Slow Progress.
Having little free time due to work and other time demands, I been trying to do little projects as I could afford them for some of the customizing touches on my list.
One of those to complement my folding rear seat conversion is the elimination of the trunk deck springs.
As you can see with these older pictures from Oct. 2002, the fold down seat worked pretty well even with such a long box. A contributing factor to the hold up was the torsion springs for the trunk deck.
At first I was considering getting the spring loaded hinges from a convertible. But it would mean adding more large hinged hardware to the inside of the trunk. On a convertible they just replace the hinges and you have a small external hinge. That wouldn't look too bad except the hinge extends into the trim of the rear window on a notch. None of this appealed to me.
I continued to think about it and thought about using pressurized pistons/struts like Mustangs have on the hatchback models.
Looking into this concept I had found a few examples where people had done this on other types of cars and decided to use the simplest approach.
So using some old pistons from the Capri here was my solution.
The most difficult part of the conversion was calculating the correct piston pressure especially with the Saleen wing. I guessed it pretty close and only had to change pressures twice. With the wing though the piston pressure was so high it would push up on the window side of the trunk deck when closed.
With the decision I made a few months after this install I do have a set of pistons on it that work to my satisfaction with out the wing.
2016 Zoey gets a new friend.
So early in 2016 I picked up the left over start of a project that had begin about 1993 if I remember correctly.
This is what I will refer too as Project U-88. Follow this journey here. Project U-88
The 87 and 88 will be exchanging some parts as I go a new direction, yes yet again.
Zoey will be returning to a more stock look exterior wise and U-88 will be getting the Saleen treatment and convertible door swap.
With both cars side by side I started evaluating how I should approach trying to build 2 of them.
I would be giving back the Saleen body parts from the 88 and it's original intent with the Capri fenders on it was to totally customize it.
Since it would be customized why not go all the way? It had a stock hood and some very rough stock doors. So with the Capri fenders why keep all that stock?
I figured with all the decent stock parts now available I would put them on the 87 returning it to a more original state, and go full out with the custom parts on the 88.
The first and easiest swap was the hood so that happen pretty quickly. Then the trunk deck.
With the decision to go back to a more original look other changes would be made interior wise as well.
I had given up my 86GT seats to use with the seats in the Capri to rebuild 2 good seats. This left me with a broken drivers seat and a decent condition passenger seat.
While passively keeping an eye out for some actual Flofits for the 88 now, they would no longer fit my "original" 87 LX look.
While searching Craigs List one day I came across these SVO Recaro seats, luckily I had the cash ready and grabbed them up before anyone else could.
I must say they fit the look very nicely and a defenite upgrade at the same time. Now to have the back seats recovered to match.
Soon after I started on the door swap. I managed to get one done before other things started interfering with my time.
I switched jobs believing it would be a better opportunity for me, then my wife and I decided to sell the house and get some acreage. So with all this going on I had to divert my time and finances to other things so projects are on the back burner for now.
But Hold Up! There is more!
2018 Zoey gets a new friend.
Didn't I already do this?
Yes even another project, this I couldn't refuse. My father gave me his 1994 GT Mustang. I did want another convertible after all. The 1994 GT
