Progress Thread Street/strip 427w In A Gt Hatch- Slow Progress

Rjaaaaaa said:

New to the Fox body scene, bought a fair looking 88 GT that I am currently working on. I'm doing the engine bay now but mine doesn't look as clean after I'm done as yours did before you started. Bummer !!! I'm still happy with mine it's just going to be my cruiser. Engine is 30 over, cam, heads and intake, nothing wild just fun to drive and turn a few heads.

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Looks like a good start to me. Especially dig the paint work on the intake and valve covers (assuming it's actually paint).

cleanLX said:

this thread needs more 427 and less plumbing... .

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I've had a little funding snag since buying the new place and too much $$$ has gone to house and tools, should be resolved here shortly. Doesn't help that I got thrown on second shift again last week and haven't been able to get up early enough or not get distracted enough to go out and work on the car before work.

So there's been a substantial lack of updates on this, for mainly three reasons:

1) Got put on night shift for a month and just could never get the rhythm right to be able to work on the car BEFORE work
2) Miscellaneous asshats who should have been (and I thought were) paid at closing on the house, actually weren't leading to tight funds.
3) The IRS decided to eff with, leading to, you guess it, funding issues.

Items 1 & 2 have been dealt with, and item 3.....well, the IRS is always effing with everyone, so.....

Anyway, I've slowly been tinkering with the thing here and there, and finally spent a solid few hours on it yesterday and actually have some progress to show

So first of all, all the strut tower covers, and the ones for behind the towers, are in, but look at that ugly pinch pinch weld, ick. That's gotta be dealt with.


Now, I have seen people weld that thing up from the backside and just completely cut that bitch out of there, but that is NOT within my skill set. Just so happens all the spot welds are within the width of a 1" piece of tape, so after laying a strip down as a guide and a little magic with the cutoff wheel, we have this:

After I had it cut, I went back with my ball peen and, using my 3lb sledge as a dolly (damn I need some body hammers) made sure all 3 pieces of metal where butted up all across it. It was then stitched it together with the mig, and hit with the grinders to even it out (and then hit with the mig AGAIN to fill in some spots that got a little to ground). No pics of that steep but you'll see the results here in a bit.

Next panel to go on is this cowl cover, but there's a slight wrinkle. It goes all the way up to the top of the cowl, blocking off the slots for the firewall seal clips. Not a deal breaker, just have to turn to my old friend again, the 1" wide tape (actually .920" but, well, rounding) and then hack it off with a cutoff wheel (why oh why did I let my dad's bandsaw get sold off)


After a few laps tacking the thing in, I think I'm finally starting to (barely) get the hang of this thing as these are MUCH prettier and more petite than the ones I was making when I started out, and NO NEW HOLES

And SOB, the site is having a problem uploading pics again, but it won't tell me what the ACTUAL problem is

@Noobz347 any help? They're all taken with the same camera, and are on the same drive, and in the same format? The only error message I see just says "There was a problem uploading the file" without saying if the file is just too big, too many in the post, wrong format, etc....

And of course, with a couple new replies it works again
anyway....

Last of the Scott Rod panels to go one is the one to cover the HVAC and ECU wiring holes. Btw, anyone know what the grommeted hole above and to left of the speedo cable hole is? Everything else on that side I know but just can't remember what that one does???


Oh, and the garage dog says hi again (and then ran straight into a screen door an hour later, funniest thing I ever saw)

Noobz347 said:

There are two things to try when you have upload issues. The first is just to refresh your screen PARTICULARLY, if you're someone that uses the back button.

The other thing to do if that doesn't work is to restart your browser. If that doesn't work, holler at me.

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That (the back button) may have been it cause I went back to see where I left off.

FoxMustangLvr said:

This is the first I've seen where somebody welds sheet metal like that on the towers and over the firewall seam. Hopefully it works out well for you.

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They've offered them for a while, but yeah I've never seen em used either. They'll either work, or won't. Either way with my skill level will need a decent amount of filler so Looks like doing it this way though its just going to be a feathering line and in between tack welds.

I did just have a bit of a fubar though, taking a break from it while I collect my thoughts, may not even get back on it today, but it will make a few people point and laugh a bit.

If you don't ever anything up, you ain't trying hard enough.

Someone will get a chuckle out of this, but here's proof that I can sometimes be quite the idiot.

Had the bright idea, since the K is in the way but I still want to be able to push the car out of the way to get both in, to use a trailer jack in the front. Seen it done before, cars light, should work. Well, that only happens if you execute properly, which going by this pic, I did not


FWIW, it held the weight fine, but when i tried to scoot it, it spun on the core support and, well, you see what happened.

Attempt #2, adding a second jack (cheap at harbor freight). Only a little less janky, but at least it functions.

