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  1. #501
    FEP Senior Member droopie85gt's Avatar
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    Jan 2005
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    Cordova, TN
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    994

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    After has A/C, new battery, a power cable and looks like mega fuse by the battery, 3g upgrade with belt tensioner, different fan...or at least overflow bottle, and rad cover. That's all I got.
    1985 GT, Sunroof, 5 Lug, Rear Discs, 01 Graphite Bullets, 88 forged piston shortblock, 2.02/1.60 Alum heads, Weiand Stealth, Holley C950 TBI, BBK Long tubes

  2. #502

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    Well done players! Here are your answers! Roughly right to left, top to bottom:



    1. Adjustable Prop Valve has been moved.
    2. Salt 'n Pepper Shakers aren't randomly flopped in place, but now attach to a bracket
    3. Brake Booster has been painted
    4. Pink wires no longer visible
    4. New Dipstick is smaller, cleaner
    5. Blue plug wires
    6. 3G Alternator (mega fuse is part of this)
    7. Tensioner has been moved back to stock location (Sharp eye would catch a different alt bracket too )
    8. A/C compressor and accompanying system. This is actually the latest news with the project. This now done and functioning! WOOO!!!
    9. New power steering pump
    10. Painted black battery top. (It's actually not new )
    11. New overfill bottle & cap
    12. Radiator cover, and new radiator.

    The fan is actually the same old fan, just with the harness going the other way. That will change soon though.
    Brad

    '79 Mercury Zephyr ES 5.0L GT40 EFI, T-5
    '17 Ford Focus ST
    '14 Ford Fusion SE Manual

  3. #503

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    Here's another fun comparison. 2008 to today



    Brad

    '79 Mercury Zephyr ES 5.0L GT40 EFI, T-5
    '17 Ford Focus ST
    '14 Ford Fusion SE Manual

  4. #504

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    So, I got some of these paint markers to play with. I thought I'd spiff a few things up under my hood. Started with this. I'd describe how it looked before as "stain".


    And now this!


    Another look.


    I'm also working my my shoulder belt/chmsl/rear deck reupholster project. Should be cool!
    Brad

    '79 Mercury Zephyr ES 5.0L GT40 EFI, T-5
    '17 Ford Focus ST
    '14 Ford Fusion SE Manual

  5. #505

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    Here's where I'm at with the rear deck project. This is the original.



    I guess it's kind of hard to tell from this pic, but it's all faded brown and chewed up.

    This is a bracket I made to attach the chmsl to. You can also kind of see where i had to make holes though SEVERAL layers so that the chmsl bulbs would be serviceable without taking the whole car apart.



    These are some correct 1993 Mustang coupe shoulder belt pods. These are the best ones i could find for reasonable money at the time I was looking. There was even one guy selling a set along with the belts for something ludicrous like $400. Good luck, fella.



    They seem to have cleaned up okay.



    I might still cover them in the speaker fabric i have for the shelf though, we'll see. What do you think?
    Brad

    '79 Mercury Zephyr ES 5.0L GT40 EFI, T-5
    '17 Ford Focus ST
    '14 Ford Fusion SE Manual

  6. #506

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    Haven't checked in on this one in a while, I love the never ending improvements! Keep up the good work, looks great!

  7. #507

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    Thanks!
    Brad

    '79 Mercury Zephyr ES 5.0L GT40 EFI, T-5
    '17 Ford Focus ST
    '14 Ford Fusion SE Manual

  8. #508

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    Today I did the cutting and drilling for the seatbelt retractors.



    I made liberal use of my 90 degree drill attachment drilling into the rear deck.

    Then, I also glued the new speaker fabric to the rear shelf piece. When i put it in, it had better be for the last time because they got a little to excited with the rubber sealer stuff at the factory when they were installing the rear window, so there's tons of that crap back there and the upholstered piece really likes to stick to it. This pic is a little sneak preview of how the shelf will look when i'm done.



