In this final installment of the EBC Brakes 2005 Mustang project car
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00:00 [Music]
00:20 This is Hot Rod Garage presented by Lincoln Tech, and I know you're going to be torn up by this,
00:24 but this is the last episode that we have planned for the EBC Brakes 2005 Mustang.
00:29 We've stayed on plot with this car, keeping it cheap, keeping it bolt-on,
00:33 and we've added a little bit more power, but mostly we've made it handle a whole lot better
00:37 without going into a lot of rocket science.
00:39 Today we're going to complete the transformation into a cool daily driver by making it look good.
00:44 We're going to polish it up with some products from Eagle One.
00:46 We're going to add some dress-up stuff to make it stand out in traffic,
00:49 and I'm going to show you the basics of the one-piece drive shaft for the S197 Mustangs.
00:54 But first, educate yourself with this quick tip from Lincoln Tech.
00:58 [Music]
01:01 The angle of a driveline is very important in the transfer of torque from the transmission to the rear differential.
01:07 You see, the improper angle of the drive shaft and/or U-joints can result in worn U-joints
01:12 and an extreme case of the shakes, which turns any hot rod into a headache.
01:17 Take a look. Here are a few tips for measuring not just the driveline angle of your hot rod,
01:22 but also the U-joint angle.
01:24 A four-post lift is ideal in this situation because we need the car sitting at ride height on a flat, level surface.
01:30 This Kenmore inclinometer eliminates the guesswork and math because it sticks right to the cap of the U-joint,
01:36 and after we align the bubble level, gives us the exact angle of the driveline.
01:41 This is with the transmission yoke perpendicular to the drive shaft.
01:45 Now, turn it 90 degrees so that the yoke is parallel to the drive shaft,
01:49 and the inclinometer tells us the angle of the U-joint.
01:53 Typically, you want the driveline to rotate with a three- to four-degree operating angle.
01:58 This is the angle of the entire length of the driveline from the output shaft of the transmission
02:03 to the input shaft of the rear differential.
02:06 U-joints are happiest when turning between five to eight degrees.
02:10 Lincoln Tech can teach you how to have a career working with cars.
02:13 See LincolnTech.edu.
02:16 We're back with Jason from Eagle One, and he's going to show us some detailing tips
02:22 because I know nothing about doing anything but ruining paint, honestly.
02:25 It's really bad, and this car is proof of that.
02:27 It looks pretty good on camera. It's actually fairly trashed.
02:30 It's got some decent spots. It's got a lot of over-spray on it in other areas,
02:34 places where it's been touched up, things like that. It's kind of a mess.
02:37 So we're going to show you some easy things that you can do by hand,
02:40 some stuff that you can do with a consumer buffer as well,
02:43 and then on the real trouble spots, he's going to show you some of the more pro products.
02:47 But first, he's got a tip that I've never seen before because I don't wash cars.
02:51 First of all, you want to get the car washed before you start doing the little detailing part.
02:55 But what are you going to do with the Tireshine gel?
02:57 One of the things I like to do is simply take our Eagle One Tireshine gel,
03:00 go over all your plastic trim and molding, and what that does is it keeps your trim
03:04 from getting impregnated with the wax as you rub over, as you wax the surface of the vehicle.
03:09 So it doesn't turn white in like a week.
03:11 That's right. When I walked in this morning, I looked at the vehicle,
03:14 and you can tell where someone previously has wiped over, has waxed,
03:17 and basically looked like they waxed the trim.
03:19 Right. So this part of the car is basically the least hashed part of the paint that we've got.
03:24 It has a bunch of scratches in it basically from running through coin-op car washes and things like that,
03:29 but it's not too oxidized, so you're going to show us how to use that surface prep mitt
03:33 and then the new polish and wax product.
03:35 I am. One of the first things that we suggest, and this is another really cool tip,
03:39 is basically at your local hobby store, something like that, find some plastic cellophane,
03:45 put your fingers on top, rub it over the surface of the vehicle, and you'll feel actually little pits,
03:50 little imperfections in the paint.