GTFO you fat, heavy bastard


Of course, the passenger side (that got hit years ago) was much more of a huge PITA than the drivers side. Not only did the spindle NOT want to come off, but the rear spring perch nut plate decided it didnt want to be one piece anymore (and of course, since I was using the big impact the broken piece flew right my cheek, thank god I was actually wearing my safety glasses)

Huge amount of room clear now.

Today's goal is to pull the tank and fuel lines. Then finish up some welding in the bay, panel up the top of the core support, and get the inner fenders ready for some kind of paint. I'm thinking por-15 on the whole underside, but haven't 100% made up my mind yet. Going to do it in sections working my way back. There's one rusty bit of floor pan in the front left corner to deal with, gotta do something with the torn up seat brace, maybe actually put a manual trans tunnel hump in (doubt it though), and then maybe I can start doing body work and get it in primer.

FoxMustangLvr said:

Are you going to delete that prop rod? The Redline quick lifts are awesome and make for a cleaner look overall IMO. What K member is going in? I'm loving your build thread bro, keep up the good work!

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Actually was staring at it yesterday and think I decided that, yes, the prop rod needs to go. One thing I've always loved on every truck I've had has been that there's a spring built into the hood hinge to keep it open instead of a prop rod or a hydraulic thing (at least my old 90 had a visible coiled spring, the 07 and 11 might have struts). Would love to figure out a mechanism like that instead of the redline stuff just so there's less ish in the way if I need to check a plug/valve/etc.

For the k, leaning heavily towards the racecraft setup, with teamz as a backup.

Been tinkering with the car the last couple weeks, not a whole lot to show since it's been mostly just welding holes, grinding welds, welding plates, grinding welds, grinding welds, and more grinding of welds (maybe if I was a better welder I wouldn't have to grind so much ). Got some pics anyway just to prove that I'm doing SOMETHING though.

Put the car on stands to pull the tank, and you can see what I had to do to get to not teeter tooter and fall on it's butt.
Unlike @RacEoHolic330 (been reading your thread back when you were back at about this stage, may borrow some ideas), I didn't have 50 lbs of salt, so a couple 2x4s, the TKO, and 30lbs of dumbells made me actually feel safe working under the car.

Started removing some the undercoat and road grime from under the car, this is what came out of just the drivers wheel well


The stripping gang on the bench, the torch and putty knife are absolute necessities with this stuff, gets all the big chunks off and then chase it with wire brushes. Oddly though, unless on a corner or fold, neither of the brushes here really did much to the factory primer Think I'm going to let it stay and just coat over it with whatever I end up deciding to paint the bottom with.


Ghetto-rigged compass making a patch for the drivers side wire grommet. Going to run all the headlight wiring thru the inner fender.

And today, since I got tired of throwing sparks, got the hatch and rear bumper off.


Assuming I can be not lazy tomorrow, I'll be going back the weld and grind routine on the front end and hopefully get all the metalwork done there before it gets too cold.

lol, the laziness (and low cold tolerance) bug bit me the last couple of weeks. Have made progress, made a few discoveries, but most is not really pic worthy yet, but will have some later today. Just came back in from the garage to warm up a bit and give the compressor a break.

Alright, I said I'd have pics, so here we go.

1st, new parts

started clearing out some of the sound deadening to be able to fit, got a bit carried away and made an ugly discovery
its really only rusted thru in a v-shape in front of that drain plug, all the crap on the sides is just nasty nasty sealer from what i can tell and the rest is just surface crap. not sure if i can just knock the loose stuff off and por15 it, or if i need to cut it out (only the top floor pan is thru, the footwell/firewall piece is still solid).

as it sits now, spent the last couple days back in the bay trying to clean up crappy looking welds until i ran out of gas again about a half hour ago

So since I got moved to the weekend shift for the next few weeks and im back at work tomorrow, i decided today would be a perfect day to see how well insulated the garage is (high 30's/low 40's outside). With just the kitchen door open and my small space heater on for a couple hours this morning, it was a t-shirtable 58-60 degrees

Started actually trying to get the seat support out, here's why im needing to do this, and the rather poor prior attempt at fixing it

Pulling up the sound deadening on the drivers side revealed move rust at the floor/firewall seam. This side I actually knew about cause there was a bit visible under the car, didnt think it was quite this bad though, it'll actually need new metal for sure


Got all the pilot holes drilled for the spot weld cutter before calling it a night


El cheapo harbor freight center punch (that i just bought today) gave up the ghost with two holes left to go, which means it lasted all of maybe 2 hours Thankfully I had the old-school backup.

Was also supposed to get a ups delivery from lrs today, but it never showed up due to "operating conditions" whatever the hell that means. Oh, and I ordered a box of cartridge rolls off Amazon last week that were in stock and they finally shipped today, not the first time that kind of thing has happened so amazon.

hopefully next week ill at least have pics of some new goodies, and maybe even get some on the car.