The Force is Strong"R" With This One

Sonic605hp

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Such a sick little touch. I love it.

One of my buddies Chris Gonazales is a tinkerer. He owns a tracked out S550 and knows his way round an LED board. He developed some custom rear LED lights to replace the reflectors in the S550 rear valence. Pretty slick when I saw them for the first time, and asked him to build me a set. As far as I know these were the first set to be installed on a car that wasn't his.

The install process took me about 3 hours, but it was because I was being a dunce. The rear valence on the GT350 has some added bracing in the way of removing the one nut that bolts the reflector in place. Once I figured out I could push things around to get my swivel in place the removal was pretty easy. Chris wrote up some instructions based on my experience, and even added heat wrap to block the wires from the exhaust. The only thing you need to remove on the GT350 is the lower diffuser, but that comes off easy enougt.

Here is a short video of them in operation. They work as a running light, brake light, turn signal, and hazard. You can also disconnect certain wires to make them work how you want.

 

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SVT JEDI
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Rain and a lack of time left me without the ability to go try out the new setup on the R. But here is a quick peek at the wheels I hope to keep for a while. Weights when my new scale arrives..

Signature Reserved SV901
SV901 GT350R 1.jpg


Flagship Series ONE
Signature FOUR GT350R (8).jpg
 

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SVT JEDI
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Decided to do something classic with the car. Lay it on me....

-Signature Wheel Flagship Series FOUR
-Polished lip
-Matte Gunmetal Face
-Gloss Black Inner Barrel
-Black Hardware
-Custom Signature/R center caps
-Exhibitions Of Speed Titanium Lug Nuts
-20x11
-20x11.5
-325 square Michelin Pilot Sport 4S
-Stock GT350R suspension

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SVT JEDI
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As time goes on I am starting to develop a real love for photography. Still a novice with my Nikon D3300 and Lightroom.

Most recently I had the good fortune of meeting Brett Turnage of Hot Rod Magazine. The guy is a total bad ass photographer, excellent writer, and just so happens to drive a 2018 GT350R as well. Been taking some tips from him and it helped on my last shoot with the new Signature Wheel Reserved SV901 mounted. I have a satin black 19x11 square set of these in production now if anyone is interested.

Long way to go, but got really good feedback/critiques from him this last set. Enjoy!

2017 Lightning Blue GT350R
Signature Wheel Reserved SV901
Brushed Aluminum Clear
19x11/19x11.5 (21-23lbs)
305/30/19 & 325/30/19 MPSS

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Art Vandelay

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I’ve seen YouTube videos of guys editing their photos and they did spend hours on it. After watching that I decided I’ll stick with iPhone photos. But 10 minutes is doable.

Great pics. Thanks
 

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SVT JEDI
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Always been a little curious of how my car would look with a gold wheel setup. Took some pics of it setup with the Signature Wheel Reserved SV902 in Royal Gold.

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SVT JEDI
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I’ve seen YouTube videos of guys editing their photos and they did spend hours on it. After watching that I decided I’ll stick with iPhone photos. But 10 minutes is doable.

Great pics. Thanks
It is time consuming, but once you get better with the camera settings from the raw image you spend lest time in post processing it. It is a bit time consuming at first, but rewarding when you get that image you wanted. Hardest part for me is not over processing the photo.
 

5.2Leader

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The regrets I have not getting a R is ridiculous. Seeing yours makes it even worse. I have said it once and I will say it a second time the car is stupid sick! Tasteful and well done! The editing of the photos seems to be the easy part! I’m sure the detailing is where the work is at! LOL Nicely done my man! Nice.


Sent from my iPhone using svtperformance.com
 

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SVT JEDI
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[bcolor=transparent]I find myself plagued by this constant desire and urge to build a Fox body. Having started several projects in the past but never seeing them through to fruition, I decided to right that wrong. My love for the Mustang platform runs deep, and I would be remiss to forget about those models that came before. The Fox Body is one platform that we all have love for, and building a set of 4-lug wheels to showcase what can be done only seemed right. [/bcolor]
[bcolor=transparent][/bcolor]
[bcolor=transparent]The car was a simple craigslist find. Bone stock with tons of documentation, surviving paint, and a 4x4 ride height. A little persistence and patience got me the car for $5500. My goal with this car is build it to be a baby GT350R if you will. Following an OEM+ design philosophy I want to modernize the car into something streetable and trackable like the GT350R. Experiencing what a car that is a complete package with a synergistic relationship amongst the components has changed what I want out of a car.[/bcolor]
[bcolor=transparent][/bcolor]
[bcolor=transparent]Along with the fully forged Signature Wheels I have plans to give the car a full treatment with components from Griggs Racing, Baer Brakes, Carters Customs, Steeda, MGW, Trackspec and a few others. Hope to bring some write ups, reviews, installation tips, and comparisons against the GT350R along the way. [/bcolor]
[bcolor=transparent][/bcolor]
[bcolor=transparent]Here are a couple pics to get the ball rolling. [/bcolor]
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98 svt

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[bcolor=transparent]I find myself plagued by this constant desire and urge to build a Fox body. Having started several projects in the past but never seeing them through to fruition, I decided to right that wrong. My love for the Mustang platform runs deep, and I would be remiss to forget about those models that came before. The Fox Body is one platform that we all have love for, and building a set of 4-lug wheels to showcase what can be done only seemed right. [/bcolor]
[bcolor=transparent][/bcolor]
[bcolor=transparent]The car was a simple craigslist find. Bone stock with tons of documentation, surviving paint, and a 4x4 ride height. A little persistence and patience got me the car for $5500. My goal with this car is build it to be a baby GT350R if you will. Following an OEM+ design philosophy I want to modernize the car into something streetable and trackable like the GT350R. Experiencing what a car that is a complete package with a synergistic relationship amongst the components has changed what I want out of a car.[/bcolor]
[bcolor=transparent][/bcolor]
[bcolor=transparent]Along with the fully forged Signature Wheels I have plans to give the car a full treatment with components from Griggs Racing, Baer Brakes, Carters Customs, Steeda, MGW, Trackspec and a few others. Hope to bring some write ups, reviews, installation tips, and comparisons against the GT350R along the way. [/bcolor]
[bcolor=transparent][/bcolor]
[bcolor=transparent]Here are a couple pics to get the ball rolling. [/bcolor]
[bcolor=transparent][/bcolor]
[bcolor=transparent]View attachment 1556810[/bcolor]
[bcolor=transparent]View attachment 1556811[/bcolor]
[bcolor=transparent]View attachment 1556812[/bcolor]


I like it. Sounds like a great idea for a project.
 

biminiLX

never stock
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Awesome Terrance! I’m a big Foxbody fan too and looking forward to seeing what you come up with: Signature Wheels, great stance, Carbon fiber bits, quality aftermarket parts.
I’m doing my Teal ‘93 now and both our colors will look good with CF, check out this place: Maker’s Garage.
Good luck.
-J
 

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SVT JEDI
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The fox has some really good qualities about it. One of them being the surviving paint job that it has now. The body itself is very straight with only a few minor scratches and dents. The worst paint area on the car was the aftermarket hood, and it has some peeling clear coat. For some reason the previous owner decided to spray the cowl vent and windshield wipers to match the car. One of the first things I plan to change.

I bought the car at night and then stored it at my brother’s house. By the time I saw it again in the daylight it was filthy. Decided to drop the car off at Imperial Works in Sacramento to see what they can do with it. They did all the outstanding detail work on my GT350R. Told them to get to it whenever and see if it can be brought back to life. Got the call to pick the car up after a few weeks and check it out. I can say that It was definitely a happy experience. The factory paint job cleaned up extremely well for some polishing and paint correction. Ceramic coating will come later and I look forward to those results.

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SVT JEDI
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In order to make the Fox worthy of track use I know there are a plethora of areas to be addressed. In my experience it is better to learn on a slow car with a sorted suspension, than a fast car with a suspension system that is out of whack. This will be handled thanks to Griggs Racing.

While those Griggs components are being built, I am going to work on some aero, aesthetics, and reduction of heat. One of the first parts to get installed will be a Trackspec Motorsports hood vent. As seen with other Mustang models and aerodynamic testing the best location for the vent is directly behind the radiator. This helps to pull hot air up, through, and out of the radiator. At speed it will also help to prevent lift by reducing under hood pressure. I looked over some installation tips from FJD Performance about using tape to locate the spot directly behind the shroud. After some quick measurements with the template from Trackspec it was time to get cutting.

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Used a Ryobi angle grinder with a cutting wheel and some prayer to get this done. A file came in handy for those corners where you did not want to run to far. Some work with a rivet gun and the deed was done. The first cut is definitely the hardest, but once you realize you cant go back it gets easier. This hood vent is made for the S550 and based on the GT4 car. The supplied rivets are too short to go through my aftermarket hood so some longer ones had to be sourced. Looks good though.

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Working for a wheel company and playing around on track have taught me the importance of lightweight wheels to reduce unspring weight. Having a setup that is strong, stiff, provides adequate caliper clearance, has proper fitment, and leaves you with enough threads for your lug nuts is tough to find. Not to mention the lack of available wheels for the 4-lug platform. To start I will build the new Signature Wheel Reserved SV902 in a 4 lug for the car. Eventually the car will see a 5-lug swap due to my desire to run the Griggs SLA up front, but for those with no need to swap we will have some excellent custom-built options. Here is a peek at what is coming. You will notice the front is not concave due to the amount of protrusion from the front hub/bearing on the fox. A concave wheel will not allow the front center cap to fit. However, these will be a direct bolt on to any 4-lug car, wont require any modification, and the front center cap will fit. Not to mention weighing only 20-22lbs in an 18x9 / 18x10.

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SVT JEDI
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The Fox is not an inherently aerodynamic vehicle. Inbound to help with some of those issues are components from Carters Customs. The owner Adam Carter is an engineer by trade and does an excellent job making all of these parts himself. Install on these cannot come soon enough. The car will see his front splitter, fender vents, rear diffuser, side skirts (once developed) and a Steeda Aero Spoiler.

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On the subject of aerodynamics I also was able to get a set of custom LED intake lights made courtesy of Stuart Gaskins of Premium Fuel Mag. These were created and developed as an idea to get more air flow into the radiator and liven up the front end of the car. They are out of production but some persuasion made it possible to get another set built for my car. They operate a white LED during normal operation and flash orange like a turn signal. Cant wait to get them. Part of my plan to build the car as a complete package is modernization of the systems.

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