1987 Shelby CSX #115 Restoration and Build Thread

[Vigo]

205 fits a 6.0 fine in all aspect ratios you can actually get (50-65). Biggest ive put on a 6.0 k-car is 215/60r15 and i think it looks good and works well.

The problem here is that only certain things look 'good' on a CSX. Stock 205/50r15s is one of them. IMO if you want to run a larger diameter tire, you need larger wheels and lowering to make it look right, otherwise you are just raising the car and making the wheel/tire look less aggressive.

205/50r15 is one of the cheapest tires you can get, IF you are willing to settle for the lower-end ones. If you're determined to buy used, 205/50r15 are somewhat hard to find, but Id try asking on the local enthusiast boards/forums, like a local SCCA site, or of cars that typically use that size like small hondas. Unless these tires AND the mounting balancing are near free i dont think it's worth the money to end up with something thats a downgrade from stock. Again, just my .02.

[SilverFleet]

LOL

That reminds me, the previous owner said it needs a speedo cable. Is that a Shelby-specific part, or is it a standard 1987 Shadow piece?

[Vigo]

standard piece, should be pretty easy to find. It's probably close enough to be interchangeable with MOST cable-speedo k-cars. They all have the same ends.

[PseudoSport]

Hey, I’m helping SilverFleet with this project and was curious if anyone has bought and installed the replacement rockers that are available. I’ve found several different vendors and noticed there are 2 different kinds available (slip fit and standard) but I can’t see if either extends down to the lower seam where they are spot welded. If they do the replacement should be easy. So far the vendors can’t provide me with any better pictures or answer my questions.

[SilverFleet]

Update:

I've been side tracked lately with a bunch of stuff, but I worked on the car a bit yesterday. I cleaned up the passenger floor to get it ready for the patch panel, and I removed the ground effects off of the driver's side. It wasn't as bad a the passenger side, but it still needs to be replaced. Also, just like the passenger side, the fender got rusty and I'm now looking at both rockers AND fenders for panels I can go out and buy (hopefully). Next is removing the rear bumper. Every time I close the doors, rust falls out from back there, so I need to see what needs to be replaced.

Side note: I HATE spiders. This car is like a giant spider colony. A ton of them were on the offensive when I was working on it yesterday, and that's why I stopped working on it.

[Vigo]

Yeh, sometimes insects are out of control! I remember a few months back i had to stop working in a carport because of bees, which led me to go on an hour long bee-killing rampage because i didnt want to stop working. I tried pressure washer, pool skimmer, and starting fluid (+propane torch=flamethrower). Turns out the flamethrower was most effective but when i ran out i had to resort to knocking them down with the pool skimmer and then finishing them off by boot. Took a while but it had to be done. I got a few more hours of work in after that genocidal rampage.

[cordes]

Yeh, sometimes insects are out of control! I remember a few months back i had to stop working in a carport because of bees, which led me to go on an hour long bee-killing rampage because i didnt want to stop working. I tried pressure washer, pool skimmer, and starting fluid (+propane torch=flamethrower). Turns out the flamethrower was most effective but when i ran out i had to resort to knocking them down with the pool skimmer and then finishing them off by boot. Took a while but it had to be done. I got a few more hours of work in after that genocidal rampage.

Put some gas in a spray bottle. It'll knock them out of the air like you've never seen.

[SilverFleet]

I was thinking of getting a bug bomb for the garage. I want them dead, all of them!!! The rear of the car looks like the infested part of the colony in the movie Aliens, except they are cocooning flies and ants instead of humans. I swear, spiders are not from this planet.

[Juggy]

Put some gas in a spray bottle. It'll knock them out of the air like you've never seen.

brake clean works wonders too!

[SilverFleet]

Yeah, brake clean MELTS bees and other bugs. It's pretty amazing.

[SilverFleet]

This is turning into a bug battle thread instead of a build thread!

I went out to the garage 2 days ago, and the spiders decided that they were going to start trapping men in their webs. They built a HUGE 6-7 foot tall web that went between the car and the walls of my garage. Since I already declared war on them, I went on the offensive. I busted out the brake clean and a shovel. I knocked down the web, and I sprayed the little bastards until they melted! I killed a ton of them, and I hope they learned their lesson. I'll be out there again tonight, and I'm hoping the little bastards won't be.

Back to the car...
One more area of extreme rust is the rear bumper support. How do you remove the rear bumper on these? It's so bad that every time I shut the door, more rust falls off. It's actually pretty funny.

