'86 SVO Project

[cobra_4]

Finally made some decent progress today!!






I drove it to work this morning. The 3.73 gear has the speedo off, but with modern techno, that's no problem! This app is pretty awesome, as many old cars as I'm in with non-working speedo's, I needed this years ago!





First order of the day was to install the new mirrors. Keep in mind, these are 87-93 mirrors. As far as I know they don't make the early mirrors aftermarket. In hindsight, I would have just hunted a used one, but I already committed so I went with.


These fit, the bottom is a little off since the aero nose cars have wider trim, but if you weren't looking for it, you wouldn't notice it. I'm not real happy with the quality of them though, we broke one stud putting them in and they scratch super easy. Thinking about loosing the gloss black and going with a trim black.


For comparison, here is the new vs old.








Close ups.











Finally got this pesky window switch on, you have no idea how big of a pain this was to drive with the window switch flopping against your leg.





I hadn't planned on tackling the carpet and seats, but one of my employee's wanted to try his hand at it, so I said go for it!! Heck I'm paying him anyway soooo its kinda free labor! We were slow at work anyway.











Put the carpet out in the sun so it would be warm and easier to work with.





A little nervous to see what the floor pans looked like! But they aren't bad. Just a little bit of surface rust in a spot or two, but nothing all the way through or anything. Put some rust killer on it, should be good to go. The car will live the rest of its life with me in a climate controlled garage, so I'm not to worried about it getting any worse.








Yeah, I'd say the old stuff was shot!





Scrubbed all the trim pieces good while I had them out. I was gonna repaint, but they look good so I didn't see the need.








Little dirt coming off!







New carpet! Much better!





Talk about a dedicated employee! It started raining so we had to push the car inside, but there wasn't enough room to open the doors, it must have been a thousand degrees in that car!





I had to leave a little early, this was the progress when I headed out.





Look at the freakin' stain already on the seat. That's actually sweat, hopefully it came out we tried to dry it. I really hate this material. I don't even want to recover the back in it, I'd rather have it all custom done, but I guess it will do for now.


My guy stayed after and finished it up, looks good! I'll get some more photos tomorrow.

[GAboySVO]

Lookin' good.

[cobra_4]

I forgot how much I liked these seats in my other car, I was almost regretting not recovering the factory seats but after a day or two in these, I made the right call. I drove it around a little bit over the weekend, wanted to drive it more, but the front tire is toast on it so I'm not gonna chance it much more until the new ones get here.


So its off to the body shop hopefully one day this week. I've kinda added a little bit to the list, but I figure I might as well get it done once and right, hopefully it will only be down for one to two weeks, I hope!


Here are the things Im gonna get fixed.


This is by far the worst spot.





Gonna get the sun roof trip redone in trim black.





Someone painted the trim around the windshield, I'm gonna see what the stainless looks like, but unless its perfect, I may do trim black in it too, or go back body color? I haven't really decided 100%.





Typical yellow rubber bumper syndrome.





This dent in the door bothers the crap out of me, gotta come out.



Couple of small dents in the roof, gonna see how big of a deal it will be to get them out.



Small spot on the window trim, going back body color with this.





Annoying spot on the fuel door



And one little spot on the front fender.



So after all this, she should be about perfect paint wise!




Gonna a big list of parts to order next week too while I wait on the body shop!

[svono50]

Nice work and I hope you bought your guy a lunch for the effort on the interior...

[cobra_4]

Nice work and I hope you bought your guy a lunch for the effort on the interior...

I did I did!!

[cobra_4]

Having some idle issues with it, thread below.

http://www.svoca.com/forum/showthread.php?29327-Odd-idle-issue-with-my-SVO&p=269661#post269661

[cobra_4]

Well I had big plans today but I didn't accomplish a whole lot.


I got my dash cover in on Friday.








Instead of using the glue, I like to use double sided tape on mine, so I've just got it laid in the car, I'll stick it on next week.








Kinda bummed about this, its got a small crack in it. I kinda hauled it home funny, I could have done it, I couldn't swear either way. Probably just gonna put a little glue or something behind it so it doesn't get worse and just roll with it rather than mess with sending it back.





I was gonna go with an aftermarket wheel, but I'm trying to pinch pennies where I can. I've got a pretty nice spare steering wheel, but its a stock horn button. My SVO horn pad has saw better days, but I'm gonna attempt to re-glue the cover, time will tell how it works out!






Went and talked to my body man today, he wants it next Friday, I told him I HAD to have it back by July 4th, so that's a week for him, no pressure right? While I'd rather get it out of the way and done, it does give me a week to get some mechanical things in order so I'm not too bummed. Gonna pull the front wheels off tomorrow, my tires came in Friday so I'll get them mounted up Monday and ready to go. Gonna check the brakes while I've got it apart too.

[cobra_4]

Got my care package today from Fox Mustang Restoration.


New window dew wipes, door weatherstripping and sunvisors.

[cobra_4]

Got her jacked up tonight to pull the front tires off.





More dollars to spend, looks like I've got a nice mix of lug nuts.





Brakes are so, so, most all the bushings and what not look pretty good upon a visual inspection. May have them replaced anyway depending on time.








Drivers side tire is actually pretty decent, but is some cheap off brand.








Had a couple of helpers tonight!








The other side.





Gonna clean everything good under here before I put the wheels back on.


Man this thing was slick!!! Kinda scary that I drove it as much as I did!








Obviously I have an alignment issue. The car drives straight down the road though? Its a little bit of a handful when the suspension comes back down after you come off a WOT pull, any idea's on what this might be?







