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Lowering springs are a must. 18"s help a lot too!
I still think the hood needs something - either the GT500 hood or racing stripes or (preferably), both!
Luckily, I am one who likes to wash my car, so I'll get used to it. I am not a fan of the stripes on black cars, but on a bright red one, nice fat white strpied would look nice, or blue on a white car.
Make sure you don't wash it with a sponge! You'll get 'spider webs'. Use a lambs wool mitt.
I already have the new lamb's wool mitt in my garage as the car is ready for its first bath. I also have a new synthetic chamois ready. I have a lot of experience with black cars and by the fall, the car, like all my other cars, will be wetsanded to get rid of the orange peel effect.
Right now just a simple buff, maybe Meguiars, and "Wax-as-U-Dry" in between after every wash. That product is excellent.
I have to say, themore I hear the Shaker 500, the more impressed I am with it. initially it was disappointing coming from a Pro Logic 5.1 sysytem in my Volvo. Now after a few days, it is sounded much better to these ears.
I've only seen it done by hand, using wet/dry sandpaper of course.
This thought will cause me nightmares tonight.
Engine Oil - A slippery subject Part 2
And it is true that clear coat is thin. Any sanding (wet or dry) would remove a good portion of it.
I've only seen it done at shops that do custom paint jobs....and only when they are applying multiple coats of paint.
Matter of fact, I think the color will stay the same with the possible addition of a titanium color. Just the names for the same colors will change.
They don't change the names unless they actually change the colors. Sometimes there is only a tiny difference between the old and new colors so they may appear to be the same but in fact they are different. Ford does this a lot.
Then he did my 2002 Volvo S60 T5, black saphire, and my wife's 2002 Explorer EB, black. He had a hard time with the Volvo but it turned out great. Apparently, he says that Ford's paint is very durable and reacts well to the wet sanding process. He is a little concerned about the newer Fords, like mine, and cars in general as the paint is getting thinner and thinner.
He gets extremely fine sandpaper, so fine to the touch it feels soft and with a hose of running water gently rubs the entire car down. It takes quite a while with a 2" x 3" piece of sand paper! then he reapplies the clearcoat and wax and you have a car that looks like a mirror. Forever. it is something that is and can only be done once. no more orange peel.
I will wait a few months, let the car get exposed to sunlight and then do it. For now a simple buff will do.
"It redesigned the Mustang on the Jag S-Type platform..."
(sigh)
The only thing it shares with the DEW98 platform (S-type, LS, Tbird) is the floor pan and fuel tank. EVERYTHING ELSE IS NEW. Do these automobile writers not even read the articles in competing publications?
And even that's a stretch to say because the Mustang is a good bit shorter in length than the other DEW98 platform mates. Therefore the floor pan stampings can't be all that similar either.
This is the definitive answer. He says cars come with 3 or 4 coats of clearcoat. He will remove 1, maybe 2. he does not reapply clearcoat. The orange peel effect happens from too much clearcoat. The less clearcoat, the more color, the deeper it looks because it is more visible underneath the clearcoat.
I hope it will be able to be wetsanded, as he also says many companies are only puttin two coats of clear.
I'd have to disagree with your "painter" that the less clearcoat the more color.
The entire reason car companies went to clear coats was to give the car pigment more depth and shine. Plus, it serves to protect the pigment layers underneath the clear coat.
Orange peel effect has nothing to do with clear coat. It has everything to do with how the paint was applied, though. While you can lessen the "orange peel" effect by using a polishing compound, wet sanding is totally unneccessary and a harsh alternative.
Now, who knows if the person is legitimate or not, but at that price, it would be about $2,400 OVER what I paid for it new and about what the MSRP was. I've got ~1,000 miles on it, too.
I doubt I'll call, but who knows....curiosity may get the better of me.
However, to get rid of orange peel you really must wet sand the car starting with either 1000 or 1500 grit wet paper depending on how bad it is and finishing with 2000 grit, then buff and wax to restore the shine. Polishing alone won't usually do it.
He said he's been to every Ford lot in the area and they either wanted over MSRP for the few he's seen in stock, or that he's just "missed" ones that have shown up on the lots when he called to get inventory status.
I told him I ordered mine in Feb and took delivery in March. He said he's tried to order, too. He said no one will order one for him either.
I mentioned that he could order an '06 in 2-3 weeks. He said he wanted a "first year new Mustang GT".
In short, I told him I wasn't a seller but did appreciate his interest. He said he understood and that he would continue his search. He said he was a "collector" (whatever that means). He's got a '67 Corvette and a '71 240Z. He wanted to add the Mustang to his stable as a daily driver. Not bad company at all.
I thought those guys kept their babies in garages and didn't use them as daily drivers though? :P
At the rate things are going with the Mustang right now MY06 copies will be collectors items too! But if this madness carries in to MY07 I'm going to my eyes out!
I don't know what the guy uses as a daily driver now since all I had was the card he left on my windshield with his handwritten note. Didn't see what he was driving at the time.
When he told me of his "other cars", I thought he might be legit. Still, I'm not interested in selling.
I've heard it shifts much more smoothly than the previous gen (which is like shifting a pickup truck). Is the shifter still angled toward the driver? Also, is 5th gear still really tall? My 2002 is basically a 4-spd with overdrive (which I view, along with the car's ride quality, as an unintentional but charming "retro" feature... )
On an absolute basis, the manual and the clutch in the Mustang GT was probably the 2nd best I've ever driven. The absolute best was in an RX8. That's high praise.
The clutch take up is creamy and smooth. The shifter is beefy, yet precise with a very nice feel.
5th gear is indeed tall. I wouldn't use it anywhere but on the interstate. Anything up to about 50 MPH, 4th is fine.
The ride quality is what first struck me about the Mustang. It's great for "point and shoot" manuevers. The body/chassis is very stiff and doesn't lean or squat. It's no mean feat to have the body be so rigid yet the ride be so compliant. You aren't going to mistake the ride for a Lincoln, but you aren't going to experience any sharp bumps through the structure either. It absorbs broken pavement very well without upsetting the suspension. It stays planted.
I'd go out on limb and say this is the best "ride/handling" trade-off certainly of any U.S. branded car I've driven. You know exactly what the car is doing when driving.
Ford and GM, for so long, have either made the ride so "hard" in their performance vehicles, that they'd punish you to get decent handling. Or, they made suspensions to offer a cushy ride at the expense of feeling "wallowy".
The Mustang will have none of that.
2.097 60Ft.
8.857 1/8th Mile
13.638 1/4 Mile @104.473
Considering the professional drivers from the trade rages are getting 13.5 sec 1/4s, these are good number for an amatuer.
He said he wanted to get a baseline on what the Mustang GT would do stock. I think he ran those numbers the 3rd time he ran it at the track. He's planning on modding it with "summer" tires. He's also looking into some exhaust mods and a "tune" of the PCM.
While I swore I wouldn't track mine, I'm beginning to get the "itch".
Personally, I think varying RPMs under different load conditions would be a more precise description of how to "break-in" a car.
Truth told, for the last 10 years, I've done little in the way of "special" break-in for any new car. By the way I drive (mostly city), I vary RPMs and speed, so by definition, I vary speeds and RPMs. I've yet to have any major problem with any manufacturer's model for well over 100,000 miles.
That said, I'm probably subconciously more "gentle" on the car for about the first 500 miles. After that, I start to "open it up". After 750 miles, I'll run'em to redline regularly.
The Mustang GT just seems to beg you to get into the upper rev range anyway. My previous RX8 was the same way. It almost "dared" me to take it to redline when I drove it off the new car lot.