Project Blackheart

[Chalky]

Hi All, well the dust has finally settled and I feel now is the appropriate moment to announce the commencment of my new build, "Project Blackheart". I'm going to add more detail and pics shortly but the basic jist involves taking the seven years of R&D and Hi-Po parts from Blackie the Wonderbeater and adding those to what was going to be the concourse restoration of my '84 t-top SVO.

So, think Concourse Restomod and you'll have some idea where this going. It's gonna be fun, more to come.

[Bob Holmes]

I'm looking forward to this one. Bring on the pictures.

[MikeFleming]

Concours Restomod? Shouldn't that be in RED?

[SVO4PWR2]

Concourse Restomod:like4r:

-RICH-

[dagenham]

I cant wait to see how this all goes. Sounds like fun!

[SVOninjaboy]

Definitely like the sound of "concours restomod", but would that be an oxymoron? Like it anyway!

[TTop Dave]

Looking forward to seeing picures of this build.

[Ford Builder]

You have my attention Chris, you take the stage.

[BrianM]

Can't wait to see it

[blueboss]

Will "project Blackheart" come with a set of winter tires.....:stick_poke: :cool:

[Chalky]

"Perhaps you'd better start at the beginning"

To do this we need to go back to 2008 when I purchased a $300 valve cover and got a free SVO!!! Basically, the story, as covered in the attached story from Modified Mustangs and Fords and in the first entry in my blog (follow the link below), involves a long road trip and much help from my friends. The car basically sat for a few years while I was working on other cars and life stuff.

The plan evolved and changed over the course of time. Originally I had planned to build a nice stock driver since I already had a hot-rod, "Blackie". Then, I found and sourced some of the very rare NOS parts and so the plan changed and I was going to do a full concours original resto. This led to a 4 year search for parts, info and any little tid-bit I could find that would allow me to build the perfectly restored SVO. Many of these thought and discussions were covered over on the Concours Mustang forums with other like minded "what colour is the bolt", "wheres this date stamp go" anorak types. Kinda fun.

With the demise of "Blackie the Wonderbeater" in January this year the rule book got thrown out the window, literally!!! I had decided a little while before this that building a concours trailer queen wasn't really my thing anyway, so it kind of worked out. I didn't like the cars original colour 1E and thought it better to keep it white as found. I am hoping one day someone's going to walk up to a show and say "hey, thats my old car!!!" Also, having t-tops and no "D" code on the door tag is gonna loose you points in a judged class as well. To that end, the plans involves taking one beaten up but restorable t-top shell and one REALLY beaten up black car with a thumping heart and build one hell of a nice street hot-rod t-top!!!

[Ford Builder]

Wow what a cool story, the poor car looks like it was left for dead, good thing we have to keep a positive outlook of what it could be. I know I all ways do. I look at what my car was like and most would of passed it by. I have no regrets, am very happy with what I have built.

[Bob Holmes]

Good lord!!!!!!!!!!!

I have absolutely nothing to complain about on my cars.

You have "vision" where others see only something fit for a junkyard.

Much respect, my friend.

[etc1006]

Right on!!

[Meotchh]

Good lord!!!!!!!!!!!

I have absolutely nothing to complain about on my cars.

You have "vision" where others see only something fit for a junkyard.

Much respect, my friend.
Imagine what I was thinking when I pulled in the driveway & saw what I was picking up on the drive to Seattle. I was seriously questioning his sanity when the previous owner & I were loading it on the trailer in Fresno in 100 degree weather.

[Bob Holmes]

Yeah, I saw the ad and didn't bite. And I'm just up the road.

[MikeFleming]

Y'alls know that Einstein, aka Weird Uncle Albert, is famous for saying "Imagination is more important than knowledge."

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Chris just has more imagination than most of us. Some say it's because he hears voices - to each his own. We all own SVOs, right?

