13x05 - 1988 Ford Mustang GT

[bunniefuu]

Big yellow gate, yep. Standing outside.
I've landed a great deal on a full Mustang


I really like it.


level convertible muscle car for the young

enthusiast. Easy to
modify and build at this

already impressive
performance, but not too

expensive. It does
look very affordable. Ed

uncovers a host of
problems. That is properly

nasty. And if we get it
looking and performing

like a Mustang should,
the profit should follow.

Once you get that thing out, put it on
the bench, open it up, you'll have acres of

fun. You're going to love it. Maybe you
start working on the rear end and I'll get

under the bonnet. There's not a chance I'm
going anywhere near your rear end, Edward.

So a 1303, Texas yellow Volkswagen Beetle.
Yeah, I'm telling you, back in the day, an


county, that car was the way to do it. 1600

cc's of pure power. It was quite awesome,
but it did need an awful lot of work, which

is kind of how I got into
working on cars in the first place.

And you didn't have to pay
somebody cash to fix it for you.

No, I did not. It sounds
familiar, doesn't it?

Yeah, a little bit. But
listen, you weren't

the only one. There
was a lot of gear heads in

America who were
fascinated with the Volkswagen

Beetle back in the 80s. It was a car that
got them going as well. Very much like the

cars from the 60s and 70s, that muscle
car era. You know, a nice easy car to work

on that great big engine. And now those
cars back then, they were under loved, under

appreciated. I have a
feeling. The cars were

unloved and under
appreciated. You could

climb for a dime back
then, but now the world's

changed. Car prices
have climbed through the

roof, particularly muscle
cars of that generation,

and it's sort of
priced it out the hands

of that younger muscle car enthusiast who
wants to get his hands on his first muscle

car. It's a bit of a
shame. Absolutely, that

is the problem,
isn't it? I mean, if you

are young and you want a car with a bit
of muscle, you absolutely can't go for one

of those old classics.
And don't buy a Toyota

Prius. I tell you what,
actually, you think about

the 80s, there were quite a few cars back
then that had some pretty chunky engines

actually, you know, a
lot of power, and they'd

be pretty quite cheap.
So what you're saying.

is we need to get a not so classic muscle
car. Yeah. Yeah. Something that we can get

into that young muscle car enthusiast
who has got the money to pay for it. Okay,

we can do that. So what sort of thing
are you thinking? I don't know. We have

to think about how much money that person
would have to spend. Something we could.

sell for eight or nine thousand dollars.
The thing is that means you're just going

to go for the cheapest thing that's out
there, which means what's going to roll

into the workshop is just
going to be a rolling wreck.

Why do I do that to you?
Come on, where's the love?

Exactly.

This car is very cool. Look at that.
Any young muscle car enthusiast would

love to have a car like this, drop a
big block in it, and you're ready to go.

Problem is, cars like this,
they're really expensive.

They're very nice, but
they do come at a price.

What we want to do is we
want to tap into that young

enthusiast market, somebody
who hasn't got that much money,

who wants to get a little bit of
Burt Reynolds under the bonnet.

And for that, I've settled on
a five-litre Fox body Mustang.

Hey, Sharif, yeah?
No, I'm standing outside.

A running 88 Mustang can set you back
two grand to over ten thousand dollars.

Shav, come and see this Fox body Mustang.
Where is it? I have it here in the back.

Sharif's selling it for two and a
half thousand, non-negotiable.

But, of course, I'll decide
whether the price is right.

Got the keys for it? Oh, the keys are
in it. You know what you're looking at?

Yeah, I know what I'm looking at.
What, you got busy? Yes, I'm busy.

All right, no worries. There it is.
Look at that, ladies and gentlemen.

That is your five-litre Fox body
Mustang, 1988 in all its glory.

This is a car that is so under loved by
people. They are under loved because of their

styling and the way they look, but you think
about what we were wearing back in 1988.

This is what was in vogue.
In fact, Ford thought this

car was so good in its
ten-year production cycle.

Towards the end, they didn't
even change it. They thought

that they'd nailed it with
this car. And I think they did.

There is a


fuel-injected, all-American
muscle Ford motor.

This one looks nice and sharp. You need to look
down onto the legs, on the slam panel, onto the

firewall and onto the other legs, and to make sure
that this car has never been in any accidents.

This one looks all right. It's a bit of a surprise
because almost immediately I can see the car's

had quite a bit of paintwork done to it, and it
looks like somebody has painted this with a hosepipe.

Because it isn't the
best paint job in the

world, so we'll have to
do something about that.

