Project Road Worthy... '87 Turbo 5spd Targa - $800 Field Find.

[AcIdBuRn02ZTS]

Hey guys...

Been working on this project for a few weeks now and now that its getting ready to come apart for BHG... I figured I'd start a build thread.

So, A friend of mine saw this car sitting in the weeds at a house he was doing work at and asked the guy what the deal was. Shortly after, I was contacted and said if I had cash in hand, it could be had cheap.. not many details so I figured I might as well go look at it. The car had been sitting at least 5 years if not longer. 135k on the odometer which he said the speedo broke a year or so before he parked it. He also said that he parked it because the fuel pump went out and he didnt have the money to fix it.

I showed up at the guys house to give it a once over... the interior was rough... exterior wasnt that great either... there was a bit of rust over the rear wheel arches and in the spare tire well... but on a good note, it was a turbo 5spd with every factory option available that year... targa, tems, abs, supermonitor, etc..etc.. and was bone stock from air cleaner to exhaust. We went back and forth for a bit but it went on the trailer with a clean title for $800

After a trip to the car wash, we apparently stirred up the 300+ wasps that currently called this car home... (I finally got them all after 2 weeks...) I didnt get any pictures of the nests... but one of them took up the entire area in the front fender top to bottom from the wheel arch to the door... and I'm not a big fan. I have no idea how we didnt stir them all up when we dragged it up on the trailer... but man were they pissed when we started hosing it off at the car wash... they were inside the latch area of the hood... in both fenders... up in the rear bumper... it was nuts.

Anyways... so this is what it looked like when I got it off the trailer...









Now to find out why it wasnt running... changed the oil which was rather clean... unhooked the coil packs and built oil pressure. Hooked up the coils and nothing. Figured since the p/o said fuel pump.. thats where to start.

Hmm... Yeah its dead. As is the tank.


Between me and a friend of mine, this will make #14 between the two of us... so needless to say, we had some spare parts laying around. Swapped in a clean fuel tank and a decent looking pump, fresh fuel filter, new ngk plugs and wires and it came to life.

 

[AcIdBuRn02ZTS]

I didnt get any pics of the brake system overhaul... but after getting it running, I pulled all 4 corners apart to see what was what.

All the calipers where frozen to the slides... rotors were shot... pads had life in them but they were cheap junk. All the hard brake/fuel lines looked to be in really good shape oddly enough... so I ordered all new rubber lines and caliper rebuild kits from rock auto. The back pads were shot so I picked up some cheap ones just to put something on it for the time being. Plans were to get it stopping so I could drive it a bit and find any other major issues before spending money upgrading.

Hammered off all 4 calipers, replaced the lines, polished and greased the caliper slides, and rebuilt all 4 calipers. I put it back together using the stock junk rotors and pads... Will be upgrading to some decent rotors and Hawk pads in the very near future.

Took the car for a test drive... had a few hiccups with the engine but after putting some miles on it, it cleaned up. No overheating... no odd noises... oil pressure gauge was reading lower then it should be (maybe 3psi at hot idle)... sometimes it would drop to 0. While running down the road, it would hold 25psi or so and thats with 10w40.

Got it home and decided to tear into the body. The front driverside had been in a fender bender... the passenger side front fender was rotten... and it had a bit of rust on both rear wheel arches. The hood had been used as a jungle gym by the p/o's kids so it was done.. Back to the parts pile.

As I started pealing sheetmetal off the car... I realized the "fender bender" went a good bit deeper. The headlight support bracket was mangled, the bumepr support was bent.. the front mounting lip on the driverside fender was gone... the nose cone support was bent...



Started swapping parts...







Hood and a chopped up 89+ bumper I had laying around... I really wanted to go 89+ but this was the only one I had... wasnt sure about it...


Back together with '87 turns...


Then I got wind of a complete 90 NA car sitting in a junkyard surrounded by weeds so we headed out. The car we found was MINT... killed me to rob it of parts but the guy at the yard wanted 1500 for the whole car... it was a base model auto NA that didnt run and had been sitting just as long as this one...( I know I know... not a bad price for a rust free mint '90... but dont have the space or coin to spare) so $200 later, I nabbed the entire front bumper assembly with fogs, turns, grills... the rear hatch and 3 pc wing... the tail light housings... both front seats, most of the exterior mouldings, and mint climate control.

 

[AcIdBuRn02ZTS]

Back to the house and more part swapping...

My hatch glass was covered in nasty peeling tint... the new hatch from the '90 was clean. Swapped on the new hatch and kinda/sorta half arseed mounted the wing...





Swapped the front bumper assembly...


