Abilor & Maude - Build & Maintenance Journal

[Abilor]

Well, it's that time... We've had Maude, our 2025 Mustang GT Premium Coupe, for almost a month now, and there's already been tons of work we've done to her. About time she had a proper build journal to document things as we go. I'll post a few more entries beyond this one, saving some room for various things.

If you're here having a look, thanks for checking us out, big things are coming I reckon, so stay tuned.

Abilor.

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[Abilor]

This was the day we got her over at DePaula Chevrolet on Central here in Capitaland.

 

[Abilor]

One of the first things we've been doing is a car audio build. Here the two JL 12s are finally in their custom enclosure.

 

[Abilor]

Let's not forget the first thing we did, added the Roush intakes (lol) along with LED light show with a hood switch cutoff. Proud of that redneck engineering...

 

[Abilor]

Wife was kind enough to lay down a whole lot of "dynamat" with me; got the whole trunk done over two days.

 

[Abilor]

Yesterday (6/6/25) we got both of the UPR catch cans on...

 

[Abilor]

Today was a big day. With 1,300 miles on her, Maude got her first oil change to flush out any "break-in" voodoo. Seems anachronistic now, but this is the way. Let her drain out fully over about 20 minutes with the oil at about 130F. Swapped out the filter with a Purolator Boss PBL 22500, and topped her off with 10 qts of Pennzoil Platinum 5w30.

Pretty mundane, but it was also the first time we fired up the Quick Jacks. My life will never be the same.

 

[Abilor]

Oh snap, almost forgot that Adrian over at Tint King hooked us up. Got 5% everywhere it's legal here in NY. Could have done windows, but apparently there have been crackdowns. We love our windshield strip though. State law is 6", which is almost 1/3 of our windshield. Wife says it makes her feel like she's in a fighter jet.

 

[goodlettjr]

Wife was kind enough to lay down a whole lot of "dynamat" with me; got the whole trunk done over two days.

I don’t have any practical experience with Dynamat. How is the stereo sound quality? Is it keeping the sound in or just reducing road noise? What does it do for the exhaust sound in the cabin?

 

[Abilor]

I don’t have any practical experience with Dynamat. How is the stereo sound quality? Is it keeping the sound in or just reducing road noise? What does it do for the exhaust sound in the cabin?

I've actually marveled at how much noise it rejects. When I cold start now, I hear the car, but it's only when I open the door that I realize just how loud the cold start is. The trunk now feels like an echo chamber, but we're still slotting the amp rack. We actually just completed our sound test a few days ago, and tonight I'm hoping to finally mechanically mount both the subwoofer enclosure as well as the amp rack prior to taking it all apart again for upholstery work.

I will say that the Kilmat looks, acts, and behaves just like the pricier Dynamat, for a fraction of cost at your local massive online retailer.

Probably will drive around rest of the week to perform "sound quality tests", you know, for science... I'll report back. Biggest goal was to tamp down any "buzzing", like some of my builds 20 years ago lol...

 

[Abilor]

Crushing disappointment. After a rough day at work, and with the amp rack built, today we found out that we didn't account for the metal rings the rear seats attach to when they're propped up. The enclosure's 15" of clearance is 1 inch too many because of this, and won't fit. Sad panda. Struggled for half hour to no avail.

Wife saved the day, and declared the too-big-box the property of Spud; the people rejoiced.

Now, we suck it up, and build box 2.0...

Amp rack looks good though! Will upholster prior to install. Happy with the floating amp mounts I fabricated.

 

[roket]

Wife saved the day, and declared the too-big-box the property of Spud; the people rejoiced.

i dont think you understand, that was Spud's box all along, silly human. the box just belongs to it's rightful owner, now.

love the build so far! i especially like the lights in the airbox covers. do you have any other big things planned for it?

 

[Abilor]

i dont think you understand, that was Spud's box all along, silly human. the box just belongs to it's rightful owner, now.

love the build so far! i especially like the lights in the airbox covers. do you have any other big things planned for it?

I have a whole bunch of parts I'll be getting for my Birthday in a few weeks, and will be installing all summer: Pedders Coilovers, Steeda Stop the Hop kit, louvers, a Dark Horse spoiler, Apex SM-10s wrapped in Continental rubber, MGW Short Shifter, BMR Motor Mounts, and a Kooks Catback Exhaust. Pretty much everything you can do without needing to tune. Once tuning is an option, headers are going straight on.

Someday, eventually, I'm going to throw on a Whipple...

 

[Abilor]

More trouble on the audio front... after some damp signal after getting everything hooked up finally, I figured out Friday morning that the speaker outs to my LC2i had the wrong polarity (Ford speakers, the basic 25W ones, aren't labelled and blades are the same. Once corrected, bass came roaring to life. Went up to have breakfast with wife, came down, dead system, WTF.

Turns out the fuse popped, no sweat, new fuse... *pop*. and again, after isolating the amp completely, anytime I'd send remote signal on, *pop*.

So, Crutchfield is awesome, and a new amp is on the way, should be here Tuesday. Fucking audio man, always feels cursed.

 

[Abilor]

So while we wait for the new amp, today I did some "New Jersey" mods, as I describe them to my Bahston wife and downstate brother, those sweet, sweet upgrades that look fast but probably make you slow lol. Mods in question are a "Dark Horse" spoiler from Auto Addicts, and Bakkdraft louvers from Glasskinz.

First of all, fuck Ford. Seriously. The cover to the oil pan is bad enough, but changing out the spoiler on these cars is torture. You have to remove the felt panel, take off several 7mm and 10mm screws, and THEN the "spoiler module" is practically epoxied on. Had to use a towel and panel puller to help pry the thing off, and left a little kiss on the decklid I'm going to have to get a dent kit to suck out. So finally, you get the damn thing off, and THEN...

MORE GLUE. Ford basically fused the stock spoiler on with something so sticky it would freak Peter Parker out. It was an hour getting the damn module off, and would have been two more if I hadn't used the SECRET WEAPON:

Using a heat gun, I was able to pry the glue up, use a scrap stick to wedge it up, rinse and repeat. I could literally see the glue release as I ran the gun over it:

Painful. Melted paint a bit, and broke one tab, which sucks, but there's always something that goes sidways. Then it's a mess to clean up; gun is your friend again here, hit with the heat, then roll your thumb over the glue, and comes right off. BONUS: keep all that glue, make a little turd with it, then freak your wife out with it; yes I tried it, yes it works.

Finally, hit the spoiler module with the ispropyl 91, and you get a clean slate:

Hilarity ensued installing the spoiler. Got it ok enough, and screwed back in the inner guts of spoiler module, but getting that thing back on the car is WONKY. I mean look at this:

What goddamn machine in Michigan is stamping out those monstrosities? Getting it off was a PITA, getting it back on is a PITA. Lined it up as best I could, but it still didn't seat quite fully: along the bottom it was a tight seam, now there's a 1/4" gap. Foolishly, I tried tightening the 11 mounting bolts to bring it to flush, and two terrible things happened: The left most bolt is apparently just a philips screw, which broke when over-torqued, and somehow I dropped a nut into the decklid negative space. I could live with either mistake, but both are driving me up the wall. I might epoxy the post back in somehow, but it seems pretty solid still. If I don't notice it, I'll leave it well enough alone. That nut though.. Rattles every time I close the trunk. Tried using rare earth magnets to capture it through the metal (got one that way), but after an hour of trying, still it haunts me... lol, probably will try again tomorrow.

Anyway, enough brooding. Here's the good stuff!

Before:

After, with Bakkdraft louvers from Glasskinz as well:

See you next time, Space Cowboy...

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