One of the inherent areas of any convertible car is
the structural integrity. And the way to tell whether a

car is good or not, you can tell from 50 yards away,
is just by looking at a simple thing, the panel gaps.

This panel gap should be uniform all the way down
from the top to the bottom. If it's pinched at one end

or opened at the other end, that means the chassis is
twisted, and that's a common problem with these cars.

And you would notice that
when you open and shut

one of the doors, but
this one all seems okay.

Right, now. One of the things to
check inside here, it's very important,

let me shut that door, stop that
noise, is to make sure everything works.

That sound is, that is to
die for, isn't it? That five litre

V8 burble that comes from the
exhaust is absolutely gorgeous.

The fan works, that's good. Power
steering works, switch gears all there.

But the big test is the USP of this
car, and it's this. The convertible

roof. Seems to work, seems
pretty good. Yeah, not bad at all.

No scratches, no
marks, no tears. That roof

almost looks like it's new.
That's very good news.

Well, he said go and help
yourself, he said go and have a look

at it. Let's get it out on the
road and see what it drives like.

Not everyone loves this
car, but there are a lot of fans,

including me. That's because
these cars are so cheap to get into.

You can buy one at a
knock down price. They're

easy to work on. Parts
availability is everywhere.

So you can get yourself
one of these with its five

litre V8 engine and make
yourself a proper muscle car.

And it won't break the bank.

The Mustang really defined the pony class.
Short deck, long hood.

Other manufacturers have
had a go at competing in this

class, but truthfully, it's only
the Mustang that remains.

They added a mass airflow
sensor, which automatically adjusts

for any improvements you
make to the intake of the car.

That means it's easy to add
performance to this motor.

And if we want to get top
dollar, we should definitely

look into getting some of
those engine modifications.

And talking of performance,


torque out of the box,

long to 60, around seven
seconds, and this will drag

the quarter of a mile in
around 15 and a half seconds,

which isn't bad, is it, for
a car of this generation?

Now the Fox Body name
come from the Fox platform.

It was the unibody that they shared with
other mid-sized Ford's of that generation.

But this car was the most sought
after of the Fox Body Mustangs.

And from where I'm sitting, I can see why.

Five litre V8 roof off on the Pacific
Coast Highway. Absolutely marvellous.

There is a little whine
coming from the diff at the

rear, and I'll investigate
that further in a minute.

But the car's got air conditioning,
cruise control, electric windows.

I don't think this car, I really like it.

That whine is really giving me the hum.

And it's the one thing that
I'm worried about because, as

standard, this car come with
LSD, which is limited slip diff.

So this car should spin both rear
wheels together when you dump the clutch.

And I think what I need
to do is to find a spot to

pull over to make sure
that this car still does that.

If not, it's going to be part of
my informed buying decision.

Do I take the gamble that it's something
I can replace cheap, or do I walk away?

I think I need to see how bad it is.

So let's pull it over and do something
that I don't recommend you try at home,

which is dump the clutch and see
if I can get those wheels spinning.

Right then, here we go.

I found a nice quiet spot in a car park.


clutch, see what happens.

Only one skip Mark.

Well, that's not very good, is it?

Because this car's only
spinning on one leg, which

basically means it's only
getting drive to one side.

It's only spinning one wheel,
and it should be spinning both.

That means the diff in this car is blown.

But I did say earlier,
parts are available,

parts are cheap, and
there is it to work on.

And this wouldn't be too much
of a challenge for my head.

So do I want this car where
Sharif wants $2,500 firm,

and at that money, I'd
be a fool not to take it.

So Sharif, put this one down to me.

I've just bought myself a Foxbody Mustang.

Prime examples can fetch upwards of $10,000,
so we can make ourselves a tiny profit.

Ed's going to love this bargain.

Come on.

Come on, Ed. Come and have a look at this.

Proper little thing that I went and bought.

This is a Foxbody 5 litre.

Ed, come on. Come and have a look.

This is a 1988 5 litre Foxbody Mustang.

Sounds amazing if he was out
here, you would have heard it.

What is that thing?

It's a Geiger counter, obviously.

What on earth do you need a Geiger counter?

Oh, don't even go there.

Come on, have a look at this.

It does look very affordable.

Affordable is the right word.

This was only $2,500.

That's about 1,700 pounds.

And look at it, it's the perfect car for
that first time muscle car enthusiast.

Somebody who wants a project
car that we can help along with.

Somebody who doesn't
mind getting their hands dirty.

It looks to me like somebody has
already started getting their hands dirty.

