Progress Thread HeHateMe gets bent

Here, ..here is a Steven Balwin I found for you 48 miles from me in 10 seconds


Good lord...that's uglier than Rosanne Barr. And $2000? That's a $1000 car if there ever was one. No one under 50 would drive it if you gave it to them.
I have to at least pretend to play within the budget of what I got for the 85. At least til the questions of why did you get rid of the Mustang and I still CANNOT park in the garage fade into the distance. I don't want to blow half my budget on THAT. I would, however consider spending up to 3/4 of my budget on a Falcon or Maverick. Preferably Falcon.

Not quite the look I'm going for, but a damn fine ride

 
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See, this is what happens to the hobby...

Life gets in between, and the hobby gets pushed. Kids come along, the car gets sold. If another one gets purchased when they get a little older and we make more money, it only lasts until something else gets put before it more important.
And it gets sold.
A car gets converted to a race car, it becomes the mega money pit, takes time away from the spouse, and it gets sold.

I've said it before. 8 out of 10 here will sell off the hobby car and either never return, or tell themselves that they're still in it when they purchase a belly button late model.
Once the late model romance cools,...that car too will get sold.

I think we're the last generations that are the stewards of the hobby. Out of however many active members that are here that have a hobby 79-93 fox... Between the ages of 35-60 ( let's say 20) 4 of them will still have something in 20 years.
Everybody else will have a Lexus.

I've went through all the life iterations, had a car, had a kid, sold a car. Bought a car, raced a car, tire of being with a bunch of guys on Saturday night instead of out with my wife, sold it. Bought a late model, got quickly bored with the sameness, sold it.
And now I got the monster. And it's only a matter of time......

It'll get the 2j,...whether that makes it more or less desirable, or more or less reliable I can't say. I'll drive the thing. I'll probably sell it one day sooner than later, for a crushing loss. Until then, I'm one of the 4.

Then,.... I'll buy a Lexus.
I realize a full year has passed since this post, but I agree. I’m sad to see droopie85GT sell this car. Before he started working on it, it looked just like my ‘86 GT that I bought new in Sept., 1986. At that point in my life, it had to be my daily driver in all kinds of weather for 13 years, but when it was replaced with a newer daily driver, I held onto it. I can’t say how many times I was approached about selling it, but I wanted to get it redone and running again. About this time last year the engine went back in and I slowly got everything reconnected and soon got it running. Now I’m driving it regularly and anxiously awaiting the painter to make room for it in his shop. I don’t ever plan on letting it go.
 
That is awesome @Willybill32 . I never had that kind of attachment to this car. I didn't think I'd have it this long when I bought it. It is by far the longest I have ever owned a vehicle.

When I turned 50, I realized I either need to make another drag car and go do it, or next thing I would be 70 and say, damn I wish I had built another drag car and at least done it, got tired of it and sold all that for good....get it completely out of my system.
 
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That is awesome @Willybill32 . I never had that kind of attachment to this car. I didn't think I'd have it this long when I bought it. It is by far the longest I have ever owned a vehicle.

When I turned 50, I realized I either need to make another drag car and go do it, or next thing I would be 70 and say, damn I wish I had built another drag car and at least done it, got tired of it and sold all that for good....get it completely out of my system.
droopie85gt, everyone has his/her own priorities. I understand your interest in getting back to drag racing. Me, I just wanted a fun ride to have a little fun with. And I’m already 70+! I think the sad thing for me is to see so many of these cars modified by people who don’t really have any idea of what they’re doing, so if they sell the car, it’s all hacked up for the next person. It’s been fun to read your posts, as you obviously know what you’re doing. Best wishes as you move forward!

Bill
 
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Geezus mike, can't you just say like ' cute car' and leave it at that :shrug:

You just have to translate it:

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Have you ever collected stuff over a 12-13 year period and then try to find it all? I know I have a bunch of the stock stuff for the car, like the gauges. I couldn't find yesterday. I spent hours in the attic gathering stuff. I need to finish up today. It will be nice to get the garage emptied out and cleaned up for once in about 4 years!
 
