GLHS 937 Restoration Project

[minigts]

WOOHOO!!! I found a place locally that is going to ceramic coat my swingvalve for me! I took a grinder to it and made room so I can run the stock 13mm bolts and ensured the socket would fit. Looks almost like the new ones TU made, just used a Dremmel to cut a trough and made it as smooth as I could.

Not sure if it will be done tomorrow, but I'm dropping it off and hopefully will have it by next week. At which time I will be removing the 2.25" exhaust and installing the 3" one. I may see if I can find a 3" polished or chrome pipe to put on the exhaust now that I have it off the car. Most shops won't work on it ON the car without a cat, but if I just bring it in, I don't think that is an issue. Pics of the stuff to come later before and after.

[cordes]

That's great Jon. I bet you'll need a pumping efficiency change after this mod.

[minigts]

Well the good thing is I'll have a wideband to let me know what is going on so I can make changes, as they will most certainly be needed.

[BadAssPerformance]

With the time table that Ken works by, that shouldn't be a problem.

LOL!

BTW... Jet-Hot is not too far from you IIR?

[minigts]

Hmm, don't know about Jet Hot. This is a company in Memphis that does coatings. They don't do car stuff or personal work, but the guy was really cool and saw my car and said, "Is that a Charger?" The simple fact he called it a Charger and not a Daytona or Gazer, ER I mean Laser had me more than impressed. This is the only thing I'm going to ask him to do.

[BadAssPerformance]

LOL... I bet he said that too: "I ain't coatin' no *spit chaw* Daytona parts"

[86seeS]

90% of the people that see my charger think its a fox body stang so i tell them it has a 2.3 n/a in it.... i hate rednecks lol

[minigts]

LOL... I bet he said that too: "I ain't coatin' no *spit chaw* Daytona parts"

Tell me about it. Those damn Daytonas. Actually the guy was from CT and relocated down here. I figured he got suckered by a girl, 'cause no one voluntarily comes to the Memphis area.

90% of the people that see my charger think its a fox body stang so i tell them it has a 2.3 n/a in it.... i hate rednecks lol

I had someone call my car a VW and I just about jumped over the hood of the car to knock the crap out of the guy. hehe Just kidding, I would never risk damaging the paint like that.



Well I did a few other things today. I tell ya, one thing leads to another on this car, although I did refrain from doing more than I could have at the time. The rear hatch has seemed to be out of alignment so I tried the other day to shift the hatch back some. Well it doesn't have much room in the way of adjustments so I tried unbolting the supports that mount to the car. THAT didn't seem to allow for much, so I was like, "hey why not just pull the hatch OFF?" Yeah, no. I have zero clue how you would do that correctly with just one person. Didn't damage anything, but in the future I plan to remove the glass FIRST and then do the rest.

After I got everything dismantled, I did remove the glass and put in the tinted one I got from Bill's place. The rubber was excellent, no cracks or wear and a good deal better than the rubber for the factory glass. Before putting the glass in though I did re-attach the hatch and get it lined up. Man it was WAY out and I want to say it was like that from the factory. At first I was like, I can't believe that!....but then I remembered I have a mid 80s Chrysler, so... But it is not aligned and looks better to have a symmetric gap all the way across the rear. I'll post some photos tomorrow.

I ALSO put in some new weatherstrip around the hatch, the part that fits over the seam. Back after SDAC, Cordes and I went to a junk yard and I saw this Windstar or some Ford minivan with the rear hatch open. Just looking at it, it seemed like the weatherstrip was the same size as my hatch. Cordes shakes his head in disbelief that I would even think about buying it, but since I like to take risk like getting married twice, I decided what the heck! Interestingly enough, I only cut out 1.25-1.5" of the stuff I bought! It was almost exactly the right size and it fits just the same. I think the seam on the Ford minivans is a little thicker, so I had to use some pliers to squeeze the metal in the weatherstip back down. Fits great and for anyone looking to replace it, just go look for the Ford minivans in the yards. It was probably a 2000 or newer. Again, pics to come tomorrow.

[cordes]

Note that I only shook my head because they were asking real money for old weatherstripping. We could have picked that up for a couple bucks down here.

[86seeS]

great tip on the seal! should have asked i got a few NOS hatch seals from bills. im going to the yards tomarrow and seeking out some ford vans!!!!

[minigts]

OOOH K.....I've actually been doing some stuff to the car since the last post, almost a year ago! There has been a lot going on, but just in the last 3 months has anything been done to the car.

Just before SDAC I was able to get some parts installed on the car, primarily the dual pivot K frame that Rich Bryant made. Bought new Poly Bushings for the control arms and also installed some new ball joints as well. So the only thing I have left to replace for the front suspension is the rack. Everything else is new within the last year. I also decided to drop a new motor in the car, given it had about 130K miles. Got a great deal from John Roberts, .20 over pistons in a reconditioned block that had either a few hundred or few thousand miles, but I think it was only a few hundred. Pistons were still spotless and the cross hatches in the bores was very visible. So the head off the blue car got rebuilt with new guides, retainers and the valves re-cut/checked. During the motor replacement, I went ahead and put the 3" exhaust on the car with a Xylar coated swingvalve and it's holding up nicely. Also replaced the front motor mount and cleaned up the usual. I had about a week to get everything done, so worked until about midnight up until Thursday night before SDAC to get everything going. Needless to say, there were a few things here and there that weren't completed before I left, but it wasn't because I didn't have time, just forgot.