    I think i AM going to cover the seatbelt pods with the speaker fabric. Not sure how I'm going to accomplish that since i don't really know how to cover a roughly dome-shaped piece with flat fabric.
    Brad

    '79 Mercury Zephyr ES 5.0L GT40 EFI, T-5
    '17 Ford Focus ST
    '14 Ford Fusion SE Manual

  9. #509

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    So, 2 Fridays ago, I had a glass company come out to replace the windshield in the TC. Yes, already. Some jackass had apparently been carrying a cannon ball (not sure what it really was, but it sounded like one) on his trailer and didn't secure it well enough, it decided to put a huge crack in the windshield. Anyway, they apparently brought the wrong windshield. Fail #1. Then last Friday, they came back, did a bunch of work and found they couldn't do it in the driveway because of how Ford buried the wiring for the heated windshield. Fail #2. So then today, I had to take it down to their shop to get it finally, actually replaced.

    What does this have to do with anything? Well, their shop was reasonably close to my favorite junkyard, so I finally got to go there and look around. I had a pretty good haul! I got a full illuminated entry system out of an '87 Crown Vic, several 194 bulb sockets for my courtesy light project, and some A/C line clips to give my A/C lines a more factory-fresh look.

    Finding the stupid timer module for the illuminated entry was actually a lot of trouble. Google failed to tell me where the stupid thing was, so i just had to grope blindly around the whole damn car. I think I found every OTHER module this stupid CARBURETED '80s car had FIRST. Who knew there would be so many! PCM, wiper governor, cruise module, something called a "low fuel switch".... Anyway, other than that, it was a good trip.

    When I got home, I got back on my current projects. I had just acquired these plastic brackets that the seatbelt retractor cover pods snap onto.

    Yes, i probably could have invented another way to do what they do, but this was just easier. No substitute for the right part. But they did come with their own set of challenges. I have to modify the holes in the upholstered rear tray part to not only fit the retractors, but these things also. That means drilling more holes for plastic studs and making the big holes bigger. I finished one side before I had to quit for the day. But they newly upholstered tray piece is installed for the last time, and so is the chmsl. The wiring for the chmsl was a no-brainer. The wiring was already there since my car has the '90 harness. I haven't hooked up the battery and tested it yet, but i don't foresee any problems!

    I looked it up, and I started collecting parts for this project in April of '15.
    Brad

    '79 Mercury Zephyr ES 5.0L GT40 EFI, T-5
    '17 Ford Focus ST
    '14 Ford Fusion SE Manual

  10. #510
    FEP Supporter
    82GTforME's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2013
    Location
    Alberta, Canada
    Posts
    4,855

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    Great recent updates!

    Score grabbing the interior lights! I'm curious to see the interior light project.
    Quote Originally Posted by Travis T View Post
    I think this is my favorite car on the site right now.
    Quote Originally Posted by BLUECRAPI
    This is the best thread on the internet.
    Darran
    1982-1C (Black) GT T-Top:http://vb.foureyedpride.com/showthre...he-Road-Thread
    1986-9L (Oxford White) SVO: http://vb.foureyedpride.com/showthre...d-did-1986-SVO
    1979 (85:Tangerine) Coupe (my son's): http://vb.foureyedpride.com/showthre...gerine-Machine
    1979 (3F:Light Medium Blue) Coupe (one day to be my other son's!) http://vb.foureyedpride.com/showthre...um-Blue-Bomber!

  11. #511

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    Thanks! Yeah, that'll be a fun one. The problem is though, i get caught up with the fun stuff like this, but then my engine still runs like crap.
    Brad

    '79 Mercury Zephyr ES 5.0L GT40 EFI, T-5
    '17 Ford Focus ST
    '14 Ford Fusion SE Manual

  12. #512
    FEP Senior Member droopie85gt's Avatar
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    Jan 2005
    Location
    Cordova, TN
    Posts
    994

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    Looking good. Have you covered the pods in fabric yet. I would think it would be a bit easier since they have flat sides rather than if they were balls.....but what do I know. I can't even figure out the wiring on my own car!!!
    1985 GT, Sunroof, 5 Lug, Rear Discs, 01 Graphite Bullets, 88 forged piston shortblock, 2.02/1.60 Alum heads, Weiand Stealth, Holley C950 TBI, BBK Long tubes

  13. #513

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    Quote Originally Posted by droopie85gt View Post
    Looking good. Have you covered the pods in fabric yet. I would think it would be a bit easier since they have flat sides rather than if they were balls.....but what do I know. I can't even figure out the wiring on my own car!!!
    I did, but it's definitely some serious amateur sh**. It'll do for now, I guess, haha. I'll post some pics tomorrow, probably. The flat sides didn't help.

