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  1. #1

    Default 1984.5 Mustang GT Turbo Convertible Restoration

    Hey there! Over the last year I've been working on my 1984.5 GT Turbo getting it restored back to Factory color. If you'd like to skip through the thread and just see the pictures you can feel free to hit the album at the link below.

    Some of you guys may recognize the car from previous posts here, it was a factory white car with a black top. Over the last year I've been able to scrounge up a good amount of parts for it (including molding) and should be back that way later this week.

    Full album with a TON of pics: http://imgur.com/a/RmUle#0




    Last edited by ChristmasGT; 06-12-2014 at 12:00 PM.
    88 Thunderbird Turbocoupe w/ 5spd Conv.
    84.5 GT Turbo Convertible (Rebuild thread: http://vb.foureyedpride.com/showthre...le-Restoration)

  2. #2

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    The re-color job was done pretty poorly and the cars true color is apparent pretty much everywhere.




    88 Thunderbird Turbocoupe w/ 5spd Conv.
    84.5 GT Turbo Convertible (Rebuild thread: http://vb.foureyedpride.com/showthre...le-Restoration)

  3. #3

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    As soon as the car arrived me and the GF went through taking the whole thing apart. The interior will need to be re-sprayed and should remain pretty close to stock. The only thing's I've picked up to add are:

    SVO Gauge Cluster with new Bezel and cleaned up needles.
    New Carpet
    SVO Steering wheel.

    I'm having a bit of trouble getting the right seat fabric, TMI looks to have the color, but not the center "hounds tooth" fabric. The door panels are almost completely shot, but still going to try and save them.

    The WORST part, is the Convertible top condition. The Dashpad, is for the most part in great shape, unfortunately instead of replacing the top, someone drilled quick release studs into the dash top for what I'm assuming is a top.




    88 Thunderbird Turbocoupe w/ 5spd Conv.
    84.5 GT Turbo Convertible (Rebuild thread: http://vb.foureyedpride.com/showthre...le-Restoration)

  4. #4
    FEP Super Member Bryan Knebworth's Avatar
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    Ripping them apart is the fun part

  5. #5

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    To keep things fairly short (way more pictures in the album) here's some highlight shots of me sanding and prepping the car for paint. The engine bay was rattle canned black, was able to get most of it off. The body however has a ton of things going on everywhere.

    I'll be adding more pictures throughout the week as I went ahead and took the time off to get the car



    88 Thunderbird Turbocoupe w/ 5spd Conv.
    84.5 GT Turbo Convertible (Rebuild thread: http://vb.foureyedpride.com/showthre...le-Restoration)

  6. #6

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    Quote Originally Posted by Bryan Knebworth View Post
    Ripping them apart is the fun part
    LOL Yep! This will be my first go at painting a car. Always wanted to do it and thing it should turn out pretty good, plus shooting Oxford White shouldn't be too bad.

    The only thing I don't know is the outer stripe on the hood / fascia. The black inset on the hoot isn't too big of a deal, but on the white 83-84.5 GT's does anyone know the pattern? Can't seem to find a good OEM picture to get a guide off of.
    88 Thunderbird Turbocoupe w/ 5spd Conv.
    84.5 GT Turbo Convertible (Rebuild thread: http://vb.foureyedpride.com/showthre...le-Restoration)

  7. #7
    FEP Super Member mustangxtreme's Avatar
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    Congrats on your new ride and kudos for all the love you're showing it. I couldn't help but notice you are a fan of over inflated 4cyl rides, Good luck and keep up the good work.
    Dave

    If common sense was common wouldn't it just be sense?

    1983 Capri L T top 5.0 efi aod
    1983 Capri RS Turbo
    1981 Black Magic 400 c6
    93 F-250 351 5sp 4x4

  8. #8

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    I can help you a bit with the center stripe. Just let me know. There are plenty of others on here too that can. That is such a cool ride. Whoever would order it? They paid extra for the GT turbo, sports seats (extra) and even a convertible was way extra. But $40 for power locks or whatever it cost, no thanks, LOL. Power windows? Who needs 'em. cruise but no AC? Such a bizarre combo. I love it! Glad you are saving it. You will love it. They are great cars.
    Nobody makes the correct upholstery, I have no idea why. They make almost all the other years. I mean it fits, but is not correct pattern as you have discovered.
    Great Project!

    EDIT : Also, you can remove the staples out of the material on your door panels and they sell new blank "boards" that you staple your material back on if that helps.
    Liberty once lost is lost forever.

