great white
Grumpy Old Fart
Rust repairs continue:
Cowl spotted back on. Now grinding and then on to more interesting jobs!
Cowl spotted back on. Now grinding and then on to more interesting jobs!
1983 GL, project: Cheap Thrills
- Thread starter great white
- Start date
great white
Grumpy Old Fart
great white
Grumpy Old Fart
Now, to explain a little bit:
The air cleaner wasn't going to clear the hood. Even with the bracing removed, it was going to need about an inch or two at the front. More when it's running/accelerating.
I wasn't changing the intake to a lower rise in order to clear the hood, so it needed a hole.
Since I had to cut supports out and we all know large flat pieces of sheet metal are floppy, I formed a lip around the edges of the hole. Ford does this on the turbo hood holes (hidden under a fake scoop) for the same reason. A side bonus is that with the lip, any water that makes it's way under the hood scoop simply hit the lip and runs around instead of pouring down on to the engine.
Finally, since I didn't want a big old nasty hole in the hood with an air cleaner sticking out (never liked that look even when it was in style), I sourced a stock 83 "reversed scoop" to cover the whole shebang. It's sitting a little high in those pictures as there are no holes for the mounting studs yet.
Once done, it will just look like a stock 1983 GT hood with none the wiser what's hiding below....
The air cleaner wasn't going to clear the hood. Even with the bracing removed, it was going to need about an inch or two at the front. More when it's running/accelerating.
I wasn't changing the intake to a lower rise in order to clear the hood, so it needed a hole.
Since I had to cut supports out and we all know large flat pieces of sheet metal are floppy, I formed a lip around the edges of the hole. Ford does this on the turbo hood holes (hidden under a fake scoop) for the same reason. A side bonus is that with the lip, any water that makes it's way under the hood scoop simply hit the lip and runs around instead of pouring down on to the engine.
Finally, since I didn't want a big old nasty hole in the hood with an air cleaner sticking out (never liked that look even when it was in style), I sourced a stock 83 "reversed scoop" to cover the whole shebang. It's sitting a little high in those pictures as there are no holes for the mounting studs yet.
Once done, it will just look like a stock 1983 GT hood with none the wiser what's hiding below....
great white
Grumpy Old Fart
Shall I be joyous or shall I be damned?
Tune in tomorrow for when I put the t top frame in.....same bat time, same bat channel....
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TrueBlue02058
Post King
That should do the Trick.
TrueBlue02058
Post King
Looking Forward to the Next Episode !
great white
Grumpy Old Fart
scary part is over:
Raw fit is good.
Now it's fine tuning, sealers, riveting and adjusting weather seals.
Raw fit is good.
Now it's fine tuning, sealers, riveting and adjusting weather seals.
TrueBlue02058
Post King
And the Engine will make enough power to pop the panels out under hard acceleration.:FordSmile
great white
Grumpy Old Fart
Oh ye of little faith.
Its going in with 1/4" steel rivets instead of the OEM aluminum and all the joints are getting seam sealed.
The full length subframe connectors and torque arm rear suspension will deal with the engine torque.
Weather strips are all being replaced with new. Tops doors etc. All of them.
Rain is also not going to be in this cars future, unless I get caught out in it. It's a fair weather cruiser and plans are to tow it to events in an enclosed trailer with this:
Its going in with 1/4" steel rivets instead of the OEM aluminum and all the joints are getting seam sealed.
The full length subframe connectors and torque arm rear suspension will deal with the engine torque.
Weather strips are all being replaced with new. Tops doors etc. All of them.
Rain is also not going to be in this cars future, unless I get caught out in it. It's a fair weather cruiser and plans are to tow it to events in an enclosed trailer with this:
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TrueBlue02058
Post King
So it had a hard life before you got it, now it will be pampered, at least when it's not being raced.
great white
Grumpy Old Fart
Actually, I've had it since 1983, soooooo....
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05 gt 5spd
On the road again
I'm enjoying the build, you have been very busy in the last few months. I'm looking forward to seeing this in the spring.
