Project: Cheap thrills
04-12-2016, 11:51 AM
#1
CMOC Rookie
Thread Starter
Join Date: Apr 2016
Location: NS
Posts: 51
Project: Cheap thrills
Hello fellow Canucks!
I know project cheap thrills has probably been used many times before, but it just seems to work for me. I can be a cheap *astard, but I want it done right too. Those two things don't usually go together unless you have patience, can compromise, are creative and are ready to jump on a good deal when it happens.
I'm a bit of an older gent, but am a gearhead from a long way back. Retirement is looming just around the corner and I need a project to keep me busy. Problem is I had way to many hanging around and downsizing was needed. So I've started selling off my projects, as hard as it is. My 62 TBird is already gone and my 85 Honda interceptor is next.
I was going to get rid of the 83 mustang as well, but it seemed to me a good candidate to pull into my retirement stable as my 4 wheeled project.
I have several motorcycle projects on the go (VMax powered Yamaha venture, ratty FJ1200 on the books for a resto and my 85 V45 Interceptor), seen here this last summer in a pic before I started ripping the Venture apart:
But I need something with 4 wheels just in case because each year it gets harder and harder to ride very long. The old bod is busted up pretty good after 26 years in the military.
I've also owned the car since 1983 in one form or another which made another good reason to keep it.
It was first purchased for/with my girlfriend (who would eventually become wife #1) from a dealer in the Annapolis valley. It was a GL with 3.8 and the C5. It had a sunroof (OEM), it was red and it was a mustang, which is all the "options" she really wanted. Standard hubcaps and a black lower body band. Only thing power is the brakes and steering.
Someone (I'm guessing the dealer) had slapped a "Cobra" sticker on it in (what I'm guessing was) a marketing ploy, so the wife always thought it was a Cobra. It made her happy to think so, so I never corrected her. Pretty sure she knew it wasn't, but I don't think she cared. Later on, I carried on with the Cobra theme with 93 snake fender badges and a hatch cobra badge. Some cobra medallions from the 79-82 era found their way into the interior too.
That 3.8 was/is pretty much gutless and not exactly good on fuel either. But it was/is stone axe reliable and currently has 328,000 kms on it. We both drove it to high school and university, although I preferred my 1978 460/C6 (swapped in) Thunderbird most of the time. Through the years, I toyed on and off with trying to get the 3.8 to make more power (even had a custom intake and a 4BBL at one time), but it was a lost cause and I eventually just left it alone. I got some gains, but meager at best. Stone axe reliable was going to have to be good enough.
When we moved to Sask, the car went with us. It took us there actually. It survived -40C and +40C, although I was out in the middle of freezing cold in a snowstorm the first year to install a bloody block heater. It also survived a tornado out there!
While out west, the car began to show it's age and I had it painted. Mainly because the A pillars were rotting at the body lead in the upper pillar area, although there were also the typical problems at the pinch seams at the hatch and rear wheel wells.
It was also about this time the wife moved on to a 92 4 cyl mustang (and I thought the 3.8 was gutless! Sheesh!). She liked it, I though it was boring in both looks and performance.
After a decade of that hot/cold crap and what seemed like a yearly "plague" of some sort or another (IE: locusts, moquitos, newts, etc..Newts? seriously, newts?!?! WTF was up with that?!?), we came back east.
Shortly after, wife#1 became the "practice wife" and I moved out with the mustang in tow. I got the old mustang and my old 4 cyl S10 truck, she got the new car (to go with the new house and new daughter).
This also explains why I don't have any pictures of the mustang or the repaint prep I did: I got the car but apparently the ex decided she owned all the pictures of our previous life. I do have one pic of it from that time though. This is from about 10-12 years ago after the repaint:
Along the way it picked up an LX rear spoiler, some 10 hole rims and a console.