    I ran into a potential issue. I'm finding that the pods sit a bit farther forward than I expected relative to where the retractors mount. I may have some trouble getting them to clear the rearmost edge of the rear seatback (the lip that sits over the rear shelf). I was hoping the seatback was soft there, but nope. Solid metal frame right underneath there. I suppose at worst, maybe i could bend the seatframe?
    Brad

    '79 Mercury Zephyr ES 5.0L GT40 EFI, T-5
    '17 Ford Focus ST
    '14 Ford Fusion SE Manual

  14. #514

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    Here's where we're at. The shelf/chmsl/seatbelts are pretty much done!



    I had to order the replacement insulation for behind the back seat online, so now we get to wait for that.
    Brad

    '79 Mercury Zephyr ES 5.0L GT40 EFI, T-5
    '17 Ford Focus ST
    '14 Ford Fusion SE Manual

  15. #515

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    Brad

    '79 Mercury Zephyr ES 5.0L GT40 EFI, T-5
    '17 Ford Focus ST
    '14 Ford Fusion SE Manual

  16. #516

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    Got the other stuff all wrapped up today so I could put the seat back in. First, the insulation.



    Then, it turns out I left my rear speakers hanging under the rear deck, not quite all the way bolted up because I had misplaced one of the spacers that came with them so i could mount them underneath years ago. I had intended to get back to it, but then forgot about it. It became an issue when one of the speaker backed out far enough so that it was interfering with the trunk springs. I seem to recall looking all over for replacement spacers back when i first did this, and wasn't able to find any. When i looked the other day, they now seem to be plentiful. I found these 1/4" PVC plastic spacers for cheap on ebay.



    I felt that the speakers could use just a bit more clearance, so i cut out additional spacers out of make-your-own-gasket cork I had laying around. Working under the rear deck, you really only have one hand available to do your work because the other one needs to keep you balance kneeling on the rear seat shelf. I found that the stupid cork spacers, since it came in a roll, would not stay in place on the plastic spacers, so I decided to glue them. Just like a real gasket!



    This pic above shows the needed clearance pretty nicely. And the cork should serve to mitigate any vibration too. Win-win.

    So that brings us to the main event. The seats finally went back in so now I have a sweet before and after for you!

    Before


    After


    Now, I just need to diagnose why my stupid door chime sounds so weak. It could be the circuit, but it could also be the battery. They like to wait until I paint them to match to actually die. But once I'm done with that, I'm headed to a car show Sunday! The kids will be in the back, strapped safely into their new shoulder belts!
    Last edited by ZephyrEFI; 09-08-2017 at 06:20 PM.
    Brad

    '79 Mercury Zephyr ES 5.0L GT40 EFI, T-5
    '17 Ford Focus ST
    '14 Ford Fusion SE Manual

  17. #517

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    Well, i think i have a weak chime again. This has happened to me before with this car. I seem to recall having a bit of trouble finding a replacement last time, so I think I'm going to try this:

    http://www.allfordmustangs.com/forum...himemodule.pdf

    It's worth a shot!

    Doing that diagnosis, i tried out my Power Probe III for the first time (before reading the directions), and got a little bewildered by all the lights and sounds it makes, haha. I think I got it figured out though. It's a sweet tool.

    And then, I moved the trunk holding-open springs to another setting. That's kind of a pain if you're not prepared for how stiff it is (I wasn't). Anyway, now the trunk actually pops when I hit the button instead of just unlatching and trying to re-latch by the time I get back there.

