ITS Ford Mustang(s) Build - Stripper Stang Part II

[Ron Earp]

Mucho work accomplished today with both Jeffs stopping by. Jeff 1 disassembled another engine while Jeff 2 and I worked on the harness and scraping the interior.

We have separated the door harnesses and the anti-theft stuff, shown in the picture below. The wiring amounted to 7.5 lbs. We still have a bit more to go to remove optional things from the car but we've got the bulk of it. The end result will be a factory OEM harness with high quality wires and connectors that has the necessary feeds to run the car, plus lights etc. I plan that this car will remain street legal since I find the option of driving on the road to test things out really valuable.

The sound deadening is now completely gone and came in at 9 lbs even. So it is a worthwhile thing to do, although it is painful to squat there in the car for hours.

[ITEGT]

From looking at your pics some of the sound deadening tar paper was already removed from my car. Lucky me.

What is the harness that runs under where the front seats used to be? I see the plugs that used to be for the power seats but is there any wiring of any importance contained in that bundle?

My ITE car is sitting in around 2800# empty. Im going to try and take 100# more off this winter but Im running out of weight reduction ideas. Also have to add some weight back in with a fire system and an accusump.

Pass side door inner sheetmetal, and the rear package tray should take off some decent weight. May also go to tubular front and rear bumpers.

Very nice work on the wiring harness. Im getting my nerve up to take on this now that the car is running. Figured I was asking for trouble messing with wiring on a car that wasnt already running.

Anthony

[Ron Earp]

What is the harness that runs under where the front seats used to be? I see the plugs that used to be for the power seats but is there any wiring of any importance contained in that bundle?

What year car do you have?

On the SN95 cars that bundle is about 1.5" thick and has at least 60+ wires. The majority of the wires are for the keyless entry system, the stereo (this car has the Mach 460 so many wires), cigar lighters, parking brake switch, cross harness that connects both door harnesses, the passive anti theft system, defroster, lights, backup, brake lights, fuel pump, fuel sender, immobilizer, and that is about it.

All I wanted was the brake lights, tail lights, fuel stuff, defroster, and signals. You might want less.

The harness is done now and I'll take pictures of it. Very slim and svelte with probably eight wires going to the back. Now the harness will cross and route under the dash instead of over the tunnel, another reason to clean it up as you can get rid of the mid-branches and get them out of the floor pan. Weight is coming out of the car. A few pounds at a time, but it is coming out and will add up.

The door skins were surprisingly light. I suspect you'll find the package tray is somewhat similar, maybe five to six pounds. If you have a Fox car there were some plastic bumpers you could use but I don't know where and what year models those were. The SN95 bumpers don't weigh much at all and even if I could toss them I probably wouldn't.

[ITEGT]

What year car do you have?

On the SN95 cars that bundle is about 1.5" thick and has at least 60+ wires. The majority of the wires are for the keyless entry system, the stereo (this car has the Mach 460 so many wires), cigar lighters, parking brake switch, cross harness that connects both door harnesses, the passive anti theft system, defroster, lights, backup, brake lights, fuel pump, fuel sender, immobilizer, and that is about it.

All I wanted was the brake lights, tail lights, fuel stuff, defroster, and signals. You might want less.

The harness is done now and I'll take pictures of it. Very slim and svelte with probably eight wires going to the back. Now the harness will cross and route under the dash instead of over the tunnel, another reason to clean it up as you can get rid of the mid-branches and get them out of the floor pan. Weight is coming out of the car. A few pounds at a time, but it is coming out and will add up.

The door skins were surprisingly light. I suspect you'll find the package tray is somewhat similar, maybe five to six pounds. If you have a Fox car there were some plastic bumpers you could use but I don't know where and what year models those were. The SN95 bumpers don't weigh much at all and even if I could toss them I probably wouldn't.

2000 Mustang GT

Thats what I was afraid of,,, that there are some wires with use hidden throughout the bundle.

How did you isolate what wires were for what? Start at the end say tail lamps and back track?

[Ron Earp]

2
How did you isolate what wires were for what? Start at the end say tail lamps and back track?

It is a time consuming project. You WILL need a Ford factory wiring manual. This lists all the wires, colors, and connector types. The rest is sitting down and understanding what is going on. Sometimes wires will splice, go to multiple connectors, and/or change colors so it takes time.

The job is helped by the fact that the factory connectors are fantastic. On most of the connectors you can flip the back open, push a tab, and you can extract individual wires from the connector. That way you don't have cut wires in the connectors and it is easy to remove them properly.

[JoshS]

Okay, I understand the need to be thorough with weight savings on this car.

But I don't think it's legal to remove individual wires from the harness in most cases, unless there was a harness available that didn't have those individual wires and you are merely turning one factory harness into a different factory harness. The harness itself is the part that needs to stay stock, at least, that's my interpretation.

[Ron Earp]

But I don't think it's legal to remove individual wires from the harness in most cases, unless there was a harness available that didn't have those individual wires and you are merely turning one factory harness into a different factory harness. .

This is the case. My car was a fully loaded example that had all the options (see posts) that were not on all cars.

