1983 GL project

[great white]

The only down side I've found with Rock is if the parts you order come from different parts of the country, you can get multiple shipping charges. Other than that

Already noticed that and I order from the same warehouse unless I have absolutely no choice. I also try to order a couple things at once as the shipping charges seem to stay low as long as it's all coming from the same place.

[grabbergreen84]

O'Reilly's wanted $91 for a radiator for my beater. Rock Auto had Denso, which is OEM, for $55 plus $8 shipping!!! I ordered it late on a Tuesday night/Wednesday morning, and it was here that Friday afternoon!

[great white]

WELL BLOODY F'N HELL!!!!!

Found where the water was getting in that rotted out the drivers floor panel.

I was hoping it was a split bead of seam sealer or perhaps where some leaves had piled up around the air bell in the cowl plenum and was wicking water up over the bell mouth.

And I was sort of right on both counts: there is a split seam sealer bead, but the big P-off is the cowl plenum floor is rotted out around the air bell right where those F'n leaves and tree crap had parked!

Now I have to do my most hated of tasks: rust repair.

and this is probably the worst place it could possibly be: the cowl.

I'll have to remove the fenders, hood, windshield and drill out a plethora of spot welds to remove the upper cowl just to get to it. And Gawd knows what else I will find down there once the upper cowl is off.

What a major PITA!

at least the windshield is already cracked so no big loss there.

But now I'll have to throw the drivetrain in and the car will be filling my one car garage all summer. I'll have to cram it into the back and fight for working space so I can still get my two motorcycles in there. Not to mention there will be no space at all for anything else I need to do. The garage is my only workspace for everything from metal working to carpentry.


GGGgrrrrrrrrrr..........I'm soooo PO'd!

All from sitting in a freaking field for a year and a half.........

[9D83]

Aww that's tough man. This is a cop out I know but could you fab a cowl cover like the classic mustang guys used to do to keep the water out for the summer. Then you could attack it the next winter.(or the one after that if it was me doing it on my schedule..)

[great white]

Aww that's tough man. This is a cop out I know but could you fab a cowl cover like the classic mustang guys used to do to keep the water out for the summer. Then you could attack it the next winter.(or the one after that if it was me doing it on my schedule..)

It's an idea for sure, but I can't have the car in the garage over the winter. I need the space to do other things so it sits outside over the winter under a car cover.

Wouldn't be a problem if we hadn't got jammed up in a position where I had to buy a house with a one car garage.

It's kind of moot anyways since this is not a daily driver. It's a play toy I wasn't planning on driving it this year anyways. I'm just pissed about having to do all this rust repair. on a car I had to leave outside because we got all jammed up when we moved lat time. I hate rust repair.....pretty much hate the military now too for moving us around every 2-3 years....bloody F'n tired of that too....

[9D83]

I hear you. Had a couple friends in. The moving wears you down when you get to a certain point in your life. Hang tough. Back to the prob how bout one of those temp tents. Put it right in front of the garage. Put the dd in that. I know they are a pita. Up side is shorter driveway to snow blow..

[great white]

I hear you. Had a couple friends in. The moving wears you down when you get to a certain point in your life. Hang tough. Back to the prob how bout one of those temp tents. Put it right in front of the garage. Put the dd in that. I know they are a pita. Up side is shorter driveway to snow blow..

Another decent idea. But I'll just suck it up and wheel it in to the garage this summer and do the rust repair to get it weather tight. It wont look pretty, but it will at least be solid again. It needs a full repaint anyways, I just wasn't planning to get into the body work quite this soon. Bloody rust, I hate rust....

Then it can sit beside the garage under the tyvek car cover which will keep the water off it.

It's kind of backwards compared to most guys: work on it in summer, sit outside in winter. But it's driven by space limitations and my days of working outside in the winter are long over. Too bloody old to be bothered to deal with the cold....

[great white]

Well, with the rusted cowl, I need to find some way of keeping the weather off it. I don't have room in the garage as it's a one car garage and full of motorcycles right now.

