1987 csx #418

[Pat]

So happy to see you're working on this car. Post some pics of your progress.

[135sohc]

So happy to see you're working on this car. Post some pics of your progress.

Truth be told if this wasnt a numbered car it would be on its way to the scrap yard by now. I dont dare cut out any more metal until I put some back. Cleaning up now so I'll get some pictures this evening, just a warning there going to be graphic.

[135sohc]

Spray bombed the flat black to keep the bare metal from flash rusting. Still need to cut the spot welds along the pinch seam and get that last sliver of the old floor pan peeled away. Seat cross member brace needs some hammer and dolly time to straighten it out. I have zero love for the 520/555 and especially with todays fight the shifter cables lost that one. After refusing to just unhook and come out of the way they got chopped off. As you can see with the rust extending up the exhaust tunnel and since this car will be getting a 523/568 anyways I took the liberty to just cut all of the shifter mounting base off the floor pan. One of my complaints with the P body layout is the shifer being too far forward. I am 6'4 and drive with the seat most of the way back. in the 94 the shifter could be back another 4-5 inches, this car will be getting that modification.

[135sohc]

Out of stock but I got my name on the list for the next batch of welders from USAweld.com for an HTP 2400.

[chromguy]

Out of stock but I got my name on the list for the next batch of welders from USAweld.com for an HTP 2400.

WOW, you must have a great budget for this project!

[135sohc]

WOW, you must have a great budget for this project!

My budget is half a shoestring. Buy once and cry once, rip the bandaid off and get over it ect.. A $400 no name chinese special would be enough to get by for this but that is not what I want. Want something that is good without totally going broke and leaves room to grow. That machine fits the bill and the brand gets absolutely outstanding reviews without the hyper inflated price tag of a comparible red or blue machine.

[chromguy]

My budget is half a shoestring. Buy once and cry once, rip the bandaid off and get over it ect.. A $400 no name chinese special would be enough to get by for this but that is not what I want. Want something that is good without totally going broke and leaves room to grow. That machine fits the bill and the brand gets absolutely outstanding reviews without the hyper inflated price tag of a comparible red or blue machine.

I bought a $400 chinese special but was not happy so I bought a Red one.

[135sohc]

More talk and no pictures, very bad on my part I know.

Going against the concensus here but upon further reviewing and estimating time, cost and reliability of each option. CSX 418 will be going to an SBEC with a new from scratch underhood harness.. cut and dry that is the decision. Revamping what is there would be a fools errand and still leave several short comings like fusible links and no relays on some functions that should really have them.

[135sohc]

Hammered and sawed away for a couple hours this afternoon. Got the last strip of the floor pan peeled away/cut off from the rocker pinch weld seam. Ended up cutting up into the inner half of the rocker boxing structure because it was just so friggen rotten once I started peeling away the edge strip of the floor pan. Between the factory dip coating that probably didnt make it all the way up in there and the ground effects installed after the fact there is a section of the inside of the forward portion of the rocker panel that is very nasty looking. I took a screw driver and scraped out a pile of rust chips, luckily its on the thicker portion of the inner rocker structure so its still solid, that piece of structure is the only thing there right now... All said and done the cutting out of rotten metal is done on the drivers side atleast. Also got the sheet metal cross member for the front seats mounting cleaned up and the rotten spots trimmed out. I need to hit harbor freight and stock up on consumables again next weekend. I dont really like those little air angle grinders (my air compressor sucks) but I need a more controlled method of dressing down the spot weld residual remains without over gouging the base metal.

I WILL take some pictures tomorrow

[135sohc]

Procrastinate and procrastinate even more

Little hammer away things here and there. Honestly just too damn hot outside to want to mess with much on the car so I have been working on piece parts as removed getting things cleaned up and refurbished. Doing the schematics on paper right now for the underhood harness that will incorporate a COTS type fuse and relay box. I found a free CAD program (its free so dont expect much) to draw it up in after I revise everything and get it finalised. For a baseline it will be based off of the 1990 P body underhood harness with a few additions.

Also found and bought on ebay a pair of NOS wiper arms for $22 and a new exterior door handle for $24.

[135sohc]

[135sohc]

Extremely irritating that the text wants to automatically turn into a link so the responce is seperate.