Look at the state of the paint.

Actually, look there as well.

Alright, don't worry about that.

We can fix all that stuff up.

I want you to do something
with the headlamps,

change the wheels,
give it a quick respray.

We might want to gear down the rear end.

See what I did there?

I did indeed.

So I guess you want
me to gear down the rear

end while I'm fixing
the limited slip diff

because clearly you're only
doing one-sided burnouts.

You've noticed that, haven't you?

But we can fix that.

Once you get that out on
the workshop bench, open

it up, you're going to
be in a world of your own.

You want to keep it affordable?

We need to make this car appealing

so that young muscle car enthusiast
wants to get you the first time car.

You know what, I really like that idea.

It's a nice thing to do.

And of course the car will be worth
a lot more money once I finish with it.

Once we've worked on the car, you mean, we?

Oh really, okay.

Well in that case, shall
we get it into the workshop?

Maybe you start work on the rear
end and I'll get under the bonnet.

There's not a chance I'm going
anywhere near your rear end, Edward.

But I'll give you a hand
to get it into the workshop.

Open the door.

There you go.

Put that car and your counter down as well.

Can't get in.

You've locked this out.

You've locked this out.

We're looking at an ideal starter motor for
the young muscle car mechanic enthusiast,

the Mustang 5.0.

It's quite epic, this car.

I really like it.

Whereas Ed and Bixby is the matter.

I was rather underwhelmed when
Mike turned up with this 80s Mustang,

but I do love the idea of getting
it ready for a younger petrol head.

Now we are going to have a look at the
engine, make it breathe better by sorting out

something with the inlet
and exhaust manifold.

Obviously we want to make the
suspension drive much more comfortably.

And of course we have to
look at the horrible paint work.

But first of all, I want to find out what
caused Mike's rather lame burnout.

Now the reason for Mike's
rather embarrassing burnout,

without doing onesies
rather than elevenses,

is actually not entirely
down to user error.

It's actually all to do with the back axle,

and more specifically
the limited slip diff.

Now a standard
differential works like this.

If you imagine your back axle on your
car, you're going to go around a corner.

Well, the outside wheel has to
go much further than the inside

to get around that corner, which
means it has to go much faster.

So the differential actually
kind of pushes that energy

to the path of least resistance to
spin that wheel around the corner.

But the downside of that is should you
get on loose ground or ice or whatever,

then of course that wheel
is just going to spin up,

and the inside one is going to go nowhere,
just like Mike did outside the workshop.

A limited slip differential, or LSD,

solves this problem by
using a clutch arrangement

to transfer power from the wheel that
is spinning to the wheel with traction.

Clearly there's a problem with ours,

and to find out what's
going on, I need to get inside.

Now with the sway bar out of the way,

I've actually got better access
to get the bolts off the plate,

but more importantly, it makes it
much easier to get the LSD unit out.

Now look at that.

So there is our differential.

Now at first glance, it looks
just like any other differential.

You can actually see
where the prop charts are

going to be coming
through into the pinion gear.

You've got the crown one here
that's been driven around by that.

Of course, as it drives along,
it spins round, as you'd expect.

And of course, what a differential does

is it apportions the energy coming
from the engine to each of the wheels.

And what makes this
differential a bit more special

or gives it its limited
slip stiffness, if you like,

these little bits in here,
that is the root of the magic.

Now with the crown wheel removed,

you can now see a bit more clearly
what's going on inside our LSD.

Now if you have a look, you can see these
three little metal tangs on either side.

Well, they're actually
little clutch plates.

And to find out what condition
they're in, I need to go a little deeper.

So this is one of the
little clutch packs there.

Now if I just take them all apart,

you can see, first of all,

there's one of our
little clutches with the

little metal tangs that
key it into the case.

So that pops on there.

And then you have one of the
round discs, and you can see

that pattern on the inside matches the
splines on our gear, and so it goes on.

So that's how the clutches are built up.

So going back to Mike's problem, if you
think about our engine and our gearbox

and the clutch coupling the two
together, if your clutch starts to slip,

then of course then
you start to lose drive,

and that could be exactly
what's going on inside our LSD.

So let's have a little
look at our clutches.

In fact, the first one I pick up,

there's great chunks missing
out of the friction material.

So if we change our clutches,

then our limited slip
diff will no longer slip.

I oil and install the new plates,
making sure they're in the

correct sequence and insert
each gear back into the housing.

Reinstall spider gears and bolt
the crown wheel back in place.

Right, so our new crown wheel is in place.

