Build Thread 1990 Lx 5.0 Restomod Build

[FoxMustangLvr]

Need your opinion.

I'm about to rip out my interior and do some paint/dye on my plastic to bring it back to life and match each other. Did you use lacquer based dye or vinyl? How is your interior holding up now that it's been several months? Is it scratching easily?

Also, I finally started my thread on my 87 T-top. I'm just getting started on the car. Check it out if you like...

http://www.stangnet.com/mustang-for...k-to-life-an-87-gt-t-top.865726/#post-8704017

 

[boostfrk]

Need your opinion.

I'm about to rip out my interior and do some paint/dye on my plastic to bring it back to life and match each other. Did you use lacquer based dye or vinyl? How is your interior holding up now that it's been several months? Is it scratching easily?

Also, I finally started my thread on my 87 T-top. I'm just getting started on the car. Check it out if you like...

http://www.stangnet.com/mustang-for...k-to-life-an-87-gt-t-top.865726/#post-8704017

I used SEM Color Coat, color Landau Black, #15013. To my knowledge it's a laquer based paint, they specifically say it's not a dye. They say it's good for vinyl too as it's a flexible coating, but I didn't use it on any vinyl.

My interior is holding up great. I don't have any scratches on it at all, granted I'm not hauling lumber around in the back either, but I've hit the plastics with stuff and it hasn't scratched. Prep work really is the key in getting the finish to last and stay strong. Spend the time doing the prep, don't rush it, and it will come out great.

Your build thread looks great. Too bad we're not closer; I've got a set of excellent condition Pony wheels I'm thinking of selling!

 

[boostfrk]

Found a set of BBK shorty headers and a matching BBK h-pipe locally. Found them early Monday morning as I was sitting in the airport getting ready to fly out for work. The guy selling them knew I had been looking so we settled on a price and he's holding them for me until Friday when I get back into town and can pick them up.

Hopefully, next week the car will go up on jack stands and I'll start tearing things apart to replace the clutch, flywheel, TOB, clutch cable, clutch fork, headers and install the new h-pipe. I'm hoping I'll be able to sell my current h-pipe just to re-coup some money.

 

[boostfrk]

Well, picked up the headers and had the h-pipe sold within 24 hours of picking it up. That was easy. I'm gonna use the cash from that to buy some new taillights lenses; one of mine is a knockoff and doesn't fit quite right.

Finally started to make some progress. I got the car up on jackstands Monday, got the driveshaft out and h-pipe off. Today I got the interior center console removed, tranny fluid drained, crossmember off and transmission removed. I've got a couple days of travel for work tomorrow and Thursday, hopefully I can make some more progress on Friday. I figure since this is a project car, half the fun is having it on jackstands. Plus, if I keep waiting for a day where I have hours and hours to work on it that day will never come; so I stuck it on jackstands and figured I'll work on it when I can, even if it's only 30 minutes at a time.

 

[boostfrk]

I've got quite a bit of stuff lined up for this round of mods/work:

1. Replace clutch, flywheel, TOB, rear main seal, pilot bearing, clutch fork, clutch cable, install firewall adjuster
2. Replace headers with BBK shorties
3. Remove crossover tube from back of heads and plug holes (need to do some more research on the plug solution
4. Remove electric fan setup; replace with stock shroud and overflow bottle, Flex-a-lite variable speed controller
5. Replace taillight lenses
6. Clean up/degrease underside of car before re-installing transmission

 

[FoxMustangLvr]

Is there a short throw shifter in there somewhere?

 

[boostfrk]

Is there a short throw shifter in there somewhere?

Haha, thanks for the reminder. Yes, I'm hoping to pick up a MGW STS in the coming couple of weeks as well.

 

[boostfrk]

Got a little bit more done today.

I got the bellhousing, clutch and flywheel pulled off. Couple of hot spots perhaps on the flywheel and pressure plate. I also got my existing electric fan removed so I can get ready to drop the new fan setup in.

Thinking I might as well change the rear main seal while I'm in here. It's wet at the bottom.

 

[02 281 GT]

Lookin' good. Please post up your solution to plugging the AIR holes on the back of the heads. I have the original tube turned backward on my '95 and would like something a little cleaner looking than that.

 

[FoxMustangLvr]

I believe you can order a plug or bolt for $10 from either Jegs or Summit.

 

[boostfrk]

Made more progress over the past couple days. I got the old rear main seal removed (what a bitch to be that careful) and got the new one pressed in.

Seal is out:

I bought a PTFE Fel-Pro seal from Napa. It came with this neat little plastic installation tool to help you start getting the seal installed over the crankshaft.

Seal installed

This was my seal driver. It's a 4" PVC male fitting with a 4" --> 3" bushing stuffed in one end to give a flat surface for my rubber mallet. Worked like a champ.

 

[boostfrk]

02 281 GT

I got the crossover tube off today and the inside was caked with carbon buildup, as expected. I bought some 5/8-11 bolts and made a thread chaser out of one by cutting some flutes in the threads, but I never could get it to thread in quite right. I tried picking out a lot of the carbon with a very small flathead, but it was so thick. I had minimal clearance too since the engine is still in the car, so eventually I just decided to cut the blocks off the original tube, flip them over and install them over the holes. Not exactly what I wanted to do, but the head on the 5/8-11 bolt was so huge I'm not sure this looks any worse. The PO of my car had cut off the tube next to the passenger side header and crimped the end, so this solution at least gets the tube out of the engine bay.

