Progress Thread Low Mile 89 GT Restomod - Moving toward paint

[KRUISR]

Back in spring of '24 my youngest son asked me if we could do a build vehicle so he could learn some automotive stuff and end up with a nice vehicle in the end. We looked around a bit and came up with this build as I still had many extra parts from when I built my 90 GT that could ease the search for what was needed.

So here is the rough low mileage 89 GT we picked up in July as a starting point.



It came mostly complete minus engine and accessories, trans, PCM, rad and a few trim pieces. Overall pretty solid car other than front shock tower/frame rail rust (that we knew about when purchased). The story we got was the original owner went to jail for a number of years and the car sat outside where leaves and debris blew in and sat unattended at the base of the shock towers.



Other than PCM, the wiring looks complete front to back. The body from firewall back is great other than it needs paint.

It is a factory 5spd A/C car which we will put back in it. The plan (so far) is mostly stock looking with upgraded suspension, wheels, brakes. Paint will not include the silver/gray lower sections and be all one colour. Colour at this point will be a metallic or pearl red - exact colour still to be determined. We will be doing a 5 lug conversion with SN spindles, S197 front rotors and ATS calipers. Rear brakes will be discs - size still to be determined but will be at least a S197 11.81" (we may use my current rear setup from my 90 GT as I swap to 13.6" rear rotors). Not sure if we are going fox or SN length rear axles yet. Wheels at this point are planned as gloss black Bullitt reps, 18x9 with a 24mm offset.

 

[KRUISR]

First thing we did was tackle the shock tower/frame rail rust.



Driver side is the worst as both the shock tower and frame rail top are rotted.



Passenger side is mainly just shock tower section.


For the driver side I found a good donor part at the u-pull wreckers from a '97. I cut it at the firewall and about 6" back from the rad.

I used the frame rail from the 97 and the lower section of the shock tower. Below are the parts all welded back in and then ground smooth.

 

[KRUISR]

For the passenger side, the overall work was easier and here is the shock tower/rail after removing the bad material.



Here I made replacements from some 14 gauge sheet metal I have picked up. The bolt tubes were reused and attached to the new metal.

Here the repairs are all finished.



We still need to grind down/clean up the welds on the fender well side of the shock tower, but its good for now.

So that wrapped up the engine bay/front area repairs.

 

[gkomo]

Quite the project to start with. Looking forward to seeing the progress.

 

[KRUISR]

Prior to the front end repairs we gave the car its first wash in years and cleaned out the interior (to not damage anything we wanted to keep).



As we dug into the interior, taking everything out we found some more rust issues - floor pans. Rear pans - top and bottom look pretty good.



Driver side has the usual seat mount forward issues as did the passenger side as well as the foot area for the rear seat. I thought about numerous patches but we decided to replace with two full length side pans instead. Rust was from the inside out. The bottom of the floor pans looked like a 85k km car. Investigating the why, we found the door seals near the rear of the doors was not tight (I could almost put my hand in between), so my guess is all those years parked outside let lots of water in that just sat in/under the carpet and slowly rotted the pans.

 

[Rdub6]

Good luck with the progress!!

 

[KRUISR]

Time to update on some further progress. Passenger floor pan.



Old floor removed and replacement panel trimmed and mocked in place.



Mis-trimmed pan at front and rear along the tunnel. Needed to add some small filler pieces.



Fully welded and ground smooth.

 

[KRUISR]

When working on the floor pan found another small hole on the toe board.



Small hole at bottom of upper torque box cover. Further hole when top cover removed.



View from wheel well

I cut out the flat toe board section and rewelded a patch and the top cover back on.



Then from fender well patched the lower cowl section.

 

[Rdub6]

Looking good! I found that same hole in the toe board when I did mine also.
It was better than finding it later, that’s for sure!

 

[KRUISR]

Exactly. I figure we will take care of as many of those little soft spots as we can now and the car should be great for decades to come.

 

[KRUISR]

While inspecting body panels and such I noticed some interesting little things about how the cars with Titanium lower trim were painted...



You can see that the bottom of the door was not painted body color and left in primer until the Titanium was sprayed later.

 

[89ripper]

Yup. Reminds me of how my car was originally before my paint job.

 

[KRUISR]

Back on rust repair. When doing the passenger floor pan I noticed a soft spot on the inner rocker at the rear of the pan. Looking further I found a 4" long soft spot on the outer rocker in about the same area. That's the next repair.


Initial cuts to see what we are dealing with.

Cutting a little further to get better access.

Inner rocker patches and fully welded.

Completed repair with outer rocker repaired.

 

[KRUISR]

On to the driver side floor pan.


As mentioned earlier toe board section needs work along with some soft spots under the seat area. Full side pan will be going in place (because we have it) to give this car a solid foundation for years to come.


Will need to put in a flat strip on left side (for pan to rest on and attach), a little bit of flange repair on the subframe rail (right side near toe board) and right side of toe board to be able to support the floor pan.


Old pan removed and toe board area repairs complete. Ready for next trip to fit, cut and attach floor pan. We repaired/straightened some damage to the trans mount bracket as well - looked like something hit it from below (or a bad jack placement) at some point in the past. Not perfect but much straighter now.

 

[limp]

I liked this guys video on killing rust..... I am old school and the name " ospho" came up the other day which I used many years ago... Thought I would look around at any newer ways to kill rust....
hope this helps some..

View: https://youtu.be/lQuhAAJYjMY

 

[General karthief]

I liked this guys video on killing rust..... I am old school and the name " ospho" came up the other day which I used many years ago... Thought I would look around at any newer ways to kill rust....
hope this helps some..

View: https://youtu.be/lQuhAAJYjMY

Good vid, but he's selling stuff, the main point about rust is it's a naturally occurring thing, you cannot prevent it, only postpone it, the better the prep and seal the longer it takes to come back.

 

[KRUISR]

We got the driver side floor pan installed and finished off the back of the passenger pan with a rear edge strip.


The original flange was rusted away before we started on the passenger side. Bent a piece of 20 gauge metal and used a shrinker to get the curve at the tunnel.

When we purchased the car the original fenders were gone but the seller included a pair of aftermarket pieces. Here is the first test fit to check some gaps at doors and hood.



A little bending and tweaking and they fit very good - I'm happy so far. Hood is just sitting in place in these pics as the hinges had been removed already.

 

[KRUISR]

Next was the passenger door pillar/mounting area.


As discovered and after the door was removed.


Outer reinforcement trimmed back to see the damage.

Damaged area trimmed and exposed surface rust coated with POR15


Patch panel made and test fit.


And welded in, and ground smooth.


Hole drilled for antenna cable.


Outer panel rewelded back on.


Completed repair coated with POR15.

 

[KRUISR]

Worked on the front seat mount. Started by fixing the goober welds and cracks on the driver side.



I ground down the old welds and did my own goober welds to get all the cracks and then ground smooth (ish).



Then on the passenger side front edge there was a section where the front flange had rusted off. So I fabbed and installed a new flange.



Then lined up the drilled up spot welds on the tunnel (as the starting point). Then did the passenger side flange where it connects to rocker panel and worked my way to the middle. Then repeated the weld connection to rocker and work to the middle on the driver side.

Finished install. Still need to grind/clean up some of the welds.

 

[KRUISR]

Started pulling trim and quarter windows in prep for upcoming paint. Got to see the original finish (not faded) under the quarter windows.



Then placed a panel I removed from a 2016 Ruby Red Escape to get a comparison of original colour to what we are going to paint this car.



Cleaned up the dried/crusty seam sealer on the passenger door edge in prep for some fresh sealer and paint. Driver door will get same effort once its removed as well.