2024 What did you do to your fox today

[ITdude87]

Changed the oil and cleaned up a bit more.

Little bit of coolant in the pan due to changing the lower gasket. Nice and fresh now. Waste of an expensive oil change before I put it away this past fall since it had maybe 5 miles and 20 minutes of idling on it since that time. Oh well - had to be done.

Rolled around under the car and felt around with my hand to get a sense of whether I could reach the collector nuts on the headers without a lift. I just might give the headers a shot once they arrive and I order some new hardware and gaskets. I'm a little burned out on working on the car for now, so we'll see.

Last thing on the list this winter is replacing the drum brakes in the rear. I popped a wheel off to have a look and the shoes are definitely worn down. Maybe that's a March/April task. I'd rather have the brakes sorted and fresh first.

Car is running super smooth and nice and dry. I'd hate to fidget with it any more by popping those headers off....but.....they're just too cool to resist. Ahhhh.

I love that stupid car but dang.

[Matt_83_GT]

Got under the GT yesterday to try and figure out where the PS fluid leak is coming from. No luck. Couldn't see an obvious leak, but I do see that it's dripping off the bottom of the pump. So I'm thinking about getting a PS pump kit from LMR and replacing the pump, pulley, bracket, pressure hose, and return hose. All of that stuff is 40 years old so if I'm going to replace the pump, might as well just replace all of it and be done with it. Never did any PS work before so this should be an adventure.

[ITdude87]

Dry and sunny today so I moved the car back to the home garage which was a ~20 minute trip and shakedown.

Car is running super healthy and more importantly not leaking or acting up after having gasket and water pump surgery....as well as pulling the smog. The new Pony wheels and tires ride great too. She's covered up and ready for spring.

Just gonna wait until it gets nicer and have my buddies shop do the headers and drum brakes for me. I'm burned out on working on stuff and just ready to enjoy it when the time comes.

[fascat]

Car looks great as usual ITdude87. I bet it felt good driving it after all the work you put into it.

[ITdude87]

Car looks great as usual ITdude87. I bet it felt good driving it after all the work you put into it.

I appreciate that!. Sure did feel good even if it was a quick February sneak-out. I’m still partial to Capris in my heart though!

[gr79]

Good to hear past hard work is paying off big. Worth it on a car like that.

Keeping fun separate from tough things that always try to take it away from it.
Ongoing balance between reactive bad or proactive good repairs, mods.
Drums are one messy fussy job to pass on if possible.
Needing repair is like a curse. Worse they are, the stronger the cuss words.
Pleasurable driving with car back in good song is required to finish lifting a curse.

[Lubner]

Installed Reto Sound Radio in my 79 Ghia today took some modification to fit perfect.

[Matt_83_GT]

Installed Reto Sound Radio in my 79 Ghia today took some modification to fit perfect.

That looks great!

[gr79]

Factory radios are the simplest to operate while offering good reception, sounds, and noise suppression
Factory radios match the dash best. Work fine boosted with aftermarket amps and speakers.

Started car first time in almost 3 weeks. Took battery off onboard charger. 12.9v at cig lighter. Dry and 50F today.
Warmed up fine no choke. Reset console clock and date. Played radio like back in the 60's.
Back then wanted to feel music vib. Now, higher volume is used, not so much to feel, but to hear it.
Still needs ft end work so no driving did move car back and forth a few times to repark it a bit differently.

[85GTGuy]

Installed Reto Sound Radio in my 79 Ghia today took some modification to fit perfect.

Good job.... looks good.... I like that oe look too, but with modern touches inside.

Are those pre-amp outputs I spy below it? Did you get any other upgrades? Bluetooth, SiriusXM, HDRadio, aux inputs?

[qikgts]

Made some huge progress on my '90 last week and through the weekend. Ran the valves, got the lower installed, buttoned up the pan, installed the water pump, balancer, block plate, flex plate, and crank pulley. It's finally back in the car and bolted up to the AOD! There's still more to do but it's in! Gotta give a huge shout out to a long time friend of mine and his son as they brought their git-r-done attitudes and cherry picker too!

The fuel was about 6 years old and the inside of the tank was N-A-S-T-Y! What came out when drained looked like red wine and stunk like bad hooch. Trashed the fuel level sender, rollover valve, and pump assy. There was a ton of thick varnish lining the inside. I poured in some diesel and ATF with some decorative glass beads that were odd shapes and had it suspended on ratchet straps from a 2x4 across two trash cans where it could be easily rocked back and forth to try and break up the goop. After shaking it up for about an hour then sitting overnight and then some, I rinsed it with pump gas and was less than impressed with the results. There was still sticky varnish lining the bottom. I then poured some acetone inside and it worked great but I was running out of daylight so I need to have another look at it and determine next steps.

I'm excited and motivated! Hopefully the '90 will get done and sold soon and I can get back to focusing on the '85!

[ITdude87]

Nice weather over here.

