Here is the 7up car story!!!
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 drop top
changed all that. Although the car did not appear to have been abused, I
knew that he 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 that 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 Filter charger 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.
Steve's 7up Stang website can be
viewed
here...