[Chalky]

So, after Mitch dropped the car off at Josh's place, and if either of you wish to elaborate please do, the first step was to do a good assessment of the car and give it a good cleaning. We started by removing and cataloguing all the parts that were included in the car then we removed the trashed(!!!!) seats and cleaned and vacuumed the interior. Carpets were covered in some nut shells, gotta love rodents, and dirt and dust = dumpster. We also found some weird crazy wiring. Looks like someone at some stage installed an alarm/ central locking system at some stage and it wasn't done well. More on that later.

I was pleased to find relatively solid rust free floors as t-top cars are prone to having rusty floorboards due to water leaks. We did find some unexplainable holes in the floor but we'll get to that later:):):)

I gotta tell ya, 15 years in the Fresno desert will keep a a car rust free, but man there's some dust there!!!! After a good dust off with compressed air and a shop vac we gave the car a bath for the first time in however many years.

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[MikeFleming]

Ahh, memories! Reminds me of the Red Baron before it's new adventure.

[JTurbo]

Looks good so far Chalky.

[Meotchh]

Just leaving the guy's house/farm in Fresno, the temp was cooling off as I pulled away
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Stopped by to visit with Greg Hess on the way up, he was amazed at the basket case
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Piss break!
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Still following me up Hwy99
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Yup it's still there...
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[Ford Builder]

Looks like a pretty solid car over all it may tired .

[Rlessary]

Cant wait to see the end result.

[Ford Builder]

We need a update?

[Chalky]

Hi All, sorry it's been a while since I did an update, but things have been REALLY busy at work and there has been some.....flux in my life:):) Suffice to say work on the t-top is continuing, many parts have already been built, the cars been on the rotisserie getting it's floors repaired and the bolt on panels get their second coat of filler primer tomorrow.

But, if all goes to plan, this will be following me home on Saturday:):)

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[Meotchh]

That's been around the block & hardly gone anywhere in several years.

[Chalky]

Well, with a little help from Josh & Satera Fenley and my Aussie mate Lawrie, XGF154517 is sitting in my garage. Haven't done much to it yet apart from take stock of what is there, clean the crap out of the interior, start drying it out and start cleaning the engine bay.

Also hooked up a set of jumper leads to the battery cables from my '93 LX today and most all of the electrical systems, apart from windshield wipers, seem to be working. Having said that, I will be going through the whole electrical system very thoroughly after I've had a chance to dig in a little more. Then it's onto planning the "Blackheart Transplant".

For fun, here's a couple more pics of what I'm starting with. Hey, she's a little rough, but at least I don't have to replace a 1/4 panel on this one:):):)

[JTurbo]

Chalky, I'm confused. I thought the t-top car was getting the transplant from Blackie?

Congrats on the new addition....

[Chalky]

Joe, that was the original the plan, I really wanted a hot rod, "Blackie" and the t-top was supposed to get a stock resto. Now the plan is back to more of what it was going to be......sort of:):):)

[TheSVOTrust]

Does that mean you will use the E and G Leather you got from me?? (Because I need that ONE 84 seat you forgot in Sturgis!)

[Chalky]

For now yes. Mark tell me what seat you need, position and year, I have about 7 in storage.

[TheSVOTrust]

How quickly we forget ! It was the seat you where to drive to Sturgis on! 1984 Cloth Drivers seat with good piping!

[Chalky]

So, Happy New Year everyone:):) It's been a while since I updated, but I've gotten a lot done. I removed the seats and carpet, which I hit with degreaser and took to the local carwash and hit it with the high pressure soap. It came up pretty well apart from the usual fading with no holes or tears. I did get some funny looks from the girls at Dutch Bros Coffee when i drove through with a carpet ratchet strapped to the trunk of my '93 coupe though!!!

Also found some rust under the asphalt insulation under the rear seat. I removed of the insulation much as possible, that stuff is stuck HARD!!, and hit the area with ospho before giving it a coat of Rust Stop white paint. I'm going the Flat Bob route and replacing that factory stuff with some duct insulation and also added some of that to the floor pan under the front seats.