03:53 This basically, with the trim, it modifies your touch by 100 times.
03:57 It's going to allow you to feel those imperfections that have embedded into the paint over a period of time.
04:02 This is like all of the crud that comes from fallout from tree sap, smog, rail dust, all that other kind of stuff.
04:09 You got it. Day-to-day driving, basically you're picking up people's brake dust that comes off their vehicles,
04:14 and over time, in particular on flat surfaces, it impregnates itself into the surface of the vehicle.
04:19 With this mitt, basically what that's going to allow us to do is pull that out very, very quickly.
04:24 So that's basically like a clay bar.
04:26 It is. It's very similar to a clay bar.
04:28 The nice thing about the surface mitt is basically you're covering basically six times what you can cover with the clay bar.
04:35 When I drop clay in the past, you just have to throw it in the garbage,
04:38 so it's an investment, $20, $25 investment that you basically have to throw in the garbage.
04:42 With this, you simply take a water hose, rinse it off, and it's ready to go again.
04:46 It doesn't hold the rock in there like the clay does.
04:48 That's correct.
04:49 So you can just wash that off and use it for how many times?
04:53 This will do approximately 10 to 15 vehicles, and it's much quicker than traditional clay.
04:57 That's cool.
04:58 So what we recommend, put your hand in the clay mitt, and obviously this is the surface side that you're going to use to remove those contaminants.
05:05 Take our Eagle One Wipe and Shine.
05:07 Mist the surface that you're going to clean.
05:10 Wipe it over.
05:12 You don't have to go any direction.
05:14 Basically, there's no memory with this, so you can go in either direction.
05:18 And if the car is clean, no risk of that scratching up the car.
05:20 That's correct.
05:21 Flip the mitt over to the microfiber side and simply wipe it down.
05:26 I remember when clay bars first came out, it was like magic, and that's like some next-level stuff there.
05:31 You're bad.
05:32 It's so much easier.
05:33 You can literally do a vehicle in about 8 to 10 minutes.
05:35 And that's it?
05:36 Are we going to then cover it up with some polishing wax?
05:38 With our polishing wax and simply apply it on, and then you're going to have your durability.
05:43 At some point, this whole quarter panel was painted, and you can see a masking tape line right here where there's a bunch of over-spray.
05:49 I mean, seriously, it's like somebody hit it with a stucco gun.
05:51 You know those popcorn ceilings?
05:53 That's essentially what this is like.
05:54 Listen.
05:55 Smooth paint and rough paint.
06:00 So all I have to do is grab my mitt, Wipe and Shine, which is just a lubricant, essentially.
06:07 And you're claiming all that paint over spray is going to come off?
06:11 It should come right off.
06:13 I've seen like, you know, bird dew and stuff come off with a clay bar, with the mitt.
06:18 But I don't know about paint over spray.
06:21 That feels pretty smooth now, though.
06:23 Do you trust it?
06:24 Am I good?
06:25 I think you're good.
06:26 You can hear the sound go away as you wipe the mitt over.
06:29 You can actually feel it in the mitt.
06:30 There's less drag.
06:32 It looks like I might need to hit a little bit right there, but wow, that actually is pretty amazing.
06:36 Listen, the whole thing is smooth now.
06:40 What is this?
06:42 This is a rubberized poly material.
06:44 The unique thing about the material is it's a patented material that will lift up the contaminants.
06:50 It actually generates a static electricity as you rub it over the surface of the vehicle.
06:54 It pulls the contaminants and plants it and embeds it right into the surface that you see there.
06:59 So it's not physically like sanding it off and capturing it.
07:02 It is not.
07:03 No, it lifts it.
07:04 Basically, as you rub it over, it's pulling the contaminants, any metalized particles, paint over spray, things like that.
07:10 It stores it right in the mitt.
