Awesome progress. Looks really good. Apparently all these mid eighties Fords must not have been too reliable. Every one of them has a bent core support where some lazy tow truck driver yanked it by the support instead of the frame.
Awesome progress. Looks really good. Apparently all these mid eighties Fords must not have been too reliable. Every one of them has a bent core support where some lazy tow truck driver yanked it by the support instead of the frame.
Liberty once lost is lost forever.
John Adams
July 7, 1775
Today I got the master,booster and all brake lines off the car so I can replace all of those. I pulled all the cruise control stuff off and swapped in the Flaming River manual rack.
I pulled out the front fender liners to get to the broken washer bottle and holy crap was there a ton of dirt and debits packed in at the bottoms of the fenders! No wonder these things rot out! Might need to find better liners tho since these have some cracks and broken parts.
I also should have my T5 back by the weekend from getting rebuilt.
As soon as I get the new booster/master in and run the new lines with the adjustable P-valve the motor will be dropped in.
Brian R. of Michigan
83 TBird 5.0
88 Ranger 2.3t
http://vb.foureyedpride.com/showthre...83-Tbird-build
Nice, I like it, I have an 83 also, still working on, but it is driving so I am having fun right now with it.
Sorry the last two weeks has been filled with weddings and graduation parties both weekends and two weeks ago I ordered a new truck so in the little free time I had left I was cleaning,touching up, removing speakers,amps,wiring and other aftermarket stuff off my '12 f150 in preparation for trade in.
In other news I now have one half of my new matching daily fleet ready!
Brian R. of Michigan
83 TBird 5.0
88 Ranger 2.3t
http://vb.foureyedpride.com/showthre...83-Tbird-build
Had to address the mis-match of my Pro-M meter and the flange /filter kit I bought.
The two bolt patterns were different and I didnt want a sharp edge at the front of the meter where it would go from 80mm to 75mm. Grabbed a .750 thick piece of plastic and ran over to my buddies shop and carved out a nice smooth adapter.
Brian R. of Michigan
83 TBird 5.0
88 Ranger 2.3t
http://vb.foureyedpride.com/showthre...83-Tbird-build
Excellent work!
'88 Mustang GT convertible, T5, 3.08:1 gears. 5.0 Explobra Jet: A9L Mass Air conversion, Fenderwell Mac cold air intake, 70mm MAF meter = 4.6 T-Bird/Cougar housing + '95 Mustang F2VF-12B579-A1A sensor, aftermarket 70mm throttle body and spacer, Explorer intakes, GT40P heads with Alex's Parts springs and drilled for thermactor, Crane F3ZE-6529-AB 1.7 "Cobra" roller rockers, Ford Racing P50 headers, Mac H-pipe, Magnaflow catback, Walbro 190 LPH fuel pump, UPR firewall adjuster and quadrant with Ford OEM cable, 3G conversion ('95 Mustang V6), Taurus fan, rolled on Rustoleum gloss white paint...
Past Four Eyes: Red well optioned '82 GT 5.0, Black T-top '81 Capri Black Magic 3.3L 4 speed, Black T-top '84 Capri RS 5.0 5 speed.Over 200,000 miles driven in Four Eyes, and over 350,000 in Fox Body cars.
Finally got the car inside so I can work out of the sun and into the nite.
I got the booster and everything else out of the engine bay today so I could finish the paint work. Turned out great.
And I threw some paint of the grill just so it looks better than bare plastic.
I also started pulling interior apart. I had to change the hood release cable,pulled the clutch cable out in prep for my UPR adjustable quadrant kit and pulled out the cluster to start coming up with a plan for my new gauge layout.
When I had the P-valve off I took it apart to clean it,gut it and do the Maximum Motorsports plug. Wow was it caked with crap!
Brian R. of Michigan
83 TBird 5.0
88 Ranger 2.3t
http://vb.foureyedpride.com/showthre...83-Tbird-build
Slowly goin together..
Chassis harness all back in,booster,master,battery,washer bottle and a few other things installed. Turns out the firewall adjuster for the clutch cable doesnt clear the booster so I will have to rethink what to do with that.
And how bout that face??
I have a feeling its going to have nice sinister look to it once it all comes together!
Brian R. of Michigan
83 TBird 5.0
88 Ranger 2.3t
http://vb.foureyedpride.com/showthre...83-Tbird-build
I like that grille treatment!
