Condor III -- SkullV's 1998.5 CSVT

[SkullV]

Well about to take her on her first short road trip, about 3 hours each way. Kind of wish I would have fixed the power steering leak already but it's pretty slow, I'll just bring an extra bottle with.

 

[SkullV]

Bad choice, the ••••ing shift cable snapped halfway between Chicago and Milwaukee. Paging Pole120....HELP!

 

[SkullV]

 

[blu_fuz]

Sorry to hear it man. If I wasn't on baby duty tonight I would have drove down with a truck and trailer and brought the car back to my place.

Figures I have the parts you need but AAA wants $300 to tow it to my house :nonono:.

 

[blu_fuz]

The tow driver stiffed him after waiting over 2 hours! :nonono:

He managed to flop the shift tower over into 3rd gear and is driving 1hr+ back home.


Drive safe. Checkin here when you get home.

 

[fogartyjohn]

wow tough luck man!

 

[SkullV]

Safe at home.....Driving from the Wisconsin border to NW Indiana at 45mph at 3750rpm is quite the ride......

Thanks a lot for everything tonight Joe and Josh, hopefully I'll have everything apart tomorrow and ready to put the new cables in on Tuesday.

 

[SkullV]

All the work up top is done:

Carpet pulled back, ends off the shifter, collets off the bracket, 10mm bolts undone (looks like someone had been in there before me, 10mms were only finger tight....shocking)......hopefully an hour under the car tomorrow and she'll be ready for the new cables to come in!

 

[blu_fuz]

Shipping the cables today.

 

[Pole120]

Good luck getting this taken care of man. Wish I could have been available to lend a hand. :/

 

[SkullV]

Good luck getting this taken care of man. Wish I could have been available to lend a hand. :/

It's all good man! I'll get a chance to make it out to PRT one of these days, hopefully in a more planned fashion.

 

[RFcsvt]

This thread is becoming an inspiration if you ask me. It's nice to see all the work you're putting into this project. The car looks fantastic!

 

[SkullV]

This thread is becoming an inspiration if you ask me. It's nice to see all the work you're putting into this project. The car looks fantastic!

Thanks man! Once I got over the initial stage of being constantly pissed off about having the wool pulled over my eyes with the purchase this car I have really started to enjoy working on it and making it mine.

When life gives you lemons:

you get an excuse to go to Harbor Freight and make lemonade!

My old jack was getting old and tired, coupon this week for $20 off the jack which is already $40 off for this month. Spend $139.99 on the jack and $35 on the 2yr free replacement warranty. can't beat that!!

 

[Berkel]

Sick jack! I have the same size, but at least your wheels look Aluminum or SS. Mine were chrome plated iron or something, and are completely rusted. Hate dragging that thing across the floor

I remember when my brother's SVT was having issues and I had to drive it to the shop for him when he was out of town. It only went into 3rd and 4th. I felt so bad for the clutch driving it there I can't remember what the issue was.. but he wasn't a CEGer, so he never did things himself

 

[SkullV]

NOS Grille and Decals from TFB designs showed up yesterday while I was gone. Not sure I like the quality of the vinyl, its basically a decal stuck over a decal, but we'll see how long it lasts. If nothing else, it will protect the brand new Ford emblem!

 

[SkullV]

Well, finished the shifter cables Monday night but I still think they need to be adjusted a bit. 1st and Reverse are a bit difficult to get into. Could just be the fact that the trans was running at 3750rpm for 80 straight miles too. Will probably change the fluid for good measure. No grinding though so that's good news.

Since the interior was apart to do the cables I decided to cut the stock shifter down 1", delete the reverse lockout, and do a full interior detail using 303 products (huge in the marine world and I get them for free).

New Shifter Height (pre-detail):

here is proof that even clean looking carpets can be filthy. This is water after cleaning the replacement I recently got from D.Acker. It looked great already and was a huge improvement over what was in the car when I got it, but now it literally looks like no one has ever stepped foot on it:

Then I installed my NOS tails, NOS front grille, and the SVT overlays from TFB Designs. After that I washed her (no I didn't use the auto wash from the pictures!) and went to take some pictures before the spoiler went on. I have about 8 hours into paint correction now and other than 4-5 little problem spots that I am probably the only one who will ever notice she's finally shining like she should have been:

Finally, today I took her to the bodyshop and had the spoiler installed (probably should have just done it myself, but they only charged $60 to paint it so I let them have the extra $40 to install). I didn't have them install it in quite the stock location though. I wanted it a little further back to get some more overhang over the rear. Unfortunatly it seems that the extra weight has not made my keyless trunk pop mechanism very happy and I can't get the trunk to open unless I use the key and open it at the same time. Hopefully a new stronger trunk strut will help.

Here is the progression of the rear end of the car:

She's coming together very nicely now. Can't wait to get the new wheels on next week!!

 

[RichR]

Lookin good!

 

[SkullV]

Lookin good!

Thanks man, for anyone interested, here's a side view to show the new spoiler overhang. Love it.

 

[Berkel]

dang, makes me want to rip off my M5 lip spoiler and throw a real SVT one on

 

[RichR]

Nicely done