1990 Limited Edition Mustang Registry

My 7-UP Car:

I purchased the dark green convertible in June 1999, after the original owner had traded it in on a new Honda. Thanks go to my buddy, Ian Chapman, who advised me that he had seen the car on the lot.

Up until that point, I had only owned red Mustangs, but the droptop changed all that. Although the car did not appear to have been abused, I knew that I would be improving a few things. My goal was to keep the car as original as possible, while improving the "fun" side of it.

The first thing I noticed was that the stock AOD transmission, when teamed with the 2:73 highway gears really didn't cut it. I made a note to deal with them a little down the road.

My first step was to install the K&N Filtercharger and Motorsport 9mm wires which I had retained from my '91 Hatchback trade-in, and install new plugs, cap & rotor.

The car came with no floor mats. Cori Dorman, a long-time VIMA member came to the rescue. Cori works for Suburban Motors, and was able to locate a full set of the already obsolete Titanium Grey mats which were originally available for the car in 1990.

Next came the installation of a good car alarm, to keep the convertible in the home stable. I then contracted Colin Vogel of Dentex, who was able to remove a rather large dent from the passenger side door, as well as numerous door dings, and I still had my original paint!

Then came the Kenny Brown Chassis Stiffening Kit. Chris Schmelzel at Lejeune Engineering did a great job of welding on the Subframe Connectors. Ian Chapman & I installed the Strut Tower Brace. I then had the Lower Chassis Brace installed at Victoria Automatic. Ian & I planned to do it originally, but we just couldn't get the car high enough in the driveway to install the brace. The Kenny Brown kit did a fantastic job of ridding the car of the inherent chassis flex that these convertibles are plagued by.

Next, I had the worn out, original exhaust replaced with a Walker Dynomax 2 1/2 inch cat back exhaust system.

Finally, the 2:73 gears were pulled in favour of a set of Motorsport 3:73s. At the same time, a TransGo High Performance Shift Kit was installed by Victoria Automatic.

Update:

The above was done within the first couple of years that I owned the car.  Until 2009, only maintenance and detailing have been performed.  In April 2009, I had Styles, a local upholstery shop replace some leather panels on the bucket seats, along with new foam and strategic re-dying of some of the original leather to freshen up the interior.  Then, in November 2009, I had Transmission & Auto Care Victoria (formerly Victoria Automatic) upgrade my transmission with a Ford Racing AOD Wide Ratio/Upgrade Kit.  This kit improves both low-end torque and acceleration as well as transmission durability, resulting in a car that is so much more fun to drive.