Shortly after, wife #2 entered the picture. She doesn't think much of fox mustangs to start with as a car to her is nothing more than an appliance and she doesn't understand liking "quirks". About the only model Mustang she would consider owning/driving is the 65 body style. She thought even less of this fox given my history with it (ex wife, honeymoon, etc, etc). But she's a good woman and understands that I like the car for what it is and doesn't give me a hard time about it hanging around or working on it. She knows I'm a tinkerer and I need something to keep me busy/occupied. She's happy I'd rather spend my spare time in the garage than out somewhere else...or drinking...or smoking....or anything else a bit on the side of "negative".
The car's engine bay has held a 302 and a 351 in it's lifetime. But when the 351 decided to blow out a window in the side of the block, I dropped in the old 3.8 that was still hanging around so I could at least move it under it's own power. By then it was mostly relegated to being a garage ornament.
When the call came to move to BC, we decided to keep our house in NS and I left the Mustang behind in the 4 bay garage next to my 62 TBird. Plan was to move back after a couple years, but we were moved to NL after BC. After 3 years there, it began to look like we were never going back, so we sold the house (two mortgages was dragging us down the hole of financial ruin) and I had the mustang and the TBird towed next door to my neighbor's field where they would both sit for almost 2 years.
Sure enough, shortly after we gave up an sold the NS house we were posted back home and I went to check on my cars:
Yup, still there. Although the Mustang had broken out with cancer in all the same old places again.
Once we were established in the new house, I made plans to get rid of one car and fix the other. I was actually planning to get rid of both. As the TBird needed serious reconstruction/rust repair, I sold it off for peanuts. I almost gave the mustang away to friend of mine who had a 351 sitting on a stand. I was pretty much at a "just get rid of it" stage as retirement is on the horizon and we're starting into that downsizing phase.
But after a couple weeks of my bud putting off picking the car up (don't have space yet, don't have time, etc), I changed my mind and decided to just keep it.
Back up to my neighbors field i went and fought with it to get it running to drive it home, but I couldn't get fuel from the tank (lines were frozen or collapsed and the fuel pump diaphragm must have been gone as it wouldn't even suck from a gas filled bottle 3 inches away). I fought with it for a few hours in the field, but when ice cold rain started to fall I said "puck it" and called for a jerr-dan to haul it home.
70 bucks later it was sitting in the driveway:
My buddy I almost gave it to dropped by to see it later that day and kicked himself all the way to his car for not grabbing it when I offered it to him. He couldn't believe it still had original floors and solid everywhere else except the rusty roof A pillars. He could have taken it right up to when it was dropped in my driveway. But once it's on my blacktop; Hands off bubba!
The Mustang is going to be a pretty slow project, picking up parts and pieces as budget and good deals allow.
All my parts leeched away over the years, so it's back to square one in that dept. The first things I collected were a V8 throttle cable assembly, a Holley 4 BBL and an 85 front fascia (40 bucks for an 85, an 87-93 front and two 87-93 rear bumpers).
I have a preference for the looks of the 85/86 over the 83/84 nose. It's my favorite mustang front, with the 83/84 a very close second place.
The moldings are also in bad shape on my 83. Not just curled, but torn and split. I may just use 85 rub strips (with the 85 nose) to the front of the front wheel well and the later style with a later model rear bumper. The wheel well may make a good enough break for the molding differences, but I' still undecided on that one. Repop 85/86 side moldings are available, but they come a little dear in price and I don't want that "GT" rear molding since mine is not a GT.
An 89 roller block showed up on Kijiji and sight unseen we settled on a price of 300 bucks.
The 89 engine was a lot more complete than i thought it would be, I was expecting not much more than a rebuild-able core:
A gent had pulled it out of an 89 Coupe he bought in Alberta, back halved the car and dropped a (IIRC) 347 in it. Nothing wrong with the 302 when he bought the car, just already had the 347 built. He oiled up the cylinders on the 302 and dropped it in his shed, intending to build another 347. Life changes sometimes and he pretty much just wanted it gone.
Only things missing are the dizzy (no good to me anyways) the throttle body (no good to me) oil dipstick tube, flywheel and exhaust manifolds.Would have liked to have the dipstick tube, flywheel and manifolds, but for 300 bucks I'm not complaining!