I have also painted the spats, tail lights and tail light panel. The car was fitted with black spats, one an E4 one an E5, most likely due to the common E6 spat crumbleing issue. Grabbed a spare set of E4's I had and prepped and painted them. The tailights were in good shape, just faded, so i masked them up, which takes about 2 hours, and scuffed and painted them. After a light polish they came up really well.

I also painted the tail light panel. I've been playing around with this idea for years and decided to try it. I was going for that old school muscle car look and think it came out pretty well. You may have noticed that I used semi-gloss black instead of charcoal grey. Well, I had a bunch of sg black and no grey so that was part of it and I also prefer the look of black and white to black and grey. Next job is pull the dash, switch heater boxes and paint the engine bay, then we might be ready for a driveline!!!

[MikeFleming]

Sweet - thanks for sharing.

[JTurbo]

Good progress Chalky!!!

[Ford Builder]

So we know what you been doing in your spare time , looking good

[FoxBuddy]

I have also painted the tail lights. The tailights were in good shape, just faded, so i masked them up, which takes about 2 hours, and scuffed and painted them. After a light polish they came up really well.

Do you have any more pictures on the procedure to do this? I'm planning on doing all of my trim next year (fingers crossed) and the masking, scuff, paint and polish order you did on the tailights confused me.

Nice work BTW! Thanks!

[Chalky]

I mask off the lenses and give all the parts to be painted a mild scuff, a few light passes, with a red scotchbrite pad. Then I clean with DX-330, mask of the backside, re-clean with DX-330, wait for it to dry and then do two coats of Dupli-color da-1699 primer followed by three coats of da-1603 semi-gloss black. I prefer the Dupli-Color stuff because I've been using it for years and have good experience with how it flows and how thick I can spray it before it runs.

After the lenses were done I noticed a couple of scratches in the plastic so I thought it would be a good idea to hit it with some headlight restorer cream and a power ball. It can also take some of the ridges off the freshly painted stripes which gets them closer to original. You could buff the lenses before masking and paint, but mine were fairly faded and would've removed the lines which I needed as a guide for my tape lines.

One day I'm going to make a tool that allows me to re-stripe without masking, but that's for later.

[Chalky]

Hi All, been a while since I did an update but saw Joe's post and decided to get back in the game!!! Haven't had much time to work on the car recently, what with getting my '93 LX tarted up for the 50TH, then the trip to Vegas. I've also started work on a new TV series, TNT's "The Librarians". https://www.facebook.com/TheLibrarians Sorry for the shameless plug:):):)

I've been working my way through several areas of the car. Had the dash out to replace the heater box with one I fully rebuilt. I've decided this car WILL have heat AND A/C!!!! New heater core and Evap. fitted as well as all new foam seals in the box.

I decided while the heater box was out I would repaint the engine bay. There's nothing worse than having a nice car with a crappy looking engine bay, ask me how I know, so I decided while I don't have an engine in the car I would rub it back and repaint it. I pulled everything out or aside and wrapped all the remaining stuff in aluminium foil. Primed and painted it and seem to have come out really well.

Someone's gonna ask, I used Ace Hardware "Rust Stop" gloss white because I had some left over from doing the floors and it's a pretty decent match for 9L!!!! It's also $5 a can.

After that I've gotten around to getting everything back together. Been going through boxes and finding stuff that'sready to go and using some of my replated hardware. Figure I'll just send another batch out when I'm done. Also, you can't see it but there is an intake tube from an '82 GT running to the lower part of the fender as a CAI. I've also modified the airbox with a 3" pipe for better airflow and there's a K&N in there. All the wiring has been checked an re-wrapped.

Moving to the other side, I've bolted in a new brake booster, the coil and re-wired the 200amp fuse for my 3G alt. Looking at the main power harness, it's pretty hacked up so I think I'm gonna swap in the one from 6GF207907 which is almost perfect. BTW, don't worry about the messy onion heads, thy're getting replace with MM CC plates as soon as I can get the car on a lift. But that's another story.