    Spent some time spiffing up some more things under the hood too, and took the car for a ride. I'm a bit concerned my DCC fan controller and electric fan aren't going to play nice together. The controller is made for the Mark VIII fan, and I had to put my old one in temporarily until I could figure out how to make the Mark VIII fan fit. Anyway, after my drive today, the fan was making this weird rising tone motor noise and the blades were not turning. I WAS planning on taking the fam on a long drive to a show tomorrow. Maybe not now. Ugh.
    Brad

    '79 Mercury Zephyr ES 5.0L GT40 EFI, T-5
    '17 Ford Focus ST
    '14 Ford Fusion SE Manual

  18. #518

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    I was able to take the car 30 miles or so to a show with my whole family loaded up. Kids in the back, strapped into the new shoulder belts, A/C cooling us all the way. I had several conversations with people at the show who appreciated exactly what I am trying to do with the car. So that provided some nice motivation! It was all just dang nice! It gave me the chance to take stock of a few things though.

    1) I pumped 7 gallons without stopping into the tank. Everything still points to this problem being solved!

    2) My old fan worked fine this time, but I think a long trip is probably out until I can get the Mark VIII fan in there. Just for my own peace of mind.

    3) The temp is still oddly low. I guess this is a good problem to have vs. overheating, but I don't like it. The temp sits below the halfway point on the gauge fully warmed up. Temps on gauge are 130 for low and 270 for high, so the halfway point would be 200. From what I've heard, an EFI engine should run closer to 205 to really be efficient. WTF, car? If it is running rich would that cause this?

    4) The A/C seems relatively happy as things are, but I'm anxious to see how it functions with the better fan in there.

    5) The shoulder belts pods need recovering. My last attempt is a fail. They're peeling in a few places. I need to take them out and try again.

    6) The wiper washer is not working. It had been working before I pulled the tank out to paint the cap, but since I reinstalled it and filled it with washer fluid I'm getting nothing, despite hearing the pump run and no leaks.

    7) There's a high speed vibration right above 70. Maybe I'll have to have the wheels balanced again or something. Frustrating.

    There's pinging under WOT at high rpm. I opened 'er up a few times coming down onramps in 3rd gear. She pulls pretty well, but then starts pinging as the RPMs rise. I set the timing last year and don't really know anything about setting timing short of 10*BTDC.

    9) My stupid new headliner (from a few years ago) is already falling in a bunch of places. So that pisses me off I get to do that again. I guess it gives me the chance to use more of that reflective insulation I bought for behind the back seat though.

    10) My power steering pump is loud as if there's air in the system. Also pisses me off. I bled the crap out of it last year when I replaced the rack and pump. Even hooked up a vacuum pump. But apparently I'm not done with THAT yet either!

    11) There's still a gas smell, coming from the exhaust I assume. I know the thing needs a dyno tune/chip, but I guess I was waiting until I do a cam, and look at my bottom end and see if it needs anything like a rebuild. All of which of course, I'm dreading. I'm no heavy line guy.

    12) I definitely want to quiet exhaust down. I think I said earlier in the year, I want to at least add high-flow cats. I guess maybe I shouldn't do that until I figure out #11, so I don't burn up brand new cats.

    13) I kicked most of my dent out! When i was laying in the trunk, adjusting tension on my trunk springs, I kicked most of the dent in the LR quarter panel out! Bonus! Some of it is still there, but I seem to have saved myself some work!

    14) I still wonder about my battery. Everything functioned fine on the drive, but when i got home and went to start it back up to park the car, it cranked slowly. I checked the volts just now, and it's 12.44. So not optimal, but not bad...

    15) I'm going to install my badges next. Since there's glue and stuff involved, i should probably do this one while the weather is warm.
    Brad

    '79 Mercury Zephyr ES 5.0L GT40 EFI, T-5
    '17 Ford Focus ST
    '14 Ford Fusion SE Manual

  19. #519

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    So today started with drilling a bigass hole in my perfect trunklid.



    And now my trunk lock has a secret hiding spot!





    Happy with today's results!
    Brad

    '79 Mercury Zephyr ES 5.0L GT40 EFI, T-5
    '17 Ford Focus ST
    '14 Ford Fusion SE Manual

  20. #520

  21. #521

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    Quote Originally Posted by ddx77 View Post
    That came out perfect, nice work!

    I would have messed that up for sure.
    Oh, I had to do it a few times to get it right. Thank you though!

