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The Rusty Resto
 Image galleries located here Engine sneak Peak Pic October 05 2005 It's been a long time since I updated the project page as you can see by the date, and this is not really an information update, just a note that 6 galleries have been added to the pile. We are just one day away from color if weather holds. It's amazing to see these 70 to 80 dagree days in October given the past few years... So check out the gallery. The body work is all done, the color cut ins are done and the doors, fenders and hatch are back on the car. March 01 2005 Two write-ups back to back. Miracles never cease. As you can see I've updated the site significantly. It's much nicer to look at and I'm hoping much easier to navigate from our users/customers view point; a far cry from the grade school doodle I hacked together last year. Feedback is welcome via the web master. The countdown is on for Carlisle. Nothing would please us more than being able to showcase this car at the Cars @ Carlisle, All Ford Nationals. With three months on the ticker, better weather and new facilities on the horizon, things are looking up. Check back in a few weeks and get ready for a feverish pace to bring this project to completion. February 28 2005 As you can see from the image above, the floors are now complete and have been treated to a healthy coating of por-15. I can't say enough about this paint. It bonds to rust, even trace amounts, and changes it's chemical make-up. It hardens with the same "ceramic" like characteristic of powder coat and would take as much effort to remove it. The floors have also been seam sealed with por-15 seam sealer on the under side and will be undercoated during removal and replacement of the suspension during the installation of polyurethane bushings. The control arms, front and rear, along with the axle and diff will also be painted with black por-15. This stuff is about $14 a quart, but it's better than both powder coat in that you don't have to bake it and paint because it's extremely resistant to chipping and won't give way to rust. We are now ready to move on to body work, blocking, primer seal and paint. The only thing holding us back at this point is the weather. First the temperatures were out of hand, only allowing us a max of 50 degrees in the garage and now we've been hit with major snow twice in about seven days. This latest fall Started this evening and is slated to last till Wednesday... Did I mention it's Monday? January 25 2005 Yet another large gap in updating the site; but progress has been made. One thing that has changed is the direction the car will take. Due to the extent of repairs, the Rusty Resto will take on the roll of Forced4 Mascot, Race/Track car and the Restomod project will take on the roll of stock/modified restoration. The 86 2R is in far better condition, requiring little structural repair to get it into showroom condition. It is also relatively low mileage, sitting at 72K, where as the 84 is up over 100K and could actually be 202,000 miles. I will update the project sidebar with performance modifications as decisions are made. We still don't know what will control the fuel and spark. We do know that a stock SVO™ block with nothing more than strapped mains will be the core or this beast, along with the Big valve head I picked up from Racer Walsh in 03, a T4 Turbo and suspension tuning. The rest will be left to figure out once the car is actually ready for the engine. Despite the millage and evident drag racing history of the 84, the motor is strong. A mild refresh, big valve head, SDS and MSD6, 90# injectors and some tuning and suspension work and this car will be ready to dish it out at the track. At this time we are on the final leg of the sheet metal replacement for the car. All that's left to do now is primer seal the interior, block and primer seal the body, replace the doors and paint. I'll update the side bar here and on the RestoMod page once Eric and I have hammered out the details. November 21 2004 This weekend we finished the repair of the roof core support and test fitted the new skin. Like a glove! Next on the list is the floor pans. We are going to lift and square the car, weld in subframes and temporary cross braces and install new floor pans. This will ensure the car is square and true, and then the roof can be welded into place. Look for the results of this part of the project in about two weeks. Got to eat our Turkey! Happy Thanksgiving everyone. November 07 2004 Where did all the time go? Despite the lack of updates, we have made some progress on the car. It runs and drives; quite well I might add, but it went right into the shop and is being prepped for paint. The body and chassis work on this car are the two most involved portions of the project. After getting a better look at a bit of rust at the rear hatch it was decided we do an entire roof skin. The rust on the skeleton would eventually make our repair efforts for not and we just don't want to waste our time and possibly ruin the future owner of this car's day in about 3 years when the roof starts to rust again. Do it properly, do it once. Too bad Ford didn't go by that motto. Pictures speak a 1000 words, so head on over to the gallery and check out the latest progress images. August 28 2004 Progress! The dirt has been extricated, the paint sprayed and it's now time for re-assembly of the engine. I've now split the engine bay galleries into before and after. With luck the under the hood finally will come Sunday and I'll have images up some that evening. August 23 2004 I was a little hasty about the weekend being a bust. We've seen an unusual amount of rain here over the last few weeks and I was not expecting Sunday to be so nice. We were able to get the hood of the car