Blackie the Wonderbeater

[chalkys_explorer]

Allright, thought I'd post here so that all those who have joined the board more recently can see what can actually be done with a bit, ok...a LOT, of time, effort and patience and a bit of money. Maney of the areas that will be covered here can be found in greater detail on the board but here's an over view. If your interested, search under "Project" or "Blackie" and my user name you should find the info.

"Blackie the Wonderbeater, Super Daily Driver" or Blackie for short, was born 11/29/83. VIN: 1FABP28T3EF132078. 1C, leather, all options except sunroof, DSO 72 (Los Angeles). The 2432nd SVO built.

I purchased the car from board member Stef Roberts in early Janruary 2004. A check on Carfax revealed the car had travelled all over CA,OR and WA without major incident aprt from the damage that was evident. I believe i may be the 8th owner(!!!) Card had 137K when purchased. Caught the Greyhound up to Portland, OR and then trailered the car back to Ashalnd, OR behind a U-Haul. Here are the pics she sent me pre-purchase and me picking her up. She was a bit ruff to begin with but saw the potential straight away.

Let the adventure begin.

[chalkys_explorer]

Rear 1/4 Repair

The first task was to repair the damaged rear 1/4 panel. This was one of the reasons I bought the car as I had alsways wanted to R&R a rear 1/4. Turned out that whatever had damaged the 1/4 had also damaged the trunk floor and the outer wheelshousing.

All told this process took about 80 hours. That included disassembling the replacemet rear 1/4, removing the damaged metal, fitment, welding, finishing and painting.

Bear in mind this was done in Souther Oregon in Janruary. Yep, it was cold.

[DAVEZ84SVO]

It looks a ton better now!!!! Great job!!

Dave

[kiwi]

as long as you had cold beer in that cooler!! good job...

[chalkys_explorer]

more pics

[chalkys_explorer]

Well, after getting the rear 1/4 finished, which entailed doing final paint at 36*, it was time to get it registered. So with a clean title and a set of OR plates (910-CGS) in hand it was time to tackle the interior.

The car came with spare seats and just about a full interior worth of parts so I swapped in the best parts after painting everything. I used Duplicolor's HVP111 charcoal grey, about 8 cans, and did everthing that could be removed. The dash was painted in the car with a lot of masking done to protect the surrounding areas.

Also, after much experimentation to get the finish right, I re-flocked my dash panels to replace the horribly browned panels that were in the car.

Unfortunately I didn't find the build sheet and one day I'm going to have to replace all the sound deadningas the car is pretty loud

[tateg]

Great job! Wanna do the roof on my car?

[03shkr]

I remember what the car looked like. You've done a stellar job on it.

[boardmaster]

Highlights, THE REUNION, that 4e that was always on my tail.

Chalky, you're car looks awesome with the new paint, keep the pics a coming. As for always being on you're tail, there was no way in HELL that I wanted to be the SOB that caused a paint chip on you're brand new paint job!!! Better to be safe than sorry. MATE

[thomp22]

Nice job Chalky! Did not realize what you started with. The Man has got some talent, and from the looks of the ground you were working from, some Muddy britches.. Turned out Stellar looking Man! How about flocking my dash panels!, or coughing up the details on how ya did it.

[chalkys_explorer]

The next step was just doing a lot of little things. I replaced the cast iron MC with the proper Aluminium one. 85ttops and I installed a 190lph fuel pump and removed the stock chassis pump. I did some wiring repairs. Refinished a new IC and valve cover. Made a custom VAM bracket that would work with the AFE air filter i had. I also repainted the mirrors and the tailight lenses. A also custom fabbed a catch can to build an oil recovery system.

Basically a whole bunch of stuff, most of which I've porbably forgotten, just to ensure that the car ran better and was more reliable. I still had my "oh s&*t" car, my 93 LX but I was already bitten by the bug and hardly ever drove the 93.

One of the best mods I did was to install a 130amp 3G alternator. Bought it used from the JY for $15, bought a 200 amp fuse and some battery cable and conectors a wired that thing in. It ran strong and hard till replaced with a new 95 amp unit when i went to the 86 brackets on my engine rebuild in 2008. But thats a story for another time