Progress Thread LILCBRA's 87 GT vert project (now prepping to replace the left floor pan)

Hi everyone! I haven't really posted any kind of build thread for my convertible yet. I figure I probably should if for no other reason to document what I've done. So here it goes!!

I bought this car in the late winter/early spring of 2016. My initial thoughts were to use it for a parts car for my then-wife's 67 coupe. She wanted a V8 manual but the 67 was an inline 6 3 speed manual. Since this vert was a 5.0 5 speed and it had a little bit of minor damage in the left rear quarter I figured this would make an excellent donor. She had other things in mind and wanted to keep it. Long story short, I bought an 84 vert that I did a bunch of work to that she drove and she wanted to have a vert again. Since it was going to be her project, I basically gave her free reign on what she wanted to do with it. She chose the current wheels and had some other ideas that luckily never came to fruition. Obviously we divorced and since the car was awarded to me, here it sits waiting for me to finally get to work on it. So, now that the back story is out of the way, here is what I have and eventually the progress that will be made.

This is the first pic after bringing it home in 2016. If you look close you can see the minor damage I was talking about. I found a used patch panel for a fairly cheap price but have yet to do anything with it.

The first purchase that was made was the wheel and tire combo that she chose. While I don't hate them I would've gone with the anthracite or the black with a machined lip. Since I already have them I plan on keeping them and making them work. When I swapped the wheels I changed the rear shocks but had to discard the quad shocks due to rubbing.



Now, when I bought the car the exhaust was..... well, we'll just say it was more or less still there. I ended up replacing the mufflers with Summit brand Flowmaster knockoffs and got rid of the wonderful rigging job that was there....




The T5 has some issues in the 2-3 shift, so I bought a rebuild kit but haven't done anything with it yet. I don't have a press yet which is the main hold up. I've thought about just taking the transmission in to a shop with the kit and have them go through it, but I know this is something that I can do if I had the proper equipment, so it's on hold until I get ready to start on everything and get myself a press OR I decide to bite the bullet and take it to someone. Time will tell.....

The front bumper cover was beat to hell but a guy I knew had another brand new one that he never had installed on his car that he sold to me for a good price. So I installed that along with a new set of headlights and fog lights that she picked from LMR. I don't mind them but prefer the 3 piece look. More on that later.....

No pics for this, it would also die suddenly and without warning. I believe it was the TFI, but I remember just replacing the whole distributor with a Summit brand distributor and it cured that problem. It's not been driven a whole lot to know for sure how it will hold up, but on the few drives it has had I haven't had a problem.

The next issue I had I don't really remember the symptoms, but I had to install a new head light switch. And, while I was in there, I dressed up the gauge cluster a little. First things first, someone, in their infinite wisdom, installed white overlays for a 140 mph speedo over the stock 85 mph unit - another Ebay cluster changed that!







While I had the cluster out, I found this piece on Ebay as well. I think it helps give the cluster a more finished look and looks better than the vertical pieces that separate the gauges.

I also had to do something about that left rear window. If memory serves it was the motor. So that works as it should now. One thing that we did that I don't have pics for is we ripped the top off. I bought a replacement top to install but figured at that time it would probably be best to have someone install it who knew what they were doing. Then the separation and ultimate divorce put a halt on this and every other project I had. One thing about it all though, she had control of EVERYTHING I owned for a year. That meant that since the top was off of the convertible and she wasn't getting it she pulled it out of the car port and left it exposed to the elements for an undetermined amount of time. When I finally got back to everything there was standing water in the car - fun fun!! So who knows what kind of good stuff I'll have to deal with now! I did find an old top on Craigslist that someone was wanting out of their garage, so at least I had some kind of protection. I then bought a pair of car covers since both this and my Cobra II were left in the elements. They are at least covered for now......

Replacement top to protect it from the weather January 2019

2 Mustangs ready for bed September 2019

2 Mustangs undercover September 2019

Now I've been concentrating on home improvement projects, but I've also been squirreling parts away if I come across them. Over the course of 2019 I've gotten lucky and found another person getting rid of Fox stuff and picked up most everything needed for a mass air conversion, a set of 30# injectors, an A9l and an A9P, shorty headers, an X pipe, and a brand new in the box 3 piece headlight set. I've also scored an Explorer GT40 intake from someone as well as a B cam from someone else for damned good prices. Today I found someone getting rid of a 3:55 gear set for cheap so I'm going to be grabbing it too. I'm sure there's some stuff that I'm forgetting, but I'm sure they'll rear their heads when I get moving on this!!

Got those gears home and stored for now. The to do list keeps growing!

Since I posted this earlier and it popped up in my Facebook memories that I shared with my family and friends, here are a few pics of the vert before I got that "new" top installed. Apparently I put that top on a year ago today......



The tattered boxes you see are the new top that I bought.....