I picked this up last weekend with the intention of making it a daily driver. It has some rust underneath it, but nothing crazy at all. I'll be undercoating it to beat the band and driving it until it rots to nothing. That should be a long time from now in these parts. All of the Shelby specific items are on the car with the exception of the original shocks/struts, and the air dam. That's just as well since the struts would have seen their best days gone by, and I don't need to run a snow plow into school. As a matter of fact, I can barely get over the speed bumps at school when I take #42 there.
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When I Picked it up, the driver's window had popped off of the track, and wouldn't roll up. That was for the best as there isn't an exhaust on the car right now. The exhaust manifold has been converted to a T3 bolt pattern and it has a T4 60 trim wheel in an E cover. I'm unsure of the exhaust wheel trim, and turbine housing size. I do know that it has a Turbosmart external waste gate on it which was welded to the top of the turbine housing. For an outlet, the previous owner reused the original VNT elbow. Unfortunately, that clocks the exhaust outlet preventing the stock down pipe from being used. There were some fumes which got into the car, but the open window allowed for adequate ventilation. In all, the car ran very well, and I was able to make it home with the only worry being about the fuel gauge. I thought it might be broken, but we were actually just getting amazing mileage. Huge thanks to my father-in-law for looking at it with me, and to my father for heading out the next weekend to bring it back.
Another issue which was actually preventing me from driving the car home was a bad brake hose which kept the pressure in the L/F caliper. The owner of the vehicle went above and beyond helping me bring this car back. I shipped him a hose, and he actually changed it out in his shop before my father and I arrived. He helped me bleed the brakes, inspect the fluids and saw us off. I really appreciate all of the help. You can tell he has a great respect for the cars and is a great guy.
I have already fixed the window. The problem was an aftermarket JL audio speaker which was too deep for the door. The window had been hitting it and didn't have the strength any longer to push past, and that in turn popped it out of the track. I have removed the speaker, and replaced the window clips. If you have a problem with your window tilting forward as many of our cars do, just buy the 25 pack from Clips and Fasteners, make sure to install it with the locking part facing toward the interior. Use the brass pieces along with some cobra head pliers to press it together. It's quite simple, and makes all the difference.
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I only took one shot of the door, but much like everything else on the car, it shows that someone drove, but really loved this car throughout its life. Everything is there, and it went back together nicely. The door skin looks nicer in the photo than it is, but I suspect it will clean up really well.
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The horn button and steering wheel are well worn. I may leave the button alone, but I'm tempted to pull the cover off of the wheel. They're all the fake wood grain underneath right? I've done that with a wheel before, but I know there is some argument about if they're all the same underneath or not.
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Under the hood, things are not very stock looking any longer. While it looks nice, I'm thinking that I may convert everything over to the 90 VNT stuff I have. I think it looks cleaner than the 89 pieces, and I know it performs better. I think I'll put the S60 VNT I have in my basement on this car. It will just be much less work than to make the current turbo function, and I'm not out for performance with this one anyway. I think if I do it with the one piece intake, and a restrictive exhaust, I should be able to keep the S60 VNT under control. To start the process, I pulled off the half 89 airbox and replaced it with the NOS VNT upper hose I had in the basement. I'm pretty sure that this engine was rebuilt very recently, and that head studs were used. I'll pull the head, and get everything in order before putting it back on. I would really like to finish out the school year driving this bad lad.
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The fiberrides are in decent shape. I've seen way worse. I don't think that any of them are perfect, but they are all better than average. I'm not sure if they'll stay on the car for the long haul or not. The tires on them are new and were over $600 installed. That makes up a very decent chunk of the purchase price, so I've got that going for me; which is nice.
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