1982 Mustang #50

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Basement Paul
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1982 Mustang #50

Post by Basement Paul »

So it is on this 9th day of February, Two Thousand Fourteen, that I Basement Paul, finally own a Pro Street hot rod! And through some strange twist of fate, is basically the same as my very first car. As I showed in a different post, it's the blue 1982 Mustang. I'll post more pictures once it stops snowing enough to safely move it from one garage to the other without getting stuck.

Yesterday was a busy day for 32V and I as I picked him up at 7am to head to Cleveland to tear machines apart for ebay purposes. We finally finished that up and headed south to Akron. Upon arriving at Danny's house (the previous owner) we saw the car in his one car garage up on jack stands so we gave it a pretty good going over, top to bottom. This car is real solid with the only rust we could find on the inner lip of the driver's door, and it has looked this way for a long time since it was also painted the color of the car which was a repaint awhile back.

Being so cold (maybe 18 degrees) and not having a choke made the car tough to start. Danny sent his wife to the auto parts store for a can of ether though, and we got it fired on the first try. The motor sounds really good. It's a 351 Cleveland allegedly out of a '70 Mustang. I have no reason to not believe it. You can hear the compression which he believed was 10:1, and it has a pretty serious cam too. It's got a pretty nasty C6 trans in it with reverse valve body, and it lets you know you're shifting with a kick in the ass every time. It also has a 9" with a posi and 4.56 gears, so it's buzzing down the freeway. I was doing about 3300 and 32V told me via phone that we were doing about 55mph. I'm getting ahead of myself...

Since it's a tubbed car, the original tank has been replace by what appears to be about a 10 gal fuel cell. I'll research that further to see if I can verify it's size later. The rear seats are also missing (I wouldn't say I was MISSING them, Bob). It also has a four point cage that seems to have been put together pretty well. It has new racing style seats with padding and NHRA approved seat adjusters, and new carpet. Inside, the car seems to be relatively stock overall, including the factory working am/fm radio.

Sooooo, after a quick test drive to the gas station for a few bucks worth of fuel, we came to an agreement on price and started to load up some extra goodies in the 2012 Mustang. The car had a crack in the windshield, but Danny gave me a Ford replacement windshield. He also gave me a new set of frame ties as the car has yet to be tied together, and a set of header gaskets to repair the header leak on the driver's side.

The journey home was relatively uneventful except for the fact that it was under 20 degrees out, and I was driving home a car that hadn't been driven in a few months with NO HEAT, no fuel gauge, and bias ply tires. We guessed it at about 70 miles and short of being a little loud, pretty cold, and it almost not starting at the gas station in Painesville, we had no issues.

The car does need some carb tuning (I'm checking with my accountant on that) and the timing fixed which seems like it's got too much timing in it. I'm going to paint the hood which is still in gelcoat white and the trunk that has primer where an old spoiler used to be. I'll have someone install the windshield. I plan to try to put water to the heater core that is currently not hooked up, but still installed, and hope that it holds so I don't have to replace it. That's a crappy job since this was an A/C car. And I need to fix the header leak and install a new thermostat since the car runs ice cold going down the road. The gauge read just over 100 when I was driving at speed and would warm up at idle.

So I'm excited to fix a couple things, make it right, and drive it a little to see if it's a keeper.

-BP
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Basement Paul
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Re: 1982 Mustang #50

Post by Basement Paul »

Here's some pictures that were sent to me before I got it:


Image

Image

Image

Image

-BP
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GMJohnny
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Re: 1982 Mustang #50

Post by GMJohnny »

It would move better in this climate if it had snow tires on it. REALLY Big ones!!!


GM
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Basement Paul
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Re: 1982 Mustang #50

Post by Basement Paul »

It may not be any good in the snow, but it won't sink...

-BP
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Fred32v
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Re: 1982 Mustang #50

Post by Fred32v »

Amazingly, for early Feburary, the roads were dry.
Travelling on route 76 at 55 mph is 10 under the limit.
Everyone was faster then we were, but as they passed,
that little Mustang received alot of second looks.
More than one 18 wheeler paced him before moving on by.
For this time of year it was quite a sight.
Fred32v
GMC Canyon Crew Cab Short Box 4x4 V6!
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Blue_69_malibu
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Re: 1982 Mustang #50

Post by Blue_69_malibu »

GMJohnny wrote:It would move better in this climate if it had snow tires on it. REALLY Big ones!!!


