Automotive

Up until around 2016 or so, I primarily drove these quirky "Turbo Mopars" employing Chrysler's 2.2L turbocharged powertrain.  My last daily driver of this type was a 1986 Dodge Daytona Turbo Z C/S.  The car was a bit of a basket case when I got it, but it was eventually sorted out: the frame was straightened, the floor pans replaced, and the powertrain and interior were upgraded.  It was a very fun and comfortable car to drive (for a Turbo-Mopar anyway).  Eventually I had to let it go, as it just wasn't practical to use a 30+ year-old car as a daily.

My previous daily driver from 1995 through 2002 was a 1988 Dodge Shadow ES.  It was laid to rest due to a fatal case paint peel and floorpan/frame rust.  It had been in a few collisions over its life and it just wasn't worth saving.  Prior to that, I drove a 1987 Dodge Shadow Turbo and a 1987 Plymouth Sundance Turbo.  I had a thing for these particular cars (the "P-body", in Turbo-Mopar parlance), especially the first generation (1987-1988).

Back when I first graduated from college, I strongly desired the ultimate first-generation P-body: the 1987 Shelby CSX.  After some searching and waiting for the right car in my price range, I found Shelby CSX #694 of 750.  It has mainly been a project car, though it has had to step in as a daily from time to time.  This is the last of these cars that I still own.

Chrysler had an interesting relationship with Carroll Shelby in the late 1980s.  While the resulting vehicles were never taken very seriously in muscle car circles, a great online community did form around them.  The discourse has moved from mailing lists to online Forums to (unfortunately) Facebook Groups, but the community itself still exists.  The Shelby-Dodge Auto Club still holds an annual convention to this day.

In the dark recesses of the Internet lies an ancient tome of knowledge that (according to the server logs) people still visit for some reason: Mini-Mopar Resources.

The Daytona: January 20, 2006

Posted on January 20, 2006.

Got some custom brackets welded to the front of the frame rails so that the new beams inside the core support have something to bolt to.  Yes, bolt...no dinky welds on the edges of tin foil sheet metal.  I can't believe these things stay on for as long as they do.  I noticed some cracking on the CSX near the spot welds, just like on my old Shadow.  I painted it all with POR-15.  The frame rails are inside being prepped for paint as well.  While I was painting, I painted the inside of the floorpans with POR-15.  What's that? I already did that? Yep, it's true.  For reasons I don't fully understand, the paint on the inside of the pans (only) bubbled up and delaminated from the new metal.  I followed the directions and did all the right metal prep, but the surface of the new metal was very smooth which seemed to have effected the bonding strength of the paint.  I also did the first coat of that paint with an older can of flat black and did the second coat with newer gloss black.  Perhaps that was a factor.  I hit the metal with a 40-grit sanding wheel on the angle grinder.  I suspect that it won't happen again.

I also built up the adapter harnesses that I need to install the ATC system.  I have the heater/AC out and the ATC parts are all installed on it.  I completely failed to notice the respirator for the passenger cabin air temp sensor in the donor that I got the ATC from.  Apparently it's behind the instrument cluster somewhere.  I managed to identify the thermistor type of the sensor based on some diagnostic data I found in the 1987 and 1991 FSMs.  A small computer fan, a little RatShack project case, and some tubing later, we have one respirator.

The CSX: January 15, 2006

Posted on January 15, 2006.

For reasons I don't quite understand, the #4 exhaust cam and follower got trashed.  The valve train was making some horrible sounds when I got home from the meeting last night.  I swapped the FM475 cam with an '88 TBI roller cam.  Also put in the PT Cruiser followers.  The valvetrain is very quite and the lope at idle is gone.  Idles real smooth, but runs a little rich now and lost some bottom-end and midrange torque.  Pulls OK at the top end.  Need an adjustible cam sprocket, as I can't remember if the donor car had the square tooth or round tooth sprocket.

The Daytona: January 3, 2006

Posted on January 03, 2006.

Hacked off the old core support and the 20lbs of random steel that had been welded to the frame rails for it.  Wore out 2 cut-off disks and one grinding wheel for the angle grinder to do it.  Brad just so happened to hack the whole nose off of an '88 J-body a while back, which I picked up from him a few weeks back.  The spot-weld drill bit from Eastwood was really handy in separating the two halves.  I'm going to add some reinforcements to this thing on the inside so that it can take some abuse.

I also fabbed the brackets and installed some bolts/studs in the tunnel to adapt the '91 center console to the car.  I finally have my head around the different types of late-style G-body center consoles and I finally have the parts I need to do what I want, thanks to Paul Fosen.

There are two completely different center consoles and underlying bracketry available.  There is the "cockpit" sytle, where the console is several inches higher than the normal one.  The extra height is split between the top plastic part and the side "fuzzies".  The ash tray then completely blocks off the lower two bays in the center instrument panel.  All you get is the radio and the heater/AC controls, which means the bezel around these is missing the bottom half.  It also requires a different e-brake arm and the bracket under the console raises the shifter partly, but not completely up.  The leather boot around the shifter is huge as a result.

The "normal" style lowers the center console by several inches, revealing the lower two bays.  The bottom bay, used for the factory CD player, may be blocked off by the plastic in front of the ash tray.  It may also be filled with a little fuzzy storage bay when there is no CD player.  I've seen both.  The instrument panel bezel is then extended to surround these two bays and meet the center console.  If you ever do anything like this, grab all of the center console parts and anything that goes near it.  If you factor in manual-vs-automatic, there are four possible setups for these things.  The cockpit style console may have been obsoleted after 1991, as I have never seen one in a '92 or later.

The Daytona: November 7, 2005

Posted on November 07, 2005.

Just shot the clearcoat on the doors.  Spent the past month filling dents and primering the doors and the new hood.  Shot the color on the doors last night and now they are cleared.  The clear refused to lay flat unless I loaded it on there good.  There is a fine line between accomplishing that and ending up with runs and sags.  Got a couple of runs and lots of orange peel.  What a pain.  I had this same problem with clear before.  I think I need to use a different clear coat system.

I don't have time to do the hood due to the cold weather approaching, but the old hood is still on the car and if I can get the fenders off of JT's black '87, then I can at least drive it.

The CSX: November 2, 2005

Posted on November 02, 2005.

Some dude switched lanes right in front of me while I was accelerating to merge into traffic and checking my blind spot.  I hit the brakes and swerved too hard to avoid him, came around and ended up in the guard rail while going backwards.  These cars are way too tail-happy when you are really on the hooks.  The car hit the front corner first, so the front fender and the door took the brunt of the damage.  They are a loss, but the rear quarter is definately fixable...it didn't even touch the tail light.  All four of my new tires have flat spots on them now, especially the fronts.  Grr....

I pushed the front-end underbody out with the Porta-Power, gave the fender some foot-stomping action out in the yard.  Also used the Porta-Power to push the door back out by the hinges.  Doesn't look half-bad, considering how little time I spent on it.  The Daytona is nowhere near being done, so the CSX still needs to put out.