So just pop pinion gear in position

so you can sort of see how
it all goes together like so.

The thing about that is that you
end up with a ratio of final drive,

and of course that can be
changed ever so slightly.

So Mike wanted to gear down,

which basically means he wants to get
busy with a bit of mechanical advantage.

So if we compare this
new set to the old set,

the old set was a 308 or 3.08 to one
ratio, whereas this is a 3.73 to one ratio.

But just like changing
down gears on your

bicycle, it means the
wheels turn faster per RPM.

So now we're going to
get away from the line really

super quickly and it will
be a lot more fun to drive.

Now I just need to install
the rebuilt and re-geared LSD.

Now something that's easily
overlooked when changing

your final drive is to also
recalibrate the speedo.

To recalibrate your speedo,

you simply have to swap
the speedometer gear

for one that corresponds
to your rear gear ratio.

Without this recalibration,

our speedometer would
give us a false reading.

Making it look like the car is
going faster than it actually is.

The one benefit I suppose
would be a lack of speeding tickets.

There we go, job done.

Now something I noticed
while under here looking at

the back axle is the state
of the exhaust system.

Obviously there's supposed
to be a tailpipe attached

to here going over here,
up around the fuel tank

and out the back of the
car on both sides of course.

But also if you have a look where
somebody's been playing around with this,

there's some terrible
welding barely holding this

exhaust system or the
muffler onto the hanger.

A bit further back it starts to get worse.

You can see there's a
scraping Mark on the prop

shaft because the
exhaust is touching the prop

as it's spinning and makes a
lovely grinding noise which is great.

The catalytic converters
however are all okay,

that's great, there's four
of them on this system.

But then right at the front,

you can see the headers here
got a huge great dent that's been

smacked into them to try and
make way for the steering shaft.

Not ideal, so that needs
to be changed as well.

So I'm topping out the complete exhaust
system up to the catalytic converters.

No more exhaust rubbing
against the prop shaft,

a better sounding Mustang and more power.

$500 well spent.

I just hope Mike is being as frugal while
he shops for engine performance upgrades.

Now the one thing I really love
about Southern California is the noise

because no matter where you go
behind these nondescript buildings,

you'll always find somebody who
can help you in the world of automotive.

Whether it's car collections, car parts

or in my case, performance parts.

Whoa, look at that!

Hiya fellas.

You alright?

You Brian?

Yeah, I'm Brian.

Brian.

How you doing?

Yeah, not bad at all, thank you.

Wow, what's this?

This is a 2015 Mustang GT.

Nice.

And we are testing all
of our latest and greatest.

So if you get a component that you're
selling and you bolt it to a car, test it,

see if you get some
more horsepower out of it?

Yeah, what we do is we test
all of our products on the dyno.

So we're checking for horsepower,

torque, driveability.

And then we do a mission test on
each product to make it 50 state legal.

Fantastic.

Well I'm definitely in the right place.

I've got an 88 Fox Body Mustang.

We knew the 88 well.

You do?

So we started.

So you've got the parts to help me then?

We got everything.

Well that's good because
I bought my credit card.

Let's go shopping.

Good, we can spend some money.

Let's do it.

I'm not allergic to that.

It's quite a list, isn't it?

Parts that I need.

So we are talking about
what, the throttle body?

Throttle body, shorty headers.

Shorty headers, cold air intake.

Yep, and underdrive pulleys.

Underdrive pulleys, okay.

Yeah, that's quite a bit to put on the car.

What difference is it going to make?

You're going to get on a 88 5 litre motor
about 30 horsepower at the rear wheels.

Really?

Yep.

That's a considerable
improvement, isn't it?

It is.

That's very good.

And you're saying all
this stuff that you do here.

is all made right here?

It's all made right here.

I've got to see it.

Come on, let's do it.

Okay, so Mike, what's going on here?

All of our headers start with
CNC mandrel bent tubing.

This is actually mandrel
that's pushed through

this at high pressure
and it's bending the part.

And because of the CNC capabilities,

the repeatability is perfect every time.

And the performance is perfect because
you get the same shape throughout the tube.

So you get optimal flow.

Optimal flow and a perfect fit.

That's great.

And it's done that quickly.

Done that quickly.

That's fantastic.

Right, so go on then.

What have we got here?

We've got a multiple set of robots that
are welding the ports on the headers.

They weld the actual flange assembly

and a hand welder welds
the collector assembly to that.

Does it ever have a tea break?

No, it never calls in late.

Never calls in sick, never late.

Never late, yeah.

