Progress Thread Low budget 89 LX build, Car is apart again

Gravydog · May 25, 2020

No, he hasn't seen it yet. Yeah it's still a little crusty under there, but I've seen 5 year old Chevy trucks around here that are worse.

BlakeusMaximus · May 25, 2020

Potomus Pete said:
Has the previous owner seen the fox?? Its still a little rusty under there.

Doesn’t look that bad @Potomus Pete, also, its still a work in progress.

Potomus Pete · May 25, 2020

I was just teasing him I love it ,especially how bad it was. First page he cut out whole sections. Interesting how that can be done with any Craigslist twenty year old car .I bet you could do good with sun beat old Honda Civics . My favorite thing is how it was all done without a lot of money spent. On my own car from the beginning I have concentrating on doing everything myself , and being careful of how much I spend. I was just on E=Bay looking at foxbodys and it seems there is a ten thousand dollar floor for a decent one. Gravys is right up there, and white . Cant wait for his motor work.

02 281 GT · May 25, 2020

Us southerners/southwesterners start to sweat when we find a little bit of surface rust anywhere.

I certainly couldn't fathom owning a car with actual holes in it!

I owned a couple of rusty cars when I was stationed in Germany. That was quite an experience. I don't take non rusty bolts for granted anymore.

94tang · May 25, 2020

Gravydog said:
I've heard good things about the 2k urethane primer Summit racing sells under their name, I will probably try some for my next at home project.

I used this a few years ago when I painted my car. Their house base, clear, and primer. I'm no painter by any means, but it turned out nice.....no where near show quality

Gravydog · Jul 5, 2020

Well, it's update time.
I need to put another disclaimer here.

It seems the new edge frame rails aren't the direct replacement I thought they were. When I fixed my car I only used the passenger side, I ended up shipping the drivers side to @Mustang5L5 to repair his rusty rail. He discovered that the mounting holes for the k-member are about 1/2 inch too far forward, my car was so rotted that I had nothing to compare to. After seeing his post, I checked my car, it looks like my right front wheel is about 3/8 inch forward of the left one, my car hasn't been on the alignment rack yet, but I will have to deal with this eventually, you would typically want the right front ahead some to compensate for road crown, but not that much.

Mustang5l5 has a good solution for his car, its on page 182 of this thread https://www.stangnet.com/mustang-fo...-frame-rail-using-donor-piece.758796/page-182. My fix will probably be to slot the holes on the k-member, not exactly ideal, but I'm not cutting my car back apart.

Anyhow, I just wanted to put this here in case someone is thinking of going this route to repair a fox. I still think this is good repair option, it just will require a little more fabrication work than I originally thought.

General karthief · Jul 5, 2020

Did your k member bolt up ok?

Gravydog · Jul 6, 2020

General karthief said:
Did your k member bolt up ok?

Yes, but there is a little wiggle room from the factory.

Potomus Pete · Jul 6, 2020

When will those p heads get going Gravy.

Mustang5L5 · Jul 6, 2020

Gravydog said:
Well, it's update time.
I need to put another disclaimer here.

It seems the new edge frame rails aren't the direct replacement I thought they were. When I fixed my car I only used the passenger side, I ended up shipping the drivers side to @Mustang5L5 to repair his rusty rail. He discovered that the mounting holes for the k-member are about 1/2 inch too far forward, my car was so rotted that I had nothing to compare to. After seeing his post, I checked my car, it looks like my right front wheel is about 3/8 inch forward of the left one, my car hasn't been on the alignment rack yet, but I will have to deal with this eventually, you would typically want the right front ahead some to compensate for road crown, but not that much.

Mustang5l5 has a good solution for his car, its on page 182 of this thread https://www.stangnet.com/mustang-fo...-frame-rail-using-donor-piece.758796/page-182. My fix will probably be to slot the holes on the k-member, not exactly ideal, but I'm not cutting my car back apart.

Anyhow, I just wanted to put this here in case someone is thinking of going this route to repair a fox. I still think this is good repair option, it just will require a little more fabrication work than I originally thought.

Just to add. If someone is skilled enough to tackle splicing in a donor rail and getting it welded up, then they certainly have the skillset needed to handle modifying the rail to relocate the holes. Seems pretty simple once you drill the spot welds out on the top plate and remove it.

I measure 0.700" as the distance to relocate the holes backwards. Not an official number yet as I have a test fit pending, but all my checks and rechecks led me to believe this is the number to use. The SN95 rail is also constructed a lot more simplier than the fox rail, making it an easy modification.

