My '85 GT 7.5L

[wraithracing]

Mad at you for cutting it up? Heck no! This is an awesome build and it still has a Ford engine in it, what's not to like?

It's NOT sitting in my driveway or garage!

Trey

[Quicksilver]

Great build!
Sleeper...should have been an option from Ford.
But, I have to agree with Trey...it needs to be sitting in my driveway.
Thanks for posting. I'll be watching for further updates.

[JTurbo]

Great attention to detail. Also love that you're doing it yourself. There's real satisfaction in that!

[grabbergreen84]

Engine bay looks perfect.

[7point5inafox]

This is awesome. thanks guys! The feedback is better than I ever hoped.
I was on a mission to clean up the engine compartment as much as possible w/o ruining factory appearance. For sure the messiest part was the wiring so I decided to move the harnesses outside the engine compartment. That meant fishing the wires thru the rad support. I also decided to move the solenoid under the right front frame rail. I went with a 1-wire Powermaster alt while I was at it. I'm hoping The 50+ amp gain improves the brightness of the headlights. They gotta be in the single digits if I ever could measure the candlepower. That left only the coil to go so I came up with a tubing and exhaust clamp rig welded to my modified Chevy truck battery tray. I used that tray because I thought I had a battery issue before I realized it was an undersized starter switch wire and there was a huge selection for large amp batteries. I usually get accused of overthinking but this was a case I was underthinking and lucked out big time. Weeks after the bracket was done, painted and all, I noticed from looking thru the air cleaner intake duct hole I was staring at the side of the coil post. Holy crap, I forgot about the air cleaner! Luckily I ended up with enough space. Common theme: close to everything but touches nothing.

[7point5inafox]

I finally got the clean strut tower I was wanting. In staying with stock appearances I had to go with a Motorcraft battery this time. After a bunch of investigation it ended up an Escape battery fits that tray perfect and has enough amperage. Who woulda guessed??!! Onto the other side, I really wanted that hood release cable out of sight but it just didn't want to cooperate so I left it. Other than needing an overflow/washer bottle that's not so aged looking there isn't much that can be improved over there now that it's smooth and shiny once again. I already mentioned in a previous post about the master cylinder being moved for the necessary valve cover clearance. I only had to drill a hole for the brake lines to pass thru and a couple mounting holes for the line lock solenoid to be mounted outside in the strut tower.

[bridgener]

Wow, just wow! Loving your attention to detail and creativity.

One question. Are you worried about electrical gremlins with the wire tuck? I'd think that on a grueling journey like Drag Week, you'd want everything to be readily serviceable in case anything goes down on the road. I personally think wire tucks look great, I would just hate to have to chase electrical problems with that kind of setup.

[7point5inafox]

Wow, just wow! Loving your attention to detail and creativity.

One question. Are you worried about electrical gremlins with the wire tuck? I'd think that on a grueling journey like Drag Week, you'd want everything to be readily serviceable in case anything goes down on the road. I personally think wire tucks look great, I would just hate to have to chase electrical problems with that kind of setup.

It's too soon to tell but I'm not nervous about it, yet. I did a fair amount of electrical work on this thing the first go round with minimal issues. There were a few but it was never anything major. My biggest electrical problem came from the power window motors. Both sides had quit working in the down position and I never even messed with them. I'm sort of a nut for electrical work and really enjoy it. I always do flux, crimp, solder and then shrink tube on every splice. I'll post some pics of some electrical changes at a later time. I hope I don't end up regretting it but if you see me posting for help in the electrical section you'll know something went sour.

[7point5inafox]

I spent a fair amount of time making this air cleaner work. I got another air cleaner base, and used just the dome part inside the filter. I laid it on the carb and after cutting the middle out of the original base, laid it on top and tilted it to the same angle as the cowl hood. This for sure isn't a perfect set up because of the limited air gap from the top of the choke horn to the air cleaner lid but seems to work ok and it looks cool. I may try one of those chokeless carb bodies this time around. It was then time to rework the snorkels. They needed cut off and angled downwards to hit the inlet holes correctly. The 2 self tapper screws made a flimsy attempt to hold those snorkels on so I went with 4 nutserts and put a reinforcement plate on each side. It's super solid now.

[7point5inafox]

This was the most depressing part of the build. Walking past the car every day while it sat out for all those years was really frustrating. The doors had been bad for years so I was always on the lookout for replacements. I got killer deals on a RH door from an '83 and a driver's door from a '93. I knew the rocker was blowing out but couldn't believe how bad it really was. I started tapping on the rocker and it just crumbled. The floor was a total surprise.

