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tfrasca's 142 Turbo Project

I forgot to mention that I bypassed the rheostat entirely, so all the bulbs are getting full amperage. Maybe that's why my heater knobs are brighter?

Where is that harness getting power? My GT cluster didnt have a place to pick up the power so I used the clock wiring.
 
Where is that harness getting power? My GT cluster didnt have a place to pick up the power so I used the clock wiring.

I picked up power from the 12v pin on the back of the circuit board. I forget which one exactly, but I found the wire that was switched 12v when the lights are on, and soldered my harness to that.
 
I picked up power from the 12v pin on the back of the circuit board. I forget which one exactly, but I found the wire that was switched 12v when the lights are on, and soldered my harness to that.

Thanks I'll look into that next time the dash is apart!
 
I'm changing up the 142 a bit. I had these Ford 16x7's leftover from my 144. They're 5x114.3, so I had to run adapters on the 144 and they always poked WAY too much on that car. The fenders were aggressively rolled and they still rubbed. I always loved the wheels, though, so I had them redrilled to 5x108.



I fit them on the front, and am happy with how they are sitting. I had some rubbing at full lock, so I rolled/pinched the fender lips to give me ample clearance. During this process, I found out that the front lower half of my passenger fender is made of Bondo. Not ideal, but it looks fine from the outside. I'll get in there with some undercoating to seal it up again.





Obvious damage in this area. You can see where a respray was attempted many years ago. The fender lip has heavy scratches, but is straight. Given the paint on the rest of the car, I'm not concerned at all.



Like I said: the paint is bad. I have been cleaning/cutting/polishing it in spots and I really lie the effect. Just polishing right over all that patina is going to look good. I am going to bring it by the body shop next week to get a ballpark on what a pro job would cost. When they quote me above $500, I'll borrow a friend's DA polisher and attempt it myself.



This weekend I hope to get the rears mounted. It will take some trimming of the rear fender lips, but it should clear fine once some material is moved.
 
California Wheels on Capitol in San Jose. It was a bit spendy at $75/wheel, but it was my best option since I already had the wheels and tires.
 
Ah ha! So you're the guy that I heard about driving a lowered 142 to California Wheels! Your car looks awesome on the Crown Vic wheels, BTW!

I'm changing up the 142 a bit. I had these Ford 16x7's leftover from my 144. They're 5x114.3, so I had to run adapters on the 144 and they always poked WAY too much on that car. The fenders were aggressively rolled and they still rubbed. I always loved the wheels, though, so I had them redrilled to 5x108.


California Wheels on Capitol in San Jose. It was a bit spendy at $75/wheel, but it was my best option since I already had the wheels and tires.

California Wheels redrilled my Style5 wheels, and they used the same conical inserts. Be sure and retorque them a few times once you drive around a bit. Mine settled, and I ended up retorquing 3 times to find a couple of slightly loosened lugnuts.
image_14.jpeg



Just FYI, I got a slightly cheaper quote from ET Mags in San Leandro, at $250 to redrill all 4 wheels. That included dismounting, mounting, and balancing as well.
http://www.etmags.com/wheel_repair.html
 
Ah ha! So you're the guy that I heard about driving a lowered 142 to California Wheels! Your car looks awesome on the Crown Vic wheels, BTW!





California Wheels redrilled my Style5 wheels, and they used the same conical inserts. Be sure and retorque them a few times once you drive around a bit. Mine settled, and I ended up retorquing 3 times to find a couple of slightly loosened lugnuts.
image_14.jpeg



Just FYI, I got a slightly cheaper quote from ET Mags in San Leandro, at $250 to redrill all 4 wheels. That included dismounting, mounting, and balancing as well.
http://www.etmags.com/wheel_repair.html

Ha, yeah that was me. I also met a guy at the VW shop next door who has a 140, and a 240 with an LS swap. He told me his name on T-bricks, but I can't remember.

That price from ET Mags is good. my price didn't include dismounting or mounting- I had to strip the wheels and remount them myself.

Thanks for the heads up on the steel inserts. They definitely settled when I first torqued them, but I'll keep rechecking them.
 
Happy with the work they did? That seems pretty reasonable to me.

Yeah, I'm definitely happy with the redrill. Pretty painless transaction other than having to pull my tires off and bring them bare wheels. But I got to learn how to mount tires, so that's cool I guess.
 
Ha, yeah that was me. I also met a guy at the VW shop next door who has a 140, and a 240 with an LS swap. He told me his name on T-bricks, but I can't remember.

That price from ET Mags is good. my price didn't include dismounting or mounting- I had to strip the wheels and remount them myself.

Thanks for the heads up on the steel inserts. They definitely settled when I first torqued them, but I'll keep rechecking them.

BTW, those Style 5's look REALLY good.

Thanks man!! I can't wait until I have a chance to take them apart and refinish them.

Yeah, I was a little shocked when I retorqued them the second time. I thought I was just being paranoid, but they did move a bit more. They didn't move the 3rd time, though. Rock solid now, and no vibrations or anything.

That's Jeff at Bugformance, and he's the one that told me about seeing your car. His screen name on here is 55superbeetle. His turbo V8 242 build thread is pretty awesome:
http://forums.turbobricks.com/showthread.php?t=222596&highlight=55superbeetle


Looking forward to watching the progress on your 142!
 
Thanks man!! I can't wait until I have a chance to take them apart and refinish them.

Yeah, I was a little shocked when I retorqued them the second time. I thought I was just being paranoid, but they did move a bit more. They didn't move the 3rd time, though. Rock solid now, and no vibrations or anything.

That's Jeff at Bugformance, and he's the one that told me about seeing your car. His screen name on here is 55superbeetle. His turbo V8 242 build thread is pretty awesome:
http://forums.turbobricks.com/showthread.php?t=222596&highlight=55superbeetle


Looking forward to watching the progress on your 142!

55superbeetle, that's what it was! Thanks for the reminder.

And thanks for the interest on the car. If things go to plan, this summer will be a good one for this old thing.
 
I trimmed the rear fenders today, and got the rest of my wheels mounted. Luckily, all I had to do is trim them a bit and I have ample clearance. I jumped on the rear bumper, pulled in and out of my driveway at every angle I could think of, and rallied around on some mountain roads with zero rubbing. If I ever decide to go lower in the back, I might have to roll the lips up, but right now it's looking pretty right. I'm so glad I wasn't able to sell those wheels!

Pleased with the look, I spent the rest of the afternoon ripping around and enjoying the much more planted feel of a 50 series tire vs. the 195/60's I had before. Then I parked and watched an awesome sunset...

 
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