1990 Mustang LX - SVT Cobra DOHC Powered! UPDATE! 1/22/23

[Dennis Lacy]

5 hours ago, afx said:

Emerald Green?

I was set on Emerald for a bit, thought for sure that’s what it was going to be but then saw a picture that changed my mind. 

[Dennis Lacy]

3 hours ago, Bullybeef said:

@Dennis Lacy that engine came out excellent. I was floored on the neatness of the plug wires, then I zoomed in haha. Paint detail is top notch sir! 

Haha, yeah I can’t take credit for the wires this time. AMT did a really nice job on this engine and it’s details. With some tedious detail painting it looks really authentic. That whole Phantom Vicky street rod kit is really well done. The assembled car is just kinda ugly. ?

[Jantrix]

Dennis, I always appreciate your work and the detail you go into when showing the build process. I'm using that engine in a hot rod soon and I'll be checking back for reference.

Thanks very much.

[adamelvis]

Just lovin the work your doing on this fox body.  I had a ' 87 GT, '90 LX, '92 LX HB and now a '15 GT

TCB,

Adam

[Steve H]

Absolutely beautifully detailed engine and suspension sir. Love watching your builds Dennis, I always learn good stuff. 
 

Cheers, Steve

[bobthehobbyguy]

The engine is stunning. Great detail painting. Such a great project.

[Dennis Lacy]

On 2/18/2022 at 4:04 AM, Jantrix said:

Dennis, I always appreciate your work and the detail you go into when showing the build process. I'm using that engine in a hot rod soon and I'll be checking back for reference.

Thanks very much.

Thanks! I try to be thorough on the chance what I’m doing might help someone else. 

[Dennis Lacy]

On 2/18/2022 at 1:31 PM, adamelvis said:

Just lovin the work your doing on this fox body.  I had a ' 87 GT, '90 LX, '92 LX HB and now a '15 GT

TCB,

Adam

Thanks a bunch! Sounds like you’ve had some good ones. My current daily is this original paint ‘87 GT. Although, with the values of these cars skyrocketing I’m starting to rethink that. 
 

[Dennis Lacy]

On 2/18/2022 at 2:21 PM, Steve H said:

Absolutely beautifully detailed engine and suspension sir. Love watching your builds Dennis, I always learn good stuff. 
 

Cheers, Steve

Thanks so much, Steve! I’m really trying to make something special out of this project. Just wait until you see my painted interior parts update tomorrow night! ?

[Dennis Lacy]

11 hours ago, bobthehobbyguy said:

The engine is stunning. Great detail painting. Such a great project.

Thanks, man! 

[Kit Karson]

Well done... thus far! Waiting for the next installment, Brother -KK

[Dennis Lacy]

UPDATE!

Over the last work week I managed to get all of the interior parts painted except for the floor which is permanently attached to the chassis pan so that will come later. The colors are Tamiya TS33 Dull Red and their semi gloss black. Yes, that’s right. This LX is having “porno red” interior! This color is a little more brown than the factory Scarlet interior but it gets the job done. Originally I planned to finish detail painting these pieces this weekend (window cranks, glove box latch and lock) but I ended up putting a full afternoon into my ‘63 Nova Wagon project instead. 
 

So now that we know that the interior is red then what is the exterior going to be? Tamiya TS88 Titanium Silver which is darn near a dead ringer for the factory YX Titanium Frost. One of the harder to find colors and therefore sought after. 
 

 Here is what inspired the color choices even though it is obviously a GT and has factory two-tone paint, the top half being Titanium Frost with matt titanium lower accent and if you look close you’ll see the red interior. 
 

So there you guys have it, the official color plan. I also painted the tubular K-member, subframe connectors, radiator, fan and brakes which I’ll do an update on soon. 

[Bullybeef]

That’s the colour I was hoping you were going with!  Can’t wait to see it.

[Dennis Lacy]

43 minutes ago, Bullybeef said:

That’s the colour I was hoping you were going with!  Can’t wait to see it.

Well then, you’re welcome! ?

[Kit Karson]

Outstanding, Brother! -KK

[adamelvis]

On 2/19/2022 at 7:05 PM, Dennis Lacy said:

Thanks a bunch! Sounds like you’ve had some good ones. My current daily is this original paint ‘87 GT. Although, with the values of these cars skyrocketing I’m starting to rethink that. 
 