Brad
'79 Mercury Zephyr ES 5.0L GT40 EFI, T-5
'17 Ford Focus ST
'14 Ford Fusion SE Manual
Well I pulled the booster off and got the firewall adjuster installed and it should work now just with limited range but I can make that up at the fork end.
I finished the brake lines and adjustable valve so now I can drop the motor in. I also started on the new front suspension and got the CC plates on.
I also got all my dash parts and gauges figured out for a layout I like. Im going to machine the .125 textured plastic sheet to overlay the stock bezels in between the vents then use some nice button head capscrews to mount the new bezel to the originals so it will kind of have a 85 Mustang GT look to it.
Brian R. of Michigan
83 TBird 5.0
88 Ranger 2.3t
http://vb.foureyedpride.com/showthre...83-Tbird-build
Finally got the front end all together as of today. 87 brakes, MM braided hoses,95 Cobra coils with 1/4 coil cut off,rebuilt A-arms,KYB struts, MM cc plates and all Energy Suspension bushings for the stock swap bar.
I also got this coil spring installation tool from Maximum Motorsports that made putting the coils in so much easier.
Wont be able to work on it again until weds but I should be dropping the motor in then.
Brian R. of Michigan
83 TBird 5.0
88 Ranger 2.3t
http://vb.foureyedpride.com/showthre...83-Tbird-build
Nice project!!! I love the 83-86 Birds (prefer the 83-84 dash the most tho) and you are making great progress!!! I have a mostly stock 84 TurboCoupe and an 83 Heritage I'm gathering parts for. THe TurboCoupe will remain mostly as-is (5-lug conversion, '00 Cobra wheels, tinted windows and custom stereo) but the Heritage has a locked up 3.8 so it's getting a 5.0/AOD, 5-lug-4 wheel disks and a good dual exhaust. It'll be a daily driver/secondary car once (IF) I get it done!! LOL
86 Capri 5.0/5spd: Too many mods to list
93 5.0/5sp LX: Silver, 3,980 miles: now stored
84 Thunderbird TurboCoupe: she's back!!
84 Capri RS- T-top car built for my wife
83 Thunderbird Heritage 5.0
79 F100, new parts hauler and toy vehicle
78 Bronco Custom: 2-wheel conversion project
73 Mach1 -351C-5spd
64 Galaxie 500 390 Z-code
55 Ford Customline Sedan-long term project
Worked on my cluster lastnite. Think its going to look real good.
Using Speedhut tach with shift lights and their GPS speedo that has a bunch of cool features. Autometer and AEM will round out the rest of the gauges. These were all left over gauges from some of my other builds so instead of spending good money on new ones Im going to do my part for the environment and recycle these.
Brian R. of Michigan
83 TBird 5.0
88 Ranger 2.3t
http://vb.foureyedpride.com/showthre...83-Tbird-build
Gauge panel looks killer!
'88 Mustang GT convertible, T5, 3.08:1 gears. 5.0 Explobra Jet: A9L Mass Air conversion, Fenderwell Mac cold air intake, 70mm MAF meter = 4.6 T-Bird/Cougar housing + '95 Mustang F2VF-12B579-A1A sensor, aftermarket 70mm throttle body and spacer, Explorer intakes, GT40P heads with Alex's Parts springs and drilled for thermactor, Crane F3ZE-6529-AB 1.7 "Cobra" roller rockers, Ford Racing P50 headers, Mac H-pipe, Magnaflow catback, Walbro 190 LPH fuel pump, UPR firewall adjuster and quadrant with Ford OEM cable, 3G conversion ('95 Mustang V6), Taurus fan, rolled on Rustoleum gloss white paint...
Past Four Eyes: Red well optioned '82 GT 5.0, Black T-top '81 Capri Black Magic 3.3L 4 speed, Black T-top '84 Capri RS 5.0 5 speed.Over 200,000 miles driven in Four Eyes, and over 350,000 in Fox Body cars.
Brian R. of Michigan
83 TBird 5.0
88 Ranger 2.3t
http://vb.foureyedpride.com/showthre...83-Tbird-build
Brian R. of Michigan
83 TBird 5.0
88 Ranger 2.3t
http://vb.foureyedpride.com/showthre...83-Tbird-build
Exploder intakes look good in black! Some red to accent the fins on the upper would probably look cool.
