89T Daily Beater Project

[SwedeSport]

The front springs were 900s units with a few coils hacked off. They were salvaged from "Norman". The rears are the springs the factory put in, except with one full coil removed with a cutoff wheel.

I took a hacksaw to the bumpstops and removed the first nub.

[SwedeSport]

I keep scraping the bottom of the car on stuff. The reality is that the current setup is just too Damn low. Likely to find a different set of springs for the front. It needs to come up a bit overall. But I don't want to raise it more than 1/2 to 3/4. Combine the slight increase in height with some rate increase, might be the ticket.

In the meantime, I straightened the stock pan, and used a piece of 1/4 inch hdpe to add a little skid protection to the undercarriage.

[SwedeSport]

Well the car has not given much trouble for a while (as I find some wood to knock on).

I have a noisy wheel bearing to address at some point, so I will just do both at the same time. It is the last thing in the front suspension that has not been addressed.

I had to pull the plastic skid plate as it was a total fail. It added too much thickness to the cross member, and subsequently scraped the ground all the time. Between the 1/4 inch of plastic, and 3/8 inch of bolt, it ended up being just too damn low. I made an error in judgement, and left the bolt too long, and it smacked the bottom of the trans and cracked the oil pan. I cleaned it really well and glued it up with epoxy. Next time the trans is out, Ill properly repair it with a weld.

The roof rack created so much turbulence that it is painful to open the sunroof. I tried to fit one of the Thule fairings (the one that looks like a snowboard) but it was too small and did not solve the problem. So I built my own using the HDPE sheet that I have fallen in love with lately. It has solved the wind buffeting problem. It does look a little ridiculous, but that is sort of the theme for the car... I am going to add a mount for a bike and plaster the fairing with BMX stickers.

Bidding on a Cobra CB radio and a Wilson antenna for the car. Again, adds to the yahoo factor the car has going for it.

Ordered some paint to finish the aesthetics of the body. I am going to do a faux patina look on the car. The plan is to do a respray on the car, but try to replicate the chipping, scratches, and peeling clearcoat that would have come naturally. I am going to enhance the look with a rust finish paint strategically placed in certain areas of the car. I am hoping I can make it look somewhat natural. It already had some natural rust going on, so I am just going to run with it.

I am shopping for some "Mexican Blankets" in the right color scheme to make some seat covers for the car. Excepting the drivers seat, the leather is not in bad shape, but I think the covers will make for an interesting look.

I also bought (another) bicycle at the Goodwill store. It is a DK General Lee that I plan to restore, and paint to match the car (fake rust, peeling clear and all).

[Geoff]

Ordered some paint to finish the aesthetics of the body. I am going to do a faux patina look on the car. The plan is to do a respray on the car, but try to replicate the chipping, scratches, and peeling clearcoat that would have come naturally. I am going to enhance the look with a rust finish paint strategically placed in certain areas of the car. I am hoping I can make it look somewhat natural. It already had some natural rust going on, so I am just going to run with it.

I am shopping for some "Mexican Blankets" in the right color scheme to make some seat covers for the car. Excepting the drivers seat, the leather is not in bad shape, but I think the covers will make for an interesting look.

I also bought (another) bicycle at the Goodwill store. It is a DK General Lee that I plan to restore, and paint to match the car (fake rust, peeling clear and all).

Again, adds to the yahoo factor the car has going for it.

Is the car really the yahoo in this equation?

[Crazyswede]

Is the car really the yahoo in this equation? :lol


This could explain a lot:

[SwedeSport]

Ground Zero!

I have been absotively nuckin futs since before I moved here.

[Crazyswede]

the advantage you have over the rest of PA is that when the reactor does pop its top all you have to do is see which way the wind is blowing and then rapidly head in the opposite direction. However if it is already blowing towards you your advantage dwindles rapidly.

[SwedeSport]

Before Carlisle I noticed that I had a wheel bearing going away. Apparently I forgot to tighten the axle nut when I rebooted the CV joint. OOPS!


Pulled that side apart to replace the bearing. Intended to just reassemble the brakes, until I saw they were absolute shit. So I ordered rotors and pads, and ended up doing both bearings. The calipers were fine, so I just re used them.

It's funny how that works. You set out to do a 50.00 repair, and end up spending 300.00


Next up, tackle the rear brakes.

