1985 Eagle Sedan Fleet model project

[Daltwait]

Could you expand on your process for switching from carpet to the painted, textured flooring?  What products did you use? What underlay type of coating? How is the interior on a hot summer day? Looks awesome!

[TEagle85]

.

[TEagle85]

Could you expand on your process for switching from carpet to the painted, textured flooring?  What products did you use? What underlay type of coating? How is the interior on a hot summer day? Looks awesome!

The carpet was pretty torn up and worn, Figured if I re did it I would tare it up again. I like it, no worries of mud, dirt, snow, and all that. I do need to drill a small drain hole in the floor pans. I do have weathertech floor mats down so that helps a little with sound vibration and comfort. I imagine you could make your own heavy duty rubber mats and shape them however you want with some cardboard templates. Maybe oversized to creep onto the trans housing and under the seats to help with more sound? 

To pull all the carpet you have to remove all the panels close to the floor, kicker panels, side pillars, and anything thats keeping the carpet down. Seats and seat belts too.  I'm sure if you want to do some planning and masking you can get away with leaving some of that stuff.  Good time to patch any rust areas too.
Clean everything with some degreaser as best as you can and sand for adhesion. I used a roll on truck bed liner kit from Autozone. Think it was around $100, gave me 3 coats and a little extra for touch ups.

As for comfort this car is one step above a covered wagon. I've pretty much stripped this car down to the bare essentials and thats how I want it.  Its nice to be reminded no matter what car your in your really just in a steel box flying 18 inches above a concrete highway at 70mph. Keeps you on your toes.
[/quote]

[TEagle85]

Got my new Torque converter in from Precision of New Hampton, I called them up and they took a stock rebuild and welded on a Allison trans neck for some added strength.
here is the site. http://gopnh.com/  cost around $200.
Untitled by T A, on Flickr

Also decided since I already have half of the car apart I might as well get the motor rebuilt. All stock but bore out the pistons as much as needed (little bit of a lip going on in the indie wall) and add a comp cam. Ill keep it updated when that gets underway. First step is to make sure the block and head are goo to go for a rebuild then order parts.
Untitled by T A, on Flickr

[TEagle85]

Trans is done, redid the valve body with a Trans-go TF-2 kit. Redid all the bushings, clutches, oil pump, o-rings, and bands with a "high performance" rebuild kit from Oregon Performance Transmission. A lot of parts there but very hard to do business with since they don't communicate over the phone.
New Torque converter as mentioned above.
Here is how it looks now, not really tightened all the way down yet if you look close. I want to pull the oil pump housing again to make sure the new bushing and oring are still good. Went in a little rough.
Untitled by T A, on Flickr

Also got the engine pulled. Its getting picked up tomorrow by the machine shop. Going to first get it cleaned and checked. I have a bit of a lip on the cylinder walls so I plan to get it bored .020 over with sealed power pistons. Also sealed power rockers, Comp cam kit. Melling oil pump, and I got a new aluminum valve cover.
On its way!
Untitled by T A, on Flickr

[kevindpm61]

You're really going to town on the sedan. It looks great! There's always something to do on a 30+ year old car.........my son is finding that out on his SX/4.

[TEagle85]

yeah I know, its a problem. I have like 20 things going on between the trans, engine, transfercase, redoing the fuel line, putting in a new aluminum radiator, and trans cooler. Motor should be done mid next week. So while its out I'm patching a few rust spots near the control arm. Then its getting it all back in and making sure everything mates up nicely. I know thats going to be the tricky part.
Think Im going to drop the motor in first, then lift the car to remount the front diff and slide in the trans.  Drop and fire it up!

[TEagle85]

Engine bay is cleaned up with a few patches made and paint applied.
Got the motor back last week, bored .030 over with the comp cam. Everything is pretty much new.
Got the motor in by myself with the help of "Beaverseagle" engine hoist that he dropped off and let me borrow. Much appreciated man!
 
