very nice Bill !!

Looks great Bill! :yes:

No new pictures worth posting, but I have made some more progress on the car.

• A new steering rack went in, so now the car doesn't gush power steering fluid when I turn right! A new PS pump and lines were installed too.
• The badly cracked dash pad was replaced with an aftermarket piece from Fox Mustang Resto. Generally speaking, I am very happy with it, but the lip does curl up slightly at the middle of the dash. But it looks 10x better than the cracked and faded pad.
• A new exhaust is going on the car today. According to the previous owner, the car had a "CARB-legal" non-85 exhaust system consisting of 4 catalytic converters, cross-over H-pipe ahead of Flowmaster mufflers, going back into pitted stainless tips (now with rusted, broken pipes). [post #74 shows the driver's side tip hanging loose] I will be replacing the exhaust in pretty much the same fashion, except that two of the cats will fall off the car.

Some members may consider the aftermarket exhaust to be a cardinal sin, but after painting my drip rails black I figure there's no reason keep her stock now! ;) New 8.8" gears and LSD are next on my To-Do List.

Do you have any pics of the aftermarket dash pad?

Bill - Glad to hear of your continued progress...that's a beautiful Mustang!

No "cardinal" sin Bill. As long as you don't try to stuff an LS1 under the hood you should be OK.:stop:

New Exhaust
 

Forgive the poor picture quality, but I used my cell phone while the car was at the muffler shop -

http://www.mustangcollective.com/ima...280c9205e5.jpg


From the above pic, you can clearly see the sub-frame connectors that were on the car when I bought it. On the pictures below, notice that they had to cut the tailpipes to fish them through each side. The car has a beefy panhard bar bracket welded-in at the top of the frame rails -

http://www.mustangcollective.com/ima...280c976870.jpg

http://www.mustangcollective.com/ima...280c9c78f0.jpg


Sorry, but no video clip to post yet.

?

This series of pictures show the new aftermarket dash pad, as well as the "more-correct" seats -

http://www.mustangcollective.com/ima...280e90f6d9.jpg

http://www.mustangcollective.com/ima...280e949468.jpg

http://www.mustangcollective.com/ima...280e98b2be.jpg

The dashpad peaks at the center around the bezel, but it's not too bad.

Thanks for the pics...I need one more and I'm trying to decide if I should keep looking or buy a repro from FMR.

Hello Bill, The exhaust work looks great! Your choice to leave the panhard bar on the car was a good choice. If you were to drive a stock 1985 fox body car you would not believe how the car feels. My Stock 1985 CHP felt like driving a 1959 Caddy lol lol. The way Ford set the cars up for patrol service was really substandard for police use. The 10'' Pinto front brakes were really unsafe as well. Your car has disk brakes in the rear I see as well. I think your car is set up really nice. Your car is now way safer then when it left the factory. Great job Bill!!!......Keep me in mind if your car ever needs a new caretaker lol lol lol Rich

Thanks Rich! I have no intention of selling this car. I'd sell our family truckster first - a 2005 Explorer XLT. I think the beefed-up rear is why I didn't have any damage to the suspension after sliding the car over the concrete lane divider (a highly evasive manuever to avoid a car that turned in front of me and stopped as I entered an intersection at 45mph). Glad I serviced the 87-up front brakes last month!

The installer at the muffler shop said he's done alot of Fox Mustang work, and had never seen anything before like the set-up I have welded into the back of my car. I agree with your assessment - I'd like to drive a stock SSP to feel the difference.

Ran across the following pic in my picture gallery at another forum.

http://mustangforums.com/forum/membe...4-rtj3-23a.jpg

Haven't really had the opportunity to work on the car much with the colder weather. My garage isn't heated, so I have to have a project in-mind to go out there to work. But I do drive it on nice days when the roads are clear.

Future plans call for installing a new radio. The front speakers are mounted and wired up, but the rears need to be installed. I would also like to track down the original CHP radio equipment and mounts. The passenger spotlight needs afix'n too.

I should be getting in one last batch of radio equipment from the CHP guy. Probably won't be any more CC1s or Micor heads from him, but maybe an amp or two and definitely both sets of rear radio gear.

My mailman dropped off a box today that I've been waiting to receive for more months than I care to count. Inside were some carefully wrapped CHP parts.