GM

Has anyone checked with Andy to see if they make Blizzaks in that size? (It's a niche market!)

Very cool ride, BP. Hope it works out. S/B a LOT of fun.
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MostMint
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Re: 1982 Mustang #50

Post by MostMint »

If you want that much treadwidth you will have to go to dually rear end
[quote="Basement Paul"]Is that a mint rocketship on the hood?? :shock:
-BP[/quote]
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Basement Paul
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Re: 1982 Mustang #50

Post by Basement Paul »

I looked up Mickey Thompson radials and they are $340 ea (29 x 18-15). Fronts are around $150 for 26 x 7.5 -15 radials. Problem is that I can't just buy one or the other since the tires on it now are bias ply. If I buy the backs, I need to get the fronts. There's a good amount of tread on the backs now and an acceptable amount on the fronts, but if I keep it, I'll put radials on it.

I just moved it from the house garage to the big garage, so all my cars are inside again. It did require a shot of starting fluid to make it pop though. But no choke and 18 degrees are not a good combination.

-BP
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TireSmoker
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Re: 1982 Mustang #50

Post by TireSmoker »

Dude, that's so awesome! Roll bar, tubbed, narrowed 9", 4.56s, Cleveland motor.

You should talk to your accountant about a 770 Street Avenger. If it works for you, I bet he'd make you a Good Deal.

-Dave
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Basement Paul
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Re: 1982 Mustang #50

Post by Basement Paul »

It's already done... my accountant is cool. I think he should just go by "The Accountant". Maybe a movie to follow.

-BP
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Blue_69_malibu
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Re: 1982 Mustang #50

Post by Blue_69_malibu »

Basement Paul wrote:It's already done... my accountant is cool. I think he should just go by "The Accountant". Maybe a movie to follow.

-BP
If we can get Kevin Costner to star in the movie, it's a done deal.

If budget constraints don't allow for this, I then nominate Mandy Patankin.

Bob Saget is definitely excluded.

(Actually, the actor who played the accountant in The Untouchables also played the dorky character in American Graffiti. I think his character drove a '58 Chevy that his father owned, if I'm not mistaken.
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Racin'Jacin
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Re: 1982 Mustang #50

Post by Racin'Jacin »

Sweet ride BP!!!! Looks like some serious fun is in your future!!!!


Can't wait to see what you do to it!


Jacin
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Basement Paul
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Re: 1982 Mustang #50

Post by Basement Paul »

I got a bit of good news about the Mustang today. My boss brought the title from his buddy today as it wasn't notarized on Saturday when we picked it up. The title shows 8400 original miles! :shock: There's no TMU (true mileage unknown) marking, no salvage, nothing. Just a clean title that shows insanely low original miles. Right now the car only shows 8831 miles. I'm not sure if it's real or not, but as far as I'm concerned, that's the original mileage until I'm proved wrong.

I picked up the 770 carb from The Accountant today too.

-BP
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Basement Paul
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Re: 1982 Mustang #50

Post by Basement Paul »

I was driving to the license bureau yesterday thinking about personalized plates for the Mustang and thought TUBSTG would be pretty cool. But I just couldn't bring myself to shell out the extra $50 yet for them. Plus, historical plates are normally free after the first purchase, and with personal plates, it's $50 every year, so I'm still debating that.

Today 32V and I installed a new 160 deg thermostat. There was no thermostat in there, just the remains of something someone hacked up. So it seems to warm up faster and not go over the 160 deg mark on the temp gauge. It does seem that the fans kick on a little too soon, so that will be something I'll look into later.

We also installed The Accountant's 770 Street Avenger carb. After some mild screwing around getting the linkage mounted, we got it installed and it fired right up. It seems to be fine, but a test drive will have to wait since it's still snowing outside.

Next on the agenda is to fix the header leak on the driver's side, and order some tune up parts for my distributor. It's an MSD Pro Billet distributor (part#8580) but I pulled the cap off this evening and it looks like it could use a new cap / rotor assembly. I'm also going to get a new bushing and spring kit to dial in the advance. Looks like I can order it from Autozone and it's cheaper there than Summit with no shipping fee.... That will happen this week some time. I printed the MSD instructions off their website, so once I get all that in place, I'll tune in the timing as I think there's too much advance right now and it makes the car hard to start when it's warm.

-BP
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Basement Paul
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Re: 1982 Mustang #50

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