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This was my first FC, bought it for $500 when I was 17.
Had it for 9 years and put a lot of money into it. It was missing so much stuff when I got it though and had been apart so many times that it was always janky with **** rattling and was just a general pain. At some point it had a Maaco paint job, so when I finally got around to painting it looked great! Then after a few month it started bubbling under the shitty paint and peeling. Finally was just over it and sold it. Don’t regret it. She looked pretty good in pictures though.
Fast forward about a year and a half, I’m itching for another project. I’ve been driving by this FC sitting in a guy’s yard for a couple years. Has a T2 hood, couldn’t tell from the road if it was an actual T2.
Last Friday I say **** it and go knock on the guy’s door. Walking up I see that it is indeed a real turbo 2. Asked him what was up with the car and if he was interested in selling. He asked what I’d give him and I told him I’d have to look at it, but I’d give him $500. Tells me to go check it out. As I’m looking it over( it’s rough) he says if I get it out of his yard he’ll take $300. “Sold”
He told me he had bought the car for his son when he was in high school , I think it was around 2001. His son drove it until he went into the military and it sat in the yard for 10 years until I showed up. Unbelievably it fired right up on starter fluid. It needs a fuel pump which I already ordered and the gas tank cleaned. Although at 160k I’m leaning towards just going ahead and giving it a rebuild.
Has a lot of dents and tree sap etched into the paint, aluminum hood had some bad dents and a crease, but I’m going to try to save it. I have not found a speck of rust though (other than light surface rust on the underside stuff obviously). Even the sunroof is perfectly rust free. Interior is pretty stained but I want to get it steam cleaned and maybe die the carpet black if it won’t clean up. Other than that I just want to drive it. Eventually I’m sure I’ll want to do more, but I really like the idea of an all original T2. I did soooo much **** to my last car and now I just want a solid car to drive. Anyways, here’s some pics. Like my old car, it looks way better in pics than in real life. I’m not complaining for $300 though.
As it sat when I picked it up.
Pre-wash
Post wash.
Interior is going to take some work
So that’s where I’m at for now. Going to keep cleaning her up and see if I can get her running on her own. Than I’ll try to make more of a game plan.
Interior should clean up nicely. Plan on buying new plastic interior pieces like the radio surround and vents as they like to crumble when touched on series 4.
Interior should clean up nicely. Plan on buying new plastic interior pieces like the radio surround and vents as they like to crumble when touched on series 4.
Oh I know haha. Radio surround is broken and surprisingly one of the corner vents is good but the other is smashed. Probably just get LRB ones. Other than that the interior is pretty good under the stains.
....it was always janky with **** rattling and was just a general pain. At some point it had a Maaco paint job, so when I finally got around to painting it looked great! Then after a few month it started bubbling under the shitty paint and peeling.
What a deal on that car! That's a ine in a million kind of deal there! Glad you went back and checked on the car! I have a huge soft spot for black 88 TII's! My first TII was identical to your car other than mine had leather seats. I really regret selling that car. Do you plan to restore the car?
So I cleaned the gas tank out and slapped a fuel pump on and she fired right up. Exhaust and vacuum leaks everywhere but runs super good actually. Drove it once and then the next time I drove it she started smoking out the whole neighborhood. Pulled the turbo off and it is toast so hoping that might be the only issue. It was burning oil, not coolant. Anyways here’s some pics of the worst dents and dings on the car to show some of the work I have ahead.
Honestly amazed how rust free this car is. Not sure I’ve ever seen an FC sunroof with zero rust.
cleaned the engine bay up a bit. This is before I ripped the turbo out.
Also pulled the front wheels off to switch them around since they were backwards. Gave the wheel wells a quick clean and was stoked how nice they came out. The whole underside of the car is really clean under all the leaves and dirt.
slowly been working on the interior and it’s coming out pretty clean as well, I’ll have to take some pics. Bummer the dash has the little bubbles, but oh well. Also going to need a center console and possibly door cards. They aren’t terrible, but don’t know if I’ll be able to make them perfect.
Finally got around to pulling the turbo off and it was for sure bad. I bought a turbo off a friend that was missing the hot side housing and had an ugly green paint job on the cold aide. So I took both housings off my old one and cleaned he shuit out of them and the new center cartridge and painted the housings. The paint will probably end up falling off, but whatever, it looks pretty. Wish I took more pics of taking them apart and stuff. Unfortunately even though I think the new turbo was an S4, apparently they changed the rod on the wastegate actuator at some point. Old one was straight and the new was bent. Didn’t realize until the new was cleaned and painted. Then looked at the old one and the vacuum port was completely rusted through, which could possibly what blew it if it overboosted. Spent like 2 hours trying to bend the rod without messing up the internals. Needs a bit more but it’s almost there. Here’s a couple pics..... Oh yeah, my buddy saint I shouldn’t be worried about these cracks in the hot side. Thoughts?. The manifold is also full of cracks. Probably going to slap it back on just to see if the turbo fixed the smoking issue, but would like to make a custom manifold to replace it soon.
09-15-19, 07:54 PM