I sold the 87-93 lx nose while I was on the trip for 30 bucks, so my fuel was mostly paid for and that lx nose is out of my space and on to help someone out.
Also picked up my 150 dollar Edelbrock rpm air gap manifold on the same trip:
Thats gonna look some good on that roller block!
Durapspark dizzy is just up the road at a jobber, who has them in stock.
Started pulling the roller block apart and couldn't resist dropping the Edelbrock on the valley for a quick look:
Mmmmmmm yeah! That looks soooo right!
Much Better than the fuel injection stuff.
I can hear ACDC from my youth playiing in the background already......
Since my daily driving vehicles aer all auto's and the mustang is going to be a sunday fair weather fun car, I'm dropping hte C5 and going T5.
But the T5 swap is going to be a bit of a "franken-swap".
Inside is pure fox, a friend of mine gave me a clutch pedal assembly for a case of beer.
The transmission is a complete T5 from a 95 SN95 3.8 V6 that i found for 100 bucks.
Now this is where it gets a little "franken".
The transmission is coming with the 3.8 bellhousing and yup, it's the 5/8" odd longer one than the fox T5. It also means a 164 tooth flywheel.
Well the 89 302 came without a flywheel, so I'd have to buy one either way.
Since OEM fox parts are hard to source around here (gotta know someone who's got a stash somewhere) and shipping stuff like bellhousings and such is super expensive (not to mention exchange rates if ordering out of the states), I'm going to make do with the 3.8 housing.
Bolts up to the 302, no worries there.
EBay turns up a cheap cheap cheap 3.8 engine/trans spacer plate for a T5 so I grab it.
Now I need a 164 tooth flywheel with the 50 oz balance weighting. A dig around google turns up several sources and then comparison of specs leads me to order one from an 89 f-150 5.0 5 speed truck. Same year as my 302 so it will bolt to the crank, 164 tooth gear, and it is the 50 oz balance weight.
It also uses an 11" clutch disc instead of the fox 10.5 inch. I'll order that later on, but the 89 f-150 clutch has the same 10 spline and clutch spring fingers, so I should be good there.
The shifter will set back in the car about 1/2-5/8", but that's no big deal. My reach is a little short so a shifter a little closer is no big deal.
A little sheet metal trimming will handle any other problems. I'm redoing all the upholstery so making it neat will just be a part of that.
So that's the meat of the C5/T5 swap sorted out. I'll still need to get things like pilot bearings, bolts, etc, possibly a starter and maybe deal with the drive shaft length, but that's all just part of the game when keeping hte costs down.
It also sets me up to swap in a 99+ 3.8 t5 with the 300 ft/lb rating and I won't have to pay the premium everybody seems to want for a "V8 T5". 265 will do just fine for now thank-you-very-much.
All said an done, the T5 swap should only cost me just a bit over 200 bucks (little more if you count the case of beer, of which I'll probably end up drinking a couple!) if I don't have to chop the driveshaft.
I wanted to get rid of both the air pump and the AC compressor on the 89. Useless in the 83 as the car is fairly "base" and it's going to stay that way.
What's that you say? They offer an AC delete kit that relocates the PS pump? I'll order one up thank you, how much will that be?
WHAT?!?! 120 bucks shipped?!?!?
No way bro! I paid less for my T5!
So a little wrenching, fitting and friggin around gets me to where I want to be without spending a dime:
I have a little work to do on the mill with a couple brackets and spacers, a touch of shaving on the big main bracket, relocate one bolt hole for the pump to bracket mount and then rework the big steel front bracket to support the bottom of the big pump bracket.
But that's just time, not money. Time I have lots of.
And that's pretty much where it sits today. I'm pretty pleased as it looks like the car is going to get a roller block 302 and T5 conversion done for right around a grand, give or take a little bit.
Then it's on to brakes, suspension and body work.
More to come as it happens.
I know project cheap thrills has probably been used many times before, but it just seems to work for me. I can be a cheap *astard, but I want it done right too. Those two things don't usually go together unless you have patience, can compromise, are creative and are ready to jump on a good deal when it happens.