 

[boostfrk]

I got the flywheel and clutch installed today (pilot bearing was done earlier in the week). I used ARP flywheel bolts and then bought the FRPP clutch bolt/dowel pin kit from LMR.

Flexplate cleaned up, got all the oil off

Flywheel installed

Clutch installed

 

[boostfrk]

I got my firewall adjuster ordered today along with new Fel-Pro 1415 header gaskets for my BBK shorties I picked up. Hoping to order my MGW STS over the weekend as well. We'll have to see what festivities lie ahead for the weekend and how much money is in the bank afterwards.

Car will probably sit all weekend long...doubt any work will get done

 

[02 281 GT]

02 281 GT

I got the crossover tube off today and the inside was caked with carbon buildup, as expected. I bought some 5/8-11 bolts and made a thread chaser out of one by cutting some flutes in the threads, but I never could get it to thread in quite right. I tried picking out a lot of the carbon with a very small flathead, but it was so thick. I had minimal clearance too since the engine is still in the car, so eventually I just decided to cut the blocks off the original tube, flip them over and install them over the holes. Not exactly what I wanted to do, but the head on the 5/8-11 bolt was so huge I'm not sure this looks any worse. The PO of my car had cut off the tube next to the passenger side header and crimped the end, so this solution at least gets the tube out of the engine bay.

I tried the same thing with bolts on my '86. I didn't know much about thread sizes and such then and bought some that were too big (mine were also caked with carbon anyway). One thing you might look into (if you can get the carbon buidup cleaned out) is an allen head plug. That would at least sit flush.

My current setup on the '95 is the stock tube with the one side hacksawed off with the tubes still connected and turned backward. Works but doesn't look too pretty.

 

[boostfrk]

So I got the MGW STS ordered on March 11th, got the headers installed and got everything else back together towards the end of the week of March 11th. Went to start it up and there was a loud cyclic scraping sound from the bellhousing area. Turns out I didn't pay close enough attention to the fine print on the King Cobra clutches and the pressure plate was rubbing against the bellhousing.

The car sat all last week as I had family in town, and then yesterday I pulled the exhaust back down, removed the h-pipe, and dropped the transmission again (58 minutes start to finish). Got the bellhousing off and sure enough I had some contact at the bottom of the housing. Wasn't very deep at all. I used a Dremel and grinded away a small channel that I'm hoping will be enough to allow clearance for the pressure plate. I was able to install the bellhousing and turn the engine by hand. It didn't have the same resistance as before so I think it's clearanced enough, but it's hard to tell what resistance is from the engine itself and what may be from the bellhousing/PP interference. Certainly didn't hear any scraping/rubbing though, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I'm OK.

Before

After

I am gone this afternoon and tomorrow for work again but am hoping to get the transmission installed and some of the underside buttoned up this morning before I leave. I'd like to be able and start the car again to see if the issue is fixed.

 

[boostfrk]

Also, just saw an e-mail from UPS that the STS will be delivered from MGW today. They had called me within a day of placing my order and said it was on backorder but the wait would only be a week or so...they were right on the money.

 

[boostfrk]

Woot!


Got everything put back together this morning, got the exhaust bolted back up and fired it up. NO SCRAPING! Guess I dremeled enough material away for the pressure plate to clear. When I get back on Thursday I'll fill up the transmission with new fluid, bolt up the driveshaft and get the car back on the ground finally. Then all I have to do is install the new fan and shroud, clean up the engine bay, re-tighten the header bolts...

 

[boostfrk]

Made some decent progress on Thursday.

I got the car started, crawled under and checked for exhaust leaks, driveshaft bolted up and got the car back on all 4 tires. I thought I heard a leak from the driver's side header, but I wasn't able to feel any air. I can't tell if it just sounds different because of aftermarket headers or what. Guess I'll keep a close eye on it.

Car ready to come down...

My MGW shifter came in while I was out of town so that was ready to go in. Once I get the electric fan installed and can actually drive the car I'll post up a complete review thread on this shifter, but for now I'll just throw out some highlight pictures. So far, I really like the quality of the MGW STS.

 

[boostfrk]

Today I started on a project that has been bugging me since I got my car painted. The outside of the car is a bright white, clean, etc. and the engine bay looks like crap. The paint is yellowed, scratched off in many places, dirty, etc. I don't have any near plans to drop the engine where painting the entire bay would be extremely easy, so before I install the electric fan and shroud I wanted to make sure I got the core support area painted while I could move the radiator. This turned into removing all the wiring for the lights, the air intake tube and filter housing, battery and starter solenoid and painting everything from the shock towers forward. I plan to finish the rest when I swap out the intake manifold in the near future. I covered the fenders with paper and tape, did the same with the bumper, and then wrapped drop cloth plastic over the engine to avoid as much overspray as possible.

My goal was to freshen up the engine bay enough to make it look presentable. This isn't a show car so I wasn't going to remove the engine, fill all the holes, etc. I used a wire brush and red Scotchbrite pad to clean everything up, then used some wax and grease remover since I have 98% of a can left from when I painted the interior pieces. Then I shot it with some light grey primer and then semi-gloss white. Yep, I rattle canned it.

Before:

During:

Next I'll work on getting everything put back together in the engine bay, then install the electric fan, stock shroud and overflow. Once that's done I'll take a finished picture, although it won't be completely finished since the back half of the bay isn't painted.

Maybe, next week, I'll even drive it!