I am a new Mustang II owner (as of 5 hours ago), and new to this forum. I purchased a '78 2 door hardtop, 2.8L, V6, 171 c.i. (consecutive #263761). It is in very good condition (repainted once - original color), with only 87,000km (54,000 miles) on it. Very little has been changed from original, and the interior and trim are all in very good to excellent condition.

I am wondering where to go from here - I do not have the $$ (or patience) to restore to original condition, but plan to tear it down and restore it the best I can as a drivable vehicle. I would like to have it as an extra car for fair weather driving only.

Any tips to enhance its value, drivability, safety, (and looks / performance) etc. would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

 

first off, welcome to the boards and the msutang II world

wel for looks, a chin spoiler always looks nice and maybe some rims. theres plenty of options from the fox years, so see what you can find

safety? brakes brakes brakes... get some bigger rotors up front

i've heard of ppl getting 300hp out of the 6 (what i have) but ive foubd very little on HOW to do it.

i personally am swapping it out for a V8, but that doesnt mean u should. remember, im a hormone filled teen, i neeeeed a V8 lol.

which tranny do you have btw?

in any case, have fun with ur II, theyre really fun cars

 

welcome to tMS!

 

Thanks for the reply - I will be posting lots more questions here over the next few months...

I have the three speed tranny in her.

I have attached a couple of pictures - (the paint color will be changed, and it would be great to be able to do something with the interior color too).

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glad ur changin the paint... cuz thats.....icky

i also noticed a it o rust at the bottm, be sure to check that all out and see if theres any major needs. and i think now would be a GREAT time for wheels, those stockers aint lookin to good on there rite now (i had the same ones, but they are rusted as heck..)

cant wait to see wat else u do with it

 

not sure if there is an easy answer to thsi question, but... is there a relatively 'easy' engine swap that I could do that would give me a little more power? I have heard that a 302 might drop in without switching transmissions...?

 

also, I would like to freshen up the interior, but don't know what to do with that color (without changing everything).

Does anyone have any pictures of a restored/modified II with the same color interior?

 

302 swap requires a number of thingfs:

motor mounts (EXTREMELY DIFFICULT TO FIND!!!!)
springs
exhaust

and you could in theory re-use your tranny, but remember it was built for a V6 and will not hold up to 302 power for long.

for the interior, i suppose it would look nice on a black car, but idk. i got lucky and i have a black int, whcih goes good with anything. maybe dying it is an option? check out some upholstry places and see what they say

you might also wanna check out mustangii.net, they're always helpful there

 

Good looking II , and Hello and Welcome!

 

Hello and welcome Steve.
Arin is doing a 302 swap and can tell you all about the fun of changing motors in a II.
With that interior it looks like you are stuck with brown or cream for exterior colors. Mine is Tangerine out, Black in.

 

about "doing" the swap... if my uncle ever lets me use his flippin shop.... grrr....

lol one of these days he's sure to let me back in

 

Maybe you should promise to be a good boy and cut your hair.

 

are you kidding me? im practically a religious figure now :P check it out:



hehe, my entire family either calls me "sai baba" or "terrorist child" these days...

 

Steve, congrats on the car. My first car was a 77 Mustang II T-roof. I removed the 4 cyl and dropped in a 302. It was a lot of work and not sure I would want to do that again, then again I know a lot more about cars now than when I was 16. Anyway, how is the floor and engine bay condition? 2 major problems I had was the floor had rusted out. I replaced the floor and then covered it in fiberglass. The other major issue was the front wheel wells. They were all rusted out. One day the battery fell through the well and hit the tire. Not a pretty site. Just inspect those areas and repair as necessary.

Not sure what colour to paint your car. You have a very interesting interior colour there. Mine was white with blue interior and I eventually changed all of the interior to black. You might want to shop around. Swapping out the interior panels might not be that pricey. I found a guy that was bringing his car to the dump so I swapped my blue interior with his black interior. Didn't cost me anything but my time. Good luck with your new project.

 

I am not convinced it is a good idea for me to attempt to swap for the 302 - but I would like to... I probably should just consider doing things to the 2.8 to improve its performance (any suggestions?)

The floor and wheel wells are in excellent condition - the car had been regularly undercoated, and there is very little rust (except for some small spots on the bottom of the doors and over the wheels). Even the trunk is in excellent shape.

I have begun to look for a parts car with a nicer color interior - the downside is that the tan interior that I have is in very, very good condition, and any other interior I find will probably be in poorer shape.

Thanks for the tips - I'm sure I will be driving everyone here crazy with my questions by the time the car gets finished (and it's not even started yet).

thanks again

 

Nice car. I really like interior.

 

well now that i think of it... for V6 Performance you could try an intake spacer and a bigger carb. also see if your rear has the 3.00 or 3.55s. changing the axle ration to 3.55s or 3.73s or something should give you a nice boost. maybe a custom exuast system... dunno what that would cost tho.

and then teres always the option of boring out the block and putting in bigger pistons... a port an polish job on eht heads too, but all that gets pricey..

 

Congrats Steve and welcome to TMS! As was pointed out above, going to a V-8 requires a lot of changes and can be a real pain in the hiney. I'm going to try to attach the pics of my 2 '78 Mustang II Ghia's. The Blue one I have had since '79. The Brown one I just purchased in July and it had 47,000 miles on it. It has the same color interior as your car. The 3rd Mustang is my new '05.[attachmentid=37604]

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Here are a couple of pics of my Blue '78:

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Finally, here is a full side view of my metallic brown '78. The top and interior are chamois, but the way the sun was hitting it, it looks lighter than that.

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