I have asked a moderator to move this thread here from the South Central section with no response so I've moved this thread myself.

So i recently came across an unfinished 83 T/A WS6 project. I think once the owner got the car back from the paint shop they realized how fugly this paint scheme is and decided to ignore it for a number of years before finally selling it. The body work is fantastic and the paint quality is pretty amazing but, i recently got a call from Mr. T and he wants his paint scheme back fooool... lol
To be fair, she's actually uglier in person so don't judge me.




So my plan is to repaint her Cyber Grey. Before paint though i need to massage the chassis. One of the things missing on 3rd gens is a proper place to jack it up and then put a jack stand. So first up is to strengthen the chassis, build jacking locations at all four corners and jack stand locations. I'm cutting off the rear bump stops as well. So i have a full set of Spohn chassis components including k-member and sub-frame connectors. I have a Strange 12 bolt rear end with 3:73 posi and Willwood brakes. For rear springs i got some Spohn coilovers with QA-1 adjustable shocks. To finish the rear i got an Aeromotive 340 Stealth Gen 2 gas tank with a 340lph fuel pump.
This weekend i started with setting up some jack stand offs, jack-stand stand offs, sub-frame connectors and, cutting the bump stops off. I was pleasantly surprised to gain 2" from cutting the bump stops.

I sold the bowling ball Turbo wheels so now i need to see what i can fit in the rear fenders after cutting the bump stops. I'm also rolling the outside fender lip so i hope to get a 10.5 wheel DEEEP DISH with at least a 315/40/18 tire under the fenders with no rub. I may even shorten the rear end. In the mean time i need to find me a 18" wheel and tire for trial fit. If anyone local is reading this and has a large wheel /tire setup i can borrow or rent, please PM me.

 

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I new someone would recognize the paint scheme.
To add irony to the mix... i was a fan of the show and worked at a custom van shop in the early 80's!

 

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Made a little progress. I've got both sides cut and ready to patch but i wanted to mock everything up and check clearances first. Looks like there is plenty of room for the coil over in the bucket. The edge of the upper swaybar bracket on the chassis is a little close so we bent it up a little. I've gained a lot of room but i'll wait and measure once the patches are welded in and the rear end bolted up.

 

So i have the complete Spohn chassis components from the wonder bar, k-member, sway bars, lower control arms, panhard and, sub-frame connectors. The upper panhard relocation bar and LCA reloaction brackets are UMI. It's all chrome molly with red powder coat. The subframe connectors aren't powder coated and they are weld in units. I wanted to paint them to match before i weld them in so as to get some paint on the parts i can't reach once they are welded in. So a couple of weeks ago i called Spohn to find out what the color code is on the red they use for their chassis components. The informed me they use Bengal Red Tiger 49/33333. So i ordered some in a spray can from LVP Paints. I was pleasantly surprised how well the color matched. The bottom of the car will be coated with Black Lizard Skin undercoating so all the red chassis will look pretty cool i think.

 

So i have the rear end out to get shortened 1.5" on each side. In the mean time we have lots of welding to do.


Once the rear end is back i'll have to give the fender a little attitude so i have scheduled a makeover with an Eastwood fender roller and a Ingenuity Fab & Speed tool...

 

I started wondering if anyone made led marker lights for 3rd gen and found none. hmm
I wondered how hard it would be to crack open a marker light and insert my own. Well the marker lights on this car have been smoked and one has a flaw. So i decided to experiment and see if i can make a light similar to a Oracle light.
Well cracking a rear marker open was easy. With a small screw driver i started prying on an edge SLOWLY. I was able to get one cracked open with no damage and a small crack on the others edge. So the underside of the colored lens is diamond textured. My concerns that this would cause a visual effect that was different then just a halo looking effect was correct but not to bad. The center has a raised area witch seemed to make it difficult to lay an led strip down the center of the lens. So i had a roll of red led strip and although it is not the correct type of led strip i thought i would give it a try with what i have handy. I think the correct led strip should be dense with lights rather then have them spread out like the strip i have. So keep that in mind when looking at this example. Now that i think this is doable, i will get some of the correct led strip and experiment further. I also don't have a good 12v power source so it's not very bright. I'm using a 7.2v battery from an rc camera. Anyway, my light experiment...

 

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I painted the inside of the lens to see how well that would work. I taped it off and sprayed it with a few coats of black.
Appears to work pretty well so i will see about getting the right led lights and try and set it in the middle of the lens and see what happens.
I'll try and get by the led shop next week. Guess i need new lenses too... lol

 

Subscribed.

 

Nice work and nice find! Off topic but do you still have your red 83 bird?

 

Thanks. Yep still have the 82 red one AND a 82 T/A white/black. The white one is 32k miles all stock unmolested car. Needs a makeover.

 

Sorry red 82. Hadn’t seen any updates. Beautiful car and cars!

 

So i'm still waiting on diff to get back from getting shortened 1.5" on each side. Ordered new axles rather then cutting existing ones.
Meanwhile back in the bird cage, the jack stand offs are welded in but i still need to clean up the welds. It looks "functional" i guess. So this is where i will place my jack stand. We'll build another spot around the pinch weld and subframe connector so we can use to jack it up safely without bending anything.


