Photos by: the author
We Make Project True Blue Just a Bit Safer with the Help of JTK Motorsports
Over the course of the last several moths, we brought you the saga of Project True Blue, our 2001 Mustang GT convertible. It was a car that we picked up almost a year ago today, and it’s been a slowly-but-surely progressing project over the course of the last several months.
Looking to take the car from a stock, left-for-dead New Edge, to a streetable and track-focused Mustang, there are going to be some serious upgrades in store for it. More power, upgraded suspension and building on the braking system we’ve already put into place, are going to be chief among the parts recipe.
However, a mistake many racers make is overlooking safety. Sure, most of a helmet, and maybe a safety harness or two, but how serous are we taking fire safety? We’ve seen one too many Stangs burst into flames on the dragstrip, road course and even in the garage to simply ignore having a fire extinguisher at the ready.
You may be thinking, “Great, but where am I supposed to put a fire extinguisher, without it bouncing around in my cabin or having it become a flying projectile in the case of a rollover or an accident?” We’re glad you’ve asked.
Under SKU-M9904, you can order this fire extinguisher mount for your ’99-04 Mustang. Despite that all ’94-04 Mustangs are SN95 cars, there is a difference in the seats and the way they mount into the car. As a result, there are two different designs that will span that generation of Mustang, with this one being specific to the ’99-04 New Edge. As with each JTK Motorsports fire extinguisher bracket, the hardware is included. This is what we’ll be installing into True Blue for this story.
Our good friends over at JTK Motorsports have been answering that call to action in recent years, with their simple, bolt-in fire extinguisher mount. Initially only offered for Fox Body owners, Jason Franklin, the company’s founder, has been vastly expanding to other markets, namely SN95, New Edge, S197 and S550 Mustangs. He’s also reaching out to ’83-88 Thunderbird and Merkur XR4Ti owners as well.
Looking to get a better understanding of how they install, operate and help save the lives of the cars they’re mounted to and their occupants, we went directly to the source. Being located in our own home state of Ohio, we hit the highway and paid Jason & Co. a visit. Not only is Jason the founder of one of the coolest startups for Mustang owners out there, but he’s quite the SVO enthusiast. You may have seen his Mustang on these pages here before, and he offers a few products for those cars, too.
Each extinguisher bracket is designed, manufactured, painted and shipped from Ohio. They’ll generally all arrive in your door bubble wrapped like this, in a box, with everything you need. Each JTK Motorsports extinguisher mount retails for $45, a bargain compared to the investment that is your car (and your life!).
Here’s the side-by-side shot of ’99-04 New Edge (left) and the ’94-98 SN95 (right) extinguisher mount bracket. Jason tells us that the SN95 bracket is very similar to what you what get if you ordered the Fox Body bracket, based on the design of both the seat and at the bracket.
This is the bracket for your S197 Mustang. This will fit all version of S197 from 2005-14, and is also an easy-to-install direct bolt-in.
If you’re an owner of a 2015+ S550, you’ll be ordering SKU-1518. Unlike the other extinguisher mounts from JTK, that mount behind the driver’s seat, this one mounts in the trunk. As Jason tells us, “It’s the only practical place for one of these to go in an S550, as the rear footwell doesn’t allow for enough foot room for the rear passengers.”
Tore up front seats… stained carpeting… all areas we’ll ultimately address in due time, but until we cross that bridge, let’s ensure that we take the precautionary measures for a fire. After all, we are just now tearing into the car and anything can still go wrong, even at this point.
We start the install by removing the factory mounting bolts in the seat. Removing the seat isn’t necessary, as the brakes mounts right into the two exiting holes.
These are the stock bolts that help hold our factory seat in place. They came out with relative easy, and won’t be going back in.
Without having to remove the seat, you simple mount the JTK bracket in place, and screw in the new bolts that are provided.
Next, screw in the locking clasps for the extinguisher.
With the extinguisher in place, all you have to do is lock both claps to secure it. The bracket can hold all extinguishers, from a 1-lb., to a 2.5-lb. bottle.
Here’s what the finished product looks like, fully installed and with a 2.5-lb MaxOut fire extinguisher in place. It’s easy to access, easy to remove and there when you need it, without rolling around in the cabin, wedged under the seat or missing entirely. It also eliminates the blind spot on the A-pillar, where so many enthusiasts typically choose to mount them. It’s cheap insurance for your car and its passengers, and a no-brainer for everythign from a show car to a high-horsepowered race car.
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