The first item is the CHP Shotgun Rack, which is a locking unit that is wired to the ignition switch. The CHP also had hidden switches for quick access. I believe that some modification(s) will be needed to make the standard CHP rack fit the Mustang, but I'm up to the challenge.

http://www.mustangcollective.com/ima...834424c4dd.jpg


The next item is the Federal CC1 controller. According to the seller (who still outfits cars for the CHP), this CC1 is a working unit, so I will be able to use it to control the lights (no siren in my driver).

http://www.mustangcollective.com/ima...8344283b2b.jpg


The next picture shows the original CHP first aid kit and bracket, as well as a Regency M100 scanner (an eBay find) that would have been installed in my car originally.

http://www.mustangcollective.com/ima...83442a0019.jpg


Not pictured are the two animal snare clips for the rear decklid. I will be getting a PVC animal snare soon. I also will be gathering the other trunk items used by the CHP. Once the shotgun rack is mounted, I will keep a fake Remington 870 shotgun in the trunk, and mount it when displaying the car (rather than driving around with a blue rubber shotgun in the rack). So little by little I am gathering parts for my CHP Mustang.

And the seller also included two CHP Assignment Cards (E408419 and E422920), so I will be in touch with those owners shortly to mail them their original cards. ;)

Bill,

I got a CV rack from him, also. If you end up beating us to the mods, please post them up as I know Jim Y. is in the same boat.

That CC1 has front light cut-out, but should work fine for what you need. I may have another chassis here if you want to switch it out.

I also have a non-working MPA2 siren amplifier if you need it.

Let me know on the antenna clip, too....I think you still have mine?

I do! I broke my band saw blade, and need to get another. Once I do I will bang out a bunch of clips for those who have asked, and return yours to you.

My 1985 CHP #E408395
 

Here is another pciture of my SSP Mustang, parked next to a friend's take-home work-ride (Summer 2010) -

http://www.mustangcollective.com/ima...3397db7240.jpg

Bill - A lot to be proud of there and that black really sparkles! :cool:

very nice Bill. It is always good when you get them painted and back together.

Thanks guys! It's a constant work-in-progress. I'll continue to update this thread with pictures as I make headway.

Bill - What are the items you'd most like to do next with your SSP?

Thanks for asking Mike, 'cuz it made me update my SSP To-Do List. :)

Currently, the car is in the body shop after my neighbor backed into it. They agreed to pay for the repairs (it's great having cool neighbors!). I am having the body shop go over the paint to see if there are some areas needing to be touched up. I know it's not a show car, but I'd like for the body/paint to be as nice as reasonably possible.

Next up - correct wheels and caps. I have a set of four '85/'86 steel wheels in my garage with original Goodyear rubber. The tires would be better suited on a show car due to dry rot, so I will remove and keep the Goodyears, paint the wheels satin black (thanks Jim!), and remount my existing tires on the correct rims. I'm trying my darndest to get a set of correct '85 caps. I have a set of '86 caps, but only two are usable as-is. I have a line on two other sets of '85 caps (I'm high bidder currently on the ebay set). If worse comes to worse I will repair my two bad caps and repaint the set to look like '85 caps.

I'm a bit frustrated on my CHP equipment status. I have many authentic CHP pieces, but I've learned that in some cases they are incorrect for my vintage Mustang. Case in point - spotlights. My spotlights are single wire, but I recently learned that they used two wires to tie into the controls. My CC1 has a faceplate that differs from the original slightly. My CHP shotgun rack is for a later-version Mustang. So I've held off installing the equipment. But I think I will proceed with the equipment install when I get the car back from the body shop, and then replace the pieces I have with correct units as I find them.

In terms of the car itself, the compression is good on the engine, which I was told had been rebuilt as some time. But the engine compartment needs to be gone through and detailed. Underneath, the car has sloppy sub-frame connectors welded in that need to come out.

It's been a fun little car. During the winter I really miss driving it.

Bill,

Spotlights are an easy fix (handles). I think I have a crushed CC1 that you could use to swap internals (and the chassis, which includes the faceplate) over with. I also will have the complete rear radio equipment for you when you are ready.

Thanks Mike! I'm ready, and will give you a shout over the weekend. :)

3/22/2011 Update
 

I stopped by the body shop today. They buffed out the paint, which took care of the blemishes that had developed over time. They repaired the original bumper, and it was in the booth to be painted. The tail light will be getting a new lens, which was cracked in the accident.

http://mustangforums.com/forum/membe...ting-fixed.jpg


It's a cell phone picture, and the weather today was dismal outside, but it looks nice. The O D Y ("JOHN'S BODY SHOP" over the doors) reflected in the trunklid kinda captures how it came out.

