1993 DECH MUSTANG “TIP-DECH COUPE”

– 1993 “TIP-DECH Mustang Coupe” Project Successfully completed in Summer 2017

Back in late 2015 I had started looking to build another Coupe and I had a very specific set of requirements which resulted in my 1993 DECH Mustang build. I wanted a clean base with all matching VIN numbers and really did not want to have to do a color change with the paint. So the first requirement is that the car had to be Silver, I would have however settled for Black as it is the best color to work with in terms of color changing. I knew that I wanted to do the following mods:

Authentic DECH kit -I had already bought the kit before the car as I had got a hold of Mr. Derek Hanson (founder of DECH Motorsport) and convinced him of my project so he was kind enough to take his original molds out of storage and make me an authentic kit
Black Interior is an absolute must on a Fox Body, so if the car I would chose didn’t have one, then I would have to convert it.
ROH Wheels – hands down probably one of the most favored wheels on Foxbodies during their time. From the ZR-6 to the ZS and Snypers. However, I have gone in a different direction. I will be doing a custom 3 piece ROH Modena set up in 18″.
Air Ride – We all know I love slammed cars that ride low and are impractical. The problem here is that this car build is going to be so incredibly clean that I don’t want to worry about repainting bumpers or pulling fenders etc. Details on the kit and specs are also to be revealed later by RideTech.
Brakes – Need something nice to show off the area behind the narrow spokes of the ROH Modenas, I have been fortunate enough to land a complete SSBC Upgrade
Built Motor – How can you have a Mustang without performance upgrades making some good power and producing a head turning sound so then they can see how sexy the car is? Specs on this you will see below.

So what was it that I was trying to achieve? To build a newer, tastefully modded version of the classic DECH Mustang from back in the early 1990’s. I have always loved DECH Mustangs as you can see from my previous projects. This time however, I wanted to make sure I build a car so clean that I could present it to Derek Hanson himself for his endorsement!

In my hunt, I had posted up a few “WANTED” posts on the web looking for a clean base. I had posted on www.gtamc.com a Greater Toronto Area based Mustang Club where I knew I had access to alot of fellow members. To my surprise I received a PM from a not very active user indicating that he believed he had the car I was looking for! After some back and forth we made a deal, he stored the car for the winter for me and I knew I had exactly what I was looking for. A mint 1993 Silver coupe with black interior with only 25,000 original kilometers.

Here you can see some initial pictures of the car and pictures of the car being picked up the next spring

A meticulously cared for car via the original owner that came with every last bit of original documentation from warranty cards, window stickers, stock parts and every service receipt. I couldn’t be happier with the based knowing that I wouldn’t have to repaint. There was also a long long list of great mods already done to the car which had resulted in 2 magazine features back in the early 1990’s! Here’s what the car came with:

Exterior

Interior

Suspension/Brakes

BBK B Lowering Springs
Kenny Brown G Load brace
Southside control arms
Subframe connectors
4 wheel disc brakes SSBC kit (4 lug)
New SN95 spindles, Cobra Calipers, 5 lug Moser Axles and solid SSBC rotors included with the car

Drivetrain

Crane Camshaft
Aluminum X307 Heads
GT-40 tubular intakes -original first generation (made in Japan) G
Acufab 75mm throttle body
Pro M 77mm MAF
Pro-5.0 shifter
FMS 3.55 gears w/Auburn Diff
Nitrous Dry kit w/2 bottles
BBK Ceramic Shorty Headers
Dr. Gas X Pipe
Ford Racing Wires in blue
Accel 300+ digital ignition and coil

MISC

A lot of money was spent on this car and it was time to get to work on it. Clearly the Dugan Racing hood was dated and not a piece that I wanted to keep. I much rather have the sleek look of the stock hood knowing that I was going to remove the spoiler. I will say that I had to weld the holes up in the trunk lid and repaint it. The other portion of the car that needed to be repainted was in fact the door moldings. As some people may know in 93 for some reason you will notice on Silver and White colored cars that the moldings go a “brownish color” if you look closely at the pictures of when I got the car you can see this molding discoloration.

So onto the next step, getting the DECH Mustang aero kit perfectly fitted in a way that would make sure that it was 100% fitted and removable. I didn’t want to commit to molding in any pieces to such a mint and virgin car. The kit although made from the original DECH molds required a lot of fitting, sanding, building, priming to get it to fit perfectly. The results speak for themselves. Here are a few pictures of the process.

Unfortunately this was as far as the car got for 2016. All of the big items were to come over the winter months and prepare for a huge installation in early 2017! Although the car had come with Cobra brakes and a 5 lug set-up I wanted something larger as I knew I needed to show them off with the wheel choice I would be going with. I reached out to Auto Trend Tire & Wheels in New York who is the North American distributor for ROH wheels (made in Australia) and they were kind enough to hook me up with a custom made set of 18×8 and 18×9 Roh Modena 3 piece wheels. Polished lips and Black Ice centers to contrast against the silver paint was what I decided. I have stayed true to ROH as they are a timeless design and I was going for a “face-lifted” version of the classic 1990’s DECH Mustang. Here are some pictures of the wheel assembly process

Back to the brakes, so as the car had already been equipped with many SSBC components, I reached out to them directly and got this amazing front and rear kit with slotted rotors to help fill in the gaps between the spokes of the ROH Modena’s. Be sure to read more about this kit on my blog posts

Brakes are done, so now it was time to tackle the suspension. I did quite a bit of research on kits and the variations between Air Bags vs Air Struts. Again, since I wanted to keep everything on this build reversible and versatile I went with the bags. With the aggressive wheel setup, I had concerns of clearance from the wheel to the air bag on the air struts. With the Air Bags I also had more versatility on getting the car even lower especially in the rear as this is a challenge on most air kit on Foxbody’s. Ride Tech was nice enough to hook me up with one of their kits and here are some pics. There is also a full write up on the installation on my blog posts

Car is now back on the ground and of course there are still many things I would love to do to this Dech Mustang Foxbody! I have installed some mint Recaro seats, hidden the Air Ride control panel, installed some pillar gauges, swapped out the Dynomax mufflers for Flowmaster, installed 3.5″ square tips and here is still some more things coming. As we know that projects are truly forever ongoing, it is safe to say that this car is 90% and the last 10% will forever be ongoing. Be sure to follow my blog and stay updated on the changes and the upgrades. Thank you again for your support through another successful build. I know it took a while however it is hard to build a car while living on the other side of the world!

The finished product!

For those wondering… I achieved what I set out to do! I recently met up with Derek Hanson in June and had the pleasure of showing him this fine example of a DECH Mustang. I was keeping him updated all along the way and he was impressed enough to endorse my dash! Thank you Derek.

Latest Video