The Black Pearl - Progress Thread
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hey, dont knock the cheep s-10's till you see the beauty im picking up tonight for 4 bills!
I own one and I love the thing. So does my son. It's a fun little truck.
They are good little trucks and I also see where Dave is comming from. When I was driving my Cobra every day to work it became less special and fun. Now the Pearl isnt the car the Notch is but its pretty damn close. Driving it every day would make the toy car a little less fun cause you are driving the same basic thing still.
Yeah he has done allot of work to it but has also made the car worth more than double what it was. If he can sell it on a day when its not acting up then he could get some decient coin for a clean old Fox with working A/C 
The S series are good little trucks too. My aunt bought her S-15 brand new in 85 with a 2.8 V-6 and an auto. After 14 years and 140,000 miles the only part EVER replaced was the A/C compressor at 138,000 miles. Truck never even wore its brake pads out. Was one hell of a little truck. Gutless as all hell but nice.
Dave, gotta do what you wana do.
Yeah he has done allot of work to it but has also made the car worth more than double what it was.
If he can sell it on a day when its not acting up then he could get some decient coin for a clean old Fox with working A/C The S series are good little trucks too. My aunt bought her S-15 brand new in 85 with a 2.8 V-6 and an auto. After 14 years and 140,000 miles the only part EVER replaced was the A/C compressor at 138,000 miles. Truck never even wore its brake pads out. Was one hell of a little truck. Gutless as all hell but nice.
Dave, gotta do what you wana do.
the gm 60* v6 is a stout motor if you take care of it. only thing I hated was the fact that it was gutless. nice low end grunt till you shift out of first gear. towed my boat easily enough though
Don't tempt me to change my mind again. 
Picking up outer tie rod ends today (the pulling to the left and the dead spot in the middle of the steering needs to be fixed, regardless of my plans for it). Gonna see how much I have left after stuffs to see if I can afford a set of tires for this animal, as well - gonna have them mounted on the painted 10-holes and then keep the turbines around for spares. Although the temptation to toss on a muffler of whatever sort is really eating at me. The tires could wait another week or two, actually, if I can find a Magnaflow (or similar) muffler locally and poke it on there. (The Michelins on there aren't bald at all, they're just the wrong damned size.) If I wind up selling it later, it'll at least make the car more appealing when it doesn't sound like a Crown Vic instead of a Mustang, and it'll make it more enjoyable for me to drive in the meantime.
Picking up outer tie rod ends today (the pulling to the left and the dead spot in the middle of the steering needs to be fixed, regardless of my plans for it). Gonna see how much I have left after stuffs to see if I can afford a set of tires for this animal, as well - gonna have them mounted on the painted 10-holes and then keep the turbines around for spares. Although the temptation to toss on a muffler of whatever sort is really eating at me. The tires could wait another week or two, actually, if I can find a Magnaflow (or similar) muffler locally and poke it on there. (The Michelins on there aren't bald at all, they're just the wrong damned size.) If I wind up selling it later, it'll at least make the car more appealing when it doesn't sound like a Crown Vic instead of a Mustang, and it'll make it more enjoyable for me to drive in the meantime.
Dont put new tires on it till you align it! My Mark had all that replaced and tracked perfectly without an alignment. I put on a set of tires and killed them in 5000 miles. Had the car aligned and got new tires again. They now have 25,000 miles on them and still have 60-70% left.
BTW a great tire at a dirt cheap price that lasts a long long time is the Kumho Ecsta AST. They are not the greatest for handeling (better then Sumitomos) but rain or dry they hook up my 310hp just great without a trac loc. They do well in the corners and keep my lead sled glued to the road pretty well. I will get 50K out of them easily so a Fox should get 60K+ out of them. In 245/50/16 they ran me $366 mounted for all four.
BTW a great tire at a dirt cheap price that lasts a long long time is the Kumho Ecsta AST. They are not the greatest for handeling (better then Sumitomos) but rain or dry they hook up my 310hp just great without a trac loc. They do well in the corners and keep my lead sled glued to the road pretty well. I will get 50K out of them easily so a Fox should get 60K+ out of them. In 245/50/16 they ran me $366 mounted for all four.
ughhh, Kumho sucks, I have them on the 02 and I cant wait till they blow out or fall off the rim. they ride like crap and they wear horribly.