Because i think my marker light experiment went well i decided to look into the LED tail lights this car came with. They are made by Cassic LED's. After looking through the instructions it looked pretty simple to test. They appear to work perfect. It looks like the led's i'm using on the marker lights will match the appearance pretty close. I think what i may do is put two strips in each marker light. Along the top and bottom of the lenses and blackout the middle. So it will look like to light bars on the 2nd gen marker lights but led. Here is a short video of what it looks like. It doesn't show the brake light because i had no way to attach it and hold the camera at the same time. Basically the brake lights activates both signal lights at the same time. So the brake light is sequential and then solid on both sides at the same time.
LED TAIL LIGHT VIDEO

 

Lights look awesome! And nice mod for jack stand spots.

 

Thanks maks. Just to explain further on the jack stand offs. The chassis is straight and in excellent condition but like many fbody's out there, it has been jacked up improperly many times and so has a few dimples in the uni frame. Here is an example of what the rear driver side looked like before we flattened it out and then reinforced it with the stand off. We made little tool inserts that we could screw into to help flatten the metal. The front was just as bad. It will be reinforced as well.

 

Yep mine too from previous owner. Nice fix!

 

Are those tied into the front subframe?

 

The first two pics is the drivers side rear uni-frame right next to where the lower control arm attaches " you can see the lca in the 2nd pic still bolted in but hung upwards with a tie wrap".
The second two pics is the front drivers side uni-frame.
Both sides were dimpled and now fixed.

P.S.
The reason i'm spending so much time on these jack and jack stand stand offs is not just because it needs it but, i don't normally have access to a hydraulic lift. I've done and do almost all my work in my garage and drive way. Having a easy and reliable way to jack it up will really help me. Right now i'm very fortunate to have some shop space while i do this project. But once i'm done, it's back to my driveway... lol
I did my red car in my garage/driveway except for paint and cheap exhaust. Last mod was installing a T56. I was used to stabbing my bw 4 speed by myself while laying on the ground but when it came to stabbing the t56 i had to get help. A friend stopped by and gave me that extra lift and push to get her stabbed in but it was done in my driveway. A place i can afford to work any time i want. ha

this being the red car...

 

So the bump stop removal and jack stand offs in the rear are done. We put a hole in the chassis plates so i could have easy access to the upper coil over shock bolt where it attaches to the clevis. This way i don't have to take the interior apart when i need to take the shock off. It's easy to get a wrench on the nut in the bucket and a socket fits in the hole for the bolt.
I'm working on some ideas to replace the factory bump stop. I may cover up the center hole of the coil spring perch's on the diff. Then hang a round bump stop down somehow from the center of the coil spring perch's in the chassis.

BEFORE


AFTER


Inches removed!

 

So progress has been slow. The diff was finally done last week but it was trapped on the "other" side of the flood in the Houston-Baytown area. I'll try and get that picked up this week. In the meantime the gas tank has arrived. I ordered a Aeromotive Gen II Stealth 340lph part# 18471 gas tank. It appears to be a clone of the factory tank except rounded corners and it's powder coated. It comes provisioned for AN fittings except the vent but i have a screw on vent for that.

 

So my 82 T/A was nominated for COTM but sadly my car sits in storage while i deal with stage 4 cancer. Fortunately for me i had a seizure back in February because of some tumors in my head. Without the seizure and an MRI i would not have found out i had stage 4 lung cancer that had spread to my brain. Currently i've had 4 tumors zapped from my head via Gamma Knife Radiosurgery. Unfortunately i'm not Bruce Banner so i'm not the Hulk. I still have a couple of tumors in my head and one in my lung. I'm doing Immuno Therapy to hopefully extend my life a little bit and it seems to be working. With bills piling up i'm not sure i will ever finish this 83 ws6. Once i get my next cancer progress update late next month i will decide whether to sell this project and all the AWESOME parts i have collected for it.
https://www.gofundme.com/f/cancer-invasion-2020

 

Just read your story and on gofundme page. Very sorry to hear your struggle and pray for you. Just a side note, I nominated your car because of the beautiful styling and amazing work done. Iirc the car was initially barely running and 500-600 dollar purchase.

 

Thanks you. Yes my brother purchased it for $300 back in the mid 90's and gave it to me.
So when last i posted i was finishing up some welding on this 83 ws6. I had just mocked up the shortened rear diff to measure for "massaging" the inner fender wells and roll the outer fender lip.


I used an Eastwood fender roller. Worked great.




I cut 1.5" on each side of the diff and the bump stops are gone. The only area of consequence now is the front inner fender area. That's where work stopped on this car. I'm using offset spacers option on the LCA's to help clear the tire and it appears i have plenty of room everywhere else in the inner fender except inner lower front. I did a trial fit with a 17x9.5 wheel 5" backspacing with a 285/40/17 tire just under 26" tall and 11" wide.
The goal is a 18x10.5 wheel with a big fat tire and it looks like i have plenty of room. The tire pics are before i rolled the fenders and the car is at ride height.


So that's where this project stopped, for now.

https://www.gofundme.com/f/cancer-invasion-2020

 

Nice work!!!

 

Looks top notch.