[heitzke]

Juuust picked it up last night and have some work cut out for me haha. It's obviously a 2003 Oxford White convertible w/ 75k miles.

Fairly clean for being a 18-19yr old Ford. It's always been on my 'to-own' list since I had a '99 GT for several years that I really enjoyed.





Car came with:
- Pulley (have to find my caliper still, but looks to be a 2.8" metco to match the metco idler)
- Steeda firewall adjuster, quadrant and cable (clutch needed to be adjusted BADLY. Someone didn't know what they were doing lol)
- Steeda short-throw shifter
- Bassani high-flow cats, x-pipe, catback exhaust
- LPF heat exchanger (80% on this one, need to get underneath and measure it up).
- Xcal2 tune (appears to be canned tune). Car should make in the 440-450whp range as it sits, which is plenty tbh.


Immediate to-do list and have parts ordered for:
- Fresh oil change
- Fresh plugs
- Fresh alignment
- Mild window tint
- New factory tail lights and headlights ordered (these tinted ones are AWFUL)
- New third brake light
- Short IRS subframe bolts
- MM roll bar for some ACTUAL safety. Style bar doesn't make me feel secure tbh.

Longer plans:
- Interior refresh, reupholster the front/rear seats or replace with something that's not too "race looking"
- replace the nasty double-DIN screen with something more modern w/ carplay
- Refresh/update the tune
- MAYBE a mild Stieg porting to make that extra 50whp and heaton noise.
- Bilsteins/springs/mm camber plates
- Wheels are that aren't FR500's, Cobra 5-spokes or some drag pack lol.

Whole build concept is to just sort it out better, have something to drive with a/c besides the M4 and have a little fun. The M build got a little out of control so I wanted something a little different that I don't have to worry about as much, log some miles and also maintain a little bit of value when i'm all done and ready for what's next.

[Our03z4]

Congrats on the car. Very sharp looking, seems to be in pretty good shape too. Keep us updated!

[Oreo Cat]

Not a mustang fan by any means, but the terminator is the one exception. I’d love to have one with my m3

[stevenopoly]

Not a mustang fan, but I LOVE seeing old cars in tip top shape. There's just something awesome about someone taking care of something for so long.

[heitzke]

Originally Posted by Our03z4

Congrats on the car. Very sharp looking, seems to be in pretty good shape too. Keep us updated!

For sure will do! It's been kept up pretty well. The "wear" items are quite worn like the factory seat centers, but I'll see what I can do there within reason. Once I get the DA on it over the next few weeks I think the paint will clean up really nicely. It's due for a good polish for sure.

Originally Posted by Oreo Cat

Not a mustang fan by any means, but the terminator is the one exception. I’d love to have one with my m3

Haha same here. I've had a few GT500's and had always wanted to have a terminator car. With the M4 being my 'nice' car I felt like I could justify something a little less... civil.

Originally Posted by stevenopoly

Not a mustang fan, but I LOVE seeing old cars in tip top shape. There's just something awesome about someone taking care of something for so long.

Yeah same here. I was dead set on this 2003 Redfire with 47k at the same dealer, but it was priced to move and I was too slow. Oxford white was my second choice to go with my mineral white m4. I was also glad to see that I was the 4th owner of it, and seems like everyone took pretty decent care of it.

It was definitely more of a garage queen over the last several years, and most of it's life with how it still has the OEM windshield, windshield cowling and lots of other pieces that the sun just destroys. Exterior door/window seals are all in great shape.

[AlexFL]

Not the same category, but I really want to buy and mod a well-kept Taurus SHO.

[KevinC]

One of my best buddies has a 2003 hardtop. I've driven it - that motor is SWEEET especially for its age - very cutting-edge at the time and still a monster today. Nice score!

[OG Shark]

That will be a fun project - loved that gen.

[MiamiFan13]

You're gonna love it!!! And I'm sure you know that no other car, IN THE HISTORY OF CARS, can have its looks improved by lowering springs than the Terminator Cobras. Good luck with it!

[heitzke]

Originally Posted by MiamiFan13

You're gonna love it!!! And I'm sure you know that no other car, IN THE HISTORY OF CARS, can have its looks improved by lowering springs than the Terminator Cobras. Good luck with it!

Hahahh oh I know it. The stock height is eating me alive right now, but I'm "trying" so hard to do the important stuff first. The suspension of these ends up being a slippery slope (although it's awfully nice to be seeing cheap car parts again lol)

[Oldgixxer]

Congrats;always had a thing for the Termi's

[KennyFSU]

Awesome, that's my all-time favorite Mustang, enjoy the ride.

[Efthreeoh]

Congrats. Any understanding of how healthy the engine, trans and diff are? Was it run hard?

[heitzke]

Originally Posted by Oldgixxer

Congrats;always had a thing for the Termi's

Thanks man, yeah I've always lusted after them since having that '99 through their main heyday. Even more so after a close friend had a '04 Mystic with a Stieg ported eaton, etc.

