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actually it dried up nicely this afternoon so I took it for a shakedown cruise. I had to adjust the throttle blades a bit because the IAC kept going up to 50 and higher, but once I adjusted that a bit it was running really well. I had Sarah take it for a drive and she seemed very pleased with it.
 
Owned 2 67s, one new off the show room floor, both notch backs. The 289s were nice running engines but couldn't pass a six cylinder Camaro. A lot of 64-68 notch backs available in my area. A friend converted one to a fast back with wrecked car parts. Fast backs seem to be in great demand and high prices as well. One nice thing they held their resale value. Once I turned the corner to Chevrolet there was no looking back.
 
once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny, consume you it will, as it did Obi-Wan's apprentice.
 
I have my dyno time re-scheduled for june 6. man my schedule sucks these days. everytime I can get a day off I have to do something else. It will be 3 months since I finished the engine before I get it over there. oh well. it is running pretty well already so it's not like it is just sitting here waiting. and it has been raining so much I really haven't felt like getting it out to much yet anyway.

since I am waiting I bought myself a couple birthday presents. first I have been slowly doing a conversion to black on the interior and I bought some new door panels and repainted the kickpanels and arm rests with krylon fusion paint. new arm rest pads and door latch and window switch bezels complete the door panel conversion.





I also added the pony door lights just for fun. I think they are kind of cool and the kids love em so whatever.

then I had planned to find some black rear quarters as well and I have been looking for a long time for some good 90-93 versions because they are a lot easier to do the styling bar conversion and the seat belts work better. also they mount the speakers higher so they are above the seat so hopefully they will work better as well. anyway I had been looking on ebay for months now and they seem to be rarer than hen's teeth. finding a good set that is not all broken is virtually impossible, I was beginning to think. I found some a while back but they had been painted and were a gloss black and really did not match so I ended up just modifying the ones in the car. anyway the other day I found some on ebay. they were the best looking pair I had ever seen on ebay. these were also the first pair I had seen that had the window switches in the door. so I watched them and they looked like they were going to go for a reasonable amount so I waited until the last 20 seconds and bid. I really wanted them so I bid 500.00 I unfortunately was so excited I dropped the stupid period so I ended up bidding 5000.00 lol. fortunately they ended up going for 385.00 still a lot of money for quarter panels but these are in great shape, and very difficult to find.

 
mustanggarage said:
I have my dyno time re-scheduled for june 6. man my schedule sucks these days. everytime I can get a day off I have to do something else. It will be 3 months since I finished the engine before I get it over there. oh well. it is running pretty well already so it's not like it is just sitting here waiting. and it has been raining so much I really haven't felt like getting it out to much yet anyway.




I also added the pony door lights just for fun. I think they are kind of cool and the kids love em so whatever.
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Yep. the dyno will be the least spent for the most gain.

I dig the Pony lights. Very nostalgic. :D
 
the last 2 weeks I have been working on the 89 some more. I have been having more fun fixing stuff I did not want to have to fix. So I was working on swapping the interior quarter panels I had it pretty much swapped out when I decided to test the rear windows. they had always worked before, admittedly they were kind of jerky but they always went up and down, but when I tried to roll them up the drivers side started skipping and popping and the passenger side moved a bit and then stopped. I could not figure out how swapping the quarter panels could have affected the windows but I pulled them back out again and checked things over. they still wouldn't work so I pulled the motors off and sure as heck both of them were skipping and the passenger side would hardly work at all so now it looks like I am going to get to swap those out. I have no idea why they decided to go out now unless it had to do with having the quarter panels off and allowing more dust and crap to get in. but anyway since I am going to fix that I put the quarter panel swap on hold and decided to do a complete rebuild on the quarter windows so I bought the kit from late model resto


,

and I also bought some 1990 style black seat belts off ebay to go with the new quarter panels they will work a lot better than mine currently do with the new quarter panels and they are currently grey so they should look better too. it is a serious pain in the but to get the window regulator out but I got the drivers side apart and cleaned it really well.



at first it would hardly move but after I got it cleaned up it slides much better. I also had to sand down the rails on the regulator because they were rough for some reason and the regulator kept binding there. anyway this one works much better.



