My 85 TBird Reply #60 – February 12, 2013, 08:55:02 AM Thats a really nice job you are doing, looking forward to seeing it done. Quote Selected
My 85 TBird Reply #61 – February 13, 2013, 12:40:47 AM Thanks for all the compliments guys. Plan A for hooking up the heater core and evaporator lines was to install the 03 components into the hvac assy so it would be plug and play. While the demensions looked good on paper neither piece would fit without making major modifications to the hvac case. So plan B was to put the 85 components back in and modify the 03 coolant lines and air cond lines. Coolant lines to the heater core were not to difficult to make work. I will have to make some custom lines to get the air cond worked out. No pics at the moment.I have been working on getting everything hooked up so I can try to start it. If things go well I may be ready for the weekend. I think I am down to reinstalling the dash, the return fuel line, power steering cooler lines, a couple vacuum lines, and a recheck of the wiring. Still plenty of other things that need done, just can't wait to hear it run. Quote Selected
My 85 TBird Reply #62 – February 14, 2013, 09:35:52 PM Well, I was just to close to it running to wait for the weekend. Last night I finished with the connections and hoses, changed the oil, and filled the fluids. Today between the customers and phone calls I was able to install a make shift exhaust, fix a couple fuel leaks, set the fuel pressure, and she started right up. Idled a bit high and found the tps was loose, once that was set all seems to be ok. Ran it just long enough to get to temp to make sure the fan would kick in. The only negative of the day is a radiator leak. As many times as I have had that rad in and out it's hard to believe I didn't notice the small crack at the lower hose outlet. It's an aluminum tank, so I should be able to get it welded up. The motor will still have to come out a couple of times before it stays in for good, but I am thrilled knowing that the wiring needed to get it running worked. Quote Selected
My 85 TBird Reply #64 – February 14, 2013, 10:12:53 PM Righteous. Can't wait to see more pics. Quote Selected
My 85 TBird Reply #65 – February 17, 2013, 03:29:19 PM A few pics of the engine bay. Not much room left.Found a switch that will work for the brake cruise cancel. The 03 needs power thru this circuit until the pedal is depressed. It was not quite long enough to put a nut on both sides for adjustment, but using a washer as a shim worked out well.Top is 85 vacuum switch, lower is the replacement with shim for the spacing and another for in front of the mount bracket so that the nut will not bottom out on the switch before it's tight.The bump out on the switch fits nicely into the mount bracket to center it.Mounted up in the bracket Quote Selected
My 85 TBird Reply #66 – February 21, 2013, 11:30:37 PM I was hoping that the air conditioning was going to be plug and play, but since the 03 evap didn't fit in the case I modded a few pieces to get things hooked up.All the fittings and hose were purchased at the local napa, and the tig welds were done at the welding shop next town over. I charged the system and everything is working, first time I have had air in the bird.I used the 85 drier and cut off the long hose up to the compressor and had the fitting from the 03 drier tig welded on.The 03 hose from the condenser to the evap I cut the end off and had the correct fitting for the 85 evap tig welded on. The fitting was striaght and had to be carefully bent to about a 45 degrees to clear the valve cover. I used a larger piece of alum tube to make a sleeve.The hose from the compressor to the drier I purchased a 45 degree #10 male spring lock fitting, a crimp in fitting with a low side port and 12" of 5/8 ac rated hose. I cut the hose crimp off one side of the low side port and had it tig welded to the 03 fitting near the compressor. The low fitting pipe fit inside the factory pipe with some minor filing . Then it was just index the fittings and hose and crimp.Then I flushed the hosesEverything hooked up, the 03 switch works on the 85 drier. The only thing visible that wouldn't pass as factory is the sleeved hose, and I don't think it looks too bad. Quote Selected
My 85 TBird Reply #68 – March 11, 2013, 10:50:08 PM Quote347Thunder you are bad ass Not sure about that, just willing to add parts to the s pile if something doesn't work out.My dash pad from Just Dashes showed up today on UPS. Looks good.BeforeAfterAlso have been working on getting the rear housing put together. Sand blasted the housing, center section, caliper brackets, backing plates and etch primed everything. Decided to go ahead and paint the caliper brackets and backing plates. Made some tabs to hold the brake hoses, which are from a S10 pickup. The rear disc brake set up is from a 2000 crown vic. Also got the drive shaft, shortened crown vic police. Quote Selected
My 85 TBird Reply #70 – March 12, 2013, 02:35:00 PM That's very nice !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Quote Selected
My 85 TBird Reply #71 – April 17, 2013, 11:51:17 PM My buddy was up and we have some instrument cluster progress. We ended up using the whole mustang instrument cluster and mounting it to a piece of alum he machined and sprayed with some translucent black powder coat. I have the mustang connectors wired in and with the exception of the fuel gauge everything works as it should. These are GT gauges, now that I know this is going to work out I am going to get the white face SVT gauge set. With the trim plate installed the lower part of the bottom gauges are not visible, so the bird he milled will have to go, may remove the green inserts and move it over to the passenger side.Alum blank with no powder coat.Powder coated and installed, had to remove some of the dash to get it all in there. Quote Selected
My 85 TBird Reply #72 – April 18, 2013, 12:15:31 AM that's bad bro .... I like it Very trick Quote Selected
My 85 TBird Reply #73 – May 26, 2013, 11:17:09 PM Not much progress as of late, about 2 months ago my help decided he had had enough of the body shop, he was with me for 12 years. He left for a sales position at the local lumber yard. For the first time in 14 years I do not have an employee and have been running hard to keep up. I did find some time to work on the e brake system today. I am running crown vic rear discs, on the vics the l caliper is on the back side of the axle and the r caliper is on the front side. I am going to run the r side upside down to get both calipers on the rear side of the axle. The only issue I see with this is that the r caliper will have to be removed to be bled. It also allows me to use a traditional e brake set up. I ordered 2 left side crown vic e brake cables and sent them to Madison Power Systems to have them cut to the correct length. The rest of the system is stock.Shortened cablesMount relocated to the subframe connectorLeft side Right sideConnectors from Rock Auto, had to grind down the cable crimps to get them to fit into the connector. Quote Selected
My 85 TBird Reply #74 – May 27, 2013, 12:39:50 AM looking good i need to get some t bird rear arms one day Quote Selected
Topic: My 85 TBird (Read 65057 times)
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