Never had luck with mustangs but…

[Carbsovertech]

So I did this on impulse mostly looking for any carbed 5 spd. Never been a ford guy, though I’ve had some sweet ones I’ve just never worked on them or owned them long. This on the other hand is a horse of a different color having problem after problem. Hooray!
The trip picking it up with my dad is a whole story by itself.
she’s a 1983 gt 5.0 hatchback 5 spd. Black on black. Sunroof, ac car. No power windows or locks
117k miles but the thing is she’s been in hibernation since 1999 in dry barn storage. That means mice. I vacuumed 2 gallons of **** at least 3 mummies. They were in the headliner, steering column. You name it the the were there. Even the air filter
Luckily the gas tank was dry
first things first. Hear it run. Used carb put on, Gas in the tank,Battery in, key in, ignition to crank.
well it did fire for a second as soon as I let the key go nothing. Turns out mice piss isn’t good for electrical connections. After countless hours of pulling my hair out,I cleaned the ignition switch(electric) with some wd40 and worked it real good. Tada, it actually runs. Crappy but it runs.
side note do not buy eBay ignition switches it did the exact same thing as the original was before I cleaned it.
some new spark plugs helped quite a bit but why couldn’t I put it in gear when it’s running? Cause the the clutch actually rusted to the flywheel. It was a simple fix, just started it in gear with the clutch pressed. Okay cool. Do I dare drive it? No plates, no title. Mind you I live on top the steepest hill around. Hell yeah I did. Just a few blocks but found the brakes didn’t exist, I had no brake lights either. What else were those mice messing up? They pissed all over the fuse box but that comes in later.
Anyway I know she runs so I can dig in literally. Once the interior was out and washed and vacuumed I looked at the floor pan that needed a little work. (I’d include pics but it keeps failing) anyway I patched it up real nice with my $95 harbor freight flux core welder, it wasn’t easy or fun as I kept burning through. But I managed to make it nice with little to no pinholes I had 4 pieces I welded in the biggest being maybe 2.5”x2.5” the smallest being about the size of a sharpie cap.over all not bad. so what I did next was put down some rubberized roof coating to avoid the tin sound and prevent any rust. After my subframe connectors are in I’ll coat the bottom with some bed liner.
On to electrical. So I’m getting 11.9 volts at the brake switch on the hot side. If I hit the pedal or jump the connection it drops to 0.
man what a headache. I traced harness to lights looked good and tested good as well. Long story short . It was the fuse which I did check and sprayed with wd40 had built up so much rock hard mouse piss that it looked like a metal. That’s ridiculous in the midst of the wiring deal I also replaced the brake hoses and pumped all new fluid through the system. Luckily the master wasn’t to crusty inside and seemed to smooth out quite nice. I also put new hatch struts on as well as managed to find some nice shape prime rims and some new shoes to replace the cracked and constant deflating tires, changed the oil. I also touched up the front end painted the grill and the bumper cover strip. The car needs paint but a huge improvement if you ask me
so yesterday I buttoned up the interior except a few pieces(where did all the correct screws go?) with some new lights in the gauges and corner lights.
so I’m on to tuning as of now but I have a huge problem. The damn distributor will not budge, I pulled the bolt and clamp completely out but nothing. I even beat on it with a log and socket extension after soaking it with wd40 and still she hates me. According to the vacuum gauge I may have an intake leak which might be as it’s an edelbrock so not stock. The only other mods I could see are a b&m short throw shifter, and a tape deck. It’s like a time capsule. I did drive it since the brakes needed testing, very short very sweet. Miss the v8
the exhaust was completely stock and completely plugged until I cut the mufflers off there was nothing coming from the back of the car so I’ll need a new cross member and a full exhaust and haven’t bought subframe connectors either.
I still need to buy some plug wires as that maybe the bounce in the gauge but I doubt it. The next nice day I’ll be taking the smog pump off and probably the ac as well.
thanks for having me here hope you can help me if I need it I got nothing at corral.

[83 4SPD GT]

Is the smog pump good, spins free or is it locked up and that is way you are removing it?
if the smog pump is good, I would be interested in buying it.

Sounds like you have a good project to play with, enjoy it!

[1982GLX]

Welcome to FEP.. Man, that was a good story. Yeah, them mice can really do a job on things. You got your hands full, but sounds like you are getting through things. Good luck and hopefully you can get your pics to load up so we can see your project...

[Carbsovertech]

Just pushed in the driveway after picking it up 12-24-21

quick wash to remove road salt and whatever else



dont poke fun at my welds. It was initial pass and I’m blind as hell.

[Carbsovertech]

look close there was a Mighty Mouse punched a 4” hole in the floor in this pic I had already pushed it down. It was mostly weldable except about the size of a thumb. And I didn’t take any pcs of the final welds. Dang it. they looked decent.

not fixed yet


i did go to the dollar tree and bought a few shower curtains and placed over this after a week or so.

