out but cannot get the last bit out. I’ve called it quits for now and will retackle it at some point.

Sandy marks!

I asked the advice of a neighbor who runs a high end detail shop in his spare time.  He’s got a 2 year wait list. He advised to use M105 and wool.  Comes out super smooth, but hazy.  At this point I am beyond annoyed and really questioning why I did not just buy automotive paint and do it that way.  I’m stubborn as heck though.

M105 the first time!

Hazy! Driving me CRAAZY!

More hazy!

At an angle it looks freaking awesome!

Online searching seems to say the wool is too aggressive for the paint and causing the m105 to heat up.  

At this point I have to pause and share my awesome boys!

What I’ve been doing is working after they go to bed, the paint is the easiest to do because it only requires 30 min to 60 min of attention and it’s not super loud and noisy.  Great for when your kids have JUST finally stopped screaming about playing hide and seek more or wanting to dance to Christmass Music more.

What I do on Fridays when I’m off and they are in School is work on the noisy things.

Like the rear of this car.

I had mentioned wanting to swap out the rear hubs to mustang bolt pattern, so I found a local shop with a crashed cobra who wanted 50 bucks for the hubs and to press them into my spindles.  So I took the rear end apart.  I found things like, a complete lack of endlinks on the rear swaybar.

[img] https://i.imgur.com/TNE9SZo.jpg[/img]

Well there are endlinks, just no bushings on the endlinks.

The reason for the odd brake temperatures!

PO said he’d put new brakes on it, guess he left the rotors…

I’m hoping this does not mean the caliper is frozen or stuck..

All the bushings are done in as well.

At some point during this time, I decided to Buy all the parts that Will had offered me.

One day off around thanksgiving and $200 later I had aluminum MarkViii lower control arms, substantially lighter. (no pcitures L). Some rarish hard to find stiffening braces, a locking rear diff, and front lowering springs. 

Then one of my kids got thrown in jail.

Train JAIL!.  Per my oldest.

Rear end up in the air. 

I now have a large assortment of parts to go back in.  I got bit by whileyourinthereitis.

Every bushing will be new.  This basically shot the rest of my budget but the thought of 200k mile bushings that might or might not be there on the car in something as important as the suspension scares me.  I’m all for saving money but I’m not about to kill myself for the budget. Not when I want to drive the car daily as well. Surprisingly the rear axles seem fine.  No leaks, rubber feels good, they had to have been replaced right? 200k miles w/o replacement? Time will tell. They stay for now.

I’ve also done a few things like build a playset. Word of advice, NEVER EVER buy the “easy to build kits!”  They are not easy, the morons give every piece of wood a part number but do not stamp or indicate which piece of wood is which… They have ¾,1/2, and 5/8 thicknesses… It took way longer to build this than just build my own playset.  Also my land is NOT level so I had to dig posts and level them to place the playset onto. 

View of the deck I built 4 years ago from up on the playset.  I’m saving up to put concrete under it to make a second “winter” patio with a fireplace on one end.  Right now it’s just junk storage. 

I’m hoping that after three weeks the shop will have finally pressed the hubs in, then I can have fun trying to push the bushings in myself as I am not going to wait 3 more weeks for them to do it.  This might involve going to Harbor Freight and buying a bushing press.  (what I wish I had done in the first place).  Then I can finally drive the car again!

following along

thats an awesome view you've got in the back yard.

I'd love to have another MN12.  I drove a $700 '89 with the 3.8 for 2 years in high school/college.  Nearly bald tigerpaws + rain/snow = mucho drifto .  It was a POS, yet it was so controllable when sideways. 

SWMBO was NOT a fan of riding in it due to the tail happy shenanigans, so much so that she still talks about how much she hated that car 10+ years later, but it was her first experience with a proper RWD doughnut.  I still remember the look on her face when she yelled "that was WAY more fun than doughnuts in the Taurus!".  

OK, back to following along quietly.  And maybe stalking CL.

