Scott's TurboCoupe Homepage
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Past Updates 5/1/00 I finally got some pictures of my car. Sadly, there not that great, but you guys can see what for shape the car is in.
I wasn't kidding when I said that the stereo system in the car was screwed up. This is what it looked like before I rewired it. It's amazing that it even played. These pictures are pretty crappy. I'll get some better ones up soon now that it's warmer weather out and the car looks a lot better in the sun. 4/30/00 I haven't done much to the car this past week. Nothing has need to be done and I'm running out of money. I do have a Pro 5.0 shifter on the way though. After my birthday, I'll get the Tiny Avenger blow off valve, and Tiny Avenger boost controller. Depending on how much money I get, I just might break the bank and buy the ATR dual 2 1/2" stainless steel exhaust system. I know that it's an outrageous amount of money ($500), but it is made from stainless steel and it's mandrel bent. I'd end up paying $350 for a job around here, but it's not stainless and the bends are with a regular pipe bender. Plus, I don't know how good of a job I'll get from a shop around here. I guess I'll just have to wait and see. Something happened yesterday that really made me feel good. We pulled into a local speed shop in the TC, next to a '68 Charger that had two guys in it. When we got out, the guy sitting the passenger side seat said, "That's a nice T-Bird you got there." My dad said, "It's not mine, it's his (and pointed to me)." The guy went, "Man, I wish I would have had a nice car like that when I was that young." Even though it was just a simple compliment, it made me feel good and made all the work and money spent so far worth while. I'm surprised at how many people look at this car, considering it's stock. I guess since there's not that many around here people are surprised to see them. 4/23/00 Wow, what a busy last couple of days it's been. Like I said below, we swapped in a new radiator on Thursday. Then, on Friday the car was still searching for an idle and reving up to 2000 rpm's by itself, so we went and got a TPS sensor for it. We ended up taking off the throttle body since it was caked full of crap and got it cleaned up very nice. While we had the throttle body off, I figured now would be a perfect time to swap in a new valve cover gasket since mine was leaking. Well, that ended working on that for the day since we had to wait for the Ford dealer to open so we could get a valve cover gasket and a few small gaskets for the TPS and the idle control valve. Since, we were done there I decided I'd change the rear end oil. Saturday then we got the gaskets we needed and set to work. In about 3 hours the car was back together and running. So far it hasn't idled up or acted funny, so the work was well worth. I also installed the K&N filter I got for it Saturday night. We haven't had the car out since then so I don't know what it runs like now. 4/20/00 Well, we had the car out the other day with a friend of mine in it. My dad was driving and taking it easy until we got on the highway. Coming off the on ramp he pulled off to the side of the road and let the other cars pass by. Once they passed, he pulled out, got it rolling in first, and then stood on it. He ran it up through the top of third and let off. It was moving pretty good, but the temperature gauge shot way up and wouldn't come back down even after cruising on the highway at 65 mph for 10 miles. Obviously, we knew we had a problem so I got a thermostat for it, but when I was draining the water to put it in I happened to look down in the radiator. Wow, Houston, we've got some serious blockage here. Boy, it was really bad. So, I yanked the radiator right then and today we borrowed a flushing tool from a guy near by that owns a garage. He's a really nice guy and we take our cars there all the time for inspection and stuff. This tool that he gave us hooks up to a garden hose and then you hook an air line to it too. Then you plug it into the upper radiator hose, turn the water and let it run through, and then you hit the air. It flushed the motor out in no time. So, now it's got a new radiator in it and it got aligned today. Once, I solve the irratic idle the car will be set. Also, I ordered the K&N filter, and the gauges which should all be in on Saturday. That should keep me busy in a little while. 4/15/00 I haven't done much to the car since this past Sunday. I did get insurance on it and I got a tag for it. I'm going to have my dad drive it back and forth to work a few times to see how it drives and make sure everything is alright before I start driving it. I figure he'll end up racing some rice burner too just to see if it'll hold its own against the competition. On the other hand though, maybe I shouldn't. If he drives some and sees that it'll haul some ass he might take it away from me and give me his car. Boy, that would suck. 4/10/00 I ended up getting the rack a day early. So, it's on and adjusted. I need to get a front end alignment. I also finished up emergency brake cables yesterday. I ended up needing a new caliper on the left side. I know that it's not right to put just one caliper on, but you can tell that the caliper on the right side is almost new, so I'm not worried about it. Since I was under the car all day yesterday I noticed a few things. For one, I need new sway bar bushings and endlink bushings. Mine are shot, but with 120,000 miles what do you expect? Also, I have to say that the emergency brake system on this car is stupid. Whoever came up with that should be slapped. 4/9/00 I changed the transmission fluid yesterday. I put Mobil 1 ATF synthetic fluid in it. It's expensive stuff, but I think it's worth it. I have to change the rear end oil yet. I'm waiting for the cover gasket to come in at the local speed shop before I change it. Mobil 1 75w-90 synthetic gear oil is going back in then. The only thing that I'm going to do today is pull the rack off of it. That way I can compare it to the one that I ordered and make sure it's correct. 4/7/00 It's been a little while since I last updated this page. I've been working on putting on the new emergency brake cables. It's pretty easy, but I need to make a bracket to keep the cable off of the right side rear wheel. No big deal. Other than that I flushed the power steering system out on Tuesday and it's a lot quieter now, but it still drips. I have a new rack & pinion coming for it. That should be here on Monday. With the new shocks on the car it rides quite a bit better. I also figured out what the clunk noise is that I'm hearing. It was the emergency brake cable. The way it was attached before allowed it thump on the floorpan. That'll be fixed when I get the new cables on. 3/26/00 I forgot to mention that I had ordered a set of white face gauge overlays off of Ebay. They showed up this past Wednesday. I scanned them and the picture is below. Each of the gauges are seperate, but in the picture it doesn't look like it. I reduced the size so it would fit on the page, but they actually are the same size as the stock gauges obviously. These are just stickers that go on over the stock gauges. I think it'll be a little while until I install them because of my other projects. Any distortion in the picture is from my scanner. The stickers are perfect in real life, but it doesn't show in this picture.