I had sumitomo's on my 99Z28 and while they sucked they were better than the kumhos.
I have been hearing great things about the General Exclaim and that willl be my next tire.
I had sumitomo's on my 99Z28 and while they sucked they were better than the kumhos.
I have been hearing great things about the General Exclaim and that willl be my next tire.
The General Exclaim does have high ratings and I wana try them next. And yes, every other Kumho I ever had sucked so I was really heasetant to buy these but that was the only ones avaliable here. I never ran the AST before and they have been great! They are wearing perfectly straight and the ride is great! They do have a bit of sidewall flex so I would not get them for a performance car but for a DD that needs a nice riding long lasting tire then I would def get them again.
I've had two sets of Kumho Ecsta 712's in the past on two different cars - '91 Trans Am and '94 Probe GT - and liked 'em in both cases. But I'm not throwing $400+ worth of tires on this car because there's no way in hell I've got that kind of money. I'm buying used - somewhere in the ballpark of $175. Fancy-schmancy tires are reserved for teh Notch (I'm loving the BFG Traction T/A's that are on the back of it right now). As long as they're the proper size and have plenty of tread, I'm not really concerned about the performance aspects of tires on my DD car, just something to get me to/from work safely.
Lynn's giving me hell for wanting to put a different muffler on the car - "If you're going to do it, do it RIGHT!" she says. But sorry, I don't have $500+ to blow on a full exhaust setup on the car to convert it to duals ... aside from the fact that it really wouldn't gain me much performance over a 2.5" single outlet, anyway. (Remember, I'm running CFI, so I can only push so much air through the thing, regardless of how much I open up the exhaust.) But again, making the exhaust AUDIBLE will not only make the car more appealing later on, but will make me smile in the meantime, and switching to duals isn't necessary to accomplish that. I'm hoping to do this as cheaply as possible, as this will be about the only actual upgrade I'll have spent anything on for the car. (The 3G only cost me about $40 total and the poly bushings were less than $30, and both of those stock parts were in need of replacement, anyhow.)
I know either setup will look somewhat retarded, so I'm just wondering what would look LESS retarded: a single side-exit, or a single LX-style (non-stainless) tailpipe.
For reference, here's what the single side-outlet would look like (just imagine it on a four-eye hatch instead of an Aero notch):
View attachment 250011
On a side note, completely aside from the exhaust crap, I'm thinking of swapping out the cracked, scuffed-up, and hazing-over stock lenses I have on the '84 for the LX tail lenses I have sitting in the closet leftover from Lynn's Capri de-conversion. Yea or nay?
Lynn's giving me hell for wanting to put a different muffler on the car - "If you're going to do it, do it RIGHT!" she says. But sorry, I don't have $500+ to blow on a full exhaust setup on the car to convert it to duals ... aside from the fact that it really wouldn't gain me much performance over a 2.5" single outlet, anyway. (Remember, I'm running CFI, so I can only push so much air through the thing, regardless of how much I open up the exhaust.) But again, making the exhaust AUDIBLE will not only make the car more appealing later on, but will make me smile in the meantime, and switching to duals isn't necessary to accomplish that. I'm hoping to do this as cheaply as possible, as this will be about the only actual upgrade I'll have spent anything on for the car. (The 3G only cost me about $40 total and the poly bushings were less than $30, and both of those stock parts were in need of replacement, anyhow.)
I know either setup will look somewhat retarded, so I'm just wondering what would look LESS retarded: a single side-exit, or a single LX-style (non-stainless) tailpipe.
For reference, here's what the single side-outlet would look like (just imagine it on a four-eye hatch instead of an Aero notch):
View attachment 250011
On a side note, completely aside from the exhaust crap, I'm thinking of swapping out the cracked, scuffed-up, and hazing-over stock lenses I have on the '84 for the LX tail lenses I have sitting in the closet leftover from Lynn's Capri de-conversion. Yea or nay?
New outer tie rod ends are on. One pair by McQuay-Norris (no relation to Chuck Norris, unfortunately) from Checker for $16 apiece. Screwed 'em on, counted threads, and made minor adjustments by eyeball to get it as close as I could. Surprisingly, the thing is not only as tight and as responsive as teh Notch (which also has all-new front-end parts), I actually got the alignment close enough that it drives straight and the steering wheel is almost perfectly centered. Still got to run it in for an alignment, but it'll be interesting to see exactly how far off I was from dead-on just by counting threads and tweaking it a bit by eye. 