Gravydog · Jul 6, 2020

Potomus Pete said:
When will those p heads get going Gravy.

Soon, very soon.
I'm doing this a different way than most would, the engine in my car runs so good, I can't bring myself to tear it apart, so I found another engine for cheap, and I'm going to put the P heads, b cam, and Explorer intake on it and then just do a quick engine swap.
I have the other engine torn down, I'm waiting on gaskets and some other parts to show up, and then reassembly can begin.

General karthief · Jul 6, 2020

It does not have 3/8" of wiggle room does it?

Gravydog · Jul 6, 2020

The k member bolted up without any other modifications. If I look at the rear k member bolts, I can definitely see the difference between where the old bolt marks are and where the bolt heads are now.

Mustang5L5 · Jul 6, 2020

It wouldn't bolt up at all in my situation. The rear mounting pad was off considerably.

Potomus Pete · Sep 17, 2020

Whats up with the car Gravydog

Gravydog · Sep 17, 2020

Potomus Pete said:
Whats up with the car Gravydog

Not a whole lot, just been enjoying it this summer. I drive it almost every day, it hasn't given me a bit of trouble, and gets a lot of attention, seems like everyone knew someone that had one back in the day.

I have done a couple of small projects, one was slotting the holes in the k-member to correct my screw up from when I did the frame rails, that worked out fine and I was able to align the front end. The other was rear gears, I was originally going to go with 3:73's, but I decided since my car has a 4 cyl T5, that 3:27 would work better.

I also took it to the drag strip, we have an 1/8 mile track about 20 miles away. One of my best friends has a Focus ST and we went on a test and tune day, we had a blast. With the 2:73 gears, the best I could do was a 9.70, but that was babying it through 1st gear or else the wheels would just spin. The good news is, I got an awesome deal on these.

They're 26x8 and came on the wheels, I'm hoping to get back to the track in the next couple of weeks to try them and the gears out.
I also got the new used motor ready to swap, but I want to run it stock at the track first.

Run down on the motor is, stock 94gt bottom end, B303 cam, Gt40p heads with Trick flow springs, Explorer intake, BBK shorty's, Explorer 65mm throttle body, 70 mm mass air. Really just a bunch of junk, but it should make for a fun, cheap street car.

Gravydog · Oct 3, 2020

At the track today, let's see what this thing will do with so
me traction!

Rdub6 · Oct 3, 2020

Gravydog said:
At the track today, let's see what this thing will do with so
me traction!

Will we see pics? Video?

Gravydog · Oct 3, 2020

Rdub6 said:
Will we see pics? Video?

No, I couldn't find anyone to go with me. There was a photographer taking pictures for the tracks Facebook page, when he posts them I'll see if I can get one here.

So I made a total of 10 passes, it was a test and tune day. This was my first time launching a car with slicks, so I'm still learning how to drive it. The weather was great, about 58 degrees. My first pass out of the gate I ran a 9.2, I played with air pressure in the slicks and kept getting faster, I ran a handful of 9.1's. I was getting a feel for the launch, and played with shifting at different rpm's, I had a couple of 9.0"s, with a best of 9.004. I was trying to break 8.99, but just couldn't, on my last pass I missed 2nd gear, and decided that 10 passes was enough, I still had to drive the car home, and it was still in one piece.
This is what I have been waiting for, now I can do the motor swap, and have something to compare it to. I'll update when that happens.

Gravydog · Oct 24, 2020

I found the last piece of the puzzle at my local Pull-a-part today, it's a T5 out of a 2004 with a V6, I know I will have to switch the input shaft, and the tail housing, but for $112 out the door I had to get it. I didn't even have to pay extra for the Hurst shifter! Now I can ditch the 4 banger trans that's in there now, I might have to rethink the 3.27 rear gears though.

Progress Thread Low budget 89 LX build, Car is apart again

dripping from every hole

Still got to try a little lube on my speedo head

I'm still waiting for the fully nude shots

Agreed...My wife has great Boobs

Attachments

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wonder how much it would cost to ship you a pair

dripping from every hole

I'm still waiting for the fully nude shots

That is…until I whipped out my Bissell

dripping from every hole

wonder how much it would cost to ship you a pair

dripping from every hole

That is…until I whipped out my Bissell

I'm still waiting for the fully nude shots

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So while I wait to figure out my rear end issues

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