So I pulled out and old trailer cover we used to use on our 35 foot travel trailer before the wind in Nl tore it all the rat crap.

Started sewing and cutting, got to this point so far:







Not too shabby. Tomorrow I'll hem a pocket around the bottom and then thread a spool of bungee cord material I have through it. A couple tabs in the hem so I can run a couple cords underneath to ensure the wind can't rip it of and it's a done deal.

The trailer material is all from the trailer roof. That was the 4 layer material that was waterproof and breathable so it should do just fine in this application.

I may be able to get it in the garage for winter, but I'm still working that one out. It's either going to be very tight in there or I may store my bikes at the mother inlaw's (about 1.5 hrs away by highway).

I'm not sure if I can be that far away from my bikes for that long though.....

[9D83]

There ya go! BTW looked back in this thread and saw the article in HR. I got that issue too-for the same reason. It's still around- somwhere- I'm sure...

[great white]

My 150 dollar headers and H pipe showed up today. Couldn't resist mocking em up on the block:







Photobucket is being a PITA right now, will post pics later...

[Walking-Tall]

Dang nice pipes! I see you sourced a fuel pump timing cover too

I went and wandered around Rock Auto too, and it really is ridiculous what places are doing to us here. Like you were saying above, most things I saw are half price or less than things I've taken a big hit with having to buy recently... bit of a pi$$ off indeed...

[great white]

Mmmmm, nice blue:





The blue motorsport valve covers I have on the way will set it all off very nicely.

I'm swapping back and forth between painted the front cover or leaving it raw aluminum....

[great white]

Parts continue to accumulate or on their way in shipping.

Used hurst shifter:



80 bucks, bought off another forum.

Couple shifter balls:





Both Ebay grabs. I bought both because I couldn't make up my mind one way or the other. I got them super cheap because they are in an uncommon thread size for modern cars. No problem for me, I'll just spin up a couple brass or aluminum adapters on the lathe and problem solved. I'll have to make one to adapt a boot to the shifter, so it's work I'd be doing anyways. I've got lots of scrap lying around that will work just fine for making adapters.

I've got some baby soft black deerskin left over from another project, so I'll sew up a shifter boot from that. I'll reuse my automatic console plate by cutting it wider and mounting the shifter boot to it. I can't decide between using gray thread or red thread to sew the boot. The car is staying red, but the interior is going to be gray (currently 20 different shades of red). Have to think on that one a little more, but I'm leaning towards gray.

Now, because the black shifter has a running pony on it, I felt a little off about having "Cobra" emblems everywhere else on the car. It was also kind of time to shed the Cobra stuff. That's from a different period in my life and it more or less ended when my first marriage did. The car isn't a "real" cobra anyways.

So I ordered up some tri-color ponies on the fenders:



And a tri-color dash pony from a 91 for the passenger side dash bezel:



Wasn't sure what to do with the drivers side hatch once the "Cobra" is off, but I think it's going to be this:



You can get those on ebay for a couple bucks. I grabbed the mustang pic off the net and Photochopped it on.

I'm also going to need a hood scoop for clearance with the carb spacer I am planning. There's also not going to be much room to run ducting to the air cleaner with the strut tower braces I've got planned and other assorted what nots. So I've got a local fiberglass guy building this hood scoop from a mold off an original 82 scoop:



Which I'll will widen to match the hood profile better:



The scoop will be functional and I'll seal the aircleaner to the bottom of the hood. That will give me the clearance to run a taller spacer and it will be gulping cold fresh air.


I was going to order this pool ball and make a shifter out of it:



Would have added a whole new meaning to the term "grabbing gear", but it's not exactly cheap to buy (just over 100 bucks CAD) and while my missus would never say no (heck, she doesn't care if I watch pron or look at other women - just don't touch), I could tell she wasn't overly impressed that I was considering it. I've got better places to spend my money on the car right now anyways.

Maybe next year?

[great white]

Never Ceases to amaze me how one simple change can effect the whole look and feel of a project.

Before:



after:





Nothing but a change in valve covers....

