Project Log: 1987 GLHS #0103

[spoolinhard]

Looking good Adam. BTW I couldn't recieve the pic you texted me the other day.

[supercrackerbox]

Yeah, my phone has been a POS lately.

[planetb]

I started the same project last year (Aug 1 2011 I pulled the motor). Motor went in for rebuild and it took the guy months to finish. I didnt get the motor back until February of this year and said "Hey, it would be cool to take the Shelby Lancer to SDAC 22 as I've never been to one and its the 25th year for the SL. But after being sick for a month and working overtime too much I gave up that dream. Engine bay is about to be painted, but nothing else is ready Good luck with your project.

[86Shelby]

Yesterday was a busy afternoon in the WFO hangar. We assembled the ported head with +1mm valves and dual valvespring(evil little things to compress), shortblock, dynamat the floor, installed the HVAC system and dashboard, installed and wired rear speakers, tinted a couple windows, layed down carpet, installed the new shocks & struts, and cursed the wideband O2 wiring.



The carpet is fabulous! This carpet allegedly is used; yet it's perfect. Good thing no one jumped on this while Bill G. was trying to unload for a steal of a price out in Cincy a few years back.






Forcedfedmopar's tender ministrations will help make this car a flyer!



Stock TIV bottom end with ARP hardware



All shiny and pretty. No one should be seeing this again for a while outside of oil changes.



Amber was a little unsure of Adam's new gloves...dunno why.



Tonight's agenda for me is to port the exhaust manifold real quick and finish up some odds & ends. I'll try to take a few more pics of what got done earlier today.

[minigts]

Keep it up guys!!! Looking forward to seeing you all in a couple weeks. And the carpet looks AWESOME! Is that a factory carpet? I see the holes for the seat belt bolts and what not AND it fits as it should. The one I just installed looks really good, but it doesn't mold to the car the way that one does. Still looks good, but definitely not as good as that one.

[supercrackerbox]

I didn't get that carpet off Bill, it was someone else on this board here just a couple years ago. Don't remember who. But I believe it came out of a low-mile wreck, and yes it's factory GLHS. No holes for the center console. I couldn't find a flaw in it. When I bought this, I just threw it on a shelf and forgot about it. I never even opened the box to see what condition it was in, so when we finally opened it Saturday, I was absolutely tickled. My old carpet went straight to the dumpster. It was pretty ratty.

Still, I don't see the car making it. Too much left to do, and no time left. The guy that promised to help me install the windshield keeps flaking out, and I'm done chasing after him, and I've never installed a windshield before. I'm just burned out. So yesterday I focused on things that have been getting put off around the house way too long, mostly yard work. Our back patio was overgrown with weeds and rogue Morning Glorys, and my tomatoes were still in their starter pots on the back porch. So I got the garden planted and the patio cleaned up, and spent some quality time with Amber and the pets. This week I'm going to worry about getting the Daytona running (haven't touched it in nearly two months), and see if I can't hire someone to give it a quick detail if I don't have time to do it myself next weekend. We'll be taking that car to Detroit.

[spoolinhard]

I can think of one reason that I will be in the Lincoln area in the future. I could help with the windshield then. Don't exactly know when that will be though.

[86Shelby]

The windshield has been installed.

[supercrackerbox]

Yeah, forgot to mention that. The windshield was put in the week before last. Still have to put all the other glass back in though.

[supercrackerbox]

Ok, progress has been slowed to a crawl, but I've been doing a little here and there. Now that work has slowed down and the brutal heat seems to have passed, I may pick up the pace a little.



Got the new plates in last month. It's very possible they'll be expired before they actually get put on, but oh well.




I had the lower intake and exhaust manifolds ceramic coated. I don't know how much it will help, but it certainly can't hurt. I misted the top side of the intake with Aluminum engine paint to keep the factory look, but left the underside polished in hopes of reflecting radiant heat. The engine is mostly assembled now, just bolting on all the odds and ends.

[supercrackerbox]

For the last several nights, I've been focusing on restoring the tail lights. Here's what they looked like before:





BTW, these pics were taken by the frame shop while they were pulling the car straight again.

