I am restoring a "83 242 Turbo. The car is very rusty and due to the scarcity and high cost of 2 door body parts, I bought a super clean '84 242DL from Arkansas to use as a donor for the Turbo. The '84DL is a total "stripper", a base car with no sunroof, no A/C, no power anything, basic shabby cloth interior, etc, but has a super nice, virtually rust free body. Plan was to cut up the DL as needed. I now realize it would be much better to use the Turbo as a donor for the DL, swapping out A/C, suspension, sunroof roof panels, etc to the DL and start with a much nicer, more solid body for a rotisserie restoration. Once the Turbo started coming apart, the extent of the rust was much, much worse than thought. The Turbo has a lot of sentimental value to me, it's the car I had when my wife and I were dating, (the stories that car could tell!), but I think it just might be too far gone. The 70,000 tons of salt used in an average winter here in metro Detroit have taken their toll.
The car will have a Ford Mustang 5.0V8 engine/5 speed manual trans. driveline. I have some of these parts already.
My questions to the collected knowledge on this forum are;
I know struts, springs, etc are different on the Turbo. Will this all swap over from the Turbo to the DL? Are there additional reinforcements, gussets, body stiffeners? Welded in? Basic body shell is the same? What about rear axle assy? Steering? Is there a parts list available? DL is automatic, Turbo manual trans. Will be using manual trans with v8, will clutch pedal assy swap over to DL simply?
The Turbo was in running condition when parked. Wiring harness, etc, in good condition, power windows, mirrors, even a/C was working. All of this LOOKS like it should swap over. What am I not seeing?
This is going to be a serious resto-mod with big brakes, 300+hp, and my friend owns a trim shop for the interior. I know this is gonna be expensive, I'm prepared.
With a complete manual trans turbo car at hand, I should have a lot of the little bits that are hard to find, but there is always a "Catch 22" (The "catch" is there is always a "catch")
Any tips/experience/advice/horror stories, etc, will be greatly appreciated.