The primer I originally bought sat on the shelf long enough that it settled and without a paint shaker that stuff is like thick mud in the can so plan B came into effect. That is some industrial coating meant for tanks and related stuff applied with a roller. Looks like absolute hell but it should protect the underlaying metal for awhile anyways. Truth be told I like the gloss white and with black doors, going for the opposite color scheme of the classic police car as a 2-3 year stop gap...

This is the fuse/relay box setup I decided on. http://www.littelfuse.com/products/d...pdm/hwb60.aspx

metri-pack 280 is very common and relatively inexpensive.

[135sohc]

HTP2400 will be here Tuesday Let the sparks fly. Annoyed with the local welding supplier as they will only sell a bottle up to 80 cubic feet outright. Anything bigger is a month to month rental only

Removed the trim 'rings' around the headlights to access the grille bolts. Found more of the grille mounting points are broken away and/or non existent anymore. I bought the plastifix 'professional' sized kit ($100) for rebuilding broken/missing/blown out mounting points. Going to take some wet/dry fine grit sand paper to the trim rings and remove all the traces of old finish. Spent about an hour tonight scrubbing them with dish soap and SEM abrasive slurry cleaner and a maroon scuff pad.

If anyone here could take a picture of their 87-88 p body grille where the center bolt tab next to the hood latch is and post it up I would appreciate it. mine is completely broken away and gone, I dont even know what its supposed to look like when reconstructing it.

[chromguy]

If anyone here could take a picture of their 87-88 p body grille where the center bolt tab next to the hood latch is and post it up I would appreciate it. mine is completely broken away and gone, I dont even know what its supposed to look like when reconstructing it.

my CSX one is broke as well but here is one from my 87 Sundance
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B3...jV2d2Zja05zM28

[135sohc]

Most excellent, thanks.

[135sohc]

First round of grille repair was mostly successful. Repair resin kicked alot faster than I was ready for so I just smeared it out with my finger and let it go. It took well I think so I'll do more tomorrow but in the slower application method. Then topcoat everything with another layer of fiberglass screen and some loctite E90FL.

The SEM trimblack made a mess of the headlight trim piece I tried it on. Cannot recommend it at all, coverage is poor and full of runs. Plain old flat black spray paint would look better.

[135sohc]

Grille repairs.









Prior repair attempt. Looked like JB weld and it actually bonded well but JB weld is too brittle and just not the ideal thing here. I used a micro pencil grinder to 'nibble' all the old epoxy out and rough up the surface.






new repair. Still need to fill in the front crack and build up the center tab. The 4 outer tabs inboard of the headlight openings I am not sure if there going to get redone or just ground off entirely. So thin and flimsy they dont stand much chance at staying unbroken.

[135sohc]

Seller accepted my offer of $40.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/252714392275...%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

Of course yesterday I spent $45 on 3 NOS oil fill caps, one for the shadow, one for the CSX and one extra and then that came along...

Between the weather, work and everyone elses problems becoming my problems I am really uphappy to say the car has been sitting untouched since november now. Yesterday I did do some measuring and drawing up a bracket to mount the fuse/relay blocks in the same area as where the factory stuff was. The only hitch in the plans and what I am counting on doing to 'fix' it is swapping to the single diaphragm brake booster. Will the smaller booster have enough assist with the rear disc brakes ?

[chromguy]

Glad that your are back at it! Since we received our CSX's at the same time, I am wondering who will be on the road first!
I will be buying beer if I win!

[135sohc]

Got the beginnings of the mounting bracket fabricated. Ran into a snag where the one spot I drilled to install a rivnut was just oh so perfectly right into the side of hidden inner fender structure. Threw the drill bit off and made a mess of the hole location so the simple fix will be to remake the mounting angle and make it longer to clear that spot. Given this car was built in spring of 87 so chrysler already knew the SMEC computer was coming for 1988. Up inside the inner fender the mounting bosses for an SMEC/SBEC case were present and predrilled. So all I did there was drill them out and install two rivnuts and the SBEC fits right in there like it belongs there .

A few weeks ago I just about stole on of these rivnut installers on ebay, a coworker of mine turned me onto them. They are the real deal, no made in the orient mystery crap whatsoever.