1985 Black T-Top Dominator GT Restoration

[86 50CPRI]

Very Nice!!

[bull-vette]

For those of you who have Facebook. Here is a video I posted of firing up the engine for the 1st time. Be sure to turn on the audio and listen to my brother in laws comments about it towards the end!

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v...type=2&theater

What about us that don't Facebook, Twitter or MySpace? We want to see too!

[bluesfannoz]

Will post up to Youtube when I get back home. In Texas at a family reunion this weekend. Did you see the slideshow though? Link is above the post about the video. Below the picture.

What about us that don't Facebook, Twitter or MySpace? We want to see too!

[bull-vette]

Will post up to Youtube when I get back home. In Texas at a family reunion this weekend. Did you see the slideshow though? Link is above the post about the video. Below the picture.

I missed the slideshow the first time around. Thanks for pointing it out to me. Cool pics. Always good to see some progress. Keep up the good work.

[bluesfannoz]

Here is the video I mentioned from the day we fired her up!

[bull-vette]

Here is the video I mentioned from the day we fired her up!

That video is private, :/

[bluesfannoz]

Should be fixed now.

[bull-vette]

Thanks. Much better.

[bluesfannoz]

Thanks Craig. You need a start a thread of the work you have done to yours!

[bluesfannoz]

Been awhile since I made much progress on the car. After getting the car running last fall, I quickly determined there was an issue as any time I got into it, it would end up boiling over. So I was leaking cylinder pressure into the cooling system. Did a compression test and sure enough I had a problem. So I pretty much parked the car until this spring when I could get a chance to take the car to a friends house who had better tools for the tear down than I. We tore it down and sure enough head gaskets were leaking. Because of my back issues last spring, I had paid a shop to assemble the engine for me. I chose a shop here in my own small town because I was not able to travel, but needed to get the project done. In the end I very much regret that decision. I basically had the heads cleaned and reassembled without replacing anything. Because the budget I had for the heads was now going to reassembly. That came back to bite me. It appears the shop did not even check to see if over the 120K the heads had warped as after we removed the heads this spring, I took them to a KC Engines in Kansas City and both heads were warped which likely lead to the blown gaskets. So basically I started over and did everything on the heads that I should have originally. The heads are now back on the car and working perfectly. No more pressure build up in the cooling system when I get on it. Thanks to jayhawk261(Randy) for your help!

Pictures of us working on the car:

[bluesfannoz]

Heads off


Heads back from Machine Shop



Looking good!



One head in place!

[bluesfannoz]

Two heads on!



Intake on!



Valvetrain, Carb, Valve Covers back on!

[bluesfannoz]

All done!



New Hooker headers with nicely added ball joint collectors to be installed this week by guy who installed the headers on the original Dominators for Summit Ford!

[02Z06]

Awesome Steve, glad to see she's coming back together! It will be back to dominating in no time!

[jayhawk261]

I think you must have had an ace mechanic helping you out there! :-)

[bluesfannoz]

That I did! Thanks again for all your help!

I think you must have had an ace mechanic helping you out there! :-)

[huck01955]

Very nice car glade to see things going wright for you

[bluesfannoz]

Finally taking the car to get the exhaust finished up tomorrow! This weekend going to be putting in new front control arms, struts, shocks, Ford Racing B-Springs, tie rod ends. So am going to be busy! Will post up pictures of our progress.

Did take the car out to a cruise on Saturday night. Here is a picture.

[bluesfannoz]

Dropped the car off at the shop in Lee's Summit Missouri that put the headers on the Dominators back in the day. The guy who did the work is going to put my new headers and vintage exhaust back on the car! Here are the exhaust pieces loaded up in the car. Pick it up on Friday! Then the real work begins as the suspension is getting a major overhaul over the weekend!

[BlackMamba]

Two heads on!

Valvetrain, Carb, Valve Covers back on!

Is that a FMS coil and Ignition box? I know the Dominators used the FMS ignition box but I wasn't aware of the FMS coil.
Great progress by the way.

[bluesfannoz]

They are a matched set. You really should not use an FMS ignition box without the matching coil. So the answer to your question is yes the Dominators used both the FMS ignition box and the FMS coil. The coil is the same as the MSD Blaster 2 coil. So that will work as well.

Is that a FMS coil and Ignition box? I know the Dominators used the FMS ignition box but I wasn't aware of the FMS coil.
Great progress by the way.

[fascat]

Great looking car! The red one with you at the cruise looks great as well. Pretty neat that you are taking to the shop that originally installed the exhaust back in the day. I'm sure the installer will enjoy it as well.

[bluesfannoz]

Thanks man! Yeah the red belongs to my bud and fellow FEP'er jayhawk261(Randy). Not only is it going to the original guy who put the headers on the Dominators, from there its going to the original guy who made and installed the Dominator stickers for Summit Ford!

Great looking car! The red one with you at the cruise looks great as well. Pretty neat that you are taking to the shop that originally installed the exhaust back in the day. I'm sure the installer will enjoy it as well.

[bull-vette]

That is cool. Keep the updates coming....and the pics!

[fascat]

That is great you are getting the decals made and installed by the original supplier.