I'm looking for some suggestions in ignition, brake, suspension, intake and other bolt-on upgrades. keep in mind this will be a daily driver and I am still in college so I'm not needing the greatest things available just something to get a little more performance out of the car, its a relatively stock 86'GT.

 

Unfortunately the Heads, Pistons and computer will limit a large amount of your upgrades. exhaust, advanced timing, gears all work. Ignition, I like MSD and use it on all my mustangs

 

+1 on the msd. You not going to see a whole lot more performance unless you replace the heads and get a descent cam. but, new intake and/or exhaust wouldnt hurt for right now.

 

also, depending on what you have in the car already, I would highly suggest a different rear end gear ratio. 3:73's are probably the best setup because you don't lose all of your top end like you would with 4:10's, but it definitely wakes up the car from whatever gears are in it now.

 

Keep it as stock as possible! These early GT's are appreciating steadily. Worry now with finishing your college education and you can buy any hot rod you want once you get into the employment force. kennyg

 

I've been conflicted about what modifications i should or shouldn't do, i'm not really wanting to turn it into a weekend racer my real hopes for the car is to turn it in to a amateur show car/ daily driver that would get some attention(hopefully positive) every where i go and I would like the engine compartment to look as good as the rest of the car once paint and other body work is done, also how much of a difference would there be between a ceramic white and the original oxford white

 

There would probably be a signifiant difference in the shades of white...my 89 is Oxford white, and although alot of whites seem the same, they're not. This holds even more importance if you're looking to show your car. If you're completely change the color o the car and pain the car with the interior out of it, than the color difference won't matter, but I wouldn't paint the engine compartment a different shade of white. Just my two cents...

 

Being as its an 86 gt it got shorted 10 hp from the factory b/c of the head change. You could buy a set of E7's for roughly 200.00, install a small but bigger cam motor wise. Keep it simple and just go with bolt ons for now.....underdrive pulleys, o/r H-pipe,cobra intake ,cold air intake...and like they said msd, 3.73 gears. headers and exhaust and underdrive pulleys,intake,cold air would be 1st for me

 

all in all, I would just gradually install bolt-ons for a low-risk, simple way of adding some pop to your 'stang.

Luckily for us, these era cars have an unbelievable aftermarket parts world at our fingertips.