Progress Thread 67coupe’s 89 LX - Dyno Vid

67coupe

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Apr 5, 2002
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Huntsville, AL
Long time member. Went inactive for a while. Since I’ve reactivated my account, I’ve been looking for a reason to post. This one’s a good one.

Before I get to that, I’ll tell you about the car. It’s a 89LX with a fully functioning terminator swap (A/C, cruise, wipers, etc) all while keeping the fox dash.

Prior to that, I believe it was FOTM (for those of you that remember that) in the spring 2009 timeframe.

The initial swap took 4 months and I’ve apent the last 6 years working out some small bugs and adding a few bolt ons.

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Combo is pretty simple. 2.8 upper pulley (13-14 psi), long tubes, 3.73’s. Made 462 rwhp and 489 rwtq. To say it’s fun to drive is an understatement.

As I said I’ve been wanting to become more active on this forum and had planned to do that with some future changes to my setup. Well, I was also at Cruisin the Coast and had this happen to me the first day I was there!

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Guy pulled out of a parking space as I was rolling by. He was very apologetic, felt terrible and admitted fault. Nonetheless, I’ve got some work to do prior to taking this car to the next level.

I’ve lurked long enough enough to know that many of you are talented and experienced bodymen and painter’s. Obviously, a new door is in order and I actually have one in the shop. But, what’s the best way to go about the lower quarter? Pull or patch? I’ve got a good source for a donor quarter if needed.
 
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What a nice car man. Very impressive work on the engine bay and the cleanliness of it.

As for your quarter, unless you have bodyshop tools (read frame machine), you'll need to cut out the lower front.

It's not terribly difficult to fix, but you'll probably want at least the front half from a donor car.

I would replace the section from about from mid mouldings down.

The dents above could be treated as minor repairs after that.

Cut out the spot welds in the jamb and the wheel well area up to one above the damage area you intend to cut. Then use a die grinder to cut nice straight lines through the channel under the moulding and straight across the area immediately above the rocker.

I'll help you through it if you want to do it yourself. Let me know.
 
Dayum, thats a nice ride! Sorry about the damage, @Davedacarpainter can advice you on that, there's a couple more panel beaters around here that will chime in.
i have to ask, are you using a hydroboost brake system?

Yes, using a hydroboost. Had to weld on a new clevis and slot the mounting holes. Other than that, all lines/fittings bolt up.
 
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What a nice car man. Very impressive work on the engine bay and the cleanliness of it.

As for your quarter, unless you have bodyshop tools (read frame machine), you'll need to cut out the lower front.

It's not terribly difficult to fix, but you'll probably want at least the front half from a donor car.

I would replace the section from about from mid mouldings down.

The dents above could be treated as minor repairs after that.

Cut out the spot welds in the jamb and the wheel well area up to one above the damage area you intend to cut. Then use a die grinder to cut nice straight lines through the channel under the moulding and straight across the area immediately above the rocker.

I'll help you through it if you want to do it yourself. Let me know.

I was hoping you’d reply.

That’s exactly what I was thinking. I knew behind the molding is a great place for that cut. Do you think there’s any damage to the inner structure?

The cut above the rocker? You mean at the recessed line that separates the rocker from the quarter or slightly above it?

Thanks Dave.
 
I was hoping you’d reply.

That’s exactly what I was thinking. I knew behind the molding is a great place for that cut. Do you think there’s any damage to the inner structure?

The cut above the rocker? You mean at the recessed line that separates the rocker from the quarter or slightly above it?

Thanks Dave.
Any inner structure could probably be straightened.

The lower area where it meets the rocker will either be glued or possibly spit welded on the inside. It’s just easier to cut the edge of the quarter right next to where it meets the rocker, then clean up any residual attached to the rocker when the quarter is out of the way.
 
Nice car and sorry to see that happen.

I'm curious. Dave, what would be a reasonable estimate to put that back where it was.
Aaaackkk!!! IDK!

I'm a painter, not an estimator.

Just thinking through it though. A shop might charge ten hours commission to replace the damaged area. Based off that and depending on your local flag hour rate ($50 here). To just fix that, it would cost $500. Then there's cost of parts, and refinish time of another 7ish hours. Plus materials at $29 per refinish hourish.......I'm thinking a shop would safely charge $1200-$1500:shrug:.

I might be totally wrong as well, but that should get you close to a figure that you would actually pay. The local flag rate for a body tech varies greatly around the country too.

Now if you include the door? The whole side might be in the $2k+ area.
 
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I’ve finally received the check from his insurance.

Once I got the right person on the phone, it was pretty painless. Cut a check for the estimate as is. No questions or low balling.

