Progress Thread Barn Find - Twilight Blue 1991 GT 5spd

[idareu]

I started the process of removing everything so that I can get a good look at my interior firewalls. Not too bad for a couple of hours in the garage. I've never had to pull a dashboard before and I have a special disdain for whoever designed those plastic clips for the wiring harness connectors .

Still have to remove the pedals, steering column, and A/C system but that can wait till next weekend.

When I was taking the A/C controls off, I was wondering why the temperature control knob wouldn't turn, I think I found the culprit. That sucker is rusted up pretty tight.

And I get to add one more thing to my future welding projects. I found that area around the driver side stud is cracked. What's the best way to repair this?

 

[AeroCoupe]

Chase the cracks to the ends, drill them with a 3/32” drill bit (keeps the crack from going any further), prep the cracks for welding (buff the paint off), weld them up, hit the welds with a wire brush, paint them up.

 

[idareu]

Chase the cracks to the ends, drill them with a 3/32” drill bit (keeps the crack from going any further), prep the cracks for welding (buff the paint off), weld them up, hit the welds with a wire brush, paint them up.

Cool, thanks for the tip. I'm hoping to be able to pick up a welder sometime around the end of this month. It will be nice to be able to start taking care of things like this.

 

[General karthief]

Pick up some scrap metal of various thickness and practice, the thin stuff, hoods, door skins are the thinnest, the door jambs like where that striker, is a tad thicker, grab a door from a 80-90 car cut some holes and practice welding them back in.

 

[idareu]

I'm still plugging away at the disassembly of this project. I'm getting ready to drop the exhaust and transmission after I go pick up a transmission jack and clear out a space to store it in the garage. The transmission will probably go through a rebuild on the bench and the exhaust is going to be completely replaced at some point. The old h-pipe and mufflers are looking really rough so I'm going to do a new system from the headers back once I get the engine back in (still a long way off from that). As I was crawling around underneath I noticed something odd with my k-member:

I'm not sure why someone would have cut it there but this gives me a reason to start looking at tubular k-members. Its not something I had originally planned on doing but at this rate, I'm looking and trying to knock out as much as I can before I start bodywork and paint.

 

[2Blue2]

something odd with my k-member:

What the heck?
Cold air intake?

 

[90sickfox]

I don't know why anyone would do that either. There's nothing on that side thats hard to get to.

 

[AeroCoupe]

Stupid oil filter…

 

[rednotch]

My bet with the fat mans cracked floor pan. and tourched K member would be those cheapo summit /jegs headers that fit like azz in that area, if it was the frame rail on the other side I would say on old icon or tti turbo kit.. I would check the rest of the floor pan for cracks, if the studs started to pull, the rear of the seat brackets tend to crack the pan also where they bolted up if it didn't have frame ties with a seat brace. Couple .of cars I owned came to me like that

... If its needs or is getting a floor pan patch, best bet is to remove the front seat cross member and brace it from the under side where the stud is pulling threw, its pretty damn flimsy design stock once you get a good look at it.. Plate the undeside and drill it for the stud anchors to sandwich the plating. so they can't pull threw like it does on the factory sheetmetal design, esp if your a bigger guy.. I actually sheared the power track cam arms that raise and lower the seat in one car at the track that I repaired that on, they where fully pulled threw when I got it. It held up fine to my big ass shifting around on a lose seat after I braced them like that. Idk why ford made the power tracks arms out of extruded aluminum but they did, nice for a driver, not a car that 60fts though.

 

[AeroCoupe]

@rednotch, what is your take on the seat brackets for the rear of the front seats that weld to the subframes? I have them on my Coupe with the Global West subframes and I swear they have saved my floor pans.

 

[rednotch]

They crack badly with out those T braces if it was beat on, between the studs pulling out, the manual tracks cracking at the rear, just as the bend starts, all that flexing murders the pans, even with them you see a lot of stress cracks if they raced it a lot without a cage or decent sub frames.

Part of the reason they did that bandaid known as the ssp reinforcement, that every car since 83 has on the drivers side rear bolt holes, complaints about them ripping up the pans... They didnt do the passenger side though and you need to transfer that brace if you ever do patch pans, its not on those.. Tin can cars. Seen too many like this over the years and worse on rust free spotless pans , the rear cracks do show up more on the passenger side pan, guess from twisting/ torque and lack of that extra brace spot welded that's the drivers side has.

Not mine, just shows the damage and how thin it is..... Some probably trying to sell that as an orig. Sub 100k car these days lol.

 

[idareu]

Small update. I had to put this project on hold over the summer/fall due to "life" getting in the way. Things at work got busy and when I did find free time on the weekends, my honey-do list had grown by about a mile. Things are starting to quiet down a bit so I'm hoping to get this thing back on track.

