85 351 4door Vic **DUW**

[gabegt90]

nice I like this shot looks good from this angle

[johnunit]

A quick startup and rev interior vid

A rule of thumb: Your car never starts on the first try if you mention how easy-starting it is right before you turn the key.

I'll have around 40 pics tommorow up, to compensate for going waaaay too long with only 2 up. I'll also be checking the rear turn signals more closely and maybe slapping a new pair of highbeams on. The working highbeam is all dark and filled with condensation anyway, so I might as well switch them both out.

[1987cp]

You know, I really have no idea.

Once it stops raining, try pulling both bulbs out of their housing and laying them in the trunk with only the turn signal on. The other filament in each bulb being on when the headlights are on does make it a touch harder to see which one's out.

[johnunit]

Crap, just parked the car and it's raining, and I checked the turn signals again (both sides are now on steady instead of blinking) but hadn't read your post. I checked it with the running lights on, so I couldn't really tell if there were two lights on in the back. Is the rear side marker supposed to blink?

[1987cp]

Forgot to mention, there's one bulb in front and two in back. Only one lit in back means the other one's out.

[johnunit]

Turn indicators glowing steadily on only one side is a bad lightbulb. If it were the flasher, the other side wouldn't work either.

Both bulbs are lighting, is there another way they can break? Am I missing something here?

[1987cp]

Turn indicators glowing steadily on only one side is a bad lightbulb. If it were the flasher, the other side wouldn't work either.

[Cable Guys FGMQ]

Very Nice ..

[johnunit]

hey, no pics today, but it was called "pimp" 5 times by kids at school today, so that's something I guess.

Yes, the underbody is quite nice. It has had significant rust-repair done on the body that I'll show in some pics soon, and still has a tiny bit of rust on the trunk lid, mostly hidden by the trim piece at the bottom. I haven't gotten a chance to get it up on a lift yet, but from just crawling partially under the car in a parkinglot, it's remarkably rust-free underneath, and all the rust on the body was in fairly non-structural and un-noticeable spots. That's a big part of what attracted me to it.

I spent some time with the armor-all on the roof. It was an almost turqoise colour from fading/drying, and now it pretty much matches the body. It still has maybe 20 little cracks, and the colour is a tiny bit patchy, but it's starting to make the whole car look less like it was just pulled out of a junkyard in the desert.

The exterior still has a ways to go, with nasty chrome, the pushed-in bumper, and a bunch of stone chips, and a mirror that broke at the top of the stalk and is fiberglassed together, but the interior is 3-4 things away from being mint. The seats are REALLY nice, with almost zero wear visible. Once I get a new latch for the glovebox, dash pad, re-glue the fabric that has fallen from both rear posts, and get a stereo that works right, it'll be pretty much perfect. All that'll be left will be nitpicking like a broken lock-indicator/knob on the left rear door, and some flaking chrome in somewhat hidden places.


I just need to fix that damned exhaust leak, it's smelly and makes a noise that sounds like a bad lifter. Hopefully the seller comes through on his offer to fix that (and a few other things) up if I go to his place again.

I had my first on-road issue today too, with less than 100KM of my own driving on it. The turn signal doesn't flash on the left side. Both lights are good, they just stay on solidly when I press down on the turn indicator stalk. They do flash when I use the hazard. Any ideas? My dad's advice was to start with the turn signal cam pieces up in the steering collumn, and I may do that to start with since I need to plug the notorious parking brake release hiss up there anyway.

I've somewhat re-thought my outlook on this car. At first, with the big engine, light(ish) weight, dark colouring, and the like, I was thinking it would be something where I focused on hotrodding it a bit. I was picturing my first priorities after basic repair being a hotter cam, gt40 heads, etc., but with all the compliments I got today, and the feel of the car, I think I'm going to lean more towards a q-ship look and having it appear as a real nice original car. I might even keep the wire hubcaps. I'll still delete the mufflers and look into some custom engine bits, but I just can't stand to see her with rusty bumpers, ripped vinyl top, sagging fabric in the rear, and the like.

It's been suggested to me that the basic performance stuff I should start with is a taller air-filter (which I assume means a custom air cleaner assumbly, open element, and advancing the timing. I'd rather keep a more original look underhood, but I want to hear and feel the engine more. Is there any more stock-looking way to improve the induction? high-flow filter? Different intake piping? How does the advancing the timing a few degrees sound to y'all mangs?

Man, it's great to have this thing.


It appears that the ford emblem I convinced my dad to buy me at an auction when I was 10, that I said at the time would "go on my first car" will indeed be the right size to replace the faded one on the grille. W00t.

[ÆJackacks]

I am curious of the condition of the underbody. Looks pretty rust free

[87gtVIC]

Car looks nice at night..lets get some day shots.

Looks pretty nice! Always especially nice to buy a car from someone who's willing to help you out with a few things.

What's this about a fuel door release? Was that part of some rare and little-known option package?

i seen it before in a two door mercury grand marquis that i pulled my p. side door off of. I was just as surprised. I thought my car was heavily optioned but was disappointed when i saw a new option i never even new existed.

[johnunit]

I don't really know what's rare and what isn't, but it appears the only way to pop gas cap door open is through an orange button mounted in the glove box beside the trunk release.

[1987cp]

Looks pretty nice! Always especially nice to buy a car from someone who's willing to help you out with a few things.

What's this about a fuel door release? Was that part of some rare and little-known option package?

[johnunit]

damn I wish it actually looked as nice as in those pics.

[johnunit]

I drove it home today. 1 1/2 hour drive alone in a car I barely know.

As promised... pics.




This is EXACTLY how it was delivered to me, right after filling it up, which I suspect I'll get used to.


You can only see a few of the flaws in these pics (missing wheelcover centers, kinked/slightly pushed in front bumper, rusted to hell rear bumper), but rest assured that it doesn't actually have paint nearly that nice.... yet.


More pics and stuff to follow


It has a few new (to me) issues:
Possible valve cover gasket leak. It was leaking, but the bolts were barely finger tight, so time will tell if tightening fixes it.

The silly parking brake vacuum leak. I'll fix that tommorow in auto class.

It might need rotors or an alignment. Some vibration in the steering wheel, mostly while braking at speed. It also locks up the front passenger (I think) wheel a bit too easily. Any ideas on causes of one wheel locking easily?

If it has a trak-lok, as per the doortag, it seems to be dead. 3/4 throttle right before straightening out a left hand turn lit up the inside wheel, and though I never floored it from a stop (only floored it 2-3 times, which is hard on empty streets when you just got your first car), it gave a healthy chirp flooring it from 5-10mph. I think that's the peg leg talking, not the engine.

The vinyl roof isn't as bad as I had remembered. Easily fixable.


As I said in my first post, I had the seller do some rust repair and painting. Obviously a risk of them hack-jobbing it. Despite it being done mostly before my eyes in a driveway, they didn't. It's not perfectly smooth by any stretch where there were a couple dents, but once I polish the paint, the former rust-spots will be near indetectible. I feel it was well worth my money to get it certified, oil changed, all significant rust removed, carb tuned, etc. etc. for only 300 dollars on top of the actual purchase price. I'll be going back for a bit more stuff, like repairing the vinyl (mostly gonna be done myself, with the guy's guidance), new-to-me bumpers and dash pad (he's saying 90 bucks for all 3 if I help install), etc etc.

Oh yeah, it also has a very minor exhaust manifold leak that goes away sometimes, and the glovebox latch is stuck juuust open enough to hit the trunk and gas door release.


And her name is Sophia.