Wow amazing job. Looking forward to seeing you soon
Wow amazing job. Looking forward to seeing you soon
Amy MCA #81079 3rd generation gold card judge, 1993 Ford Probe GT
1979 Cobra
1979 Ghia coupe
1979 5.0 coupe
1980 turbo coupe
1990 7 up
1993 Yellow /black feature convertible 14k miles
1993Yellow/black feature convertible AC delete
1995 Cobra hardtop convertible
1998 GT convertible
Thanks to all for the nice comments...
I was in such a rush to get the car ready for the St. Augustine National, that I kinda whipped through the sway bar portion of the project. So let's throw those details in there and then I will move on to the steering gear restoration.
The SVO uses a slightly smaller diameter front sway bar (1 1/8") than the GT, therefore the bushings are different and are actually color coded for ease of assembly in the factory. The SVO uses the "green" bushings.
This picture shows the color coded bushings and the SVO style sway bar mounts. The sway bar mounts are "natural" bare steel, which I have left in this case and treated with Boeshield. NOTE: I know of at least one very late build SVO that has painted brackets. My car was built in Feb. of '86 and were not painted. This was determined by looking at the areas of the bracket that were not exposed to the elements (or under coating in my case).
This picture was taken 1 week after the show and you can see the surface rust from the rain showers we had during the show weekend. I will probably clean and clear coat these parts going forward.
Sorry about the undercoating everywhere... it is slowly coming off as I continue to improve the car. While it doesn't look pretty, it has actually saved the car. I may have had to replace a few parts along the way, the body itself has fared very well.
The here are a couple of pictures of the mounting brackets. It is a two piece design, again, with both parts bare steel. The NOS spacers are painted black for protection during storage. We have talked about this before, that just because it came out of the box painted, does not necessarily mean that they were originally installed that way. The spacers are still available, the mounting brackets are getting tougher to find in mint condition, as these do tend to rust or get damaged.
Last edited by bluemax; 04-24-2016 at 07:36 AM.
86 SVO 2R Comp Prep
86 SVO 9L Comp Prep
86 SVO 7B Comp Prep
I probably should have led with this picture, but when under taking a restoration, it is always a smart idea to have good references to go by. Just because you see a particular car out on the show field or in a magazine spread, does not necessarily mean it is correct.
I always try to use original, low mileage, unrestored cars as my reference. Even then, it is wise to have more than one car to compare to. Ask me how I know...
The attached is from Daniel Carpenter's 378 mile '85.5 1C comp prep. Lot's of good details in this picture. Being an '85.5, there are several parts and part finish differences between this car and his low mile '86 9L.
Here is a picture of the front suspension on his '86 9L.
86 SVO 2R Comp Prep
86 SVO 9L Comp Prep
86 SVO 7B Comp Prep
Car looks great bluemax. You are doing an amazing job on it. Thanks for posting all the pictures. I have been really enjoying following along. How are you removing the undercoating?
I used tar and bug remover.
http://www.amazon.com/Stoner-Car-Car...nd+bug+remover
Kerosine works as well, but is more aggressive. I tried to save the original overspray, but most of the thinner covered areas wiped off with the tar and bug remover. I definitely wanted to save the original primer.
It is not hard, just very time consuming. I spray or wipe the chemical over the area, let it soften a bit, and then scrape it off. I use wooden popsicle sticks because they are hard enough to scrape, but soft enough that it won't damage the paint.
Hope that helps.
86 SVO 2R Comp Prep
86 SVO 9L Comp Prep
86 SVO 7B Comp Prep
Have you guys found another black manganese solution since Scott form Palametto got out of the Business? I called him last year & I was about a month too late as he stepped out of distributing the chemical. His website is still up though. I have been considering trying one of these, but I think they might be the same seller? Really not sure....
Thoughts?
http://www.calvan.com/html/jumbo_kits.html
https://www.ebay.com/itm/BLACK-PARKE....c100012.m1985
http://parkerizingkits.com/html/jumb...arms_kits.html
My e-mail from Scott last week was that he was 3 weeks away from having the solution available. He told me that his supplier went out of business and he has been working on a replacement. I am planning to give him till then before I started looking elsewhere.
86 SVO 2R Comp Prep
86 SVO 9L Comp Prep
86 SVO 7B Comp Prep
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