I'm a bit of an older gent, but am a gearhead from a long way back. Retirement is looming just around the corner and I need a project to keep me busy. Problem is I had way to many hanging around and downsizing was needed. So I've started selling off my projects, as hard as it is. My 62 TBird is already gone and my 85 Honda interceptor is next.
I was going to get rid of the 83 mustang as well, but it seemed to me a good candidate to pull into my retirement stable as my 4 wheeled project.
I have several motorcycle projects on the go (VMax powered Yamaha venture, ratty FJ1200 on the books for a resto and my 85 V45 Interceptor), seen here this last summer in a pic before I started ripping the Venture apart:
But I need something with 4 wheels just in case because each year it gets harder and harder to ride very long. The old bod is busted up pretty good after 26 years in the military.
I've also owned the car since 1983 in one form or another which made another good reason to keep it.
It was first purchased for/with my girlfriend (who would eventually become wife #1) from a dealer in the Annapolis valley. It was a GL with 3.8 and the C5. It had a sunroof (OEM), it was red and it was a mustang, which is all the "options" she really wanted. Standard hubcaps and a black lower body band. Only thing power is the brakes and steering.
Someone (I'm guessing the dealer) had slapped a "Cobra" sticker on it in (what I'm guessing was) a marketing ploy, so the wife always thought it was a Cobra. It made her happy to think so, so I never corrected her. Pretty sure she knew it wasn't, but I don't think she cared. Later on, I carried on with the Cobra theme with 93 snake fender badges and a hatch cobra badge. Some cobra medallions from the 79-82 era found their way into the interior too.
That 3.8 was/is pretty much gutless and not exactly good on fuel either. But it was/is stone axe reliable and currently has 328,000 kms on it. We both drove it to high school and university, although I preferred my 1978 460/C6 (swapped in) Thunderbird most of the time. Through the years, I toyed on and off with trying to get the 3.8 to make more power (even had a custom intake and a 4BBL at one time), but it was a lost cause and I eventually just left it alone. I got some gains, but meager at best. Stone axe reliable was going to have to be good enough.
When we moved to Sask, the car went with us. It took us there actually. It survived -40C and +40C, although I was out in the middle of freezing cold in a snowstorm the first year to install a bloody block heater. It also survived a tornado out there!
While out west, the car began to show it's age and I had it painted. Mainly because the A pillars were rotting at the body lead in the upper pillar area, although there were also the typical problems at the pinch seams at the hatch and rear wheel wells.
It was also about this time the wife moved on to a 92 4 cyl mustang (and I thought the 3.8 was gutless! Sheesh!). She liked it, I though it was boring in both looks and performance.
After a decade of that hot/cold crap and what seemed like a yearly "plague" of some sort or another (IE: locusts, moquitos, newts, etc..Newts? seriously, newts?!?! WTF was up with that?!?), we came back east.
Shortly after, wife#1 became the "practice wife" and I moved out with the mustang in tow. I got the old mustang and my old 4 cyl S10 truck, she got the new car (to go with the new house and new daughter).
This also explains why I don't have any pictures of the mustang or the repaint prep I did: I got the car but apparently the ex decided she owned all the pictures of our previous life. I do have one pic of it from that time though. This is from about 10-12 years ago after the repaint:
Along the way it picked up an LX rear spoiler, some 10 hole rims and a console.
Shortly after, wife #2 entered the picture. She doesn't think much of fox mustangs to start with as a car to her is nothing more than an appliance and she doesn't understand liking "quirks". About the only model Mustang she would consider owning/driving is the 65 body style. She thought even less of this fox given my history with it (ex wife, honeymoon, etc, etc). But she's a good woman and understands that I like the car for what it is and doesn't give me a hard time about it hanging around or working on it. She knows I'm a tinkerer and I need something to keep me busy/occupied. She's happy I'd rather spend my spare time in the garage than out somewhere else...or drinking...or smoking....or anything else a bit on the side of "negative".
The car's engine bay has held a 302 and a 351 in it's lifetime. But when the 351 decided to blow out a window in the side of the block, I dropped in the old 3.8 that was still hanging around so I could at least move it under it's own power. By then it was mostly relegated to being a garage ornament.