Hopefully I can get it in to the local shop tomorrow morning - waking up before 7am SUCKS for me - and if so, I might get a chance to throw on a set of tires tomorrow and be all set as far as that goes. Going to try farting around with the speedo cable a bit to see if I can get it to stop making that damned squeaky noise and to get the needle to stop bouncing under 30 MPH.
Anyone know if Flowmaster 44 Series mufflers have the same amount of drone as (or worse than) their 40 Series muffs? They sound nice on the YouTube clips I've heard, but if they're as drone-prone as the regular 40 Series, then I don't want anything to do with 'em...
Hopefully I can get it in to the local shop tomorrow morning - waking up before 7am SUCKS for me - and if so, I might get a chance to throw on a set of tires tomorrow and be all set as far as that goes. Going to try farting around with the speedo cable a bit to see if I can get it to stop making that damned squeaky noise and to get the needle to stop bouncing under 30 MPH.
Anyone know if Flowmaster 44 Series mufflers have the same amount of drone as (or worse than) their 40 Series muffs? They sound nice on the YouTube clips I've heard, but if they're as drone-prone as the regular 40 Series, then I don't want anything to do with 'em...
single gt tailpipe with a turndown right at the bumper.kind of like a 4 cyl car.
there is a 4 banger here that has a single lx tip and it looks retarded. if i can get a pic ill put it up to show you.
there is a 4 banger here that has a single lx tip and it looks retarded. if i can get a pic ill put it up to show you.
I was considering a GT tailpipe at one point until I realized it would basically look like a screwed-up LX tail. It'll be completely visible from behind the rear tire to the tip. It'd be nice if someone still made a stock-style tailpipe for the '79-'84 Mustangs with single exhaust, but every one of them I've looked up online from manufacturers like Walker/Dynomax show that fake dual setup (Y-pipe splitting off to two mufflers). I don't wanna spend the kind of coin it would take to have a muffler shop bend up a custom tailpipe, because at that point it'd be enough money that I may as well just convert to duals. Trying to keep this as cheap as possible.
The more I think about it, the side-exit idea wouldn't be too cool with a single outlet. I've got pretty good ground clearance with the stock exhaust right now, and the side-exit setup cuts clearance by about 2", and since we have speed bumps around where I live ... nah. So, it's gonna have to be a rear-exit of some kind ... and I'm leaning towards the single LX tail. Again, not looking to put on a stainless tail, just a cheap aluminized one, so I wonder if painting it black with some high-temp paint would help it not to stand out so much...?
Got the steering wheel horn button to fit on properly now by removing that "nub" on the end of the steering shaft that was preventing it from seating on there all the way. (Got tired of the thing randomly popping off when I was turning.) Also started raiding the spare room for old parts again to see if anything could be made useful. Lynn's LX tails left over from her Capri de-conversion project have a new home now.
Crappy old scuffed-up, flaking-off, cracked-all-to-hell stock tails:
View attachment 249914
View attachment 249915
And my not-period-appropriate-but-who-gives-a-damn-they-aren't-all-busted-up-and-they-were-free LX tails:
View attachment 249916
Was going to get tires today, but they don't have a set of used tires in a matched set or even two matched pairs in the size I'm looking for (225/60/R15). Guess I'll just wait and check back next weekend and see if they get anything different in stock.
Crappy old scuffed-up, flaking-off, cracked-all-to-hell stock tails:
View attachment 249914
View attachment 249915
And my not-period-appropriate-but-who-gives-a-damn-they-aren't-all-busted-up-and-they-were-free LX tails:
View attachment 249916
Was going to get tires today, but they don't have a set of used tires in a matched set or even two matched pairs in the size I'm looking for (225/60/R15). Guess I'll just wait and check back next weekend and see if they get anything different in stock.
Less then $70 each shipped and new.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/225-...ptZMotorsQ5fCarQ5fTruckQ5fPartsQ5fAccessories
$62.50 each shipped new.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/P-22...ptZMotorsQ5fCarQ5fTruckQ5fPartsQ5fAccessories
$340 new shipped for all four
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/4-22...ptZMotorsQ5fCarQ5fTruckQ5fPartsQ5fAccessories
The good Kumhos I was talking about for $310 shipped
Tire Search Results
Some very excellent tires for $325 shipped. These would make the Pearl handle great!