[roadkill]

Nice!

[grabbergreen84]

Very nice. Looks like you started to paint it black here:


I'm starting to dislike all of that bracketry for the front accessories on there, covering up everything. It would be nice to have something like the brackets on a '68 302, if they would still line up everything for the serpentine belt setup. You can definitely ditch that big alternator/tensioner bracket, and use a turnbuckle setup for setting belt tension via the alternator.

[great white]

Very nice. Looks like you started to paint it black here:


I'm starting to dislike all of that bracketry for the front accessories on there, covering up everything. It would be nice to have something like the brackets on a '68 302, if they would still line up everything for the serpentine belt setup. You can definitely ditch that big alternator/tensioner bracket, and use a turnbuckle setup for setting belt tension via the alternator.

I'm pretty much OK with the brackets as is.

Since that pic, I've given them a shot of flat aluminum paint and they look a lot better.

Thinking of painting the timing cover and water pump corporate blue, the brackets silver and the pulleys black.

Can't decide what to do with the body of the PS pump. I'm thinking either corporate blue or black and leaning towards corporate blue. Either way, that big beige color plastic up so high and visible has got to go.

Basically, I'm limiting the colors in the engine bay to silver/aluminum/chrome, blue and black.

Besides, cash is getting tight and they do the job.

Maybe in a couple years I might look for something a little "cleaner".

[great white]

Hood scoop made by a fiberglass shop in pei:








Pretty good for 100 bucks!


Fresh fiberglass will be easy to modify and widen to fit my 83's hood profile too.

[grabbergreen84]

That scoop is awesome! I notice it doesn't have the piece in the center of the opening, but that's OK to have missing.

How did they duplicate the Ford scoop? Did they make a mold off of genuine one? Does it have the bosses for the attaching studs?

[great white]

That scoop is awesome! I notice it doesn't have the piece in the center of the opening, but that's OK to have missing.

How did they duplicate the Ford scoop? Did they make a mold off of genuine one? Does it have the bosses for the attaching studs?

Gent made the mold off an 82 he used to own.

It isn't set up for the fake "grill", but my intended use is "functional" so that doesn't matter to me.

No studs on this one, but he installs them if you want them. I didn't want them because I'm going to 'glass them in once I decide where I want the studs located. I'm also not sure if I' going to widen it or not, so stud location isn't determined yet.

4 studs ups the price to 125 IIRC.

Cost me 15 bucks to ship it to me via the regional bus line. We use the bus lines a fair bit in Canada for large items, much cheaper than Canada post. At least those that move a lot of large car parts do.

Only thing is you have to go to the bus to pick up as opposed to it being delivered to your door. Small inconvenience to save sometimes hundreds. My long tube headers and H-pipe came from the other side of the continent for 60 bucks by Greyhound bus cargo. Can't beat that in Canada.

I have his contact info if anyone wants one, This is his web site: http://www.kennet.pe.ca/pages/eastern/. I'm not sure if he ships more than local. Shipping wouldn't be cheap for something this big either.....

[great white]

More goodies showed up yesterday.

80 buck hurst shifter:



60 buck window regs:



Shifter is used, bought it off a guy in Ontario and a friend of mine out there picked it up and mailed it to me. I needed a shifter because my 1995 T5 came without one. I was thinking I was going to be stuck with buying one of those 60 dollar ebay shifters and fixing it's "issues" myself. When this one popped up on a Canadian mustang site for 100 bucks, I was able to grab it for 80. New prices for this shifter seem to be in the 200-300 USD range, used seems to be in the 10-200 USD range. So I'm good with 80 bucks CAD!

The regs were an ebay grab from another place in Ontario. shipping brought them close to 100, but they work fine (motors are still strong and fast) and will give me power windows in my non AC car. A little clean up and paint and they'll be good as new. Better actually, since they won't rust.

I wanted to stay pretty basic in this car, but I either need AC or power windows from a "basic comfort" standpoint.

Power windows are easier, simpler, less likely to have issues and are FAR less expensive than a retrofitted old AC system, so power windows it is. Manual reg holes in the door panels will disappear when they get re-upholstered.