off and inspect the hinge support and clam shells. It had been determined a while back that the driver side needed repair. As it turns out, both were gone. Check out the image gallery for visual details on the replacement of the hinge support metal. I should have completion images up later today. August 21 2004 Another weekend goes buy with little to no progress due to weather. With only one bay to work with right now and a daily driver in there for transmission work, this weekend - or most of it so far, is a wash out. August 11 2004 As with any project, there tends to be delays for one reason or another. This being our first restoration project as a company as well as individuals there is somewhat of a learning curve. I am a perfectionist to say the least, so when something does not feel quite right, I resist the urge to move on until it is right. This has put us at least a week behind - and I'm being kind. The car will be sold after all, and I would not feel good about the entire ordeal if things were not as good as they could be. So what am I babbling about you ask? Paint. The mistake I was making was going by the color of the car instead of what the color really is. In the body color world there is no such thing as silver. Silver, when applied and detailed correctly ends up looking like chrome. It's just too shiny. The factory "silver" is really gray with metallic flake, and when it comes to spray bomb color matching it can get tricky. All this for the engine bay... I wonder how anal am I going to be about the rest of the car... August 06 2004 We are two weekends into the Rusty Resto project. Things are going quite smooth and I have put up another gallery of pictures. You can find the link below. We are hoping to have the engine 80% complete tomorrow. The last 20% will entail the removal of the E3, degreasing of the passenger side of the block and paining, installing a lightly ported E6 and cleaning up the turbo and reinstalling. Time permitting, that should be done by mid month. Then it's on to the body work and suspension. July 26 2004 The 2A has sold: Though late, the interested party from Cars at Carlisle called with only two days left in the eBay auction to purchase the Medium Canyon Red SVO™. This is a great help to us and I wish the new owners the best of luck and enjoyment from this wonderful car. For all those that were bidding and watching, I thank you for your interest. Keep an eye out for the Rust Resto Project car; to be listed some time in September. Based on the extent of the restoration, the car will reserve at approximately $6500.00. Those of you interested in purchasing the car can email us at esales@forced4.com We are well into the fourth week of The Rusty Resto Project and I'm pleased to note things are moving quite smoothly. With a car such as this, with little known history, but the knowledge that it had been sitting for some time, we were into it with eyes open and realistic expectations. Once we began to dig under the surface we were not surprised by anything we have found. Images of the interior are now available through the link below. The progress list has been updated to reflect where we currently are. Over the next few days I'm going to design a dedicated page for the project to make image viewing and progress and information on each portion of the project easier to take in without having to scroll around or bounce from page to page. As originally intended, images and info bytes will be linked to the main progress list. June 20 2004 During Carlisle this year my 86 Medium Canyon Red SVO™ was potentially sold. By that I mean there is a buyer with intent that will contact me toward the end of this month to set up pickup arrangements. If it falls through, so be it, but in the mean time I'm planning ahead as if the car is gone. I can now focus more on the project cars and use them as daily drivers to ensure reliability and asses noise, ride and street behavior. Back in March, just as we were working with Dave to put Forced4 Motorsports together, I happened across another SVO™ that was in serious need in Long Island, New York. The owner, Rob - 83 Turbo RS on the SVOCA - had purchased the car from eBay with the intent of saving it. Though it was very close to being in parts car condition, it was just on the edge of salvageable. Rob did not want the car to sit and rot any more than it had, and with too many projects on the go, he was forced to put the car up for sale. Forced4 Motorsports snagged that car, and it will be a true test bed of our restoration prowess. The RestoMod86 project is still moving ahead, however slowly. Due to the nature of that project, it will be more of an ongoing horse power mission once the restoration part of the project is finished. |
The Car: 1984
Mustang SVO™ 1E The Plan Was: Restore the car to stock condition The New Plan Is: Restore the car and set it up properly for Drag and AutoX. Rough is an understatement. A little history should put some perspective on it. The car was drag raced. Stress in the a pillar area is the first clue and there is some rust right at the top of the pillars on the roof. Looking a little further into the car, the engine wiring harness is FUBAR. We thought an engine swap was part of the cars past, but the 2.3 in there now seems pretty strong. Not sure why the butt connector hell posing as a wiring harness, but we found some interesting hardware. It has an A237 CAM, an 8.8 rear, air bag suspension and a modified transmission tunnel. The biggest problem with this whole car was the lack of subframe connectors. If they had been in place, the car would have seen a different future. Here is the restoration assessment for the car to date. Each item will change to red when in progress and blue when complete.
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