I'm getting the 5 steel wheels dismounted today (I still had the original spare), and will get three new tires for the front and spare. I plan to re-use the BFG's out back, since they are practically new. I think I will prep the wheels, and then have the tires installed without setting the bead. Then apply the satin black paint. Once that's done, I'll have the bead set and get them balanced with the weights on the inside edge of the rim. Can't wait to get steel wheels and '85 caps back on my four-eyed SSP!

Not long ago, I read through your build thread, AAAAHHHHHH!!! At least your neighbors are cool. Those 85 wheels are killer, best looking SSP rim IMO.
Are you going to permanently remove the subframe connectors? Handling will feel a lot different without them.

A previous owner set up my SSP for autocross, so the suspension has been beefed up (it has better Ford brakes too). That's probably when the subframe connectors were installed. I've gone back & forth about it, but I really like how the car handles. So I will probably install a better set of connectors in the car. When I'm dead and gone, I'll let the next owner decide if he wants to keep them on the car or not.

:)

New Pics to finish off the thread? :)

Sam, I don't think this car will ever get done. Aside from me taking forever to complete projects, I don't think an antique car can ever be considered "done". There's always something else that can be worked on to make it better.

:)

Wow !! That's going to be a beautiful SSP. Congrats!

Time to make lemonade!
 

As an update, my SSP hasn't been running right this year. The car had carb issues, but a new Holley failed to fix the bad idling problem (the car would not smooth out). I decided to have the car looked at by my nephew, Kris, who owns a custom (repair) shop and is VERY familiar with 5.0L Fox Mustangs. He came by on Halloween and picked up the car on his flatbed.

So Kris checked the car out, and determined that the harmonic balancer was about to separate from the crank. :No no: It looks as though the off-balance balancer took it's toll on the bottom-end, because the crank now has excessive play. In addition, my oil pressure at speed is only 30psi, and at idle it's around 10psi. Compression ranges from 110-160. So it looks as though the tired old 5.0L is worn out.

Since I am trying to finish up other projects, I will be having Kris yank the engine and open it up to see what's inside. Since I am the 8th owner of the car, I'm not sure if it's the original motor or not. Hopefully the block (if it's original) isn't already .030-over. If the block is shot, then I need to decide how to proceed with the engine.

In terms of the lemonade comment at the beginning, once the motor is out, I'll get the car back so I can detail the engine compartment. The under-hood area was in dire need of attention, so I'll used this unplanned event to spruce things up.

Bill, if you do have to rework the motor - will be great to have a fresh motor for years to come. And on the bright side, can detail the engine bay.

Sometimes what seems like a bummer - can have positive upside. And...you'll be prepped with a nice driveline to take you out to CA for an 85 reunion. :)

Thanks Ryan! I think a west coast road trip would be fun. :) That would take some planning for sure.

Here's a shot that Kris texted to me last night -

http://images57.fotki.com/v1354/phot...conBits-vi.jpg


The car is coming back to me today without the motor (obviously). I will take the opportunity to make the engine bay as close to factory-fresh as possible.

You know where to look to see if the engine is original?

Ryan, I am trying to see how many 85 SSP's I can round up for Ripon next year. So far I think that Mustang kid and his dad Chris will be there with their 2 cars, along with my 2 cars as well as Rocketscience and your car. I think that Bill needs to bring 8395 home again for a visit.... lol...

Indeed. I have been talking with Jimmy about (possibly) getting my 85 in and done for paint/body by summer. Will take some work to do it right. And...I need to collect all the gear.

Having said all that. I have 2 WSP cars ahead of the CHP to fix up - so realistically, this may be a "in 2 years" thing. But...and it's a big but <snicker>...wouldn't it be fun to reunite all of them? :)

Bill, keep us posted on the engine build. Hoping it's not too bad.

Kris brought back my SSP last night, and Jack & I just pushed it into the garage. It's a mess under the hood...

http://images56.fotki.com/v1298/phot.../839502-vi.jpg

...for now at least :)

Judging from the pistons, Kris said it's a stock 93 roller motor. :( That's OK, since the motor is completely worn out. Kris and I are now sourcing engine components for a fairly stock 5.0L rebuild (as opposed to building a 331 stroker with fancy heads and lumpy cam).

What's wrong with that!? Granted, I don't like driving my 85 for long hauls, but sure is fun for short romps on the pedal with the stroker in it...LOL. ;)