Better Beaters - Building Cars and Daily Drivers

 My '06 Mustang GT personalization post was well received.

This is the before shot.

I saw pageview numbers that I haven't seen in a long time.

I had tacked on an addendum to that post that stated that I had installed the spoiler and was pleased. That is true, but I forgot that I had taken a few photos of the process.

I had toyed with the idea of ordering this part, but it had been back logged for months. American Muscle kept sending me teases, when I finally checked it out, I found that the part was not only in stock, it was discounted a few bucks, and best of all, it had free delivery!

This thing comes in a big box! It was well packed and I received it in about a week with no damage.

I watched the installation video and they recommended either raising the car on a lift or jacking it up so that you could turn the wheels during the installation. I found it was easy to raise the front a bit with a small jack under the crossmember. 

Those little jacks have their uses.

I handled the installation by myself. It's a good idea to lay down an old blanket as you'll be flipping the spoiler upside down and it will get scratched and scuffed by rubbing on the concrete driveway. I also had a couple of bungee cords hooked up under the hood and hanging down in front of the bumper. This way I could keep the spoiler higher and in a better position. I had used this same trick when installing the chin spoiler on my '96 Mustang. I only have two hands!

The spoiler rests on the original lower bumper opening and is held in the wheel well area by four screws. The double sided tape is supplied in the kit, but it might be a good idea to mock up the positioning and length of the tape strips with painters blue tape first. I ran a little short of tape by putting a little too much in a couple of spots. I had to use some of my old cheap, no brand, double sided tape to make up the difference. 

Either do a mock up of the tape placement, or just buy another roll of tape. 

Just for comparison.

Looking Good!

It was a really easy installation and the result was highly satisfactory!  A week afterwards I took the car on a 300+ mile round trip up to Placerville with no problems.

Fuel economy on the way up was 25.9 mpg. keeping it mostly down to 70 mph. On the trip home I put the top down and lost a couple of miles per gallon. My result on the trip home was 23.9 mpg. Pretty much what I expected. Would it be worth driving an econo box to pick up another five miles per gallon? I don't think so. 

I plan to order the black honeycomb deck lid panel and the black tail lamp trim in a couple of weeks. I'll post my experience with the installation.

I think that these early S197 Mustangs are great cars, even with the V6. And the V6s  are priced at really tempting levels right now. I wouldn't mind picking up a fastback and making a more faithful Mach One replica or another convertible that I would like to turn into a mild custom.