'88 Mustang GT convertible, T5, 3.08:1 gears. 5.0 Explobra Jet: A9L Mass Air conversion, Fenderwell Mac cold air intake, 70mm MAF meter = 4.6 T-Bird/Cougar housing + '95 Mustang F2VF-12B579-A1A sensor, aftermarket 70mm throttle body and spacer, Explorer intakes, GT40P heads with Alex's Parts springs and drilled for thermactor, Crane F3ZE-6529-AB 1.7 "Cobra" roller rockers, Ford Racing P50 headers, Mac H-pipe, Magnaflow catback, Walbro 190 LPH fuel pump, UPR firewall adjuster and quadrant with Ford OEM cable, 3G conversion ('95 Mustang V6), Taurus fan, rolled on Rustoleum gloss white paint...
Past Four Eyes: Red well optioned '82 GT 5.0, Black T-top '81 Capri Black Magic 3.3L 4 speed, Black T-top '84 Capri RS 5.0 5 speed.Over 200,000 miles driven in Four Eyes, and over 350,000 in Fox Body cars.
That dash is going to look great!
88 Turbo Coupe auto
88 Turbo Coupe 5spd
79 Fairmont Futura 4.6
79 Capri RS - 2.3/5spd restomod
80 Capri 5.0/5spd project
79 Zephyr Z7 factory 5.0 sunroof
79 Pace Car 5.0/5spd project
85 LTD LX factory 5spd?(not documented)
86 GT conv 5.0/5spd
79 Pace Car 2.3/4spd - needs new home
Well been busy as hell lately so Im almost ready to fire it up for the first time.
Got the UPR quadrant installed,rest of dash is apart so I can can fix a bunch of broken parts and get ready for my new gauges.
I replaced the stock dash speakers with some Kicker 1" tweeters and repainted the dash.
I now have the t5 in,headers are on and I ran down the street to Scottrod Fab and had him bend up a rad hold down.
Hood and front bumper are at my buddies shop getting body work and paint right now,fan controller is wired in,made a new mount for my overflow bottle and got my 86 Mustang GT steering wheel on.
Brian R. of Michigan
83 TBird 5.0
88 Ranger 2.3t
http://vb.foureyedpride.com/showthre...83-Tbird-build
Got the engine harness laid in and almost done with that. Cleaned the carpet up and turned out great yesterday.
I also added LEDs to the cluster for turns and high beams,got column back in and the new steering wheel on.Gauges not wired yet but had to mock everything up to see how it looked.
I removed the lower panel in the center stack with the lighter,switch and antenna so I could recover it in the same plastic i used for my bezel. I ordered a 12v power point and two USB charge ports to install there.
Brian R. of Michigan
83 TBird 5.0
88 Ranger 2.3t
http://vb.foureyedpride.com/showthre...83-Tbird-build
Awesome! Really coming along!
Brad
'79 Mercury Zephyr ES 5.0L GT40 EFI, T-5
'17 Ford Focus ST
'14 Ford Fusion SE Manual
After getting the engine harness routed in the car I just wasnt happy with some of the old tape,loom and some of the unused plugs just hanging there so I ripped it all back out and started cleaning it up and removing all unused wiring all the way back to the 60pin connector. Harness looks 100% better in the car now.
What a mess!
Got the MAF plumbed and a bracket made to hold it in place.
I spent a whole day just fixing wiring inside the car. Somebody over the years replaced the heater core and they absolutely did a crap job putting the dash back together. I found the wire for the trunk release plugged into courtesy light,courtesy light wires tied up out of sight,power wire in top of fuse box for power seats had a broken locking tab so it had an interment connection,I removed everything for the power antenna and made a new panel for the lower portion of the center stack with 3 power point options.
So after all this the wiring was done, fuel lines made and hooked up and it would only pop a few times on starter fluid. Turned out the TFI was bad so it was replaced and it now had good spark. However , it turns out only my 255 frame pump is working and the in tank pump is not so no fuel is getting fed to the main pump. No start.
It was hot ,muggy and I wasnt happy about having to drop the tank so I took a break and cleaned up a tail light...
Brian R. of Michigan
83 TBird 5.0
88 Ranger 2.3t
http://vb.foureyedpride.com/showthre...83-Tbird-build
How did you get the "salt and pepper shaker" connectors to sit so nice? With the Explorer intake not having the place for their bracket, mine always look sloppy.
Brad
'79 Mercury Zephyr ES 5.0L GT40 EFI, T-5
'17 Ford Focus ST
'14 Ford Fusion SE Manual
I just had to file down the bottom side of the plate and a small portion of the intake so the plastic "hook" on them would fit.
Brian R. of Michigan
83 TBird 5.0
88 Ranger 2.3t
http://vb.foureyedpride.com/showthre...83-Tbird-build
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