    I really wanted a '90s style Mercury emblem (or better yet, a godhead one from a Marauder) on the car, but didn't want one that was too big on the rear. It would have looked out of place, and any of the regular ones I could find off '90-00s cars were way too big. But doing it like this was the perfect solution! It's subtle, small, and essentially takes the place of an existing feature on the trunklid! Plus I've always liked the hidden keylock things.
    Brad

    '79 Mercury Zephyr ES 5.0L GT40 EFI, T-5
    '17 Ford Focus ST
    '14 Ford Fusion SE Manual

  22. #522
    FEP Super Member erratic50's Avatar
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    Dec 2016
    Location
    Nebraska
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    That's a good conversation piece for sure. There are a lot of kids that would not remember those at all. I've always liked the way they look personally.

  23. #523

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    Thanks!

    So, I spent some time yesterday finishing up cleaning my '06 Lincoln Zephyr floormats. They're finally worthy to lay on top of my new carpet.

    Then I solved another old mystery on the car that I'd notice every once in a while and then forget to address. My "BRAKE" light in the dash would not come on when I would engage the parking brake. It's not easy to get your hand way up there where the switch on the pedal assembly is, but I finally did that yesterday to see of the connector was installed. Turns out it was, to my surprise. So now what? I took a look at my '88 EVTM. It told me the circuit passes through something called a "dual brake switch" or something. I googled what that is, just to see what I was looking for. The only pics I could find were of that two-pin switch you see on the proportioning valve on '80s and older Fords. I still have the original '79 proportioning valve installed on the car, so I do have one, but I never remember having that connected since swapping in the '90 harness. And at one point, the "BRAKE" light DID work. So, that's weird. At that point, I decided to dig around in the wiring in that corner of the engine bay to see if i could find an appropriate connector. Pretty quickly, I found the 3-pin connector for the thingy on the bottom of the master cylinder reservoir. I thought I remembered that being gone since one of the several times I pulled the dash, shifted the harness around, etc. But, there it was, so I plugged it in.

    After doing that, the "BRAKE" light works now! I couldn't find a '90 wiring diagram to verify this, but my assumption is that, that's a newer style "dual brake switch" or something that serves the same function. The wire colors weren't even the same, so I can't say for sure. Stupid year to year changes. Oh, and one more thing. My master cylinder is MY1994, and it's the same connector as my MY1990 harness. So, there you go... sometimes you can fix things with dumb luck.

    And then I spent some time planning placement for my other emblems, but then I ran out of daylight.
    Last edited by ZephyrEFI; 09-24-2017 at 10:00 AM.
    Brad

    '79 Mercury Zephyr ES 5.0L GT40 EFI, T-5
    '17 Ford Focus ST
    '14 Ford Fusion SE Manual

  24. #524

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    Welllllllll I had a challenging day yesterday. I went to put some of my vintage emblems on. Those barrel clips and studs just fought me every inch of the way. First I couldn't get the clips themselves to go into their holes. I looked up what the hole size was supposed to be and everything. And I didn't want to make the holes TOO big and make it so they wouldn't hold on to the studs and i'd lose my expensive emblems. And then the f#$%ing studs didn't want to go into the clips! I don't know if it was because the emblems are repros or the clips weren't OEM quality or what. That whole deal just is not worth the trouble. I think on the other side I'm going to just fill in the hollow parts of the emblems with some JB Weld and then just use double sided tape.

    Anyway, here's what we've got. I'm pretty happy with my placement and everything in the end though.

    Brad

    '79 Mercury Zephyr ES 5.0L GT40 EFI, T-5
    '17 Ford Focus ST
    '14 Ford Fusion SE Manual

  25. #525

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    Still fiddling with emblems. Cut the studs off all but the flag on the passenger door. It seems happy where it is, so I'm going to leave it alone. Below, the left emblem has the hollow part filled in, and the one on the right is one step further along with double sided tape put on. It's ready to install.



    Other than that, I found out I have a fuel leak at the passenger side fuel rail. Yes, AGAIN.
    Brad

    '79 Mercury Zephyr ES 5.0L GT40 EFI, T-5
    '17 Ford Focus ST
    '14 Ford Fusion SE Manual

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