'79 Pace Car #104- Lots of Pics

[jay87lx]

I picked this up to keep it from going to waste. #104 The car is a great start I am just not sure I want to do it. I have always wanted another coupe. It has the Buck tag under the upper rad support, forgot to get a pic. Really solid underneath with no rust or rot. The only areas that are rusty are what you see in the bottom quarters at the doors. The bottoms of the doors are solid. It had been sitting for 8 years so I drained all the gas, put a new battery in, cranked it for 20 seconds and she fired right up. No A/C, no power windows is one of the reasons it isn't really the car for me but we'll see. Somewhere along the lines someone did a dual exhaust- Enjoy the pics.




Solid strut towers



Hatch




Solid floors

[jay87lx]

Bottom of doors



Trunk


Prev owner already did dual exhaust

[jay87lx]

Interior

[jay87lx]

Now the bad areas on the body
Around the rear wheel well



Bottom of drivers side quarter near door




same area but passengers side



Looks like the paint was faded here and caused some rust

[jay87lx]

,,,,,

[PaceFever79]

Good on you for buying it!

Even if you pass it on, you have saved it.

Btw,, Where are you from?

[jay87lx]

methuen, ma
And thats what I figured- It was well worth being saved

[bull-vette]

Tire looks a little low, but other than that.....sorry, I couldn't resist. Carry on....

[jay87lx]

Well I guess this is where I am going to do the build thread. After getting the car I got it running and was unsure if I was going to keep it. I really want power windows and A/C is mandatory. I also have been wanting to build a coupe for a long time but then I got interested in this car and decided to keep it.
I was having trouble lining the hood up to the latch. I took the fenders off and noticed the passengers side inner fender apron was tweaked a bit from a front end hit from the drivers side pushing the core support toward the passenger side about 1/2" or so. I called up my body guy I sub work out to from the car lot and asked him to come by. I have known Rick since HS and trust him and will be getting alot of advice and a good amount of work done from him as well, but I want to be able to do as much as I can myself.
He saw the inner fender apron and suggested a local guy to bring it to.

You can see here it is nice and straight




You can see where is is bent a bit right where the innder fender apron starts


While I am waiting to get it over to the frame shop I am ordering new hood and fender mounting hardware. Most, if not all of my "J" nuts are rusted or stripped and the bolts are all mismatched. I want to have all new hardware to give the frame guy the best shot of getting everything to fit correctly.
Although I didn't get any pics I also replaced all both door strikers, hinge pins and bushings, doors close much better now

I also gutted the interior and confirmed that the floors are solid.


Due to cost I may not be recovering the original Recaros, it's $670 for the cover set as well as needing new foam at $130 a seat so I can find a nice used set of seats either Corbeaus ($300) or I really like the GT seats from '86 but it really wont fit the color scheme. and use the rest of the money for the new carpet and dash. I sat in the Recars today and I am a bit too girthy for them-lol


Currently the car doesn't have A/C and that is all but mandatory for me so being that the current dash is all broken anyways and i need to replace it I ended up meeting Alex978 who lives near me. He Capri is really nice, he knows his stuff and he has alot of parts for sale, including a Dash that is for an A/C car. It is red so I will have to dye that but that is not big deal, so providing that the frame guy gets it all lined up I will get the dash from Alex start on acquiring parts to get A/C. I will more than likely find a local parts car that has A/C and take everything out

I initially took the front clip off as a whole but I took it all apart today.




First, I need to fix the lower valance as there are a few cracks in it. Then there is a support inside that I need to replace some of the backing plates. Also a few of the tabs are broken off so those need to be repaired. I am sure I am not the first guy who has had to repair and maybe put some supports into a front valance, does anyone have a link perhaps?


I started sanding down the front facia today and removing the decals. They were totally dried and a total PITA to get off.


.

I am going to do a few coats of 2K primer to build up the flat spots in front of the headlights, they ar really dry. Does anyone know if I should add some sort of flex addative to the primer mix on the flexible front end parts?

[cobracomander]

great find! hope you are driving it soon!

[JTurbo]

Congrats on the new project. Subscribing for future updates.

[wraithracing]

Looks like a really good project!

My PC is up and running, but is in need of a complete cosmetic restoration, but I have a couple of daughter's Mustangs and few others that are ahead of mine right now.

I would recommend being careful with the 2K on the bumper cover and any flexible parts. The reason being is that many of the 2K high build primers are not designed for flexible surfaces and if used on them, they can crack later due to the flexing of the bumper cover, air dam, etc. SEM makes some flexible bumper primers that work well. Most of the time, I also use the bumper repair body fillers to fill in any defects, scratches etc. They do a better job and are designed specifically for that. I would recommend talking with your body guy and see what he uses and recommends. If you don't have much luck there, I will be happy to give you some product information.

Good Luck with the PC and keep the pictures coming!

Trey

[wraithracing]

Oh!

