I really enjoy working on these cars. Here's my chance resuccitate a real deep-sleeper. Last inspection sticker expired in 2000.

This car has been down, lights-out, no visitors, for 9 years.

Exciting and scary, being a 32V.

Supposeedly, this car was subjected to a soft-down (by choice) vs a hard-down. We will see.

(There is a bit of back story to the acquisition, too, that involves good will, win/win, risk taking and teamwork among rennlisters, but we will hold that for another time. Suffice it to say, when one of these is saved, we all gain.)

Car actually does show signs of maintenance, back in the day. Paint marks, parts wrappers, etc. None lately. No underside corrosion, no oil leaks, fairly nice beneath.

Antifreeze was nice, deep green, clean from both the block and radiator.
Oil showed no particles, little bit of moisture, not much.
TB looks to be in-place, and has some resiliancy, through the peep holes.

Here's the first part of the evaluation plan:
New oil + filter.
New Antifreeze
Pull 8 plugs to inspect.
Some kind of swabbing of each cylinder
(will try to find a boroscope via workplace)
1 teaspoon Marvel M. Oil in each hole, plug holes with rags, leave it sit.
Pull front covers
Inspect timing belt & estimate whether or not the engine is close to being "in time".
Try gently turning the crank with breaker bar. Only gently, only a little.

Also, drain & clean tank (has to be done anyway).


Results of above will determine the next course of action.

I'll search the various resurection threads, but if you have input, please share.

 

Wow, looks really nice!

Kevin just brought his back from the dead too (sat outside Pittsburgh almost 10 years), but yours appears to be in much better shape, so I doubt we have any pointers to give you. Just takes time and elbow grease....and in your case, maybe not so much of it.

Good luck!

 

Congrats Chris on #4!

 

I would change the belt before I started it, you need to anyways and if it breaks so goes the motor !

 

Nice! Thanks for the effort to save another one.

 

Oh I forgot to say thats a beautiful car, love the color and good interior. You got a good catch, now you need to decide if you want to put the TT-Wheels on just one side

 

she said no more RED ones right?
Nice find

 

Thanks for the good thoughts!

Leslie, Kevin takes this sport to a much higher level!

Will definitely not try to ever crank it on the old belt, even for compression test.
Its got that kind of wrecking-yard interior smell, might need carpet kit, though it looks great.

Cool snakeskin found in the fan. Rodent control.

Speaking of that. I taped a piece of heater hose to the shop vac hose. Jammed it down under the windshield wiper motor. Got a lot of stuff up the hose. Pulled it out. Saw the back half of a field mouse fighting like hell to keep from getting sucked-up the hose. FAIL. I just remembered. Probably chewing a hole from the inside of my shop vac right now!

A couple more pics.

 

Are you missing the Central electric cover? I have a spare I'm not using. Also have an extra bumper shock or two since it looks like you need some of them in the back. If you plan to do anything with the brakes, I've got front and rear calipers, with almost new pads and rotors sitting in my garage for an '85. Let me know.

 

what are the option codes??
The car looks like it can still be saved with minimum effort.
The colors look good too .
The rear bumper shocks are toast and the rear PU should POP out with a new set of shocks, leave it sitting in the sun for a day or so to let it reform itself.
Of course remove the air cleaner and see if there are any other nests under the intake.
After putting in the marvel i would turn the engine over by hand to move the oil around.
This will take about 3,000.00 to get things going and all of the subsystems back on line.
you can probably drop the tank as the insides are prolly filled with nasty stuff, pull the fuel pump fuse before you turn the key so it wont pump nasty fuel into the injectors, (figure on a whole fuel system refresh including a new fuel pump and possibly a fuel strainer as well as cleaning the injectors and all new fuel lines. Goodluck, Stan

 

Looks pretty good, leather dash an console too. We need to get together, I'm only 2 hours away.

Glenn

 

You have gone absolutely nuts! Love it! This is a very nice find, great color combo IMHO, and should not take a whole lot to bring the cosmetics into very nice shape. That DS rear quarter panel will pop right back out, I'll bet, with some careful bumping, and the rear bumper cover will be no problem at all (as has been already pointed out). So the big question is which one from your stable goes to SITM?

 

Excellent. I like that clean look with no rear spoiler. My 86.5 was largely dormant before I bought it and one thing I would have done different is I would have pulled the engine when I first got it. Of course, this assumes you are pretty sure it's salvageable. I guess turning the crank will tell you.

You're going to need to do fuel lines and intake, maybe the front and rear camshaft seals, maybe cam gaskets, probably motor mounts and oil pan gasket, definitely timing belt and water pump. I have done most of it one at a time, but could have done it all faster and better if I just pulled the engine to start and went though everything. Then I would have had better access to hoses and lines, harnesses, coolant and washer reservoirs.

+1 to what Stan said about looking for mice. I had dead mice in my airbox, in my radiator shroud, nestled here and there, they had chewed through the 7-way vacuum splitter. And Stan was lucky enough to get to remove pounds and pounds of mouse turd when he installed my new torque tube. I'm lucky that they had left the electrical systems alone.

Matt

 

I saw Chris's 85 yesterday and it really looks good. And I agree about the nice color combo.

First thing I noticed was body damage is rather superficial. Even the front pax 1/4. I think a little PDR magic will do the trick there.
Second thing I noticed is its all there. No missing pieces to speak of.

It needs some help and Chris is the guy to do it. Let me know when you tackle the MM job... will return the favor.

Congrats!

 

Chris,
Great find and it could not be in better hands.
Looks great and far better than I expected when I read your preamble.
Roger