[PunKid]

I bet its humid and cool in there and thats why you have so many spiders. If I remember the side door is pretty drafty, so I would also open up any windows to keep the air moving in there. If you fix that door then I would close up any opening and run a dehumidifier in there to keep the moisture levels down. I have been wanting to do this in my garage but I have that giant opening for the attic stair case.

[cordes]

The spiders are trying to eat the aforementioned bugs. You're chasing your tail.

[SilverFleet]

Bump from the dead...

I've been through a lot of life-changing events since I last updated this thread. I had to prepare for my wedding, then actually get married, and then I got sick and had to have surgery. The result: not touching the car since around July. I had the aforementioned surgery this past week, and after spending 2 weeks sitting in the house being bored, I went out to the garage to get something done on the CSX.

First off, I bought rockers for the car. Yes, someone makes them! I bought them off of Ebay from this guy:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Rocker-Panel...item1c1ee9da49

They extend to both the seams in the door jamb as well as the one under the car pretty well and provide plenty of coverage. Best part: they were dirt cheap. I paid around $70-75 for both sides shipped. There's no reason now to have to find a rust free car and cut it up when they are this cheap to buy new pieces! I'll post some pics up of them later.

I also began to strip the car further to get ready to replace these panels. I pulled the hood, front bumper cover, fenders, and doors off to give me room to work. The fenders are rusty too. I haven't decided whether to patch them because I'm cheap or to just buy new ones.

My plan right now is to install the rockers first and then tackle the Swiss cheese floors. I have an old Subaru hood that I'm going to cut up and shape into floor pieces. It doesn't have to look pretty, but it does need to be functional. After that, I will either fix the fenders or replace them with new/used ones. I also want to pull the drivetrain while it's apart to be able to freshen it up on a stand rather than in the engine bay. While it's out, I need to clean up and wire-tuck the wiring harness. It's been spliced and hacked by a former owner to install stereo garbage and who knows what else. Then, I think I might try and paint the car.

The paint on the car looks good from 20 feet, but there are lots of dents/scratches, and I can't stand the cheesy 90's graphics that a former owner clear coated over the last time it was painted to make it look "sporty". I'm thinking the car will be all black instead of the two-tone, with a blue pinstripe like they usually have where it bisects where the black and gray were. I want to make some 80's-style custom strobe-style Shelby CSX graphics for the car, also in blue. It will look awesome, I promise.

[SilverFleet]

I've started to finalize my cutting and get ready for the actual patching process on my floors. I had a friend over a few weeks back to help me mock up some patch panels and we cut and shaped one out already. I will have to make 4-5 separate pieces to do the floor completely. Before I can weld them in, I picked up some POR15 paint and slathered it on some of the spots that will be covered up by the new floor panels:

Inner frame rails:





The part of the inner rocker where the fender mounts on the passenger side (right under where the ECU goes):



And another spot behind the driver's seat:


Once this is all painted up, I can start welding up the patches. After that, it's time to weld in the replacement rockers.

[PunKid]

Looking good!

[1BADVAN]

Wow! Props to you for all that work, out in the west we hardly see rust on these cars, and if we do we usually don't even try messing with it. I would like to see pics with the new floor welded in.

[SilverFleet]

Yeah, up here in New England, a "project car" usually means a "full blown restoration".

It's funny when I show people this project or pics of it, and they don't understand why I'm restoring a Dodge Shadow. Either that, or I tell them I have a Shelby, and they get all disappointed when I show them the CSX and not a GT350 or a Cobra. I still don't understand how this thing is so much rustier than my 1979 Trans Am. That car also needs floors, but not like this!!!

I'm hoping to start welding in the floors this weekend, maybe even tonight. I cannot wait to get the rust repair phase over with and start playing with the go-fast stuff this car came with.

[Pat]

Yeah, up here in New England, a "project car" usually means a "full blown restoration".

It's funny when I show people this project or pics of it, and they don't understand why I'm restoring a Dodge Shadow. Either that, or I tell them I have a Shelby, and they get all disappointed when I show them the CSX and not a GT350 or a Cobra. I still don't understand how this thing is so much rustier than my 1979 Trans Am. That car also needs floors, but not like this!!!

I'm hoping to start welding in the floors this weekend, maybe even tonight. I cannot wait to get the rust repair phase over with and start playing with the go-fast stuff this car came with.

Looking good!

Make sure that it's not leaking from under the dash onto the floors. The seam sealer in the cowl dries up and cracks and water seeps inside the car, which usually means .the sound deadening under the carpet remains wet. This wrecks floors fast.

[30 PSI SHADOW]

ha ha WTF is the prblem with these cars? ITs a fricken shelby for gods sake! is there anybody that thinks these are real cars? anyway im proud for you to save it! Hopefully you can bring it by a local meeting this year.

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