07:12 After you do a section, you just take a garden hose to rinse it off, and you're good to go.
07:16 So magic, short version.
07:18 Wow.
07:19 This thing is actually really cool.
07:20 I've never seen that before.
07:22 It's awesome.
07:23 [MUSIC]
07:41 One of the downsides of having one of these Mustangs is that they look like everybody on the road who's got a Mustang.
07:47 V6 models, just everything.
07:49 You've got to make yourself stand out.
07:51 You can do that through a bunch of aftermarket catalogs.
07:53 There's a zillion cosmetic bolt-ons for these things.
07:56 The problem is you can go way too far and make them super tacky.
08:00 Hopefully, I don't do that here.
08:02 You'll let me know.
08:03 I spent $300 on these parts from both AmericanMuscle.com and Late Model Restoration, and I'm keeping it simple.
08:10 I got some matte black stripes for the hood, and most of what you're going to learn in the next few minutes is how to stick those on without getting bubbles in them.
08:17 I got some matte black taillight trim that I'm not sure if I'm going to use because this particular item was an ordering fail.
08:24 In the catalog, I thought that this was going to be a matte black tape stripe kit that goes between the taillights and the back of the car.
08:30 It ended up being a clear piece of plexiglass, which is absolutely useless on a black car.
08:35 That might be kind of cool for you if your car is a different color, but not this one.
08:38 I got some fog light deletes for the grille, which will make this thing look kind of Boss 302 and racing, and the cheapest possible blackouts for the side marker lights up front.
08:47 Let's get to throwing this stuff on.
08:50 For the front end, I really wanted to simplify it by getting rid of the fog lights, which is sort of a Boss 302 look.
08:56 Instead of putting a V6 grille in that doesn't have the lights, I decided to get the delete kit, which is a little bit more racy looking.
09:03 What we're going to do is remove this top cover, pop the grille out, take the lights out, and then you've got to bolt in this little thing, and then snap it all back together and instant race car.
09:13 Here's how these plastic rivets work.
09:15 Use a screwdriver to pull up the little locking button like that.
09:20 Then get in here with your clip tool and bam! Easy.
09:25 Know before you start that you're going to need a Torx bit to get the lights out.
09:28 This is a T25.
09:30 Hopefully it's the only time in your life you need a touch of Torx.
09:34 Okay.
09:38 That's one down.
09:44 Continuing the theme of removing safety lighting, I'm now going to black out the front turn signal lenses because I think the orange just sort of distracts from the black look of the car.
10:05 The next thing we're going to do is just give a little bit of cosmetic pop to the front end with some contrast using matte black stripes on the black car.
10:13 This is kind of a unique stripe kit that you can get from American Muscle.
10:17 It's different than anything I've seen offered from the factory.
10:20 It's better, in my opinion, than the standard two stripes that you see down the middle of most of these cars.
10:25 Now, I'm pretty good at sticking these.
10:27 I've done a lot of them on Mopar Muscle cars using this 3M tape, but it's still really tricky.
10:33 And that's why you'll see Kalen helping me out because there's a lot of two-person steps to making sure that the stripe is stuck and to make sure that you don't have any bubbles in it and to make sure it's straight.
10:43 First thing I'm going to do, because we just waxed this thing and there's a lot of silicone on the surface that's going to prevent the decal from sticking, is just wipe it down with this alcohol rub.
10:53 I'm hoping to take a little layer of the slick stuff off of the paint before we attempt to put the decal on.
11:00 What you'll see us do is get it perfectly in position and then tape the thing down exactly where we want it.
11:06 And then we'll pull off some of the tape and peel up half the backing on the sticker and cut it off and stick down either a half or a third of the decal at a time.
11:17 We'll spray a bunch of water on the paint and on the back side of the decal and then use a squeegee to get out all the air and water bubbles, being really careful to work all the little edges before we go through and very carefully press it all down, perhaps even using the heat gun to smooth it, because this stripe, unfortunately, is a little bumpy from the factory.
