New Car, New Project

Rjaaaaaa · Jul 16, 2016

I recently purchased a 1988 GT as a new project car and I'm excited. I don't have an unlimited budget so I had to do my homework and be patient, that was the hard part for me. As I started looking for a car I wanted something pre 1991 for the antique tags. saves a little insurance and no inspections needed here in Pa. So I needed to find some thing that either had a good body and interior and no engine & trans or a fairly good engine but a body that needed a little work, didn't have a budget to do everything. So I looked and waited and looked and waited, finally this 88 popped up locally and I think it was a good buy and it fit my needs.
So this 88 had a nice and fresh 5.0 with some decent work done to it, bored 30 over, gt40 heads, x cam, edelbrock intake w/ 70mm tb & shorty headers. All this is info provided by seller ??, 5sp with 4:11 gears. The rear brakes have been swapped for a disc brake set up. The car sounds awesome and runs hard, came with 245/45/17 tires on cobra 17x 9 rims.
So this is my jump off point, someone put a terrible black paint job on it and boy was it put on thick. Not a bad 40' looker but it all had to come off. Interior was in pretty good shape, prior owner was in the process of installing new carpet so all the interior trim was off, but he did have it all, I think the front seats had been recovered with factory covers at one time.
I have finished sanding the entire car down to bare metal, shooting it with epoxy self etching primer and then spraying on a good gray 2k primer and that's where we are right now.
I'll leave it in primer till the weather cools off then I'll pull it off the road to finish the final paint prep and spray it with a candy apple blue, that's my plan right now anyway.
So I'll post updates as I go, haven't done any body work or painting for a long while, restored a 1965 stang back in the early 80's, I swapped a 4.6 into my 2001 ranger couple years ago so I needed something to keep me busy now that I'm retired.

Mstng93SSP · Jul 17, 2016

That looks like a good project car. Keep us posted with updates and pictures!

Chris

89oem · Jul 17, 2016

Nice find

Davedacarpainter · Jul 17, 2016

Nice job man, if you need any help with the paint side, holler at me. I'll help out as best as I can.

skyline247 · Jul 18, 2016

Nice work. I'm looking forward to your updates.

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

95BlueStallion · Jul 18, 2016

That paint looks like it would have been a bi tch to remove! Keep trucking and post pics for us.

PS - Check out @madmike1157 's thread and how not to use one of those canopy's for painting...

Aaron · Jul 18, 2016

Wow that hood pic shows how caked on the old paint was. It's a lot of work now, but I am sure you're going to have one nice ride once you get it all back together. Nice work so far. Keep us posted!

Davedacarpainter · Jul 18, 2016

BTW, I really dig the blue on your wheels, nice accent.

Rjaaaaaa · Jul 18, 2016

95BlueStallion said:
That paint looks like it would have been a bi tch to remove! Keep trucking and post pics for us.

PS - Check out @madmike1157 's thread and how not to use one of those canopy's for painting...

Yea It was thick, I don't know what it was but it didn't come off easy. Especially on the rubber parts, paint remover wouldn't touch it. but it's all off now and have most of it back in primer. Things are moving in the right direction.

Rjaaaaaa · Jul 18, 2016

Davedacarpainter said:
BTW, I really dig the blue on your wheels, nice accent.

Hey thanks, I was caught up one evening and I had been looking at the cobra wheels (which I already liked) and still had a couple hours of daylight so I said what the heck, maybe pull one wheel and see what it looks like and that's what I came up with and I liked it. It doesn't look so great with the car in primer, kind of like lipstick on a pig.
I want to paint the car just about the same color blue, a candy apple blue is what I have in mind but everyone keeps telling me it's hard to paint candy as an inexperienced painter. I'm doing some practice on an old hood I have so maybe I'll be ready when the time comes.

Rjaaaaaa · Jul 18, 2016

Talked to some guys in the local auto paint supplier to look at some paint chips and pic their brains about painting the car. First thing they tell me is not to use lacquer based primer under acrylic enamel bummer
Like the last thing I wanted to do is sand this car off again but it had to be done so off it came. I have enough problems I don't want to create an issue down the road. Sanded done to the epoxy primer sealer and resprayed the complete car with the correct primer. Looks good to see it in one color. Going to wait till cooler weather comes around to do the final paint and I'll have time to drive around a bit and do some undercarriage work and paint.

Davedacarpainter · Jul 19, 2016

Rjaaaaaa said:
Hey thanks, I was caught up one evening and I had been looking at the cobra wheels (which I already liked) and still had a couple hours of daylight so I said what the heck, maybe pull one wheel and see what it looks like and that's what I came up with and I liked it. It doesn't look so great with the car in primer, kind of like lipstick on a pig.
I want to paint the car just about the same color blue, a candy apple blue is what I have in mind but everyone keeps telling me it's hard to paint candy as an inexperienced painter. I'm doing some practice on an old hood I have so maybe I'll be ready when the time comes.

Candy's can be a little problematic. The key is the top layer and overlapping.

When you get close to painting it, pm me and I'll give you a call and talk to you about it.

BTW, I've been a painter since the late '70's, and except for a stint in the Army, it's what I do for a living.

Rjaaaaaa · Jul 19, 2016

Davedacarpainter said:
Candy's can be a little problematic. The key is the top layer and overlapping.

When you get close to painting it, pm me and I'll give you a call and talk to you about it.

BTW, I've been a painter since the late '70's, and except for a stint in the Army, it's what I do for a living.

Thanks a lot, I'll take all the help I can get.