    John Adams
    July 7, 1775

  9. #9

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    Quote Originally Posted by mustangxtreme View Post
    Congrats on your new ride and kudos for all the love you're showing it. I couldn't help but notice you are a fan of over inflated 4cyl rides, Good luck and keep up the good work.
    Hah, yeah I've had quite a few: 88 Mustang Converted to 2.3t, 2x 87 Turbo Coupes and now the 84 Turbo GT verts. Recently got rid of my 2011 Mustang GT for a 96 Corvette LT4 (Really didn't like the 2011 was built, but god that motor was amazing). My 96 Cobra was an absolute blast. Before that I had an 01 Laser Tint GT. The 2.3T crowd is a lot of fun, plus the car's being so rare it's a nice cool factor. I'd really like to put the new 2.3T in a TC or Four Eye that needs restored.

    Quote Originally Posted by homer302 View Post
    I can help you a bit with the center stripe. Just let me know. There are plenty of others on here too that can. That is such a cool ride. Whoever would order it? They paid extra for the GT turbo, sports seats (extra) and even a convertible was way extra. But $40 for power locks or whatever it cost, no thanks, LOL. Power windows? Who needs 'em. cruise but no AC? Such a bizarre combo. I love it! Glad you are saving it. You will love it. They are great cars.
    Nobody makes the correct upholstery, I have no idea why. They make almost all the other years. I mean it fits, but is not correct pattern as you have discovered.
    Great Project!

    EDIT : Also, you can remove the staples out of the material on your door panels and they sell new blank "boards" that you staple your material back on if that helps.
    Thank's for the info! Your's has been a lot of inspiration. The outer stripe is the one I'm mainly concerned with (the silver stripes on yours), I have no idea what would be factory correct on the 83-84.5's in White, if you have any info that'd be great!. The combo is absolutely CRAZY I know! The car's going to back together exactly as it came a part, but a bit more "fresh". The only item I'll be removing is the cruise (still keeping it to re-add later though if needed). Ordered all new interior and exterior screws and bolts for it as well since I'd rather just deal with it all fresh. Probably going to go with SVO tail lights. Really sucks to hear about the seat fabric, I'm actually pretty fond of it maybe I'll try an upholstery shop to see what they can do.

    The real killer is those Marchal 750's good lord they're expensive., the original's are gone and were replaced with Bosch's.

    The Factory emblems and badges should show up tomorrow and will probably be painting it in stages starting Wed's / Thur night, so there will be a ton of pictures added in the next few days.

    88 Thunderbird Turbocoupe w/ 5spd Conv.
    84.5 GT Turbo Convertible (Rebuild thread: http://vb.foureyedpride.com/showthre...le-Restoration)

  10. #10
    FEP Super Member JTurbo's Avatar
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    Cool car, subscribing for more updates. Good job thus far!

  11. #11

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    Quote Originally Posted by JTurbo View Post
    Cool car, subscribing for more updates. Good job thus far!
    Thank you! I've been looking in to the stripe, I've found a few 83-84 cars with a similar outside stripe, wondering if this is what it would wind up being like. Could also go with just the center section and not worry about the outline stripe, maybe I'll go that route.

    88 Thunderbird Turbocoupe w/ 5spd Conv.
    84.5 GT Turbo Convertible (Rebuild thread: http://vb.foureyedpride.com/showthre...le-Restoration)

  12. #12
    FEP Super Member mustangxtreme's Avatar
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    try SMS Fabrics for seat material. They are the only ones who have fabric for my Black Magic seats.
    Dave

    If common sense was common wouldn't it just be sense?

    1983 Capri L T top 5.0 efi aod
    1983 Capri RS Turbo
    1981 Black Magic 400 c6
    93 F-250 351 5sp 4x4

  13. #13

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    Hey Guys,

    Quick update for the evening, got done sanding down the fenders and should finish down the rest of the car tomorrow with primer and paint pretty soon after. I also wound up finding the original factory stripe which should help as a guide.

    The area around the Battery tray is the only real problem with the car. Going to work on that a bit tomorrow, look's like at one point the battery wound up leaking causing the damage around it.





    Last edited by ChristmasGT; 05-07-2014 at 11:18 PM.
    88 Thunderbird Turbocoupe w/ 5spd Conv.
    84.5 GT Turbo Convertible (Rebuild thread: http://vb.foureyedpride.com/showthre...le-Restoration)

  14. #14
    FEP Power Member BLK BRD 88's Avatar
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    I just subscribed to your thread.........hang in there & keep up the good work.
    Ron
    I never seem to get the nut that holds the steering wheel fixed

  15. #15

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    That looks like a great project. You've made a great start. We're restoring my son's 84.5 GT Turbo as well, here's our thread. http://vb.foureyedpride.com/showthre...on-84-GT-Turbo

    My son wanted a convertible for his first car, but I recommended against it. I have an 83 'vert (you can see it in some of our thread pics). I told him he didn't need anything with a hole in the roof or no roof for his first car.