For example, shown below is the Mach 460 sound harnesses out of the rear of the car. These were carefully extracted out of the harness intact because they are worth decent money on Ebay.

[Knestis]

That's precisely what we did with Pablo II, untangling all of the smaller assemblies from the bigger assemblies.

The whole exercise was of course predicated on the assumption that when we have permission to remove [whatever] all of the parts associated with [whatever] can come out. And [whatever] was operationalized as either something that the rules specifically allow to be removed OR something that some example of the model of the car, as listed in the ITCS, came without (so under update/backdate).

We then re-wrapped the resulting harnesses the same way the stock ones were, not incidentally finding and fixing a few faults (e.g., rubbed insulation) in the process...

K

[Ron Earp]

That's precisely what we did with Pablo II, untangling all of the smaller assemblies from the bigger assemblies.

It is a pain in the ass but I think it is worth it. In the end you know what you have and you have made it simple to troubleshoot. You can still use the factory manual to troubleshoot it too.

I also bought 1994 and 1998 MY Ford Mustang brochures off Ebay so I could show what was optional on the various years I can cross pollinate from. 1998 MY had a lot of stuff as standard, but in 1994 you could get essentially a stripper that didn't even have AC. The wiring manual shows these optional harnesses too as subassemblies.

Back to the building part, I took a 1998 V6 15x7 stock Mustang wheel and weighed it to see how that shook out. The wheel in question is this one:



And they are just about free from Mustang owners since they invariably take out a loan and upgrade to some blingy 17" or 18" wheels when they put the drop on their hooptie.

Anyhow, they are not serious light weight wheels but they aren't so bad either. With OEM durability and Craigslist availability, they come in at 15.1 lbs. I think they'll be great for rains, intermediates, and/or street tires (yes, the car will have tags/title, got to uphold that IT vestige from double duty days). Heck, at only 4 lbs heavier than the best wheel I was able to find for the Mustang that isn't too shabby. But, on a car that is severely weight challenged they aren't a dry racing option.

[JoshS]

But just because the equipment was optional doesn't mean that the wiring for it was optional. Plenty of cars come with wiring for equipment that isn't actually installed on the vehicle. But if the Fords really came without wiring for optional equipment, then you are good.

[Knestis]

15 pounds for those wheels is not bad at all. I want to think the stock wheels on the Golf were about 19, and they were a 14x6.

K

[Ron Earp]

15 pounds for those wheels is not bad at all. I want to think the stock wheels on the Golf were about 19, and they were a 14x6.

K

No, not bad at all. And they are the 5 on 4.5" (114.3mm) bolt pattern that fits RX7s too. I read something about some RX7s guys use them for rains also.

VW 14x6s at 19 lbs seem really stout. VW equipping you for some off road excursions?

[dickita15]

Even if you are right Josh there is a fair amount that can come out. there is language about ignition, emissions and gauges that gives you some room. I was amused by the wording on dome lights, I think it says operating mechanisms.

[Ron Earp]

Good news - the wiring parse worked fine and the car functions as normal. There were a few hiccups along the way but it cleaned up nicely and is working as it should.

I also did some poking around in the front of the car and removed everything forward of the wheel wells. Not too interesting up there, but I did notice the bumpers are of good design and not overly heavy. They are essentially rectangular tubes, maybe 0.060" thickness, and the inside is filed with a molded piece of foam. In front of that is a foam piece that is the shape of the bumper and give shape/support to the bumper cover. Definitely much more robust than the old Z setup, and infinitely more available with respect to parts.

[Knestis]

...which is good because, you know, a Mustang in ITS is going to turn the class into a smash-up derby.

K

[Ron Earp]

...which is good because, you know, a Mustang in ITS is going to turn the class into a smash-up derby.
K

In light of the recent destruction at CMS it is like that now.

[Matt93SE]

Just throwing it out there, but if the harness isn't worth it's weight in gold and you have male and female connectors, you may find it worth your while to keep it and use it for other things..
all of my gauges are electronic. I modified the OE radio harness with all of the gauge wiring. Power to the gauges comes through the old radio power and ground wires, then all of the sensor wires are plugged into the connections for the antenna and speaker wires.

I molested the dash harness and was able to move the wipers and headlights down to the center console as well and used a DPDT switch for the high/low beams.

Now, when I need to remove my center panel, I just unplug the OE radio, headlight, and wiper plugs and all the electricals are out. I just wish the fire bottle and brake bias knob had quick disconnects!

[ITEGT]

Need brake cooling ducts by chance?

[Ron Earp]

Need brake cooling ducts by chance?

I do need to make or buy some. If you have some in aluminum that are the center of the hub type I'd be interested.

Lots more work today, probably about eight hours total starting around 6am and rolling on most of the day. External pulls for the trunk and hood made, interior stripping finished and cleaned, wiring harness finished and checked, lots more odds and ends tidied up. It is ready for the cage installation.

[Matt93SE]

While you're on the subject of brake ducts, any hints on attaching them to the spindle? Never seen it done properly before- lots of zip ties that melt or don't hold anything in place.