Was poking around the car and I saw a little bit of coolant pooled up on the timing cover in the garage after I had driven it ~20 minutes the other day. This gave me an absolute heart attack with the thought of having to do the lower intake again, and another coolant seep. This was worse than before I replaced everything. I came back around yesterday with a clearer head and torqued the front lower intake bolts with an additional 2-3lbs, and put a socket on the new clamp for the bypass hose that attaches to the thermostat housing. The clamp turned pretty easily (I had only tightened it down with a flathead before during install). Took it for another 20 minute spin to let it get up to temp and pressurize. When I got back I checked the same spot, and it was bone dry. The overflow tank and rad were at the same levels as before, dipstick looked clean, and the bottom side of the oil cap didn't show any signs of coolant - thank god. I think it was that hose clamp since it sits right above where I saw the coolant.

Calling it a blessing, I'm putting the cover on the car and not touching it until proper spring. That was a whole mess of emotions LOL.

A couple photos from yesterday - You can see how the 'new' ponies look a little better here....and the sweet 'foil' FMS sticker I was gifted by ZEN50 last fall I put on the airbox

[KevinVarnes]

Looking sharp with the new wheels. That second picture of the engine bay almost looks like a picture of a car model.

[Matt_83_GT]

The wheels look nice, brother!

[Broncojunkie]

Just finished stripping the decals off the pace car. I managed to do all of it with one eraser wheel, but it was a lot of work. I need to go back and clean up all the residue and wipe it down with solvent. Once it's all cleaned up, I can start sanding (paint prep). It's been raining a lot lately, but I'd like to find a stretch of a few days where I can push it outside and sand it.

Earlier this week, while off with covid, I prepped and painted the underside of the hood and hood scoop. I also used JB Weld to install new hood scoop mounting studs, where half of them had stripped out during removal.

[gr79]

Sunny 70F this late winter afternoon.
Nine year old battery measured at 10v. Leaving trickle charger on it overnite.

Replaced the stock 5200 carb few years ago with a Holley 2v and hand choke assy. Choke op was sticky.
?? Cheap cable with thin inner wire? Changed to a new Holley brand choke cable assy. Thicker wire, same deal.
Removed the fast idle cam plunger and spring prior thinking it was causing the binding. Nope. ??

Today, determined to solve why choke was sticking and did!
First, disconnected cable from carb. Carb choke assy was not binding, Cable was. Ah simply too many bends.
For some reason did not want to cut cable down, knew the best way, nor thought of doing that until today.
Stuffed the extra cable length under dash not realizing for some reason it was good to go that way. Too much flex.

Straightened out the bends under dash and pushed extra cable assy thru firewall into engine bay.
Cable was 12" too long. Trimmed the cable and sheath separately and cleanly with yellow Wiss aviation snips.
Pulled out control wire backward out of the sheath 1/2 way, sprayed lube in it.
Next, cut the sheath first, pushed wire back thru toward carb, then trimmed wire leaving an extra 4" sticking out.
Replaced the choke assy fast idle plunger and plunger spring. Fast idle cam has detent for plunger at wide open choke.

Finally, after 5 years, choke is as smooth as silk. Took an hour or two of easy work.
Kept the new cheap hand choke cable for a spare.
Got older, got a bit wiser. Gain some, try not to lose any.

[mmb617]

Considered starting the car today for the first time this year but then got busy doing some other things. Tomorrow is supposed to be real nice so I plan on taking her out for the season opening drive then. The car has been on a battery tender in the garage all winter so I don't anticipate any problems but you never know.

My son is taking his '67 Mustang to work tomorrow, his first drive this year so he got me motivated. We had his car started today to make sure it was ready and I'm a little jealous that his car sounds better then mine. I may swap out my Flows and dumps for the race bullets, that would fix it, but it's almost too loud that way. Not for me, but for the po-po. Does sound bad though.

[Matt_83_GT]

Been starting my car every week or so over the winter and it just gets me hankering to take her out. Picked up a door wiring harness from eBay a while back because my driver's door didn't have a lock switch housing. Cut the housing off the harness and spliced it into the existing wiring in the door. Works like a charm now! Picked up a power steering pump kit (pump, bracket, pully, and hoses) from LMR and planned to have it in already, but the weather has been terrible - lots of rain - and my garage is leaking so too wet to crawl under the car right now. Hopefully things will dry up soon and I can get that done. The car's already on ramps and ready for me to get under there!

Then it's off to the shop to get the clutch and tranny looked over. It started slipping at the end of the season. I don't do clutch/tranny work so I'm taking it to a local guy to have him check it out. When the car's not running, I can put it in any gear without using the clutch, so thinking it's a clutch adjustment. The guy I bought the car from said the clutch is new and that the tranny was rebuilt. Regardless, I know a slip when I feel one so it's going in to get looked at!

[massacre]

I bought some taillight sockets. Car is still in storage, the weather here has been terrible

[richpet]

Ran an 0/1 gauge cable from the trunk to the front passenger well to get ready for battery placement in the trunk.

[massacre]

Got my Zephyr out of storage yesterday. Started right up, drove great no issues on 60 mile trip. Weather was cool and cloudy not ideal but on the bright side there was less traffic than usual.