I will lubricate them with some lithium grease when I get ready to reinstall everything. there is a pretty decent video on the late model resto site that details how to do this, but I am still only going to take one side apart at a time. I also found that the rear quarter window switches are different of course, but the terminal connectors are the same so I was able to pop the terminals out of the old switch and into the new one without cutting and splicing. of note the old switch has six lugs on it and the new one only had 5 so I am going to have to spend some time once I get everything back together making sure I get that switch wired up correctly.

and finally the speakers in the 89 are round and the 90 are oval so I ordered some new rockford fosgate speakers to go in there and I repainted the speaker grills because they were kind of scuffed up.

then of course my oldest daughter who just won a gold medal in the special olympics wanted to sleep out in the garage with the dogs. she likes to do that, the garage is set up basically like a house so it is one of the few times she gets to feel independant. well anyway my oldest dog was getting upset because of the thunder so she decided to lock him in the bathroom. today I found a hole right through the wall next to the door where the dog clawed his way right through the sheetrock and out the other side. I came in and saw him laying on a blanket in the corner looking sheepish and surrounded by sheetrock dust. so today I got to fix that, yeah.
 
got the sheetrock and pegboard and insulation replaced on the bathroom. and put the first coat of joint compound on. I spent some time looking over the windows. the regulators are just really gunked up. that is doubtless why the motors finally gave up. just too much effort required to move them up and down, and while it is easy to replace the motors getting the regulators out is a bit more difficult. I just took the drivers side out so far in this picture. here is a pic of what it looks like now.





in reading up on these fox body windows I learned that the plastic window guide rod mount commonly breaks and the window bushings frequently go bad so I decided to fix everything at once rather than have to tear it down again later. my guide rod mounts are not broken at present.



but it is obviously a lot easier to get them out with the regulator out of the way It would be possible to replace it without removing the regulator, but I think the main thing my car needs is to have those stupid regulators cleaned and lubricated. while I have that apart I will replace the bushings and clean everything up nicely. I also learned by watching the video on late model restoration how to adjust the rear windows. they always were out of adjustment, but I thought it was the door that was out of adjustment. anyway I will try to take some more pictures of the process once I get my parts. I hope to at least have the windows back together before I have to take it to the dyno shop friday.
 
the last few days I have worked pretty hard on the car. after getting off work I stayed up late working on the car. my shop is very nice for that I have plenty of lighting etc. so I can basically work whenever I have time. well I needed to take the car to the dyno shop today and I did not want to have to reschedule again so I worked on it all night last night. finally laid down on the couch out here at about 5:00 Friday morning. it is not done yet but it is back together enough to go to the dyno shop. I can finish the speaker install and work on that passenger rear window switch when I get it back.

ok. here is a brief rundown on what i have done since my last installment.

I mocked up the front seat belt install and studied the rear seatbelt installation. I decided it was possible to swap in the 90 rear seatbelts so I started on that.

first the way these seatbelts work is they install behind the rear seat and run up behind seat brace between the top well liner and the rear seat. in order to install them this area needed to be modified a bit.





those two flanges needed to be cut and bent out of the way in order to mount the seatbelt as far laterally as possible





then if you look closely you can see I drilled a hole for a 3/8 bolt into that brace behind the seat. I reinforced it by placing a large washer that came in another seatbelt install kit I had under the cross brace. I welded the bolt to that washer and bent up one edge to match the shape of the brace. that way it slid up under there and locked it self in place. it made it easier to tighten the nut down. I used a large washer and lock washer to finish it up. then the plastic sheath stuck up too high above the back seat and it caught when I tried to lower the top. since the seat fits in this area there was enough space so I used a heat gun to heat up the plastic and allow the sheath to bend forward to contour along the top of the seat. it worked fine.




during this experiment I figured out why my top always went up and down crooked, and would not retract without pushing up on the top with my hand to get it started. it seems the little bracket that holds the passenger side hydraulic cylinder in place was missing. so I contacted prestige mustang and they overnighted me a replacement. my top now works better than it ever has.

ok. after getting that part figured out my window motors arrived and last night I worked all night on finishing that install.

first you have to remove these two nuts. I found out later it is also much easier if you remove the two nuts that hold the window to the guide rod and remove them seperately.







then you drill out the rivets and install the new billet guide rod support. and re install it. again it is easier if you remove the window, then you can install the guide rod and the bracket in one step. I figured that out for the second side.




then I replaced the plastic bushings on the window support and re installed the window. btw you need to leave those two nuts on the guide rod loose so you can adjust the window.




after that you finagle the regulator back in place, raise the window, adjust the position tighten the nuts.