  16. #16
    FEP Super Member Gemini1999's Avatar
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    I'm enjoying this thread too, but I must confess that if my Turbo GT convertible required this much disassembly, I would have taken up drinking. I get into a cold sweat just thinking about pulling the dash out....
    Last edited by Gemini1999; 05-08-2014 at 09:58 PM.
    Bryan

    1983 Mustang GLX Convertible

  17. #17

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    Hey Guys,

    Thanks for the overwhelming support! Got a staggering amount of work done today, and should be hitting it pretty early tomorrow for another full day of work (same with Sat and Sunday or until it's painted).

    First thing is, I've got it back to the factory BaseCoat completely today. The hood, fenders, and deck lid had a ridiculous amount of paint on them. However the doors and the quarters were pretty easy to get down.

    I really didn't like the idea of stacking all of the color's on top of each other, so figured I'd take it down a bit more. Seeing the Black center stripe on the car makes me wonder why anyone would remove it in the first place. Tomorrow morning should be starting a bit of the body work, overall it's not too bad just a few low spots here and there, a majority of which I'll probably work out with a guide coat to get it as straight as I can.

    Also re-worked most of the car from the original 80 grit to 220 tonight to help remove a large amount of scratches, I'll probably step it down to 400 then do the whole cleaning phase and prime it. The only real body work that will need to be done is the drivers door, I should be able to get most of it.

    Since it's my first Body / Paint job, trying to get as much right as possible, so far so good though. Should have another update for you guys about the same time tomorrow.






    88 Thunderbird Turbocoupe w/ 5spd Conv.
    84.5 GT Turbo Convertible (Rebuild thread: http://vb.foureyedpride.com/showthre...le-Restoration)

  18. #18

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    Great progress! It's inspiring me to get back to work on mine!
    65 Mustang
    77 Mustang
    84 GT Turbo
    85 Mustang Convertible
    86 Mustang LX

  19. #19

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    Hey Guys,

    Didn't post any pictures last night since it was mainly all edge and jamb sanding yesterday. Hoping for paint today!
    88 Thunderbird Turbocoupe w/ 5spd Conv.
    84.5 GT Turbo Convertible (Rebuild thread: http://vb.foureyedpride.com/showthre...le-Restoration)

  20. #20
    FEP Senior Member 83GTJIM's Avatar
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    WOW! I can't believe this thread started 5-5-14! Great work and it is going to be a real eye catcher when it is done. Keep up the good work & I love following this build.

  21. #21

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    Another update! Was able to get the body primed (Quarters, Jambs, Engine Bay, Trunk). Going to try and get the Fenders, Hood and decklid tomorrow if possible.







    Still learning the compressor and gun, so I'll probably hit the body 1 more time before rolling the base / clear. Got to say, it's at least nice seeing it 1 color.
    88 Thunderbird Turbocoupe w/ 5spd Conv.
    84.5 GT Turbo Convertible (Rebuild thread: http://vb.foureyedpride.com/showthre...le-Restoration)

  22. #22
    FEP Super Member JTurbo's Avatar
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    Excellent!

  23. #23

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    Quick update, this week will probably be fairly low key, we're going to pick up a new Compressor tonight since the sweet Husky 1.5HP 4CFM one I've got won't be able to keep up with anything and I'd like to have something significantly larger for future projects I work on.

    We're hoping to have the entire car painted in about a week to week and a half, then start the rebuild process on it.
    88 Thunderbird Turbocoupe w/ 5spd Conv.
    84.5 GT Turbo Convertible (Rebuild thread: http://vb.foureyedpride.com/showthre...le-Restoration)

  24. #24
    FEP Super Member Travis T's Avatar
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    Looks like from what you have sanded through, white cars had white stripes with a black pinstripe much like the red cars had red stripes. Here is a close up of an original paint red bumper I put on my black GT. Ignore the stripes on the hood, they were replaced and black and dark charcoal cars got silver stripes anyway.



    1984 Mustang GT owned since 1991 (first car). Mercury Mountaineer GT-40P engine, some suspension mods, currently undergoing a five lug SN95 brake upgrade and more suspension mods. Some minor body and interior mods have been done as well.

    2004 GT convertible, 2001 Taurus LX, 1994 F150, 1950 F-1 Ford Pickup

  25. #25

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    Phew! Finally got the new compressor set up and in place. Started painting the car tonight, but am going to need to re-do the base coat tomorrow evening before shooting clear on it since it's coming out pretty rough.

    This week I should be able to make some good progress, so stay tuned!




    88 Thunderbird Turbocoupe w/ 5spd Conv.
    84.5 GT Turbo Convertible (Rebuild thread: http://vb.foureyedpride.com/showthre...le-Restoration)

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