1997 Mustang - Who Needs Enemies?

Mndsm said:

Cousin_Eddie said:

I'd kill to have a neighbor like you. Fixing, detailing, junkyarding. We could rule the world. 

I'm half convinced seth is a nicer version of Elon musk, and could probably rule the world without any of us. 

To Cousin_Eddie: We'd hang out. Drink things. Make crappy cars shiny. What I really need is someone to drag me to the auto auction that's 10 miles from my house, Thursdays I think. I can't go alone, my wife would kill me. If a friend dragged me.........

To Mndsm: A delightful lack of ambition keeps me humble. 

In reply to BlueInGreen - Jon :

I just spent an hour reading through the most recent Panorama. All about Porsches and their owners and how special they all feel about themselves. Pretty pictures. Always lots of restoration stuff. I can't find a reason that futzing about the details on a car should be limited to cars that other people think are special. There's as much cool stuff on on this $300 car as there is on any car, especially when you're seeing it for the first time. The big difference is that parts for this are absurdly cheap and the junkyards and CL are full of potential donors.

I grew up with the Fox cars and the SN195 arrived my senior year of high school. They were such a huge leap forward visually and I agree that the early cars were better than the new edge cars. Oddly I've always liked the most simple versions of the car especially cars without any sort of rear wing or spoiler. So somehow the car that I like looking at the most (aside from the color) is the one that got dropped off in my driveway. I've been staring at it more than I should. I need to get the Forester off the lift so I can park the Mustang, the Forester, and the Accord next to each other. An odd trio. 

I had trouble sleeping last night because this was on my mind. Wrapping a whole car is expensive because the vinyl is really good and it's hard to install big huge sheets. Small stickers are easy to apply and you can use cheap vinyl. The paint on the car is crappy when you can see all of it, but if you only see a little at a time, especially in photographs, it's ok. Imagine this, with a stripe on the hood/roof with the same 1" offset of color, all over the car. I'm pretty sure I could do it for $60 in cheap vinyl. 

Anyway, that idea killed a couple hours of sleep, a hour of my morning, 8 feet of the vinyl that I actually like to use, and it all has to come back off the car anyway. At least I get to stare at it in real life instead of in my head. In real life I like it. Quite a lot. 

In reply to mazdeuce - Seth :

I like that too, I think you missed your calling as a designer. 

needs numbers in the ball

In reply to sleepyhead :

That's the whole point of the meatball after all. But yes, traditionally I'd use magnets because numbers change depending on what I'm doing. For Challenge livery I'd get ahold of of the number panels and do the same thing around that. In fact, doing it with blank GRM number panels might be the way to go anyway. 

If your numbers/ meatball are integrated into your overall design and the GRM number panel will mess up the look, the magazine will give you a pass. Only need to ask. 

Upward dent in the passenger rear foot well that knocked the body plug out. Hammer and some RTV and it's good as new. Might even be a little lower than before. I like hammers. 

Also wire brushed, rust converted and spray bombed the "rust" spot. Deucekid#2 commented that having a whole extra car interior inside the shop was a mess. She's right. I need to get it back in the car this weekend. 

The owners manual says that the noisy power steering is supposed to have Mercon ATF in it. This is what I drained out. Maybe that's why it's noisy? 

While that was draining I moved on to the AC. It was the high side port that had a bolt in it, they had it locally so I replaced it. My low side hookup isn't flowing for some reason so I put a vacuum on the system through the high side for about 20 minutes and for some reason it held. I used that vacuum to suck a can of R134 through the high side and started the car to see if the compressor would kick on. 
And that's when I realized that the power steering was still draining. Except now it was violently draining all over the engine compartment. 

Hooked the line back up and filled with ATF. I want to say it's quieter, but that's just me wanting. It still pumps fluid and steers. We're going to call that not broken for now. Figured out how to jump the AC clutch (plug is almost on the bottom under the intake) and started it back up. It makes cold. How about that. It's making cold like it's still undercharged so I'm hoping that another can or two in the proper port will solve the issue, otherwise it looks to just be electrical, the clutch clutches and the compressor compresses and it all sounds good and how in the hell does that even happen on a $300 car? 

Social things to do with Mrs. Deuce tomorrow, Deucekid#1 tomorrow evening and autocross instructing on Sunday. Fingers crossed that I can find time to get the car back together before my inlaws come and I leave for One Lap next Wednesday. I really have more important things to do that this. 

holy crap, one lap is already next wednesday? that seems quick.  

Possible that you have a bad expansion valve? That would keep the low side low and keep the compressor from kicking on, i'm just spitballing though.  Good work on this thing.  These are my favorite parts, the small wins on cars that make a huge difference.  Generally cars are a lot like the economic thing we all had to learn in HS- diminishing marginal returns.  

A good hack rule of thumb for charging with freon is to hold you hand on the accumulator. As the  charge gets sufficient, the accumulator with be cold all the way to the very bottom. It starts off cold at the top and slowly goes downward as you add more freon.

Does that make sense ? It's a hack method, but it gets close enough for 300 dollar cars.