Attachment 92669

[7point5inafox]

This is the last of the nasty pics. I had to get the sandblaster after all of the brown stuff. After doing all that work on the rocker and floor the rest of this was easy. Since I was throwing the doors away that meant the only rust requiring patches were on the right side of the hatch and a small piece in the upper area of the LH sail panel, in the last pic. That started as just a 1-1/2" long rust stain until I hit it with a grinder. It immediately opened up into that split. The rest cleaned up nicely.

[7point5inafox]

I used wide masking tape to copy the size & shape of the seam sealer patches up by the hatch hinges. I tried to duplicate them as close as possible once all the repairs were done. After the hatch was welded up I put a coat of Upol's Fibral over the patch just in case there was a pinhole I didn't see. After that I only needed a skim coat of Upol's Flyweight Gold filler and it was ready to be coated in epoxy.

[7point5inafox]

The doors while rust free did have some dents to straighten out. The '83 door had no pwr accessories so I had to make the big hole in the front for the wires. It sure is nice the inside brace already had the hole in it and the door shell had a nice dimple in the center. New pins and bushings were definitely needed. I then sandblasted the insides and frames of both doors. Everything was ready for the DP90LF now.

[FUKAZ28]

Hella skills man. Very nice work.

[7point5inafox]

Hella skills man. Very nice work.

Thanks very much! I haven't done much to this thing the last couple weeks so once I have my progress up to date hopefully I'll get egged on to go get something done. My teenage son was helping me a fair amount but now has his first girlfriend so his help has dwindled, as I can relate to. I'm really embarrassed about all the background crap. I never really see it when taking the pics. Sure wish I could edit it all out. Maybe it's the same effect as cameras adding 10#'s to people? After the DP90 was sprayed on everything I left it sit a day or two and then sprayed Upol's Reface on the doors and the rocker section I replaced. It's a polyester spray filler which sprays nice and has unbelievable filling ability and sands like butter. After sanding, I sprayed DPS3051 on it all and went to concentrate on the hood.

[7point5inafox]

I got to fix another thing that I previously regretted for 18 yrs once I got to the hood. I wanted to keep the non-stock gauges out of sight so I welded together a gauge pod out of some exhaust tubing and a half dozen freeze plugs. The part I hated was the fact I half assed the cut I made to the underside of the hood. As evidenced by the pics. I had at least moved the the curved end over to cover where I cut thru the screen but had never finished the seam. Also evidenced in the pic. Once I got the hood flipped over I ground those square corners down and put some score marks for the repair material to have a better bite. I cut some thin aluminum in the radius I wanted and taped it to the hood. I then piled on the Fusor 101EZ. That's another phenomenal product, as most Lord Corp products are. The alum worked really nice when sanding. As soon as I hit metal, the edge was done.

[7point5inafox]

This Harwood hood was of excellent quality and fit fantastic everywhere except the bracing ran smack into the LH upper radiator bracket. It wouldn't close unless I removed the bracket. That bracket was in the stock location. I knew a guy with an '86 GT with the same situation so I have no idea why they were made like that. I thought I had fixed it the first go round but it still rubbed a little. I got it this time! There were also a few stress cracks that needed some attention while the glue was out.

[Mike1157]

I got to fix another thing that I previously regretted for 18 yrs once I got to the hood. I wanted to keep the non-stock gauges out of sight so I welded together a gauge pod out of some exhaust tubing and a half dozen freeze plugs. The part I hated was the fact I half assed the cut I made to the underside of the hood. As evidenced by the pics. I had at least moved the the curved end over to cover where I cut thru the screen but had never finished the seam. Also evidenced in the pic. Once I got the hood flipped over I ground those square corners down and put some score marks for the repair material to have a better bite. I cut some thin aluminum in the radius I wanted and taped it to the hood. I then piled on the Fusor 101EZ. That's another phenomenal product, as most Lord Corp products are. The alum worked really nice when sanding. As soon as I hit metal, the edge was done.
Attachment 92831Attachment 92832

The final fix looks a million times better than the original. I have to laugh at your updates when you plug the brand names and model #'s, of the refinish products you've used to to do the job. I almost need to only read your updates at 3AM when the rest of the infomercials typically happen.
Where the hell would an average Joe even get "Fusor 101EZ" anyway?

That stuff looks like it might something like "kitty hair" maybe? You and I need to talk more, because if that stuff holds up as well as you endorse it to do, I have several transitions that I could use that on to soften the sharp radius's of some of the things I have done/will be doing.