11:37 And finally, very carefully peel the backing off, leaving the stripe behind.
11:43 The whole trick is to not grab the paper and peel up, because you'll take the stripe with it.
11:48 You want to pull it down as close as possible, going directly opposite.
11:53 And it's going to be flawless the first time because we have no choice.
11:56 You goober this, you're done. Peel it off, order another kit.
11:59 Okay, I like it. It's kind of BAM.
12:02 In the end, I decided not to install that tail light trim.
12:06 It's pretty cool, gives some definition to the tail lights, but it wasn't the right sheen for the car.
12:10 I had screwed up that center panel between the tail lights that I wanted to be flat black, kind of like the stripes, and this matched that, but it didn't work without it.
12:17 So we're ditching that, and the cosmetic part of the program is done.
12:21 There you have it, the EBC Brakes Mustang.
12:24 I kind of like it. It's a very subtle, understated look, not too much tacky stuff all over the thing.
12:29 I'd drive it and have a lot of fun.
12:31 And now here's the driveshaft out of our Mustang.
12:34 As you can see, it has way too many moving parts, like this doohickey right here.
12:38 When Ford engineered this, a lot of what they were concerned about was noise, vibration, and harmonics inside the cabin.
12:44 And so it's got a lot of rubber in it that is here in order to damp that so that you can't hear anything from the drivetrain while you're driving the car.
12:51 Which is a great theory, up to the point where your carrier bearing bushing gets completely wasted like ours is here, and the thing starts to clunk and flop around.
13:00 Now this is also a perfect opportunity to start hot-rodding, which means eliminating OE engineering.
13:06 This thing weighs 39 to 41 pounds, whereas this unit right here, which is a brand new Dana Performance driveshaft from Spicer,
13:17 same company that makes Dana 60s, Dana 44s, Dana 30s, all those kinds of differentials.
13:22 They've got a line of one-piece all-aluminum driveshafts for these cars, and that includes the 2005 to 2014 Mustangs with any engine, with any transmission.
13:33 This is a 3.5 inch unit, if you're making more power, they also make a 4 inch unit.
13:37 But importantly, this thing has no moving parts other than the U-joints, which are 1350s, and it takes bigger power, and it only weighs 21 pounds.
13:49 That's right, 19 pounds less than this one that we pulled out of the car, and it's a really easy installation.
13:54 All you have is two bolts here on your center carrier bearing, then you've got the bolts which attach out this end to the transmission,
14:00 this end here goes to the rear end, the flanges are already on it so no adapters are needed,
14:04 and we're going to bang this thing back into the car, and hopefully enjoy the benefits of having 19 fewer pounds on our car.
14:11 Now I'm ready to throw the driveshaft in the car, but I've got a couple tips.
14:14 First of which is, if you're working on one of these Mustangs and you have your driveshaft out,
14:17 it is a great time to throw some energy suspension bushings into your shifter.
14:21 That soft bushing is right there, it can make the shifter really sloppy, I wish I'd thought of ordering that, because then I would have installed it.
14:27 I also would have installed a driveshaft safety loop if I had thought of that.
14:30 This would be a perfect time to do that, that is required at most drag strips if you're running slicks on the back of the car, and it's always a good idea.
14:37 Hot Rod Garage, now with 80% more Freiburger armpit.
14:46 The last thing you need to know is that the flange on the back of this driveshaft that goes into the rear end is a lot thinner than the big old chingadera that's on the stock driveshaft,
14:55 so you need to supply your own 10mm x 30mm bolts, sauce them up with some Loctite, and have a nice day.
15:03 Well that's a wrap on the EBC Brakes Mustang GT.
15:08 This car has actually been a riot.
15:10 I like driving it back and forth to work, but mostly I love to beat on this thing.
15:15 It is so fun for burnouts and donuts and sliding the thing around, everything you should drive a Mustang for, actually.
15:21 It's also been really easy to work on.
