Progress Thread Haven't posted in a looong time... rescuing another 'stang... '89 Vert

It's been 5/6 years since my last post... I sold my '00 GT shortly after my first kid was born, poured that money into a down payment on a Subaru and never saw it again... I have two kids now and they're getting older and less expensive, and I started to squirrel away a few dollars.

Now I've had in the past an '84 Firebird 305, '87 Iroc-Z 350, '97 Camaro RS 3.8, '74 Camaro LT (460BBC), and the last was my '00 GT... so I've had a couple of these pony cars... I just had to get back in, I can't escape. (Long "brief story" to follow so eject now if you aren't up for it)

So the last few months I was looking for a 3rd gen Firebird with T-Tops or a convertible Mustang, something with a solid body and no rust... operational engine/transmission a big bonus. I came across this Medium Shadow Blue Metallic heap advertised at $1k, not expecting anything... but well within my price for the base vehicle so I went and checked it out.

This car was twice over a project car from the previous two owners, this guy and his step son. It's an '89 4 cylinder with 5 speed tranny, all stock except a crappy conical air filter. The car is originally from Florida, it's got 98k believable miles on the 5-digit odometer, no rust on the body, minor surface rust underneath... supposedly no winters. The owner claimed it cranked but wouldn't start one day and the car had no battery in it, however the crank turned over with no difficulty and the oil and coolant looked clean when I checked. The guy claimed that they changed out the fuel pump and the filter and that his step son said "some switch under the driver's seat" needed to be replaced for it to run. Car had been sitting 2 years and had a flat tire in the front... all 4 are dry rotted to hell anyway (but they all hold air somehow). It has a crappy drivers side door (very badly rattle canned in baby blue) that was supposed to replace the original banged up door, but they both have near identical dents in them... the original just has a slightly messed up lower hinge, and was included of course, along with the mostly intact door panel which is not currently on it. The top also had a tear and the rear glass all busted out. So I offered $500. I figured even if the engine was junk it wasn't a big deal... and all the parts are dirt cheap... etc. We didn't make a deal on the spot but I got a call a few hours later and they took the offer... so I went with it.

I showed up the next day with a battery and got it to crank over without any strange sounds... very enthusiastically in fact, and I found most of the electronics working (including the top), less the power windows and signals. I traded money for title and keys, and a couple days later I got my friendly neighborhood "roadside assistance guy" to pull my car that "wouldn't start" up onto a flat bed and dropped it off at my house.

So here it sits. I have now gotten it started with a new "switch under the drivers seat" AKA the fuel pump relay... and after dumping in some ethanol free 90 octane in the tank it runs fairly well. I took it for it's first "spin" between my second and first driveways and found that the brakes are seized, luckily one of them has a pad jammed up against the rotor so you just need to take your foot off the gas to get it to brake... don't know yet if the Master Cylinder is any good. The clutch works perfectly, the transmission seems to shift fine... and I ordered a replacement black top.

So... this all happened in the last 2 weeks and it feels good to be wrenching/bleeding on a car again. I like all the diagnostic work so it's a perfect match for me. I have an ignition switch in the box ready to swap out because they're all crap I've read... and then we'll see if there actually are any electrical issues with the defunct parts. Then I'm going to replace the rotors, calipers, bearings, etc. and see if the master cylinder needs replacement... and if it actually stops raining around here I'm going to fumble my way through a DIY convertible top replacement. The interior is ok, no tears in the seats, a little crap in it that needs to be vacuumed. Eventually I want to pull out and put in black or grey seats in lieu of the crappy blue stuff which was as popular in '89 as Def Leppard.

Once the thing is safe to drive I'll find it some rubber... has four GT wheels on it that are in perfect shape. Won't be needing any bigger tires until I get it all sorted out to the point that I can think of power mods. I originally wanted to do a V8 swap, but that's a big chunk to chew off... perhaps a turbo... but that's basically just one step less than a V8 swap... the actual engine transplant part. In the end I might just get it breathing better and buy a V8 car later to get the speed fix... also very partial to the sound of a Ford V8 for some reason (probably because it's the best).

I probably work too slow on this stuff to make this a progress thread but I'm sure an update will pop up some time...