You will be unlikely to feel any difference in adding bracing, unless you're autocrossing or doing Lemons racing.
If you're just starting out with these cars, There's a lot that you'll want to change, but the bracing isn't it. These cars are heavy, and adding 300lbs of steel isn't going to help.
That said, Lazarus probably has 300lbs of bracing in it, lol.
Instead of that, I would recommend three mods that you will feel:
Do the PBR brake Upgrade. This runs about $250, and you buy the 2004 Mustang GT PowerStop PBR calipers from RA; you can also get drilled/slotted rotors that look cool. You will really notice the difference. These work on 15" wheels, but barely.
Read the thread on upgrading the shocks: We are working on a better front shock solution, but there are some options.
For the rear shocks, the koni's are available for the Mustangs with IRS; they are adjustable, so you can match them to the front's.
Remove the intake silencer, and fix the vacuum leaks. If you haven't replaced any, there are serious problems with the evap circuit for sure.
There are 8x 2" pieces of 1/4", and one piece of 3/8" "fuel rated vacuum hose" in that run, that starts at the Throttle body, and ends at the gas tank.
The charcoal cannister and solenoid are probably laying in the front cover, under the ail inlet.
They were in my cars...
If it has new plugs and wires, you're probably good for a while.
If the car is new to you, there are some things you'll want to do.
Get a new set of motorcraft plug wires.
Get a new set of plugs
There is a sticky in the 4.6 section with how to do that replacement.
Get a set of NTK O2 sensors, and install them in the front position, and move the ones currently in front to the rear position, unless they're wet with oil. If they have been covered with oil or coolant, replace all 4.
Clean the maf. Advanced sells maf cleaner, and the t-20 security bit to remove it.
Change the oil. Walmart or RA has the FL-820S filters for ~$350, and castrol Syntec full synthetic 5W20 or 30 oil is about $25.
Get a gallon of coolant.
Inspect the radiator lines, soft places means replace them.Gates, Motorcraft, or dayton make good hoses. Don't forget to check the heater hoses carefully.
Unless you have a tune for your car that includes a 180 degree thermostat, buy a stock thermostat. It won't run cooler by only changing the thermostat.
Don't use a K&n filter; they are hard on the maf.
Get 6 quarts of Mercon V trans fluid and a filter. Change the fluid, drop the pan, change the filter. Dorman sells a pan with a drain plug for $20, it's worth it.
You need to drop the pan the first time. The thing you are looking for is the "Secret Toy", the plug ford originally had in the dipstick plughole to keep fluid inside it on the assy line. Finding it in the pan, means the pan has never been dropped. Post up a pic of the stuff stuck to the magnet. If it's more than a thin coating of black slime, you should start looking for a 2002 gran marquis transmission, lol.
Also look for a 1993 Mark 8 driveshaft. that year only is a one piece aluminum driveshaft; ours suck, and aftermarket starts at $450.
Inspect everything under the car. Look for blown seals, bad bushings, etc.
Replace the coolant. I drain the old, and put the hose in the thermostat housing with the thermostat out, lower hose off, and let the hose run for a while.
Make sure the spark plug wells don't get filled with water, a shopvac and air blowoff tool will empty out any water.
After doing all this, your car is in a known state. When you first get one, you never know what's been done when. Now you do.
I keep a logbook for each car; that way I know the Tbird needs Mustang brake pads, as does Lazarus, but the red Cougar is stock.
You can get PBR calipers at the jy, but rebuilt, powdercoated ones are almost as cheap. Stainless brake lines are a nice improvement to brake feel, if you do the pbr's.
If you find a 93 mark DS, get the rear lower control arms. They're aluminum, and accept the Energy suspension poly bushings, which are stiff as fuck.
Check the balljoints in the front suspension; if the bushings are blown, you'll want to replace the UCA's and LCA's.If you replace those, do the endlinks, and the tie rod ends. I could feel a 0.1mm play in an inner tie rod...
After doing the control arms, get a 4 wheel alignment. These cars are easliy adjustable, and the settings in the article work very well.
If an alignment shop tells you they're hard to set up, get a different alignment place. Do everything on the suspension at once, so you don't have to have it aligned more than once.
Be sure to check the rear control arm bushings, esp the inner upper one; it's an alignment point for caster, and they lose the rubber as a powder when they're bad, and will have 1/4" of play, or more.
Get the suspension right, add some good brakes, and you can think about performance mods.
I have Hooned Lazarus for 500k miles. It has a bunch of mods, and feels great to me. It has PBR's, Konis, sport springs,Bracing,a PI intake, 2002 GTmaf 2004 mustang water pump, Headers, true dualMandrel bent 2.5", exhaust,Mark lca's, aluminum driveshaft, 2002 GM trans that I built, a locking diff, poly and delrin rear bushings, 255lph fuel pump, 24lb injectors, and a tune I wrote.
I got him in 1999, inherited from my dad with 28k miles on it. It's over 500k now.
