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It occurs to me that I've been working on this car for over a decade now (wow, I feel old) but I haven't made a dedicated thread yet. I'll start at the beginning...

Here's my 1986 GT when I brought it home. Unfortunately I had to drive it home on a very muddy gravel road that day. The best part was that the PO brought it up to the midwest just a year before I got it. Before that, it had spent its life in Alberquerque and Phoenix. It also came with two BIG folders of receipts for basically every repair, oil change and other service since it was new. Still has the delivery name/address on the warranty booklet! I think it had 128k miles and "never driven in anything worse than rain, and they don't get much of that down there", auto, standard options for a GT. PO put in custom full leather seats, aftermarket alarm that WORKS and causes no problems lol. Had an exhaust manifold tick but otherwise mechanically sound. Given the documentation and frame from the desert, I think $1500 was a pretty good deal in ummm... Before 2001 I'm sure. I forget exactly when.

"And the radio works", he said to me and my dad, "The kids like that".

Gave it a short drive, and it just fit my body like a glove. The angle that the small diameter steering wheel came down to, the dead pedal foot rest, shape of the seats, low seats with my legs forward. It just felt right. Reved it to 5 grand a few times just to be sure.

And so I brought home the first car I'd ever owned to the horror of my mother, to whom I explained that the entire front end is a crumple zone, Swedish safety standards, safest car without airbags, etc. etc.

[This message has been edited by FieroGT42 (edited 08-28-2013).]

Here she is cleaned up. I spent a long, long time fixing all of the tiny little issues.





New headliner, a couple of spots of body work, mediocre seals, plugs, wires, distributor, tires, sensors and sending units, ignition coil and module, interior repairs like curling vinyl on the console...

At this point it was (to this date) the most reliable car I've ever had. Daily driver until just a couple of years ago when I tore it down to do the first phase of my restoration. Everything mechanical is in great condition and NO rust in the midwest!

I also added a daytime running lights module. I think I was one of the first to test it. Still works great 10+ years later. It's amazing what clean, proper work can do.






First thing's first. Prevent any further damage. That A pillar had to be repaired the right way. Then I painted my brakes while I was doing the pads.




Door hinges were shot. Hanging the doors with new hinges, sans skins....




While the doors are off, I replaced the window motors. This was a REAL pain, but worth it!

I also put in NOS dew wipes. Jeeze, what would that cost these days... $700?




And I had to splurge on some Italian wheels so I can have shiny rimz like all the cool kids.




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more photos to come of the bodywork...

[This message has been edited by FieroGT42 (edited 08-28-2013).]

Now I'm in the middle of mechanical restoration and an F23 swap. Since the original engine runs so well, I decided to do the F23 and swap the engine later.

It had 3 broken exhaust bolts that needed to be drilled and tapped carefully, and it had a bunch of oil leaks so I put in a ton of new gaskets and other misc. parts.

Valve covers got 1/8" of crud scraped off, cleaned, sanded, painted, and the brushed bars redone:





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The engine also got a rear main, front main, new timing gears/chain/tensioner, new water pump, harmonic balancer, gaskets on the valve covers, oil pan, exhaust, all kinds of stuff. Too much to list here!

I really recommend putting a heat sink on the distributor under the ignition module!

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I think that harmonic damper is shot... might as well paint the new one to match the valve covers.




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Then while that's out, I decided I'd redo the engine cradle and control arms. They had a lot of the finish just starting to chip off and get some surface rust. Fortunately I caught it just in time. And while I was working on that, I decided to just have them sandblasted and coated them in POR-15, then chassis coat.

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Yeah, that mount is shot too.


Only a bit of ingenuity required..

I wanted to change the release bearing in my F23 as preventative maintenance before it went in, and I'm told that the old bearing caps can be used or a spacer, so I decided to see what I could do with the old one that I was going to throw out anyway.

Bend the tabs to separate the bearing/race assembly from the piston. Cut off the thin metal that binds the bearing together.
Grinding down to the right height.
Beveling the inner edge for a good fit.
Then the inner section is ground to a press fit.
Spacer is pressed on. I'd say it fits pretty well if I can pick up up the whole HTOB assembly by holding the spacer.
Triple checking the spacing. Dead on where I wanted it.