1985 CHP #E408395

[NoDrama43]

very nice Bill !!

[88stang]

Looks great Bill!

[28HopUp]

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.

[ImEvil1]

Do you have any pics of the aftermarket dash pad?

[MOstang]

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

[FHP813]

Originally Posted by 28HopUp

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.

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

[28HopUp]

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




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 -






Sorry, but no video clip to post yet.

[ImEvil1]

Originally Posted by ImEvil1

Do you have any pics of the aftermarket dash pad?

?

[28HopUp]

Originally Posted by ImEvil1

Do you have any pics of the aftermarket dash pad?

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







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

[ImEvil1]

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.