I might substitute Ed for one of them.

All these mods have sent
me back around $1,000,

roughly 700 pounds.

This will translate into around


which means around 30
horsepower at the wheels.

And Mike was complaining
about the fact that the

car's ride really wasn't
quite up to scratch,

and straightaway you can see on these
rear shocks have been quite badly damaged,

and of course that means the chances are

they're not actually going
to be working properly.

So the first thing I need to
do is actually replace these.

It's a simple swap from
old damage socks to new,

but it really will help
with the handling and ride.

What's really interesting about the suspension
on this particular car, the 5.0-litre,

is that it's got these extra shocks here.

It's a quad-shock system.

So the idea of this is that
because of the extra power

and nailing off the
line, what could happen,

because of the reaction to
drive those wheels round,

there's a tendency for the
back axle to rotate the other way,

and if it happens quite
jarring, it can set up a vibration,

a tramping, feel like
the wheels will bounce,

and of course you'll
lose some of your traction.

So what this little shock does here is
dampens that motion, stopping that big bang,

and that means hopefully you're going
to get your power down more evenly

and you're going to get away
from the line a bit more quickly.

Very clever.

Luckily for us, those
shocks don't need replacing.

With the rear shocks complete,

I just need to sort out
the ones at the front

before Mike returns with all
those performance upgrades,

which it seems our
Mustang really does need.

That is properly nasty.

We bought ourselves the 80s muscle classic
that is the Fox Body 5.0 convertible.

Our Mustang was lacking some
of the punch you might expect,

but with a little TLC, big
improvements have already been made.

Look at that!

Once Ed gets the grips of all the
mods I bought... Let's go shopping.

...we'll be well on our way to
giving this beast back its roar.

Ed!

I could have been doing
something super critical.

I hope you were doing
something super critical.

How's the old Mustang getting on?

Well, first of all, I've actually
geared down your rear end.

I needed my rear end gearing down.
That's good.

That is what you asked for.

I've also sorted out the exhaust system

and I'm just finishing off
the suspension as well.

Sold the stuff to make it drive
a little bit better, which is good,

because I've been out getting you
some medicine for your wheezy problem.

I don't have a wheezing problem.

You do have a wheezy problem.

Well, not necessarily you. The car does.

So I've gone and got all the stuff
to make it breathe a little bit better.

Got a new air filter,
we've got new headers,

we've got a throttle body,
we've got an underpully kit,

we've got everything to make it get down
the road, and it's all California compliant.

That is actually really good,
because that's really hard to do.

So well done.

Thank you very much.

I've just noticed I need to
get some more shopping.

I need to get headlamps, I need to
sort the wheels out, I need to... Tea bags.

...get tea bags. Leave it with me.

Thank you.

Just as I thought I was
making some progress,

Mike turns up with her load of performance
bits, including some more exhaust parts.

But actually, his timing's pretty good.

As we mentioned before, you can
see just how damaged this header is.

Now thankfully, Mike's got us a
whole load of performance parts here,

and you can see that this exhaust manifold
has actually got mandrel-bent corners,

it's actually a bigger bore pipe as
well, so it's much less restrictive.

Therefore, the engine is
going to be breathing better,

therefore you're going to
get more power out of it.

But also added to this side, of course
you've got the induction side of things,

you've got a nice new
throttle body, a few

other bits and pieces,
an easier air filter.

And all in all, all these bolt-on
parts are going to give us a boost.

of about 50 horsepower or so.

And what I have to do is bolt them on.

Header on, time to
address the old throttle body.

A throttle body controls the
amount of air going into the engine

in direct response to the
position of the accelerator pedal.

Oh wow, that is properly nasty.

You can see that the aluminium
and the coolant have kind of reacted,

congealed together to make
this horrible goopy mess.

That means, of course, that the
coolant isn't going to be getting around

this part of the engine
at all, which is not good.

Luckily, this part is going to be
replaced, so that is no longer a problem.

Having removed the intake system,
I can now replace the other header.

and fit our new shiny cold air intake.

Right, so the last bit of tube connects the
mass airflow sensor to our throttle body.

Of course, what this does is
actually measure the amount of air

that's going into the engine,
because that's all it's doing.

The fact that we've got
more air going in, that's fine,

it just tells the engine we've got
more air going in. Simple as that.

Air intake kit in place, I can now
move on to the underdrive pulley system.

With any car, there are a series of pulleys

that provide power for
numerous accessories,

such as an alternator, air conditioning,
power steering and the water pump.

If you change the size of these pulleys,
you can lower the power drain on the engine.

This way, we're actually going
to get the most horsepower

we possibly can out of the
engine and put it to the rear wheels.

So this is our crankshaft pulley.

We've got a water pump and an alternator.

Now, what I'm about to
do is all about mechanical

advantage, just like
gearing down the rear end.

If you have a look at
our new crankshaft pulley,

compared to the old one, you can
see it's actually a much smaller diameter,

and that means that all of the ancillaries.

are actually going to be
spinning slightly more slowly,

therefore they're going to be
using less energy from the engine.

Of course, that means
the engine's got more

power to use to actually
propel the car along.

But this way, we're going
to get the most horsepower

we possibly can out of the engine

and sticking it into the back wheel.

So by just using bolt-on parts alone,

we've managed to liberate a whole
load of extra horses for our Mustang.

So now with the mechanical parts done,

here's a think about the bodywork.

Those faded 80s looks are in
desperate need of a modern makeover.

New lights, new wheels and a
lot of paint, as long as it's black.

Our bumpers have come back from
the paint shop, and they do look fantastic.

The trouble is, once
they were looking good,

the rest of the car
looked rather shabby.

But we've given it a quick lick of paint,
and now the whole ensemble looks fantastic.

So all I've got to do now is put
everything back together again.

Now thankfully the rear
lights didn't need much work

before they went back onto the car, but
the front lights were all cloudy before.

So Mike has got these rather
cool-looking tinted headlights.

They're going to just pop in like so.

And they really are going to
make the car look a lot sleeker,

a lot sharper, which is very cool.

That's pretty much there.

Now it's been quite a fiddle bit.

We now have the front bumper
and the new headlights in position.

They look rather smart.

So now we need some new wheels and tyres.

We've gone for 17-inch
Cobra-style alloys in black, of course.

Now Mike's idea was to create
a good, solid starter muscle car.

We've got some lovely
performance mods under the bonnet,

a new exhaust, we've geared down
the back end, as Mike likes to say.

And also, of course, we've
changed the appearance with

these lovely wheels, a bit of
paint, and those nice lights.

The Mustang is looking pretty
mean, dressed entirely in black.

But you can have too much of a good thing.

Maybe we need just a dash of colour.

Now these new alloy
wheels do look fantastic on

the Mustang, but having
actually put them on there,

the black and the black paint
does look a little bit monitor.

I think we need a spice of colour.

But also, you must bear in mind that
we are going to be trying to sell this car

to a potentially inexperienced driver.

So it'd also be great to
actually protect the rims as well.

And I can do that with one
simple, clever little product.

First, remove some air to take
the tyre away from the wheel.

Then grease the alloy with a soapy rag.

Then simply tap the
alloy gaiter into place.

So now I need to trim it.

A little splash of super glue.

Glue on the cap.

And refill the air.

There we go, as simple as that.

It looks fantastic and, of course,
it's going to give loads of protection.

We set out to find the
perfect entry-level muscle car.

for the aspiring young mechanic.

And I found it sitting unloved
at the back of somebody's lot.

A 1988 Fox Body Mustang 5.0 from Vauxhall.

An 80s American icon,
if ever there was one.

I knew we'd have problems
with the limited slip diff.

The performance wasn't
where it should or could be.

But I also knew a certain
Ed China would jump

at the chance of getting this
muscle car classic back into shape.

Come and have a look at this.

Proper little thing that I went and bought.

This is a Fox Body five-liter Ed.

Not only did he deal with the LSD,

he upgraded the suspension,
replaced the exhaust system,

and added a host of modifications

that yours truly bought him out
of the kindness of my own heart.

I might substitute Ed for one of them.

And how much does it owe us now?

Our man wouldn't budge
on a $2,500 asking price.

And that was fine by me.

The new LSD set us back $400.

New exhaust system, $500.

New shocks, $185.

All new performance mods came to $1,000.

Lights, wheels, and paint
came to a total of $2,400,

which gives us a grand
total of just $7,335,

which is around 5,000 pounds
and around 25 man-hours.

Was all that money and
hard work well spent?

I can't wait to find out.

Ed?

Come on, Ed, where are you?

You said midday.

I bought tea and biscuits.

That sounds familiar.

Oh, wow, look at that.

Oh, you're kidding me.

Seriously, is that the same car?

No way.

Oh, where'd that is?

That's off the scale. Hello, my beauty.

That's very kind of you to say so,

but I'm guessing you're talking
about the 5.0 rather than me.

I am talking about the 5.0, but
you're not too bad yourself, Ed.

