Progress Thread Daily Driver.... 89 GT - Front suspension rebuild

TIGGER · Apr 14, 2022

I’ve been dinking with a few things. I got the drivers seat apart and dropped off the bottom frame at my friends for him to weld up all the cracks for me.

The passenger side door didn’t open from the outside when I got the car. Passenger side window was busted out at some point before my friend got the car. He said the door has always been hard to open since. After lubing up the latch mechanism the door started working but the outer handle was broken. I put a new NOS one last night. Now it opens nicely. Next thing to tackle are the door lock actuators. Years ago I got the original one working in my saleen. Unfortunately the original ones in this car are long gone. My friend replaced them with repro’s which are froze now. At the swap meet there was a free box that had a new nos actuator in it. I installed it in the passenger door last night but something is binding when locking the door either by the key or inside knob. I didn’t have time to fool with it much after as my daughter came to visit.

After she left I went out and cleaned up my tools and stuff. I took a look at the ashtray lid. It is not broken but the spring keeps popping out. Not sure how it is supposed to go nor do I know how it stays in place. Can someone post a picture how the spring is supposed to go please? Thank you

limp · Apr 14, 2022

When I did Auto Glass many moons ago, had a few broken door glass jobs that a piece of the tempered glass had somehow gotten into the latch mechanism which then did not work and you could not open the door..... Imitated how a locked door works, you can pull the handle but nothing happens......
You might want to pull it and make sure its clean.. One tiny piece of glass can cause this.......

TIGGER · Apr 16, 2022

I’m going to pull it apart and check it out because I drove the car around today and the way that lock works drives me crazy

Since I had today off I decided to run the car thru DEQ(smog). Surprisingly it passed and it passed easier than my Saleen does. After that I went to the DMV and did the title transfer and got the tags for the plates. Car is officially mine now.

Since it was a nice day, after the DMV, I went to pick n pull to look around a bit. Found an AWD Aerostar so I grabbed the aluminum DS for this car. Didn’t find anything else for this car.

Mustang5L5 · Apr 16, 2022

TIGGER said:
After she left I went out and cleaned up my tools and stuff. I took a look at the ashtray lid. It is not broken but the spring keeps popping out. Not sure how it is supposed to go nor do I know how it stays in place. Can someone post a picture how the spring is supposed to go please? Thank you

Something like this

TIGGER · Apr 21, 2022

When I pulled the carpet out to fix the floor it was a little damp on the drivers side. I’ve been checking it periodically but have not seen anything till today. Does not surprise with the amount of rain we have had lately. Looks like it is coming in from behind the kick panel. Any place I should look at first? This is a sunroof car BTW

General karthief · Apr 21, 2022

Lower corner of the windshield, the drain hole in the corners of the sunroof trough or the hose it self, corners of the cowel.

TIGGER · Apr 22, 2022

Corner of the cowl? Like the pinch weld under the fender?

General karthief · Apr 22, 2022

Yes,
You probably can follow the surface rust stain once you get the kick panel off and have a better idea where it coming from.
Sometimes
Well most times anyway
Except now you're looking for where it's coming from the leak will stop.

TIGGER · Apr 22, 2022

Thanks. I’ll remove the padding from the kick panel this weekend and take a peek. I will also remove the a pillar molding on that side. Looks like it is going to be dry this weekend so I might get a little work done on the car.

TIGGER · Apr 25, 2022

Since the weather was nice this weekend I decided to replace the hinge pins and bushings on the drivers door instead of looking into the kick panel leak. After doing the hinge pins I replaced the tension spring on the lower drivers hinge. Had to remove the side skirt to get the fender liner out. That was fun putting it back on.

I am going to need to repaint all the titanium pieces. Does SEM make a titanium bumper coat paint? Some of the urethane pieces are badly weathered where the paint has been missing. The urethane is no longer smooth in some of the areas where the paint is gone. I have a feeling I will need a filler to smooth those area out.

No pictures to share but it is nice that I no longer have to slam the door to get it to shut

TIGGER · Apr 27, 2022

I am not a big fan of the turbines. Never have been. I really can’t stand the look of them with caked on brake dust. I spent a couple hours this evening cleaning the two on the drivers side. Man what a pain. I wish wheel designers would take in account of what it takes to clean them. The wheels look much better but I am still not a fan. Have two more to do still

manicmechanic007 · Apr 28, 2022

While working at the dealer (all those years of hard knocks)
I must have been too busy beating my head against the wall to notice that Ford put factory sunroofs in Mustangs

Gs1987GT · Apr 28, 2022

Turbines...yeah agreed, never been a fan. Good work cleaning them up though. I bought a set of chrome pony stars from lmr last year, going to put them on this summer probably after I get some body work done (my GT side ground effects are all warped and ugly). I like the 10 holes next best after the ponys.