My son and I spent the weekend dropping the transmission. Normally you'd think this would be an easy job but Murphy's law prevails and it wound up being a comedy of errors. We got the rear end up on jack-stands and tried to rotate the driveshaft by hand but it wouldn't budge. I checked the parking brake and it was all the way down in the cabin so it didn't appear to be engaged. Fine, cool we'll try adjusting the brakes using the adjuster behind the wheels, nope it wouldn't budge either.

A cup of coffee and few choice words later we pull the rear wheels off ( found two broken wheel studs - one on each side ) and commenced to having to break the drum free with a hammer and assorted tools. Now that the driveshaft would spin, I needed to figure out away to hold it in place while I broke the bolts free. I wound up putting the wheels back on and then lowering the car back onto to ground, break a bolt free, jack it up, rotate and repeat.

With the driveshaft out, it's time to drop the transmission. Easy enough right? Well the exhaust was in the way but my only option I could see was to cut it out and really didn't want to do that just yet. A few more choice words, bloody knuckles and prayers to the fox body gods, I finally got the transmission out over to the workbench. The short term goal is to get the engine/transmission back in "soon'ish" and at least with an exhaust system in place, I can save a few bucks for now and replace that down the road.

First order of business is to clean the outside of the transmission because that thing is caked with gunk. I probably lost a couple of layers of skin trying to clean my hands after all was said and done .

Any suggestions on a good parts cleaner solvent? I looking for something that's going to cut through the gunky and grime on the transmission and cross-member.

 

[idareu]

It feels like its been forever since I've updated this project. I rebuilt the HVAC (new evaporator, seals, insulation, etc) and replace the heater core but while I was reinstalling everything, I broke the hard vacuum line in multiple places from the HVAC box to the small Tee just above the accumulator in the engine bay. I also noticed that the vacuum line from that Tee that goes across the firewall to the other vacuum tee was broken and missing portion of it.

It was starting to feel that for every step I took forward, there were two steps back. I know that's how it goes with resorting these cars but I realized that I have bit off more that I can chew with this project. In order to get to a place where the car is running and drive able is beyond what I can, so it was time to step back and figure out what I really wanted.

At the end of the day, I wanted something that I can "tinker" with and then drive and enjoy and while this car might get there eventually, it's still a long way from that. I decided that I'll look for someone who's looking to restore one and they can pick up where I left off. It's hard walking away from it and admitting defeat but I can spend another 2 - 3 years on this and still not be where I want to be based of my time, resources and knowledge.

Having said all that, I'm still not out of the mustang game. I found a white 93 LX that checks most of the boxes already and just needs some massaging to get it where I want it. I'll be picking it up tomorrow and then start the small things like getting better wheels/tires (not a huge fan of the current setup) and some stainless tailpipes on it (has dumps right now). I'll post a new thread about it once I get it to the house and cleaned up a little.

 

[Noobz347]

I was wondering what you were going to do with those Cheese Graters.

Good choice.

 

[idareu]

Time for an update. I decided sometime ago to keep this 91 and do the restoration. I had thought about selling after I bought the 93 LX (Alter Ego) but after finding the 93 was a 4cyl conversion and it appear that the previous owner just painted over rust (have a few spots that are coming through near the sunroof, rear window, and a well hidden spot behind the driver's side fender) I said to hell with it and now that car will be a donor for parts. The motor, interior, hood and transmission are in relatively good shape so they can get moved over this one when the time comes.

I finally got around to addressing the lower radiator support and order a replacement from LMR.

The next step is to get a mobile welder to come by and weld it in for me. Once that is done I can start moving forward on getting it back on the road. In the mean time I've got an entire interior to put back together so I have my work cut out for me.

I still plan on buying a cobra body kit unless I can find a full set of GT bumper covers and side skirts but that is a long way off.

 

[General karthief]

What skirts are you missing? Or are they just wavy?

 

[idareu]

What skirts are you missing? Or are they just wavy?

The skirts are wavy and/or have chucks missing out of them. Front and rear bumper covers have some heavy gouging in them and I'm not sure if that is easily repairable. I'm planning on spending some quality time in the garage next weekend and will be going back over the car and updating my to-do list. The project was put on hold while life was in the way but I think I'm ready to start getting some stuff done with this one.

 

[KRUISR]

That damage should be very fixable with a little flexible filler/putty.

 

[idareu]

That damage should be very fixable with a little flexible filler/putty.

Thanks for the tip. I'll have to try that out; I figure I can't mess them up any worse.

 

[General karthief]

I can't mess them up any worse.

oh yeah you can!!
but you won't.
I called that car the Stunt Double' for a reason, my covers are the same way. Easy fix.