WoW. That’s the same colour scheme I had on my 87 GT. I removed the blue strip and had the Mustang GT in white graphics. My 5 Star rims had white accents painted on the inside. 
So cool to see another like it, as it was rare.

TCB,

Adam

[Dennis Lacy]

On 2/21/2022 at 10:53 PM, adamelvis said:

WoW. That’s the same colour scheme I had on my 87 GT. I removed the blue strip and had the Mustang GT in white graphics. My 5 Star rims had white accents painted on the inside. 
So cool to see another like it, as it was rare.

TCB,

Adam

No way!  Very cool. The white and titanium combo was quite rare and these days extremely hard to come by. When I was 16 in 1996 I bought a Chilton’s repair manual with one on the cover and fell in love. Wanted an identical GT ever since and in 2013 I unbelievably found this one on Craigslist with 57,200 miles and completely stock.  It is an automatic but I didn’t care, I had to have it. It’s a factory stripped GT. No power anything, standard radio and no cruise control. Also has the 3.27 geared performance axle. Rare build specs all around. 
 

[Dennis Lacy]

UPDATE!

Had a great day at the bench and finished a lot of the fine paint and small decal detailing. 
 

The engine is now complete except for the intake tubing which will have to be built once the engine is permanently installed. I picked up a decal sheet from Revell’s 1993 Mustang Cobra kit for all of $3.00 on eBay. Mostly I wanted it for the Cobra fender badges but it included a second set of snakes in blue which is, as luck would have it, what should be at the center of the intake plenum. The plug wires have been dull coated and if you look close I also added the PCV line from the plenum to drivers cam cover. 
 

Here’s the finished master cylinder and hydroboost unit along with the battery complete with Motorcraft decal. 
 

The finished subframe connectors and front suspension K-member painted Tamiya TS42 Light Gunmetal. Brakes have been installed front and rear and are a mixture of Testors Metalizer Steel on the rotors, Magnesium on the hubs and Model Master Jet Exhaust on the calipers. 
 

 

 

The Speedline wheels have been detailed with Testors Silver brushed onto the spokes, flat black In the lug holes and the lug nuts touched with Jet Exhaust. 
 

The interior parts have all been paint detailed and the dash/console fully assembled as well. The Mustang emblem decal on the dash comes in the LX kit while the photo etched pedal pads, speaker grills and radio face all come from Detail Master. The white Ford logo horn button decal comes from the Revell ‘29 Roadster hot rod kit. The white gauge faces were on the ‘93 Cobra decal sheet that I bought but the gauge decal is significantly smaller than the gauge decal in the LX kit. I made it work by carefully cutting the white decal into 4 pieces and fit them between the correctly molded raised dividers on the gauge housing. 
 

Here’s a closer look at the difference in gauge decals. The bottom one is the correct size from the LX kit while the top is the unused stock gauges from the ‘93 Cobra kit. As you can see there’s quite a difference which is surprising considering the ‘93 Cobra is a slightly larger 1:24 scale versus the LX in 1:25. Despite this I made it work as seen above and I couldn’t be happier! Funny thing is I would never put white faces in any full scale Mustang of mine but for the sake of the model they help further “sell” the car being modified. 
 

At this point it’s down to painting the chassis/floor pans and the body itself. ?

[Kit Karson]

WOW! -KK

[Phildaupho]

You definitely had a very productive day at your bench. Everything is looking super nice. 

[TransAmMike]

Really great detail work Dennis and informative post.  Impressive?

[webestang]

Looking fantastic!!!! ?

 

Someday I want to build a replica of my 88 5.0 LX vert. 

[tim boyd]

Dennis....what an inspired build you have going here.  Terrific paint detailing, too!   Looking very much forward to seeing this one done....TIM

[slusher]

Very realistic detailing!

[Dennis Lacy]

On 2/28/2022 at 11:31 AM, webestang said:

Looking fantastic!!!! ?

 

Someday I want to build a replica of my 88 5.0 LX vert. 

That would be challenging since you’d have to create the body but it certainly could be done.