TrueBlue02058
Post King
Didn't know that. How cool is that. It is great that you finally got around to that project.
great white
Grumpy Old Fart
It would be nice if it would roll out in spring, but not likely to happen. Wont be in paint until approx 2018
TrueBlue02058
Post King
With the work you've done so far, looks like you are very meticulous. I would not drive it till it was finished and painted either. :FordSmile
great white
Grumpy Old Fart
Spent the day doing some interior stuff,
From this:
to this:
All wired and bolted down. The dash pad is just sitting on it. That's the new (to me) tilt column I grabbed for 25 bucks from a terminally rust rotted 85 Capri. I had to swap some stuff over, but it was a pretty painless install.
The brake booster and pedals were a different story. Getting the 94 GT booster into the 83 space was a pita. The bolts were in different locations so I had to elongate the holes int eh firewall and the pedal bracket. I also had to reshape part of the shock tower in the engine bay. But it's in, it's lined up and it's done.
The whole dash and wiring job was pretty much just time consuming. Much easier than any of the newer cars I've worked on for wiring for sure!
The dash is actually from another car. Luckily, it's from an 83 GT with 5 speed (the same car donated it's T-roof) and my car is an 83 converted to a 5 speed. The body harness and the dash harness matched right up and clicked together like OEM.
While the dash was out and I had easy access to the buzzer buried up in behind it, I swapped over my late 80's door "chime" for the original early 80's annoying buzzer. I despise the old buzzing noise reminders. Chimes are so much nicer and make the car feel just a little more "upscale".
The module and harness on the floor is for the factory cruise control. Since I went to the GT 3 spoke rim (just plastic/rubber right now, plan to have it stitched up in leather), I lost the "on wheel" cruise buttons. I'm undecided if I'm going to keep the cruise and mount the buttons down on the console or just delete the cruise all together.
You can also see one connector hanging down under the drivers side vent handle. That's for the wiper control box. The car melted a fe pins on the connector where it goes into the pulse module in the past. I'm trying to decide if I want to just put it back together or see if I can find another scrapped car I can grab a connector from. It will work if I put it back as is, I just can't decide if I want to be bothered swapping the connector out or not....
From this:
to this:
All wired and bolted down. The dash pad is just sitting on it. That's the new (to me) tilt column I grabbed for 25 bucks from a terminally rust rotted 85 Capri. I had to swap some stuff over, but it was a pretty painless install.
The brake booster and pedals were a different story. Getting the 94 GT booster into the 83 space was a pita. The bolts were in different locations so I had to elongate the holes int eh firewall and the pedal bracket. I also had to reshape part of the shock tower in the engine bay. But it's in, it's lined up and it's done.
The whole dash and wiring job was pretty much just time consuming. Much easier than any of the newer cars I've worked on for wiring for sure!
The dash is actually from another car. Luckily, it's from an 83 GT with 5 speed (the same car donated it's T-roof) and my car is an 83 converted to a 5 speed. The body harness and the dash harness matched right up and clicked together like OEM.
While the dash was out and I had easy access to the buzzer buried up in behind it, I swapped over my late 80's door "chime" for the original early 80's annoying buzzer. I despise the old buzzing noise reminders. Chimes are so much nicer and make the car feel just a little more "upscale".
The module and harness on the floor is for the factory cruise control. Since I went to the GT 3 spoke rim (just plastic/rubber right now, plan to have it stitched up in leather), I lost the "on wheel" cruise buttons. I'm undecided if I'm going to keep the cruise and mount the buttons down on the console or just delete the cruise all together.
You can also see one connector hanging down under the drivers side vent handle. That's for the wiper control box. The car melted a fe pins on the connector where it goes into the pulse module in the past. I'm trying to decide if I want to just put it back together or see if I can find another scrapped car I can grab a connector from. It will work if I put it back as is, I just can't decide if I want to be bothered swapping the connector out or not....
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