then you swap the brackets from the old motors to the new ones and install them. run the window up and down several times and adjust the window. this took me quite a while. but once I was finally satisfied with the way the window worked I installed the new seat belts and the quarter panel. then discovered that the styling bar would not go in because the seat belt bracket needed to be modified. once I got that modified I installed the quarter panels loosely, installed the styling bar.



then since it was so late I decided to just button it up for now and finish the details later. I put the seat back in and put the speaker grills back on. took a couple pictures








and wiped the dust off the car and loaded it on the trailer. then I laid down for a couple hours on the couch and drove to des moines. and dropped it off at the dyno shop. finally after wanting to do that for about 3 months I finally got it over there. so now I wait for him to get it tuned and I will go pick it up tuesday. I can finish the rest of it up anytime. I now need to get a new tonneau cover for it as well.
 
the chip is in, the tune is done. I had to adjust the idle and the tps a bit, but now it is running awesome. lots of fun to drive. no leaks. all in all a very satisfactory if long and expensive project.

the next project is I am going to do a quick remodel of my wifes garage. I will post up some pictures of it in a different thread at a later time.
 
Great job. Just wondering what type of metal is used under the plastic on the roll bar?
 
havasu said:
Great job. Just wondering what type of metal is used under the plastic on the roll bar?
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its a zinc coated steel. but it is not a roll bar. really is not adequate to provide roll over protection. having said that, it has to be better than what was there before lol.
 
yes it has. I need to find a new project lol. I think I am going to swap that heater core out of the convertible pretty soon. that is such a pain I have been putting it off, but it has been chilly the last couple of mornings so I suppose it is time. then I think I will start trying to fix Dad's 94 where he hit the deer last fall.
 
I started two pretty long term projects at the same time this past weekend. I started tearing dad's 94 mustang apart. after he hit the deer we stored it in my neighbors barn and unfortunately mice got in it, so it smells horrible in there. we have had dcon in it for a while so I think all the mice are dead but it still smells terrible. I am going to have to pull the carpet out and replace it and possibly the upholstery. I bought a new fender, bumper cover and headlight piece and I will start piecing it together soon. unfortunately My daughter who is a senior in high school this year thinks that since my other daughter is now off at college that now is the time to remodel her bathroom. this girl is the one who knows how to get anything from me. she just has to ask lol. the other kids rarely ask me for anything so it seems She gets all the good stuff. anyway I suppose I will start another construction thread in that section of the site once I get some more pictures. but at least I have a couple things going now, I was getting tired of just working and going home and sitting in front of the computer or tv.
 
alright. It's official I got the joopacabra back. and i ordered a bunch of stuff to upgrade the brakes and some other things. so I will be getting started on it soon. I also need to swap the hood onto the 94 and get it moved off the lift. hopefully monday. then time to start tearing the jeep apart to fix all the little things that have gone wrong with it since the last time I owned it.;);)
 
just had to show these pictures. It is kind of a thing at our local high school that kids borrow nice cars to take their dates to the prom. but my daughter makes her date drive her car.



 
When I was a kid in high school, I had a great looking van, with a full size bed. The moms and dads of my prom dates didn't approve of my vehicle. I just don't understand why?
 


It was nice enough to take the convertible to work today and do some top down driving around town. this car is a blast to drive.

Also my Dad decided that he needed to go to the hospital the other day. his breathing was worse, and he was not able to take care of himself so he will be going to the nursing home tomorrow.

On a happier note, this weekend my youngest is graduating high school so we are preparing for that. my other two really did not care too much about graduation so my wife and I set things up and did the planning and they just showed up. my Sarah on the other hand has very specific ideas of what she wants so everything has to be planned down to the finest detail, but she is also very involved with it so it is also more rewarding.
 
So I officially gave Sarah the TJ for graduation. She is going to take it to college this fall so I decided to look it over this weekend. since my surgery I find it very difficult to sit for any length of time, so since I have to be walking all the time anyway I brought the tj in to work on it. I found out the tie rods are worn and the alignment is off. it still drives fine with no shake or pulling, but the front tires are much more worn than the rear. so I ordered new tie rods tonight. I am going to have to put a new set of tires on it before sarah goes to college this fall. I will get it aligned as soon as I get the new tie rods on. I also noticed some rust in a few spots so I am working on that too. I had to cut out a spot by the back wheel. anyone have any idea why they would put these holes in here? they are completely filled with dirt. no wonder it rusted out.



 
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