My mono white 89 XR

leesonic · Post by **leesonic** » Mon Apr 19, 2010 7:15 pm

Euro light install, part one.

Ray · Post by **Ray** » Mon Apr 19, 2010 8:04 pm

Man, that picture really shows what's up, doesnt it?

scorpioaddict · Post by **scorpioaddict** » Tue Apr 20, 2010 4:55 pm

f*ck a plastic North American lamp. What was Ford thinking? Oh, right, save a few dollars...

leesonic · Post by **leesonic** » Wed Apr 21, 2010 7:02 am

With stock grille...

With Cossie grille...

Ray · Post by **Ray** » Wed Apr 21, 2010 7:10 am

You should pick up anglin's cossie front bumper and whale tail to compliment the look.

(i hate saying that as i want them)

merk661 · Post by **merk661** » Thu Apr 22, 2010 7:56 pm

That looks hard man. Looks real good with the normal merkur front especially.

nathankershaw · Post by **nathankershaw** » Thu Apr 22, 2010 9:11 pm

That is a VAST improvement!
It cleans up the front sooooo much!

leesonic · Post by **leesonic** » Fri Apr 23, 2010 8:36 am

Cleaned up and painted where I removed the metal for the Euro light install. I also masked off and painted the centre section in front of the radiator black, since the white overspray (not mine) would be seen if I use the Cossie grille. I will remove the paint from the fan when I pull the condenser out to replace it. This fan is shot anyway, the motor is seized.

Hand made EGR block off plate, made from a quarter inch thick aluminium plate. I could have gone with the Mr. Gasket plate, but where's the fun in that?

leesonic · Post by **leesonic** » Tue Apr 27, 2010 9:29 pm

Nearly got it running today, but a rogue turbo coolant hose was leaking, and I didn't fancy dripping coolant all over the turbo as it heated up.

Rooster · Post by **Rooster** » Wed Apr 28, 2010 3:17 am

what paint are you using? How close is it to diamond white?

leesonic · Post by **leesonic** » Sat May 01, 2010 7:20 am

Just answering a few comments...

MerlinMerkur wrote:Did you use a drop cloth for the rack/suspension so that wasnt painted with the bay? My car is white as well so, probably the most visible paint you dont want overspraying into black suspension parts hah.

Wish I could tell you I did it the correct way and covered everything, but I just sprayed away. The worst overspray is on the passenger side of the crossmember or motor mount. You have to peer down there to see it, if it bothers me I'll just brush some black paint there.

Camaro5690 wrote:GAH that rusty ugly manifold is ruining the looks of your beautiful engine bay!!! You need to get some of that coating Eastwood makes to make it look like brand new cast iron again.

Yeah, I thought of that too. I've never had really good results with exhaust paint. On my white Capri (http://home.comcast.net/~leesonic/cwl.htm) I painted the headers, and they stunk for weeks and the paint eventually burnt off.

merkurmaniac wrote:I am impressed with the care you took in pulling the engine and then putting it back. Most times, that sticker on the core support, gets sliced or crushed by the crank pulley when the engine is going up and over. Walk the rows at Carlisle, and you can almost tell what cars had their motors out by that sticker....

Well, if you're pulling it with a hoist, surely you'd raise the hoist high enough to clear it? Maybe those cars had the motor pulled by tying it to a piece of scaffolding pipe or a strong ladder, and the motor pulled that way? I've done it like that, and often found that we needed a rest before going "up and over", and the slam panel/core support is the only place.

scorpioaddict wrote:f*ck a plastic North American lamp. What was Ford thinking? Oh, right, save a few dollars...

You know what? I've heard plastic lamps came into being because some bright spark thought that it would cause a person less injury if you hit them with your car. The plastic lamp wouldn't smash like the glass one, so they wouldn't be injured by the broken glass. Fact is, most pedestrain vs car accidents result in them either being knocked flat, or going up onto the hood and into the windshield, giving them a whole new set of problems.

Rooster wrote:what paint are you using? How close is it to diamond white?

Brilliant white Dupli-Colour I found in a rattle can at Pep Boys. Close enough for under hood work, I don't know how it would match for a body repair. It seems brighter than the Diamond White, but that might be just because the car hasn't been washed in a year. Once it's running, I'll give it a good wash and buff up. For some weird reason, this car has been re-painted at some time in it's life. I can't find any evidence of accident repair looking in, around, and under the car, but then I'm not an experienced body and fender man.

Post by **SvoSierra** » Sat May 01, 2010 9:21 am

For Rooster:
"new" Diamond white and Duplicolor "Bright White" are very close in color. But compared to the 20 yr old paint, both are a lot brighter.

leesonic · Post by **leesonic** » Mon May 03, 2010 9:23 pm

It took some grinding, but I managed to cut off the old welded on sway bar brackets, see 1st page of this thread for picture. The metal here is double-skinned, and there was some corrosion, so I cut this out and had a buddy weld in some new metal. This is the passenger side.

The drivers side was better, but I didn't like the look of the threads on the bolts that came out.

Here are both sides repaired. I drilled and tapped out three of the threads to M12. The last one was missing the captive nut, so I cut out the "perforated" panel inside the car and dropped an M12 bolt through. I used some 10.9 grade bolts with flanges on, but the flanges were hanging up on the welds on the stiffening bar (thanks Jeff for the white one), so I ground the edges down.

leesonic · Post by **leesonic** » Tue May 11, 2010 6:34 pm

New flexi hoses, rotors, pads and calipers. I attacked the caliper brackets with a wire brush in an angle grinder, painted them with Purple Power rust convertor, then with etch primer and caliper paint.

New flexi hoses, rear shoes, wheel cylinders and hardware. It's so much nicer using new fitting hardware than wrestling with rusty old springs.

Found some new drums on eBay.

I only broke one brake line when fitting the flexi hoses, of course it would be the shortest one on the car.

What! No wheels? Getting ready to bleed the brakes.

[/img][/list]

MerlinMerkur · Post by **MerlinMerkur** » Tue May 11, 2010 10:34 pm

Lookin great Lee!
I hope you get your car finished and keep it looking Stock-ish so I can remember what mine looked like before "surgery"!

I hope to have it done before Carlisle so I can show everyone what a "new" Diamond white XR looks like. I am pretty sure its desperately different from 23yr old Diamond white, which is what Im bathed in now.