When the call came to move to BC, we decided to keep our house in NS and I left the Mustang behind in the 4 bay garage next to my 62 TBird. Plan was to move back after a couple years, but we were moved to NL after BC. After 3 years there, it began to look like we were never going back, so we sold the house (two mortgages was dragging us down the hole of financial ruin) and I had the mustang and the TBird towed next door to my neighbor's field where they would both sit for almost 2 years.
Sure enough, shortly after we gave up an sold the NS house we were posted back home and I went to check on my cars:
Yup, still there. Although the Mustang had broken out with cancer in all the same old places again.
Once we were established in the new house, I made plans to get rid of one car and fix the other. I was actually planning to get rid of both. As the TBird needed serious reconstruction/rust repair, I sold it off for peanuts. I almost gave the mustang away to friend of mine who had a 351 sitting on a stand. I was pretty much at a "just get rid of it" stage as retirement is on the horizon and we're starting into that downsizing phase.
But after a couple weeks of my bud putting off picking the car up (don't have space yet, don't have time, etc), I changed my mind and decided to just keep it.
Back up to my neighbors field i went and fought with it to get it running to drive it home, but I couldn't get fuel from the tank (lines were frozen or collapsed and the fuel pump diaphragm must have been gone as it wouldn't even suck from a gas filled bottle 3 inches away). I fought with it for a few hours in the field, but when ice cold rain started to fall I said "puck it" and called for a jerr-dan to haul it home.
70 bucks later it was sitting in the driveway:
My buddy I almost gave it to dropped by to see it later that day and kicked himself all the way to his car for not grabbing it when I offered it to him. He couldn't believe it still had original floors and solid everywhere else except the rusty roof A pillars. He could have taken it right up to when it was dropped in my driveway. But once it's on my blacktop; Hands off bubba!
The Mustang is going to be a pretty slow project, picking up parts and pieces as budget and good deals allow.
All my parts leeched away over the years, so it's back to square one in that dept. The first things I collected were a V8 throttle cable assembly, a Holley 4 BBL and an 85 front fascia (40 bucks for an 85, an 87-93 front and two 87-93 rear bumpers).
I have a preference for the looks of the 85/86 over the 83/84 nose. It's my favorite mustang front, with the 83/84 a very close second place.
The moldings are also in bad shape on my 83. Not just curled, but torn and split. I may just use 85 rub strips (with the 85 nose) to the front of the front wheel well and the later style with a later model rear bumper. The wheel well may make a good enough break for the molding differences, but I' still undecided on that one. Repop 85/86 side moldings are available, but they come a little dear in price and I don't want that "GT" rear molding since mine is not a GT.
An 89 roller block showed up on Kijiji and sight unseen we settled on a price of 300 bucks.
The 89 engine was a lot more complete than i thought it would be, I was expecting not much more than a rebuild-able core:
A gent had pulled it out of an 89 Coupe he bought in Alberta, back halved the car and dropped a (IIRC) 347 in it. Nothing wrong with the 302 when he bought the car, just already had the 347 built. He oiled up the cylinders on the 302 and dropped it in his shed, intending to build another 347. Life changes sometimes and he pretty much just wanted it gone.
Only things missing are the dizzy (no good to me anyways) the throttle body (no good to me) oil dipstick tube, flywheel and exhaust manifolds.Would have liked to have the dipstick tube, flywheel and manifolds, but for 300 bucks I'm not complaining!
I sold the 87-93 lx nose while I was on the trip for 30 bucks, so my fuel was mostly paid for and that lx nose is out of my space and on to help someone out.
Also picked up my 150 dollar Edelbrock rpm air gap manifold on the same trip:
Thats gonna look some good on that roller block!
Durapspark dizzy is just up the road at a jobber, who has them in stock.
Started pulling the roller block apart and couldn't resist dropping the Edelbrock on the valley for a quick look:
Mmmmmmm yeah! That looks soooo right!
Much Better than the fuel injection stuff.
I can hear ACDC from my youth playiing in the background already......
