Got the car clay bared and debadged.

[95_Mystique]

it may be a 13 year old car, but it only has 102K on it and its run on full synthetic oil. does that make it any better? also, the cams from advance auto are crane cams. from what i know, they're good cams. what if i were to get the mild grind cams?

 

[hotdimmes]

The outlines of your badges is the direct result of wax/impurities that have built up over the past 13 years. That, or it's clearcoat. In either case, good luck getting it off. I never did. It doesn't show in normal photographs and you have to look really hard anyways.

Ugh, same thing with my ding guards and lettering, it's even more pronounced on dark cars! You can't usually tell, but in the right lighting it looks awful! Almost want to put the ding guards back on!

 

[blu_fuz]

A little wet sand on the emblem spots should take the edge down a bit.
And what is wrong with giving a 13yr old car some balls? :shrug:

Want to see the balls in my '95?

Mod your car if you plan on keeping it for a long time. If it is just a "halfway" car, stop it. Just make it look good. Get chrome wheels and no one will expect you to go fast. Tell them it's a "slow ride"

 

[AliasJerk]

Here she is debadged. not 100% happy though. forgot the car was wrecked and it lookes like they put the emblems back on the car too soon after repainting and it left indents...

Every contour/mystique does that, I have de-badged 6 contours, and every one left that indent UNLESS it had recently been repainted.

If you have a wheel and some extra fine rubbing compound, along with a scratch and swirl filler and some extra wax laying around, you can fix it. Takes about 10 minutes at a medium RPM with the wheel and some extra fine rubbing compound, use the scratch and swirl filler to fill the swirls you will make by using the wheel, then finnish it off with a couple coats of wax, will look brand new again.

If I were you, I'd get a UDP. Good value, and super easy to install. Honestly no need for racing cams. Besides, I don't know if I'd trust racing cams from Advance Auto :help:

just be sure to replace the crank shaft bolt when you change the pulley, IIRC the Crank pulley bolt is TTY, and if reused could walk itself out, makes for less hassle later on. I reused the crank bolt when I did my timing belt on me 99SE, never had an issue, but you never know if it will be a problem or not.

 

[blu_fuz]

just be sure to replace the crank shaft bolt when you change the pulley, IIRC the Crank pulley bolt is TTY, and if reused could walk itself out, makes for less hassle later on. I reused the crank bolt when I did my timing belt on me 99SE, never had an issue, but you never know if it will be a problem or not.

A little high temp black RTV on the bottom of the bolt head and washer should help eliminate the bolt walking out also

 

[LauraSVT]

I pegged this as an Aerostar without seeing the picture that makes it obvious. A little victory for the day. :laugh:

 

[Pre98]

Want to see the balls in my '95?

Big difference when you have a standard in that beast of yours

 

[Pre98]

it may be a 13 year old car, but it only has 102K on it and its run on full synthetic oil. does that make it any better? also, the cams from advance auto are crane cams. from what i know, they're good cams. what if i were to get the mild grind cams?

I'm just not thinking cams are the answer for what you want, man. Just my opinion.

 

[AliasJerk]

I just looked up the crane cams, they are pretty much a stock replacement, if you wanted a high performance cam you have to get the competition cams, which will boost some power, but you also will need to get a tune to allocate the appropriate A/F ratios for the different lift on the cams.

its going to be more then $350 to make it reliable and worth your while, do little mods here and there if you want more power, zorrex said a UDP would be a good idea; hes right... Also look into a header, and deleting the EGR system (also will require a tune).

Seriously modding to get lots of power is more pricey then $50 here and there. Its a domino effect, every action has an opposite reaction. If a lot more power for low cost is what you want, sell your Mystique and buy an SE sport contour, or an SVT (they are getting that cheap). Your mystique is nice and clean, and fairly low mileage; you probably could get in the 2 grand region for it, around here I see low mileage 98+ SE sport contours with 5 speeds going for $2K. (Obviously this is the easy way out).

 

[Smalls]

yes, you're young and want to go mod crazy with your cars. but you have to stop and think. there are other fish in the sea. i bought my black svt and went absolutely crazy with it. i found a silver svt for cheap in the classifieds. i picked it up as a DD. now im wishing i didnt spend all that money in the black car. you will never have a fast 95 mystique. yes, you can make it quick, but i dont see it beating a mustang GT anytime soon. if its power you want, you are barking up the wrong tree. sell the mystique and buy something with a much larger aftermarket. i hate to say it, but if you want cheap power, buy a civic! you can make those MUCH faster than an svt contour with hardly any $$$

 

[CSVT1214]

The badge marks will not go away unless your repaint the trunk. Ford pressed the badges on too soon while the clearcoat was still soft.

This same thing showed up on my Pre-98 trunk I used to have on my SVT. You could see Contour SE and the Ford oval if you looked closely. My brother's Mystique had one of the badges fall off, and I tried like hell to just clean up the trunk and leave it off. The badge adhesive was actually mixed in with the clearcoat on his car. There was no way to remove it without some wetsanding or serious polishing. In the end, I just put the badge back on in the original spot to hide it.