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The plan is simple. The plan take a POS '94 GT vert and use most of it as a donor to build a Factory Five Roadster kit. I finally have a good enough job to make this happen and I have the green light from the wife!
I'm actually going to spend the next 8 months on the GT making it run and drive really well and teaching my son to drive a manual with it. Having my son in the garage learning about tools and cars and helping makes everything worth every penny of it so far. He said he was going to help, but I had my doubts. He is in elbow deep already which is exciting.
The GT was simply
at best. The interior is shot the exterior is rough as hell but the car only has 96k on the odo which means the shortblock, tranny and rear end will hopefully be good enough for a donor. The car had a bad throwout bearing. My son and I pulled the pieces of it out of the bellhousing tonight. We have a new flywheel, new clutch, new bearings, a new shifter and all ready to go back into this thing. The factory exhaust was in such bad shape I just ordered an offroad H pipe. I also ordered new O2 sensors. I'm pretty sure the ones in the car were OEM..... as in day car rolled off the assembly line. Sure it will only be in the car 8 months, but I can resell it too. I will post up a few photos of the tranny work tomorrow.
Next item will be engine work. The PS pump has a bad leak where the hose goes in the side of the pump. The fitting is tight but the hose can be wiggled in and out and all around. Missing spacer or bushing? Or crossthreaded? Do I need a new hose? Not sure here yet. But it's made a mess of everything underhood.
The engine is going to get a TFS stage 1 cam, GT40P heads an Exploder intake, shorty headers, new timing chain and a custom tune by me. All of the EGR and smog pump stuff will be gone in a hurry plus thermactor air. We will do all of this work in the next few months once the car is running and driving again. I figure this should be okay for a healthy 250-275 hp which will be enough to start out in the Roadster kit. Adding more power later will be easy enough as I have a spare 5.0 block already.
The GT is also getting new tires and wheels and will get Cobra brakes all around with new wheel bearings and new ball joints all around too.
By this time it should be a decent running and driving car and it will be late fall or early winter. Then I can start tearing the GT apart completely in preparation for the kit build starting Christmas time.
Working on a POS 94GT, not a lot of fun with rust, grime, and screw ups from the POs. But having your 15 yr old son help you and actually show interest in something besides video games; PRICELESS. Catching him sitting inside the car and making engine noises was the highlight of my weekend.
I'm actually going to spend the next 8 months on the GT making it run and drive really well and teaching my son to drive a manual with it. Having my son in the garage learning about tools and cars and helping makes everything worth every penny of it so far. He said he was going to help, but I had my doubts. He is in elbow deep already which is exciting.
The GT was simply
at best. The interior is shot the exterior is rough as hell but the car only has 96k on the odo which means the shortblock, tranny and rear end will hopefully be good enough for a donor. The car had a bad throwout bearing. My son and I pulled the pieces of it out of the bellhousing tonight. We have a new flywheel, new clutch, new bearings, a new shifter and all ready to go back into this thing. The factory exhaust was in such bad shape I just ordered an offroad H pipe. I also ordered new O2 sensors. I'm pretty sure the ones in the car were OEM..... as in day car rolled off the assembly line. Sure it will only be in the car 8 months, but I can resell it too. I will post up a few photos of the tranny work tomorrow.Next item will be engine work. The PS pump has a bad leak where the hose goes in the side of the pump. The fitting is tight but the hose can be wiggled in and out and all around. Missing spacer or bushing? Or crossthreaded? Do I need a new hose? Not sure here yet. But it's made a mess of everything underhood.
The engine is going to get a TFS stage 1 cam, GT40P heads an Exploder intake, shorty headers, new timing chain and a custom tune by me. All of the EGR and smog pump stuff will be gone in a hurry plus thermactor air. We will do all of this work in the next few months once the car is running and driving again. I figure this should be okay for a healthy 250-275 hp which will be enough to start out in the Roadster kit. Adding more power later will be easy enough as I have a spare 5.0 block already.
The GT is also getting new tires and wheels and will get Cobra brakes all around with new wheel bearings and new ball joints all around too.
By this time it should be a decent running and driving car and it will be late fall or early winter. Then I can start tearing the GT apart completely in preparation for the kit build starting Christmas time.
Working on a POS 94GT, not a lot of fun with rust, grime, and screw ups from the POs. But having your 15 yr old son help you and actually show interest in something besides video games; PRICELESS. Catching him sitting inside the car and making engine noises was the highlight of my weekend.
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