So here she sits, I hope the jack and jackstands don't sink into the ground as hot as its been!! Hope to get her down tomorrow night, really need to drive it Wednesday & Thursday to work.







Oh, I almost forgot in the when it rains it pours file, dang CD player stopped working! Gotta get that fixed before the ride to the beach!!

[cobra_4]

Okay, so got the tires mounted up today.





Looks like my decision is made to do rotors, I didn't realize the reason it had one odd nut is that one stud is partially broke off. Oh well.


But that's not the only problem, the dang right side rubs on the bumper. You can see in the pics, its not flush and curved in like its supposed to be, probably rubbed before or ran over something. I'm thinking of taking a couple of small screws and trying to pull the bumper piece back where it should be, if I push it in by hand, it ALMOST clears, so I think a couple screws should do it, that plus a little trimming and they should fit. I just hate to go back to the 235, they looked like crap on the wide wheels.




See how it's kind puffed out?








This is the other side.





Bad side again.



Clears the back, close, but it clears.





Drivers side again, clears, close, but clears, probably trim it a little bit too.





Plenty of room the other way.



I do like the look, really hoping I can make it fit, just gotta find time to make them work, really needed to drive it tomorrow but that's not gonna happen now!

[cobra_4]

Okay, I think I MAY have the tire rub fixed. I took a rough pad on my hand held angle grinder and knocked all the sharp edges off, being as its going to paint next week anyway, I can have him touch that up with no problem. I also just took my hand and messaged the bumper piece back toward where it should be, used a little force, and boom, it seemed to work! It rubs in some extreme situations, but its not bad. I think once I get the alignment corrected, it may just fix it.


Driving it around, I started hearing a clicking in the left front(right front was what was scrubbing). So I get pretty disgusted, not having any idea what it was, park the car, figure my Mustang Week plans with it are over because I basically HAVE to drive it to work tomorrow to get the seat and headliner pulled before it goes to paint, or things just aren't gonna work out. So I'm looking at it, then I remember one stud was "broke" off, I touch that stud, only to realize it wasn't broke, its just knocked loose and I had pushed it through the rotor when I put the tire back on, so I fished it back into place with a magnet. I remember when I took the old lug nuts off, one had the top cut out of it, which I thought was odd at the time, now I see why! So I went and fished it out of the scrap pile and put it back on, so hopefully now everything is road ready again! Heading to work in the morning with it, hoping she makes it and doesn't scrub out on the highway!!!

[JTurbo]

Hope you get enough road miles to trust the car for a drive to Mustang Week. I'd love to go to that show, but it's not in the cards for me, so I'm relying on you for lots of pics from the event! Good luck - JT

[cobra_4]

Been a somewhat productive day on the SVO. Drove it to work this morning, it did good. Drives better with the new tires, still not perfect though.


Found the number for some strut cartridges in the SVOCA archives, so I ordered them in. Never good when they come in looking like this though!





They look okay though.






Tried to pull the original headliner only to realize its basically trashed, no recovering it. As mentioned before, its got an aftermarket sunroof which is just a little different than factory, so a sunroof headliner won't work. So i ordered a solid headliner, my guy says he should be able to cut it and make it work for me, fingers crossed!




Tried to charge the AC but it wasn't having it. My mechanic says he thinks he can vacuum it down, reoil it and get it going again, but I'm not 100% sure. Also realized today mid 80's four cylinder compressors are impossible to find and you can't buy new ones unless you pay a fortune. If I was gonna spend 300-400 on a new one I'd just get the late model resto kit that converts it to the new style compressor. I located a good used one, but its 100 bucks, may just pull the trigger though, I'll decide next week.




Got the back seat out and as luck would have it my rear seat material came in today.





Speaking of seats, I hate these, they stain so easy. It poured the rain before I left work and the friggin' sunroof drips, here is the result! Looks like I'll be recleaning before the beach!





Pulled it in the shop tonight to do some quick touch up paint work under the hood I'd been putting off. The one thing that kills me about the four cylinder is the under the hood appearance. The sound doesn't bother me, its faster than most all the foxes I've had, its just the look I hate. So I'm definitely wanting to do anything I can do to make it look better under the hood.
















Sorry flowmaster, I'm done advertising for ya!





Radiator brackets, ac compressor brackets, a few other things.















This has been aggravating the crap out of me, not gonna be easy to paint on the car, but its gotta be done!!





Aaaaand with paint.














Untapped.







Going to the body shop in the am!!!

[cobra_4]

Okay, dropped her body shop Sunday afternoon. A day later than I had hoped. But he promises it will be done by Saturday at the latest. I did knock a few things off the list that didn't have to be done, just to save time and not take any risks.







I'm piling up my parts list for next week, photos later. I bumped my appointment up from Monday to Wednesday because I can work after work on it Monday and Tuesday, but not Wednesday and Thursday(wife & mom work so I have my boy), so I'm maximizing time all while risking failure if I have to wait more than a day on parts, but keep your fingers crossed! Also gotta get it aligned assuming I put the new rack in(kinda preparing parts for the worst and hoping for the best).




Also got my replacement dash cover from Late Model Restoration today, as you may remember the old one was cracked, they hooked me up and sent me another one right out no questions asked!!





Also got my hog ring pliers and hog rings in for the seat cover.







Gonna go check on her tonight after work, hopefully there is some paint sanded off!!!!

[cobra_4]

Progress!!! Well, backwards progress! Bumper is sanded and ready for paint. Window trim is sanded down too, still gotta work on the roof. He's pulling the fuel door today and taking it to the place he buys his paint to try and get a better match on the paint. Its the stock colorish, but it looks like its got some extra metallic in it.