Anyways, hope to get it close to ready to drop the driveline in next weekend. Enjoy the pics.

[Kendal Coker]

Lots of good work. Keep it up. later Kendal

[TheSVOTrust]

Hi All, been a while since I did an update started work on a new TV series, TNT's "The Librarians". https://www.facebook.com/TheLibrarians Sorry for the shameless plug:):):)

Yeah really hard working with Rebecca Romijn ! I'll bet Sada gave you the RULES of work. No Geeking off! Mark

[Chalky]

Well, last Saturday was a very busy day. We hauled the '86 over to Josh's Dad's place and threw it up on the lift. We did a full rear suspensions swap, MM lowers, J&M uppers, Blackie's Koni reds and H&R springs, the '94 17" tri-bars, the full 3" exhaust, Satera and I refitted the dash, MM Steering shaft and steering column, we hooked up a bunch of the wiring and then dropped in the motor and gearbox. We also did a full brake flush and bleed which was much needed.

We hauled the car back to my place and pushed it back into the garage. This morning, I did a few more wiring fixes and checked everything and then dropped a battery in. Pump primes, fuel pressure present but no start. I decided to bridge the starter solenoid and low and behold she started!!!! No radiator at this stage so i just let it run for a few seconds.

I'm going to do some checks for the no-key issue and when that's resolved bolt everything back together and see about taking it for a drive!!!!

I haven't had a chance to post pics yet but there are some here.....

http://instagram.com/chalkys_explorer and here.....

http://instagram.com/svocop

[MikeFleming]

Party On, Wayne!!

[Ford Builder]

Well Chris, am glad to see your making great process

[Chalky]

Well, the no key start issue was because I didn't have the backup light harness connected. Hooked that up and VROOM!!!!

Been a busy few weeks so progress has been slow. Got the cooling system all bolted in a filled and checked cooling fan operation, all good. I re-ran the wiring and installed my boost/ oil/ water gauge pod. I was having a problem with the heater only hitting the window. The vacuum routing is different 84-86 so a minor adjustment there and I have warm feet:):) Also had to replace the circuit breaker for the windscreen wipers and re-fit the mechanism.

I also decided that instead of using the 86 flush headlights I would use the Hella 9003 enclosures from Blackie. They survived the crash fine and so I installed them and refitted my PLA headlight harness. took a little bit of work and wiring but I now have super bright headlights so I'm happy.

Went to the DMV the other day and got a trip permit. Am planning on re-fiiting the steering wheel, a drivers seat and a seatbelt and we'll see if we can pass the smog test on Saturday:):):)
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[Ford Builder]

SWEET , Am very happy she's working fine for you .

[JTurbo]

Good progress Chris, keep going!

[SJones86SVO]

Look forward to following the restoration. You are making great progress considering what you started with!! I will try to get pics of my 86 SVO in the next week.

[Chalky]

Well, yesterday was a good day. I spent a few hours Friday night buttoning up some loose ends, basically getting the car to the point where it was driveable. I put in a seat and a steering wheel and got most of the assorted junk out of the car. I also checked fluids and bolted in a coolant recovery bottle.

Saturday morning, took it down to the local Chevron and added a few gallons of premium. There was a god awful scraping/ rubbing sound coming from the driveline. Threw it up on a jack when I got home and discovered someone had crossed the e-brake cables. Fixed that and then took a trip to the OR DMV DEQ test station. Nice and quiet for a Saturday so pulled straight up.

The driveline had always passed DEQ with ease but I was a little worried as I haven't properly set TPS/idle or changed the plugs in 2 years and it's been blowing a little smoke on startups since being fitted to this car. Well, to my relief and surprise it passed!! I'm a happy little bunny. I'll be submitting the title and plate request this week and the last time I checked "BLK HRT" was available so we'll see what happens.