[johnshan]

Reading through the August 2014 Grassroots Motorsports magazine. Small article about Carlisle... and it looks like swedesport's 89T is in the picture.

[TurboBudapest]

Swedesport - I love your car. Can't wait to see it with the Mexican blanket seat covers. Wild car!

[SwedeSport]

Yep that looks like my bucket in the background. I can see the primered fender sticking out in the corner.


I am having a hard time sourcing the Mexican blankets in the right colors. I have found some that would work, but I need like 6-8 of them all the same to have enough material to do the upholstery.

The car is about to go under the knife again for another phase of rust repair.

[SwedeSport]

It has been a while since I have posted anything of substance here.

The car is currently apart in the garage, and will probably be apart for a bit longer. Over the summer I attempted to jack the car up using the front passenger side jack point, and the rocker panel collapsed and shoved up into the car. When the inspection ran out at the end of July, I had no choice but to temporarily park the car.

I got it into the shop, up on jack stands and got the wheels off of it. The rust is pretty bad in a few spots, but it is not unfixable. Since it is all in places that no one will see, it certainly does not have to be too pretty. The rear wheel houses, and into the rockers needed a lot of reconstruction, and the bottoms of the quarters were pretty rusty up into the trailing link mounts. So I burned some metal into the spots that needed attention. The rear portion of the car is back to being pretty solid, but I'm sure it will only last a few more years before rust starts blooming again elsewhere.

I replaced the smashed up front skid plate with the heavier factory unit off the later 900's. The oil pan plug was slowly grinding itself away on the pavement, so I replaced that too.

I replaced both rear bump stops as they were completely missing before.

New pads and rotors on the rear.

New Starla exhaust as the one that was on the car got hammered up dragging the pavement into and out of parking lots.

The flanges on the cat were pretty rusty, so with a little digging, I was able to find some 4 bolt flanges that were still solid. I'll spend an evening with a cutoff wheel and the welder and make it work.

The speedometer quit working, so I sent another one off to Powl's Speedometer Service in Lancaster. They repaired the broken odometer, set the mileage, and calibrated it. I had them do one for me many years ago, and it still operates perfectly, so I gave them my business again. While the dash is apart, The CB radio will get installed, as well as some wiring for the stereo upgrade that is pending. The heater temp control rod needs to be addressed as it keeps popping off of the valve.

I had been having some cooling issues over the summer. I am replacing the water pump, thermostat, temp gauge sender, and the coolant temp sensor in the rad. Hopefully that gets it working a little better.

Hoping to have it back together by the end of September with some current stickers.

[SwedeSport]

Made some more progress on the beater.

Still repairing the rust. Finally tackled the rusty front passenger side fender lip. I cut the arch out of a rear quarter section that I had floating around. Trimmed out the crunchy bits, and welded in the arch, and used some sheet metal to finish out the inner metal. I still need to do filler, paint, and seam seal it all.

I am going to pull the carpets next and attack the rust spots in the floor. The floors are pretty bad. and it is rusted up into the rockers in the front. I'll burn in some sheet metal, and seal it back up with some seam sealer. While the carpet is out, I can run the wiring for the stereo system, as well as the coax for the Cobra CB radio I am installing.

I replaced the water pump, thermostat, temp switch in the rad, and the temp sensor for the gauge. So far it seems to be running a bit cooler.

I need to pull the gauge cluster out, as the tach only works intermittently. The odometer is broken as well. so that will need to be repaired as well. Ill take advantage of the situation to fix the heater valve link rod. It wants to keep falling off. It will also give me the opportunity to run some wires for the front speakers, and fish the RCA cables and associated controls for the stereo amplifiers.

I have a lifter (or 2) that will lose its prime and tap from time to time, I will have to pull the valve cover and investigate this.

[SwedeSport]

Catalytic converter repair...

Flanges were rusted beyond usefulness... so I found some good ones and performed a little surgery.

Not pictured, but I also added an 1/8 x 1 strip of steel along the bottom to act as a skid plate of sorts to protect the cat when it contacts pavement.

[RadioFlyer]

Nice! You know the only reason I have ever gotten rid of spare cats is because the mounting brackets were rusted off. Never really considered repairing them - great idea.