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My 88 GT Hatch Project

that is looking great. I really would love to repaint my 89 It is a good looking 50/50 car (50 feet away or 50 miles an hour) lol but I suppose I will just have to be satisfied with driving it for a while. I love that color combination. hopefully it won't be long now and you will have it back on the road.
 
mustanggarage said:
that is looking great. I really would love to repaint my 89 It is a good looking 50/50 car (50 feet away or 50 miles an hour) lol but I suppose I will just have to be satisfied with driving it for a while. I love that color combination. hopefully it won't be long now and you will have it back on the road.
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Thanks. Hopefully, I'll get a chance to drive it around a little this summer. I got a nice promotion at work, but instead of working my normal 28 days on/28 off, I'm working 28 on/14 off. The job is for my apprenticeship, and should last about a year before I start getting 28 off again. So I won't get much time behind the wheel.

Good news is that I've got pretty much all the interior ready to go back in. I even hornswaggled me a matching rear seat the other day!
 
man that is a strange work arrangement. I can't even imagine it. 28 days off in a row I am certain if I had that much time in a row off I would never have any money lol. My schedule is weird in a different way. I get usually 2 weekends a month off. sometimes in months with 5 weekends I will get 3 off. then of course I do have vacation time. but I have never taken 2 complete weeks in a row off. oh well different strokes for different folks. I like every other weekend off. I suppose I could get used to 28 on 28 off. I don't know. it would be interesting to see. . of course the nice thing about my job is after I am done with my work I can go home and play in the garage. when I was in the army reserves and did my annual training that was just 2 weeks away from the garage. that was ok though because I knew all the money I made from the army was bonus money for car projects.

anyway good luck on the project
 
Finally back from the paint shop!
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mustanggarage said:
wow, that is a very nice looking fox you got there. congrats.
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Thanks, buddy! It's definitely coming along, although, the amount of work I still need to do is a little overwhelming.

Body wise, I need to order new front and rear glass retainer clips, install the new front windshield trim and refinish and install the rear trim (evidently, no aftermarket available?) Need new inner and outer door belt moldings (I think that's what they're called), restore or buy new wiper arms, restore quarter glass moldings and swap them with the ones on there now, and a few other items that slip my mind currently.

Interior, I need to remove seats and console, install the new carpet, install the rest of the plastic interior pieces, clean up my new (used) rear seat, and give everything a good cleaning.

Under the hood...well, that's a big one. I might just replace the intake, valve covers, belt, hoses, and clean up what I can. This winter, I plan on pulling the motor and tranny. Repair the frame below the passenger shock tower. Freshen up the motor (new heads, cam, and some other junk). Put the motor back in, along with my freshly-rebuilt t5.)

I'm really focusing on getting it presentable enough for a couple cruise-ins this summer. So that's my priority right now.
 
Just a quick update, with no pics. I took the seats and console out, so pretty much the entire interior was stripped (except the dash). I put the new carpet in along with the matching rear seat, which cleaned up great. I ordered some new door belt moldings and the outer weatherstrip (dew wipes). I also had to order a new window run channel for the passenger side. The run channel was a pain, with the window motor in the way. If I ever need to do it again, I'm taking the motor out. In fact, if I were smarter, I would have replaced the window motor gear bushings at the same time. Mine are working ok, but I know they will go, eventually.

With the doors all fixed up and looking decent, I went ahead and put the interior back in, along with new carpet, seats cleaned up, and a few small details here and there. It's finally looking like a car again. Oh, and I had order some "running pony" logo floor mats a while back from LMR. They look pretty sharp.

I've been working 12 hour shifts lately, and coming home with about an hour of daylight left. An hour drive each way, so it's been rough. I've just been able to do a bit here and there, so it's taken a week. I'll try and post up some pics here soon.

Edit: Forgot to mention that, as usual, fixing up a few things to make the car look nicer always seems to make other parts stand out worse. I realize I should have purchased some new scuff plates. I also could use some window switch bezels, inner side mirror cover plates, and while I'm at it...a brand new rear carpet set in matching grey with the pony logo (I just realized they make this, so now it's on my list lol).
 
Finished replacing the hatch area and rear seat-back carpet tonight. I've been working on it about 30 minutes a night...after work. Got the back seat in, along with the fold-down mechanism. Touched up some of the metal parts and did some cleaning.
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I still have a few interior parts that could use replacing or painting, but it looks like a different car inside now that it's all together.
 
Thanks! I wish I had more time to work on it. We're supposed to close on our house next month, so I'll have a garage to work in. Should be able to make some progress on this one and the 82gt this winter.
 
broncojunkie said:
Thanks! I wish I had more time to work on it. We're supposed to close on our house next month, so I'll have a garage to work in. Should be able to make some progress on this one and the 82gt this winter.
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I'm right in the process of buying a house too so I know how it is. Just not enough hours in the day


IG: leesweitzerracing
FB: familyaffairmustangs
 
Done very little to the car, here lately. Tracked down the battery drain issue. It was a bad diode or something inside the alternator. I just put a new oem one on it and it appears to be good to go. Unfortunately, the current belt tensioner set-up is a terrible design and has to go. I ordered a new "march" alternator kit, which eliminates the tensioner altogether. I doubt it will get here before Friday, which is when I have to leave.

Also, in my attempt to get a state inspection on it, I had to remove the offroad h-pipe. I had an old ratty h-pipe with a couple hollowed out cats on it, so I just put that on. There's only a visual test in my state. In the process, I broke the flange on the passenger side header. A buddy had one from an old Fairmont box top he just picked up to build as a drag car, so he gave me one. I put it on and it fixed it right up. Within a day, the old h-pipe developed a crack in one of the welds, so I'll have to deal with that now. Still not looking like I'll get to drive her before going back out on the river for 28. Oh, and I couldn't believe how much different the factory h-pipe sounds...even with the hollowed-out cats! It's night and day. The offroad pipe was WAY better sounding. When I get around to pulling the motor (hopefully this winter), I'll probably go with shorty unequal length headers, h-pipe with high-flow cats, and a nice cat-back of some sort. I miss the old sound.
 
Here's a pic of the tensioner set-up in the car now:
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The tensioner is 90 degrees to the belt, which just doesn't work whatsoever. When you crank down on it, there is basically no relief of tension at all. If you look closely, you'll notice the old belt is missing a couple ribs. That's because I damaged it trying to pry it on with a screwdriver.
 
broncojunkie said:
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Got the new alternator bracket in today:
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It's 100% better than it was. It cleans up the front of the motor a little, as well, by getting rid of the original alternator/smog pump bracket. I left the old aftermarket power steering/tensioner bracket in place, because there was otherwise nothing there to support the front of the power steering pump. I may do something about that some day, but it will work fine for now. And again, I have to say this alternator bracket should work perfectly for anyone wanting to do a 3G swap without having to clearance the factory bracket.
 
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Finally got in the new house. Garage is still a wreck, but got both cars inside safe and sound. I did manage to clean up the 82, since she's been living outside for many years. I hope to pull the motor this winter. Actually, both motors and transmissions. We'll see how it goes. Baby steps lol!
 
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