I ponder, I know I"m not going to create a following with this car, it's in the title. Though I have had more people than I thought say "oh wow, a thunderbird!".  Should I modify my writing style? Too many photos? not enough? 

onemanarmy: thank you, when we moved in it was all woods where that firepit is. The realtor told me it wasnt my property a piece of rope later and I'd proven that it was... We think we stole the house because no one realized it had a sizable back yard hidden in the trees. 

Dead_Sled: They can be had CHEAP. Thing is, they became the ultimate reliable redneckmobile in the early/late 00's.  So most have been used up w/o repair. 

I forgot to mention, I've tried Isopropyl Alcohol and Dawn to wash the "dried" buffing material off. Neither touched it.

Yea, the main problem up here in salt country is the only nice ones left are listed for more than I'd care to pay.  I went and test drove a low mileage turbo coupe ~2 years ago after a co-op at my company had a base model that sparked that itch again, but it had been ridden hard and put away wet and he wanted 6K and wouldn't budge so I passed.  That and I doubt SWMBO would have been very excited if I showed up with it (I never told her I went to look at it after she scoffed at the CL ad when I showed her).

I enjoy your writing style, and you know there's no such thing as too many pics for us!  Even the kids/house/misc pics, it's part of why I enjoy GRM so much more than other car sites, it feels like I'm BSing with a friend rather than reading car stuff online.  I only wish my neighbors were as cool as you guys!

Glad to see you're making more progress than I am. About installing bushings:

I've installed two sets of MN12 rear knuckle bushings using a long bolt/all-thread and a couple nuts and washers to suck the bushing into place. I strongly urge against using urethane in this application, though. See page 1 of my build thread for the reason why.

I used a vice to install the delrin knuckle bushings in my Mark 8 arms, but the method mentioned above will work for urethane or rubber.

Front lower control arm bushings definitely require a press.

The ball joint in the upper front control arm is non-serviceable, so you just replace the whole arm.

Hmm, I should have discussed with you.

I have the cobra 6-311-bl kit for the inner bushings.

I bought the prothane kit for the knuckle/spindle.  

I really cannot afford the budget for the delrin. It's just too damn expensive for the kits. (300+) Would a large washer placed on the end help to contain it? hmm.  (nut, bushing, washer, bolt). this will not get very many drag passes at all.

I have not bought a way to place the rear springs. I have the isolators just not the al block.  damn forgot about it.

TRAIN JAIL is Supermax! You ain't gettin' out!

Son of a,

Picked up the knuckles, paid the guy what he wanted, got home and realized he'd just pressed the new bearings in. Not the cobra hubs.

I had to drive them all the way back and now he'll put the cobra hubs in... 

this has just made me want a press. Going to start looking for one.

Our harbor freight 16 ton has been a beast. Only upgrade id make is air over hydraulic for a little better control. 

Mad_Ratel said:

Hmm, I should have discussed with you.

I have the cobra 6-311-bl kit for the inner bushings.

I bought the prothane kit for the knuckle/spindle.  

I really cannot afford the budget for the delrin. It's just too damn expensive for the kits. (300+) Would a large washer placed on the end help to contain it? hmm.  (nut, bushing, washer, bolt). this will not get very many drag passes at all.

Washers might help. Or it may not even be a problem. The problem I had with the urethane bushings was on my SC, which makes  way more torque than a stock-ish 4.6. You can always just take a look at them after each pass.

I have no plans to replace the urethane knuckle bushings on my 4.6 car, especially because it will probably never see a set of drag slicks. 

So as an Update.  

I may have a headache today from painting yesterday...

I had to paint a sign I had waterjet cut for my parents retirement farm. (Letters are 9" tall out of 1/8" steel).  

I sanded the heck out of the roof as my father in law repainted it about a decade ago with one of those parts store touch up cans of  paint and it left a horrible wear pattern on the roof.

Then primed it  all while smelling the offgassing of the sign.  

I'm out of town this weekend for the holidays so it will be the new year before I get the rear done.  I simply cannot wait for it to be finished and drivable.  For about a week until I take the front apart to press in the bilstein inserts...