My '85 LTD SSP Restoration Thread

[meeandmine]

Well I got the radiator flush taken care of, nothing too special there.

I decided to go ahead and swap out the prop valve and it's been one of the worst pains in the butt I could imagine. I don't know how, but those fittings seemed to have basically welded themselves to the prop valve. I'm trying desperately not to round them off, and every trick in the book is having little effect. It's turning into one of those projects where you have to swear at it and walk away before you do something really stupid.

[meeandmine]

I couldn't get the darn prop valve off so I took it to the pro's and they couldn't get it off, so they told me they had to replace a couple brake lines and I wound up being out a lot more than I anticipated. But, I got it back today and it seems to be working fine now.

[meeandmine]

Now that we're back I can finally post a few updates. Got the car back from the Brake shop everything works like it should the idiot light came back on but I tracked it down to the parking brake switch, being kinda jibbered. So for the moment I have it unplugged. Got the oil and filter changed out. Now I'm working on replacing the crunched up drivers door. Took me a lot longer than I care to admit to get all the glass out. The replacement door has a quarter window while my car doesn't, so if anyone is interested in a good quarter window, power door mirror, and or power lock servo let me know cause I don't need them.

[meeandmine]

Got the "new" door on fairly easily and adjusted pretty well. While I had the car at the brake shop they showed me that one of the rear drums was pretty much trashed, so last weekend I went out to the pick and pull and found a decent set of replacements, not wanting to toss the drums on with the old shoes i went ahead and replaced those too. Now I just got to get the tires swapped out.

[28HopUp]

It's actually pretty interesting, along with the build sheet there was a bunch of stuff left over from its former life as a cruiser. I'll have to take some pics of it, or scan some stuff.

Were you able to scan or take pics of the build sheet and other stuff?

[meeandmine]

Were you able to scan or take pics of the build sheet and other stuff?

I did, I'll put those up in my gallery here soon.

And it's up!

[meeandmine]

Got new Falkens put on yesterday 225/60/15's if anyone's interested. Next project is to try and get the gas gauge working. I thought I had it sorted last weekend when I dropped the tank and found a bunch of rust in the circuit board housing but after putting it all back together still nothing.

[meeandmine]

The car's been running great lately so I haven't been too motivated to do too much to it. Though, this weekend I've decided to redo the headliner. When I bought the car it had seen better days, so yesterday I pulled it out cleaned off all the nasty old fabric, bought some new stuff from the fabric store and am currently trying to save the headliner board. Water had gotten to it through some old roof plugs, I've been using a combined method of steaming it with the clothing iron and pressing it with weight to try and get it more or less flat again. It's actually working pretty well, I'm pretty surprised. I figure a couple more rounds of steam and pressing and it'll be pretty good. I'll post up some pics of the process here soon.

[meeandmine]

Small success, I got the fuel gauge to work. Thanks to the tech article found on this site.

[meeandmine]

Another update. My car is surprisingly rust free, the only problem area is in the trunk. Specifically the spare tire well. This weekend I got motivated to tackle this area, so I went off to the hardware store for supplies I bought a wire cup for my drill some scotch brite and rustoleum rust rescue. After knocking down the rust as best I could I noticed some pinholes which I wasn't too pleased about, but more on that later. With as much of the surface rust off I cleaned out the trunk well and started to apply the Rustoleum making sure to work it in really well. I'm assuming this is a rust converter turning the iron oxide into iron phosphate. After the stuff had dried a bit I used some metal patch fill to address the pinholes. I had planned on laying down some primer then a coat of paint but after carefully reading the directions on the Rustoleum bottle I saw that I need to wait three days! before shooting it with spray paint. So right now I'm in a holding pattern waiting for this stuff to fully dry. Here are a couple before and during pics of the process.

[meeandmine]

Long time no update. Here's a short list of what's been done since I painted the trunk.

Installed stock radio and added "new" panel
replaced some interior panels
Painted grill and headlight buckets
Stripped and re-painted wheels
Replaced the cracked windshield
Replaced faulty TFI module
I really wish I had know it was this earlier, as I basically worked my way from the battery to the dizzy replacing everything but that stupid thing. So it now has a new coil, ignition solenoid, cap and rotor, and spark plugs.

That's all I can think of right now. I know there's more little things that I've done here and there but, that's the bulk of it.

[meeandmine]

Found out the exhaust from the cat back was pretty rotten so I had that replaced today, used a Walker Mega Flow, not too much louder than stock, (at least from inside) though it does have a slightly more aggressive tone to it. Also I've decided that the paint is no longer serviceable, so I've spent the last few days removing the trim and sanding it down in preparation for a spray job. Found out that from the factory it may have been a black and white car, which backs up the SSP history. But I'll probably be sticking to a Wimbledon White top coat.

[meeandmine]

Replaced a leaky coolant temp sender and power steering pump last weekend, and decided to add an inline filter while I was at it. Hopefully it it will help the new pump live a little longer.

[Coupe perrformance]

I bought this car today. trying to decide what to do with it now. time will tell.

[meeandmine]

Glad to see you on here. I look forward to seeing your progress with it.

[Coupe perrformance]

Glad to see you on here. I look forward to seeing your progress with it.

Thanks man, I'll update I go along.

[Coupe perrformance]

Thanks man, I'll update I go along.

Ill post a pic maybe this weekend, I got it painted. Replace the bumpers with a super nice set, and did some swapping for a nice set of wheels and tires. Looking good now.