15:24 And I can't say the same for the next couple project cars that you're going to see showing up on Hot Rod Garage.
15:29 We've got coming the MSD Atomic Surf Van, and our new engine is here, it's from Lincoln Felter, it's a 650 horsepower LS7.
15:38 We're also working on the 70 Chevelle for the owner of OPG, and we're prepping a 502 Big Block for that car.
15:44 So you'll see those vehicles in future episodes of Hot Rod Garage, presented by Lincoln Tech.
15:49 But we're going to wrap this one up with a question and answer session with myself and Mike Finnegan from Roadkill.
15:54 Here's what I want to know.
16:00 Did you fast forward to this point, or did you watch the whole show?
16:04 Because now you're into the meat of it, the question and answer session with myself and Mike Finnegan, star of Roadkill.
16:10 Dirty. Very dirty.
16:12 Filthy. We had an amazing day today.
16:16 Off-road, derbying, late model muscle cars.
16:20 And now we are going to answer your questions.
16:22 I posted a query on our Facebook page, which is the Hot Rod Garage Show page on Facebook,
16:28 asking you for your best tech questions, and some other questions that are more like trivia and not so much about tech.
16:35 So let's roll through this, see what you've got here, and we'll do our best to answer your questions.
16:40 John Nip says, "What is the best street rear suspension for a street strip car? What are the setups in the Super V and Crusher?"
16:48 And, an interesting question, "How does the Blasphemy feel compared to the acceleration of a Hellcat?"
16:53 Which, by the way, we happen to be driving right now.
16:56 This is a 2015 Dodge SRT Hellcat, which, here's a trivia tip, I cannot find the word "challenger" anywhere on this car.
17:04 It doesn't say it. It might say it under the hood or in a jam in a sticker or something, but nothing on the dash, nothing on the wheel.
17:10 A lot of SRTs, though.
17:12 It says SRT many times.
17:14 Tell everybody, acceleration of Blasphemy, which is a '55 Chevy Gasser, with a, what, 535 cubic inch Hemi in it.
17:22 Yep, injected on gas.
17:24 Which did beat a Hellcat in a Motor Trend video with questionable results on whether the Hellcat actually had the 700 horsepower red key in it at the time or not.
17:32 It soundly beat it. If you go to YouTube and search "SEMA Drag Race 2014," you will see me whoop a Hellcat's ass in my '55 Chevy.
17:41 How do they compare?
17:43 This thing has instant torque and pulls like you would not believe from any speed.
17:48 Blasphemy is, like, 1,400 pounds lighter, so the acceleration is, like, much faster than this thing.
17:57 But, they're very comparable once they're both moving.
18:01 You know, once you hit third gear wide open in Blasphemy, if this thing's next to it, it's probably not pulling away from it.
18:07 Yeah, they make the same horsepower, essentially, 700.
18:11 Your car is way lighter. I bet you that the Hellcat has a fatter torque curve because of boost versus naturally aspirated.
18:18 Yeah, I think Blasphemy makes a little more torque, but this is, here's the thing, this is all on paper.
18:24 In the car, it does not make 700 horsepower because now, in fact, the day we raced, the battery was dead,
18:31 so the injector voltage offset was damn near off the scale, the headers were leaking.
18:37 I mean, for a number of reasons, in the car, it just doesn't make the same power as it did on the chassis dyno.
18:43 Yeah, it doesn't feel as fast as the Challenger does to me.
18:46 Especially not with the same spark plugs it had in it after we drove cross-country.
18:50 Yeah, that was for Chuck. Okay, John Nipps, other question, best rear suspension, what's in the B in the Crusher?
18:57 Almost, let's see, almost, yeah, almost all my experience on drag cars is with leaf springs
19:04 and a little bit with a Chevelle-type four link in the back or with a Fox Body four link, but most of all leaf springs.
19:11 And I just am a go-to on Caltrack spars. That's what we got going on in the Super B, that's what I got in the F-Bomb,
19:18 that's what I've got in the Muscle Truck.