That is fantastic.

What a difference from
the car I got off that car lot.

I love the paint work, the
red stripes around the wheels,

the red stripe down the
side, even the headlamps.

Absolutely.

Once I added the red rims to the wheels,

it inspired me to take that
splash of colour to the bodywork.

I thought I'd surprise you with that.

The car looks amazing.

Well, check out under the bonnet, because
it's looking very lovely under here, too.

So all that stuff that I went and
sourced has been bolted onto the car.

Has it made a difference?

It has. Don't forget the power
pulleys, of course, as well.

Yes, we now have a load
more horsepower, which

is great, but also I've
geared down the rear end,

so it's going to just get
off the line super quick.

So you've done all the
stuff that we needed,

plus a bit more, which is no bad things.

We've got an engine that now
breathes and goes a lot quicker.

It looks absolutely amazing,

and I reckon me and you
should put this to the test.

Whoa!

This is awesome! Come on!

I've found a neglected Foxbody Mustang.

Ed breathed new life into it.

Now, how does it drive?

Whoa! This thing, Ed, is really fast.
Well done.

Well, thank you, sir.

I'm actually fairly pleased with it myself.

Now, you've done a
cracking job, and we set out to

create a modest motor,
but this is anything but.

Well, I'd say immodest,
perhaps, maybe even impertinent.

Yeah, this car is cheeky.

It's loud. It's brash. It's in your face.

American.

American.

Obviously, the work we've done on the
engine with the induction and the exhaust

are definitely making a difference
to the amount of power we've got,

but also, that back end is going to be
a little bit extra pep as well, isn't it?

Yeah, see, you did listen to me.

When I come in the workshop and
said we need to gear down the rear end,

it made all the difference to this motor,
and now we've got a proper drag racer, man.

Yeah, I've sort of got the
bug for American drag racing.

It's a bit like this, isn't it?

You roll up in your muscle car,

next to the turn signal,

and you look across at
your steely-eyed opponent.

But there's nobody there.

I know there's nobody
there, but if there was

somebody there, I'd
be doing this, wouldn't I?

I'd be showing him
what I've got under my

right foot, what's under
the bonnet of my car.

I'd be racing him for
pink slips and reputation,

or, you know, registration
documents in our language.

The car's running great,
but we can't race here.

Before we look to sell it on,

I know somewhere where we
can really test the heads, anyway.

Hundreds of cars of every shape and size
come to the Irwindale drag strip every week.

Wow, look at this.

Irwindale Speedway. That's pretty cool.

It is pretty cool, isn't it?

Yes, Irwindale Speedway, my son.

People turn up in their own cars,

and they go and hit the drag strip.

They go mano against mano.

Things like that.

Proper American muscle cars
hitting the strip and just going for it.

Oh, dear.

But I guess this does seem like
the right place for our Mustang.

Is it free of mission?

It isn't free of mission.

No, you've just got to pay this lady.

Okay.

Racing or spectating?

What does it look like?

Look at my car.

Does it look like I'm spectating or racing?

Racing.

You said the right thing.

I'm definitely racing, yes.

There you go.

Thank you very much.

So all we've got to do
now is hit the drag strip.

There's some serious machines here,

and we've got to race
against one of the scariest.

Oh, dear.

Are we racing against him?

Yeah, we're taking this one, are we?

Yeah, my confidence levels
have dropped just somewhat.

I reckon we could take him on.

It's a Mack 1.

It's even got slicks.

It's got slicks.

It can do the speed of sound.

This is not good.

And your name is?

Bill.

Bill, nice to meet you.

I'm Mike.

You've got a firm shape, Bill, as well.

So, Bill, tell us about, you know,
what's under a little four-banger.

No, it's a 1971 429 Super Cobra.

Oh, don't say that.

Don't say that lie.

Say it's a four-banger,
and it's a single carbon.

It's going to be really slow.

And what's it running on?

The fuel.

It smells weird.

Is that stock fuel?

It's 102 octane fuel.

Oh, come on!

Come on, we've got no chance.

We've got no chance.

What we will do is we'll
race for a gentleman's race,

and we won't race for pink slips,
because I've got a funny feeling.

you might make a mockery of us.

How about that?

So we're just a gentleman's race.

You got it.

Good luck out there.

Thank you.

I'm going to beat you, old man.

No, I'm going to put a one on you.

No, I'm going to beat you.

Hang on.

Hang on.

Hang on.

Hang on.

On the track.

It's all about being icy cool.