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/4-NE...ptZMotorsQ5fCarQ5fTruckQ5fPartsQ5fAccessories
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/225-...ptZMotorsQ5fCarQ5fTruckQ5fPartsQ5fAccessories
$62.50 each shipped new.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/P-22...ptZMotorsQ5fCarQ5fTruckQ5fPartsQ5fAccessories
$340 new shipped for all four
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/4-22...ptZMotorsQ5fCarQ5fTruckQ5fPartsQ5fAccessories
The good Kumhos I was talking about for $310 shipped
Tire Search Results
Some very excellent tires for $325 shipped. These would make the Pearl handle great!
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/4-NE...ptZMotorsQ5fCarQ5fTruckQ5fPartsQ5fAccessories
I'm bored, the car is clean, and I have fresh batteries. Time fer sum pitchers, boys n 'girls! 
I cleaned 'er up and realized I don't have any current pics of the thing as it sits when it's not filthy. So, with the new tail lenses, here it be:
View attachment 249416
View attachment 249417
With the groovy 3G alt in there:
View attachment 249418
My ghetto-riffic overflow canister and washer reservoir/universal washer fluid pump setup, in addition to my (probably useless) mounting of the transmission cooler (I figure, even if it doesn't cool things any better than it could, at least it isn't making the fluid any hotter):
View attachment 249419
The chunk missing from the top of the timing cover that the prior owner apparently broke off while replacing the water pump. They were semi-smart enough to put a washer and nut on the back of it to (I guess) help sammich the water pump's backing plate to the pump housing, but as you can see it's got a mild leak going on and loses about 1/2 a quart every week. Leaves dried-up goopy green snot all over the underside of the pump, the timing pointer, and the lower radiator hose.
View attachment 249420
Two things I HATE about this car at present - the external fuel pump and the stupid undersized single muffler some moron put on this car:
View attachment 249421
Notice how it downsizes the pipe diameter by at least 1/4" when it goes from the flow tube to the muffler? Ugh. Peoples is so stoopid...
View attachment 249422
The part where the crossover portion of my stock Y-pipe either got squashed by road debris at some point in history, or where it (I guess) is crimped from the factory to make room for the tranny bellhousing. This has GOT to be choking things quite a bit - it's probably only like 1.5" thick in the middle.
View attachment 249423
You know your motor mounts are shot when your fan sits this far down in the shroud...
View attachment 249424
...and it's so far down you have to cut this much off the bottom half just to make the damned thing clear so it's not hitting the shroud like a buzzsaw.
View attachment 249425
I cleaned 'er up and realized I don't have any current pics of the thing as it sits when it's not filthy. So, with the new tail lenses, here it be:
View attachment 249416
View attachment 249417
With the groovy 3G alt in there:
View attachment 249418
My ghetto-riffic overflow canister and washer reservoir/universal washer fluid pump setup, in addition to my (probably useless) mounting of the transmission cooler (I figure, even if it doesn't cool things any better than it could, at least it isn't making the fluid any hotter):
View attachment 249419
The chunk missing from the top of the timing cover that the prior owner apparently broke off while replacing the water pump. They were semi-smart enough to put a washer and nut on the back of it to (I guess) help sammich the water pump's backing plate to the pump housing, but as you can see it's got a mild leak going on and loses about 1/2 a quart every week. Leaves dried-up goopy green snot all over the underside of the pump, the timing pointer, and the lower radiator hose.
View attachment 249420
Two things I HATE about this car at present - the external fuel pump and the stupid undersized single muffler some moron put on this car:
View attachment 249421
Notice how it downsizes the pipe diameter by at least 1/4" when it goes from the flow tube to the muffler? Ugh. Peoples is so stoopid...
View attachment 249422
The part where the crossover portion of my stock Y-pipe either got squashed by road debris at some point in history, or where it (I guess) is crimped from the factory to make room for the tranny bellhousing. This has GOT to be choking things quite a bit - it's probably only like 1.5" thick in the middle.
View attachment 249423
You know your motor mounts are shot when your fan sits this far down in the shroud...
View attachment 249424
...and it's so far down you have to cut this much off the bottom half just to make the damned thing clear so it's not hitting the shroud like a buzzsaw.
View attachment 249425
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