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    Default '84.5 GT convertible resurrection

    Finally getting around to starting a thread. Y'all have probably seen a lot of posts recently on all the little jobs I've needed help with. Thanks to everyone who's chimed in. Always good to get another point of view when stuck in the weeds.

    I bought this car in the fall of '08 from an old friend after he decided it was too much to deal with. He had bought it from another friend of mine and I was with him when he purchased it from a fellow in Houston, TX.

    Story I heard was the car was from the Austin, TX area and was a daily driver until an encounter with some ice on an overpass caused it to spin out and kiss the guard rail on the left-front corner. When I first saw the car (around '06), they had already pulled the drive-train out and decided to sell. Never knew what happened to the original motor/trans, but was told it was worn out.

    Fast forward 2 years and I had my chance at it. Previous guy had the front core support straightened on a frame machine so everything was squared back up again and the hood would close nice. Before, everything was shifted over to the right and the hood wouldn't come close to latching. He painted the black rub strip on the bumper cover to hide some of the accident damage, and started dying the dash/a-pillars black as he didn't like the canyon red interior.

    I had an extra 302 (actually 306) roller motor out of my '86 coupe. Had built a 331 for the '86 and figured I'd find something to put the 306 in one day. Sourced a t-5z trans and started the process. Cleaned up the engine bay/painted and got the engine/trans dropped in.

    Life happened and I put the car in storage up at my dad's farm. Apologies on the first pics. They're from '08

    stored1.jpg
    stored2.jpg
    stored3.jpg

    A good time later it looked like it had earned the status of 'barn find'... at least it had the dust/dirt to prove it. lol



    Been collecting parts since that time. Fast-forward to 2018. Got the engine to fire, but wasn't getting fuel. Had to drop the tank and replace, along with most of the fuel lines. Never did get it to run well enough to drive back home, so had it towed home in the summer of 2019. Been messing with it ever since. Had a few setbacks along the way, including having to pull the front cover due to installing the cam in the wrong position (luckily no damage). As well as dealing with mechanical fuel pumps that put out way too much pressure and push past the needle/seats. Taking a long time to do each thing because i feel the need to clean/paint everything.

    My plans are to keep it fairly stock. All the emissions equipment were long gone when I bought it and is exempt from any testing here in Texas now that it's over 25 yrs old. Exhaust consists of arrow headers along with a gutted cat-pipe & old Flowmasters with dumps. Planning on changing to tail pipes soon as that drone is just too much for me. Only other mods is are GT-40 iron heads with some minor port/polish work, an 87-88 'speed-density' cam & Edelbrock performer 289 intake manifold. Carb is the stock 4180.

    motor.jpg

    Long road ahead, but it runs well enough that i took it down the road a couple times. Still need to fine-tune carb/timing.

    Last edited by graphicdesigner80; 05-04-2022 at 01:42 PM.
    84.5 GT Convertible Build Thread
    86 LX Coupe

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