Switches are going to be located in the center console in easy reach of driver and passenger, so I only need two instead of the driver master and passenger slave. That will also minimize the wiring: power to the console and then only 2 wires out to each door. Additionally, building my own harness give me the freedom to build it the way I want with things like proper weatherpak connectors in the doors.

Door gap boots I can grab from anything in the scrap yard.

I've ordered a set of switches from an 87 to work into the console. That was an ebay 15 buck grab.

So, I should have power windows built the way I want for around 90 bucks CAD and a little bit of my own labor. I'm good with that!

[Walking-Tall]

Great progress and plans

[great white]

Well, I may have wasted 115 bucks on the scoop.

It's not the scoop, that came out fine.

It's my eye. I'm not sure I like the look of a scoop once I plopped it on the hood. Just seems kind of......for lack of a better term..."ricey".

I snatched these two pics from someone else's post for comparison:





Looks are a personal thing, but the more I look at the scoop the more it doesn't fit the car. Seems a little "tacky".

The actual scoop on my 83's hood also looks more and more "tacky" the more I look at it.

It's also very low to the hood, which makes it look better than a taller scoop, but also makes it far less functional.

Spun around like a cowl induction hood reveals it would require a lot of work to look right. The trailing edge has a rounded profile to follow the rear hood line, so that would need to be reworked and it would need to be lifted since it comes down nearly flat to the hood surface.

Front or rear facing will also require the lower profile altered to match the hood curve and whichever end faces rearward will need to be widened to match the hood detail.

I know guys just bolt them on a go, but that would drive me nuts for sure. As is, it doesn't follow the hood in any way. At least, that's how i appears to me. Personal preference again.

So, I'm pretty sure I'm to the point where I'll see if I can get it all to fit under the stock hood without having to compromise too much on a carb spacer.

Running a 3" spacer like I wanted probably won't happen. I'll have to look at a 2" or maybe even a 1", although I really don't want a 1". The Edelbrock RPM performer Air gap may force me into a 1" with the stock hood though.

I'll also have to re-evaluate my air intake options. With a stock hood, I'll have to look at a dual intake air cleaner assembly and probably install a couple ducts in the 85 LX front cover where the fog lights would be on a GT. Have to think on that one for a while...

[great white]

3.8/C5 out:



Pressure washed:



Pretty damned good shape for a 30 year old Atlantic Canada car!

302/T5 in:



Not too shabby for a day's work.



Had to dent the livin' bejesus out of the drivers side in order to clear the SN95 V6 clutch fork as it comes out right damned square in the middle of the #6 primary. Couple light dimples were required to clear the steering shaft too. But after watching this I'm not too worried about my little massaging anymore:



H-pipe didn't line up either. Had to take the porta-power to it to widen it and had to heat the hangers with a cherry tip in order to get them bent to the right angle for the transmission crossmember exhaust mount.

I wasn't super worried about the exhaust as I needed it anyways (no stock exhaust headers or pipes) and I've only got 150 bucks into the BBK longtubes and the H-pipe together. either way I needed to massage an exhaust to fit this particular combination. Shorties would have cleared it all, but then a custom bent exhaust would be needed so it was 6 of one, half dozen of another type of thing.

Transmission mount was easy as I bought a motorsport double hump adjustable crossmember for the car back in the 80's. Ground off a couple spot welds and just lined it up.

Little tiny trim around the tranmission tunnel shift hole and it's home.

Need to get the driveshaft shortened though. Going from the C5 to the SN95 V6 T5 with the same shaft just isn't going to work. The trans yoke slips right in, but hte shaft is about 3/4-1" too long. Easy fix at a local shop for about 90 bucks.

May check the scrap yard for an aluminum shaft when I pick up my 95 SN95 front spindles and just kill two birds with one stone and get an Al shaft shortened. I may even get lucky and have an AL SN95 shaft work as is.

[great white]

MUHAHAHA!

































































(no, it's not what you're thinking!)