Forgot to mention, I am a bit of a wide girth guy myself as well as being 6'1" and if you are considering the Corbeau seats in place of the PC then you will definitely want to go with the GTS II or the Sport Seats as all the others are very tight for guys like us. I considered the Cobreau seats for another project years ago when I lived in TX and I stopped by LRS to pick up some parts and sat in all the seats to test them out and those two were the only ones that would fit me. Personally I prefer the styling of the GTS II over the Sports, but either of them can be an option.

Trey

[jay87lx]

I would like to replace both front fenders. Both need a bit of body work around the wheel arch in the crease. New fenders are cheap enough to replace with new or Newer from my local pick and pull.
My question is there any reason I can't replace them with newer fenders from lets say a '92. I know the wheel openings are larger but would the lower valance extensions still work? Any other issues?

[Bryan Knebworth]

If it were NOT a W-code, I wouldn't mind checking it out.

[jay87lx]

If it were NOT a W-code, I wouldn't mind checking it out.

The vin indicates it should have the 4 cyl turbo but it came with the carbed 302- that is getting scraped for a 351W

[wraithracing]

I would like to replace both front fenders. Both need a bit of body work around the wheel arch in the crease. New fenders are cheap enough to replace with new or Newer from my local pick and pull.
My question is there any reason I can't replace them with newer fenders from lets say a '92. I know the wheel openings are larger but would the lower valance extensions still work? Any other issues?

You can install the 91-93 fenders if you wish, but you will have to modify the fender extensions and the front moldings to match the newer fenders. It can be done, it's just up to you if you want to deal with it or not. I personally have 17X9 Cobra R wheels with 255/40/17 tires on my PC with @ 1.5" lower ride height and I don't have any rubbing issues on the front fenders. I might have an issue if I were to run a taller 45 series tire, but with the 40 it works just fine.

Trey

[jay87lx]

Initially I was going to wait until after the frame shop and after I get the dash from Alex978 and dye it before I removed my old one but I was bored today and decided to take it out. Of course you can see it wasn't too hard as it was already all broken, cracked,glued together and held on with zip ties so once I cut the zip ties it all just started to fall out. I was able to loosen the bracket unde the hood to give me some slack to pull the cluster forward, so once I got that out the rest was easy- obviously.
I was wondering if anyone has a link to a thread where someone has some detailed pic on what goes where as far as replacing the dash, or maybe a parts diagram etc.

[jay87lx]

After I made post #18 I checked my local CL and came across these. I know they are a good deal being up here in NE so I went right down and grabbed them$50/pair!!!!!!!!!

[Bryan Knebworth]

Well-done! I just noticed that your PC is equipped with the (optional) Leather Wrap. That was a very uncommon option.

[wraithracing]

Great buy on the rear quarters!

I am not sure if you plan on sectioning the wheel well arch into your PC or plan on swapping the entire quarters. The issue with the full quarter is that the new ones are 87-93 that use the flush mount glass so that area is different from the 79-86 cars. You can make it all work, but you will need to pay attention to those areas to keep the original quarter glass and sail panels that I highly recommend you do.

Good Luck!

Trey

[jay87lx]

I was going to just use the whole qtr as when I looked ta NPD they list 1 qtr for 79-93 but now that you say they are different I will have to use sections- One of the areas I need to replace obviously is this- are you saying that the molds are different?





Also Trey, You wouldn't happen to have an exploded view of the dash area of my car? You can see everything just fell apart and I am not 100% sure that what I started with was correct anyways

[86asccoupe20]

Jay, glad you're getting to work on it. I assume Rick is sending you to Linc for the bodywork? If he is, Linc does awesome frame work. He'll have it like factory when he's done. Your local Sanel store carries sem products. Ate you doing all this work in methuen?

[wraithracing]

It's still possible you could use the whole quarter panel, but you will need to make modifications to keep the original glass and trim. I don't believe the modifications are that difficult. I have in the past swapped aero quarter glass into a 4 eye . . . Yes! I promise I will never do it again! But I have never tried to install 4 eyed glass and trim into an aero car. I know there is an extra section of metal with a hole at the rear bottom edge of the glass area on aero cars for the glass quarter and the front edge has several additional sections of metal with holes for the aero glass. You might be able to just cut those out and use the whole quarter. Unfortunately I am not home and don't have a set side by side for comparison.

As for the dash layout, I don't believe I do, but I will look through my stuff and see if I can find one. I will be home on Monday, so it will be a day or so. I know there was a good thread here on FEP where a member showed a complete removal of his dash with lots of pictures and explanations. You might try searching for that. If I can remember what the specific thread was, I will post it up for you.

Trey

[jay87lx]

That would be great - I will search for it as well

Yes 86Asccoupe, Rick suggested linc and I hear he will get it right , I tried to PM you but your box is full- I am working on it in Derry at the car lot- do you know the Rick I am talking about