Good friend and co worker knows a mustang restoration shop in TN. They’ve agreed to look at it. I think I’ll have them do just the metal work. Plan is to slap on a cobra body kit and paint it myself. Car will still stay burgundy red.

It’ll all be documented in this thread. This is just the first of many improvements.
 
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I’ve spent the last few weekends getting the car ready for the body shop.

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Gutted the bad door and installed one I had laying around the shop.

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There’s a reason I had this door. Friend of mine bought it to get his car ready for paint. It wouldn’t fit. So it been sitting in the shop for about a year.

I decided to give it a shot hoping it would fit. It didn’t. The window frame hit the molding where the a pillar meets the roof. Also, the gap at the b pillar was way off. About 3/8” at the bottom of the window frame and increased to over 1/2” at the top. On top of all that, the where gaps between the window frame and the door seal in both of these areas. Which btw, was exactly where this door had issues on my friends car.
 
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The body of the door fit fine. Good gaps along the bottom and rear. Good hinge bushings to boot. Me and dad had a thought. How much force would it take to adjust the window frame?

Not much. After an hour with a 2 x 4 and my 5 lb sledge. I’m satisfied enough to say all gap issues with the window frame are now good.

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Dave, this normal for foxbody door fitment or was this window frame bent at some point?

Here’s a pic of the lower quarter showing the depth of the damage.

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The only thing left to do is pull the interior to allow access to the back side of the dent.

Also, a lot of big boxes have recently showed up. Will take some pics and post tomorrow.
 
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The body of the door fit fine. Good gaps along the bottom and rear. Good hinge bushings to boot. Me and dad had a thought. How much force would it take to adjust the window frame?

Not much. After an hour with a 2 x 4 and my 5 lb sledge. I’m satisfied enough to say all gap issues with the window frame are now good.

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Dave, this normal for foxbody door fitment or was this window frame bent at some point?

Here’s a pic of the lower quarter showing the depth of the damage.

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The only thing left to do is pull the interior to allow access to the back side of the dent.

Also, a lot of big boxes have recently showed up. Will take some pics and post tomorrow.
The window frame of the door was bent at some time. I'm glad you figured out a fix. I would've done something very similar.
 
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I am very interested in how you fix the damage behind the door. My 89 coupe has almost exactly that damage. I have two doors to choose from but have not decided how to approach the area in front of the wheel.
 
Thanks Dave. When we tried to fit that door on my friends car, I assumed it was typical fox body build quality. But after seeing it was the same on mine, I thought something else might have happened.

I worked the window frame so much, that the glass had trouble staying in the seal at the very top. Finally got it adjusted. If the door wasn’t free, I probably would have looked for another one.

Rcdgl, a good friend knows the owner of a mustang restoration shop. Current plan is to have them fix the lower front quarter. I’ll let you know how they do it.

A couple pics of the new parts.

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I am very interested in how you fix the damage behind the door. My 89 coupe has almost exactly that damage. I have two doors to choose from but have not decided how to approach the area in front of the wheel.
Cutting out the damaged area is best. Sometimes if you try to pull that dent out you end up stretching/fatigue the metal which makes that area weak.
 
Not much to update. I did trial fit the cobra rear bumper and spoiler. I can’t wait to see the whole cobra kit installed and painted.
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Took the car to the body shop yesterday. I was blown away. They are a high end mustang (mainly classic) restoration shop. There were some amazing cars there. A genuine 65 GT350, a highly modified pro charged 1200 hp 428 1969 GT500 clone. Needless to say, I know the cars going to be in the right hands.

Knowing I’m going with a cobra body kit, he’s going to pull the dent back out. I didn’t have time to take a picture, but once the interior trim was out and seeing the back side of the dent, I have to agree that pulling it is probably easiest. Also going to fill the LX spoiler holes on the hatch and mount the cobra spoiler.

I also have to brag on my tow rig. Bought this 2011 Expedition Limited after my 2000 Tahoe (with a 4 week old paint job, painted by me) was totaled back in June.
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The difference in how the Expedition towed my car vs the Tahoe was night and day. The 5.4 3v combined with the 6 spd auto handled the hills with ease compared to the Tahoe’s 5.3 4 spd. Never had to floor it, which happened constantly with the Chevy.

Shop owner said it be one to two weeks. He’s just doing the body work and primer. I’ll be painting the car myself. This was the Tahoe’s hood. Straight out of the gun, no wet sanding or polishing.
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Picked the car up from the body shop. I’m very impressed with the work they’ve completed.

The dent was pulled, not patched. Looking at the backside, it looks like he was able to almost return the original shape, using almost no filler.

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The cobra spoiler is mounted, the emblems were deleted and the sheet metal is shaved smooth.
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Progress on the car will have to wait. I’m going to help a friend paint his 93 GT. If y’all are interested, I’ll document it here.
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