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1987 Daytona Shelby Z Project

7K views 37 replies 11 participants last post by  Isaakfirestar 
#1 ·
Hello all,

Back in june one day, when driving home from work I spotted a purple car half-buried in the bushes. Curious, I stopped to take a look. What I found was a 1987 Daytona Shelby Z with t-tops and a faded purple paint job.

It just killed me to see this interesting car rotting away in someones driveway so I decided that if they would sell, I would buy. After all, I had been looking for another car project to keep me busy.

Long story short, I walked away with a $300 daytona that hadn't moved or ran under it's own power in at least 10 years. The previous owner had damaged the engine "driving home" and it had the valve cover and oil pan off for the duration of it's rest.

Something I noticed almost immediately after buying it is a small sticker on the drivers side door that reads "modified by cars and concepts on 4/87." Does anyone know about this sticker, what it means and what they may have done to the car? I can't find any info online. Was it the t-tops or could it have been the purple paint job and what I assume may have been a long-gone aftermarket stereo?

Anyways, onto the car.
The interior is really rough as the car sat ~1000 feet from the ocean here in rainy Oregon but the body is in really good shape. No rust that I can find, no dents or dings, just peeling purple paint.

I immediately began to dig into the engine and found a burned piston and spun bearings all along the crank. This motor got hot. Over the past 6 months my machinist and I have rebuilt the bottom end. .020" oversized Wiseco Pistons from Turbos Unleashed, stock turbo ii rods, refinished crank, and arp rod studs. I've got a new melling oil pump and high flow pickup waiting to be installed. It also appears the p/o put some bolt-on aftermarket parts onto the car. It came with a mopar performance coil, k&n drop-in air filter, and what appears to be a homemade hard pipe setup from the intercooler to the throttle body. He also claimed it had a larger throttle body on it, I haven't confirmed either way yet.

As for the interior, I want to go with a stock style look but rebuild it myself using the materials I have. I decided early on that I wanted to have my enthusiast seats redone in black leather. After getting quotes north of $2000 from all the local uphlostery shops I bought a set of stock leather seats on ebay for $450. Not quite as nice as aftermarket leather but much more affordable. The door panels are trash, I plan to recreate them with new materials. I'm still not sure what color/style I want to make them, as I don't want to clash with the black seats/blue interior. The carpet will need to be replace eventually but the rest of the interior is in decent shape save the missing stereo system.

That's all I can think of right now, I plan to keep adding on to this as I work. This is more or less the work I've done to it over the last 6 months.
I bought it knowing it would be a massive project to get it to where I want but I wanted another project. Hopefully this thread will help to keep me motivated.

Side note as I'm uploading pictures: I found this blue paint underneath all the grit and grime. This wasn't the factory color, was it? Why would this be there?
 

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#2 ·
Looking good!
The blue paint on the engine block? Almost looks like a faded "Mopar Blue".
Don't know what color they painted the Daytona engines however...
Keep after it! I'm 16 months in on my Rampage that's sitting in my gravel
driveway. I'm at the mercy of the weather. Hopefully yours will go quicker!
 
#4 ·
Way to save a cool custom Daytona! Love the purple. Previous owner must not have liked the "Camaro" steering wheel. They've installed the premium tilt wheel from most other models. I see the headlights are permanently open. Is there goop on the carpet behind the console? Those headlight control modules loved to boil out the potting compound and it would run all the way down through the dash onto the floor.
 
#5 ·
Yeah, there is goop behind the center console. I've had a hell of a time getting it cleaned up. As for the headlights, they actually work fine! Those pics are from where I found the car and then when I first got it home. After replacing the headlight switch they are perfectly happy to go up and down.
You don't think thats the original steering wheel? What steering wheel came stock on these cars?
Thanks for the love guys, it's been a blast so far (although a little hard to find parts for)
 
#9 · (Edited)
According to the fender tag, your Daytona has the PC7 paint code - Twilight Blue Metallic, which is actually a pretty rare paint color for the 1987 Shelby Z.

Also, all Daytona motors for the 1987 model year were supposed to be painted black. Either somebody at the factory was messing around, or that engine has been pulled out of the car and redone at some point.
 
#11 ·
Yeah, it's got a dark blue color on the inside of the doors and in the engine bay. I figured that was the stock paint. As for that engine, it really looked like original paint to me but the people I bought it from, although they had it for years and years, got it used. Who knows what happened early in it's life.
 
#15 ·
Well, it was a sunny day today so I did a little on the daytona.
I got the block onto an engine stand and off the workbench and did a little photo shoot.
I also uncovered the daytona for a few pictures and discovered, to my dismay, that the inside of the car appeared to be damp. Further inspection showed a leaky t-top and very wet carpet underneath it. I spent the afternoon re-applying RTV to the leaky t-top along the glass-to-aluminum mating surface, the apparent cause of the leak. Not a perfect solution but hopefully good enough to last the winter.
 

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#16 ·
Moving along nicely Isaak! That color pops like crazy in the sun! There aren't a whole lot of t-tops cars left because of the seal shrinkage. A friend of mine had a white '86 CS t-tops that had zero floor. He sold it to someone down near Benton Illinois and they were going to do floorboards. They decided they couldn't save it and sold it to another guy, acting as though it had a good floor. They drove a long way and picked the car up at night. I met up with that current owner on Facebook when he was parting the car. My TII turbo water pipe from my GLHS that I had given my friend was still sitting in the car. Sorry for the slight de-rail.
 
