Aircooled VW South Africa

My new (other) project, 1989 Ford Mustang (Fox platform).



Already has a rebuilt 302 (5.0L) motor and new aftermarket exhaust. Needs bodywork and paint but it's all there.

Should be fun!

the engine sizes you guys have access to amaze me.
That car has so much potential and looks like you can take it to any direction, lowrider, racer, cruizer, show car....
keep us posted, nice to see other projects too

The long nose overhang made me wonder: Is it maybe front wheel drive? (We did not get those cars here).

Tony Z wrote:the engine sizes you guys have access to amaze me.
That car has so much potential and looks like you can take it to any direction, lowrider, racer, cruizer, show car....
keep us posted, nice to see other projects too

Thank you Tony. Interesting perspective you have on the engine size comment as in the US a 5.0L V8 is a relatively small engine in the performance world, and in the factory engine world was also small. Within the last decade our factory engines are getting smaller as more power was being made with smaller engines as efficiency has improved greatly with newer generation engines. In another interesting development Ford's newest Mustang offers a very potent 5.0L engine with nothing in common with my old engine except size but the new engine makes about twice the HP in factory form, 225hp for the old motor and 402hp with the new "base" engine with an option of 444hp Hi-Po variant. Also of interest the new mustang has a 3.7L V6 engine with an HP rating of 305hp and torque is also higher than the factory rating for my old V8. Ah progress!

Dawie wrote:The long nose overhang made me wonder: Is it maybe front wheel drive? (We did not get those cars here).

The mustang has always been a front engine/rear drive, much like how a "bakkie" I believe would be arranged. The block and heads are cast iron, the nose overhang is to house the V8 and it's cooling system, and as you can imagine the front/rear weight distribution is off a bit with about 60 percent of the weight over the front wheels.

But, interesting you would ask this because there is a story from the mid 1980's I find fascinating. Ford and it's longtime partner Mazda were designing a joint vehicle that would use a combination of common cross-corporation parts with an eye towards becoming the "Mustang" in the US market. It ended up being this car, sold in the US as the Ford Probe. It is front wheel drive:

The Probe was announced in the early 1980's as a replacement "Mustang" within the decade and immediately drew a hailstorm of criticism from Mustang enthusiasts who did not care for the name being placed onto a front wheel drive 4 cylinder "economy car" platform. Even the proposed V6 option was not enough. Ford responded by saying if sales were strong for the V8 rear wheel drive Mustang then they would not change the beloved (Fox platform) Mustang. Needless to say the styling and options available made the Mustang a very successful product. Don't cry for the Probe, that car was sold with that name and it's affordable pricing gave it a good 7 year run in the US, the only problem being Mazda chose to couple one of the most reliable 4 cylinder inline engines ever built with one of the most failure-prone automatic transaxles ever built. About 95 percent of the Probes I see still running are the 5 speed manual transaxle. 'Nuff said I think.

It's been almost a year and I don't have much progress on this car except this video I shot a couple of months ago. Got legal paperwork to straighten out and this year I am out of excuses for getting it done.

My white 69 bug makes a brief appearance at the start. Also the surly young man seen in the drivers seat is my son.

Clicking on the pic takes you to photobucket so you might want to open in another tab or window in case you can't get back to ACVWSA easily:


PS enjoy the Yankee accent!!

.......and just as variety is the spice of life, another 2 projects, a 1974 standard beetle with a cool ghost flame paint job and a 1950 Chevy panel truck. I know the Chevy is hard to see behind the beetle, the paint is very subtle.



1959 Chevy "american bakkie" belonging to my good friend (actually m8 status, but not in an american "mate" way.........I think I'll stop typing now).



Um, please ignore the MX-5 in the background, that's a neighbor

Cool project I like the yellow panel van always been a favorite of mine