[Carbsovertech]

As of now

also current

I do need to repaint the grill with the same bumper trim paint as I used a flatter black and am not thrilled with it.

[Carbsovertech]

Somehow I missed one

it is the only spot I took a pic of after the firs pass of welds
and I’ll mention I do like the turbines but one has curbage and the primes were $100 with 2 nice tires. And I had scored 2 never used for $75. They just don’t ook right imo.

[KevinK]

FYI, you can get the stripe kit from Phoenix Graphics. I see you are missing the bushing on the door striker. You might not be aware there was one.

Great progress.

[Carbsovertech]

Thank you for the info. I didn’t know about the door striker pieces. I am debating on the stripes altogether. I know it’s a factory thing but I may end up doing bodywork and painting it. I’m in no hurry to have nice paint tho, especially black.

[Carbsovertech]

so today I went to Home Depot and bought a 4x8 sheet of corrugated plastic and 5” of 1/2” PEX tube and got this done.
My dad had grey material so that’s what I used.
total spent was roughly $33





if you can’t tell I do things on the cheap and considering that I will say I’m still under $2,000 into the car total but will soon be over that with the remaining work to be done.

[Carbsovertech]

boy it gets hot in there.used some leftover stuff and made this with a windshield cover from the dollar store.

[Broncojunkie]

Coming along nicely! I really like the looks of those turbines with the raised white letter tires. The new wheels look good too, but I'm a sucker for some clean turbines or 10-holes on these cars!

If you haven't addressed this already, you might flush out the 4 drain tubes in the sunroof. It pays to be proactive on that problem! A good friend had a black 83gt and sold it a few years ago. He's tried to buy it back from the kid several times, but no luck. The kid who bought it had done some unsavory mods to it. Seeing these pics reminds me how it used to look when my buddy had it. I miss that car! Keep the pics coming!

[Carbsovertech]

I prefer the turbine rims as well but one has some curb damage and not just scraping and these prime rims are just so clean. I’ll be watching for nicer turbines in the future.
plug wires arrived yesterday so I threw ‘‘em on quick
I had been trying to adjust the timing on the beast over the past few weeks but no luck getting it to budge, it’s welded itself to the intake.
instead I decided to adjust the carb some but it was a used Holley that could have sat forever anywhere and just wasn’t giving me any acceptable results so I dug around in my dads shed for a 1406 I pulled from a dodge 360 like 20 yrs ago cleaned er up and the metering rods, stuck it on and the vacuum is more stable. The vacuum being stable is a huge relief seeing as I thought there was a intake leak or cam lobe problem.
curious I took it around a few blocks and the 4 barrels weren’t opening, to say the least it wasn’t impressive at all. Turns out I left the linkage for the dodge auto tranny on it…I catch myself feeling more and more stupid as the years go on. But anyway with the throttle hooked up right and adjusted properly I took her out 1 more time. Wow man just wow!Just turning on the street she went sideways, I couldn’t help but smile and stay in it till 2nd. What a great feeling.
any day now I should racking up some miles. It just sucks I’ll be limited on the gas money.
the car came to me completely stock other than the b&m shifter, the tape deck and 6x9s, and the intake. It still used the stock carb and there is no clear lump in the idle so I assume the cam is still a factree cam. Yes I’m a vice grip garage fan I also like d&d speed shop, and Casey’s customs who is at this time doing a chassis swap on a 65 mustang body to an 11 chassis. Check it out.

[Carbsovertech]

Decided to keep the ac but I Took the smog pump off the other day and made some trips to find the right belt, I also redid the harness under the hood but when I was taping it up I bumped the prop rod and the hood came down crushing my face on the fender. I do believe my nose is broken, I instantly had the smell of blood but didn’t see any. I’m going to rip the tires off this old girl this weekend for that.

[Carbsovertech]

after meeting the second owner and giving him $200 for the title we had a chat and it turns out he had parked it in 1996. He bought it in 88 with 70k. Put the intake on but didn’t recall the shifter. Sad it took $200 (sfc will wait) but I’m glad it worked out. To be honest this would’ve been the last in faith of peoples word, if I hadn’t gotten the title this way. The bonded title way sounds frustrating. Anyway.
170 trouble free miles racked up this weekend. Got the the temp gauge working,I swapped in some 194 led lights in the cluster,and got a stereo in. It’s not a retro look as the part for mounting was broke up. Oh well,my mp4 is working. I haven’t used it in like 10 years.
I was driving at night in the car for the first time and the lights shut off. After some research I decided I need some relays for the headlights, does anyone on here no what relays I could scavange from the junkyard and use?
I’m thinking fuel pump relays.
Also I’ve decided the rims are to flashy for me but I’m having trouble cleaning the last 2 turbine rims, any thoughts on a good cleaner?
and a pic for posterity

[87gtVIC]

For the headlight relays you can just go into any underhood fuse box from mid 90's ford and grab a 5 pin bosch relay. It will be fine for what you are doing.