19:20 It's hard to argue, I mean, they work.
19:22 They just work, they hook up. There's guys who are now running in the top sevens on that deal, and so, you know, Caltrack spars.
19:29 The Crusher Camaro has an ancient set of regular old slapper bars on worn-out springs that I took out of the back of a '72 Nova.
19:38 And that thing dead hooks for reasons I cannot explain.
19:42 It's got a 30x9 50 Hoosier radial slick on it, which is just awesome stable at the top end,
19:48 and that car, regardless of how much power we've put into it at this point, dead hooks and goes.
19:53 Yeah, it's impressive.
19:54 It's not scienced out whatsoever.
19:56 It would be great to get a trans brake in that or a decent set of brakes that could hold it at the starting line
20:01 because you've always left the starting line with very little power with that car.
20:05 Huge compromise on the launch of the Crusher, totally.
20:09 Curtis Eric, "What engine build surprised and impressed you the most over the years?"
20:18 That is a really good one.
20:20 I was way surprised after I rebuilt a 455 Olds, ported the heads, put a toleram on it, put a cam on it, and it only made 438 horsepower.
20:34 And the story ran in Popular Hot Rodding magazine.
20:37 As an actual advice of 455 Olds?
20:41 It focused on the oil restricting for the oil system and keeping it alive for a quarter mile pass longer than four seconds.
20:50 But yeah, that did not make any power.
20:52 I can top that.
20:54 Your friend and mine, Jerry Pitt, who is the marketing director for our shows, Hot Rod Garage and Roadkill,
21:01 he started at Car Craft magazine as a young'un, and at the time, do you remember the AFX Fairmont that they built?
21:08 Which, by the way, was designed by Chip Foose at the time.
21:11 We're talking 1989-ish.
21:15 It was red, white, and blue.
21:16 They tried to make a new Fairmont at the time.
21:19 It looked like a gas or AFX type car.
21:24 It had a 514 Ford big block in it, and I can't remember the precise number.
21:31 It's a 600 horsepower motor all along.
21:33 I will tell you, I believe it made 380 horsepower.
21:36 I know it was sub 400, and so I will top you.
21:40 Wait, wait, this might top this.
21:42 I'm ready.
21:43 Didn't Brian Lownes just put cylinder heads on an engine and make no power?
21:47 I could swear I read that online.
21:49 I think a lot of guys do that.
21:50 I could swear I read it online.
21:51 He put cylinder heads on Buford and picked up no power.
21:56 I don't know why.
21:57 I don't remember all the details, but you may want to go to Bankshift.com and research that and see if it's true.
22:01 I've seen that happen for a couple reasons.
22:03 First, I see guys put on something that has a chamber size that's way too big, and they drop the compression ratio while putting in their aftermarket head.
22:10 Or, change heads and your valve springs completely mismatch with the camshaft, so that turns into a disaster.
22:18 Or, you leave your same carburetor and intake manifold, which are the restrictions, so the head can't work anyway.
22:23 Or the exhaust on the same side.
22:25 I don't know if Brian did any of that, but I've seen that happen.
22:28 I don't either. I don't remember any of the details.
22:29 I just remember someone telling me and snickering as they told me.
22:32 But here's the beauty of the internet.
22:34 You take snippets of information and then use it to destroy people.
22:38 You never want the whole picture.
22:40 I'm sorry, Brian.
22:42 I didn't mean to destroy you.
22:44 Don't edit that one out.
22:45 This might be totally wrong, too.
22:47 Holy crap.
22:48 Maybe it wasn't him. Maybe it was Chad.
22:50 So that's it for the question and answer on this episode of Hot Rod Garage, presented by Lincoln Tech.
22:56 And we're about to park this hellcat and eat us some grub and drink us a beer.
23:01 It's pizza time.
23:02 See you next time.
23:04 [Closing credits]
23:08 [Credits]
23:12 [Credits]