Having said that, she still needs a LOT of work. The brakes are original to the car and although we bled them and added a new booster they are pretty terrible. They work, but I decided to leave plenty of room in traffic. There's also no interior in the car apart from a seat and the carpet so she's pretty loud and rattly!! There is a blown strut on the pass. side front so she wallows a bit especially considering the front is all old stock and the back is all MM, H&R and good Koni's. It's not exactly a balanced ride. Hopefully adding the SN-95, MM, H&R, Koni yellow combo I have this coming weekend and then it should resolve some of these issues.

With all that in mind, it's just nice to drive an SVO again and certainly put a smile on my face.

[18lbs]

Nice stuff but brakes are good.

[Chalky]

It's been to long time between drinks and although there hasn't been a huge amount of progress because I've been super busy at work we're getting there. Another day at the shop saw the whole front suspension removed and replaced with some of Blackies old MM parts plus a bunch of new SN95 parts. If anyone's wondering they are original SVO arms with SN95 balljoints.

I also got a package in the mail that made me very happy. Need to switch the rack and get an alignment and then we should be good to go. You can find more pics at the instagram pages but here are a couple to wet the appetite.

[Ford Builder]

Its good to hear from you, she is getting close.

[Chalky]

Things are progressing slowly, it's been a very busy start to the the year workwise so I haven't gotten a whole lot done. Seem to have fixed the electrical gremlin and a while ago josh and I fitted the new exhaust. It's a hybrid Merkur Depot/Stinger 3" to twin 2.5" full stainless with Magnaflow mufflers. I have a wastegate with a v-band which will eventually be fitted to the new turbo I got from Laredo a few years ago for which I am having all the parts apart from the CHRA ceramic coated coated. The system sounds pretty good and I like the look and sound more than the 3" single that was fitted. Here's a link to a clip of it running.

https://instagram.com/p/wCYNzbBeJw/?taken-by=svocop

Also started blowing some smoke a few weeks ago. It's not the valve stem seals because it starts a few minutes after startup. Josh and I suspect it's the oil return line which has been on the engine since it's was built nearly 100K ago. I've got a new one which we'll put on and if that's not it, the new turbo is going on.

[Meotchh]

Have you checked your plugs to see what they look like? That would be an easier & more logical place to start than the oil drain line.

[Chalky]

Good advice, it is due for a plug change but it's been running for a few months with those plugs before it's started smoking.

[Laredo]

Looking good Chris! Thanks for keeping us up to date...

[Meotchh]

Good advice, it is due for a plug change but it's been running for a few months with those plugs before it's started smoking.
The point is to check the plugs to determine if you are burning oil in any one cylinder.

[Chalky]

Got it aligned. That's it, all i got:):)

[Chalky]

Actually, I was being cheeky, quite a bit has been done. The 8.8" rear out of Blackie was cleaned, painted and fitted with the '03 Cobra brakes, MM lines and DBA rotors. We also fitted the new turbo and ported E6. I got the turbo from Laredo but can't remember the specs apart from the fact that it a t3/t4 hybrid with a .63 turbine. Got that written down somewhere Doug?? it's the one he had Charlie from Evergreen build courtesy of the SVOCA re-union door prize thingy. It stopped the smoking problem so that made me happy. The E6 is the one that the machine shop messed up and heli-coiled so I'm running to see how long they last. It's ported and ceramic coated so it will be an interesting test. I also had the compressor housing coated in "cerami-chrome" so it's nice and shiny. As always, Finishline Coatings did the business and the parts look great.

We also fitted up an original SVO Spearco. I guess Josh bought it on eBay and since I had given him Blackie's old set-up he asked if I wanted it?? Is the Pope a Catholic bar that s#%$ts in the woods?!?!?!?! Hell yeah, I'll take it!!!! It didn't come with the mounting brackets or cross-over pipe so we made the brackets and had an exhaust shop bend up a pipe to suit. Turned out really well and is much more solid than the original setup as we used 1-1/2" angle iron and designed it to fit under the whole sway bar mounting bracket. The piping was powder coated by Jeremy ( In2Fords ), I also welded nuts to the mounting bracket so it's a one handed job to bolt it up. I'm glad to have this setup as it will allow me to run a stock A/C system which will make me happy.