Judging by what we can see and hear,

the competition is going to be fierce.

The car sounds so much better.

It really does.

Is that because of that air induction?

Well, we've got the cold air induction.

We've got a new exhaust
system as well, of course.

And we can mess around
with the pulleys as well.

Shorty headers.

Well, we've got everything we
can possibly get out power-wise.

So we're going to get maybe


A little bit of a burnout
wouldn't be a bad idea,

just to get the tyres nice
and sticky, obviously.

I like a burnout, see?

I like to do those legally,
not in the car park.

The trick is, obviously,
when we go over it,

the trick is to actually
kind of load up the axle.

Wow, how fast is that?

Oh, my word.

A bit of burnout here.

A bit of a burnout here.

Just load up the axle first,

just get the clutch down
and then give it a bit of a spin.

Oh, that's nice.

That's the one, that's
the one, that's nice.

Listen to that, listen to that.

Oh, that's awesome.

Listen, don't worry, don't worry,
because it's all about reaction time.

I know, I've done it before,
but I'm just a bit nervous

that we're up against him and
all these people are watching.

It's all these people.

So we're going to get to pre-stage,
pre-stage, pre-stage, only second now.

There we go, that's the first light.

So stage is the second light coming down.

There we go.

Come on, light.

Here we go, nice reaction time.

Here we go.

A light.

Nice clean change.

That's lovely.

Nice clean second gear.

Oh, that's going to be good.

Keep going, keep going, keep going.

Nice clean third gear.

This is awesome.

Wow, what a car.

Hasn't it come a long way
from the back of that car site.

when I see it as that dowdy little sand,

little fox body Mustang,
to how it looks now.

You've done an amazing job.

Well, thank you, sir.

Absolutely.

But also, I mean, that was
a pretty nice performance.

And again, up against that competition,

that's pretty impressive.

Let's see what the timing slip is,

because this is now the key.

Here we go, here we go.

I love it, I love it.

Here we go, let's have a look.

Right, that was cool.

I loved it.



That's amazing.

And you're dead on, 10.8 seconds.

Cool.

That's pretty good.

That's not bad at all, is it?

I love this little car.

It's great, thank you.

This little car is great,
and I love this drag racing.

I'm so into it.

And after that glorious victory.

Go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go.

Who would want to buy
this American drag strip hero?

Now, we built this car for a
young muscle car enthusiast.

I put it out there online,
I've had plenty of interest.

But this guy behind me, Brian,

when he was first in the queue,

he's a young muscle
car enthusiast at heart.

Now, the car owes us around $8,000,

that's about five and a
half thousand pounds.

I've advertised it for $10,000,

which I think is reasonable.

Thing is, this guy,
he's been for a test

drive, he likes the way
it gets down the road.

What I am concerned about is,

he seems to know what he's doing.

He's got his torch, he's been underneath
it, he's had the ramp up and down.

So wish me luck, I can put a deal together.

So then, Brian, what do you think of it?

It's a beautiful car, I'd love
to add it to my collection.

You've got a collection of cars?

Yes, I do.

And would this Mustang sit
proudly within that collection?

It would sit proudly in the collection
and go to plenty of car shows.

That's good, yeah,

because we've done plenty of work on it.

You know, the engine is so much better
because we've opened the engine up

and let it breathe and
perform a lot better.

We've improved the appearance
of the car, what with the paint work

and some of the lights that we put on it

and the red accents
and tidied up the interior.

So all I need to know is whether you're
going to be the guy that wants to buy it.

Depends on the dollars.

Well, the dollars at the
moment are $10,000,

which I think is reasonable for a car
that's had that much work put into it.

It's more than I can
pay, but I'll pay $9,000.

$9,000?

I can't do it for $9,000.

I can't give you $1,000 off just for
the sake of giving you $1,000 off.

So, listen, you seem like a nice guy,

and I think you're the kind of guy that
will enjoy this car for many years to come.

So why don't I do a nice thing,

and I'll let you have it for $9,500.

What did you say?

I can do $9,200.

$9,250?

$9,200.

Oh, you're right. Oh, man.

Hold out your hand.

You just bought yourself
a Fox Body Mustang.

Well done, sir.

Thank you very much.

Now, the plan at the beginning
was to build an affordable muscle car,

and we certainly pulled that off.

Plus, we made a little
bit of profit along the way.

Brian's going to
enjoy this car for many

years to come, so if
you see it at a car show,

make sure you give it away.

If you want to see more cars
turned around by me and Ed,

join us again soon on Wheel of Dealers.

Ta-la!