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I've tried that cleaning/organization thing a couple times, I just seem to move the clutter to a different location.
When you attempt to clean/organize and you keep finding things that are broken and boxes of parts marked 'no good' is when you realize you MAY have a problem. :shrug:
 
I found the gauges and a bunch of other stuff. BUT, I also find myself looking at boxes of WTF is that. WTF did I save that for. WTF does/did it go to? Where TF are the bolts/hardware that go to. Oh, wait, I have zip lock bags of hardware. Which I wrote on the outside what is inside. Which after 10 or more years in the heat of the garage or attic are disintegrating and can't read the writing any longer. But I think I have everything that goes with the car.
So next week, he can come load it up and I can clean the garage where it has been sitting.
 
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I found the gauges and a bunch of other stuff. BUT, I also find myself looking at boxes of WTF is that. WTF did I save that for. WTF does/did it go to? Where TF are the bolts/hardware that go to. Oh, wait, I have zip lock bags of hardware. Which I wrote on the outside what is inside. Which after 10 or more years in the heat of the garage or attic are disintegrating and can't read the writing any longer. But I think I have everything that goes with the car.
So next week, he can come load it up and I can clean the garage where it has been sitting.
Been there, got the T-shirt. A friend got tired of seeing my ‘86 GT sitting in my garage and offered to help. The complete car was transported to his garage. A year later, I got the car back minus the engine and transmission, along with about 14 cardboard boxes filled with stuff I had no idea what it was. A month later I got the engine and transmission back. Six months of reading online, reading Stangnet boards and watching YouTube I got it all back together, and it ran!
 
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I guess @CarMichael Angelo 3AMD came to visit. Yesterday, since I got all the 85 stuff pretty much packed up and ready to go, I would start on the 2.3 again. I thought I'd plastigage my rod bearings. I never have tried before, but it was pretty hard for me to do it without the pistons mounted. Torquing and untorquing the rods without pistons by myself, it was pretty hard to do it without the rod moving. So it would take 2 or 3 times and sometimes still the plastigage was smeared. So today I plan on using my bore gauge on the rod. Torque number 1 in the vise and set up my mic on the rod journal. Zero out the bore gauge to that and put in the rod.

And then I noticed the bore gauge has scratched the bearing....enough to catch my nail. I guess the cheap bore gauge has a really strong spring and is not super high quality. I got mad, and then just sitting there trying to figure out how to continue without screwing up the other bearings, I realized these aren't P Clevite bearings. I guess when I ordered them, I put the wrong ones in my cart on Summit. They are just stock replacements. So I ordered the CLevite 77 P bearings this morning. And some more plastigage. I guess I need to suck it up and put the pistons on. I hate spiral locks.
 
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OMG, how can spiral locks be such a bitch. After getting 1 in each piston, I figured out they are much easier to get it with the pin in. So next time, I'll put the pin in as a 'backer'. It took maybe 5 minutes total to get all 4 second spiral locks in the pistons. When I get the replacement bearings and plastigage, I'll check it out again.

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The literal 10lbs of :poo: in a 1lb sack have been removed off the top, rifled thru, thrown into boxes and the wheels put on. It's back on the ground. It will move under its own power (if there's enough gas to get it on the trailer) and be gone today. :cheers:

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The literal 10lbs of :poo: in a 1lb sack have been removed off the top, rifled thru, thrown into boxes and the wheels put on. It's back on the ground. It will move under its own power (if there's enough gas to get it on the trailer) and be gone today. :cheers:

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To this day, Ill never know what the motivation was to sell this, and bury yourself even deeper in dork.
( pre 64 falcon)
 
I'm borderline worried about your obsession with whether or not I am buying a pre 64 (Actually I could do a 64 or 65 too) Falcon. Evidently, so is my wife. Albeit for different reasons. She's eyeing a situation where she could park in the garage. Either way, I'm getting something I want. Falcon, Maverick, Pinto, Vega, Courier...who the fck knows. It will be light. That's my number 1 criteria.
 
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I'm borderline worried about your obsession with whether or not I am buying a pre 64 (Actually I could do a 64 or 65 too) Falcon. Evidently, so is my wife. Albeit for different reasons. She's eyeing a situation where she could park in the garage. Either way, I'm getting something I want. Falcon, Maverick, Pinto, Vega, Courier...who the fck knows. It will be light. That's my number 1 criteria.
Be bold... do the Pinto...

Actually, I know just the car...

 
Didn't we just share a bunch of Pinto wagons over in our part of the forums @74stang2togo ? Check out the last page of the shared craigslist ads. I shared a couple wagons that are near the Atlanta area. The white one speaks to me for some reason....... :shrug: