Green Party
LMR builds up a Two-Valve New Edge for street/strip duty
By Steve Turner
Photos courtesy of Late Model Restoration
If you’ve been on the Mustang scene for a while, you know that Late Model Restoration got its start offering restoration parts and upgrades for Fox Mustangs. Over the years, the company has expanded all the way up to the most current Mustangs and everything thing in between.
Along the way LMR has built many Mustang project cars. One of its most recent builds is for the in-between crowd—owners of 1999-2004 New Edge Mustangs. The company is turning a 1999 Mustang GT, dubbed Project Green Bean, into a street/strip machine. So far the build is four stages deep and coming along nicely.
“Stage one consisted primarily of front suspension components from Team Z and Strange Engineering,” Landon Durham of Late Model Restoration explained. “The factory K-member was yanked out and in its place went the Team Z tubular K-member. The fit and finish was spot on and no modifications were needed.
While the they were at it, the LMR crew also upgraded the exhaust with a set of Flowmaster short-tube headers. You can see the first phase of the project here…
[video=youtube;iXfoAJGHZUY]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXfoAJGHZUY[/video]
As the project progressed, LMR moved from the suspension and exhaust to some upgrades for the transmission and chassis.
“The converter is a solid chunk of awesomeness and should really help chip away at our 60-foot times. Likewise with the valvebody kit; it will help with firmer, more responsive shifts and even helps prolong transmission life,” Landon enthused. “After all, ol’ Green Bean has about 160,000 miles on her, so anything to keep it working, we’re game. To help keep the transmission a little cooler since we went with an aggressive stall speed in the converter, a Derale universal transmission cooler fit the bill.”
Watch the tranny upgrades and tubular bumper support installs in the second video in the series…
[video=youtube;S64rm-DCigg]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S64rm-DCigg[/video]
In the third segment of the build, LMR performed some major upgrades, finishing off the exhaust and completely revamping the rear suspension for drag strip duty.
“Project Green Bean has reached Stage 3 of the build. Which covers the rear suspension components and finishes off the exhaust.,” Landon said. “This one took up some time, but for the most part everything went together extremely well. On that note, let’s check it out…”
[video=youtube;OMITResd43o]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMITResd43o[/video]
In Stage 4 of the build, LMR proceeded with some steering improvements courtesy of Flaming River and Team Z. PGB also scored some a manual brake conversion from Maximum Motorsports and some beefier rearend parts courtesy of Strange Engineering. Check it out…
[video=youtube;qtE2wYvUsZc]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtE2wYvUsZc[/video]
The company added a fifth installment covering the car’s 5.4 engine swap and supporting hardware...
[video=youtube;aykUWyWy19w]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aykUWyWy19w[/video]
This was not the final stage of this build. With brake,exhaust, rearend and suspension mods in place, LMR can begin to upgrade other areas, including the engine, so stay tuned for more on this New Edge build.
Late Model Restoration is going all out on one of its latest projects—a street/strip build of a 1999 Mustang GT. You can follow the Project Green Bean build updates on the company’s video channels, but so far it’s looking good.
