Topic: Restoration of my 86 GT

[Bossnutt]

Thanks Thierry.  I'll try to make you proud.

WEEKEND #1

Please understand it's a slow going process.  Currently the car is parked in a garage about an hour from where I live.  So we can only work on it on the weekends.  Here are the pics of what it looked like when we got it.













My plan is to change the doors to temporary convertible doors (the mirrors aren't the same), change out the hatch, get another spoiler, and all the trim that is grey do it in black.  We go work on it again tomorrow and I'll have more pics of what's going on and what's been able to get done.

[Bossnutt]

WEEKEND #2

Day didn't start very good, we wanted to get up early so we could leave the house early to get to the car and start working on it.  That didn't happen, we couldn't get to sleep last night until about 2 am.  So we were kinda dragging a$$ this morning.

We finally got up there and actually got quite a bit done.  I changed out the busted cowl cover, installed the other door(installed DS last time, but it wasn't aligned yet), switched out the door locks, cleaned out all the trash and rats' nests, he fixed the DS tail light lense, and he put the motor back together.










We took a new battery up there, replaced the positive cable (still need to get a terminal for the neg. side).  He wanted to see if the motor would turn over.  It seems the car has been just sitting since our friends bought it in 2006, and before that it was just sitting for who knows how long.  Well guess what.....


The only bad news is it's needs a fuel pump (it wasn't kicking on at all), they were having to spray it with ether.  But that's not really a big deal cuz the tank is pretty much empty so it won't be too heavy when we drop it to replace the pump and lines.  Hopefully next checkin will be a video of a constant run.

Make sure to let me know what you think.  Any & all comments are welcomed.

[Bossnutt]

Does no one like my project car or the pics I posted up? 

[Thierry]

70 views in 2 days, I think some people are interested in your pics 
 I can't say the pictures are from a nice car but following the transformation of this car is certainly one of the most interesting topics we had here.

[Bossnutt]

Oh it's definately not a "nice" car yet but it will be when it's done.  I just thought it would be cool to document it kinda.  I think it's the coolest thing seeing a car go from nothing to something awesome.  He did that with his 84 GT.  To give you an idea, this is what his 84 looked like when we got it.  I hated that car at first and called it the "bleeding banana".



This is what it looked like when we got done with it.




We definately were not expecting the trophy, but it was a nice "pat on the back" for all the work he put into it.

[Thierry]

What color are you planing to do your new Mustang? I kinda like it with the black primer.

[Bossnutt]

Actually, I'm wanting to do some research on the dog tag (what I can see) and put it back to the original color.  I think it was originally white, but I'm not sure.  As for the primer, he decided to do that.  He likes the "rat rod" look.  That car was truly a sleeper.  According to most it looked like sh*t, but ran like a scalded dog!  Besides everyone knows you don't race primer.  People who put their car in primer spend most of their money on the engine and suspension so it'll run.

[Bossnutt]

Well we just got back a couple of hours ago from working on the car some more.  He had to replace the fuel pump, and the fuel pump relay.  I finished switching the wiring in the new doors.  Found a few more inconveniences.  Go check out the "weekly progress" page, and the latest pictures in my blog to get the details and find out what all is going on.  www.mustangv8.com/blogs/project-mustang

[Soaring]

Somebody really abused that GT.  She looks like she was rode hard and put away wet on more than one occasion.  Good luck with it.  Keep us posted on the progress. 

[Bossnutt]

She was abused very bad.  But luckily we have her now so she'll live a very pampered life.  We haven't been able to work on her lately since she's an hour away and all we've lately is CRAP weather.  Hopefully, we'll be able to go up there this weekend and bring her home.  Although it'll be on a tow dolly, she'll be closer so I can work on her in my spare time.

[Soaring]

Yeah, the dread of having to drive an hour both ways kinda takes the spirit of working on her out doesn't it?  At least it would be for me.  But, just stepping out into the garage and work on a project for a few hours a day will eventually show some pretty fast results.  There are two things involved with these projects.  Desire and money.  Sometimes I have the desire and not the money, and sometimes I have the money and not the desire.  When they both come together though, look out.     That's gonna be a nice looking Fox when you are through.  Another one saved from the crusher.  What engine, tranny, rear, etc. are you going to wind up with? 

[Bossnutt]

Sorry for the delay in response.  I picked up some extra shifts at work so now I don't even have the time to go the library.  Yes, that hour drive each way takes any fun what so ever out of being able to work on it.  The last time we went up there to bring her home we weren't able to.  Come to find out she either has 2 bent axles or a bent rear-end.  So I have to get in touch with a friend of ours to borrow his car trailer to bring it back here.  The more we get involved the more stuff we're finding totally messed up.  IF we can get it back to good condition we're going to keep the motor and tranny that it has in it (after freshening them up)  It came factory with a 5.0 HO engine and World Class T-5 tranny.  But if it starts to look like we're not going to be able to save it I'm going to start looking for another 86 or my favorite body of all time 1970.

[Soaring]

If you can keep that world class T5 and the 5.0 you really should.  But if you find the axle and possibly the sub frame is bent, you may as well take out the engine and tranny and look for another body. 

[Bossnutt]

Found out the body was worse than originally thought, and the tail shaft on the tranny was wobbled out.  So we decided to put her out of her misery.  She's resting in a field now.  Now on to other projects.

[Soaring]

There comes a time when a horse breaks its' leg that you just have to shoot it.  Throwing good money after bad has never been a good practice.  You might want to pull that T-5 and that 5.0 and store them if you have room. 

[young2001GT]

 project car!