When the 35th Anniversary Mustang came out, we went stupid. Several folks in our office desperately tried to find ways, short of living in the car or a cardboard box, to get their hands on one of the cars. The GT sporting the scoops-side and hood-as well as the cool honeycomb rear appliqu and other custom appointments were all the rage. Tech Editor Houlahan even went so far as to make the Silver press photo car the background on his work PC. I personally sat in the office and looked longingly at the brochure for several days.
In fact, it got so bad, much time was spent by yours truly and spouse at the Ford dealership seeing what could be done to make one at home in our garage. After she let me down gently by informing me that our next new ride would be a four-door (shudder), I sighed and realized that we would miss a neat piece of Ford marketing and Mustang history.
The nice thing is that you don't have to. Just about everything is out there to make an Anniversary Mustang-not that we are recommending that. But we will say that some of those parts sure look cool on a '98-'01. So, with that in mind, we decided to visit Mustang Central and watch as Allen Shepley dressed out a '99 GT with a hot scoop.
Kar Kraft Engineering has several options for those of you who want a scoop on your '99-'01 Mustang. In fact, Kar Kraft has several cool items to dress out your GT or V-6. The scoops we mentioned are all available, including those that come on the '01 GT.
The 35th Anniversary scoop also has ram air available. The price for this cool air setup is $569 with the scoop. Here's how it works: A vacuum-actuated door opens in the hoodscoop to gulp cool, fresh air from the outside while the new air-cleaner pressure box shuts off all other air sources! A cooler, denser air charge passes through the supplied K&N filter straight to the throttle body!
The system includes:Modified 35th Anniversary hoodscoop (unpainted), "RAM AIR" hood stripe graphics, underhood air plenum with vacuum-actuated flapper door system, three-stage water entrapment system, and new vacuum-controlled air-cleaner pressure box with a K&N filter. Look for an install on this product soon.
The hood pad will have to...
The hood pad will have to be removed. The factory 35th Anniversary cars have holes in the pad for the studs. The nonscoop hood pad does not have the holes, nor do we recommend you putting them in.
The pad should be removed...
The pad should be removed from the hood. Allen Shepley uses these neat pliers to remove the plugs. It's also a good idea to hit the Ford dealership for some new plugs. Sometimes removal will strip the teeth off of the plug.
Shepley places the hoodscoop...
Shepley places the hoodscoop on the hood for position. This process would be easier had we ordered the scoop kit from Kar Kraft Engineering. Kar Kraft's scoop, available in factory blems for roughly $129 or as a "matte black, open Anniversary Scoop" for $199 comes with a pattern. When you buy the scoop from Ford, you get just that-the scoop.
Since our scoop was a Ford...
Since our scoop was a Ford part, we had to measure the entire setup. Shepley is seen here measuring from the front locator stud to the rear locator stud.
Next, Shepley measures across...
Next, Shepley measures across and down the hood from where his original "eyeball" marks were. Once he's satisfied that the scoop is in the right location, he'll mark the spots for the drill.
The marks are made with a...
The marks are made with a China Marker. Before the holes are drilled, these are double-checked again. Remember, it's better to mark and measure twice and cut once.
Now the drilling begins. The...
Now the drilling begins. The folks at Kar Kraft Engineering told us that the 35th Anniversary scoop is KISS principle, compared to the '01 scoop. From what they told us, the new car scoop requires 11 holes to be drilled, while the Anniversary scoop has only two.