[7point5inafox]

The final fix looks a million times better than the original. I have to laugh at your updates when you plug the brand names and model #'s, of the refinish products you've used to to do the job. I almost need to only read your updates at 3AM when the rest of the infomercials typically happen.
Where the hell would an average Joe even get "Fusor 101EZ" anyway?

That stuff looks like it might something like "kitty hair" maybe? You and I need to talk more, because if that stuff holds up as well as you endorse it to do, I have several transitions that I could use that on to soften the sharp radius's of some of the things I have done/will be doing.

Sorry, thought it may help someone doing similar repairs. This stuff is just too expensive if some personal trial and error can be avoided. For example, noting that HRB9700 was the hot rod black used in your engine compartment may have saved someone time searching for the kit you referred to. That one and Sem's kit are both can't miss choices. I'll bet that PPG jobber store where you purchase your paint supplies from will have Fusor products. If they don't their competitor surely will. I can ramble on for hours on things I've used different Fusor products on. Eventually I'll be posting more pics of other repaired parts. Message me any time, I'd be glad to give my opinion. I'll never recommend or certainly won't sell anything I won't use.

[Mike1157]

Sorry, thought it may help someone doing similar repairs. This stuff is just too expensive if some personal trial and error can be avoided. For example, noting that HRB9700 was the hot rod black used in your engine compartment may have saved someone time searching for the kit you referred to. That one and Sem's kit are both can't miss choices. I'll bet that PPG jobber store where you purchase your paint supplies from will have Fusor products. If they don't their competitor surely will. I can ramble on for hours on things I've used different Fusor products on. Eventually I'll be posting more pics of other repaired parts. Message me any time, I'd be glad to give my opinion. I'll never recommend or certainly won't sell anything I won't use.

I'm kidding actually. You have to take into account that the products you refer to are typically only available through your typical auto body distribution channels, but since companies like Summit want to get into the autobody supply business as well, they do offer derivative solutions to stuff if you know the original purpose for those products.
(i.e. the hot rod black kit you referred to) I paid almost 80 bucks for that kit purchased here locally from an autobody paint supplier. When it comes time to paint the interior bars, (a part you may not be to yet in my "Chronicles of Carnia") I use a qt of the Summit branded hot rod black instead. It flowed out just as nice, flattened exactly the same, and seems just as hard as the stuff that makes up my engine compartment, at less than half the cost.

[7point5inafox]

I'm following you, maybe someday I'll ramble on with my opinion on Summit selling paint supplies. I have absolutely nothing against Summit, I use them almost exclusively for my speed parts. I haven't got to your roll bar painting posts yet but you didn't really spoil anything. I know you'd never leave it unpainted.

[7point5inafox]

The headlight mount panel was a little beat up when I bought the car and since there's not much of it visible I decided to fix it. It was pretty soft on the left side and both posts that go back to the goofy little angle brackets on the rad support were broken. One side I didn't have at all and the other one was cracked. This was one of my earlier attempts to repair sheet molded compound plastics and the Fusor I used on the hood repairs didn't exist back then. I ended up choosing the wrong way to go about it. I used fiberglass resin and it worked just ok, some places didn't stick that great. I removed all that stuff and got out the Fusor. I decided to eliminate those 2 posts all together this time. I also had blast the metal buckets and this time used KBS' Rust Seal on them. I installed new adjusters, guides and springs while it was all apart.

[7point5inafox]

I had to do some creative grinding on the backside of the mount panel to clear my 2 Summit pusher fans that I mounted on the a/c condenser.


We made cardboard forms to fill the fog light openings in the bumper and dodge the lower rad support that I could connect the original air cleaner inlet tubes onto. They were coated in fiberglass resin and cloth once we were happy with shape. Only negative is they're a little heavy. My son has a class with a 3D printer so he took these to school to try and remake them from lightweight ABS. Hopefully I'll finally get that big hump out of the bottom. Gravity made it difficult to get both top and bottom flat so we opted for the top to be flat so it could be fastened to the bottom of the bumper. Luckily it was never visible.

[7point5inafox]

I have some real motivation issues when I'm not in the mood to do something but when I'm focused I go like hell until I hit a rough patch and then the cycle starts all over. Usually the snags that kept from working are far easier to actually fix than the scenarios I run constantly thru my head. Since I was in the mood to go like gangbusters with bodywork it was time to go back to the shell. After hours of final block sanding and masking it was time for sealer. I used Fusor 129 controlled flow seam sealer to try to duplicate the factory sealer as best I could. They turned out pretty good. I woulda been real disappointed with a patch of ugly seam sealer that big.

[Dadsccat]

What a great project.