#17 ·
Part of why it amazed me how little rust the car has. I did cut a hole in the carpet in the rear passenger footwell to examine the floor pan and, while there is rust, it doesn't go all the way through and has held my weight before. When the carpet comes up it'll get a good cleanup and some sheet metal if necessary.
As for the paint, it's a fantastic color but it has typical 80's clear coat peel. When it's eventually time for a repaint I was thinking I'd repaint it to the new mopar plum crazy. I'd like to keep the car purple and I think a 2019 color will give the car a nice updated look. That being said, I want to look at some new mopars painted purple first, as I don't want the color to be too loud. I'm not going for the ricer look.
 
#24 ·
I'm certainly willing to give a rust remover a try but I've had really good success with various rust remover products on my 72 Buick. I did the brake drums with a rattle-can por and the front of the frame with brush-on POR-15. I've had mixed results with the various rust removal products I've tried.
 
#26 ·
Since my last post progress has been slow. My main hangup has been on my engine. I wasn't totally sure what I wanted to do when I started the build and i've been figuring it out along the way. I recently acquired a stock rebuilt 287 head from GLHS60 which is super exciting. I disassembled my turbo to see if it was rebuildable. After getting it all apart I decided a turbo rebuild is above my head, especially without any way to balance the rotating assembly. Currently I'm trying to choose a head gasket. I've been impressed with what I read about cometic's headgaskets, but I'm overwhelmed by the options. I'd like to keep compression at 8.5:1 but without knowing the head gasket bore diameter and the cc volume of my g-head I'm not sure how to reach that number. Some searching hasn't helped me find these numbers. does anyone know these?
I've decided I want to do the PT lifter upgrade on my head, find a new cam (my '87 slider is badly worn and unusable), find a turbo, and then it's assembly time! My main concern on assembly is the vacuum system. On disassembly nearly every single vacuum line fell apart. I still have the remains of all of them but I'm unfamiliar with vacuum systems. I've decided to use the stock electronics for now, at least until I get the car running. I've never heard the car run and I'm anxious to drive it for the first time!
I also got the fourth wheel for my set of Italian 5 lug pizza wheels and I'm now searching for a shop that will refinish and widen the wheels. Has anyone ever widened stock wheels for these cars? I'd like to make them 15x6.5" so that I can at least run stock size for the Shelby Z.
Finally, I started doing a little interior work. The cloth doors were all screwed up from heavy water damage so I've decided to redo them in a dark marine vinyl. I'll post pictures once it's all finished.
 
#27 ·
Hey Isaak:

I don't remember you wanting to raise your compression ratio??

One of the G head's main benefits is it lowers the compression ratio.

Lowering the compression makes the Engine less detonation prone at higher boost.

A stock 2.2 Turbo Engine is rated at 8.1:1 where a 2.5 Turbo is 7.8:1

8.5 is getting high for our Engines and lessens the detonation safety limit considerably.

A few guys have tried 9:1 but I don't know of any who have had success.

I don't have any Cometic experience so no recommendation there.

I always run MP gaskets that compress to about .068" but they were scarce for a while.

I heard Chrysler has a replacement that covers the 005 and 006 but haven't used one.

From memory, G heads are about 56cc and swirl about 50cc, Todd will know for sure!!

Thanks
Randy
 
#28 · (Edited)
No, I have no desire to increase compression. What I want to do is keep my compression ratio close to the stock CR (which I read somewhere was 8.5:1). To do that though, because so much on my engine has changed from factory, I wanted to know the cc of the G-head and the bore diameter of the factory head gasket. The cometic gaskets come in a variety of compressed widths and I want to buy the size that will give me the closest to stock CR as possible that way I don't have to use a head shim.
I wasn't able to find this information easily on the forums so I thought I would ask here in case somebody knew.
 
#29 ·
Good, I was concerned with your 8.5 #

Stock your compression ratio is 8.1:1 with your pistons about .018-.020" below deck.

You will have to check if and how much your block has been decked for starters.

You won't be using a head shim in any case as you will be a bit lower with the G.

To figure the exact compression ratio you'll have to cc everything and calculate.

Many don't bother as we know the combo is a proven one at a little below 8.1:1

I'm sorry I don't have my notes nearby as I haven't done any calculations in years.

As mentioned Chrysler gaskets compress to .068" but others maybe less.

Hopefully Todd will notice your thread a he keeps meticulous notes!!

Thanks
Randy
 
#31 ·
I never had any problems running a G head on a 2.5 Turbo.

The "slow burning" chamber design, as opposed to the "fast burn" and reduced compression made them more detonation tolerant.

Ideal characteristics on a higher than stock boost turbocharged Engine.

Thanks
Randy
 
#32 ·
Didn't see this thread till now. Too bad, I would of suggested going with a 2.5 bottom end on that thing. One of the best upgrades to my 87 ShelbyZ I ever did. Much easier to drive. Still just as fast. Loves air flow mods. Out-revved the 2.2 it replaced at the track.
 
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