Drove the car on Friday up through Illinois to Tuscola to say hello to Cordes and Joy and have lunch, but found out that I apparently didn't tighten a few things. Forgot to tighten the bolt for the alternator, the lower IC hose at the IC, (found out later the lower IC at the turbo as well!) and it seems there was something else that Cordes found. Overall, it's amazing I made it up there without any problems. Once I got to SDAC, we tried to tune the car, but that revealed MORE problems with a loose injector wire, MISSING button under the distributor cap and eventually a loose wire for the AIS. We also tried to adjust the wastegate actuator with beer can tabs and that actually did a good job. Getting about 16 psi without the vacuum line connected. Overall we were able to get a descent tune on the car, but still needs some work, which should happen at the cheese festival. The head is a G head and the guys who were helping me, Kevin (DodgeZ) and Frank (.....well Frank), spent a lot of time on the cal, but there were MANY issues preventing the car from running right.

And just before SDAC I thought I would get the valve cover done so at least there would be one thing on the car that looked nice and new, but the company I took it to get it done wouldn't be able to have it finished before the show. Fast forward to this week, I got the valve cover back and it looks AWESOME! Spent about 2 hours today sanding the ribs and the Shelby on the front to bare metal.




Also sent my steering wheel off Friday to get it re-wrapped and hopefully finished on the spokes, too. If it ends up looking anything like what the guy has on his website, it should be pretty awesome. I'll have that and the valve cover done before the car show at the cheese festival and if everything works out, Cordes and I will have painted the car by that Saturday. Main thing that will leave is to do the engine bay on the car and possibly refinishing the rear interior sails, new carpet in the rear and probably new door skins in the next few months. I'm pretty excited because I have aspirations for this car and it's starting to come fruition.

I'll be sure to document the painting of the car once we start in a few weeks.

[blk86trbo]

Sounds like it's coming along nicely Jon! I didn't realize you had that K frame...I'm gonna make sure to check that out at the cheese fest

[minigts]

You know, I need to get some pictures up of what I did, but for sure in person it's cool to see too. Actually, I'm going to post some pictures of some other things I've done recently that I forgot to mention.

[minigts]

Hard to see this while it's on the car, but it's got the Xylar coating on it. So far so good, no chips or cracking or anything else. I was worried it wouldn't stand up to the temps, but it seems to be ok.




I also re-did my vacuum lines and cleaned them up and cleaned the ends on the connectors for the solenoids. It's amazing what cleaning up something will do.




Got the lower coolant hose installed, thanks Omni-potent! I have the upper, but wanted to make sure I have a spring clamp, WHICH I got from the parts yard the other day.




These are the best pictures of the K frame I could get. The first one is my favorite, the 525 mount bracket that Rich did for me. Thanks Rich!




These are pictures of the stock hood and another one I have that I plan to use for the GLHS. They cut out the drain pan to make room for the intake, but did a horrible job cutting it. Unless someone else did this after the car was modded at Shelby, this is such typical work done back in the 80s. I spent a little extra time cutting out the drain pan to make it cleaner. Hopefully I'll be able to use this hood when we paint the car in a few weeks.






I also got a chance to install the mounting bracket for my fuse box. Slowe made this for me in a weekend. Looks awesome!




And last is the alternator bracket adjuster that one of the guys on here posted about. It works great and makes it very easy to tighten or loosen the alternator. I don't like working on the car, but this, I hope, will make it easier to work on the car when removing the alternator.



Fishcleaner was the guy who posted this and the thread is here, http://www.turbo-mopar.com/forums/sh...ter&highlight=

Post number 6 has the parts.

[omni_840]

Everything looks awesome!

[Aries_Turbo]

525 mount

lame.





















































































just kidding. everything looks great!

Brian

[minigts]

Everything looks awesome!

Thanks. Still have work to do, but it's coming along.

lame.

Unnecessary blank space....

just kidding. everything looks great!

Brian

Yeah SURE! You've always been a hater of the 525! Oh and as soon as I get the wideband up and running, I'll be posting pictures of that too.

[shelbymonster]

looking great !!! nice clean project you have

[cordes]

I really love how that VC looks. I need to find a Shelby one for the Daytona.

[minigts]

Alright, well I didn't remember taking the pictures but I found some of when I was pulling the car apart for SDAC. There aren't many, but might as well document this as best I can. These first are the block that came out of it. It wasn't in too bad of condition, but there was something going on with the head gasket as you can see the oxidation around 2 and 3. The last one is a picture of the hanger that was holding up the rack because the K frame was pulled as well.




There there was the K frame. I swore it was the wrong size and that it wasn't going to fit by looking at it, so I had to get a tape measure to be sure. It wouldn't have been the first time I pulled something apart to find the parts wouldn't fit. BUT, I was wrong and it did fit, perfectly. I was very happy about that whole swap, not to mention it made pulling the motor easier.

Then there was the parts I just had to remove for the swap, the 3" exhaust from the blue car and then the rebuilt head.....from the blue car. It's almost just a shell now. Need to get on it and ship it up north to start working on it.




And then there is this piece my ex-father-in-law made for me. I didn't want to damage the oil pan I have on it, but still needed to be able to lift it while setting the motor mount and aligning the transmission.




And well I forgot about this one. haha I have washed this car I don't know how many times, but ONLY until when I was removing the pin stripes off the side did I see that this sticker is supposed to be grey! It's always been black since I owned the car. A little acetone removed the soot, so I left the sticker on.