If you cannot clean up the wheels maybe just respraying them with some argent wheel paint will suffice?

[ukravit]

Sweet car. The one thing that works really well for cleaning is Mr. Clean magic eraser cleaning pads and some slow deliberate work.

[Carbsovertech]

I manually swapped tires to the other rims, stole some relays from a cousin’s Saturn and soldered a harness together, put new rings in the a/c lines last night. Today I Soldered in the harness in,and took brass bristle brush to the rims with some comet and dawn. They came out decent. While I was soldering under the hood I happened to look between the radiator and condenser…those damn mice had some cardboard material stuffed 6 inches high across the bottom.haha.
glancing through my posts I didn’t see any exhaust info.
when I was trying to get it running I noticed that nothing was coming out the tailpipes, even after it’s running…nothing. Even revving the car I got nothin. It was exiting out the crossover tube and where the air is blown in to the cat. Luckily it had rusted past the cat and was easily ripped off. But that’s where the exhaust is at this point. I think a small muffler and a turndown would suffice till I get some money back in the wallet.

[87gtVIC]

Those wheels fit the look of the car much better. Nice work.

[Carbsovertech]

got new weatherstripping in today. Nice quality stuff from Cjpony, $81 to my door I would recommend. But have some time as it takes a while.
Man the stock brakes are horrendous. I can’t imagine that being acceptable in 83 even. I’m gonna make a list here as I keep making paper ones and losing them. Plus some feedback never hurt.
mm sub frame connectors
sn95 brake and rear disc axle conversion
Avs2 500cfm………. Stupid price
double hump crossmember
full exhaust………. H or x Pipe
bodywork
paint
springs……. It sits so high I feel I could cross a small creek

holy crap, what did I get into?
I put new o rings in the ac lines but no power to the pump. Dang I can’t catch a break.
also I’ve been having electrical trouble. First the parking and dash lights. I scraped the fuses again and It worked.
then today it up and died, ignition switch I believe needs a good cleaning.
one other thing that really bugs me is the steering wheel.
I feel like I’m in an 18 wheeler. Does anyone know if I can use some washers on the bolts to drop it some.

[Carbsovertech]

Last week I picked up these hushpower mufflers, I’m not sure if I mentioned this but mice completely clogged my exhaust as well. 6 to 8 inches of insulation in front of the mufflers packed really tight. Luckily the exhaust broke at the flange. But I’m thinking I can just make a new y pipe with what is already on the new mufflers. If the rain holds out I’ll finish it up today. I was left stranded again so I ran a wire for a test light to the coil wire to the dash with an led so I can see if it loses power, and changed the ignition switch. 14 miles so far trouble free, more testing today as well.

[Carbsovertech]

After 10 minutes or so it’s dying with a restart sometimes not being so easy or quick. I know the edelbrock doesn’t like more than 5.5psi and read the stocker puts 8 or 9psi. But doubt that’s the problem as I’ve racked some carefree miles. I’m leaning toward the pip sensor or the coil. I know the ignition switch is good cause the test light to the coil feed wire never went out, so the coil has power when it dies.
it’s weird tho that it’s only dying the one time now each ride compared to the first day it started to do it. It died at least 3 times on the way home that day. I’ll check over the wiring again but I’ll see if I can get a second pair of eyes this time. Unfortunately I haven’t got an engine hoist so getting the stuck solid distributor out has a strenuous outlook as of now. Maybe in the morning.
and one last thing I keep forgetting is the power steering rack needs replaced asap it’s leaking whenever it’s got fluid(hasn’t had any lately)
so if there’s a recommendation on a rack, otherwise I’ll just go to advance auto parts.

[Carbsovertech]

Ordered a power steering rack today and was curious if the offset bushings are an improvement on the stock suspension or if it’s just for lowered cars. It would be nice if I could lower it some now, but in time I will. I was about to order new tie rod ends and bushings but will wait for a response before I place the order.
as for the fuel pressure regulator, I’m cheap and it’s not a race car so if there’s a cheap setup that isn’t $50 I’ll order that to. In all honesty I think the prices for such a simple piece is ridiculous, but nowadays everything is.
thanks for any input.

[85GTGuy]

got new weatherstripping in today. Nice quality stuff from Cjpony, $81 to my door I would recommend.

Which weatherstripping are you talking about? The door to body, hatch to body or the window run channels?

[Carbsovertech]

All body mounting stuff, price includes the sunroof 1 as well. luckily my window runs are tolerable.

with the new power steering and muffler the ride is so much more enjoyable. The brakes after the rear shoes and cylinders aren’t as bad as I thought they were. Not as nice as any modern car but they are better than drum brakes as of now.
Can’t upload any pics seems I’ve exceeded a quota.