In reply to grover :

Well, it starts next Friday. The start is also 18 hours of driving away. In the past we've left Thursday, drive 8 hours or so. Gotten up early and made it a couple hours before tech. When we do that we start the week tired. This years schedule looks nasty, and both of us can leave later on Wednesday, get a normal-ish sleep. Drive leisurely on Thursday and get another proper sleep so we can start rested for a change. We'll see how that goes. Either way, my inlaws are going to be staying upstairs in the Grosh so I need to clean a crapload in the next week. 

In reply to Cousin_Eddie :

That's what's happening right now. Cold enough to frost the lines right after the expansion valve (I think that's where it is) but it doesn't stay cold all the way through the firewall. I have a gauge set, but doing it by feel seems to work just as well most of the time. 

I haven't done AC work on one of those Mustangs, but I'd imagine it uses an orifice tube rather than an expansion valve.

mazdeuce - Seth said:

In reply to grover :

Well, it starts next Friday. The start is also 18 hours of driving away. In the past we've left Thursday, drive 8 hours or so. Gotten up early and made it a couple hours before tech. When we do that we start the week tired. This years schedule looks nasty, and both of us can leave later on Wednesday, get a normal-ish sleep. Drive leisurely on Thursday and get another proper sleep so we can start rested for a change. We'll see how that goes. Either way, my inlaws are going to be staying upstairs in the Grosh so I need to clean a crapload in the next week. 

and here I was dreading driving 5 hours on saturday, photographing a wedding fof 12 hours and then driving 5 hours back.  I guess I'll just be hapy I'm not in a civic with tiny tires.  

Since you have a few days to contemplate, I'll throw this out there - the car could be completed on a LeMons budget.

Slammo, fine purveyor of bad ideas

There are all sorts of things that start to make sense when you have less than one Corvette tire worth of investment into a car. 

I found a few hours today. The plan was to clean up the back seat area plastic and then start putting the interior back together. The parcel shelf was dirty, so that came out, and then I noticed that there were remnants of tint on the back and side windows. That's not going to work at all. 

Razor blade, Goo Gone, then the side windows. Then clean up the door panels a bit. Then it bothered me that only half the hood is shiny, so out came the polisher for just a quick....... 

These are Craigslist quality photos. If you came to spend money on the car you'd be PISSED that I represented it like this. I does look better though. Tomorrow I'll get the interior back it. 

Hey seth, i have a supercharger from a 3.8 t-bird.  Just throwing that out there

Patrick said:

Hey seth, i have a supercharger from a 3.8 t-bird.  Just throwing that out there

Are we even bothering with the registered owner of this vehicle anymore? Or do we just assume it belongs to seth now?

In reply to Mndsm :

They never asked the owner on pimp my ride. 

I think when I sent the email "Crazy question - can I store a $300 car at your house?" I rescinded my right to having a majority say in this joint venture

In reply to Patrick :

Send Slammo a message. I'm  all in favor of having an excuse to swing by on my way up north. 

As far as the car, it belongs to Slammo. I 100% do not want to own a $300 V6 Mustang for a variety of reasons. I do want to play with it, clean it up, fix some things and make it back into a car. Scheme with Slammo about the possibilities. This is about the most fun I can have without a helmet on that doesn't involve my wife. I don't need to shop for a car, no haggling, no money, no dragging it home. No worrying about whether it displaces another car from the fleet, no having to carefully consider parts costs to make sure I can make money when I'm done. Car gets dropped off, I play with it. I'm making it better enough that no matter what Slammo will be happy to pick it up someday. Maybe we'll take it to the Challenge? Maybe a Gambler 500? Maybe he'll drive it around the block, decide it sucks and flip it. Maybe I'll tell him he can only take it if he drops off another derelict to take it's place? I think I'd be very happy being a weird old cat lady who takes in strays and rehabilitated them and finds them a home, except with cars. 

he can only take it if he drops off another derelict to take it's place?

Oh, do not encourage me.  I have a whole fleet of hoopties that need attention.  How will you ever make progress on Ferdinand if I'm providing a constant stream of distractions?

This has all the makings of some bizarre reality TV show that History Channel would show - Slammo buys a random, but somewhat interesting, hooptie then drops it off to Seth without any prior knowledge. In turn Seth then goes about revitalizing/updating the vehicle without any communication or involvement from Slammo. In the end Seth tells Slammo to pick it up, and bring the next one over. 

Think you guys could add some staged drama & yell at each other from time to time, you know, to help the ratings?

I wonder if a junkyard sourced fender in the right color and not so dented condition could be found.  Not sure if there's a good online tool for that without paying too much exists or not.

In reply to pres589 :

A burgundy fender, the plastic cowl cover, and new wipers are all the car needs externally. It currently shows the full range of possible paint damage. From almost new looking factory, acceptable respray, color fades but shiny, and baked down to the primer. It's a master class in all the ways paint changes through time. If modern car patina is your thing then this is a very exciting car. 

I don't think Slammo and I need any drama between the two of us. Follow him around East Texas as he purchases $500 cars. It's like watching Cops but you drive away their car at the end of the show. All the while you swap cameras to me working on stuff that isn't my house and I try to justify all this to my wife.