You can find some pics of this stuff here: https://instagram.com/chalkys_explorer/ and here https://instagram.com/svocop/

[Laredo]

I got the turbo from Laredo but can't remember the specs apart from the fact that it a t3/t4 hybrid with a .63 turbine. Got that written down somewhere Doug?? it's the one he had Charlie from Evergreen build courtesy of the SVOCA re-union door prize thingy

Chris, do you still have your old emails archived from a couple years ago? I forwarded on the complete specs to you that I got directly from Charlie. I lost all of my old emails and pst files when my laptop crashed last year. Otherwise I'll check with Charlie to see if still has records on it.

[at6so]

Its great to see this car coming back to life. As someone who is doing the same thing right now, I know how much work is involved. The 13" front rotors DBA units also? If so, where did you source them from?

[Chalky]

Doug, I think the conversation about the turbo was via pm on SVOCA, so either way, i don't have it.

Mike, the rotors front and rear are DBA T2's. I bought them because they were cheaper than Brembo's but were the only other one's I could confirm weren't made in China. Forged in OZ!!!! got them from American Muscle.

[Chalky]

Doug, looked back through some e-mails, looks like it's a T04B U trim.

[Chalky]

Holy Back from the dead Batman!!! Well, between buying, selling and renovating a house and spending 6 months in L.A. working, not much has happened.......till last weekend.

Josh came over early and we dug in to finally get my brakes working as they should. We removed the stock M/C, gutted the prop valve and then fitted new parts. Machined Cobra M/C into a stock SVO booster, MM BPV1 and the MM prop valve plug. I did have a set of pre-bent hard lines to go from the M/C to prop valve, but I'd see an article a few years ago about Joe Gosinski's Mustang and he'd used custom braided lines. I thought it looked really neat and so I had the guys at Oil Filter Services make some up for me. Worked a treat and look sharp!!

After a full flush and bleed the pedal felt good so we moved on to the engine. Fitted a set of injectors I'd had RC Engineering clean and balance and fitted a rebuilt Kirban AFPR. Also pulled an NOS Motorsport valve cover and seperator out of their boxes and threw them on, just because!!

After dropping if off the stands, it was time to check the brakes. Yep, they WORK!!!!! Holy hell do those big rotors pull 'er up. I'm gonna have to get used to all that stopping power.

Good fun. Now I have to go through all the boxes in my garage, find the rest of the parts, make a list of things to be done and get this thing together!!! Pics to come.

[BLK BRD 88]

This thread went dead on my birthday two years ago and I have been wondering what was going on these past couple of years with your "BLK HRT" project.
Great to hear that you are still making progress.
We jumped back into the SVO mad-house last month when we bought a 1C early 84 in Spokane.

It's in storage up there now and before we bring it down here to Az, we hope to meet some of you from the N.W. this summer.
Ron

[Chalky]

oh, you bought Al Moglia's car? That's a nice one!!!

[BLK BRD 88]

oh, you bought Al Moglia's car? That's a nice one!!!

Yep we did!
We had in mind that we wanted an 85.5 or 86, because of the few improvements on the later models, but neither of us really like the total aero look with the flush headlights.
Al's was so much like the slapper bar 84 that we sold a couple of years ago, (just in better condition with lots of upgrades), that we couldn't resist.
Ron

[BLK BRD 88]

Chalky, I don't mean to highjack your build thread, but briefly do you know any of the history of Al's car before he bought it? Evidently it started out at a dealership near Mt. Hood and then resided in the Seattle area after that for many years.
PM me if you want to keep this thread on subject..........thanks
Ron