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

So the air system is almost complete.... the regulator rebuild didn't go as planned, so I think I'll just spend about the same money on a new cheapy Harbor Freight deal instead of messing with this one anymore. And since I didn't think of this in the plans, I've ordered 2 ball valves for pickup tomorrow to isolate the tanks from the adjoining line. What I did was used the coiled hoses with 2 male ends - that wasn't a smart move when you go to plug one in while it's loading or full of air.... But I hooked one compressor up and it all works as it should. There are now no noticeable air leaks in the new plumbing and the tertiary regulator seems to work just fine. Also on the pick up list are a couple reducers since I ended up ordering check valves for 3/8 NPT instead of 1/4....

I should really write down while I'm working on stuff like this.

Back to the vert!

Started disconnecting everything to pull the engine. As I was starting to suspect, it appears that this engine has been out before. There are a number of broken electrical connectors, the salt and pepper shaker mount was broken, and there are spliced wires for some reason,. And, as always, I had some trouble getting the fuel lines disconnected. The lower connector's second O ring is gone now - I don't remember if it was there the last time I pulled them apart a few years ago, but it's definitely not there now.



The top radiator hose outlet snapped off of the reservoir and the drain cock isn't really draining anymore. The radiator is still about half full, and it was left open for probably 3 hours. Good thing I already have a NIB radiator that I picked up in one of my previous Craigslist purchases.

In other news, I'm seriously thinking of getting a rotisserie. Last night at work I had the hair brained idea that it would be most helpful if the car was on it's side when I get to the floors. That led me down a rabbit hole of ways I could get that accomplished that won't cost an arm and a leg. Long story short, I found Jegs has their rotisserie on sale for ~$900 and it appeared to be the cheapest I could find. Tack on taxes and truck freight, and after entering a promo code, I was up to a grand total of around $1070. For some reason I thought they were a lot more costly....

Then I searched a 300 mile radius on Craiglist and found someone looking to get rid of one for $800 and they're roughly 3-1/2 to 4 hours north of me and about an hour and a half from my best friend's house. So I may be checking on that one in a couple weeks as I'm already planning a trip up to visit. We'll see what happens there, but I could get the use of it with the vert and my Chevy if (I mean when....) I get started on it.

And back to the compressors..... there are no more lesks and It works as intended so far! Once pumped up, I bled some air with a blow gun until I found the cut on pressure and found they both cut on at different pressure, which is what is supposed to happen from what I've read. The old compressor kicks on at 120psi, the new one at 130psi. I then adjusted the regulators so the Craftsman's pressure is a little less than the Harbor Freight, bled some air from the hookups in the garage as opposed to at the tanks, and they started at different times, and it seems I had no loss of pressure while they ran! Time will tell, but I think it's a success so far!

Now, back to the vert....

The engine is out. Didn't find too many more surprises, but I did find that someone failed to install one of the top bellhousing bolts whenever someone replaced the clutch. Once it was out, I immediately checked the left frame rail - it at least needs attention. And I took a few pics of the radiator support to show the damage there. I believe I mentioned that I noticed some damage last year but don't think I took any pics to share.

No pics, but I got a little bit done on the car tonight. I removed the rear reinforcement plates from under the car at the rear torque boxes and got the HVAC box removed.

I spent a little time going over the pics in the Corral thread as well as looking closely at my car. I'm wondering if I were to cut the majority of pan out and removed all of the brackets/mounts from under the car, if I might not be able to take an air hammer and spot weld breaker/chisel to the bottom of the inner reinforcements that verts get. If you're not aware of what I'm referring to, start at post 157 in this thread. As was mentioned in that thread, the reinforcements are placed over the floor's flange making it impossible to drill those spotwelds. I might have considered welding in patches instead of replacing the floor up to the rocker if there weren't rust holes in the floor pans right at that joint. And on the driver side, it looks like someone misplaced a jack and tried lifting the car from the floor pans just inboard of the pinch weld.

In other news, I ordered some square tubing to give the car an endoskeleton before I start cutting into it. The plan is to pick it all up on Friday while I'm up visiting friends north of me. The plan as it is right now is to spot weld a cross bar right behind the door frame at the rear windows, then a pair of diagonal pieces down to the transmission tunnel on either side, another pair of diagonals from the cowl area to the tunnel, then another pair of cross bars tying the diagonals together front to back. I may even add a cross bar from side to side on the diagonals if I have enough left over. I think between all of this and the subframe connectors that I've still got to get installed, that the body should be solid enough to do what I need to do. And, if I do bite the bullet and get a rotisserie, it should shore it up well enough to put it up on that as well.

First, a couple pics of where I stopped last night.



Then I tore into the car some more. Started by pulling the front bumper and AC condensor. Here are a couple more pics of the lower radiator support.




Then I moved back inside to start removing wiring. Removed the ECU and found this on the warranty sticker which kinda surprised me. Did some searching, apparently it's been seen before.



And, just for fun, here's the buck tag.

It's an SD unit from what I can find. I mean the car ran with it, I've never removed it til now. But here's another site with someone that had the same question.....