Originally Posted by KennyFSU

Awesome, that's my all-time favorite Mustang, enjoy the ride.

Thanks, yeah it's a super nostalgic one for me. I've basically tried the all out at this point and this one hits that sweet spot for me. I had two different '07 GT500's and I really liked them but they didn't feel very 'mustang' to me.

Originally Posted by Efthreeoh

Congrats. Any understanding of how healthy the engine, trans and diff are? Was it run hard?

That's a good question and what i'll be checking into first, especially motor. When I do the plugs i'll do a quick compression check but nothing screams damaged or tired to me. Doesn't consume oil, smoke, valve train is appropriately noisy and the catch can was clean.

Diff doesn't look wet, but you know how the IRS in these things can be. I'd be surprised if someone damaged a T56 with how little power it makes, but shifts well.

[heitzke]

Couple small things came in earlier than expected so hit up some visuals and made a pretty big difference.





The not as good. Looks like i'm going to use some bumper plugs for the meantime and then get this bumper refilled and then resprayed. SIX holes for a front plate? I think not.



There's a shop around the corner that does a pretty good job of smaller jobs so I don't think it'd be too bad so have this taken care of. Also not as high on the priority list just yet.

Plugs should be in tomorrow sometime and i'll get around to a quick compression/motor health check, oil change and then i'll dig in more.

[dgoldenz]

This was the dream for teenage me

[jmack]

Congrats! Termies are a blast.

[heitzke]

Originally Posted by dgoldenz

This was the dream for teenage me

Haha same here, it feels weird driving one of your old 'hero' cars. The M is literally better at everything, but it's still hard to beat the fun factor of this 03-04 platform. It's sloppy, messy, loose and power delivery is instant.

Originally Posted by jmack

Congrats! Termies are a blast.

Thanks man! Having a good time so far, just getting used to the new car noises and still making sure we have a good base. Always a little stressful.

[heitzke]

Whole gang together before I let the Miata go today. Went to a really nice kid who will take really good care of it. Just time for it to go and focus on other projects.





Did a quick oil change and all looked pretty good. Looked pretty fresh, but also had the wrong oil filter size on it. Typical. Underside of the car is pretty wet from oil residue so I have a few things to chase down but otherwise seems pretty good.

Already collected a few drips on the cardboard I stuck underneath so i'll have to get it back on ramps and make sure it's the oil cooler assembly again. I went ahead and ordered the Speedconcepts oil cooler rebuild kit just cause - OIL COOLER O-RING GASKETS & HEX TOOL REBUILD KIT 1996-2004 COBRA & MUSTANGS | Speed Concepts

I was also hoping to have gotten my IRS bolts in by now, but i'll just focus on changing out my fender intake for a straight-shooter while also changing plugs and doing my dreaded compression test. Nothing to suggest it's not ok, but you never know what you'll find sometimes. Car came with a fender-well intake, which is fine, but the filter is filthy and this is intended to see more active use. Hot air intake it is lol.

Clutch is definitely making some noise, hoping it's just from not being driven much. It's a little tapping from the lower driver's side of the driveline where the inspection cover is (or would have been, had it not been left off). I'll have to mess with the firewall adjuster a little bit more and see what I can get out of this setup. Not really wanting to do a clutch yet, but that's part of the game right?

I'll shoot some more pics tomorrow when i'm back underneath the thing and see what I can come up with.

[heitzke]

Good news is compression came back all pretty good, ran from 149 - 165 across all 8. Bank 1 being a touch lower than Bank 2. Possibly due to the motor being warmer from the cranking? No telling, but I wasn't concerned about the deviation and consider the motor to be healthy enough to continue. Not budgeting for a rebuild or anything just yet.

Spark plugs were all unremarkable, 6 & 7 were a little darker than the rest but they all just looked like loosely gapped FoMoCo plugs. Have some appropriately gapped TR6 in now and the car seems plenty happy now between the fresh oil, plugs and the new JLT intake.

I swapped out the fender-well unit for a straight-shot unit. The fender filter was DISGUSTINGLY dirty, so no wonder the car seems happier.








Didn't get a chance to check through the clutch more, but just still think it's interesting that the noise disappears when the clutch is engaging/disengaging, and really only as idle when in neutral. A tiny rev also stops it entirely. I'lll check more tomorrow.

[heitzke]

And so it starts. Working on mild suspension refresh first and then i'll turn my attention to the IRS and some detail work.

The exhaust is super crooked which drives me crazy lol, etc. Turning out to be pretty fun so far. It runs SO much better with freshly gapped plugs, new intake and vacuum leaks fixed.

[heitzke]

Here's a good before/after so far:





Fixed the crooked bumper gap(s) aligned the exhaust and also removed those awful spacers. Car feels so much better now.