Rjaaaaaa · Sep 9, 2016

Been plugging away with the car, I have done all the body work, reprimed it and blocked it down with 400. looks good now, I also pulled the motor out this week to begin to freshen up the engine and engine bay. Motor is good no need to disassemble just pulled the intake and valve coves for some fresh paint and trim. Engine bay is another story, I'm going to try and shave and hide as much as possible, should be interesting.
Oh, btw I have been talked out of doing the candy color, talked to a couple of suppliers and they warned me that not only is it difficult to paint but it fades fast in direct sunlight. Mostly for show cars that are garage kept and don't see the sun to often. Bummer but not going to waste a lot of time and money on something that won't last. Finally settled on a Honda metallic / pearl blue called agean blue. I like it and I think it will look good on the car. Still waiting for cooler weather, it's been in the upper 90's for a long time here in south central pa.
Finished the Edelbrock intake today and the valve covers. I think these were factory aluminum valve covers, nice and heavy.
they came out pretty good I think, power washed the engine cleaned it up and painted it also, now to address the engine wiring and clean them up.

Davedacarpainter · Sep 9, 2016

Rjaaaaaa said:
Been plugging away with the car, I have done all the body work, reprimed it and blocked it down with 400. looks good now, I also pulled the motor out this week to begin to freshen up the engine and engine bay. Motor is good no need to disassemble just pulled the intake and valve coves for some fresh paint and trim. Engine bay is another story, I'm going to try and shave and hide as much as possible, should be interesting.
Oh, btw I have been talked out of doing the candy color, talked to a couple of suppliers and they warned me that not only is it difficult to paint but it fades fast in direct sunlight. Mostly for show cars that are garage kept and don't see the sun to often. Bummer but not going to waste a lot of time and money on something that won't last. Finally settled on a Honda metallic / pearl blue called agean blue. I like it and I think it will look good on the car. Still waiting for cooler weather, it's been in the upper 90's for a long time here in south central pa.
Finished the Edelbrock intake today and the valve covers. I think these were factory aluminum valve covers, nice and heavy.
they came out pretty good I think, power washed the engine cleaned it up and painted it also, now to address the engine wiring and clean them up.

Three stage colors are challenging and really do have issues with fading because of the strong UV rays of the sun. So the color you picked, in the end, will be a much better thing if you intend to daily drive your mustang.

Not that the color you picked won't be attractive, it'll look really good.

Will you be smoothing your engine bay?

Rjaaaaaa · Sep 10, 2016

Yeah I think the base coat clear will be easier it's just not what I wanted but it's ok. I think it will look great. I'm getting itchy to get this painted but the weather isn't cooperating.
Worked on the engine today and set it all together to see what it's going to look like and I'm happy the way it turned out.
Yes I'm going to do some engine bay shaving but nothing to drastic, previous owner removed a lot of smog equipment and a/c from the engine but left a lot of loose wiring and vacuum hoses hanging around. Just getting rid of all that will clean it up quite a bit. Couple of vacuum solenoids on passenger fender well had to go with associated hoses and wiring, that cleaned up a big area, bracket on firewall that held the a/c equipment, it's gone. A zillion little hole need to be welded closed and a few big ones.
Still looking at wiring layout and looks like I can hide a lot, I'm going to fabricate a box enclosure next to the battery box ( I'm keeping the battery under the hood) that will enclose the starter solenoid, coil and wiring connectors plus the windshield washer filler neck. This will look nice and clean yet hide a lot of loose ends.
There is still room for improvement and I'll play it by ears as I go.

95BlueStallion · Sep 10, 2016

Looking good!

Rjaaaaaa · Sep 11, 2016

I picked up a set of one piece headlights today for a great price. Saved a few bucks, I'll put them away. Also picked up a Mr. Gasket chrome engine dress up set, new never used for $20, I'll keep my valve covers but the other hardware will look good.
Started fabing up some stuff for the engine bay today, I'll post some photos as I go.
Going to be making a trip to the local junk yard this week, looking for a better radiator - fan combo. Also need timing mark indicator, rear view mirror and some sun visors.
I should be getting my paint this week also so I have to get the garage prepped.

Rjaaaaaa · Sep 15, 2016

Been working on the engine bay this week and I think it's ready for some paint.
Speaking of paint I bought my paint for the car today and it looks really nice.
It's an Acura / Honda color called Agean Blue, pearly, metallic, blue.
I'm going to paint the car blue with twin narrow racing stripes down the center of the car.
I have some other custom personal touches I want to add so we'll see how they come out.
Didn't do anything in depth here on the engine compartment, welded up a few hole and moved some wires around to a less obvious spot. I did fabricated a small enclosure to house the starter solenoid, coil and MAP sensor, I think it looks cleaner and all the wires are hidden. also relocated the windshield washer reservoir to the front passenger side inner fender well. had to extend the wiring but the hose was plenty long to reroute to the other side

Rjaaaaaa · Sep 15, 2016

I did get to the junk yard but didn't have any luck with another radiator but I did find a nice big electric fan with a shroud that should fit. This should help a lot because I don't think the 2 small fans that were on it were big enough. We'll see next summer.
I also picked up a pair of gray sun visors and hardware ( these were missing in action) and an offset shifter handle out of an 03 mustang that should work fine. All for $50
Going to shoot some paint tomorrow in the engine bay and around the lower edges of the body where the ground effects go, once I get the paint behind these areas I can hang all the ground effect panels to get ready for paint.

New Car, New Project

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You have a nice rear end there Dave.

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