TIGGER · Apr 30, 2022

Gs1987GT said:
Turbines...yeah agreed, never been a fan. Good work cleaning them up though. I bought a set of chrome pony stars from lmr last year, going to put them on this summer probably after I get some body work done (my GT side ground effects are all warped and ugly). I like the 10 holes next best after the ponys.

One of these days when I have some spare time to dink around I am going to take two of the Rikens off my Saleen and put them on this car to see what they look like. I have another set but the centers will need to be painted as they are currently white.

TIGGER · Apr 30, 2022

I drove the car to work today which was about a 55 mile round trip. For the most part it ran well however the starter is turning over slow now almost like it is drawing too many amps. Since all the weatherstripping is wasted there is a lot of wind noise inside with the windows up. And since there are no tunes there is nothing to drown it out.

Also this thing seems thirsty. Gas gauge dropped almost a 1/4 tank from where it was when I left this morning which is more than it drops with my Saleen. I normally get between 20-21mpg with my saleen commuting to work and back. I am happy with that. Im sure the 89 is getting considerably less. I think tomorrow I am going to swap the thermostat. Temp gauge barely comes up off the 130 mark. Today it moved the most since I have owned it. It came up to the first tick mark for a short period and then it dropped back down again. I have a feeling either the thermostat is stuck open or my buddy put a 180 in it. I will find out tomorrow.

The last thing I figured out today is that the cruise control doesn’t work. Not a big deal since I never use cruise control on my other cars but I would like it work none the less. Going to have to look into that at some point as well.

Mustang5L5 · Apr 30, 2022

If it’s not warmjng up, it would run on the rich side and that would kill fuel economy. But also keep in mind the stock temp guage isn’t that accurate.

TIGGER · Apr 30, 2022

I did the thermostat and flushed the cooling system. Has some rust in it. I think I am going to have to flush it again to get more of the sediment out. There was a 160 deg thermostat in it which explains the gauge reading and the gas consumption, hopefully….

manicmechanic007 · May 1, 2022

TIGGER said:
I’m going to pull it apart and check it out because I drove the car around today and the way that lock works drives me crazy

Since I had today off I decided to run the car thru DEQ(smog). Surprisingly it passed and it passed easier than my Saleen does. After that I went to the DMV and did the title transfer and got the tags for the plates. Car is officially mine now.

Since it was a nice day, after the DMV, I went to pick n pull to look around a bit. Found an AWD Aerostar so I grabbed the aluminum DS for this car. Didn’t find anything else for this car.

Don't they have antique plates in OR (30 years old and you skip all that I/M bull)?

TIGGER · May 1, 2022

74 and older are exempt from DEQ. 75 and newer have to go thru for the rest of their lives. There are some county’s that are exempt but I do not live in one since I am in the “big”city. Oregon used to be 20 years or older but they changed that around 1990. They do have a special interest plate which is basically antique you pay a one time fee and your registration never expires however you are not supposed to drive it daily. Just for shows and parades. Supposedly some people get away with it some do not.

I am going to get my dads Pinto out this year and was thinking going that route since it is a 79 and difficult to get to pass but I work across from a police station in Canby and always have cops following me out when I go to lunch or home. Being orange I would stick out.

manicmechanic007 · May 1, 2022

That is similar to what they told us for quite a while here in UT. When our program started in 1984 the 67's were exempt and 68 and newer had to pass I/M. They said the next year it was 68 etc. They soon changed their minds and 68's still had to pass. We used to just fudge the shelbys and the ones that would not pass like my Z-28. Made my Boss 302 Pass pretty easy, 1980 specs with no air pump and headers. 2.8 in the wagon?

Progress Thread Daily Driver.... 89 GT - Front suspension rebuild

TIGGER

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limp

wrap a little cheese around it and its a done

TIGGER

Mustang5L5

That is…until I whipped out my Bissell

TIGGER

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General karthief

wonder how much it would cost to ship you a pair

TIGGER

General karthief

wonder how much it would cost to ship you a pair

TIGGER

TIGGER

TIGGER

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manicmechanic007

Gs1987GT

Active Member

TIGGER

TIGGER

Mustang5L5

That is…until I whipped out my Bissell

TIGGER

manicmechanic007

TIGGER

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manicmechanic007

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Progress Thread Daily Driver.... 89 GT - Front suspension rebuild

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wrap a little cheese around it and its a done

That is…until I whipped out my Bissell

Attachments

wonder how much it would cost to ship you a pair

wonder how much it would cost to ship you a pair

Attachments

Active Member

That is…until I whipped out my Bissell

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