Since my daily driving vehicles aer all auto's and the mustang is going to be a sunday fair weather fun car, I'm dropping hte C5 and going T5.
But the T5 swap is going to be a bit of a "franken-swap".
Inside is pure fox, a friend of mine gave me a clutch pedal assembly for a case of beer.
The transmission is a complete T5 from a 95 SN95 3.8 V6 that i found for 100 bucks.
Now this is where it gets a little "franken".
The transmission is coming with the 3.8 bellhousing and yup, it's the 5/8" odd longer one than the fox T5. It also means a 164 tooth flywheel.
Well the 89 302 came without a flywheel, so I'd have to buy one either way.
Since OEM fox parts are hard to source around here (gotta know someone who's got a stash somewhere) and shipping stuff like bellhousings and such is super expensive (not to mention exchange rates if ordering out of the states), I'm going to make do with the 3.8 housing.
Bolts up to the 302, no worries there.
EBay turns up a cheap cheap cheap 3.8 engine/trans spacer plate for a T5 so I grab it.
Now I need a 164 tooth flywheel with the 50 oz balance weighting. A dig around google turns up several sources and then comparison of specs leads me to order one from an 89 f-150 5.0 5 speed truck. Same year as my 302 so it will bolt to the crank, 164 tooth gear, and it is the 50 oz balance weight.
It also uses an 11" clutch disc instead of the fox 10.5 inch. I'll order that later on, but the 89 f-150 clutch has the same 10 spline and clutch spring fingers, so I should be good there.
The shifter will set back in the car about 1/2-5/8", but that's no big deal. My reach is a little short so a shifter a little closer is no big deal.
A little sheet metal trimming will handle any other problems. I'm redoing all the upholstery so making it neat will just be a part of that.
So that's the meat of the C5/T5 swap sorted out. I'll still need to get things like pilot bearings, bolts, etc, possibly a starter and maybe deal with the drive shaft length, but that's all just part of the game when keeping hte costs down.
It also sets me up to swap in a 99+ 3.8 t5 with the 300 ft/lb rating and I won't have to pay the premium everybody seems to want for a "V8 T5". 265 will do just fine for now thank-you-very-much.
All said an done, the T5 swap should only cost me just a bit over 200 bucks (little more if you count the case of beer, of which I'll probably end up drinking a couple!) if I don't have to chop the driveshaft.
I wanted to get rid of both the air pump and the AC compressor on the 89. Useless in the 83 as the car is fairly "base" and it's going to stay that way.
What's that you say? They offer an AC delete kit that relocates the PS pump? I'll order one up thank you, how much will that be?
WHAT?!?! 120 bucks shipped?!?!?
No way bro! I paid less for my T5!
So a little wrenching, fitting and friggin around gets me to where I want to be without spending a dime:
I have a little work to do on the mill with a couple brackets and spacers, a touch of shaving on the big main bracket, relocate one bolt hole for the pump to bracket mount and then rework the big steel front bracket to support the bottom of the big pump bracket.
But that's just time, not money. Time I have lots of.
And that's pretty much where it sits today. I'm pretty pleased as it looks like the car is going to get a roller block 302 and T5 conversion done for right around a grand, give or take a little bit.
Then it's on to brakes, suspension and body work.
More to come as it happens.
Last edited by Great white; 04-12-2016 at 01:55 PM.
04-14-2016, 06:51 PM
#5
CMOC Rookie
Thread Starter
Join Date: Apr 2016
Location: NS
Posts: 51
well, I've got everything I need to drop the 302 and T5 in the car. Clutch and pressure plate were the last pieces. Came as a kit with pilot bearing, throwout bearing and an alignment tool
All I'm missing is the 1985 5.0 HO duraspark distributor.
I found rock auto can bring it in cheaper than the local Napa by about 70-85 bucks CAD.
I ordered my clutch through rockauto as they stated there were supposed to be no additional charges (IE: taxes, duties, brokerage, etc). If the clutch gets here extra charge free, I'll probably order the distr from them also. 170 bucks plus tax from Napa, 70 bucks plus 16 bucks shipping (+HST) from RA.