Then realized that the nose support is different... so still can't use the 89+ turns or grills... not sure if I'm going back for the nose support or if I'm going to leave it as it is...

A few days of grinding... sanding... and primering...









Now... this car is going together somewhat DGAF style... money spent on go... not show. Cant see dropping 5k on a paintjob for a car that I have less then $1100 in... so dip it is. I've dipped a few cars and the outcome has always been decent... this one didnt turn out how I would have liked... but its far better then what it was...





I rushed it a bit and had water trapped under the spoiler which ruined it for me... most people dont notice it right off but eventually I will peal it and re-spray it. But its good for the time being.

I decided since my tail housings werent perfect... and I was stuck with using '87 turns... I would spruce it up a bit with some niteshades... 2 coats. Hard to tell in the pics but they are just smoked... not completely blacked out. Hid the scuffs pefectly and the contrast on the white was just what I was looking for.





Now the wheels were in rough shape. They had been curbed... scuffed... and were pitted in some areas. A friend had 1/2 a gallon of black dip left over from another car, so I dumped it in my gun and shot the wheels lazy man's way. Laid a few coats on then pushed the car back and laid a few more. Turned out really good and made the wheels look 100x better.







And thats how it currently sits in the driveway. I had a small issue come up last week while driving... the rear hose that goes from the EGR cooler failed. The hose failed because of an exhaust leak that was blowing right on it burnt the hose... it didnt peg the gauge but apparently it was enough. Since installing a new hose, the temp was very tempermental... random high spikes.... puking coolant out the reservoir... after talking to a few guys here, picked up a block test kit and it popped positive (very lightly.. but still there) for hydrocarbons. The cooling system had been flushed with distilled water and fresh coolant during getting the car running... so any change with the test ment a problem. The fluid didnt turn bright yellow.. but a pail greenish yellow... blah.

So the plans are to pull it apart this weekend but before I do that... I wanted to make sure the oil pressure gauge issue was just a gauge issue. I'm currently waiting on the 1/8" bspt to 1/8" npt adapter so i can run a mechanical gauge and see what things are really doing. If all looks good, I plan to pull the head this weekend... I have a rebuilt NA head sitting here ready to go... will swap that on with a felpro top end gasket set and ARP studs... new timing set, water pump, and t-stat. That should get it to reliable driver status.

Not looking to make big power out of this motor... I do have a 3" ddp on the way and will be building a stainless 3" dp back exhaust in the next week or so... but I have a forged short block in the garage and a prepped head that I need to do some port work on... metal hg and other goodies... Just dont have 1k sitting around to finish it up properly. May be a waste of money to get the current gte running strong... but I figure once it is, atleast I can sell it knowing its in good shape once the new engine is ready to go.

Anyways... I'll update as it comes. Comments are welcome and I dont mind complaints.. lol

-Chris

 

[slowma70]

looks good already, great work

 

[AcIdBuRn02ZTS]

Well... low to no hot idle oil pressure.. pretty sure I'm pulling the engine this weekend. It hasn't rod knocked and is t making any odd noises.. has good pressure at any rpm above idle... so not quite sure.

Will probably just freshen it up and check all the tolerences... replace the oil squirter bolts... rings & bearings... etc. Not sure yet though.

Sent from a pay phone... using Tapatalk v2.0

 

[AcIdBuRn02ZTS]

Ok... there is a lesson to learn here kids...

Always double check your cheap NEW mechanical gauges with a known working gauge if something is off...

Swapped the mechanical test gauge with one from a friend's truck... running 15w40 and just after running the car HARD... oil pressure was sitting at 7-10psi @ 600rpm.. 45-50psi @3k... anything over that is around 10psi per 1k rpm. I'd say it would still be over the idle spec running 10w30 but with the higher mileage on the engine, I'm gonna stick with the Delo 15w40 for now. I'm certainly glad we decided to pull his working gauge and try it as we were getting ready to start pulling the engine for a complete overhaul...

Head studs & walbro pump are on the way and I'll be ordering the rest of the parts for the head gasket job tonight. Will hopefully be ready to run in the next week or so.. we'll see.

-Chris

 

[AcIdBuRn02ZTS]

Small update...

Head studs, felpro top end gasket kit, cps rebuild kit, gates timing set, water pump, and t-stat are all on the way. I also recieved my 3" ddp...

Once the bhg is taken care of, I'll be building a 3" stainless dp back exhaust... and I believe power wise, that'll be it until the new engine is finished. No point in overstressing a 140k+ bottom end when I have a forged short block in the garage...

Should make for a reliable driver. Once the engine is sorted, it'll be getting some stopping power upgrades and possibly coilovers if I can swing it.

Anyways... more to come hopefully in a few weeks.
-Chris