how much would a shop typically charge to install a torque converter? or is it something that can be done at home with a lot of work?

 

yes, you can do it at home without much work. get car way up in the air, remove driveshaft, unbolt tranny crossmember (or mount) and loosen engine mounts while supporting both with jacks. lower the tranny so you can get all of the trany bolts removed. remove the starter. through the starter hole (or if there is a removable section of the tranny plate) remove the 4? nuts that secure the converter to the flexplate/flywheel. disconnect all linkages, sensors, etc that go onto the tranny. slide tranny out. slide converter out of tranny. reverse for assembly. im not sure if you will have to drain ur tranny fluid lines. it depends on it you can get enough room moving the tranny with the lines connected. i havent done this to a stock stang, i have done it to mine (c4 tranny, tiny bit different).

if im wrong, please correct me!

 

how high would i need to get the car in the air? i dont have a lift, but i'd rather do it myself to save some money of course.

 

the higher the better! im sure 4 good jack stands will work.

 

just high enough so u can crawl under it and have plenty of space to work and wiggle around. you can easilt get enough space with a floor jack and some jack stands

 

this is gonna be off topic, but how much would it cost to get a car re-painted to it's original color. (91-93 lx,94-95 gt) and are more popular paints like black,or silver less expensive than other colors. also, is it cheaper to get it re-painted it's original color or change it to something of your liking (i.e. black,red) i don't want a show-car paint job just something decently nice. around a grand or so.

 

some colors will be more expensive, depending on what its made of. but it wont cost you any more to change the color. call around to local shps to get prices. if u have connections u can usually get one for pretty cheap.

 

if you do this..make sure you replace the transmission front seal and look hard at the rear engine seal....also make sure you lube the seal or 'vertor shaft a tad....replace your convertor bolts with some grade 8 or 10 bolts..look at flywheel for cracks and missing teeth