Some of my boys are going on "HP this" and "brand name that" and that I'm wasting money on some generic parts. But right now I just want it together and running. The expensive bits will come later down the road once it's a runner and I can at least have a little fu with it before I get too much money sunk into it.
Looked a little closer at the floors today. I though the drivers side was just surface rust, but it's gone. Look right through the floor gone. Apparently there is a leak somewhere (I'm hoping no the cowl plenum) that has kept the carpet soaked these last two years outside. I'm sort of hoping it was the pile of wet tree junk I pulled out of the plenum around the air bell letting water wick up and drip in.
I despise rust repair, but at leat it's just the floor. It's not into the inner rocker or the door pillar. The rest of the floor pan is rock solid, still has the orignal paint even.
I'm not driving this year anyways, so I'll just cut the cancerous parts out, give them a coat of paint to stop further rust and deal with the floor hole later down the road. I'll have to make sure I find where the water is getting in and at least plug it up somehow.
All I'm missing is the 1985 5.0 HO duraspark distributor.
I found rock auto can bring it in cheaper than the local Napa by about 70-85 bucks CAD.
I ordered my clutch through rockauto as they stated there were supposed to be no additional charges (IE: taxes, duties, brokerage, etc). If the clutch gets here extra charge free, I'll probably order the distr from them also. 170 bucks plus tax from Napa, 70 bucks plus 16 bucks shipping (+HST) from RA.
Some of my boys are going on "HP this" and "brand name that" and that I'm wasting money on some generic parts. But right now I just want it together and running. The expensive bits will come later down the road once it's a runner and I can at least have a little fu with it before I get too much money sunk into it.
Looked a little closer at the floors today. I though the drivers side was just surface rust, but it's gone. Look right through the floor gone. Apparently there is a leak somewhere (I'm hoping no the cowl plenum) that has kept the carpet soaked these last two years outside. I'm sort of hoping it was the pile of wet tree junk I pulled out of the plenum around the air bell letting water wick up and drip in.
I despise rust repair, but at leat it's just the floor. It's not into the inner rocker or the door pillar. The rest of the floor pan is rock solid, still has the orignal paint even.
I'm not driving this year anyways, so I'll just cut the cancerous parts out, give them a coat of paint to stop further rust and deal with the floor hole later down the road. I'll have to make sure I find where the water is getting in and at least plug it up somehow.
Last edited by Great white; 04-14-2016 at 07:02 PM.
04-18-2016, 02:56 PM
#7
CMOC Rookie
Thread Starter
Join Date: Apr 2016
Location: NS
Posts: 51
so now I have a distributor and starter coming from rockauto and a front cover and mechanical pump eccentric from a private seller.
I also have a set of BBK longtubes and BBK H pipe on the way from a member here on the board.
Looks like I've got the fuel injection stuff sold to a local guy.
Out tonight to pick up a used engine stand. It's a "powerfist" (princess auto) a guy has local for 40 bucks. My ex wife decided I didn't need to come back and pick up my old one when we split about 10 years ago.
Meh, I can live with 40 bucks for an engine stand. i can unload it for hte same amount after I'm done with it if I want (prob keep it though, I'm a tool hoarder). I mostly want the stand just so I can get the 89 engine off the floor and move it around while I work on it, clean it and give it a fresh shot of Ford corporate blue before dropping it in the 83...
I also have a set of BBK longtubes and BBK H pipe on the way from a member here on the board.
Looks like I've got the fuel injection stuff sold to a local guy.
Out tonight to pick up a used engine stand. It's a "powerfist" (princess auto) a guy has local for 40 bucks. My ex wife decided I didn't need to come back and pick up my old one when we split about 10 years ago.
Meh, I can live with 40 bucks for an engine stand. i can unload it for hte same amount after I'm done with it if I want (prob keep it though, I'm a tool hoarder). I mostly want the stand just so I can get the 89 engine off the floor and move it around while I work on it, clean it and give it a fresh shot of Ford corporate blue before dropping it in the 83...