3/25/00 Why you $&#$#!*&$^&. Well, the stereo is done for right now, but it's not the way I wanted. After I ran all the speaker wires and finished it up very nicely I connected the speakers and didn't crap. Actually, sound can from the rear speakers, but it was cracking and popping. I traced that problem to a bad ground coming off the amp. It was my fault. Still after that, there wasn't any music coming from the front speakers. I swapped the patch cables around, still only music from the rear speakers. Then I hooked up all the speakers to the rear channels of the amp and it plays great. So, basically, the front half of my amp is dead. I might as well buy a new amp since I already wired the car for one. On the bright side, the stereo does sound very good. I got the rear shocks from Ford the other day and installed them today as I was finishing up the wiring in the trunk. It went smoothly (that's a first) and quickly. The ones on the car must be the original ones from the factory. They compress almost exactly like the new ones, but they don't rebound anything like the new ones. That should solve the clunk coming from the rear end. Maybe tomorrow I can get someone to take the car for a spin. 3/21/00 Sadly, I still haven't finished the stereo yet. I ran the power wire and added a fuse right at the battery so that it will prevent the car from burning down. I know that a lot of guys put the fuses in the trunk so you can see them, but that's pretty dumb because by the time the fuse blows the wire has alreadly caught on fire. It's a little late now for the fuse to blow. Anyway, the only thing holding me up now from finishing the stereo system are connecters for the speakers. I need the small ones for on the negative side of the speaker. I had bought some, but they turned out to be too big. I'd rather wait and get the right ones than slap it back together. I'll get from tomorrow after I pick up the shocks from Ford. 3/18/00 I added a money spent page the other day so now everyone can keep track of what the car is costing me. That page will grow quickly I'm sure. I'm still working on rewiring the stereo. The only stuff left to do is run a power wire to the amp and hook up the speakers. I have to admit that I don't think an amp is really worth the work. At least not with a stereo like mine. I did go a little over kill though on the wiring. I got Rockford Fosgate patch cables and they are really nice. So, is the 16 ga. speaker wire that I bought. This stuff was bought from Crutchfield. I ordered it on Thursday of this week and it was here the next day. I couldn't believe it. It'll be finished tomorrow so I'll let you guys know how it turned out. I almost forgot that I found out I had a bad shock on the right rear. I'm gueesing that's where the clunk is coming from. Dad kicked in and ordered two new rear shocks from Ford on Friday. Seventy-eight bucks a piece (ouch.) He also ordered e-brake cables from E.S.P.O. After the shocks and the cables are installed it will be time to add power. Yessssss, my favorite thing of all. 3/16/00 I've been working on the stereo since Sunday now. The wiring is all stripped out, all the speakers are out, the passenger side seat is out, most of the dash is apart except for the gauge cluster. I have finished running the wires for the headunit, so it can be hooked up now. The amp is in place, I just need to secure it down and power it. After that I can run the speaker wires, reinstall the speakers, and put the interior all back together. Also, on Sunday, I took all the wheels off and I was pleased to see that the brake lining is almost new. It was inspected in January and I think the brake lining was installed right before it was inspected. I rotated the tires while they were off too. Check out the links section. I added one of my favorite links of all. It's the "Free Rice Mods" site. If you haven't been there before you have to check it out. They are updating the site all the time so check back often. 3/11/00 I updated the modifications page and the links page today. With any luck I'll start on the stereo wiring. I've been waiting for my 3 1/2" Pioneer speakers to show up before I started. That way I could check and make sure they worked before I took the stereo system all apart. Also, I found the key to the wheel locks, so we can finally take the wheels off. 3/5/00 I'm such a slacker. It's been 8 days since my last update. That's pretty bad. Well, anyway, I bought a Sony CDX-2180 cd player last night at the Sony outlet. It doesn't have a detachable face, but I can live without it. For $80 I couldn't pass it up. Since the car already had a Sony tape deck in it, the new cd player plugged right in. It sounds great. I've decided to keep the amp now and move it underneath the seat. I also have 3 1/2" Pioneer speakers on the way. That will finish off the sound system. I still have to rewire the whole stereo though. That's ok though. It'll give me a chance to get it right because it's really screwed up right now. 2/27/00 I haven't updated at all here in the last few days, but today I added a lot more links and there's still more to come. Stay tuned. 2/23/00 I added some more links today. I also changed the homepage around a little bit. Took pictures today of my car after I washed it. Hopefully I can get them up soon, but first I need to use the rest of the roll of film. 2/21/00 Worked on the all pages for awhile today. I'll have some pictures soon. |
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