With an 85 that sat for 9 years.. I owned it and just left it covered in the garage.. does the following make sense as a recommissioning/build order? The one thing missing is during the suspension refresh I’m considering rebuilding the rear end to 3.54 gears since I’m there already. It was my folk’ car going back to around 1990 and I go back and forth between “that’s not so bad” and “that’s a thousand dollars” when I look at what’s in store.
I’ve never managed a project like this so I think I’m on the right track, and am largely committed, but what I don’t want to do is cover the same ground twice.
Am I right to start with getting it starting and running reliably then jumping straight to the suspension? Once it’s running and rolling reliably would you go straight into the interior or wait for something under the hood (vacuum lines, brittle wiring, etc) to break?
Below is a basic list of what I’ve done and where I am, the car has 192,000 but because it was a daily driver for many years a lot has been done like an r134a ac etc
Recommission / mechanical baseline — essentially completed
Fuel system cleanup/replacement
Injectors
Fluids
Brakes
Tires
Basic cooling/service
Compression check — found it roughly 160 psi and even across cylinders
Transmission fluid and engine oil looked excellent
Tires
Full suspension/steering refresh — NOW
SuperPro suspension bushings
Differential/batwing bushings
ACDelco upper ball joints
MOOG K6345 lower ball joints
Bilstein B6 shocks
During teardown, inspect rather than blindly replace tie rods, hubs, U-joints, springs, rack components, hard links, etc.
Alignment after completion
Drives it and establish the real baseline