Also had ARP headbolts put on and sealed power rocker bridges so I can run the aftermarket alum valve cover. Sooooo nice after dealing with that pos plastic cover.

The original long dipstick snapped off in the block. So I got a new one for a 00' 4.0.  Shorter so I got some weight savings on the front end.

Hooked all the accessories back up and hit all the brackets with POR15 and all the attaching hardware I got new grade 8 bolts. Looking pretty clean in there. Super pumped. Never owned a vehicle this clean.

Sealing up the front dif with por15 and swapping the gear oil and gasket. That goes back in followed by the rebuilt trans. Since I never rebuilt a trans before this one let alone knew how they work, Im crossing my fingers everything is fine. Seemed like a pretty straight forward process so I should be ok.
Had me worried working on the valve body with that TF-2 shift kit. They have you drilling and grinding stuff down. Makes you feel like your doing something you shouldn't. Time will tell.

Next is the transfercase. Tempted to just leave alone. I do have a rebuild kit but still need the chain. Which is funny because what started this whole rebuild was the sloppy chain in the Tcase and thats going to be the one thing I dont do.

Thinking of holding on to the rebuild kit and putting it on a NP229.   
Also Im having a hard time finding a NP129 chain. The one I did find said it would also fit a NP229. Under that logic will a NP229 chain work in my NP129?
Just to save the headache of tracking a 229 down, reclocking it and all makes me want to just rebuild the one I have. Maybe later in life Ill upgrade the eagle again with other stuff. Viscus coupler feels fine, plenty of resistance.

Untitled by T A, on Flickr

Untitled by T A, on Flickr

Untitled by T A, on Flickr

[vangremlin]

Everything is looking good, man!  And that shorter dipstick is going to make a world of difference in your performance 

[TEagle85]

The short throw dipstick mod is often overlooked. Plan to do a write up soon.

[TEagle85]

More work done, plugging away at attaching all the engine accessories. No surprises there.
Got the new radiator in and just matched up a hose up top. Bottom Hose will require a little bit of engineering. Added a trans cooler.
I added barbed fittings on the trans and cooler so Ill be running rubber hoses from cooler to trans. I have some reflective heat shielding that runs over the rubber lines. Ill just have to make sure the exhaust has plenty of room to pass the hoses. Going to need like 12ft to get the job done.
Painted the bumpers with truck bed lining and picked up some KC lights. Excited to get those on there.
Untitled by T A, on Flickr

Untitled by T A, on Flickr

Untitled by T A, on Flickr

Spent a bit of time redesigning the intake manifold pre-heater. Since the conductive discs  on the old set up shattered I found a small heating element that runs 12v and heats up to 70c. Close to operating temp. I used high heat epoxy to hold the element in the housing and pounded out a new bottom plate since the old one was rusted out. Made some new gaskets too.
Almost done just need to pop those rivets and pound them flush.
I plan to run it to a switch inside the car so I can manually turn it on. Switch it on before start up in the winter and off once up to temp.
Another toggle switch added to my panel!! Yay!!!

Untitled by T A, on Flickr

Untitled by T A, on Flickr

Untitled by T A, on Flickr

[TEagle85]

Untitled by T A, on Flickr

All assembled and back in the manifold. Got both manifolds in this morning before work. Just need a couple fluid lines and some fluid and ready to start her up. Hopefully tomorrow.

[amcfool1]

you go dude! that is some impressive fabrication, love it, gz

[TEagle85]

Forgot to post this but found the build sheet under the carpet. Indeed a Fleet car.
Also found a live 38cal round. Clues to its previous life? With the hole in the trunk for a whip antenna maybe police car? My friends mom used to work along the power lines in MI back in the day and she said they used Eagles.
I know its been in Indiana the majority of its life so who knows.
Untitled by T A, on Flickr
Untitled by T A, on Flickr

[Prafeston]

What a cool historical find!