Restoring a piece of American Muscle Car History one blog at a time. Part-Time Restorer/Owner/blog

  • Restoring a piece of American Muscle Car History one blog at a time. Part-Time Restorer/Owner/blogger: Gary Penna

Sunday, December 15, 2013

Post #10 Ordering parts

        So I figured I should do a post on ordering parts.  The first thing I decided to do was establish a spending budget.  Without one, this project could easily spiral out of control.  With a budget cap in mind +/- 10% for unforeseen expenses included.  I figured that at some point during the tear down of the car we would find unexpected problems that would have to be addressed.  Therefore I would put a 10% reserve over budget to cover those "unexpected" costs.  

     Now lets look at the down and dirty of ordering parts.  The first thing you need to do is lots and lots of research.  One of the hardest areas is learning the lingo, if you don't know the exact name of the part it is very hard to do a search for that part.  The engine brace for example is referred to as an export brace.  The name comes from when Carroll Shelby started to export the cars to foreign counties, they added an engine brace (hence the name export brace) to help stabilize and add support to the engine bay when the cars were transported outside the US; as well, a lot of the areas they were going to had sub-standard roads, therefore the extra brace helped with engine life and body rigidity.  Just doing a google search for engine brace did not bring up the exact one I was looking for.  My solution was to scour the internet mustang forums and soak in as much information as I could.  The lingo started to make sense.  Google pictures helps a lot too.  If you can get part of the name you'll at least see pictures of items that are close and they usually have descriptions beneath them.  Interesting enough the hardest par to find was the Shelby GT350-R lower bumper (see below picture). Man this one gave me fits of rage...I must have spent three days looking for something that had the exact name of the bumper you see below.  I had seen it in a magazine but there are literally dozens upon dozens of  lower bumpers, valances etc that came up.  I finally bumped into a website that had the exact name.  When I googled that correct name in a shopping engine, 8 websites popped up with the exact bumper for sale.  I picked the one with the best price; it just so happened to be that first one.

  What about price?  Surprisingly enough, as I mentioned earlier, parts are not as expensive as I was expecting.  I personally am a HUGE fan of eBay.  I believe with their buyer protection policy and massive network, you can really find some great deals.  However, buyer beware:  You should only use vendors that utilize PayPal.  It is your "get of jail free card" if someone tries to stiff you.  They will go to bat for you and recover your money if a seller sends you the wrong product or even if they fail to send it to you at all (believe it or not this happens)!  I have had only two bad run ins in the past 10 years and they both were resolved to my satisfaction.  You have the "watch" feature on eBay that can be used to save items you may want to buy or compare to others.  I usually categorize them by lowest to highest price first to include shipping.  I may not always take the cheapest.  Especially if the vendor has a low feedback rate.  I never buy from a seller who has less than a 98% feedback score no matter how low the price is.  The extra few bucks is worth it if you don't have to spend time filing a complaint.  Look at the feedback and see if they have any negative feedback and what it was for.  If a seller has sold 15000 items and has a 100 bad reviews he will have a 99% rate.  However, it can be misleading.  He may have sold 14,900 rare coins and 100 fiberglass hoods (somebody writing this may have made that mistake) and it is all relative.  His success rate for what you want is poor, so stay the HELL away!  If a seller has poor communication that is a warning sign as well.  Every seller has the option to input tracking information about your shipment.  If they don't, you will be just guessing when it will show up.  If they seller doesn't use this feature I won't use him again.  Be honest in your feedback when it comes time to submit it.  This is really the only way to put up flags. It only takes a minute.

   After I did all my research I began ordering and inputing everything into a log book.  This is necessary to both track what you have spent and track where it is.  A running tally has kept me from going over budget.  Except for two of the vendors everybody was so helpful and nice when I spoke or emailed them, they explained anything I had questions about and were subject matter experts on the parts they sold.  Mustang Depot and Scott Drake were two of the standouts part companies they really knew their stuff and kept me on target.   CJ pony parts have great youtube videos that provide a great breakdown of what each part should look like and how it you go about installing it.  I have spent countless hours watching Bill from CJ Pony parts installing new seats, frame rails, front valances, etc.  They also have great deals on parts too!  The internet makes my life soooo much easier that much is for certain.

  Make sure you get tracking numbers for everything!!!  This will be a crazy process when you have 30 plus parts traveling from all corners of the country.  It would be very easy to purchase a part and forget about it.  I have had everything shipped to Poor Noah at PMP.  He is probably running out of room and patience.  I have, to my shame been texting him daily to check on parts.  However, the last parts came in today and to be honest he has been a champ.  Taking pictures for me so I can post them here, Thanks Noah. I will be traveling down there next week to check on the progress and look at the Christmas tree full of parts I have ordered.  

So with that, I have included most everything I've ordered below for the car. Everything else is already on the car or will be ordered by Noah as part of the original deal. I think when this is all done it is definitely going to be a one-off.  So far I have searched and searched the internet and I have not seen the set-up we are creating.  I don't want a cookie cutter so I am really psyched.  If you have any questions shoot me an email at gpsmustang@gmail.com.  If I don't have the answer, I at least know where to look.




I decided to upgrade the following:

1. Front and rear valance (top picture bottom bumper will look like this one).


2. Side Scoops (shelby style)



3. Wood Grain steering wheel


4. Wheels (Torque thrust black)


5. Four new tires 235/50/17

Tires look like all tires.  Use your imagination...


6. Fiberglass hood and trunk lid w/end caps


7. Upgraded Fan for the radiator and engine cooling w/ fan control unit



8. Billet style radiator cap


9. Serpentine Belt kit for the motor

10. Export brace

11. Monte Carlo bar

12. Exhaust trumpets with chrome exhaust rings for the new rear valance

13. New 6 gauge instrument cluster with RPM and Matching brushed aluminum glove box door



14. Air Cleaner for carburetor with pony wing nut


15. 3-Core Aluminum radiator

16. Floor mats

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