I started by separating the lenses from the housings and scrubbing everything clean. A quarter century of dirt, debris, and dead spiders makes for a real mess. I then scuffed the painted parts of the lenses down with a green Scotch pad, and polished the rest with a 5" polishing wheel mounted in my electric drill. My hands were pretty numb by the time I was done, but the results were worth it. Initially, I tried to use my bench top buffing wheel, but there was too much speed and quickly melted the plastic. The tiny felt polising wheels for my Dremel were even worse, and left spots that I had to sand out with some 1500 grit. Lesson learned, the plastic used on these lights is VERY soft.




Next I masked the lenses off with some 10mm masking tape I picked up at the local Hobby Town, and painted them with SEM Trim Black paint. It actually took about 6 coats to make sure no light showed through the outside frame.




Next I moved onto the housings. I started by removing all the old butyl and scrubbing them clean. In the pic, you can see that the silver reflector portions were badly discolored. I tried a few different silver paints off my shelf, but they were all too dark. So I picked up some Rustoleum Chrome and Reflective paints. I then painted the outside body with the Trim Black.








Next I filled the voids with fresh butyl, and reassembled.






I also replaced this piece of foam weather stripping on the ends. I didn't even know they were supposed to be there until I started cleaning everything.

[cordes]

Wow, what an update. How many hours do you think you have into the tail lights after all of that?

[wheming]

When you are ready you should use some leds for the bulbs.
I bought some from superbrightleds.com and have been very happy. I have them on Mini.
Be sure to always get the color of the lense that they will go in. Red for tail lights. (If you go white, since leds are slightly blueish it will make red lenses look purplish).
I used the single led higher rated one. I could post a pic if you want.

Oh and those tail lights look super sweet!

my android sent this for me using Tapatalk...

[supercrackerbox]

Wow, what an update. How many hours do you think you have into the tail lights after all of that?

Not counting time waiting for paint to dry and such, I'd say maybe 3-4 hours each. That write-up was actually pretty trimmed down- there's quite a few more details I could have thrown in, and a couple lessons I learned the hard way.

When you are ready you should use some leds for the bulbs.
I bought some from superbrightleds.com and have been very happy. I have them on Mini.
Be sure to always get the color of the lense that they will go in. Red for tail lights. (If you go white, since leds are slightly blueish it will make red lenses look purplish).
I used the single led higher rated one. I could post a pic if you want.

Oh and those tail lights look super sweet!

my android sent this for me using Tapatalk...

Actually that would be great. I have been considering using LEDs all the way around, just have to figure out which ones I need. I did read that about using the red bulbs after reading Frank's recent write up in the Knowledge Center.

[cordes]

Wow, that looks like a very efficient use of 3-4 hours. That would have taken me way longer if I had to guess.

[supercrackerbox]

I expect any future ones will go a little quicker and probably turn out better with the learning curve. I repainted the ones on the Charger years ago, but that was it. This is the first time I'd gone that in depth with tail lights.

[minigts]

Excellent Adam, the tail lights look phenomenal! Never a bad use of time when things turn out that nice in the end. And I just got my plate too!! Next show we're at, we'll have to park side by side! Mine says GLHS 937, but no space. TN only allows for 7 characters max, so no spaces even though it obviously can be done.

[wheming]

Not counting time waiting for paint to dry and such, I'd say maybe 3-4 hours each. That write-up was actually pretty trimmed down- there's quite a few more details I could have thrown in, and a couple lessons I learned the hard way.



Actually that would be great. I have been considering using LEDs all the way around, just have to figure out which ones I need. I did read that about using the red bulbs after reading Frank's recent write up in the Knowledge Center.

Here's the type i used. A single led with a diffuser for illuminating a greater pattern. These are actually the front signal lights on Mini, but the bulbs look the same. These are amber.

You can look on that sylvania bulb page to find all the bulb types used on your car.
FYI you will also need a solid state flasher, since the leds won't produce enough load for a normal flasher. And i didn't find a solid state flasher that made a clicking noise, so there's no audible for when signal light is on.



my android sent this for me using Tapatalk...

[supercrackerbox]

Teaser pic of the combination crank scraper/windage tray I've been working on:

[minigts]

Wow!! That looks incredible Adam! Going to do a baffled pan as well?