Build Thread: '87 442 . . . Time to turn and stop

[Canon_Mutant]

Still have not gotten my rear end and [thus] my 442 rear end into the big city but it is out. Sorry, didn't see the point of taking a pic of my car without the rear end. Should I start a poll?

Hmmh, wonder if this is why my Curt hitch won't fit? Now, if I can get them to answer the freakin phone or respond to email? I know a guy that said this was an easy way to tie the rear rails together just to make everything a bit more rigid. But, the other corner is out of square in the opposite direction so the holes don't line up.
Hitch is made plenty stout . . . if I could just get it on . . .

 

[Canon_Mutant]

Well, an update . . .

Had to give up on using a Curt hitch to tie the rear rails together. Plenty stout enough but they don't fit. First one [above] was 1/8th" off center and the large front holes were 1/2 hole from lining up with the frame rails. On the replacement they sent, the front holes line up but you cannot get both sides of the smaller rear bolts to line up AND it also lacks 1/8th" from being centered on the bumper. So, they are going back. Not sure how important doing this even is amidst the other pro-touring mods but thought it would an easy way to do it . . . if they fit. Though I guess the car could have been manufactured wrong, as I have said before, I have owned it since it was new, only 28K miles, and it has never been wrecked or otherwise damaged but, given the differences between the 2 hitches, it kind of looks like they don't have a very tight quality control to me.

I pulled the driveshaft tonight to have it blasted and coated along with the rear end. Given the Gray/Silver car, I am going to try a flat gray color on both combined with an aluminum diff cover and all the new gloss black suspension parts, it should make a pretty sharp contrast when I get it all back together.

I had the rear end ready to go to town several weeks ago but my stupid lupus has been acting up so I still haven't managed to get it there. But, now I can do the driveshaft too on the same trip. I am amazed how much surface rust is on things under the car considering it is constantly garaged and never driven even in the rain much less on snow and salted roads. Anyway, nothing I can't pretty up again.

And, I think . . . lord willin' . . . both the rear end and drive shaft will go to town tomorrow

 

[Canon_Mutant]

Well, the new headliner is here with clips and light trim just because I will probably break them. Dynomat is also here to be used when I gut the interior to replace the headliner and swap the sound system.

On the wheels, can anyone tell a lick of difference between these two swatches? I cannot. Because of the heat, MHT has to do powder coat instead of paint [which I prefer anyway] and these are the two closest swatches to the 442 gold.

 

[Streetbu]

Right one looks a tick darker to me.

 

[Injectedcutty]

They both look like the same color. Did MHT refer you to prismatic powders? If so that's a good sign....prismatic makes some quality coating colors. My powdercoating guy uses prismatic and i couldn't be happier with the quality. He did all my window trim, and for a powder it has depth like a metallic paint.

 

[Canon_Mutant]

Yeah, Prismatic is what they use.
To StreetBU, typical, 50/50 odds, I lose 90% of the time. And, I lost again . . . I told them to run with the one on the left.

Frankly, I held the laptop up to my car and either one is going to work fine though. I just thought it was strange they are like asking me to choose between gold and . . . gold.

 

[Streetbu]

LOL, I wouldnt worry too much. I think once the wheels are on the car, you'll never know the difference anyways.

 

[Dapper442]

Couldn't resist . . . picked up one of these today. I like the retro look but frankly just decided I am not paying $200 for another NOS replacement antenna that probably won't work either with the 3 control wires so this is going in to match a single control wire [and much cheaper] antenna.

How do you like the radio. I had considered ordering this to replace the old aftermarket Pioneer cassette player that is in my 87. Love the new technology with simple stock looks.

 

[Canon_Mutant]

Well . . . I wish I could tell you it's in, I love it, amazing sound with the new amps, speakers, and 10" sub but . . .

I haven't gotten it done yet.

Well, I do have the bucket seats out, have removed the dash trim panel, and started on the console. Since I have to redo the headliner now, the carpeting and everything is coming out to add Dynomat throughout. But I want to run all the coax down the hump instead of down the sides anyway so this will provide the opportunity to change that.
I seem to spend all of what little time I have to work on it . . . DISassembling.

Anyone else have this problem?

 

[Dapper442]

Well . . . I wish I could tell you it's in, I love it, amazing sound with the new amps, speakers, and 10" sub but . . .

I haven't gotten it done yet.

Well, I do have the bucket seats out, have removed the dash trim panel, and started on the console. Since I have to redo the headliner now, the carpeting and everything is coming out to add Dynomat throughout. But I want to run all the coax down the hump instead of down the sides anyway so this will provide the opportunity to change that.
I seem to spend all of what little time I have to work on it . . . DISassembling.

Anyone else have this problem?

Got quite a bit of work ahead of you there. Glad to see you're going all out though sounds like it is going to be awesome when its done. I hope it all comes out as planned.